Dear Parents and Carers of St Kevin’s,

Welcome to the 2025 school year! The year has started exceptionally well with all students focused on their learning and positive behaviour. The classrooms and the playground reflect the positive behaviour of the students and their understanding of what it means to always be respectful, responsible, safe learners.  You will hear lots about being respectful, responsible, safe learners this year as St Kevin’s engages in the “Positive Behaviour for Learning” (PB4L) evidence-based framework, that brings together the whole-school community to contribute to developing a positive, safe and supportive learning culture. The framework assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people.  The staff completed a full day of induction to the framework led by our CSO psychologist, with follow-up training scheduled for throughout the year.

The PB4L school teaching team met during the holidays to ensure everything was ready for our PB4L launch on day 1 of the 2025 school year. Thank you Mrs Hogan, Miss Wiseman, Mrs Warren and Mr Garnsey for all your work during the holidays.

Your children will now be very familiar with this poster below.

We are currently targeting listening. Listening in the classroom. Listening in the playground. Listening to our peers. Listening to our teachers. Listening to learn. There are routines to be followed when listening and often songs to sing, so listen out to see if your child repeats these at home or even makes a comment like “listen with your eyes and put your hand up to answer a question or share some knowledge”. Weeks 5 and 8 will see new focus points to be embedded as best practice in the behaviour and learning of all our students. Each class will have their 15-minute PB4L Lesson each Monday morning. Please ask your children each week what they are learning in PB4L and how it is improving their learning and friendships.

Parents also often ask how to help their children get back into routine and manage all the various aspects of their busy lives and commitments. One very successful strategy is:

Using visual aids.

Many of us grew up in a household that relied heavily on spoken communication. We were consistently reminded of our responsibilities and verbally reprimanded when we made mistakes. Many of us continue to use only verbal reminders to brush our teeth, get dressed, put the toys away, empty our lunch box etc etc.

Verbal reminders keep our students dependent the adults in their lives.... always having to tell them what to do. Constant repeating of requests or things to do, only reinforces their dependence on you and does not promote independence and responsibility.

Use pictures, diagrams, charts, and lists to assist in promoting independence and responsibility – PB4L in action at home!! Even students that can’t yet read words can identify a simple picture or diagram and its meaning. Putting pictures, diagrams or written instructions on an area such as the fridge, for each day of the week and each session e.g. before school/after school, netball or footy training sessions, before bed routines etc can assist children to know what to do, the order to do it in and therefore be independent and responsible for small tasks.  

Here’s to an amazing year where we are all respectful, responsible, safe learners each and every day!

Mary-Anne Jennings

Principal

Staff for 2025

Principal – Mrs Mary-Anne Jennings- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday mary-anne.jennings@mn.catholic.edu.au

Co-Principal / Assistant Principal – Mrs Kim Hogan kim.hogan@mn.catholic.edu.au

Religious Education Co-ordinator and Year 4 teacher – Ms Donna Morgan donna.morgan@mn.catholic.edu.au

Aboriginal Education Teacher – Mr Phil Taylor philip.taylor@mn.catholic.edu.au

Learning Support Teacher – Mrs Natalie Warren natalie.warren@mn.catholic.edu.au

School Secretary – Mrs Kirrily Corbett admin@cardiff.catholic.edu.au

Teacher Librarian – Mrs Bianca Stephenson bianca.gleeson@mn.catholic.edu.au

School psychologist – Ms Khaalyd Brown

Kindergarten – Ms Erin Greenwood erin.greenwood@mn.catholic.edu.au

Year 1 – Ms Layne Wiseman layne.wiseman@mn.catholic.edu.au

Year 2 – Ms Ellie Brownlow ellie.brownlow@mn.catholic.edu.au

Year 3 – Mr Jeremy Smith jeremy.smith1@mn.catholic.edu.au

Year 5 – Mr Martin Vaughan martin.vaughan@mn.catholic.edu.au

Year 6 – Mrs Joshua Garnsey joshua.garnsey@mn.catholic.edu.au

Learning support assistants – Ms Bronte McInnes, Mrs Lisa Watson, Mrs Emma Brown, Mrs Lauren Sanderford, Mrs Kathryn Walton and the “Queen of the Books” in the library is Mrs Janelle Ballard.

Please use these email addresses to contact your child’s teacher if ever you need to speak with them or need to share some information about your child.

Uniforms

Thank you to all the parents and students who have ensured they are wearing the correct school uniform. Wearing the correct school uniform reflects pride in our school, pride in ourselves and promotes a great sense of community and belonging. So once again thank you!!!

Proud Principal Moment

A new parent rang today to express her gratitude and appreciation of the students here at St Kevin’s. Theodora in Year 1 is new to our school and today she was feeling a little low on coming into school. Violet in Year 4 noticed that Theodora was a little upset and straight away took her under her wing and ensured that she was okay and had someone to talk to and help her. Thanks Violet for displaying and putting into action the Vision Statement of our school.

Nurturing Mind

Through contemporary learning, celebrating the diversity of each child

Nurturing Heart

Through fostering positive relationships, honesty, compassion & integrity with Jesus at the centre of our lives  

Nurturing Spirit

Through living out our faith through our actions of love and in our caring for God’s creation

Enrolments 2026

Online enrolments open for 2026 for Years 7 and Kindergarten on Monday February 17 2025. Please share this information with family and friends of children that are eligible to start Kindergarten or Year 7 in 2026.

St Kevin's Enrol Online

 

Parking in Hendrick St and Andrew St

Please be aware that we are located in a busy suburban area with local residents needing access to their driveways. Already we have been contacted by a local resident who has had their driveway blocked by a parent visiting the school. Please check when parking that you don’t restrict access to our neighbours.

Last night, staff attended the Call to Serve Mass at the Cathedral, a liturgy led by the Bishop wherein the staff reaffirmed their commitment to the education and development (spiritual, emotional and academic) of your child(ren).  Following the celebration there was an opportunity to catch up with colleagues from around the Diocese.  I was able to introduce our staff to the Head of Schools, Jaqueline Wilkinson, as the best staff in the Diocese. I had a similar discussion with the Bishop and another Principal.  At various times throughout the break, I’ve been asked what I do for a living and my answer is always the same... I am Co-Principal / Assistant Principal at the best school In Newcastle.  We truly have the best staff, the best students and a wonderful community.  I feel privileged to work here and it is an absolute joy to come to work each day.  I LOVE my job!

This year we are continuing to work on ensuring that our communication is the best it can be and we really appreciate any feedback on how we can improve.  We will continue to issue the Week at a Glance and Imagination Station weekly. Look for that on Friday afternoons.  For those who had problems with that this week, the only advice Compass could offer was to ensure users had the most updated version of the app.  Our school newsletter will be issued fortnightly in odd weeks this year, and the Term planner will accompany the newsletter.  Please be aware that the Term planner may alter in response to external forces or providers.  Events on the term planner each fortnight are guaranteed and we will do all in our power to avoid any changes.  We will endeavour to give one month’s notice for events and, in response to positive feedback, will continue to send out an SMS push with event notifications.  If you have any concerns or would like to find out how your child is going please email your child’s teacher to schedule a meeting either face to face or by phone call.  Dropping unscheduled into the classroom before or after school is problematic, as teachers are busy prepping and organising for the day in the morning and may have commitments after school.

We have an exciting year ahead with various gala days (look for those in Term 3 – we have no control over the timing of these events) and also our school musical at the end of Term 3.  There will be more information about the school musical in my next newsletter as we will have auditions later this term.  In the weekly communication push this Friday, I will include a pdf of this year’s key dates.

God Bless

Kim Hogan

Co-Principa / Assistant Principal

Firstly, let me introduce myself, my name is Ms Donna Morgan and I am the Religious Education Coordinator and Year 4 teacher with Miss Edwards this year. I have been teaching in Catholic Education for the past 22 years and I am really excited to join St Kevin’s school community this year.  In such a short time here, I have already found the students to be very welcoming, coming to say hello and asking how I am. They are genuinely interested in hearing my story. As part of my role at the school, I will keep you informed of all things to do with the religious aspects of the school, from liturgies, events and curriculum.

Save the Date

On Thursday 20^th February we, as a school community, will be celebrating our Opening School Mass along with our Student Leadership Induction Ceremony to follow with Fr Joseph at 9:30am in the Church. You are all warmly welcomed to attend and to enjoy morning tea afterwards so you can connect with other families.

2025 Sacramental Program

Attention families in Years 4, 5 and 6, if you are yet to sign up to this year’s sacramental program, please do so sending me your interest. I have attached this year’s sacramental flyer which has all the dates and information needed to assist you in preparing your child for each sacrament. If you have any issues accessing the links or any questions please direct them to myself, my email is donna.morgan@mn.catholic.edu.au and it’s the quickest way for me to respond.

Donna Morgan

Religious Education Coordinator

Kaayi (Hello – Awabakal)

Yaama Ngindaay (Hello everyone - Gamilaraay)

Nungamanladi (Hello - Bardi)

Welcome to the 2025 school year. This year we have 13 Aboriginal students at St Kevin’s, about 10% of our total school enrolment.

Greetings above are in the traditional languages of our current students and families.

I look forward to working with all parents, staff and students in the important area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education.

I’m at school each Wednesday and Thursday working with students and teachers and communicating with parents. I assist our Aboriginal students with their learning and I help teachers with their planning and teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. This is a cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum and the NSW Schools Curriculum, designed for all students to engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures.

Throughout the year we acknowledge, commemorate or celebrate special days and weeks such as Harmony Day, NAIDOC Week and Reconciliation Week, Indigenous Literacy Day, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday.

One of the days we commemorate is today, 13^th February, the Anniversary of the National Apology to Stolen Generations Survivors.

The National Apology to the Stolen Generations delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the Federal Parliament on 13 February 2008 was a watershed moment for reconciliation and truth-telling in Australia. 

(Reconciliation Australia https://www.reconciliation.org.au/)

It is important to acknowledge this anniversary each year as Australians continue working towards reconciliation with our First Nations peoples. Some of our Aboriginal families at St Kevin’s have been impacted by past government policies of forced removal.

St Kevin’s Primary School Aboriginal Crest

Aboriginal artwork created and painted by St Kevin’s Gamilaraay parent Jade Porter, © 2019.

The artwork represents the staff in the centre with students in their learning environments around the outside, all connected.

St Kevin’s Catholic Primary School acknowledges the land upon which we work as traditional Awabakal Country.   We pay our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past, present and emerging.

 

Thank you for your ongoing support. Please contact me at school if you would like any assistance.

Nginowa (Goodbye, see you later – in Awabakal)

Yaluu (Later – in Gamilaraay)

Phil Taylor

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Teacher

School Fees for 2025 will be billed in the coming weeks by the Catholic Schools head office. After this has occured you will receive your first statement for 2025. Once received, please check that all details are correct and notify the school office if you have any queries. There is an expectation that regular fee payments should commence no later than 30 March 2025 and all fees should be finalised by 30 November 2025. Those families that have an outstanding balance from 2024 are reminded that these fees are overdue and prompt settlement would be appreciated. 

Should you have a Heath Care Card (in the fee payers name, not your child's name), a discount on the Tutition Fee can be applied. Please email the school office on admin@cardiff.catholic.edu.au for an application form. 

Any family experiencing genuine financial hardship are encouraged to make an appointment to speak with the Principal regarding a mutually suitable arrangement. 

Please find below a letter from the Direct of Schools and Cheif Executive Officer, Mr Sean Scanlon regarding the 2025 School Fees. 

Congratulations to Poppy in year 5 who attended basktball trials in Tamworth last week. The day started with dribbling and various baskeball skills, followed by 5 games of basketball. Out of 50 participants, 16 were selected to proceed to the next round of "possibles and probables". Another 2 games of basketball were played before the final selection process. We are very proud to announce that Poppy was selected for the Polding Team. Congratulations on this achievement!

2025 is a significant year for the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle as we join Pope Francis’ invitation to celebrate a Jubilee Year.

If you have no idea what that means … that’s okay. Whether you’ve realised it or not, even our school’s theme is creatively linked this year.

You’re invited to a Sunday morning of family, fun, free food trucks and ice cream, amusements, entertainment, and an obstacle course taking over the Cathedral Precinct on March 2nd. It all begins with a walk from Foreshore Park all the way to Sacred Heart Cathedral (4km) at 8am with Bishop Michael – our chance to be Pilgrims of Hope! Walk side by side with families and staff from our parishes, schools, agencies and ministries and then join us for Mass at 10am before the Festival of Hope kicks off at 11am.

If you’ve made it this far, I encourage you to watch and share this video where I unpack it all in more depth for you - https://youtu.be/oruV5XWUI2M

Join us! You’re all so welcome.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Please find attached information regarding upcoming ASPIRE programs.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Anne Atkins on (02) 4979 1331 or anne.atkins@mn.catholic.edu.au.

SchoolTV has a range of relevant topics to support parents/carers at the start of the school year including, these are accessible via our website:

• School Transitions – this topic focuses on starting a new school, transition to high school as well as between years. It also has a Special Report on Starting Year 7. 

School TV - School Transitions

• Friendship and Belonging – explores how parents can support children and young people to navigate the ups and downs of friendships;

Friendship & Belonging

• School Refusal – helping parents understand this complex situation and how to support their child/young person.

https://cardiff.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/school-refusal