Dear Families,

This week we joined schools from across the state to celebrate Catholic Education Week. Our Grade 6 Leaders represented our school beautifully at the Mass at the Cathedral. Their respectful participation and enthusiasm were a credit to themselves, their families, and our school community.

We are proud to celebrate Damian Riza’s incredible milestone – 25 years of dedicated service to Catholic education as our Utility Supervisor. Damian’s commitment, reliability, and warm presence have been such a blessing to our school. On behalf of our whole community, we thank Damian for all he has done (and continues to do) for us.

On Tuesday, our School Captains and I had the privilege of attending the Installation Mass for the new Archbishop. It was a truly special occasion, filled with tradition, prayer, and hope for the future of our Church in Tasmania. Our captains represented our school with pride and maturity. It was lovely to gain some insight into our new Archbishop, and we were impressed by his gentle humility and sense of humour.

Our annual Book Fair is being held this week in the Student Hub. Thank you to everyone who has supported it so far with setting up and volunteering to assist with sales. Next week, we will celebrate Book Week! Our much-loved Book Week Parade for all students from Ludo to Grade 6, will be held on Wednesday morning at approximately 9:00 am on the oval outside the Prep rooms. We can’t wait to see the creativity on display as students dress as their favourite book characters.

​​Kind regards,

Susan McGann

Last week we celebrated Catholic Education Week, a great chance to recognise everything that makes our Catholic schools so special. It’s a time to appreciate the strong sense of community we share, and the important role our schools play in the lives of students, families and the wider community. Catholic schools stand out for their focus on faith and for values like kindness, compassion, service and looking out for one another.

As part of the celebrations, Mrs McGann, our school captains and I had the privilege of attending the Catholic Education Week Mass. The Mass was a beautiful gathering of students, teachers, and community members, united in faith. It was a moment to nurture our spiritual growth and affirm our shared commitment to the values and goals that guide Catholic education.

This week marked the formal celebration where our new Archbishop Anthony Ireland was officially installed as the head of our archdiocese. Please pray with me as we offer guidance and strength for our new leader, as well as unity and growth for the diocese.

Heavenly Father,
We give You thanks for the appointment of Archbishop Anthony Ireland as the shepherd of our archdiocese. We ask You to bless him abundantly as he begins this sacred ministry. Grant him wisdom like Solomon, courage like David, and compassion like Christ. May he lead with humility, speak with truth, and serve with a heart full of love.

Pour out Your Holy Spirit upon him, guiding his decisions, strengthening his spirit, and deepening his faith. May his leadership bring unity to our diverse community and inspire spiritual growth in every parish, ministry, and household.

Bless our diocese with renewed purpose and harmony. May we walk together in faith, supporting one another and following the path You lay before us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior,
Amen.

Mel Scharvi - ILRE

In the first week back from Term break the Kinder’s excitedly  shared photos of what they had been up to. There were many common threads in holiday activities, including rock climbing, going to the movies, lighting fires, and playing at parks. Poppy and myself both went to the snow! This started a little conversation around Mountains… We spoke about how it has two names, but the name we now use is the Palawa Kani name, Kunanyi, the first name it had. 

What does a mountain look like? What does a mountain have?

Zeno - it look a triangle.

Miles - sometimes they have pointy bits, and sometimes they have snow everywhere and it gets slippery.

Levi - mountains you go really high up, I went to snow and it said stop you can’t go up the cars had to go backwards.

Sebby - it has snow and it also has plants.

Why do we have mountains? What are they for?

Poppy - it’s for snow!

Maggie - mountain is for the climber and the snow and people to look at.

Addison - I know what mountains are for, they are for to take a holiday and play, make a snowman.

Marley - mountains are there to keep us alive, like from the trees, because it makes us stay calm and healthy and strong. 

MJ - so the environment stays and is healthy. 

*During these discussions it is an opportunity for children to listen and share. I facilitate these experiences, and try and allow the conversation to flow, prompting at times with follow up questions or open ended ideas, but really it is a time for the children's voice, not mine. It is such an important learning disposition and skill to master, being able to have the confidence and ability to articulate understandings and ideas, and take in what others say to build deeper understanding.

Next we provided the children the opportunity to draw or make/build what they think mountains can look like. Some great individual and collaborative efforts, a really open ended and creative way to express their understanding.

We then extended on our 'Kunanyi' inquiry, by embarking on a collaborative art piece of epic proportions! Using an old sheet, we wanted to allow the children a big blank canvas to express and create. Discovering their own learning and creativity as they went, the children used images of the mountain to inspire them. We began by using paint as our medium, with the first group having the idea to draw different outlines of the water, trees, and finally shape of the mountain (inspired by the middle image). This was a great base line, but also not a restricting boundary, the children were free to add as they pleased. Colours were provided, and it was decided to use blue for water, green for the trees under the mountain, grey for Kunanyi itself, and blue and grey and white for the sky. The next day we provided children with a wide range of crafting materials, to build on our already amazing artwork. Children added clouds, houses, boats, trees, people and creatures. This will be an ongoing project that we will continue next week!

This term all of our students have been participating in Gymnastics as part of our P.E Program. This program helps to develop fundamental movement skills, physical fitness and coordination...and is lots of FUN!

Grade 2-6 students wishing to participate in the 2026 Southern Regional Primary Basketball Tournament are kindly reminded to follow the link in the compass email sent on the 12th August.