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Lord, teach me to be generous,
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To labor and not to ask for reward,
Save that of knowing that I do your will.
Amen
As many of you are aware, Andrew Edwards and I are currently enjoying interviewing prospective students for the 2024 Kindergarten cohort. One of the questions that we are being asked concerns how families can support their child’s formation in religion, regardless of denomination. This week, I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some information about the Eucharist that may be of some assistance for all of our families.
Catholic children are invited to receive Holy Communion at around the age of 7 (in Year 3 within the All Saints Parish), but younger children will have questions about the Eucharist from attending Mass. Do your best to explain the Eucharist in simple terms that your child will understand.
You may like to read the four accounts of the Last Supper found in Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26, Luke 22:7-39 and John 13:1-17:26. Use a children's picture Bible with illustrations to help your child understand the narrative.
Discuss the importance of food in your family life. Explain that you gather for meals not only to eat, but to share your day and enjoy the company of others. Similarly, the church gathers as a family at Mass to receive spiritual nourishment - the body and blood of Christ - spiritual renewal and the strength to live out a Christian life in the coming week.
Answer your child's questions about the Eucharist. Catholics believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. Your child will almost certainly wonder how Christ can be present and unseen. Pope Benedict XVI explained the mystery of the Eucharist to children by making several analogies:
“You can't see an electric current, but you can see light. You cannot see the human soul, but you can see the soul in action through words and actions.”
Talk about friendship. Most young children value friendships highly, so they will understand when you explain that Christ is present in the Eucharist in order to stay close to his friends.
Give examples of sacrifice. For instance, your child sacrifices a toy she loves in order to make a friend happy while playing. Explain that Christ sacrificed his life out of love for us. Through the Eucharist, we unite ourselves with his gift and receive grace.
Talk about the effects of the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that just as food gives strength to the body, the Eucharist gives strength to the soul.
If your child is too young to receive the Eucharist (Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2 and in Year 3 prior to receiving the Sacrament at their First Holy Communion), they can approach the priest with their arms crossed over their chest for a blessing. The crossed arms are a sign to the priest that your child is too young to be a communicant, or that your child is not a baptised Catholic. Our Year 3 – Year 6 students are invited to do this at our school masses and the Wednesday Parish Mass. Our Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 students remain seated while the congregation receives the Eucharist.
If your child has received the Sacrament of Holy Communion, support their faith journey by taking them to mass so that they can receive the Eucharist in their parish community, and join us for Faith and Learning Visits.
Confirmation
It is great to see so many students from Year 6 at weekend masses as they begin their preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation on 19 July 2023.
This weekend at mass students will be given their workshop books in preparation for the workshops that commence next Tuesday. These workshops will run for four weeks. Parents are reminded to attend the workshop with their child. It is your time to discuss the content of the workshops together with your child. Remember, it is important that children only complete the home activity before each workshop, the remainder of the worksheets will be completed during the workshop.
At the parent information session last term, an outline of a dove was given out. Children were to colour the dove and place their name on it. Your child can now bring in the coloured dove to one of the four workshops and give them to the teacher running the session. Please have your child put their name on it and these will be displayed in the church on the day of the Confirmation.
Wednesday Mass and Faith & Learning visits
Faith and Learning visits will resume next week (Week 5) with Year 4 attending the 9am mass. After mass we would love all of the families to join their children in the classroom to enjoy a snapshot of their learning. We warmly invite all parents, family members or friends who wish to join the children at any of the Wednesday masses.
Date for your Diary - Pentecost
The Church celebrates Pentecost on Sunday, 28 May this year. It is one of the most important feast days of the year that concludes the Easter season and celebrates the beginning of the Church, occurring 50 days after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and ten days after his ascension into heaven.
On Saturday, 27 May at 5pm Stage 1 students, family and friends are invited to attend mass together at our All Saints Church. Children or families will not be asked to do anything in the mass, simply worship with fellow families and teachers, along with the regular parishioners. More information will be given closer to the date.
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
In Religion, we have been learning about a story from the Bible called the 'Road to Emmaus'. As a class, we identified the 4 main parts of the story and created a story map to describe what happened. We learnt that:
1. Jesus walked with the disciples and listened to them.
2. Jesus explained the Scriptures to the disciples.
3. Jesus blessed the bread and the disciples recognised him.
4. The disciples went and spread the good news that Jesus is Risen!
In Science, 2L have started a new unit called 'Paddock to Plate'. It is about how we get food and other products from the farm to our homes. This week we learnt about how potatoes are made into potato chips. The process goes like this:
- The potatoes are picked from the ground
- They are taken to the factory
- They are cleaned, sliced, fried, seasoned and then bagged
- The chip packets are taken to the shops for us to buy!
Lots of people in 2L like salt and vinegar or plain flavored chips, but some like chicken, BBQ, cheese and onion or even burger flavoured!
We drew the chip making process - have a look!
Semester One Reports
Parents of students in Years 1-6 will be provided with a report for Semester One via Compass on Wednesday 21st June (Week 9). Kindergarten do not receive a written report in Semester One.
Parents will be given an opportunity to discuss student progress during Parent/Teacher Meetings in late Week 9 and early Week 10. This semester, Stage 3 students (Years 5 and 6) will be invited to attend these meetings with their parents. More information about how to book meeting times will come out via Compass later this term.
Two weeks ago Year Six went on an exciting excursion to Canberra. We left school at 8am and had a fun 3 hour drive to our first destination, the Electoral Education Centre at Old Parliament House. We were split into groups and had a guided tour where we learnt about the very large and interesting world of democracy, voting and politics in our country. From the Electoral Centre we went to the National Gallery of Australia where our tour focused on Aboriginal and Australian art. We went inside James Turrell’s ‘Within Without’ dome which was extremely relaxing and had a man inside playing his handmade flute that echoed and made a calming noise in the dome.
From here we had a tour of the embassies from all over the world. Our bus driver, Scott, was really kind and funny and he kept us entertained with his jokes, trivia questions and riddles. We then went to Mt Ainslie lookout where we could see the war memorial, old and new Parliament Houses and the red road which leads to Parliament House and the War Memorial. We then went back to our accommodation Leumeah Lodge and stayed in a room with our friends, had showers, ate dinner and went to sleep from the fun and tiring first day in Canberra.
Early the next morning we had pancakes for breakfast. It was cold and foggy as we were driving to the first destination of the day, Parliament House. Here, we had a tour through the House of Representatives and the Senate. We participated in another role play in the Parliament Education Center where we re-enacted the voting process for the House of Representatives. We then went to the War Memorial where we had a guided tour through the entire building. We were in wonder and awe of the beautiful tomb of the unknown soldier.
The final destination was Questacon where we discovered lots of different types of science, illusions, cool tricks and hands-on activities. One of year six’s favourite activities was the Free Fall. It was a vertical drop slide where you hung on a bar and once you let go onto the slide for a brief few seconds you felt like you’re in zero gravity. At the end of the day, we went to Goulburn McDonalds and bought dinner. On the way back to school we watched a movie in the bus and drove past Lake George which was fuller than usual. Before we knew it we were back at school at around 8pm and saw our parents waiting to see us after our amazing trip.
Year six would like to say thank you to the parents, teachers and our principal Mrs Tyson for giving us the opportunity to go on this amazing and jaw dropping trip to the ACT or as we call it, Canberra.
Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER)
Students from our school have recently undertaken, an education tour of the national capital. 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 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.
Cross Country
Due to the current weather and track conditions, the 2023 Diosecean Cross Country Carnival had to be postponed to the back up date of Tuesday May 23rd. We wish our Nazareth Cross Country team all the best of luck! If you have any further questions regarding the carnival, please see the Compass event.
Netball Gala Day
On Tuesday the 20th of June Nazareth will be sending students from years 3-6 to the South Coast Netball Gala Day. If your child has nominated themself for this gala day event, they will need to be transported to and from the event. The gala day is being held at Fred Finch Park in Berkeley. The school will be offering training before school on some days in the lead up to the gala day, please see Compass for this information in the coming weeks. If you are able to assist on the day with coaching/managing a team or umpiring please indicate this on the Compass event.
Rugby Union
Congratulations to the following Nazareth students for making the Diocesean Rugby Union team
- Morrison Cocksedge
- Jacob De Gabriele
- Jack Kauter
- Nate Ryan
We look forward to hearing how these students go when they attend the MacKillop selection trials. Goodluck boys!
MacKillop Rugby League
Congratulations to Morrison Cocksedge who was selected in the MacKillop Rugby Union team. He was selected after attending a trial with many students from various Diocese across the state. The competition on the day of the selection trial was tough and making the team is a wonderful achievement.
We look forward to hearing how these students go when they attend the MacKillop selection trials. Goodluck boys!
NAZARETH AWARDS
Saxon Rogers
PRINCIPALS AWARDS
Kaiden Murphy
Jacob Dilevski
MERIT AWARDS
| CLASS |
Week 2 - Displaying Kindness |
Week 3 - Showing Respect |
| KN | Addison Ryan | Robbie O'Brien |
| KN | Jaxx Marimon | Hayley Miller |
| KS | Angelo Ditto | Koby James |
| KS | Brianna Manfiotto | Orlando Pacheco |
| 1S | Aditi Vaisakh | Felix Forlano |
| 1S | Mia Hamilton | Hendrix Pavlina |
| 1H | Aiden Wotton | Aisha Farrimond |
| 1H | Mia Gutierrez | Christian Ioannou |
| 2E | Ashton Hopgood | Ellie Cooper |
| 2E | Molly Bronish | Ruby Evans |
| 2L | Gabriel Khoury | Chloe Hoang |
| 2L | Maci Mackaway | Mbali Moyo |
| 3L | Evelyn Mcmullen | Nixon Jonovski |
| 3L | Adithya Vaisakh | Solomon Zamora |
| 3H | Ana Keelan | Donovan Miller |
| 3H | Cohen Horsley | Nikki Moulas |
| 4A | Livia Benavente | Cooper Menadue-Clayton |
| 4A | Olivia Schmidt | Amalia Rodrigues |
| 4R | Aria Gutierrez | Cristian Banovic |
| 4R | Hudson Armstrong | Jorja Witt |
| 5B | Jacob Sekulovski | Ariella Lopez |
| 5B | Isaac Ballinger | Mace Grimes |
| 5O | Olivia De Gabriele | Sonny Cocksedge |
| 5O | Mia Capelo | Zephyr Evans |
| 6U | Murphy Batman | |
| 6U | Amarni King | |
| 6R | Murphy Batman | |
| 6R | Olivia Sarin |
Spencer Tanevski, Brax Scofield, Murphy Batman, Rafa Nguyen, Jackson Horsey, Reevie Rey, Aiden Jebara, Kyran Brown, Katherine Ty, Isabella Brooker, Ari Katrivessis, Patrick Batman, Harper Ross, Jack Hopkins.
Over the next few weeks, the PB4L focus will be on RESPECT. One of our school rules is that at Nazareth we are all respectful. We are going to focus on peer to peer respect. Teachers will be revising with the students the first letter of RESPECT.
R stands for Recognise that everyone is different.
Students will show respect when interacting with all peers at Nazareth. They will understand and respect differences in peers.
FREE Parent engagement and literacy event –Corey Tutt OAM
The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT is excited to be able to continue to provide our families across NSW and the ACT with opportunities to build their capacity to support their child’s learning.
We are delighted to present Corey Tutt OAM, a proud Kamilaroi man and the 2020 Young Australian of the Year for NSW to read a section of his book, The First Scientists to our children and young people.
Parents and carers are encouraged to register for this online event and, on the evening of 30 May, from the comfort of their home, they can connect with us online to hear Corey read to their children.
The first 100 families to register will receive a FREE copy of the book “The First Scientists” to read along at home.
All those who register, whether they receive a free book or not, will also receive helpful tips to support their child’s reading at home.
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/