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Dear Parents and Carers,
Today we hosted our belated celebration for Catholic Schools Week. What made our celebration extra special was the parents and grandparents who were able to join us. We relised in the opportunity to gather as a community, have visitors in the church and in our classrooms. To share our liturgy, to showcase our school was an opportunity that has missed. Our community is what makes us and we appreciate your presence and ongoing support of us as a Catholic School.
This week we have several important items to share with you as we continue through until the last day of school. Please check all items – the second half of the term is busy!
Important Dates
Thursday 16 June |
Feast of Corpus Christi Mass – 9:15am |
Years K-6 – All families welcome |
Friday 17 June |
K-1 Athletics Afternoon from 1:30pm |
Sport Uniform K & 1 Parent Spectators Welcome |
Monday 20 June |
Staff Development Day – School Closed |
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Tuesday 21 June |
Mini Vinnies Event – Toastie Tuesday |
Donations and Winter accessories Information below and on Compass |
Thursday 23 June |
Interrelate Family Education Evening (Online) |
Information below and on Compass |
Friday 24 June |
Year 2-6 Athletics Carnival – Fernley Dawes Athletics Track Newcastle |
Permission form on Compass |
Wednesday 29 June |
Sacrament of Confirmation |
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Thursday 30 June |
North Regional Athletics Carnival (Representative) Glendale |
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Friday 1 July |
Last day of Term 2 |
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We are launching a new payment app Qkr! (Quicker).
Qkr! will help us move to easier online payments for
School Payments
Fundraising
Canteen (Coming soon)
Uniform Shop (Coming soon)
Get started by downloading the app through the App store and creating an account for each of your children. (Canteen days are not open yet).
Atheltics Carnival Update and Information
Mini Vinnie Toastie Tuesday
Our Mini Vinnies team are excited for our ‘Toastie Tuesday’ Event on Tuesday 21 June.
Over the next two weeks students are invited to donate to our Winter Appeal (all donations going to our local St Vincent de Paul Conference). See the flyer below for suggested non-perishable items, and warm bedding that can be donated and brought into school anytime between Monday 6 June-Friday 18 June. Alternatively there is an online donation open through our Qkr! App.
As a Catholic Community we are committed to outreach projects that serve our community.
We will have a ‘Thank You’ day on Tuesday 21 June
Donations: Non-Perishable Items and/or Warm bedding.
Uniform: Academic Uniform with Winter Accessories
Free: Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows for everyone who donates.
Interrelate Parent Evening
Religious Education and Spirituality
Hello all,
Catholic Schools Week: We have had a fabulous time celebrating Catholic Schools Week and having the opportunity to invite families to attend and enter our classrooms. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.
Reconciliation Week: During Week 6, we have also been celebrating Reconciliation Week which began May 26th on national ‘Sorry Day’. This week we have been discussing the importance of acknowledging all aspects of our history for First nation people. Mrs Chapman has spent time this week in each classroom leading discussions and telling stories about Reconciliation Week.
Feast of Corpus Christi Mass: Please make note of our first School Mass, Thursday 16th June at 9:15am. Families and friends of CCW are invited to attend.
School Parish Mass: Thank you to all who were able to attend our first Weekend School Parish Mass. We received some beautiful responses from parishioners about how lovely it was to have the children involved in the mass and for Father Camillus to address the children. We look forward to inviting you to our next Mass.
Sacramental Program 2022
The students participating in the Sacrament of Confirmation continue to meet each week. They are learning about how they will be filled with Holy Spirit during the Sacrament liturgy.
Sacrament of Confirmation: Wednesday 29th June at Corpus Christi Parish at 6.30pm.
Faith Formation
This weekend will be Pentecost Sunday (Sunday 5 June 2022).
The Gospel: John 20:19-23
The celebration of Pentecost is a time for joy and hope. It is a time to reflect on the promise that Jesus made to the disciples that, when he was gone, the Holy Spirit would be with them to guide and teach them.
Try to take some time this week to listen to the Holy Spirit and to reflect on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how they are manifested in your life.
Today we celebrate the coming of the Spirit. Where do you see the Holy Spirit?
Who do you think is filled with the Holy Spirit?
What sort of things show that a person is Spirit-filled?
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts so that we may be Spirit filled.
Many Blessings
Jessica Kuterovac
Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)
Gifted Education - Understanding the Virtual Academy
The Diocesan Virtual Academy (VA) provides opportunities for Highly Gifted students across the Diocese to connect and learn together. Think of it as an online classroom with ‘Virtual’ specialist Gifted Education teachers teaching from the CSO, and students completing work and attending classes online.
Since its beginning with just one class, the Virtual Academy has grown as more schools identify students that have potential to work at a level beyond regular classroom. differentiation. As well as catering for high ability learners, another important goal for this program is students get to ‘meet’ online and in person other students at a similar academic level to themselves. Some students may be the only person at their school with potential to be completing very high academic tasks, so through VA they have other students across the Diocese to learn with.
How does the Virtual Academy Work?
Students can enter the Virtual Academy in Year 5, it can continue until Year 8. Students are matched with a VA teacher and work though learning activities set by them for approximately 3 hours per week. This three hours is taken from class time that students would ordinarily be achieving outcomes. Students also have weekly Virtual Conferences with their teacher and their small group to discuss their learning.
How do students enter the Virtual Academy?
Each year the Gifted Education Mentor and class teachers look at all the information we have that identifies learners with high potential. A key component is students’ results in a Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), students’ results in other standardised tests and their ability to work independently and follow through with tasks. The CSO sets minimum entry requirements for students.
What do students ‘do’ in the Virtual Academy?
The Virtual Academy works on building students’ skills through a conceptual framework. The first module is called Discovery where students learn about their gifts and the gifts of others. The second module, called Patterns, is a much longer project-based unit where students get to choose a project from a set of real-world problems and work to develop a solution. This project-based learning allows students to follow their passion and use their critical and creative skills across many disciplines to develop a real-world solution. At the end of the project students present their solution to a panel of education and community experts.
This week students in the VA will also participate in a Digital Tools Workshop, a whole day virtual excursion, where they have access to experts and tutorials in different online tools such as Photoshop. Tinker cad and PowerApps. This day enhances student’s technology skills and assists them to learn new ways to build and present solutions.
The VA at Corpus Christi
This year we have two students in Year 5 enrolled in the Virtual Academy. We support them in their learning by setting aside 3 hours of class time t
o complete tasks, having time to meeting regularly with the Gifted Education Mentor, providing time for students to share their VA work with others, and regularly checking in with their Virtual Academy teacher.
The Virtual Academy is a wonderful opportunity for
Supporting Reading at Home: A Guide to Building Vocabulary
You have an important role in your child’s learning in the early years of schooling. Here are a few tips for how to support your child with building their vocabulary.
Vocabulary focuses on developing the knowledge of words, their meaning and how they are used to extend ideas while speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Children need to have a rich vocabulary that continually grows throughout their primary year to help them with decoding (phonemic awareness and phonics), comprehension, and fluency.
Early Years: You can help your child in K-2 at home by:
- using descriptive words for people and objects when you are speaking with your child. Instead of saying, There’s a dog going for a walk, say There’s a big, brown dog going for a walk with our neighbour, Mr Smith.
- discussing the meaning of new words that come up in everyday conversations with your child. Dad is going to reverse the car now. The word ‘reverse’ means to go backwards.
- talking about objects that you notice your child showing particular interest in such as That butterfly has such beautiful wings. They are red, blue and yellow.
- discussing the meaning of subject-specific words. For example, ‘volume’ in mathematics, ‘habitat’ in Science and Technology, and ‘artefact’ in HSIE (History)
- talking about characters from books you have read together using describing words (adjectives). Describe their appearance, using words such as short, red, spikey and describe their personalities using words such as happy, kind, jealous
- playing opposite word games (antonyms). Give your child a word where they need to reply with the opposite word. For example, you say yes, your child says no. You say high, they say low.
Upper Primary You can help your child in 3-6 at home by:
- talking about different contexts for hearing or using a word. For example, cranes are beautiful birds. The crane was used to lift the steel bars to the top of the building. She had to crane her neck to see the movie.
- discussing and writing words that have similar word parts and investigating the meaning of word parts. For example, create a list of words that end with ‘ject’ object, subject, inject, project. Look up the meaning of the word part ‘ject’.
- Encourage your child to look for base words when reading. For example the word ‘audible’ as in ‘Lily was barely audible’. Ask your child to think about other words with the ‘aud’ that your child already knows, like such as audio and audience. This will help your child understand that the word is about hearing.
- Talk about words from books that have the same meaning (synonyms). For example, usual, ordinary, common, routine.
- Read aloud to your child, even if they are a confident and fluent reader. This will create opportunities for discussion about new or interesting words.
Katie Castles
Assistant Principal (Acting)