Dear Parents and Guardians

Our students have settled in incredibly well for the commencement of the year. It has been wonderful that so many parents have been able to commit to the Goal Setting Meeting with their children and work together with teaching staff to set goals for the 2021 year.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have spoken to many of our parents of our 2020 Grade 6 class about how they are settling into their respective new schools.  Parents have shared their own feelings of nervousness and the big adjustment to letting their children go. The overwhelming response from our 2020 Grade 6 parents is that the children have settled in extremely well, they are very happy and loving High School.  While this is a credit to their new schools it is more a credit to the manner in which parents have prepared their children for their movement to High School.

Undoubtedly, it is also a credit to the way in which we as a Primary School have prepared these students for the transition to High School including setting the students up as independent and confident creative learners, passing on information to the High Schools and working with them to ensure smooth transitions.

As a Principal I speak regularly to the other Principals and Staff of the schools our students go to and check in to see how they are going. Overwhelmingly, whether it is a Catholic or Department of Education School, the response is always extremely positive as they talk about their level of respect and commitment to their schooling that the students who have come from Holy Rosary have.  

There is indeed much to be grateful for and proud of in our school community. 

Bernadette Brooks

Principal

Last week we commenced Lent and Project Compassion - an appeal that asks us to think of others, reaching out in love and acceptance, recognising that we each have dignity, value and worth. 

God is love. In the desire to make us share in this love, he sent his Son into the world to come to our aid and in gentle kindness to help those who were poor, sick, or isolated. In his great love for all of us, Christ said that whatever we do for the least among us we do for him. He calls us to show mercy and compassion to all people. 

Each family will have received their own Project Compassion Box which we encourage families to contribute to during Lent. We ask families to return this in the last week of term.  Thank you.

Our Grade 6 School Leaders joined Mrs Piesse to attend the Launch of Project Compassion at St Mary’s Cathedral with leaders from other Catholic schools and colleges from the Hobart Diocese. This liturgy was celebrated by Archbishop Porteous.

On Wednesday of Week 3 we celebrated Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. This celebration  included our  Grades 3 - 6 attending Mass at St Bernards and our Kinders - Grade 2s visited by Fr Suresh to receive a blessing and the ashes.

Holy Rosary Catholic School Board invite applications for new Members

The role of the School Board is to assist in developing the School vision, mission and strategic plan.

We operate on the principle of shared wisdom. Shared wisdom recognises the worth of every individual’s contribution and the unique knowledge, experience and wisdom that each person brings to the decision-making process by the virtue of their life experience 

This is your opportunity to assist in collaboration, consultation and building of partnerships with parents, the local parish and broader community.

Please contact Peter Montalvan at peter@ontracktasmania.com.au or Bernadette Brooks on bernie.brooks@catholic.tas.edu.au for further information.

Over the past week we have had the opportunity to commission our Grade 6 leaders for 2021. Our Aussie Sports Leaders received their caps at our first assembly. These leaders assist with sport and activities with our younger grades and also provide support at our carnivals.

On Monday we held our Commencement and Commissioning Liturgy in St Bernards Hall and our School Captains and Vice Captains and House Captains and Vice Captains received their badges and a blessing for the 2021 school year. We are very much looking forward to working with our Grade 6 Leadership group for 2021.

In Grade 6 we have started setting up new relationships with our Grade 2 buddies. We came up with some ideas about how a good buddy behaves. 

Ella: A good buddy is someone who is kind, fun and listens to what their buddy has to say. A good buddy makes a good first impression, shows encouragement and motivates their buddy to do good things. A good buddy is also responsible, makes mature decisions and includes their buddy in the activities. 

Seb: What I think makes a good buddy is a good first impression. When you meet your buddy you want to welcome them into a kind, safe and comfortable environment. 

Grade 6 have also been looking to get to know each other a little better in the first few weeks of school. We have created some autobiography maps and poems about ourselves.  We started by coming up with some of the important places, people, hobbies, pets and things in our lives. We made symbols for them and put them on a map either in the shape of an island or as a letter in our name. We then included a key to explain each symbol.

In the first week back we also completed a STEM challenge. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. This challenge saw us work in small groups of 4-5 to meet a specific design brief.  Our challenge was to design the tallest tower we could using only sticks we collected from the creek and marshmallows. This challenge tested our resilience and patience and made us carefully consider our choices in the prototype planning stage. Overall we had a fun time, and made some interesting designs. 

We also got together to talk about our Classroom Charter.  In the classroom we have been exploring the words that are going to guide our pilgrimage throughout Grade 6 this year. These words have been carefully selected via multiple voting processes that have allowed us to choose the words that we feel will help bring out our best in our learning and social opportunities at Holy Rosary this year.  As a group we agreed upon: 

ACCEPTANCE : taking people as they are

BRAVE:  Stepping up and meeting challenges

SAFE:  Prevention of danger and care for each other

MOTIVATED:  Being a go-kart and searching for the spark

RELAXED:  Feeling comfortable and flexible in our space with our work and friends

Last week our Canteen opened after nearly 15 months of closure. It was indeed a great success and we would like to acknowledge and thank Alison and Kylie for all their work in ensuring we were open for business. We do ask parents to use the Qkr app when ordering lunches. 

Students should not be bringing excess money to spend at the canteen and if possible we ask that the limit of $3.00 is observed. 

In 2021 we continue to operate under a Covid-19 safety plan. Existing signage continues to be in place and Holy Rosary Catholic School has registered as a business for the Covid-19 Check-in-TAS App. We are required to discourage parents socially lingering/chatting onsite within our areas around buildings. While exceptions were made for the first day return, we are encouraging all parents to drop at the door and refrain from entering the classrooms in the morning. Staff will be available to support with separation where required. Parents are strongly encouraged to use Kiss and Drop as much as possible which will continue to be supervised each morning. 

In addition to assisting with the expectations for our Covid-19 safety plan, we also found in 2020 that our students were settled, engaged and ready to learn so the teachers attention can be focused on them from 8:30am each morning. 

Thank you to our parents who have attended Student / Parent / Teacher Goal Setting Interviews for Prep to Grade 6 with your child’s class teacher.  The process of setting goals allows students to choose where they want to go in school and what they want to achieve. By knowing what they want to achieve, they know what they have to concentrate on and improve. Goal setting gives students long-term vision and short-term motivation.  Having sharp, clearly defined goals, which students can measure, will allow them to take pride in accomplishing those goals. They can see clear forward progress in what might have seemed a long drawn out process. By setting goals students can: improve their academic performance, increase their motivation to achieve, increase pride and satisfaction in performance and improve their self-confidence.   

Please note that these interviews are compulsory and if you haven't been able to book one please make contact with your child's teacher.

Come and help us to celebrate St Patrick's Day at The Glenorchy Football Club.  There will be live music by The Tassie Devils, prizes, auctions and supper is included in the $40 entry fee.  Tickets can be purchased at the Claremont Post Office - see Niamh - or by accessing the barcode below:-

All tickets must be purchased by March 15th for catering purposes.