Virtue of the fortnight: Persistence
We have had a great fortnight at school and almost back to normal with so many of our students returning. It is so great to see our kids at school once again!
Our virtue for this past fortnight has been persistence. Our students, staff and families have shown persistence throughout the pandemic, despite travel and social restrictions and businesses being impacted. Persistence is an important virtue that is related to resilience and an important one for our students to learn to be successful in life and deal with failures and difficulties which are part of life. Some strategies for Persistence which we have been teaching students are : monitoring self talk : telling themselves “I can do it” instead of thinking they can’t; recognising how their thoughts affect their feelings – telling themselves ‘I can do it, or ‘if I keep trying I can do it’ can make them feel more determined; and developing a Growth Mindset instead of a Fixed Mindset. A growth mindset makes them think of themselves as always able to learn new things, whereas a Fixed mindset makes them think that they can never change or develop new skills. These are key skills and lessons which are repeated every year through the “You can do it” program which Holy Rosary has just implemented, with students being taught a session from the program every Wednesday on “Wellness Wednesdays”.
Jesus taught us about the persistence of God, reminding us that he is always there, in the Parable of the Persistent Neighbour. A great video depicting this parable about the persistence of God in ensuring we know he is always there for us is at this link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoBH7VPxn_Q
Bush Kindy
Our Bush Kindy has commenced and Miss Christina and Miss Lesley have developed some fantastic activities with the primary focus of outdoor, nature play. Nature Play has so many benefits, and the 3 Year old Kindy is an ideal place for this to occur to ensure students have as many skills as possible before learning to read and write. Studies (https://www.natureplaywa.org.au/programs/nature-playgrounds/benefits) have shown that nature play is associated with improved cognitive function, increased creativity, improved interaction with adults, reduced ADHD symptoms and reduced rates of aggression. In addition children who play in natural settings are sick less often, are more resistant to stress, have lower incidence of behavioural disorders, anxiety and depression, and have a higher measure of self-worth. We can see by the looks on our children’s faces they love their time outside!
Test Books
In Week 6 all classes will start sending home Test books. These books will be sent home fortnightly as a form of feedback to parents and also to teachers to monitor and moderate student progress, and to case manage students with the leadership team. A note will be sent home giving more details, but each fortnight the test books will show student assessment in maths, writing, spelling, dictation and an optional area rotating through the specialist areas of science, health, digital technologies, music and physical education. We request that parents sign and return them the next day, and failure to return books will mean that test books will remain at school to be viewed by parents on request.
Library Roof Art
We are currently asking our kids to submit art to be selected and developed by local artists and then painted on our library roof. Currently this is painted white and is clearly visible from the upstairs classrooms, and is quite bright and glarey at times for the students in those classes. We felt that we could acknowledge our pride in traditions and Aboriginal heritage of the school and also make the library roof more attractive to look at by painting some art on our Library roof! If you would like to be involved with this exciting project (donations, sponsorship, assist with art work development), please contact the school on 9161 7200.
Enrolment Incentives
To support local families and former Holy Rosary families with the education of their students, we are providing a number of incentives for new enrolments. New families who enrol before 3rd July will pay no fees for the remainder of this year, and referrals and former Holy Rosary students who enrol their students are entitled to $500 gift vouchers. Please see our conditions for these incentives at these links : Holy Rosary Referral Incentive , Holy Rosary Alumni Incentive
New Staff Mr Chris and Miss Rosa and Farewell to Mr Tongia
We would like to thank and welcome Mr Chris and Miss Rosa for joining our staff in some very valuable roles at our school! Mr Chris will be driving our town bus from now on, and Miss Rosa is doing cleaning at the school in the afternoons.
We would like to also farewell Mr Tongia for his service to the school over the last few years. We wish him well in his future endeavours.
Parish Masses
We are very pleased that parish masses are allowed to happen again, with a limit of 20 people in the church. Masses are at 6pm on Saturdays and 9am Sundays. If you know you are going to attend the church, please assist Father Robbi in planning by emailing the school at admin@hrsderby.wa.edu.au with the number of people and which mass and we will let him know.
Coming up Week 5 :
National Reconciliation Week
Next week is National Reconciliation Week and the most important week of the year in healing the past injustices that the First Peoples have had to experience since European settlement of this country. We will be holding a ceremony after hearing from guest speakers on Tuesday, which is National Sorry Day. Children will also be learning about the Anniversary of the 1967 referendum on Wednesday 27 May, as well as Mabo Day (3rd June) , which celebrates the day the High Court recognised in law in the Mabo case that people did actually live in Australia before the Europeans arrived here, and that Aboriginal people had a claim to Native Title of their lands.
We encourage you to talk about reconciliation with your children and the importance of this coming week for our school and wider community.
And finally congratulations to our Merit Award Winners for the fortnight!
Also big thank you to our student leaders, Bethany, Grace and Ben for presenting these to our students today.
