The Spirit Newsletter Edition 7, Term Three | 3 August 2018 From the Principal’s Desk IMPORTANT DATES Welcome to our first newsletter for semester two. I trust Monday 6 August everyone had a relaxing break. FeNaClNG Long Weekend Tuesday 7 August I am pleased to inform our community that Mr Sean Bruyns has FOSL Meeting accepted the role as College Board Chair for the remainder of this year. Sean has a son at the College and another son commencing Wednesday 8 August next year. He is a Certified Practising Accountant who has lived in Fortescue Patron Day the Karratha region for nine years. Sean holds both a Bachelor of Tuesday 14 August Accounting Science and a Masters of Business Administration. Athletics Carnival Sean is already an active member in the wider Karratha community and I’m sure his knowledge and expertise will be a Wednesday 15 August valuable asset to the College Board. I thank Sean for accepting Assumption Mass the position and look forward to working with him over the Monday 20 - Friday 24 August remainder of the year. Book Week The College has recently undertaken significant work to upgrade Tuesday 28 August its information technology capabilities and systems. This has Year 11 Retreat effectively moved the school from a ‘stand alone’ I.T. platform Wednesday 29 August with its own servers and closed systems to one that is synced Year 9 Kayaking Skills day with the wider W.A. Catholic education community. This ‘migration’ is a huge undertaking but I’m pleased to report that Friday 30 August the process has been relatively smooth for our school. This now Father’s Day Breakfast means all students have new email addresses and access to the suite of applications available through Microsoft’s Office 365 Uniform Shop platform. Rather than having all student and staff work at the Opening Hours College being held by our school based servers, it will now be Tuesday 11:15pm – 3:15pm cloud based, meaning work can be accessed from anywhere with Thursday 11:15pm – 3:15pm internet capabilities. This change will have significant benefits to For more information on uniform prices, our College community into the future and, hopefully, as a result requirements or ordering online, please improved educational outcomes for our students. I thank check out our website here. Command I.T. and CEWA for their assistance in this process. Alternatively you can contact Carol, Uniform Shop Manager at I would like to welcome Mrs Morwenna Stanford to our College [email protected] community for term 3. Morwenna is replacing Mrs Kylie Slatter in the HASS and Arts Learning Areas. I trust she will enjoy her time St Luke’s College at St Luke’s College and gain much from the experience. I would Rosemary Rd, Karratha also like to welcome Mrs Marissa Williams who will be joining our (08) 9144 1081 staff for four weeks in the Arts Learning Area whilst Mrs Tanya [email protected] Montgomery is on leave. I trust Marissa will also enjoy her time Like St Luke’s College working at the College. Karratha on Facebook. During the recent break, a number of our students travelled to Sydney, Canberra and Perisher to see the sights and go skiing. By all accounts the trip was a wonderful success, especially for students who had never experienced the snow before! My thanks goes to Ms Sharon Cusack who travelled with the students on this trip. It is only through the generous contribution of their time by staff that opportunities like this are available for our students. Last week, our Year 8 students had their annual retreat at the LesuirePlex. Retreats are an integral part of any Catholic school. They permit students time away from their academic program to focus on a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationships with both others and God. Students were able to participate in Mass at St Paul’s Church followed by sessions and group work focusing on social justice issues and fostering positive relationships. Thank you to Mrs Tittums for organising the Retreat and to attending teachers – Mrs Kinch, Mrs Gillespie and Mrs Cohn whose assistance on the day was invaluable. On Friday 20 July, the College celebrated NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC Week activities are conducted across Australia to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Whilst NAIDOC Week officially occurred from 8-15 July this year, the College wanted to be take some time to recognise the significance of this celebration. The College held a Mass followed by basketball games against students from Roebourne DHS. After this, students listened to Indigenous guest speakers about their experiences and life journeys. My thanks goes to our guests, My Tyson Mowarin, a local film maker and musician and Josie Alec, a local business woman, singer and actress who gave up their time to come and talk to our students. My thanks also to Ms Rhondda Tittums, Mr Wayne Sharpe, Mrs Anastasia Anderson, Ms Rae Murphy and Ms Janine Lennon who all assisted in organising this event. God Bless, Mr Michael Williams Principal Deputy Principal’s Address Parent Teacher Evening We had our semester one parent teacher interviews last Wednesday, and I’d like to thank all the parents who attended. As I’m sure you are aware, communication between teachers and parents is paramount to the success of students. There’s plenty of evidence that shows positive communication between parents and teachers helps improve academic performance. Whilst teachers are experts in teaching, you’re the expert on your child. You know what stimulates, bores and interests them, what they’re good at and what they struggle with. You know your child’s learning style and you also know if there are any other issues going on that might be affecting their learning at school. So ongoing communication with your child’s teacher is essential to make sure they can tailor their approach to your child while in class. With this in mind, please contact the College for any issues that are impacting your child, whether it be the PCG teacher or House Coordinator for pastoral issues, or the subject teacher or Head of Learning Area for academic concerns. Year 9 Bishops’ Literacy Assessment At the request of the Western Australian Bishops, Year 9 students in Catholic schools across Western Australia took part in The Bishops’ Religious Literacy Assessment (BRLA). The purpose of the BRLA is to measure student learning of the content in the Religious Education (RE) curriculum. Students enrolled in Year 9 who are following a regular classroom program are expected to participate. The assessment is accessible to students online only. Students undertook the test this week during their usual RE lesson. The test items in the BRLA are developed and marked by Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA). Formal student reports are produced by CEWA and will become available to schools in term four. Students’ knowledge and understanding of the content of the RE curriculum is assessed. Students’ faith is not assessed. Preparations for Athletics Carnival The 2018 Athletics Carnival will soon be upon us, and as such we are preparing our students for these events. Please help us by encouraging your child/children to join in and support their House. This is a ‘normal’ school day, and all students are expected to attend. If, for any unforseen reason, students are unable to attend, please provide the College with a letter of explanation, either by email or through a telephone call. Year 11 Course Changes WACE course changes for semester two took place at the beginning of this term, after receiving the results from semester one. It is now advisable that students do not move courses until the end of this year. If you have any academic concerns, please contact the relevant Head of Learning Area or myself for further guidance. God bless, Miss Melanie Caddick, Deputy Principal (Year 7, 9 & 11) Deputy Principal’s Address August already and our Year 12 students have only 9 weeks of 14 years of school left! I will be sending timelines and information home soon to let Year 12 families know what to expect, but please contact me if you need any clarification on any of the dates. Thank you to Project Empower (Country to Canberra) Roadshow who visited the College last Friday, 27 July, to speak and run workshops with our female students and inspire them to become tomorrow’s leaders. Project Empower is a national workshop road trip that empowers young women in regional, rural and remote Australia to reach their leadership potential. The workshop aims to inspire self-confidence and empower young women, discuss leadership styles and merits, encourage young women to acknowledge and embrace their strengths, understand concepts around gender equality, discuss the solutions for gender inequality, and leave the young women with the belief that they can do anything. A big thank you to Year 12 student Navyaa Shukla for applying for and running this empowering event. For St Luke’s College up and coming future leaders, please see the information flyer at the back of this newsletter to apply for a scholarship to Canberra to meet some of our nation’s leaders. I’m sure Navyaa would be happy to talk about her trip to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister. The Parent Teacher evening was also last week and I would like to thank all the parents who were able to attend. I would like to encourage any parent who was unable to make it in on Wednesday, to please email your child’s teachers on [email protected].