St Lucy's Newsletters
St Lucy's School publishes a weekly newsletter in PDF format. To view the latest newsletter, or any of the archived newsletters, please visit our Media and Publications page.
Generous Assistance from the Bernard Curran Foundation
The Bernard Curran Foundation has donated $75,000 to contribute to the cost of constructing an amenities block and improving other structures in the school's Montesinos area. Montesinos is an older style home purchased by St Lucy's in 2012 from the Dominican Sisters. It now houses senior students with more complex needs and was incorporated into the school to help accommodate the growth in student numbers. Last year a similar grant from the Bernard Curran Foundation refurbished the old cottage and its surrounds and this year's grant completes that work. St Lucy's is very grateful to the Bernard Curran Foundation for its assistance with this project.
Turramurra Community Bank Donation
Turramurra Community Bank has donated $500 for walkie talkies to keep students participating in our Community Excursion Program safe. The bank has a policy to return profits back to the community and gave each of its seven staff members $500 to donate to the charity of their choice. Diana Smith chose St Lucy's after visiting the Wollemi Cafe for lunch and attending several charity dinners. "It was St Lucy's innovative programs that inspired me to donate to the school. I was impressed by the way St Lucy's looks after the whole child, improving their general wellbeing by teaching life skills as part of their education," she said. This is the second time the Turramurra Community Bank has distributed funds to charity via its employees. Senior Community Bank Manager, Denise Kelly, said staff found the experience overwhelming and inspiring. "They are now motivated to work even harder so they can give back even more to the community."
Rotary Bursary
The Rotary Club of Wahroonga has donated more than $6,000 for the education of a St Lucy's child whose family is in financial difficulty. Rotary has a 37 year relationship with St Lucy's and has previously helped fund the redevelopment of the playground, specialised equipment for the gym and tools to equip the kitchen for cooking classes. St Lucy's Principal, Dr Georgina Reynhout, said the 2013 Rotary bursary will make an enormous difference to a struggling family. "The entire St Lucy's community is extremely grateful to the Rotary Club of Wahroonga for their generous, ongoing support of the school".
Improving Communication
St Lucy's Speech Pathologists, Natalie Montgomery and Suzie Jordan, are offering communication training for parents, carers and professionals. The first session on April 10 will cover low-tech communication aids and look at how to make and implement visual supports including topic boards. The second session on May 16 will focus on the popular iPad app Proloquo2Go, from installation to best practice use. Information on other useful communication apps will also be covered. Download the flyer for full details.
Holy Thursday Liturgy
St Lucy's Holy Thursday liturgy was a celebration of life given and renewed as students re-enacted the last supper and sang songs about community and togetherness. It began with the telling of the Dreamtime story, "The Rainbow Serpent", by Roald Dahl class who moved through the Possibility Space under a serpent costume and acted out the creation of colours, the sky, the sea and the land. A candle procession followed, along with the singing of "Let us Come Together as One" and the Lord's Prayer. Paul Jennings class depicted the Easter story, portraying Jesus and his disciples walking along the road to Jerusalem as Hans Christian Andersen class sang, "Sing it Hosanna". Jesus called his disciples (one from each class) to join him at the table to celebrate the Passover feast where "wine" was poured and bread broken. The reenactment concluded when the children playing disciples delivered a basket of food to their class group to share with their friends.
Helping Country Kids to Speak
St Lucy's Speech Pathologists, Natalie Montgomery and Suzie Jordan, visited the small town of Narromine 40 kilometres west of Dubbo to help students with speech and behavioural difficulties who have little access to specialist therapy. They spent time at St Augustine's Primary School and assessed primary aged children for a range of difficulties including articulation, language, stuttering and behaviour, as well as reviewing the progress of students they had assessed on previous visits. Suzie and Natalie consulted with individual teachers and teacher's aides in assistive and augmentative communication tools including iPads and helped staff establish a small language group that will continue to be run on a weekly basis to develop the students' ability to follow directions and speak in grammatically correct sentences. "The other highlight was meeting parents of an ESL student from kindergarten," Suzie said. "They are relatively new to town and both have limited English. I supplied them with many visual supports to be placed in their home to help their child learn more English for which they were incredibly thankful". Suzie and Natalie's trip was made possible by a grant from the James N Kirby Foundation.
Swimming Success
Two St Lucy's students had great success at the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Polding Carnival. After practising their stroke technique and diving skills, Angela and Josh competed in the 50 metres freestyle event in front of a 300 strong crowd, all cheering them on. Both stood on the podium to receive their medals and had their names announced over the loudspeaker - an exciting time for all involved. Next up is the NSW Primary School Sports Association State Carnival. We wish them well!
St Lucy's Holiday Program
Imagine the creative possibilities of painting with everything but a paintbrush! That's just one of the highlights of the St Lucy's All Abilities Holiday Program this Term One break. Other activities include drama improvisation with a pirate flavour, jazz and contemporary dance and rhythm-making with percussion instruments. Just download the brochure, fill it in and send it to "Creative Arts Holiday Program", St Lucy's, 21 Cleveland St Wahroonga, 2076. Your kids will love it!
First Family Mass for 2013
Around 60 parents, students, staff and other members of the St Lucy's community attended the first Family Mass of the year on Friday March 15. The Mass held special significance for the school as it was the first attended by new St Lucy's Principal, Dr Georgina Reynhout. Family Mass at St Lucy's is an opportunity for children to develop and grow their faith in a familiar place, alongside their school friends. It is also a chance for families to worship in an environment where everyone understands their special needs child. Fr David Ranson welcomed all warmly, especially Jack and Zoe, the two children who were to be baptised. The Gospel reading was ""Jesus and the Children" and as with all St Lucy's Family Masses, there was a focus on student participation; Fr Ranson was ably assisted by alter servers Angela and Stephan and seven other students and their families who carried the candles and Gifts and delivered prayers of intercession. Following the Mass everyone joined in a delicious supper.
