Welcome to St Lucy’s Learner,
As a member of our community, you will know that St Lucys has had a very challenging few months as we grieve the loss of one of our students, Sanad. I want to thank all of our networks, our donors, our volunteers and our friends for the support you have given to us. The outpouring of kindness and love has been invaluable. The staff have been incredibly brave and hard working as we journey through this together. I also want to commend St Lucy’s students for their courage during this time. I know you will join us in continuing to pray for Sanad and his family. It meant a great deal to share moments together with our community both at Sanad’s Memorial Service and later in the term when we sang Christmas Carols on the Oval.
While our present may feel heavy with loss and grief, we are encouraged by the sight of St Lucy’s future being built before our eyes and the exciting opportunities that our Catherine and Dominic Centres will provide for St Lucy’s students.
The Catherine Centre (High School facility) is due to be completed in June and we are eagerly waiting the chance to move our Year 7-12 classes into the beautiful new spaces. The Dominic Centre will, in turn, be filled with our Primary students and, for the first time ever, there will no longer be classrooms in the Veritas building. I look forward to sharing our plans for the Veritas Centre with you soon.
At St Lucy’s, we believe our classrooms and related playgrounds are the essential learning environments where our students form friendships and connections for life. As government funding does not fund playgrounds, we are seeking your help. If you wish to assist us in donating towards our Playground Pledge, please visit https://www.givenow.com.au/stlucysplaygroundpledge.
Term 1 has been busy and I hope you will enjoy reading about how much our students are achieving. From High School elective subjects including candle manufacturing to a Venetian style Carnevale. From celebrating Lent to our whole school focus on Social and Emotional Learning and Wellbeing. From Swimming Carnivals to the Easter Hat Parade. Open Days, Harmony Day, Expos and more. St Lucy’s is always a place of Joy, Community, Courage and Truth. This edition celebrates the learning and the innovation that we see every day. I hope you enjoy it.
David Raphael,
Principal
Social and Emotional Learning at St Lucy’s School
As part of our strategic plan, St Lucy’s has had a strong focus on refreshing and enhancing our approach to Student Wellbeing for the last two years. In addition to writing and developing a
St Lucy’s Wellbeing definition and St Lucys Student Wellbeing Framework, a Social and Emotional (SEL) Program has been written and delivered to all students from K-12 over the last year.
SEL has been identified as one of the key protective factors for student wellbeing. Through a SEL scope and sequence, and differentiated units of work, students develop skills and understanding across 3 key areas: Me, Keeping Myself Safe and Me and Others.
In weekly sessions, students are taught each skill explicitly and are then provided with opportunities to practise with teachers and peers through role-play and modelling. Opportunities for generalisation beyond the classroom have also been identified e.g. learning and practising the skills in the playground/Coles Shop/kitchen and through initiatives such as the Knox Play Program, PLC Robotics Program).
St Lucy’s SEL curriculum embeds known evidence based programs such as the Zones of Regulation, and So Safe to assist our students in developing self awareness, self management, responsible decision making, social awareness and relationship skills.
The units of work have been designed by St Lucy’s teaching staff with a view of empowering our young people to be able to contribute meaningfully while at St Lucy’s and in the broader community.
Stage 6 creative arts Carnevale parade
Year 11 students, who have chosen Creative Arts for an elective subject this year, have been exploring ‘Commedia Del Arte’ and ‘Carnevale’ this term. Students learned about Commedia’s ‘Stock Characters’ and masks, with a particular focus on the characters’ physicality. Students have also explored Carnevale, a tradition which marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. Students created their own Venetian style masks in the visual arts studio and visited ‘Spotlight’ to select materials for their work. The culmination of their term-long process was a Carnevale which took place in the final week of term. Students showcased their original work and performed a ‘promenade’ of the ‘Stock Characters’ for their peers in the St Lucy’s Creative Arts Centre.
Skills for the Future Program
St Lucy’s aims to provide Year 12 students with the opportunity to participate in workplace learning and/or community participation and recreation programs through our Skills for the Future Program. These will be short term placements (one opportunity per semester), which will provide students with insight into different industries and allow the students to experience ‘the world of work’. Work sampling will allow students to test vocational preferences or community participation programs with the support of a St Lucy’s staff member in a structured environment.
St Lucy’s aims to offer an inclusive program by ensuring that each student is supported 1:1 or 1:2 so that that they are learning and mastering a range of skills. This allows our staff members to act as ‘job coaches’, thus allowing students to experience success in their chosen experience. Through this program, we endeavour to offer valuable experiences that will support our students to build their self-advocacy skills, increase their confidence and support them in creating a sense of identify and self-worth which will in turn have a positive impact on their wellbeing and improve their employment/recreational/ community participation outcomes. It is our responsibility to support the young people in our classrooms to transition to a successful post school life. Our priority is to ensure that all students, regardless of their disability, have the right to participate successfully in programs that will support growth in skills and community life.
Our dedicated reading volunteers
In 2012, Catherine started volunteering in the Reading Program. She has been a dedicated volunteer who has excellent skills, especially in the teaching of ‘segmenting’ and ‘blending’. Catherine is patient and engaging with the students. She has also assisted our Reading Co-ordinator, over many years, in resource development, giving many hours to laminate, label and cut resources for use within the reading room and school. Catherine has followed many students on their reading journey through the primary school and we are very grateful for her ongoing contribution.
“It is rewarding to be able to assist in a constructive way to the St Lucy’s community. Volunteering provides me with a sense of purpose outside my everyday life. I specifically enjoy working with the students in the Reading Program, getting to know them and watching their literacy progress.”
Special Events – Lent at St Lucy’s
Lent is a season of preparation for the great feast of Easter, a time when we focus on how we can best be disciples of Jesus. Lent challenges us to take stock of our lives, see more clearly what is in our hearts, and discover what might be calling us out of our comfort zone. As Lent coincides with the commencement of the school year, our students are naturally required to move into ‘new comfort zones’ and face the challenges this inevitably brings. A new school year often calls our young people to let go of habits that have not served them well and to find new ways of being – all of which sit at the heart of this season of preparation and Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
At St Lucy’s, we prepare for Easter by focusing on ‘being’ in our school environment: being kind, being safe, and being our best. The parable of the Good Samaritan is the foundation of religious studies (K-12) during Lent, modelling Christian kindness and goodness. Our students translate the message of Jesus in this parable into their everyday interactions, reaching out and responding to others positively and thoughtfully.
During Lent, we also initiate our students into the prayer and liturgical life of the school year through our Ash Wednesday, Harmony Day, and Easter Liturgies. We introduce our students to mindfulness and prayer, a powerful tool for self-regulation and reflection that helps us find stillness and connect with God’s spirit of joy.
This year, we introduced five-fingered prayer and five-fingered breathing to our students – a way of praying and stilling ourselves taught by
Pope Francis to the children in his diocese in Buenos Aires. Through these, and many other activities, our students are prepared and supported to meet the challenges and the joys that life inevitably brings.
Special Events – Swimming and Carols
Swimming Carnivals are always joyous occasions at St Lucy’s. The students support each other and enjoy showing their improved skills to the parents in attendance. It was wonderful to see some banners representing classes this year and (after some postponements) to have great weather for the occasions.
At the end of Term 4, we held our biennial Christmas Carols on the Oval. The students shone as did the weather and it was wonderful to come together to see the students perform, to sing along and to reflect on the special time that is Advent and Christmas in our Catholic tradition. Classes buddied up and did very well to prepare their items and share the stage, all with the support of their teachers and our Creative Arts Team. This is always a beautiful time to share with our Parent Community and a special way to mark the end of the school year.
