11 March 2024

Upcoming Events

Week 7

• • Monday 11th March 
  • LENT (Week 4), First Penance Acknowledgment & Assembly (9:00am -Hall)
  • Assembly hosted by Year 2
  • Thursday 14th March
    
    • First Rite of Reconciliation (9:00am -11:00am -Cathedral) Year 4 & 5 -grade timings to be confirmed
  • Friday 15th March 
    • Delany Day - Solemnity of St Patrick & House Patron Day -Green casual clothes for a gold coin donation to Project Compassion 
      
      • 10:00am  - Mass
      • 11:00am - Picnic Recess
      • 11:40am - 1:00pm - Student's participate in rotational activities - Irish Games

Week 8

• • Monday 18th March 

  • Fifth Week of Lent Liturgy & Assembly (9:00am -Hall)

  • Assembly hosted by 4W
    

  • Tuesday 19 March 

  • Solemnity of St Joseph Liturgy (9:00am -Hall) -Year 1
    

  • Thursday 21st March 

  • Harmony Day - Cultural Dress Day

  • First Rite of Reconciliation (9:00am -11:00am -Cathedral) Year 3 
    

2024 Important Dates

• Thursday 11th April 
  
  • Last day of Term 1
    
    
• Monday 29th April 2024
  • Pupil Free Day - Professional Development Day
    
    
• Tuesday 30th April 2024
  • First day of Term 2 - Winter Uniform

More important dates listed here Website Calendar Link

For those with a Google Account the calendar can be added to your Google calendars for easy access
on your phone or device Google School Calendar Link

From the Principal

Throughout the year we have had many opportunities to recognise and encourage student voice. Our 2023 SRC (Student Representative Council) began the process of shortlisting animals to be used as our school mascot. We acknowledge their work, especially Drew and Charlotte who created the initial survey. Our 2024 SRC and House Captains took over this process and have worked hard to bring this project to life. They determined the finalists, conducted voting and today announced to the school our new mascot.

As we strive to build community in all that we do at Cathedral we hope that a mascot will assist us with this process. Not only does a school mascot represent the values of our school as seen by our students but it also creates some fun. In the quacking through the office that was heard as the votes were counted and the cheers in assembly, we have already begun to see the fruits of our mascot and we look forward to our students designing a path to introduce our mascot to the community. 

Hooray for the Cathedral Mighty Ducks!

Camille da Silva Tavares   | Principal

From the Public Relations Committee

Harmony Day
On Thursday the 21st of March, Cathedral School will participate in Harmony Day. This is an annual celebration to promote inclusivity, respect, and a sense of belonging for all Australians. This significant event highlights the cultural diversity among our students and staff. On this special occasion, we encourage all students to wear something from their cultural background. Wearing something that is an orange colour (Harmony Day’s official colour) is fine too. Mrs Watson is organising a special Harmony Day lunch selection for us. Details will be announced soon!

Clean up Australia Day
On Friday the 1st of March, Cathedral School participated in clean up Australia Day. Everyone from kindergarten to year 6 went off with members of the environment and PR (Public Relations Committee) and cleaned up different parts of our school intending to leave it tidy and perfect. All the grades in our school were cleaning up the school for 10-15 minutes and we filled 7 bags of rubbish!

Why did we clean up? Because we needed it for our school and our environment. It helped us understand what a beautiful school can look like. It opened our eyes to how good it feels to help the environment, ensuring that we leave our educational establishment unblemished and spotless. Our fellow students strive to eliminate waste and litter as much as possible. 

Caitlyn, Flynn, Jacky, Minh Minh, Oliver, Oscar and Ralph

Cuppa After Assembly

You are invited to join us for a cuppa after assembly each Monday morning.
Bring your coffee from Cafe Viva or make yourself a cuppa in the hall kitchen.
All are very welcome.

Toys and Sports Equipment from Home

A reminder that students are asked to use the school sporting equipment that is provided instead of bringing sporting equipment from home. Mrs Bowman is currently re-stocking the sports equipment
for the year which is managed by our Year 6 Sport Committee.

We recommend that children do not bring toys from home unless specifically requested by the teacher
for show and tell or other classroom activities.  Toys can be disruptive to the learning environment and cause jealousy among the other children. If children do bring toys to school they do so at their own risk.
Staff will not be responsible for locating missing items or investigating instances of traded or stolen items. Staff may request that students keep items at home if they are causing disruption in any way.

Afternoon Walkers

Parents are reminded that the afternoon walkers duty is intended for students walking home or to workplaces only. For those families picking up children, we ask that you walk into the school grounds
on George St for collection or for a quicker pick up approach the gate at William St.  We understand that this is a busy time of the day and there is congestion around the streets however it is important that our procedures are followed so that we can provide a safe exit for students.

If there is extreme weather at pick up time (heavy rain, lightning etc) then students who are walking will be supervised on George St until they can be collected from the school or can safely walk.

Student Representative Council (SRC)

We are pleased to announce that Cathedral now has a school mascot, the Australian Wood Duck. This was a close vote. Many of us thought that
Mr Boylan would have persuaded the students to vote for the Mighty Magpie but when the votes were counted it was the koala that was the closest contender. We would like to thank all of our students for voting. 

The duck was chosen as one of our finalists because it is Australian and can be found in our local community (we even welcome ducks on the playground each year as they visit with their ducklings). Ducks can often be seen flying together, they represent community and are known for sticking together. Ducks adapt to different environments, both land and water and represent our ability to adapt to the conditions and do our best no matter what. Ducks nurture and care for their ducklings like we at Cathedral nurture and care for each other. 

We look forward to bringing you more about our new mascot in future weeks!

Enrolments

Enrolments for 2025 are now open.
We thank all those families who have already submitted Kindergarten enrolment forms and we ask
those wishing to enrol their child for 2025 to do so as soon as possible.

Year 6 Farewell Committee Meeting

We invite all parents of Year 6 students to a brief meeting on Wednesday 20th March @ 3:30pm in the Library. At this meeting we will begin planning fundraising events for the Year 6 Farewell Dinner along with the event.

Teaching and Learning

NAPLAN
A reminder that NAPLAN will begin this week for students in Year 3 and Year 5. This will commence on Wednesday with Writing. The proposed timetable for NAPLAN is detailed below. Testing will be scheduled for the morning session, usually commencing by 9.30am. Wednesday 20th March to Friday 22nd March will be used as catch up days for students who have missed tests due to absence on scheduled days.

All tests apart from Year 3 Writing are completed online. Research into online assessment indicates that students engage well with online tests as the questions are tailored to their achievement levels. Tailored testing provides a more precise assessment of a student’s performance. Students at each year level start the tests with a similar set of questions. Depending on the number of questions they answer correctly, the next set of questions may be more, or less, difficult. A student’s NAPLAN result is based on both the amount and difficulty of questions the student answers correctly. A student who completes a more difficult set of questions is more likely to achieve a higher score. 

It is important to remember that NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program and questions are primarily based on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year of schooling. These tests do not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance across the year. 

Catherine O’Neill   | Assistant Principal

Religious Education & Catholic Life

Delany Day/ Solemnity of St Patrick
Please join us this Friday as we celebrate our House Patron, Bishop Daniel Delany, and St Patrick.

Students are invited to wear green for a gold coin donation that will go towards Project Compassion.

Families are warmly invited to join us in the Cathedral Church at 10:00am for Mass and then afterwards families are invited to bring their morning tea and join us in the playground at Recess for a picnic.  After Recess all students will be involved in some exciting activities coordinated by our Delany Captains, Peppa and Ryan.

Project Compassion  Please continue your wonderful efforts towards our focus on almsgiving during Lent. Students are encouraged to continue bringing in their donations to their class teacher/s.

Sacramental Program: Thank you to those families who were able to join us in  Assumption Church last (Thursday) for information on First Penance, First Holy Communion and Confirmation and how the parish based but school supported Sacramental Program will function  this year. This was for families  not just in the grades where Sacramental Units are taught (Years 2, 3 and 5). The information evening was  also if your child has previously been in one of these grades but hasn’t had the opportunity to make one or more of these sacraments as yet.
Additional notes will be provided this week,

Monday Liturgy & Assembly:  Please join us each week between 9:00 and 9:30 am as we pray together and acknowledge the achievements of those in our school community. Classes, Grades and Committees each take responsibility for this important event weekly.

Coming up:

This Year at a Glance:  

Ashley Boylan   | Religious Education Coordinator

Awards

Library

Merryn Sadler   | Teacher Librarian

A Message from Year 6

Supporting Project Compassion this Week
This week we will share the story of Leaia from Somoa and the difficulty she had in accessing clean water. When the water for their family ran out, Leaia had to walk with her young children to collect water in buckets and containers. The children had to take several breaks because the buckets were so hard to fill and so heavy to carry.

This week we have set a challenge for every student to feel what it is like to go without water by carrying a bucket of water from one end of the playground to the other. We are hoping to inspire everyone to continue raising money for Project Compassion. We will also begin to build a display of our ongoing fundraising efforts by creating a TAPITAS wall. Each time a class raises $5.00, they will add a droplet to our display. 

Easter Egg Raffle  
Our preparations for our annual Easter Egg Collection and Raffle to raise money for project Compassion is well underway. Thank you to all those families who have donated so far. We would appreciate donations of eggs to support this fundraiser. Being involved is a great way to win some Easter treats and help to make a difference to struggling communities in underdeveloped countries.

We ask students to take care when bringing items to school to avoid breakages.

Donations of baskets or bags which could be used to create ‘prize packs’ would also be greatly appreciated.

Raffle tickets will begin being sold this week at a cost of 50 cents each or 3 for $1.00.

Happy Easter Egg collecting!

Zoe, Ruby M, Peppa, Josephine, Charley and Ruby Y   | Social Welfare Committee

SPB4L

Abbie Bowman   | SPB4L Committee

Wellbeing

Throughout 2024, we will be working closely with The Resilience Project to support the wellbeing of our school community.

The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs and provides evidence-based, practical strategies to build resilience.

Our Partnership Program consists of online presentations and weekly lessons for students, professional development for staff, and Parent & Carer Hub (inc. digital presentations) for our parent and carer community.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing the Parent & Carer Hub with you. The videos are 5-10 minutes long and will walk through the key pillars of resilience: Gratitude, Empathy & Mindfulness. You’ll hear stories and be introduced to activities to show how these strategies can support our kids' learning and development, and also support you as parents and carers.

This program is an important part of our school’s effort to look after the mental health of our community.

View the first presentation of the series here:
Part 1: Click the link below to meet Hugh and learn about The Resilience Project - https://theresilienceproject.com.au/2023-parent-carer-hub-inspire-hugh/

In this presentation, Hugh shares a personal experience about his sister's battles with Mental Illness.
Note: This video contains a story about an Eating Disorder that may be triggering. Please consider this before watching. For mental health resources and support information, visit The Resilience Project’s Support Page.

We will be in touch through the newsletter to share the remainder of the program, including research
and wellbeing activities to integrate into day-to-day life.

We are very excited to say that Cathedral is in the initial planning stages of seeking support for our community initiative aimed at establishing a Breakfast Club for our students. After conducting a survey of our students we have found that 50% of our students do not regularly eat breakfast. A Breakfast Club serves as a vital resource for families facing food insecurity, or other challenges. Our aim is to provide a warm meal and a sense of community each morning for every child in our school. This would help address our goals of promoting and improving our students and families health and wellbeing. 

We are putting a call out to any business or families that may be in a position to support our Breakfast Club. If you would like to make a contribution please make contact with Alice Gallagher a.gallagher@bth.catholic.edu.au.  We look forward to bringing this exciting initiative to Cathedral Primary school!

Alice Gallagher and Abbie Bowman   | Wellbeing Teacher/Primary Coordinator 

Counsellor

Jordana Kissell   | Counsellor 

Sports

Diocesan Swimming Carnival
Cathedral was represented by 9 incredible swimmers last Wednesday at the Diocesan Swimming Carnival in Dubbo. Congratulations to Joseph, Liam, Samuel, Oscar, Scarlett, Jamie, Lucy, Maximus, and Luca for their sportsmanship, talent and determination. Our school community would like to extend an extra congratulations and best wishes to Maximus who will compete in the CPS Carnival in Homebush on April 3rd. Good luck, Max!

A big thank you to all our parents for transporting and cheering on our swimmers in Dubbo!

Winter Sports Trials 
Last week, Cathedral school was represented at the Winter Sports Trials by 18 very talented Stage 3 students. These students tried out against all students in the Diocese to make it into the Diocesan team. Congratulations to all students for making it to these trials and representing the school with excellent sportsmanship, skill and persistence. Congratulations to Liam and Archie who were selected in their sport, Soccer, to represent the Diocese at the Polding Trials.

______________________________________________________________

Community Sport Site
Our Diocesan sports coordinator Mr Steve Maguire has created a Community Sport Site (has reports from events) for parents, families & teachers which can be accessed to assist with Diocesan Sports pathways. You may like to bookmark this site for reference:
https://sites.google.com/bth.catholic.edu.au/cedbsportcommunity/home

Abbie Bowman   | Primary Coordinator

Parents and Friends

OPTIONAL School Jackets- Are you ready for a cold snap ?

The Cathedral School logo is embroidered on the chest, the jackets are lightweight, windproof and water-resistant perfect for the cold weather. These optional school jackets are available to try on at the school office and ready to order via Flexischools under shop.

Please note: The optional jacket is NOT compulsory - All maroon/navy/black school jackets are also acceptable.

                                           Next P&F Meeting: Wednesday 3rd April 5:30pm - School Library
Everyone is invited to attend our monthly P&F meetings, which are held on the first Wednesday of each school month at 5:30pm in the Library.

There is NO PRESSURE to attend every meeting or volunteer bucketloads of time - the P&F is a great resource to keep track of what’s happening at school and connect with other parents, caregivers and school staff.  

For those who cannot attend in person, we have a zoom link, if you would like to join from home!

SCHOOL DISCO: Friday 5th April- School Hall
The school Disco is back for 2024, dust off your dancing shoes and practise your dance moves
Infants: 5:30pm-6:15pm
Primary: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Entry: $5 at the door includes a Glowstick

DATE FOR THE DIARY:
May:
Wednesday 1st P&F Meeting 5:30pm
Thursday 9th Mother’s Day Breakfast & Liturgy
Friday 10th Mother’s Day Stall

If you have any enquiries about our projects or would like to get involved, please email us at cathedralpandf@gmail.com

Melissa Bray   | P & F Publicity

Music

It's great to see and hear all of the wonderful children having so much fun whilst learning and being a part of the musical teams at Cathedral!

It is extremely important that your children are practising their instruments regularly at home each week. This will ensure your children understand the songs assigned to them and help with their progress as we prepare for our upcoming performances throughout the school year. The more your children practise the better overall sound we will achieve as a team!

Cathedral School Ensemble Times & Days:

• School Choir Tuesdays at Recess
• Guitar Group Wednesdays at Recess
• Concert Band Thursdays at 7:50am
• Junior Band Thursdays at Recess

 If your child is interested in participating in any of these groups please feel free to contact me chris_dove_trumpet@hotmail.com

Chris Dove   | Band Director

School Calendar Handy Hints

For those who are not familiar with Google Calendar an easy way to keep up to date with the school calendar is to check the school website. Here is the link that will take you straight to the Calendar section of the site where the calendar can be displayed by month. If you click on the event more details (if confirmed) will be available for the event. 

Most end of year events and special celebrations have already been added to the calendar and all
other events appear as soon as we can confirm the details.  Website Calendar Link

For those with a Google Account the calendar can be added to your Google calendars for easy access
on your phone or device. Google School Calendar Link

Update your Details

Update your email, phone number, address, your child’s medical details or emergency contacts by emailing the information to cathedral@bth.catholic.edu.au

Canteen

The Canteen is open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

We are in need of helpers in the Canteen on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. 

For the canteen to run smoothly 3 volunteers are essential.

Please contact Alana Watson on 0417 044 116 if you would like to be included in the canteen roster,
any time offered is welcomed.

Thank you to all our friends and family for all your ongoing support of the Cathedral Canteen.

Community Notices

Bathurst Bus Lines - School Bus Tracking App
The school bus tracking app is available for parents to download on their phone and track their child's bus in real time.  This might alleviate some of the anxiety related to putting students on the bus. Please see instructions below.

Parents requiring any bus pass or general bus travel information are welcome to contact our office and we will be able to discuss their needs accordingly.

If you have any queries please contact us on 6331 2744

Kind regards,

Carolyn
Bathurst Bus Lines