2025 Term 1 Week 4

From the Principal - Lisa Cavanagh

Week 4 Term 1 2025

Dear Holy Name Families,

What an amazing start the students of Holy Name have had to 2025! Our work together to create a learning environment that is safe, orderly and predictable is pivotal in our goal for all students to have a sense of belonging at Holy Name School.  At the parent information sessions earlier this week, you will have heard all our class teachers speak about our non-negotiables at Holy Name School.

• Prayer (we pray together)
• Do Now – this is a purposeful, routine learning experience that students go straight to when they enter the classroom eg Maths Mentals when they come in after Morning Tea.
• Learning Powers – Powers of the Mind – these are explicitly taught and embedded in the classroom culture (Persistence, Communicate, Collaborate, Reflect)
• Gospel Values in the Mercy Tradition – Powers of the Heart - these are explicitly taught and embedded in the school culture (Compassion, Hospitality, Justice, Excellence)
• SUPER – our call to attention (Stop, Up, Place hands, Eyes and Ears, Ready to learn)
• Safety Lines – this orderly line enables us to move safely and quickly around the school
• Respectful interactions with others - staff, students, volunteers and parents
• Keep your hands, feet and objects to yourself – classroom and playground
• Wear your uniform with pride
• Follow directions – first time, every time

Throughout the year, classrooms will have different elements that they will focus on with the whole class.  At the moment, many of our classes are working on Following Directions – first time, every time.  Our students are doing wonderfully with this expectation and responding positively to this Tier 1, whole class instruction.

Welcome BBQ

It was fantastic to see so many of our Holy Name Families at our Welcome BBQ and Parent Information Sessions.  The children had a wonderful time at the Disco.  Thank you to the parents who cheerfully cooked the BBQ, served sausages and packed up.  The generosity of time of our families never ceases to amaze me. 

There is still a number of second-hand uniform items available for purchase.  Gold coin donations are gratefully accepted for any items.

PEN

The Parent Engagement Network AGM will be held on Tuesday 11 March (Week 7) at 5pm in the Holy Name School Library.  We are calling for expressions of interest for a President and Vice President to work alongside the myself and the Parish delegate as the Executive team.  The Executive team’s role is to plan the activities of the PEN and align these with achieving the priorities of the school contained within our Strategic Plan. This will include the PEN forums, held each term and working parties that get in and ‘do’ projects and arrange events and activities that bring our school community together.  The role of the working party leaders, is to organise specific event/s as a ‘one off’ and report back to the Executive team.  The President and Vice-President would not be involved in this organisation.

If you are interested in either the President or Vice President roles, please send an email with your contact details and the experiences and skills you believe you could bring to the role to the Holy Name email address by Friday 7^th March.

School Renewal and Improvement Process - SRIP

Holy Name School is scheduled for a SRIP quadrennial school review from Monday 24 to Wednesday 26 March, 2025.

The Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office has a School renewal and improvement framework in place which has as a key element a quadrennial school review. In this review a panel consisting of senior staff from the Toowoomba Catholic Schools (TCS) Teaching and Learning Directorate and a peer principal from another school in the Diocese visit the school for three days.

Through a process of appreciative inquiry, panel members interview staff, parents/carers, students and community members. The questions asked are “In your opinion, what is going well at the school?” and “What could be done better?” The purpose is for the panel to report to the school community its findings and suggested improvement strategies. These inform the process of strategic plan development and the annual action plans which are also linked to the TCS Strategic Plan.

The aim is to assist schools to strategically plan to improve teaching and learning and these reviews occur in all TCS schools.

The review team would like to hear from the school community and I encourage anyone who is interested to have their say. Your feedback is important and will help us to continue to achieve the two pillars of TCS: that all students will come to personally know Jesus and that all students will achieve academic success.

Feedback can be provided to the review panel in person or by telephone. All feedback remains confidential.

Please contact the school office if you are interested in speaking to a reviewer. You may also register your interest by emailing holyname@twb.catholic.edu.au .

Important Documents

There are a number of important documents on our Holy Name website.  They have been shared with all our families and are available centrally though; POLICIES, PROCEDURES, PLANS AND REPORTS - Holy Name Primary School, Toowoomba

I am away from school next week attending the TCS Leadership Forum, hosted by St Ursula’s College.  Mrs Manthey will be Acting Principal in my absence.

God Bless

Lisa

APMI - Kerri-Ann Manthey

APMI News

As we journey through the year, we find ourselves approaching a significant period in the Christian calendar: Lent. Beginning on Ash Wednesday (05 March), Lent is a time of reflection, self-examination, and spiritual growth. It is a period of 40 days, leading up to Easter Sunday, symbolising the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness.

During this season we are called to enter more deeply into the mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death and Resurrection at Easter by reflecting on where we have failed to love God, our neighbour and ourselves and to seek ways to heal what is broken. Alongside this reflection, we commit more fully to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. One such way is through the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. Each classroom has a Project Compassion donation box. Please give generously to Caritas Australia this Lenten season and help vulnerable people around the world, now and for all future generations.

Blessings

Kerri-Ann Manthey

Prayer:

God who walks with us, be our guide this Lent.

Sustain us in our fasting, inspire us in our praying, lead us in our giving.

May we support the work of Caritas Australia, walking shoulder to shoulder with our sisters and brothers around the world until all live life in fullness.

We pray this in the name of Christ.

Amen.

Term One Date Claimers:

Friday 21 February Year Five Parish Mass 9.00am (Holy Name Church)

Wednesday 05 March Ash Wednesday Prayer Celebration 8.45am (MEAC) Beginning of Lent

Friday 07 March Year Six Leadership Retreat (School)

Friday 07 March Year Four Parish Mass 9.00am (Holy Name Church)

Sunday 09 March Project Compassion Launch Mass 9.00am (St Patrick’s Cathedral)

Friday 14 March Year Three/Four Parish Mass 9.00am (Holy Name Church)

Friday 21 March Year Three Parish Mass 9.00am (Holy Name Church)

Monday 31 March Mindfulness Monday

Friday 04 April Holy Week Prayer Celebration 8.45am (MEAC)

Sunday 13 April Palm Sunday

Thursday 17 April Holy Thursday

Friday 18 April Good Friday

Sunday 20 April Easter Sunday

Monday 21 April Easter Monday

Curriculum - Kerri-Ann Manthey

Curriculum Corner

NAPLAN 2025

NAPLAN is a nationwide assessment administer to students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 across Australia. It assesses students’ proficiency in literacy and numeracy through a series of tests covering reading, writing, language conventions, and numeracy skills. The results provide a snapshot of students’ performance relative to national benchmarks and assist schools in monitoring progress over time. This year the NAPLAN test window will be held over two weeks, from 12-24 March.

As educators, our primary goal is to empower our students to perform to the best of their abilities. Leading up to the NAPLAN assessments, our teachers work diligently to ensure that students are familiar with the format of the tests and have the necessary skills to tackle each component confidently. Students in Years 3 and 5 will sit a practice test at Holy Name on Monday 03 March.

We empahise the importance of staying calm, focused, and well-rested on the day of the assessments, reminding students that NAPLAN is just one measure of their academic progress and not a reflection of their worth as individuals.

While NAPLAN is an important tool for assessing student learning, we believe that it is just one aspect of a well-rounded education. Our curriculum is designed to cultivate critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration skills, which are essential for success in the 21^st century.

Sports Coordinator - Kerri-Ann Manthey

Congratulations to the 13 students who recently competed at the 2025 Catholic Primary Schools Swimming Carnival. The students competed with wonderful enthusiasm and great sportspersonship. Thank you to the staff, parents and families who assisted and supported on the day. Congratulations to CC and Sassy who, following this carvnival, competed at the Toowoomba Central Zone Carnival. At this carnival, CC placed 2nd in freestyle and Sassy 1st in backstroke and freestyle, 2nd in breastroke, qualifying for the Darling Downs Championship for backstroke and freestyle.  We are so very proud of our swimmers!

Throughout the year Toowoomba Primary School Sport and Darling Downs School Sport run trials in a variety of sports to choose representative teams. Please see attached document outlining nomination details including dates and eligibility criteria. Please note that ALL NOMINATIONS FOR THESE TRIALS NEED TO GO THROUGH THE SCHOOL. Contact me at kerri-ann.manthey@twb.catholic.edu.au, if you would like to nominate.

Prep - Tennille Kauter

Year 1 - Jodie Inskip

Year 1 Science. Observing living things in the school grounds

Year 2 - Kirralee Bronkhurst

Year 3 - Sarah McAllister/ Annie Roberts

Year 3/4 - Stacy Mills

Year 4 - Katie Green

Year 5 - Anna Vassen

Year 6 - Sandra Rosentreter

Holy Name Uniform

The Holy Name uniform is available through School Locker, with the list of required uniform items available through the Holy Name website. School Locker is available online, alternatively there is a temporary store located at One Stop Stationery, Shop B,   Plaza Shopping Centre, 1 Plaza Circle, Highfields. Unfortunately, some of the items are on backorder, we anticipae they will be back in stock soon. 

There has been a minor change to the school dress.  The new style has the same shape collar as the school blouse and no embroidery.  The old style are still OK to wear.

Cybersafety Parent Information Night

Vera Lacaze 60 Year Invitation

St Ursula's Open Day

St Saviour's College Open Day

St Mary's P&F Race Day