Week 7 Term 4 2024

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As the school year draws to a close we have much to be thankful for.  In this final newsletter for the year, its timely to reflect on a year filled with learning, growth, and shared achievements. From academic milestones to memorable events, it’s been a journey of resilience and progress. Our building project may have created some changes to our usual school operations but the results are just around the corner and certainly worth the wait in 2025. In my first year at IHM as Principal it has been a privilege to join such a welcoming community, united by its common values and which thrives on collaboration and care.

On behalf of the entire IHM community, I want to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to the P & F, School Board and parent volunteers for your unwavering support and dedication. Your time, effort, and commitment to our school make such a difference in the lives of our students and teachers.

Whether you have helped organize events, assisted in classrooms, or provided valuable resources, your contributions have enriched the learning and wellbeing of our children. It’s because of wonderful volunteers like you that our school continues to thrive and grow. We truly appreciate your generosity, and we are grateful to have such a strong and supportive group of parents.

We say some special thankyous to parents who have been in roles which they will conclude in 2024. Kate Henderson 8 years on the P & F, Tina Andersen 7 years on the P & F, Judith Le Lievre co-chair of P & F, Ruth Jones 5 years as school board member, Jeremy Whitehead 8 years as school board member.

We look forward to celebrating a morning tea with our volunteer community after the final assembly on Wednesday 11^th December at 9.00am.   

The end of this term has continued to see many students shining in their individual pursuits, interests and talents.

SACPSSA

In Week 4, 30 students competed at the SACPSSA Athletics Carnival. It was a successful day in track and field seeing 4 of our students receive the age champion award, and IHM placing 2nd overall. Congratulations to Huy, Isla H, Jacob G and Julieta on winning age champion awards and scoring highly in all of their individual events. 

Well done to all students involved, their commitment, effort and sportsmanship across the day was outstanding. Thank you also to all parents and staff who assisted on the day with supervision and events. We thank Astrid-Marie Powell for coordinating the event and for all she has done throughout 2024 to provide experiences to our students.

Childrens University

The following participants graduated at Adelaide University on Tuesday 12^th November. They each accumulated numerous hours of additional learning, in their own time, and were recognized for their individual achievements. Congratulations to each of them, we are so proud of your success. As lifelong learners they reflect that learning happens everywhere, all the time, and they have embraced every opportunity.

Thank-you to the staff who have organized and facilitated so many quality experiences for our students including camps, excursions, incursions over the past few weeks.

Upcoming Events

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club is now finished for the year (we do have some extra fruit cups should students need them on Wednesdays). 

Assembly Change

Please note this week’s assembly will be at 2.30pm on Thursday 28^th November rather than Friday due to the students rehearsing for the concert.

End of Year Concert - This Friday 29^th November

Families and friends are all invited to bring along a picnic dinner and enjoy the talents of our student community. They have been excitedly preparing for months and can’t wait to perform for you. Entrance will be through the double gates on Drayton Street and the Cottage gates. Please remember this is a smoke free, and alcohol free event following CESA safeguarding guidelines.  Enjoy the show!

• Where:     Concert held on our school grounds
• 5:30pm:   Gates Open 
• PLEASE NOTE:   Parents are responsible for the supervision of their children until they meet with their teacher at 6:00pm
• 6:00pm:    Children meet their teacher in classroom to prepare for performance
• 6:30pm:    Concert starts
• 8:00pm:    Concert ends (approximately)

I am looking forward to seeing you all on Friday night for our End of Year Concert. It’s sure to be full of fun and entertainment!

Whole School End of Year Mass & Year 6 Graduation - Friday 6^th December - 6.15pm

The Whole School Family End of Year Mass is a significant event in the life our Catholic school and at this mass we formally farewell our Year 6 students who have made an amazing contribution to our school. 

As this is such an important whole school celebration, we ask that you please place this date in your diary. Please let your child’s teacher know if your child is not able to attend. 

Details of the Mass

When:                    Friday 6^th December 2024
Being held at:       Sacred Heart Church - 252 Port Road, Hindmarsh
Time:                     Arrive 6.15pm for a 6:30pm start - Mass should be finished by 7:45pm
What to wear:       School Uniform

Please Note:   

As children are required to wear their school uniform to Mass, you may send your child to school on Friday 6^th December in casual clothes so that their uniform is clean and fresh.

Have a safe and happy fortnight. 

Julie Hancock
PRINCIPAL
 

2024 Advent Our God is near….

Advent is a sacred time in our Church year. It is a time we prepare and get ready for the birth of Jesus Christ. The word ‘Advent’ means ‘coming’.

The First Sunday of Advent is Sunday 1st December 2024.

In our Catholic tradition, the Advent Wreath symbolises the coming of light into the world. The light being Jesus. There are four candles:

Candle 1: Purple represents HOPE
Candle 2: Purple represents PEACE
Candle 3: Pink represents JOY
Candle 4: Purple represents LOVE

There is also a central white candle. This significant candle is lit on Christmas Day to represent Christ.

__files/d/18231/CSPSA_Family_Advent_Calendar.pdf

Advent Prayer

Lord our God,

We praise you for your Son, Jesus Christ: he is Emmanuel, the hope of the peoples, he is the wisdom that teaches and guides us, he is the Saviour of every nation.
Lord God, let your blessing come upon us as we begin lighting the candles on the Advent wreath. May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation.
May he come quickly and not delay.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(Caritas 2024)

Sacred Heart Church Centenary Celebration

We congratulate our Sacred Heart Church on celebrating their Centenary Year. Sacred Heart Church has been a significant part in the lives of so many people over the past 100 years. It all began in the backstreets of Brompton in the 1860’s when St Saviour’s Church was built. In 1950 it was renamed the Sacred Heart Church, with permission from Rome.

We are honoured to be one of the five school within our Sacred Heart Parish - Our Lady of La Vang Special School, St Joseph’s Hindmarsh, Nazareth Catholic College and St Michael’s College.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

We pray for Maria Isabella, Harley, Artie and Norah who will be celebrating their Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday 27^th November at 9am at St Joseph’s School Chapel.
May you all continue to be the light of Jesus through your Reconciliation.

St Vinnies Christmas Appeal

We sincerely thank our families for their generosity in supporting the St Vinnies Christmas Appeal. Sandra, who is our St Vinnies representative will be collecting the goods on Tuesday 10^th December.

R/1M, R/1T, 1/2K  and 2/3HW - Christmas Puddings/Fruit Cakes
3/4P, 4/5F and 5/6L - suitable gifts for 10 -15yrs of age. Examples include:

• Books/Novels
• Activity Books - e.g: puzzles, word finds
• Board Games - e.g: Uno
• Sport Equipment - e.g: soccer ball
• Stationery - e.g: note books, textas, pens
• Activity Kits - jewellery making, slime making
• Gift Vouchers

Triple P- Positive Parenting Programs

FREE Australian Parenting Resources

Jhovana Fenu
Assistant Principal-Religious Identity and Mission/Learning Diversity
Ph: (08) 8115 7600
Email: jfenu@ihm.catholic.edu.au

Griffith University Gifted Symposium 2024

In our last newsletter, Julie Hancock introduced IHM’s initiative to enrich and support high-potential students by helping them explore their strengths. This effort has begun with steps like engaging a CESA System Coach, administering the AGAT (ACER General Ability Test) for Years 2-6, and analysing school-wide data. The goal is to design high-quality differentiated learning experiences in both classrooms and extracurricular activities.

This year, many students have already participated in the Eureka G.A.T.E.ways program, which provides gifted students with enrichment workshops that foster creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking. To further strengthen the program, Leaders of Learning Sonia Bianco and Catherine Hulley attended the CESA Gifted Symposium, focused on strategies to nurture gifted learners. Keynote presentations and discussions offered practical approaches and innovative ideas for enhancing education for high-achieving students.

A highlight of the symposium was Professor Francoys Gagne’s final public presentation, where he reflected on his career and his influential Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent, pivotal in shaping Australia’s gifted education. Sessions also explored topics like using AI in education and practical curriculum strategies, with insights from leading educators such as Dr. Michelle Wrong-Sleep Avia, Professor Chris Bigham, Miss Anna Wilson, and Dr. Rosemary Cathcart.

We look forward to sharing more about our evolving High Potential Program in 2025!

G.A.T.E.ways Eureka Program 

This term, through our AGAT (ACER General Ability Test) testing and the collection and analysis of other quantitative and qualitative data, we identified several students who demonstrate high potential in abstract reasoning. This skill is the key to success in many areas, including problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking, as it allows students to think beyond basic facts and connect ideas in unique ways.

Subsequently, together with families, IHM invited several of our students to participate in the G.A.T.E.ways Eureka Program, an exciting enrichment activity aimed at challenging and inspiring them. The workshop, 'Mind: Blown!', offered at Dominican School Semaphore, provided a lively learning experience that encouraged creative and critical thinking, helping students solve complex problems in innovative ways.

Our students came together with peers from Catholic schools across the west, forming a dynamic and diverse learning community for the day. They engaged with thought-provoking concepts, tackled challenging tasks, and built new connections, all in an atmosphere filled with curiosity and interest.

This enrichment opportunity not only expanded students' thinking but also helped them develop key skills such as teamwork, resilience, and adaptability. We are extremely proud of their enthusiasm and determination in taking on these challenges.

Below, our participating students have briefly summarised their experience:

Felix: At the start we played games like Bingo and Noughts & Crosses and then we looked at the tactics behind the games. In our next session we learned about spiders and made three different types of spiders. The first one we created was a prank and it was a Trapdoor spider, the second one was a standing spider on a card, and the third was a prank that involved spider eggs inside an envelope.  In this last one rubber bands were wound tightly so when someone tried to open the envelope it would rattle and vibrate scaring the person.  G.A.T.E.ways was interesting.

Clare: G.A.T.E.ways was lots of fun.  We took part in two different workshops.  The first workshop was with Shaun, and we focused on mind games and the psychology behind different games along with strategies and game theory. The first game was the Prisoner’s Dilemma which was a two-player game and involved counters which were double sided, they had a red ‘defect’ coloured side and a blue ’cooperate’ coloured side. If both players turned over ‘cooperate’ both received $10, if they turned over one ‘defect’ and one ‘cooperate’ the person who got ‘defect’ received $20, and if both players turned over ‘defect’ each player got $5 each.  The aim was to figure out a strategy so your opponent couldn’t guess.  We played a lot of different games such as Chess, Fox and Hound and a lot of other really fun games as well. 

The second workshop was with Tim.  He brought in spiders, and we made anatomically correct spiders because we looked at the different parts.  We made three spiders. The first was a scientifically correct spider, the second was a mini-Trapdoor spider which involved a card with a hole in the middle.  We made the spiders by sanding down sponge and gluing it together with PVA glue. We also made little lady bugs out of dry clay for the Trapdoor spider to eat.  The third spider didn’t even involve a spider - the activity was to test for arachnophobia! We had a small envelope with a mechanism that vibrated when you tried to remove a card from an envelope labelled ‘spider eggs.’  I loved it!

Tom: I think it was fun.  It highlighted how so many people fear spiders! We did a bunch of spider activities and created an arachnophobia test that doubled as a prank. We also did an investigation about game called the Prisoner’s Dilemma where you needed to devise a strategy to win.  I felt good about G.A.T.E.ways, the teachers were nice and explained many things.

Alexandra: It was really FUN! We did loads of creative thinking, and we played games like Split or Steal where you could cooperate or defect to win money. We played it with counters.  In the second session we made spiders by sculpting them and then we used them to make a prank.  So, we labelled an envelope with the words “CAUTION” and ‘Spider Eggs’ and then in the envelope we inserted a card which we made with a washer and rubber band that we twisted 30 times.  We inserted it into the envelope carefully so the rubber band wouldn’t unwind. Then we asked someone to have a look at the spider eggs inside and as they removed the card it made a rattling sound, and everyone got scared as they thought the eggs had hatched and there were spiders inside! This was an activity about the psychology of games and arachnophobia. Overall, it was a GREAT day!

Hugo: I thought it was fun and new because I had never been to it before.  There were two groups for Years 1-3 (red) and Years 4-6 (blue) and we took part in two different activities.  We made spiders and caterpillars that moved as we were learning about the difference between insects and spiders. Some people think that millipedes are insects, but they are not because they don’t have three body parts. I loved making the caterpillars with tissue paper, straws, and green cardboard.  Insects have three body parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Then we made bugs at different tables and researched the scientific name of each. We also put crickets in a maze to see how smart they were to get out.  I had a fun time.

Marise: I like the first lesson because I made a creepy crawly and it was a nice, clean activity. Then the second activity we made a caterpillar because we were learning about them.  We spoke about creature features and made a creative feature wheel.  We cut out a wheel shape and wrote the name of the creature for example a fish on the edge of the wheel and diagonally across we wrote its features.  In both lessons we answered questions that were called out from a book. One of the questions was, ‘How many people can a mosquito kill per year?’ The answer is 7,000 per year because they carry diseases! I wanted to stay and do more!

Emmett: We built an ant out of pipe cleaners and Styrofoam, and I built mine so it could ‘boogie’ and shake from side to side. We made them so we could learn about an insect’s body parts – head, thorax, and abdomen. FUN FACT: millipedes actually have four thoraxes in the first four segments of its body and the rest of the segments are its abdomens.  The segments help it roll into a spiral – oh it does have one head!  I enjoyed my time at G.A.T.E.ways because I got to bring a bug into the classroom, it was one I caught after the teacher shook the tree and it fell out – it was a flying cockroach! It flew around inside the classroom and landed in the maze and when we got back after lunch it had eaten all the crickets! It felt good being there.

https://www.gateways.edu.au/programs

Sonia Bianco & Catherine Hulley
LEADERS OF LEARNING

Scholastic Book Fair

A huge thank you to all the famiies that purchased books from our recent book fair. You bought over $2,200 worth of books which gave us the opportunity to choose 85 new books from the Book Fair to go into our Library. We will get them catalogued and covered as soon as poosible so they wIll be in the system and ready for children to borrow in 2025. Thank you for all once again for your support.

Carmel Johnston
LIBRARY COORDINATOR

REMINDER - KYTON’S CHRISTMAS FUNDRAISER

Don’t forget to place your order for Kyton’s Bakery goods by WEDNESDAY 27th NOVEMBER  via our Qkr App. There are lots of delicious items to choose from for your Christmas table or to give as gifts. Orders will be delivered on 4th December.

Some of the goods available are:

• Mince Pies
• Christmas Puddings and Cakes
• Macadamia Apricot Slice
• Rocky Road
• Lamingtons and much, much more.