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Catholic schools are places of Good News that gather young people from the community together in Jesus’ name in order to introduce them to the kingdom of God. While we work so hard to ensure that our schools are places of educational excellence, in touch with the latest developments in curriculum and technology, we are always conscious that Catholic schools have been founded explicitly to announce the Good News of salvation. During Education Week, all our school communities shared in the Eucharist led by their Archbishop, experiencing once again the enduring sign that we are the “People of God”, nourished by the Bread of Life! I am often privileged to experience first hand how our schools provide for students to grow in wisdom, knowledge and grace, opening their minds and hearts to new ideas and stretching themselves beyond their comfort zone. Recently I shared in a Mini Vinnies day at St Aloysius College when the students “walked in the shoes” of those who are less fortunate, dialoguing through shared
workshops with former refugee students from Hobart College and spending time in reflective prayer. While visiting Guilford Young College, I met students who were discerning how to make good judgments in facing complex ethical issues. At St Dominic College, students explained to me how their Horticulture courses can be carried out respecting the cycles of nature. Constantly I see skilled teachers planning collaboratively so that learning can be meaningful for students in their lives and support them to develop good character and acquire the virtues of Jesus as true disciples. In this way, schools are engaged in building the Kingdom of God within a community of life and faith. As the Church teaches in Evangelii Nuntiandi (par 16), we who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it.
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catholic.tas.edu.au TA S M A N I A N C A
Dr Trish Hindmarsh Director Catholic Education Tasmania
From the Director
H O L I C E D U C AT I O N O F F I C E
Issue 19 2011
SPLISH SPLASH
Water polo is loads of fun and
great exercise.
Polo without Mr
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Pet er
Kube ,s
horses!
. orts lo eff ports a aterPo W ssistant at GYC a r i e h t f o ’ e nd ‘backbon
Catholic Colleges, including MacKillop, Mount Carmel, St Virgil’s, Sacred Heart, Dominic, St Mary’s and Guilford Young, make up a large percentage of teams who participate in the roster of the Tasmanian Water Polo Inc Schools and Colleges Winter Competition. The winter competition starts after Easter and continues to the end of August each year, with a break in the roster for the June school holidays. Even though the season is held over the colder months, all games are conducted in the warmth of the Hobart Aquatic Centre on the Hobart Domain. Game nights are on Fridays and are played in both the 50m pool and dive pool, with the first games starting at 6:30pm.
team members wear coloured caps that should be numbered from one to thirteen with the goalkeeper always wearing a red cap number one. Catholic schools and colleges have enthusiastic staff and parents, who, along with older students, are happy to put up their hands and get involved organising their school’s teams for the competition.
GYC team after their match at the Hobart Aquatic Centre.
Tasmanian Water Polo Inc is a volunteer organisation offering the Schools Water Polo roster and also has a Club Water Polo roster for all age groups that starts each September. Further information is posted on their website at ... http://www.taswaterpolo.asn.au
W E T, W E T, W E T ! ! !
Most schools train on Tuesday nights at the Hobart Aquatic Centre or the Clarence YMCA Pool. The players warm up with swimming drills – with and without the yellow balls, dribbling the ball from one side of the playing area to the other, picking up and passing the ball, catching and passing the ball (in pairs and in groups), shooting the ball at the goals, eggbeater kick treading water, etc. The age groups are from Grade 7 to College, with both girls’ and boys’ teams. Each team has seven players, one of whom is the goalkeeper, and each team can have up to six substitutes. A goal is scored when the ball passes completely over the goal line in the goal area. When a goal has been scored the players move back to their own halves to restart the play. The players cannot stand on the bottom of the pool, so it is good to have confident swimmers. The
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Mount Carmel girls preparing for a match at the Hobart Aquatic Centre.
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PhD in Psychology takes “The best experience my degree has given me so far was enabling me to attend the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease 2011 in Paris, France, in July this year” says Kelly Limbrick, former Guilford Young College student.
Kelly Limbrick enjoys her time in Europe while presenting at an international conference.
”I was lucky enough to receive a travel fellowship from the organisers, the American Alzheimer’s Association, as a result of my current research into the area. The conference was very interesting and informative, and gave me the opportunity to present my work to conference attendees from all around the world.”
broadening her professional networks, including national and international conferences, “Being able to attend conferences has enabled me to not only share my research, but also to learn from, and make contact with, many leading researchers and specialists in the field.”
Kelly is completing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at UTAS, where her research focus is on looking at the brain and age related changes. “Particularly, I am looking at the effects of a cognitive training program in older adults, specifically in relation to brain activation patterns.” As well as presenting in Paris this year, Kelly’s time at UTAS has opened up many other opportunities for learning and
While Kelly is now well advanced in her university study, she recalls that her choice of degree was inspired by her learning at Guilford Young College. “I chose to study Psychology at university as it instantly took my interest when I first studied it in years 11 and 12. There are always new areas emerging, and new topics to be studied, and it enables you to help people of all ages and characteristics in many different ways, through both research and practice.”
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Kelly to Europe
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Catholic Schoo RECOGNITION
Catholic Education Week is celebrated each year across Tasmania in August, presenting a special opportunity for Catholic schools and communities to celebrate their proud traditions of achievement and excellence, their partnerships with families, parishes and wider community and their faith and commitment to Gospel values. This year’s theme, “Responding to the Call”, provided a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on who we are, on the gifts and talents that we have and on the invitation that God extends to us to use these gifts and talents for the good of our school communities.
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During the week, Archbishop Adrian Doyle visited each of the three regions in what was his last Catholic Education Week as Archbishop. • At a Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart, he was presented with a custom made rugby ‘leaver’s’ top with the emblems of each school in the Southern region embroidered on it.
C R E AT I V I T Y
• The Northern schools gave the Archbishop a lovely card and a contribution towards a new easy chair for his retirement which begins next year.
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Cover artwork by Mount Carmel Grade 7 student Isabella Hickling
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ols respond to the call There were special Masses, lunches, events and concerts in all centres. In Huntingfield, St Aloysius Catholic College held a ‘Walk in the Shoes of Others Day’ where there was an exhibition of shoes from well-known people including the Archbishop, Bob Brown, Andy Griffiths, Jack Riewoldt, Maggie Beer and Kylie Kwong. On Friday evening, the Arch’s Archies artworks were judged and prizes awarded, while the Tasmanian Catholic Education Commission presented its annual awards in events across the regions during the week.
E M PAT H Y
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• In the North West region, at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Ulverstone, the Archbishop was presented with a wonderful album of photos from his trips to the schools there.
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Hearts of
Hope
STELLA MARIS CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL Responding with COMPASSION
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
20 In Term One Grade 4 at Stella Maris Catholic School in Burnie completed a Religion unit on Compassion. It coincided with the many natural disasters that we were witnessing on television and in the newspapers. We discussed how feeling pity for another’s suffering was not enough. We related the Jesus aspect of doing something to help. We know we will not rid them of their pain and suffering, but we can soften it by taking action and trying to give hope and make a difference to their shattered lives. So, compassion isn’t only a one time thing or a thought. We have to show compassion all the time, just like Jesus; and take action. He was a man of ‘action’.
“Our hope is, to have a heart, and give hope and make a difference to those in great need.” charms that we have made and are selling to raise money for people who are suffering. Most of the charms are two dollars. Others are $5 and $7. In our effort, we take on the Mercy charism of Catherine McAuley, ‘dare to step out make a difference’. Catherine’s desire is to bring about a more just and compassionate world. This we know we can do.
We discussed the types of action we could do. We had thought about having a ‘Compassion Cupcake’ stall. This we thought may be difficult for children with food allergies to be a part of, so we tried to think of something that would involve all children. For Mother’s Day we had made earrings. Amongst the beads were some heart-shaped beads. Then the idea came about to use them to make heart charms. The name, Hearts of Hope came about from how our feelings and actions are related to our hearts – these feelings being compassion and sadness at another’s suffering. Our hope is, to have a heart, and give hope and make a difference to those in great need. The money from the sale of these charms will go towards supporting others. So this month we are doing Hearts of Hope. For Hearts of Hope we have over 300
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Feast Day
Fun!
On June 22, St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School in Newstead, Launceston, celebrated their Feast Day with a wholeschool focus. In the morning, students from Prep to Grade 6 were put into mixed groups where they completed two art activities, supervised by a teacher or a teacher-aide. The students worked on completing two artworks; a mosaic crucifix and a collage of St Thomas More. These designs were chosen by the 5/6 Team, who were in charge of running the day. It was fantastic to observe the children working across the grades and utilising many of the qualities of their Patron Saint, such as co-operation, perseverance, problem solving and friendship.
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all happy to be served with a friendly smile from a Grade 6 student. In the afternoon, all the classes relaxed in their rooms and were happily surprised with a cupcake for each person!
At lunchtime, everyone was very grateful to Mr Rik and Mr Nas who had been busy cooking sausages on the barbecue! Each class took turns to come and get their sausages, and they were
The whole community greatly enjoyed learning more about their Patron Saint, spending time with friends in other grades and giving thanks to God for their school and each other.
CHOW DOWN
After recess, the school community gathered in the Church to pray and give thanks to God with a school Mass, again lead by the 5/6 leaders who read beautifully and decorated the Church with eye-catching posters of St Thomas More.
Too much Click on www.hobart.catholic.org.au for: Our Lady of Lourdes – Living with Community. Our Catholic schools are busy places with so many good news stories to share that we are overflowing!!!
We’ve put some bonus articles on our website for you.
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St Virgil’s boys at Australian Brain Bees Challenge. Gumnuts to Buttons at MacKillop College. Maths Action at St Finn Barr’s. Phil Glendenning challenging students at Sacred Heart. And many others!
THANK YOU LORD FOR THE INTERNET
good news?
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Betta Bee and the 4Bs at St Aloysius Catholic College-Kingston Campus At St Aloysius Catholic College - Kingston Campus we actively teach and reinforce desired behaviour through our 4Bs and Betta Bee. We consider behaviour support to be an opportunity for valuable social learning as well as a means of maximising the success of academic educational programs. Preserving and building student self-esteem and self-image, as well as encouraging self-monitoring of behaviour are fundamental components of our positive approach to behaviour support. Staff at the campus worked together with their respective classes to condense some of our more detailed school expectations to four: Be a Learner, Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Fair. We wanted to ensure that these expectations were understood by all and transferred to all situations. In an effort to assist with this, our Grade Four students came up with a special motto “better be safe, better be a learner, better be fair and better be respectful”.
SWEET!
This then led to the creation of Betta Bee, our very special mascot for the Kingston Campus, who assists us with the reinforcement of our behaviours. Betta Bee received his name from Mr Damien Lowe and his Grade Four class who also created the initial design for Betta Bee. Leonie Brothers then further developed the design to a cartoon character. Mrs Judy Donnelly, a previous staff member and current parish volunteer, then took the creation a step further and created a Betta Bee mascot for the campus.
“ It is an approach to creating a safe and productive learning environment where teachers can teach and all students can learn.”
Betta Bee makes regular appearances at Campus Assemblies and has his own voice. His expectations in a variety of different class and play situations are presented through videos created by Grade 4L and Mr Lowe, the Environmental Committee, puppet shows and role modelling by our Grade Four students. Betta Bee has also interviewed key staff at the campus, such as our utility officer to talk about what Being Respectful looks like in our school environment and the impact our actions have on the cleaning and maintenance staff. After his appearance at assemblies Betta Bee then visits a class for a week to assist with the expectations in that particular classroom. Mr Ben Morgan and Grade 3M have also created a song for Betta Bee that the students at the campus are learning. The 4Bs and Betta Bee have allowed us as a campus to focus on improving our ability to teach and support positive behaviour for all students. It is an approach to creating a safe and productive learning environment where teachers can teach and all students can learn. Betta Bee posters and the 4Bs are on display in all areas of the campus and consistent language is applied by all staff, at all times, in all locations in the school. This is certainly a key to the program’s success with our students.
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