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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

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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,

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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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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

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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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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.”

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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

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Feast DayFun!

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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.

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