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From the pen of the Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,  

 It was wonderful seeing and hearing the voices of our students in the classrooms and playgrounds last week. 

 I know that for many children, particularly our new students, there was some anxiety, but I hope that now we have reached the end of our first week back any concerns have been resolved. 

As you know, all Brisbane Catholic Education schools are following the Queensland Government's Back to School plan to help keep our students and their families safe and well. You may be aware that some members of our school community are currently in isolation due to having COVID-19 or being a close contact. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this time. We wish them a speedy recovery.  

 I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their co-operation with following our health and safety guidelines as they are helping us to reduce the spread of COVID19 in our school.  

 I hope your child has enjoyed their first week of school.  

We welcome the following staff to our Xavier family:

God bless

Simon Dash

Principal

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Head of School – Secondary – Ursula Witham-Young

Welcome to our College for 2022 - I have had the opportunity to meet many of our learners over the last few weeks. Our students have been very welcoming, and I have enjoyed the start to the academic year as a new staff member to Xavier Catholic College. I have emailed many of you already introducing myself. I have had the opportunity to work within Brisbane Catholic Education for the last 7 years in two schools in a variety of roles including Assistant Principal and Deputy Principal, both in Learning and Teaching and Student wellbeing. Prior to that, I was Head of Pedagogy at an independent Catholic school in Brisbane where I found my calling to work in catholic schools and to work with teachers on continual improvement. I believe all students can learn and improve, and I believe the same for our academic and support staff as well.

In our second week of face-to-face learning, it has been an absolute pleasure to meet many of our wonderful students here at Xavier Catholic College. I have had the privilege of visiting Visual Art, Science and Mathematics classes and of course teaching Religion and meeting my own students.  Xavier Catholic College holds a very special place in my heart as two very precious to me, people attend our primary school Bill and Elsie.

I look forward to being able to meet our parent community and to work with you and assist in the growth of your child in their time with us at Xavier assisting them to find their pathway. This week and last week, Mr Chris Relf and I have interviews all of our Year 12 students to discuss their final year pathways, goals, and aspirations. One recurring theme has been the use of social media and how our students procrastinate. A suggestion is that at home, our students 'surrender' their mobile devices to their parents for a few hours of down time. 

Parents, you can assist us to keep motivation throughout the year high by discussing your child's ambitions for the year, and to help them make those ambitions and goals a reality. Help them to sculpt their hopes and dreams into measurable, term by term goals by writing these actions down and put them on the fridge/in a common area. We look forward to assisting you and your children attain these goals.

With every blessing.

Ursula Witham-Young

Head of School - Primary - Russell Davey

It has been wonderful to have the majority of our students back at school this week and have the College up and running for 2022. As is to be expected in the current climate we also have families who have been unable to return immediately or are currently isolating.  Our thoughts are with each of these students and their respective parents/carers and we look forward to their return in the near future. 

Wherever possible we are aiming to maintain our normal primary years schedule here at Xavier. Unfortunately the current COVID-19 restrictions prevent us from having our annual Open Classroom Evening. Information that would normally be provided by class teachers at this event will be sent to all families via email (if this has not already occurred). I would encourage all parents/carers to make contact with your class teacher via email should you have a particular matter you wish to address. I would also remind all parents that Parent Teacher interviews are scheduled to occur from the Monday 7th March to Friday 18th March. These interviews have been moved back a week to accommodate current Queensland Heath restrictions, which are in place until Friday 4th March.

As advertised in my previous communication should you choose to drop your child to their class the following drop off points will apply for all students (including Prep and Year 1). My thanks in advance for your support of this simple practice to reduce congestion and maintain the health and wellbeing of our community.

Class      Allocated Drop off/Pick up Locations

Prep       Drop off and Pick up at the Prep playground Gate

Year 1    Drop off and Pick up at the Entrance to Early Years Pod - Library Side

Year 2    Drop off and Pick up at Early Years Playground

Year 3    Drop off and Pick up at the Entrance to Early Years Pod - Lake Side

Year 4    Drop off and Pick up at front of GOA or back gate of the College

Year 5    Drop off and Pick up at the front of GOA or back gate of the College

Year 6    Drop off and Pick up at the front of GOA or back gate of the College

All parents are reminded that they are required to report to College reception if they are entering the school site outside of pick up and drop off times. It is also important that students are signed in when arriving late and signed out when leaving early. Parents are requested to sign in students via the BCE connect app and then direct their child to student reception. If you are collecting your child early this can also be done via the BCE connect app and your child can be collected at College reception after reporting to student reception.  Each of these processes are in place to ensure the safety of all students.

I would like to extend my appreciation to all parents for their understanding and flexibility during these interesting times.  Your support is appreciated.

All the very best to all families for the weeks ahead.

Russell

Upcoming Dates

Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching – MR CHRIS RELF

Welcome back to all students. It has been pleasing to see students settle into the year quickly after an interrupted start.

Senior Pathways

Over the past two weeks we have been conducting Senior Pathways interviews with all of our Year 12 students to check in with them and ensure that they are set up for success in Year 12. I would like to publicly thank them for the way that that they conducted themselves as they begin their final year of Secondary School. They are a wonderful group of young people and I look forward to working with them throughout 2022. 

Targeting Literacy

This year at Xavier we will continue to prioritise improvements in literacy for all students. We understand literacy as an essential capability for academic, personal and social success and effectiveness for all students. Additionally, we hold high expectations of literacy achievement of each student in our school. Our whole school literacy program aims to support all students to improve their writing skills through explicit teaching of literacy across the learning areas. Within this program our teachers employ a range of highly effective, evidence-based strategies to support and target writing improvement. 

This year we continue to use literacy “monitoring tools” in all subject areas to help support students and to gauge their progress. For example:

• ​Each student in Years 7-10 completes a “Writing Analysis Task” in one of their subjects each term;

• This writing sample is marked to check students' progress in the ‘8 Aspects of Literacy’ – audience, purpose, text structure, subject matter, cohesion, sentence structure and punctuation, vocabulary and spelling

• Teachers collaboratively analyse results and develop strategies for the next learning cycle;

• Teachers provide feedback to students and teaching practice then targets identified areas for improvement.

 Monitoring tool data reveals that the mastery of writing skills has improved term by term in Years 7-10 across 2020 and 2021.

The “Write Up Project” 

Last year Xavier was fortunate to be awarded special funding to boost students’ literacy. The “Write Up Project” extended throughout the year and was led by a school-based team who received training to enable them to more effectively resource and support other teachers. Through the course of the year over 25 staff volunteered to develop their skills by undertaking the “Write Up” professional development, a clear indication of the commitment and enthusiasm of our teachers and school officers to help our students. In 2022 we will continue  to build on the success of  “Write Up”. Xavier relies on the ongoing support of parents/guardians and the wider community to ensure these successes and opportunities are made possible. We encourage all of our parents and guardians to continue to support our program of improvement by encouraging students to read at home every night and engage in positive approaches to study to make the most out of school learning.

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Primary afterschool pick-up and bus procedure

Before school

All students who arrive before 8:30 are to go directly to GOA.  Parents who don’t utilise the drop off option of a morning need to supervise their students and ensure they stay with them and not play in out of bounds areas. Parents and students are not to go into the POD areas until after the bell rings at 8:30 unless they have a pre-arranged appointment with the teacher.

After school

Teachers on after school duty are positioned in 3 locations, the Primary pick-up shelter, the crossing in front of the school and the Secondary crossing near the bus shelter.  Students have the freedom to walk directly to these areas once dismissed from class. The teacher at the crossing assists students crossing the road and directs young students to the Primary pick-up area. Primary students who catch the bus have been directed to walk between the library and the administration building instead of around the front of the school to assist with safety.

We do understand that the beginning of the school year the car park and

 pick-up zones are particularly busy, but things do quieten down and pick-up is the preferred option.

To improve Primary student pick-up, we have supplied each family with a name tag to be displayed on car visors. These can be held in place with elastic or a bulldog clip. These name tags will assist staff as they can call family names as cars are approaching to streamline the pick-up process. 

To ease traffic congestion and child safety we also ask parents to keep moving forward as we will be directing students to be collected from the front of the pick-up queue where staff can supervise and assist.

We understand families have multiple cars or family and friends that utilise the pick-up zone so please contact psherveybay@bne.catholic.edu.au for additional family name tags. 

Reminders

For safety reasons all playgrounds are out of bounds before and after school as they are not supervised.

Thank you for your assistance​

Assistant Principal Religious Education

Dear Parents & Friends of the XCC Community,

I write to briefly introduce myself as I have the privilege of undertaking a new role at the College as Assistant Principal for Religious Education. I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you during my time as a Primary classroom teacher since my employment began at Xavier in 2011. My decision to become an administrator came from a strong desire to make a positive impact on our school community and to work hard to carry out the vision and mission of Xavier Catholic College. I look forward to working closely with teachers, parents, and community members to ensure our children achieve their full potential. Over the next two weeks, I will visit each Primary classroom to introduce myself and discuss our school motto 'Finding Jesus in all things.' I am excited to meet you all when we are back on campus but in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me via email aaforbes@bne.catholic.edu.au with any questions around the Religious Life of our school or our Religious Education curriculum.

Kind Regards

Alex Forbes​

Media Consent

At Xavier we take the media consent of our students very seriously. There are three levels of Media Consent that you can choose for your child. None (No Consent), Your School Community (Limited Consent) and Public (Broad Consent). Due to the public nature of our College Social Media (Facebook) and Newsletter (Public Website) if your child's consent is stipulated as 'Your School Community' they will not be able to appear in these forums.

We would like to remind you that you can easily review your child's current media status via the parent portal or BCE Connect app (My Students tile).

Should you wish to change your child's consent status please contact Michelle Dougherty, Xavier Enrolments enrolmentsxavier@bne.catholic.edu.au ​

Openning Mass & Commissioning of Year 9 Leaders. 

​On Wednesday 16 Februrary we had the pleasure of commissioning our Year 9, House and Ministry Leaders with the presentation of their badges.

Narwari Mission Awareness

Welcome to Term 1, 2022 and to Narwari Mission Awareness term.

Narwari Mission Awareness focuses on our patron, Edmund Rice, and our charity is Caritas Australia. Caritas, with our support, are able to work alongside the most marginalised and remote communities in Australia and overseas to address the challenges of poverty today.

Narwari Mission Day is on Thursday 10th March – during the lunch breaks on this day there will be activities to heighten awareness of Caritas worldwide and raise funds for their annual Project Compassion campaign.

Please take the time to view the videos on the following Caritas site for more information on this incredible charity organisation.

https://www.caritas.org.au/resources/project-compassion/?audience=Parish&resourceTopics=Project+Compassion+2022

Together, we can work towards a just world for all.

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Xavier Arts 2022 – Welcome Back

Welcome back to a big new year of Arts activity for our Xavier community. It's going to be a huge, fun and fulfilling year of Arts activities with after school workshops on offer in Drama, Art and Music, the secondary school musical and of course our powerhouse team of instrumental music teachers including our new Xavier Choir leader.

I am super excited to announce that Ms Carol Sendall will be joining us as our new Choir Leader this year. Carol has been training and conducting choir in Hervey Bay for many years and is very well known for her amazing work with the local MANSONG choir and the MAKIN' WHOOPEE Women's Choir. Carol's approach to choir is all about participation and fun as well as skill building and I know she has some awesome plans for the various songs that choir will encounter this year. If you would like to join all the choir fun, simply grab a form from student services or the front office, complete it and submit it to student services. Junior Choir is for students in Years 3 – 6 and the Senior Vocal Ensemble is for students in years 7 – 12.

We welcome back our super-talented team of instrumental music teachers for this year with Mr Ryan White returning for guitar and drums tuition, Ms Sherrie Royal our keyboard and piano teacher, Ms Vibeke Voller – our amazing and internationally recognised teaching-artist for Vocal and Singing tuition, our amazing strings teacher Ms Jenny Conlan and of course our very own Mr Paul Damms for brass and woodwind tuition. Please note that the first term's tuition will commence in Week 4 beginning on Monday 14th February. For instrumental music only, Term 1 will be a 6-week term (due to covid restrictions), Terms 2 and 3 (all things being equal) will be 10 week terms and Term 4 will be an 8 week term.

Did someone mention the word 'musical'? Yes! It is confirmed – our secondary musical this year is to be DOWNTOWN – THE MOD MUSICAL. (It used to be called SHOUT…ring a bell?). This is a fantastic romp through the life and times of 1960's teenagers in the music of the era. Think “Petula Clark" or “Dusty Springfield" and you will have a pretty good idea of the type of music and show this block-buster production will be when it bursts onto the GOA stage in August.

Auditions will be called in Week 5 so get your headband on and your thigh length plastic boots and practice your favourite “Dusty" song in the shower – perhaps not in that order!  Anyone in years 7 – 12 can participate in the musical. Not everyone has to sing – there are roles for actors, singers, dancers, backstage crew, set builders or in the publicity team. Keep your eyes on your email as an “Expression of Interest" survey will be coming soon to your inbox.

Also planned for return this year are after-school Drama workshops for the Junior School with Mr Tim Holstein and after school Visual Art Workshops. More info on those activities as the schedules for our artists become clear.​

Immunisation Program

PLEASE NOTE: COVID vaccines are NOT part of the school program.

The College has received the consent forms for the school immunisation program, which is run by Ozcare.  These forms will be handed out to students on Tuesday (Year 7’s) and Thursday (Year 10’s). If your child is away on either of these days, that is ok, they can collect a spare consent form from Student Reception. Some details about the program:

What is it and who is involved? Ozcare is providing free vaccinations for all Year 7 and Year 10 students as part of Queensland Health’s annual School Immunisation Program.

Where is it done? Xavier Catholic College.

Who administers? Ozcare provide trained nursing staff to administer.

When are the dates? 

Year 7: Monday 21st of March, Monday 17th of October

Year 10: Monday 25th of July

Which vaccines is this for? 

The 2022 School Immunisation Program is offering the following vaccines: 

Year 7: a booster dose of diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough [dTpa] vaccine & a 2 dose course of human papilloma virus [HPV] vaccine 

Year 10: A dose of vaccine covering meningococcal ACW and Y strains

PLEASE NOTE: COVID vaccines are NOT part of the school program.

Ozcare do ask that parents/carers please read the information booklet carefully, sign the consent and return the consent card to the school by Friday 18th February 2022.

Thank you again for the ongoing support.

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Year 7-12 Semester 1 Maths Tutoring Timetable

All students are welcome to attend any and all tutoring sessions they want. Please bring your Maths books and have the questions ready to ask the teacher. While the time is not for strictly one-on-one tutoring, students are welcome to stay for as long as they need to ensure all questions are answered. Tutoring is also a great environment for students to complete their Maths homework while having easy access to a Maths teacher when questions arise. Looking forward to seeing you at tutoring!​

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SPORTS NEWS

Welcome back to academic school year. I sincerely look forward to a brilliant year in Xavier Sport and witnessing so many students strive to be their best in a range of individual and sporting pursuits.

Hervey Bay District Cluster 1 Representatives

Congratulations to the students below who were selected in the Hervey Bay District team to compete at the Wide Bay Cluster 1 Trials held on Thursday 17th February. This year, any student who is selected in a Hervey Bay District team will receive a certificate from the Hervey Bay District School Sport Committee. This will be presented to students in PC (until assemblies are able to be held).

Andrew Ritter - Open Boys Softball

Lucas Jenkins - Open Boys Softball

Sebastian Carlin - Open Boys Tennis

Solomon Hosken - 16-19yrs Rugby Union

Jordan Hislop - 16-19yrs Rugby Union

Braidan Houliston - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Lincoln Hislop - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Caleb Berthelsen - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Joseph Seduadua - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Brodie Phillips - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Michael Parsgaard - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Patrick Lewis - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Jasper Brien - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Kane Anderson - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Orion Eke - 13-15yrs Rugby Union

Shylah Thom - 13-15yrs Girls AFL

Kailey Pritchard - 13-15yrs Girls AFL

Blake Boswell - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Jestyn Horne - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Brock Verbeek - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Billy Roderick - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Ethan Wright - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Gordon Coventry - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Kruiz McGennan - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Brayden Lethborg - 13-15yrs Boys AFL

Matt Sinn - Open Boys Golf

​Hervey Bay District Cluster 2 Trials

Nominations have been called for any student (13-19yrs in 2022) wishing to participate in HB District Cluster 2 trials for the following sports:

Rugby League: 13-15yrs Girls, 13-15yrs Boys, 16-19yrs Boys

Netball: 13-15yrs Girls, 16-19yrs Girls

Surfing: Open Boys,  Open Girls

Soccer: 13-15yrs Girls, 16-19yrs Girls, 13-16yrs Boys, 17-19yrs Boys

Basketball: 13-15yrs Girls, 13-15yrs Boys, 16-19yrs Girls, 16-19yrs Boys

Squash: Open Boys, Open Girls

All Year 7-12 students and parents were sent an email with this information. This email includes a link for students (students only can access) to sign up for these trials. Please note: depending on numbers of Xavier students signing up, it may be necessary to conduct a player selection trial here at Xavier as numbers are capped at the Cluster 2 trials.

​XAVIER SECONDARY SWIMMING CARNIVAL: Yrs 7-12 date change 'again'

It has been necessary to once again change the date for our Secondary (Years 7-12) Swimming Carnival. It will now be held on Tuesday 15th March at the Hervey Bay Aquatic Centre. A reminder, that attendance at this carnival is compulsory for all students. Our inter-house sport carnivals are inclusive by nature where students do not need to be super-talented at the particular sport to participate. Our carnivals include 50m championship races, 25m participation races, novelty events, mass swims (the 'Salmon Run') and relays. This is on top of the House-themed dress-ups, the Big Splash Event and plenty of dancing and fun. There really is something for everyone! Buses will be available for any student needing transport from Xavier to the pool and return. However, students are encouraged to arrange private transport to and from the pool if possible. More details to come.

Year 7 & 8 Friday Sport

On Friday 11th February, Year 7 & 8 students did a wonderful job showing great attentiveness during the introductory session for this year's Friday Sport program. This coming Friday 18th February, students will begin their first rotation of Friday Sport (please see outline below). Students who are in Dance, Gymnastics, Parkour and Martial Arts groups will need to catch the bus at 1:50pm (half-way through second break). NOTE: these students will not have time to go to canteen at second break so food should NOT be ordered. Students will only have time to move swiftly from P4 classroom to their lockers to return equipment and grab a piece of fruit and then move straight to the bus for a 1:50pm departure. This year, a Student of the Term will be awarded to one student in each group based on participation, effort and 'service to others' (e.g. helping to set-up or pack up or helping out/encouraging a peer in need). These awards will be presented at the end of each rotation/term.​