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T A S M A N I A N C A H O L I C E D U C A T I O N O F F I C E
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Issue 19 2011catholic.tas.edu.au
T A S M A N I A N C A H O L I C E D U C A T I O N O F F I C E
From the DirectorCatholic schools are places of Good News that gather young people from the community together in Jesus’ name in order to introduce them to the kingdom of God. While we work so hard to ensure that our schools are places of educational excellence, in touch with the latest developments in curriculum and technology, we are always conscious that Catholic schools have been founded explicitly to announce the Good News of salvation.
During Education Week, all our school communities shared in the Eucharist led by their Archbishop, experiencing once again the enduring sign that we are the “People of God”, nourished by the Bread of Life!
I am often privileged to experience first hand how our schools provide for students to grow in wisdom, knowledge and grace, opening their minds and hearts to new ideas and stretching themselves beyond their comfort zone. Recently I shared in a Mini Vinnies day at St Aloysius College when the students “walked in the shoes” of those who are less fortunate, dialoguing through shared
workshops with former refugee students from Hobart College and spending time in reflective prayer. While visiting Guilford Young College, I met students who were discerning how to make good judgments in facing complex ethical issues. At St Dominic College, students explained to me how their Horticulture courses can be carried out respecting the cycles of nature.
Constantly I see skilled teachers planning collaboratively so that learning can be meaningful for students in their lives and support them to develop good character and acquire the virtues of Jesus as true disciples. In this way, schools are engaged in building the Kingdom of God within a community of life and faith.
As the Church teaches in Evangelii Nuntiandi (par 16), we who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it.
Dr Trish H
indmarsh
Director Catholic Education Tasm
ania
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SP
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Catholic Colleges,
including MacKillop, Mount
Carmel, St Virgil’s, Sacred Heart,
Dominic, St Mary’s and Guilford Young,
make up a large percentage of teams
who participate in the roster of the Tasmanian
Water Polo Inc Schools and Colleges Winter
Competition.
The winter competition starts after Easter and continues
to the end of August each year, with a break in the roster for
the June school holidays. Even though the season is held over
the colder months, all games are conducted in the warmth of the
Hobart Aquatic Centre on the Hobart Domain. Game nights are on
Fridays and are played in both the 50m pool and dive pool, with the
first games starting at 6:30pm.
Most schools train on Tuesday nights at the Hobart Aquatic Centre or
the Clarence YMCA Pool. The players warm up with swimming drills –
with and without the yellow balls, dribbling the ball from one side of the
playing area to the other, picking up and passing the ball, catching and
passing the ball (in pairs and in groups), shooting the ball at the
goals, eggbeater kick treading water, etc.
The age groups are from Grade 7 to College, with both girls’
and boys’ teams. Each team has seven players, one of
whom is the goalkeeper, and each team can have up
to six substitutes.
A goal is scored when the ball passes
completely over the goal line in the goal
area. When a goal has been scored the
players move back to their own halves
to restart the play. The players
cannot stand on the bottom of
the pool, so it is good to have
confident swimmers. The
Water polo is loads of fun and great exercise. W
ET,
WE
T, W
ET
!!!
Polowithout horses!team members wear coloured
caps that should be numbered from one to thirteen
with the goalkeeper always wearing a red cap number one.
Catholic schools and colleges have enthusiastic staff and parents,
who, along with older students, are happy to put up their hands and
get involved organising their school’s teams for the competition.
Tasmanian Water Polo Inc is a volunteer organisation offering the
Schools Water Polo roster and also has a Club Water Polo roster for all
age groups that starts each September. Further information is posted
on their website at ... http://www.taswaterpolo.asn.au
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Mount Carmel girls preparing for a match at the Hobart Aquatic Centre.
GYC team after their match at the Hobart Aquatic Centre.
Mr Peter Kube, sports assistant at GYC and ‘backbone’ of their WaterPolo efforts.
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ES
Kelly Limbrick enjoys
her time in Europe
while presenting at an
international conference.
PhD in Psychology takes
Kelly to Europe“The best experience my degree has given me so far was
enabling me to attend the International Conference on
Alzheimer’s Disease 2011 in Paris, France, in July this year”
says Kelly Limbrick, former Guilford Young College student.
”I was lucky enough to receive a travel fellowship from the
organisers, the American Alzheimer’s Association, as a result
of my current research into the area. The conference was
very interesting and informative, and gave me the opportunity
to present my work to conference attendees from all around
the world.”
Kelly is completing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at UTAS,
where her research focus is on looking at the brain and age
related changes. “Particularly, I am looking at the effects of
a cognitive training program in older adults, specifically in
relation to brain activation patterns.”
As well as presenting in Paris this year, Kelly’s time at UTAS
has opened up many other opportunities for learning and
broadening her professional networks, including national and
international conferences, “Being able to attend conferences
has enabled me to not only share my research, but also to
learn from, and make contact with, many leading researchers
and specialists in the field.”
While Kelly is now well advanced in her university study, she
recalls that her choice of degree was inspired by her learning
at Guilford Young College. “I chose to study Psychology at
university as it instantly took my interest when I first studied
it in years 11 and 12. There are always new areas emerging,
and new topics to be studied, and it enables you to help
people of all ages and characteristics in many different ways,
through both research and practice.”
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Catholic Education Week is celebrated each
year across Tasmania in August, presenting
a special opportunity for Catholic schools
and communities to celebrate their proud
traditions of achievement and excellence, their
partnerships with families, parishes and wider
community and their faith and commitment to
Gospel values.
This year’s theme, “Responding to the Call”,
provided a wonderful opportunity for us to
reflect on who we are, on the gifts and talents
that we have and on the invitation that God
extends to us to use these gifts and talents for
the good of our school communities.
During the week, Archbishop Adrian Doyle
visited each of the three regions in what was
his last Catholic Education Week as Archbishop.
• At a Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart,
he was presented with a custom made rugby
‘leaver’s’ top with the emblems of each
school in the Southern region embroidered
on it.
• The Northern schools gave the Archbishop a
lovely card and a contribution towards a new
easy chair for his retirement which begins
next year.
Catholic SchoolsC
RE
ATIV
ITY
RE
CO
GN
ITIO
N
Cover artwork by Mount Carmel Grade 7 student Isabella Hickling
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Catholic Schools respond to the call• In the North West region, at Sacred Heart
Catholic School in Ulverstone, the Archbishop
was presented with a wonderful album of
photos from his trips to the schools there.
There were special Masses, lunches, events and
concerts in all centres. In Huntingfield, St Aloysius
Catholic College held a ‘Walk in the Shoes of
Others Day’ where there was an exhibition of
shoes from well-known people including the
Archbishop, Bob Brown, Andy Griffiths, Jack
Riewoldt, Maggie Beer and Kylie Kwong. On
Friday evening, the Arch’s Archies artworks were
judged and prizes awarded, while the Tasmanian
Catholic Education Commission
presented its annual awards in
events across the regions during
the week.
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T A S M A N I A N C A H O L I C E D U C A T I O N O F F I C E
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In Term
One Grade 4 at
Stella Maris Catholic
School in Burnie completed a
Religion unit on Compassion. It coincided with
the many natural disasters that we were witnessing
on television and in the newspapers. We discussed
how feeling pity for another’s suffering was not enough. We
related the Jesus aspect of doing something to help. We know
we will not rid them of their pain and suffering, but we can
soften it by taking action and trying to give hope and make a
difference to their shattered lives. So, compassion isn’t only
a one time thing or a thought. We have to show compassion
all the time, just like Jesus; and take action. He was a man of
‘action’.
We discussed the types of action we could do. We had
thought about having a ‘Compassion Cupcake’ stall. This
we thought may be difficult for children with food allergies
to be a part of, so we tried to think of something that would
involve all children. For Mother’s Day we had made earrings.
Amongst the beads were some heart-shaped beads. Then
the idea came about to use them to make heart charms. The
name, Hearts of Hope came about from how our feelings
and actions are related to our hearts – these feelings being
compassion and sadness at another’s suffering. Our hope
is, to have a heart, and give hope and make a difference to
those in great need. The money from the sale of these charms
will go towards supporting others. So this month we are
doing Hearts of Hope. For Hearts of Hope we have over 300
Hearts ofHope
“Our hope is, to have a heart,
and give hope and make a difference to
those in great need.”
MA
KIN
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DIF
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STELLA MARIS CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL Responding with COMPASSION
charms that we have made and are selling to raise money
for people who are suffering. Most of the charms are two
dollars. Others are $5 and $7. In our effort, we take on the
Mercy charism of Catherine McAuley, ‘dare to step out make
a difference’. Catherine’s desire is to bring about a more just
and compassionate world. This we know we can do.
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Too much
On June 22, St Thomas More’s Catholic
Primary School in Newstead, Launceston,
celebrated their Feast Day with a whole-
school focus. In the morning, students from
Prep to Grade 6 were put into mixed groups
where they completed two art activities,
supervised by a teacher or a teacher-aide.
The students worked on completing two
artworks; a mosaic crucifix and a collage of St Thomas More.
These designs were chosen by the 5/6 Team, who were in
charge of running the day. It was fantastic to observe the
children working across the grades and utilising many of
the qualities of their Patron Saint, such as co-operation,
perseverance, problem solving and friendship.
After recess, the school community gathered in the Church to
pray and give thanks to God with a school Mass, again lead by
the 5/6 leaders who read beautifully and decorated the Church
with eye-catching posters of St Thomas More.
At lunchtime, everyone was very grateful to Mr Rik and Mr Nas
who had been busy cooking sausages on the barbecue! Each
class took turns to come and get their sausages, and they were
all happy to be served with a friendly smile from a Grade 6
student. In the afternoon, all the classes relaxed in their rooms
and were happily surprised with a cupcake for each person!
The whole community greatly enjoyed learning more about
their Patron Saint, spending time with friends in other grades
and giving thanks to God for their school and each other.
Our Catholic schools are busy places with so many good news
stories to share that we are overflowing!!!
We’ve put some bonus articles on our website for you.
Click on www.hobart.catholic.org.au for:
Our Lady of Lourdes – Living with Community.
St Virgil’s boys at Australian Brain Bees Challenge.
Gumnuts to Buttons at MacKillop College.
Maths Action at St Finn Barr’s.
Phil Glendenning challenging students at Sacred Heart.
And many others!
good news? TH
AN
K Y
OU
LOR
D FO
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HE
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Feast DayFun!
CH
OW
DO
WN
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Betta Beeand the 4Bs
“ It is an approach to creating a safe and productive learning environment where teachers can teach and all students can learn.”
At St Aloysius Catholic College - Kingston Campus we actively
teach and reinforce desired behaviour through our 4Bs and
Betta Bee. We consider behaviour support to be an opportunity
for valuable social learning as well as a means of
maximising the success of academic educational
programs. Preserving and building student self-esteem
and self-image, as well as encouraging self-monitoring
of behaviour are fundamental components of our
positive approach to behaviour support.
Staff at the campus worked together with their
respective classes to condense some of our more
detailed school expectations to four: Be a Learner,
Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Fair. We wanted to
ensure that these expectations were understood by all
and transferred to all situations. In an effort to assist
with this, our Grade Four students came up with a
special motto “better be safe, better be a learner, better be fair
and better be respectful”.
This then led to the creation of Betta Bee, our very special
mascot for the Kingston Campus, who assists us with the
reinforcement of our behaviours. Betta Bee received his
name from Mr Damien Lowe and his Grade Four class who
also created the initial design for Betta Bee. Leonie Brothers
then further developed the design to a cartoon character. Mrs
Judy Donnelly, a previous staff member and current parish
volunteer, then took the creation a step further and created a
Betta Bee mascot for the campus.
at St Aloysius Catholic College-Kingston Campus
Betta Bee makes regular appearances at Campus Assemblies
and has his own voice. His expectations in a variety of
different class and play situations are presented through
videos created by Grade 4L and Mr Lowe, the Environmental
Committee, puppet shows and role modelling by our Grade
Four students. Betta Bee has also interviewed key staff at the
campus, such as our utility officer to talk about what Being
Respectful looks like in our school environment and the impact
our actions have on the cleaning and maintenance staff. After
his appearance at assemblies Betta Bee then visits a class
for a week to assist with the expectations in that particular
classroom. Mr Ben Morgan and Grade 3M have also created
a song for Betta Bee that the students at the campus are
learning.
The 4Bs and Betta Bee have allowed us as a campus to
focus on improving our ability to teach and support positive
behaviour for all students. It is an approach to creating a safe
and productive learning environment where teachers can
teach and all students can learn. Betta Bee posters and the
4Bs are on display in all areas of the campus and consistent
language is applied by all staff, at all times, in all locations in
the school. This is certainly a key to the program’s success
with our students.
A B
ET
TE
R W
AY T
O B
ES
WE
ET
!