As I walk through the school every day, I am thrilled by the number of children (and adults) who greet me with a cheery greeting and a smile. If ever you need a ‘pick me up’, just visit our Prep area. They make you feel like a rockstar. What a way to spend your day!

Children enter life with an inherent capacity to laugh, smile, play and generally make fun and light of life. Their sense of humour is then cultivated by how they experience their social environment - their school, family, neighbourhood and social groupings.

If teachers and parents can live with a happy perspective to their lives and encourage and model their children to do the same, those children will manage life’s challenges with far less stress.

An interesting study, conducted by St Thomas Hospital in London, has found that your sense of humour has nothing to do with your genes and everything to do with your upbringing - it depends on the way you were raised.  It would then appear to be the case that humour is an essential tool in being a parent or a teacher. It ranks alongside common sense and that ‘gut feeling’ we all experience from time to time.

Russel Conwell offers the following initiatives:

So the challenge is for we, adults, to keep ourselves and our children smiling and, on occasion, laughing, in spite of the world around us, especially in these difficult times.

So, smile a mile….

That’s the Spirit Way!

Paul Martin

Adopt a Cowboy

Students in 3A and 3B wowed Gavin Cooper with their Lego Robotics Skills. The children taught him all about coding and robotics. Gavin also visited Year 4B and engaged in Math activities.

YEAR 6 CAMP

Last week, Year 6, staff and students and a handful of parents ventured to Lake Tinaroo Environmental Education Centre for 4 days. The students and adults incorporated the 5 keys of success that they have been learning about into action around the lake. The 5 keys are: Getting Along, Confidence, Resilience, Organisation and Persistence. What a fantastic 4 days!

The students tested their abilities around these keys through abseiling, high ropes course, canoes, kayaks, as well as learning about sustainability and the environment. Thank you to the parent helpers who gave of their time to assist with this camp.

Thank you also goes to the staff for the time, energy and commitment to our students as they take on the parent role 24 hours a day for over 100 students. A massive ask and they do this with professionalism. If you please get a chance, pass on your thanks to these staff members for such a memorable camp for our students.

Have a great week.

Kristy Bates

Acting Assistant to the Principal - Admin 

This Sunday is the last day of the Church’s liturgical year when we celebrate

the feast of Christ the King (Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus is a King who does not lord it over His people, but invites them into the fullness of life that is His Life. Those who quietly get on with Kingdom living; feeding those who were hungry, clothing those who were naked, visiting those who were sick or in prison, these people were taken to one side and told that, in fact, they had been doing those things to Jesus Himself. Jesus was pointing out to the people that we are the Body of Christ and whatever we do for one another
heals and builds God’s church. We encourage our students to be respectful
of other’s gifts and talents and encourage and praise others for their good
work or actions.

This week at Holy Spirit we value reliability.  Reliability is the quality of being trustworthy and being consistently good.  The benefits of being reliable are that people trust you and feel they can count on you.  People inherently value reliability.  Every day we place enormous value on things such as reliable internet connectivity, mobile phone service, planes taking off on time, our cars getting us from A to B and our family, friends and family doing what they say they will do.  When these things are reliable, they not only afford us greater efficiency and peace of mind but also help us forge stronger relationships and deliver greater results.  This week we pray that our students at Holy Spirit be reliable people that can be counted on and trusted.

Last Thursday, our Term 3 and 4 Grade 5 Student Leaders represented our school to attend the Annual St Vincent de Paul Christmas Tree Appeal and presented a hamper on behalf of our school.  Families will be invited to donate items for our school’s hamper that will be presented at our Christmas Liturgy.  A coloured clothes day will be held this Friday for children to bring in items for their class hamper.  Class teachers have shared this information with families.  We thank all our families in advance for your generosity to help local families.

This Friday is UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY (20TH NOVEMBER).  Designated by the nations of the world in 1954, Universal Children’s Day calls society to a greater response to the plight of many millions of children around the world who are denied the basic necessities of a happy childhood and the education to develop their capacities.  Education is the basic building block of every society.  This date, 20th November, marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.  This year, the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a child rights crisis. The costs of the pandemic for children are immediate and, if unaddressed, may last a lifetime.  It’s time for generations to come together to reimagine the type of world we want to create for our children. 

God bless.

Caroline Fuller

Yesterday Holy Spirit competed in the postponed A-Schools Interschool Swimming Carnival at Long Tan Pool. Our swimmers are champions in our eyes! We are immensely proud of the students’ dedication to training and for giving their best effort. Holy Spirit finished 4th place overall against very tough competition. 

Some individual and team exceptional performances are featured below:

• Our 8 and 9-year-olds were strong and our future is in good hands. 
• 8-Years Boys Nate 4th, Andy 3rd. 
• 8-Years Girls Rosa 4th, Lucia 2nd. 
• 9-Years-Boys Isaac 2nd, Lucas 4th, Zander 3rd. 
• Emmy displayed our school motto Strength in the Spirit by coming off crutches only yesterday to swim exceptionally well in her individual race and relay. 
• Nala and Bella were inspirational leaders, finishing 1st in their races and leading our team spirit with chants.  
• Holy Spirit’s relay teams prospered, which showed our strength in the pool:
• 10-Years Boys – 3rd (Andrew, Fletcher, A-Tai, Isaac)
• 11-Years Girls – 1st (Nala, Bella, Emily, Mala). 
• 12-Years Boys 3rd  (Flint, Ethan, Cooper, Coby) 
• 12-Years Girls – 3rd  (Lola, Emmy, Sabine, Isabella) 

Thank you to our wonderful staff who helped to coach the 2020 Holy Spirit Swim Team. Special mention must go to Miss Prizeman for leading training sessions. Finally, congratulations to all students involved!

Yours in Sport,

Brenton Place

HPE Teacher Prep-6

This term in Prep A, we have been learning about how things MOVE.   From moving our bodies to observing things that move in our environments, this topic has been physically fun.  We reached an all-time high when the children brought a favourite moving toy from home.  Everyone got to share each other’s toys. Our smiles couldn’t get any bigger.  

Next, the children were presented with their end of term challenge…..can we make our own moving toy?  

First, we tried to achieve this task as a group, which involved team work and a lot of patience.  We learnt that everyone’s ideas were important and compromise was necessary with a limited amount of time.  See below our photos of some team’s toys and toys we made on our own. 

All STRING and BRASS INSTRUMENTS are due back at the end of next week

(Thursday 26th November).

All WOODWIND INSTRUMENTS are due back on Monday 30th November.

All Instruments must be cleaned and in good working order.

Please return to Mrs Laing or the School Office

More information and details to come in the new year!

As we approach the end of year, our supplies are running low.  When ordering could you please advise of second choices if we can't honour the first.

Thanking you

Your Friendly Tuckshop team.

Holy Spirit Catholic School uses Flexischools ordering system.  To register, login or to place orders, please click this link:  

Flexischools

We are open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8am in the Hall.

Your support with donations of spreads, vegemite, jam etc. (excluding peanut based spreads) would be appreciated.  

All uniform supplies are available at The School Locker, Domain Central (close to Bunnings).

Phone 1800 826 155

The School Locker

Uniform days for students:

Monday and Wednesday - Formal uniform
Tuesday and Thursday - Sports uniform
Friday - own choice
Senior shirts may be worn on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

If your child is going to be absent, please enter the details through Compass, as this is the most efficient way to inform the school.