Delagram 27th May 2024

From the Principal

“All of you, girls and boys, are a source of joy for your parents and your families, but also for our human family and for the church…”

Pope Francis made this statement as World Children’s Day was celebrated last weekend around the world. It was great therefore to reflect on the joy that was evidenced at our Athletics Carnival on Friday 24 th May.

Congratulations to our sports coordinator (Ms Keely Millar), who must have said a prayer of two, as we were blessed with a magnificent event on a glorious Lithgow day.
Our student population should be commended with great attendance, high energy, good behaviour
and an enthusiasm for getting involved and engaging positively throughout the day. It was wonderful to see the running, jumping and throwing (and that was just the teachers!), and the strong sense of community around the venue.

This capped off a great week at La Salle Academy, where some of our students:
 attending the CCC Hockey Championships in Bathurst;
 baking goodies for the Biggest morning tea, raising money for the Cancer Council;
 attending the academic rewards excursion to the headquarters of Atlassian in Sydney’s CBD;
 completing a White Card course in preparation for the upcoming Year 10 Work Experience;
 were victors in the third round of their chess competition.
Further to these achievements of our current student population, we are positively energised by the
Year 7, 2025 enrolment interviews that commenced last week. Understanding the value, reputation
and desire of students and families to join our community strengthens our resolve to continue to
provide this quality education and cocurricular opportunities for our area.
We must remember to celebrate the good times, and remember the joy of children in our
community, and with that I would like to use a prayer from our Parish bulletin on the weekend.

Come, Holy Spirit,
Show us your beauty,
Reflected in the faces
Of children over the world.
Come, Jesus,
You who make all things new,
Who are the way that leads us to the
Father, come and remain with us always.
Amen.

National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week
National Sorry Day: Sunday 26 th May
National Reconciliation Week: Monday 27 th May – Monday 3 rd June

National Sorry Day is a day to acknowledge the impact on Stolen Generations and reflect on how we
can all play a part in the healing process for our people and nation. The theme for National
Reconciliation week is ‘Now More than Ever’. After the defeat of the referendum last year and the
inability to close the gap on essential human right concerns, more must be done to facilitate
reconciliation across our country. La Salle Academy recognises the purpose of these events, as we
continue to educate our youth and support our indigenous community.

Parent Engagement Evening
Thursday 30 th May – 6.30pm
Lithgow Workies Club

Please join me on Thursday evening, as I will try to highlight our achievements this year and
communicate our challenges and vision moving forward. Parents/Guardians are invited to attend,
and ask any question that they may have in relation to the operations and activities of the school.

God Bless
Mr Glenn Carpenter

Assistant Principal

Reports and Mid-Year Assessment Tasks
Our Year 11 students are in the process of completing their second assessment tasks having
reached the mid-course point of their 2024 path of study. Year 11 reports will be available to parents and students via Compass at the end of week 6. I would like to congratulate many of our Year 11 students for their application to this higher level of study. For many it is a good time to evaluate their strengths and areas on which to focus on in the coming months.
All students in years 7-10 are also completing their Semester 1 assessments and reports will be prepared in the coming weeks. Many students have made use of study materials and revision that is available to them on their Atomi learning platform. We encourage all students to access this useful tool in combination with the guidance for their teachers to help prepare them of their assessment and in class tasks.

HSC Minimum Standards Testing - Year 11 
Year 11 students have recently completed their Minimum Standards tests for writing and a
number of students have met the minimum standard. There are a number of opportunities
each term to re-sit these test and students will be notified when these test will be conducted.
Later on this term we will be conducting the Reading and Numeracy Minimum Standards
tests.
Feedback of student results will be provided as soon as it becomes available, usually within
two weeks.
For further information, please see the HSC Minimum Standard Information on the NESA
website.
Have a great 2 weeks

Mrs Jenny Holgate
Assistant Principal

From the Religious Education Coordinator

With National Reconciliation Week beginning next week, it is important to understand why it is a significant event in Australia dedicated to fostering respect and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. 

We recognise the importance of this week in promoting awareness and education about the history and culture of First Nations people. Bishop Michael McKenna has spoken about the deep respect we owe to Indigenous communities, highlighting the importance of genuine reconciliation and partnership. This week, we commit to deepening our understanding and support for the journey towards national reconciliation.

Youth Group Gathering
Thank you to Father Reynold for his inspiring presence and guidance as we celebrated our first-ever Youth Group Gathering held last Friday, 17th May. The evening was filled with joy and camaraderie as we enjoyed pizza, chips, and engaging games like UNO, hoop rock-paper-scissors, and hoop connect four. Our second gathering will be a Movie night on Friday 28th June from 4:30-7:00pm. This gathering is from Year 7-12 students of La Salle.

Sacramental Program Information Night
On Wednesday the 22nd May, we hosted a Parent Sacramental Program information night. I would like to once again thank Father Reynold and MsTse and the parents who joined us. It's uplifting to see our La Salle students eager to deepen their faith journey through their sacramental. 

CSYMI Program
We are also excited to announce the commencement of the CSYMI (Catholic Schools Youth Ministry International) program for our Year 9/10 students. Over 20 young leaders have joined this youth ministry and leadership initiative, Imogen Della Bosca (Youth Minister) and I look forward to witnessing their growth and contributions to our community.

World Environment Day
Looking ahead, we will celebrate World Environment Day with a whole school mass, emphasising the importance of sustainability and care for our common home. In the words of Pope Francis, "Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience." Let us embrace this day with a renewed commitment to preserving the beauty of our planet.

RISE
We invite students Years 6-12 to join us for RISE, our Diocesan Catholic youth event is tailored specifically for Youth to embark on an inspiring journey filled with faith, friendship, and fun? RISE isn't just another event; it's an opportunity to connect with peers, deepen your relationship with God, and discover the joy of being part of a vibrant Catholic community. RISE promises two days packed with engaging activities, thought-provoking discussions, and moments of spiritual growth at Mt Panorama. RISE will take place on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th of July (during the School Holidays). To register for RISE and secure your spot, simply visit and complete the online registration form. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfHNv-42N5f75quNrpzZ7pjDYfCK_jhkWaiAQB2uYKinXix3g/viewform

Past RISE Video https://youtu.be/8ySg1sS27e8

Ignite Conference 2024 for students Year 7-12
We invite our students to join over 2000 high schoolers, young adults, leaders and teachers as they attend the Ignite Conference on 26-29th September in Sydney. 

Ignite Conference is a gathering of Catholics for four days of real-world formation, renewal of faith, great people and powerful worship. 

The cost is currently $305/person early bird prices till 30th June 2024. After the early-bird tickets are roughly $330/ person. We ask for students to see Mrs Wilsmore-Smith or Imogen Della Bosca if they are interested. 

Project Compassion
Thank you to all our students and parents that donated money for Project Compassion. All our money raised went towards Caritas’s Project Compassion initiative. I am deeply humbled to announce that we raised a total of $3285.74. This money has the capacity to supply 50 goats to families in Malawi or 13 toilets in homes for families in Samoa. 

With warm regards,
Mrs Wilsmore-Smith
Religious Education Coordinator

Year 7-9 Pastoral Care Co-ordinator

It’s assessment time for years 7-9! Most subjects already have assessments on the go for term 2, to ensure that we have marks ready for the end of semester reports. This means that your child will have assessment tasks to be working on at home. Regularly checking in with your child to ensure they are on top of due dates, and offering support where needed can help your child achieve their personal potential. 

A lot of students in my classes have a mindset of “I’m happy if I get above 50%”, but I challenge students on this limited mindset. Is achieving 50% really a challenging goal for you? I would suggest that most students should be setting higher goals for themselves in their assessment tasks and tests. Getting into the habit of challenging ourselves, completing tasks to the best of our ability, asking teachers for support, proofreading our work and revising notes is essential to success in senior school. Setting these good habits early will significantly improve our child’s ability to cope with the increased pressure of years 10, 11 and 12.

As always, if you have concerns about your child not coping, particularly around assessment time, please feel free to contact me. 

7-9 Pastoral Care Co-ordinator
Ms Tahni Isedale

Pastoral Welfare Co-ordinator Years 10 - 12

 Parenting does not come with a manual! I’ve heard many people say we need a licence to drive and tickets to operate machinery but we all get just go ahead and be parents!!! There is no instruction manual and there should be. Last delegram I shared a link to real talk and this week I am sharing a link on some tips in having difficult conversations with your children. 

https://realtalkparents.com/

We are already ½ way through term 2 and some important assessments are around the corner. Year 12 trials are in week 3 of term 3 and students should be spending time both in school and at home preparing for these exams. Exam style questions and past papers are an important ingredient in assessment success and HSC exam success. Year 11 will also taste formal exams at the end of term 3 and they too should be preparing their notes and revision notes of the content covered so far. Year 10 will also have their final assessments moving into the end of semester 1 with reports soon to be written by their teachers. 

Finally another note around uniform. La Salle does have a uniform and there are life lessons that can be learnt through wearing a uniform. If you could also reinforce that puffer jackets, nose piercings and non leather shoes are not part of the uniform and students will be facing suitable consequences for their choices made around what they choose to wear.  

Mr Stephen Carroll
Year 10-12 Coordinator.

Youth Minister

It has been a very productive few weeks back at school for term two with many activities taking place within the school. We have begun running our CSYMI Program without year 9 and 10 students and it has been a very enjoyable experience so far. We will be training these students to take leadership and help run year 5-6 religious retreats within our primary schools within the next few terms. 

We were also very fortunate to run our first youth Group Gathering last Friday which was an enjoyable experience for those who turned up. We will be running another one later in the term on Friday the 28th of June and look forward to seeing more students come and have a bit of fun with a movie night. 

Have a great fortnight.

Imogen Della Bosca
La Salle Youth Minister

Library News

Word of the Week
A literacy initiative that has been established in the library this year is Word of the Week. Each week a challenging word is displayed and the inclusion of additional information such as the parts of speech, definition, synonyms and usage in a sentence enables students to build knowledge and gain greater understanding of each term. In presenting these words, it encourages our students to build awareness of more sophisticated vocabulary which they can then adopt into their own writing. 

Renaissance Accelerated Reader Program
The Accelerated Reader program is a key literacy initiative for years 7 - 10 and has been implemented in partnership with the English Faculty. It is designed to develop students’ reading and comprehension skills and encourage more consistent reading practices while fostering the habit of reading for pleasure. 

Each term, students undertake a diagnostic reading test which provides data for their English teachers and identifies a recommended reading level. Students then select a text from the library collection which they borrow and read for twenty minutes in every English lesson. Once the text has been read, students complete an online comprehension quiz which helps inform teachers of their progress. Students will then choose another text to continue the process and this will occur throughout each term. To ensure that students develop good reading habits and are able to complete the reading of the text within a two week period, they should also be reading consistently at home. If students need any assistance in accessing the online quizzes or in selecting the right text to read, they are encouraged to visit the library.

Best wishes, 
Mrs Devine

Biggest Morning Tea

Thank you everyone for your donations and purchasing baked goods at the Biggest Morning Tea. We raised over $330 for the Cancer Council. Today was all about raising funds to help create a cancer free future, and provide essential support services for Australians with cancer. 

See the link below if you wish to make a donation.

https://www.biggestmorningtea.com.au/fundraisers/Lasalle1 

Kind regards,
Helen Johnston

Year 7 Technology

ANOTHER GREAT TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE!

Some of our Year 7 students have been busy  finishing up their projects for Technology. 

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Blue Mountains Karate Admin and Instructor

Phone: 0425 370 859
Email: info@karatensw.com.au
Website: karatensw.com.au
Facebook: chito ryu karate blue mountains

Basic Student Stationary Pack

Canteen- Flexischools App

We have the flexischools app for your convenience order online - See the flyers below with instructions on how to order

School Zones Reminder

A reminder to all our parents that school zones remain in place for the safety of our children and families. School zones operate on all gazetted school days, which are all the days the school is open, even pupil free days.