Holy Rosary Catholic School 60th Anniversary Artwork

This Artwork has been made to celebrate the school’s 60th anniversary. The work celebrates the school’s heritage using the school song as the visual basis of the work. The work is primarily made from timber; a recycled Tasmanian Blackwood cabinet donated by Mrs Libby Piesse and other species such as Huon Pine, Tasmanian Dogwood, and Queensland Kauri donated by the artist.

I have taken key images as design elements from the school song; the Derwent River and Mount Faulkner and kunyani Mt Wellington, to create the structure.  The top reveal is an impression from a drawing of Mt Faulkner which the school sits beneath. The chorus of the school song is centred in the middle of the work. It is essentially the mission of the school, to follow Jesus in love and grow as individuals and as a school community. I have made the song plain and easily read using the font already in use by the school. To acknowledge the importance of the parish and its continued central role within the school, an outline of St Bernard’s Church is carved above the chorus in the centre of the work.  

The school song articulates the importance of being situated near the Derwent River. Also meandering through the bottom of the school grounds is Abbotsfield Rivulet.  The carved image of a meandering river therefore anchors the work. Beneath the river spells the name of the School, Holy Rosary, and finishes the chorus with the words “You and me”. Holy Rosary is enlarged to give the school’s name prominence with You and me also in bold to emphasise the community the school serves, its students, teachers, parents and parish. To further the idea of a community for primary school aged children, small hands have been carved, which you can imagine holding up the entire work. As in many primary schools there are often painted handprints of children adorning the walls and windows as an early representation of oneself, the hands also hint to the sense of gathering and joining hands as a community. The carved hands are real life impressions of students who are attending the school in its 60th year. The current school logo is carved into the timber  alongside the hands.

The school houses, Young, Darcy and Doyle, named after three previous Archbishops of Hobart are also included in the artwork and are represented as flying flags. Flags are in use at house events and carnivals and flags also fly in their colours in the school hall. 

The Rosary Beads have been hand made using Huon pine for the beads and Tasmanian dogwood for the crucifix, bound with leather and polished with beeswax. The logo for Holy Rosary has been carefully pinned into the central bead of timber. The rosary has been made and designed so that on special occasions they can be taken down from the work and used. There is a small leather strap for the crucifix to fit into and stay in place. 

The beads themselves are supported by 10 rounds of timber representing a decade of the rosary and are designed to hold the Huon pine rosary beads on the surface of the work. Within the ten rounds of timber are two special engravings. One represents the shield from The Dominican Order who were instrumental in the running the school from the beginning. The other round of timber has an engraving which represents the original school logo.

Thanks to Libby Piesse for the donation of timber and to the Central Shed in Hobart and my Dad Rod for assistance in the construction.

I hope the school community enjoys this gift now and into the future.

Adam Quarrell June 2021

As advised I will be taking leave from Monday 19th July until Friday 24th September.  Mrs Lauren McCallum has been appointed to the role of Acting Principal of Holy Rosary Catholic School during this time. We are extremely lucky that Lauren has been appointed to this role as her knowledge of our school and students and commitment to the wellbeing of all are outstanding and I have every confidence in her ability to lead Holy Rosary Catholic School during Term 3. 

I know all in our community will support Lauren during her role as Acting Principal of Holy Rosary Catholic School.  An announcement in relation to the Acting Deputy Principal will be made in the coming week.

As the morning dawned on Wednesday June the 2nd, Holy Rosary’s running elite nervously departed the school grounds full of anticipation as they looked to compete against the best the southern catholic schools could offer. The nervousness soon disappeared as they tucked into a quick fruit break and completed a practice lap of the course. In what turned out to be an incredible team effort we had 25 runners finish in the top 15 of their respective age groups….. A mighty effort!  Ava Lindquist set the tone early with a blistering performance in the Girls Grade 4 race, nearly pinching the victory in the last 20m, only to be pipped on the post and finishing in 2nd place. Ella V maintained her speedy  pace throughout and finished in third position, a huge performance from her in 2021. At 12:45 all eyes were on the ‘Granton Flash’ Jake Beams as he returned to the course to defend his title…. He did so with aplomb. Cruising to victory in what was probably a record time! Congratulations to all our team who trained hard in the weeks leading up to the Cross Country and performed so well on the day. A big thanks to Adrienne ‘Sensei’ Reeve and James ‘Bluey’ Bourke for their assistance on the day and of course Mr Riza, who turned up in the dark, got us a great spot and put up the tent! In finishing, all the best to the students selected to go in the all schools Cross Country on June 22nd. GO HRCS!

Ben Johnson

HPE Dept.

On Wednesday June 16th, our Culture Club students participated in the TMAG “Black Box” virtual classroom. We learnt about cultural practices of the First Nations people of Tasmania, the palawa people. Some favourite moments were seeing the yula which is a mutton bird and also a small bark canoe. This was a fantastic experience for our students and we plan to host more virtual experiences like this for classes in the future.

The deck at the rear of the Grade 2/3 learning areas is nearly complete and provides another wonderful learning space for our students and access to the bottom play space.

We are currently working with Play Street to complete designs for an additional playspace at the front of our Early Learning Centre and between the new Prep Building and the Early Learning Centre. The Prep learning spaces will hopefully commence in the coming weeks. 

Thank you to all who have paid their fees or are paying by arrangement. There are still some 2021 Payment Schedule Forms outstanding. If you could return them to the office as soon as possible please, to facilitate with setting up an arrangement to pay.

If you are having financial difficulties please contact Bernadette for a confidential discussion, we are always available to assist families. If you do not have access to your fees balance on Compass, please let us know so that we can reset your password. All fee payments made by compass immediately show on your fees billing tab.  Payments made via BPay, Direct Debit, QKR or Eftpos may take a couple of days to appear on your account.

Please note Kindergarten enrolments for 2022 have closed and offers of placements have been made. All new enrolments to Holy Rosary Catholic School have had interviews.  Interviews for siblings will be offered in Term 3.

A reminder that grade 7 enrolments for our current grade 5 students are due in September. Families may like to make appointments where possible to tour schools and collect enrolment forms from Colleges. If anyone needs support we are happy to work with families to complete enrolment forms or provide contacts in Colleges.

Assemblies will now be held in the Hall and will be held fortnightly. While we are still restricted due to social distancing requirements, students of the class hosting the assembly are welcome to attend and parents of students receiving Student of the Week awards are also welcome to attend. The assembly dates and host classes can be found in the newsletter.  

At regular intervals we ask parents to refrain from parking in front of the shops. We do understand the challenges of parking and it is a challenge in the majority of schools across Hobart. However please remember when you park in front of the shops you are parking in front of businesses who rely on customers being able to access parking.

We want to know how to improve student transport.  Please take five minutes to let us know what you think about how students get to and from school.

The review will also be looking at the attitudes families and students have towards bus transportation and reasons why they may or may not use bus transportation.

The survey closes Friday 2 July 2021.

https://forms.gle/njaiocpHVh9pQMbg7 - Student Survey

 https://forms.gle/rkncqGsDEpGdcajq8 - Parent Survey