Dear Parents and Carers, 

I am honoured and thrilled to write to you as the newly appointed principal of Nazareth Catholic Primary School. It is with great excitement and a deep sense of responsibility that I embark on this journey with you. As I officially step into this role, I want to share my enthusiasm for the future and my commitment to fostering an environment where every student, staff member, and parent feels valued and inspired. A school that is focused on continuous improvement, where faith, learning and wellbeing converge together to develop students who are great at life and leave school each day feeling successful. Thank you for entrusting me with the privilege of leading this beautiful school. I am confident that with your support, we will achieve great things and continue to build on the strong foundation that has been laid.

Next week we celebrate National Child Protection Week. A key message is that ‘Every child in every community needs a fair go’. This message is complemented with the theme ‘Every conversation matters’. Conversations can help us understand issues, craft solutions, value community knowledge, and build the brains and social connections of children and young people. Over the next few weeks, as part of Child Protection Week, CatholicCare are hosting parent information sessions throughout the Diocese of Wollongong. On Tuesday 10 September, all parents and carers are warmly invited to join our CatholicCare Counsellor - Melina Altman, for a parent information session on 'Managing Big Emotions for your child/teen’ in our school library. The presentation will focus on: 

• Exploring how emotions impact our daily lives and why they are important 
• Learning strategies for regulating and managing intense emotions
• Discussing coping skills and techniques to handle emotional experiences 
• Highlighting the importance of self-care for both you and your child. 

To register please click on the link in the flyer attached to this newsletter 

One of our school priorities this year is to review and realign our vision, mission and core values. The purpose of this review is to ensure that everyone associated with the school are clear about our purpose and direction, so that we are providing the best possible Catholic education for your child. Mr Gary Quinn, CEDoW Leader for Staff Spiritual Formation and foundation Assistant Principal of Nazareth, has been engaged to work with our school community to comprehensively review the school’s mission, vision and core values. To assist in this process, we encourage all families to complete the Vision and Mission Parent Feedback Survey. It will only take a minute or two to complete and all feedback is greatly appreciated.  

I would like to express my appreciation to all the families, especially the fathers, father-figures and grandfathers who joined us today for the Father’s Day breakfast and liturgy. Thank you to the P & F executive for coordinating the breakfast and organising the Father’s Day stall. On Sunday, all families are warmly invited to attend the All Saints Father’s Day mass at 9:00am. Our Kindergarten children have been busy practising a reflective song for the mass. 

Due to warmer than expected temperatures, children may choose to wear their summer uniform from next week. The last four weeks of this term will be considered a transition phase to summer uniform. The official change over to summer uniform will be the beginning of Term 4.

I wish all our fathers a happy Father’s Day for Sunday, 

Mr Matt Downes 

(Principal)

Father Joe Celebrates

On Wednesday, 28 August Father Joe celebrated 31 years in the priesthood. Father Joe became a priest in 1993. Father Joe chose this day as it is the Feast Day of St Augustine and Saint Augustine encountered many challenges in his life. He was a man who, after his religious conversion, made it his life’s mission to continually challenge himself to keep changing and accept what was God’s will for him. When you see Father Joe don’t forget to wish him a happy anniversary.

Father’s Day Mass.

This Sunday at the 9:00 am mass, Kindergarten will be singing a song after the Thanksgiving in the mass. It would be lovely to see as many families as possible at our 9:00 am mass to support our Kindergarten students and their families.

Wednesday Mass and Faith & Learning visits

Next week, in Week 7, Year 1 will be going to mass. All parents and families are invited to the Year 1 classrooms after mass to view a snippet of their child’s learning. All families are welcome to come.

First Holy Communion

At mass last weekend you would have received the information timetable and enrolment form for candidates of First Holy Communion. Enrolment forms need to be taken home to be completed in full. On the weekend of 7-8 September, enrolment forms, along with a $25.00 fee, will be collected. After counting the number of candidates, the required number of workshops will be determined and organised.

First Holy Communion will be held over two masses on Sunday, 24 November 2024.

All mass times can be found in the All Saints Parish Bulletin and all other important information. A link can be found on the Parish Website:  https://www.dow.org.au/parish/all-saints-catholic-parish-shellharbour-city

My favourite part of creation is when God made all of the people. It’s my favourite because if God didn’t make people I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have a loving family that takes care of me. We can take care of people by ‘Never seeing a need without doing something about it” (St Mary MacKillop), donate to charity and helping our families.

Willow

The best part about creation is humans because if there were no people we wouldn’t have any family or friends and we wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone. I take care of creation by spending time with family, doing chores and donating to charity.

Kaley

My favourite part of creation is plants and trees. Because they keep our planet alive and are beautiful. I can take good care of creation by watering plants, planting trees and not polluting our environment.

Harper

My favourite part of creation is day and night. I like day and night because if there was no night we would have to go to school for 18 hours. If there was no day we wouldn’t be able to see the rest of creation. I can help take care of creation by not polluting and picking up rubbish so that the ozone layer does not thin and become hotter and hotter like Venus.

Zac

My favourite part of creation is people because I care about my family and friends. I care about people because I am kind, caring and loving. I can take care of others by including others in my games and treat others how I would like to be treated.

Austin

Year 6 Canberra Excursion: Parliament and Civics Education Rebate - (PACER)

Year 6 Students from our school have recently undertaken an education tour of the national capital on 8 and 9 August 2024.

Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage, and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding to our school in the amount of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.

Child_protection_week_flyer_Nazareth_Catholic_Primary_School.pdf

Child_protection_week_flyer_Nazareth_Catholic_Primary_School _pdf 193.13 KB

Register your interest by following the link below:

Managing Big Emotions for your child/teen - Nazareth Catholic Primary School Shellharbour  (office.com)

In Year 1 we welcomed our class pet ‘Rex’. Each night Rex gets to choose who he will go home with for the afternoon and night. He has loved his time with lots of people doing lots of new things, trying different foods, and getting to know our family pets. 

So far we know that Rex loves:

• Playing hide and go seek
• Swimming and dancing lessons
• Relaxing and watching TV
• Playing card games and colouring in
• Eating apples, cornchips, spaghetti and iceblocks

NAZARETH AWARDS

Dylan Clapham

Lucas Sangiuliano

Donovan Miller

Jacob Bugg

Amelia Perez

PRINCIPAL AWARDS

Nixon Allison

Bentley Pavlina

Sebastian Campos

MERIT AWARDS

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Jack & Morrison for representing Nazareth & the Diocese of Wollongong at the NSWPSSA Rugby Union Championship. Being selected in such a high level team is a fantastic achievement and it is wonderful to see two Nazareth students taking part. 

Another huge congratulations to Claudia Sears for representing Nazareth at the Arndell Anglican Equestrian Carnival recently. It has been a while since we have had someone in the school community involved in equestrian events at such a high level. Claudia and her pony Ricky Zoom Zoom took part in many events across the day with first, second, third and sixth place being awarded to Claudia. 

2025 Sports Nominations

In the coming months we will begin to provide information regarding the 2025 Diocesan Representative Trial nomination process. This is for children in Year 4 & 5 this year who will be in Year 5 & 6 next year. Nominations for Basketball, Tennis & Cricket will close first in early November with all other sports closing towards the end of November. Please continue to check the newsletters & Compass for any information that is distributed regarding this nomination process. 

Upcoming Events:

Basketball Gala Day- September 19 & 20. Please note that expressions of interest for this event have now closed. We are still waiting to hear from the event convenor to determine if all of the teams we have entered have been accepted, more information to follow on Compass. 

NSWCPS MacKillop Athletics Trials- Wednesday September 25. This event is for a small number of students who have been selected to participate as part of the Diocese of Wollongong Athletics Team. Please note that parents/carers were required to register their child using the CSNSW portal with the relevant information on their child’s selection letter. 

Cricket Gala Day- October 17. Please note that this event is for students in year 5 & 6 only. Please note that we will be opening up expressions of interest for this event next week (week 7). This event will be held at Thomas Dalton Park in Fairy Meadow.

Sports Uniforms/Jerseys:

If any of our families have Nazareth sporting shirts or jerseys at home, could you please return them to Mrs Mobberley.

Addison Ryan, Alexa Trencevski, Jacob Davies, Rocco Portelli, Lucy Vu, Amelie Clark, Chelsea Betz, Bentley Pavlina, Ian Blades, Fenix McGoldrick, Georgia Micevski, Rome Mastrodomenico, Robbie O'Brien, Kayden McCudden, Hendrix Lawrence, Charlie Rose Van Der Werf, Wyatt Tonegato, Charlie Hazeltine, Zen Nguyen, Alena Popovski, Jorja Witt, Harper Hart, Chevelle Munn.

During Week 6 our PB4L focus continues to be on ‘How to be a Good Friend’ with particular emphasis on empathy.  During the week we will explicitly teach friendship skills to develop and foster peer to peer respect between students.

Classroom staff will teach, praise and reinforce students showing respect to their peers through friendship qualities. Playground staff will remind students before and during play, and will hand out playground tokens to students demonstrating target friendship skills.

One way we can follow our respect school rule at Nazareth is by being a good friend to our peers. Revise what being a good friend looks, sounds and feels like. Students give examples of when they’ve noticed others displaying friendship qualities.

NAZARETH PROMOTIONAL FILM

The film captures a day in the life of a Nazareth student.
Click https://youtu.be/olug9FWvZQI to view the film

FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM PAGE FOR NAZARETH

If you haven't already please follow our school pages to keep up to date with events at school and for photos and updates from across the school. 

Please click on the direct links to follow our pages:

www.facebook.com/nazareth.shellhabour

www.instagram.com/nazareth.shellharbour

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY 

Please click on the below link for a direct link to the social media policy.

https://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/about-us/policies/social-media-policy/