Delagram 25th October 2024

Assistant Principal

Welcome to Term 4
As we dive deeper into Term 4, I am pleased to provide you with updates on some crucial events and initiatives within our school community.
Year 11 Reports and Year 12 Courses
Year 11 End of Preliminary reports were issued to parents and students earlier this week and this is an ideal time to reflect upon your current goals and consider making some changes to your study habits and routines to ensure that you are setting yourself up to reach your full potential as you commence Year 12. Term 4 is the beginning of all Year 12 courses and even though we are heading towards the Christmas break, you should not be in holiday mode just yet. Term 4 is also not a time to be taking time off as there are assessment tasks to complete that contribute towards your final Higher School Certificate school assessment mark.
Year 11 students also have the option of modifying their study pattern and now that the Year 11 Reports have been distributed, the process of dropping subjects and changing levels in Maths and English can commence. Please make this decision in consultation with your parents/carers and the school to ensure that all NESA rules are met. A change is subject can also mean that you miss out on being eligible for an ATAR so this needs to be considered also.
Elective Forms
All student in years 8, 9 and 10 need to return their signed elective forms for 2025 as soon as
possible even if your electives are correct. These were due at the end of Term 3.
Junior Exams Coming Up in Weeks 5 - 8
For our junior students in Years 7-10, exams are just around the corner, scheduled to take
place in Weeks 5 - 8 of this term. Year 10 will be completing their exams in Week 5
following by Year 9 in Week 6, Year 8 in Week 7 and Year 7 in Week 8. Notifications for
these tasks will be distributed to students in the next week or two. These assessments are
essential milestones for our students as they develop their study and time management skills.
We aim to ensure our junior students are well-prepared to tackle these exams successfully.
Teachers will be starting to have revision sessions, offering study guides, and providing
guidance on effective study techniques. All students also have access to ATOMI study skills
modules and should take the time to review these in preparation for the exams. Parents, we
encourage you to help us on our efforts by asking your son/daughters about their study at
home and support your children during this critical period. For our students, remember that
the effort you invest in your studies now will reap rewards in the future!
Please note that exams are conducted in most subjects and are assessment tasks that form part
of a student’s final result for their report. For Year 10 students, the exam will for part of the
final grade for their RoSA, so it is important that students attend all exams. The normal
protocols are to be followed if a student does not attend i.e a Show Cause Form will need to
be completed for each exam missed and an alternate task arranged.
Staff Spirituality Day
Day one of Term 4 was our Staff Spirituality Day where we had an opportunity to explore
Indigenous Spirituality. Thanks to Mrs Wilsmore-Smith, Miss Della Bosca and Mikayla De Losa for providing us with this opportunity. Also, thanks to Leanne for our morning tea and Ange Richardson for a lovely lunch on the day.

Have a great two weeks!
Mrs Jenny Holgate
Assistant Principal

From the Religious Education Coordinator

“Teachers are the most important individuals in our society – nothing is as powerful as the human touch in education.” — George Lucas

As we celebrate the start of our final term of 2024, I wish to acknowledge the amazing effort that our teachers continue to make day in day out for our students and school community. I’d like to share a thought from Pope Francis, who frequently speaks about the significant role of teachers in shaping not just minds but also hearts, emphasising that educators walk alongside students, helping them grow spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. We are blessed to have such dedicated staff who live out their vocation, working tirelessly to shape not just the minds but also the hearts of your children. As today is World Teacher’s Day, we say thankyou. 

We began Term 4 with a Staff Spirituality Day, which was a truly enriching experience for all our staff. A special thank you to Mikayla, our Aboriginal Education Officer, for leading the first two sessions, which guided our staff through an exploration of Aboriginal Spirituality. These sessions provided invaluable insights into the deep connection between Aboriginal spirituality, land, and identity, and helped us gain a deeper appreciation of how these themes bring meaning to life, particularly in relationships with others and the environment. In the afternoon, Imogen and I facilitated reflective sessions where staff had the opportunity to deepen their understanding of our Catholic teachings and explore how to integrate faith and hope into their roles as educators. These moments of reflection fostered a real sense of spiritual growth, unity, and renewed purpose, which we will carry forward in our efforts to guide our students along their own faith journeys.

A special thank you to Leanne Case for providing us with a delicious morning tea and to Angela Richardson for the wonderful lunch that made the day even more special.

Looking ahead, our Year 11 Retreat is fast approaching, taking place during Week 3 (Monday–Wednesday) at KCC. This retreat offers our students a chance to reflect on their relationships, faith, and sense of purpose as they prepare for their final year of schooling. It’s a pivotal moment for their spiritual growth, and we’re excited to share this journey with them.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership in fostering a community of learning, faith, and compassion.

 Mrs Wilsmore-Smith
Religious Education Coordinator

Youth Minister

I cannot believe we are already at Term 4!
I hope that everyone has had a nice and relaxing holiday and we welcome everyone back for a new term.

Within the last few weeks of term 3, we sold raffle tickets to win the massive 10kg block of Cadbury Chocolate, which was kindly donated by Leanne Case. Last Thursday we Drew the raffle and we would love to congratulate Emma Durnford for coming out as the Winner! We were able to raise over $600 with the raffle and all the proceedings will be donated to Lithgow community Projects. Lithgow Community Projects is a local Non-Profit organisation which assists and provides support for single adults, families, and young people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness and/or have experienced or are experiencing domestic and family violence. 

As we come to the last term of the year I look forward to the fun and exciting things that we have coming up such as retreat days, Masses and Liturgies and different events and fundraisers as we come towards Christmas time. 

Have a good fortnight!

Imogen Della Bosca
La Salle Youth Minister

2024/2025 Mission Leaders of La Salle Academy

Hi!  

We are your 2024/2025 Mission Leaders of La Salle Academy, Amira Kathir and Ally Crane. 

Our goal within the school is to make our community a sustainable environment and to initiate awareness in all areas. We have many ideas for fundraisers and initiatives for all students to participate in, including our Socktober crazy sock day raising money for the Catholic Mission as well as a whole school soccer game on the 1st of November at recess time in which we will be using a handmade soccer ball for a fun twist. Meet you all on the oval! Google forms will go out this week to join. 

We will also be participating in the local service ‘Thrives’ Christmas food drive and St Vinnies Christmas Appeal in which we will ask students to donate non-perishable items and new toys to help those in need during this upcoming Christmas season.      

Have a great fortnight.

Pastoral and Wellbeing Co-ordinator's

Welcome back to Term Four! We have a very exciting and busy term ahead. It is super important to keep track of dates, as there are multiple extra curricular events that our students are getting involved in this term. 
Year 9 Camp
In week four we have the year 9 camp. This is a great opportunity for our year 9 students to get involved in a range of team building activities and activities that improve their wellbeing. Notes have gone out this week, and will need to be returned no later than Monday the 28th of October. We encourage attendance from all students. If you have any further questions feel free to reach out to Ms Tahni Isedale. Thank you Tahni for organising the camp. It will be an awesome experience and a great time for the kids.

HSC Exams
Our year 12 students have been working hard on their HSC exams over the past couple of weeks. We wish them all the best with their exams and keep them in our prayers. 

Positive behaviour framework
There are always exciting and amazing things happening at La Salle, with our students involved in many extra curricular activities such as sport, music, spelling bees and the like. We believe that it is important to support and celebrate our students in exceeding in whatever it is they do best. This is why we have changed our positive behaviour framework to a positive psychology model that encourages students to make positive choices that contribute to reaching their personal potential. In turn, students can experience success, be recognised and awarded for contributing to the various aspects of school life across five key value areas. These key areas relate to our La Salle Academy values and include; Academic achievement, Attendance, Behaviour, Social Justice and Community service, and Extracurricular activities. Students can get an award for anything across these key areas.
Attendance 
Attendance at La Salle often is poor towards the end of the term or near holiday periods. We were reminded of this on the last day of school last term, with the attendance of our students very poor. It is important that attendance becomes of utmost importance to our La Salle community. Students that miss out on school miss out on learning, social growth and routine. This can have negative impacts on their mental health and wellbeing. Please make sure to engage with the school if your child will be away from school due to any reason. If there is to be a long period of absence due to illness, or misadventure please get in contact with the school. 

If you have any questions or concerns related to your child’s wellbeing, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Ms Kerry Hogan
Pastoral Wellbeing

Library News

Accelerated Reader - Reading Competition
This year the team at Renaissance who facilitate our Accelerated Reader program have announced a reading competition for Term 4. This competition is 

 “designed to spark a lifelong love of reading in students, while giving them a fun and engaging challenge to take on. Not only will they dive into new books, but they’ll also have the chance to win incredible prizes along the way!”

The competition is based on word count, so students are encouraged to read as many books as they can within the month of November. To qualify for the competition, students must read books within the Accelerated Reader program. Any books outside of this platform will not be included. 

There are great prizes on offer, including trophies and AR gift cards and for the class who reads the most books, they will receive a pizza party to the value of $300.

Key Dates:
Kick-Off Date: 4th November 2024, 8:00 AM AEDT

Competition End Date: 29th November 2024, 3:00 PM AEDT

Winner Announcement: 4th December 2024

Any questions, please see your English teacher or come into the library for more information.

Returning textbooks
Just a reminder to all Yr 11 and 12 students, please ensure that any textbooks no longer needed must be returned to the library. If you are unsure of the books you have on your account, please come into the library and a record will be printed for you. 

Lithgow City Council Libraries
During the recent school holidays, I was fortunate enough to spend some time working alongside the wonderful staff from Lithgow, Wallerawang and Portland libraries. They are an amazing team of knowledgeable, friendly and helpful staff who provide fantastic services ranging from general lending, to local history research, children/youth activities and home library services. 

The newly refurbished library at Lithgow is bright and welcoming and offers a range of options for those wishing to engage in reading or quiet work. The library upgrades also included the purchase of study pods which can be booked out for private study or collaborative work. This is a great option for students who are finding it difficult to find a place to focus and study at home. The library has a comprehensive collection of fiction and non-fiction resources and provides access to online resources and databases such as Gale databases and Access Global Newsbank. These resources are excellent and would be beneficial for students engaging in tasks requiring research and analysis.

I encourage all of our students to consider becoming members of their local library. Joining the library is free for all residents. 

Any questions, feel free to come into the library or why not visit our local libraries and chat to the wonderful staff. 

Happy reading,
Mrs Devine

Equestrian News

Some exciting updates from the equestrian team from Thursday the 17th October- Monday 21st of October Three of our students Gabrielle Dray, Jarah Cafe and Macy Brown competed at the  Inter-schools Horse Extravaganza (ISHE) results as follows:

Jarah -Showjumping- 10th in the accumulator 90cm and 14th in the Am7
Combined training- 13th
Bending- 4th
Gabby- Showjumping- 8th in 60cm Am7
Hacking- 3rd in light weight Galloway 
Macy- Campdrafting- 6th Place

The girls competed over several disciplines in the 5 days which included Show riding, campdrafting, combined training, show jumping, sporting and working horse challenges.

Written By Tammy Brown (Team Manager)

Mowers Needed

La Salle Academy as part of our “Boys Education” program would like any working lawn mowers, or lawn mowers needing a little love and attention to bring them back to life.
These mowers will be cleaned up, repaired and painted if necessary and re-homed into our community.
Where possible it would help us greatly if they could be dropped off at the Academy. 
These boys will increase their communication, numeracy and literacy skills by ordering, costing of the necessary parts and working in a team environment.

Thank you for  supporting this program for our students.

ALL THINGS ATTENDANCE

ALL THINGS ATTENDANCE

It is law in NSW that all school age children must attend school every day that the school is open.
There is a direct relationship between learning success and excellent attendance

REASONS FOR ABSENCE
Illness
Cold and flu symptoms - If your child is experiencing especially cold and flu symptoms, we
do ask that you keep them at home to rest and recover. If they have symptoms for more than 3 days, we ask that you seek medical treatment and obtain a doctor’s certificate especially for students who have
Assessments due whilst off with sickness.
Vomiting, stomach upset – please don’t send your child if they have either of these as they
are highly contagious and the spread will only cause other students and staff to be affected.
Please remain home.
Headaches - do we really need to be off with a headache? Over the counter medication can help alleviate symptoms and we can carry out normal day to day classes with no missing of school. As your child moves forward into the workforce the luxury of taking a day off due to a headache will not be an acceptable reason for taking time off. Parents if your child is missing too much school because of headaches or you are finding that you are having to collect them from sick bay you can send in some over the counter medication, (Panadol and
Nurofen) in a clearly labelled snap lock bag with instructions to administer this to your child
where necessary and following normal dosages and procedure.
Period pain – This is the same for headaches. For young girls this is a regular monthly
occurrence and yes at times we have pain and cramps associated with our periods. We now
have some great over the counter medication which will help and we also have heat packs
available in the front office for your daughter to help alleviate the pain and cramping.
Dental appointments – If your child has a dental or orthodontist appointment a suggestion
is to make these after school that way if your child has to have a procedure or in the case of
orthodontic work where their mouth can be quite sore, they can have the rest of the
afternoon and evening to recover alleviating the need to have the whole day off school.
Birthdays - This is not a reason to have a full day off school. Send your child to school and
let them celebrate with their peers. They will have a great day.
Leave during Term time – The decision to take your child out of school during school time is
a conversation you need to have with your school Principal beforehand. Sometimes taking
your child out during this time has a huge impact on their education. Could I please remind
parents that any leave of more than 3 days needs to be notified to the school beforehand.

A number of parents are taking leave and just putting a note on the compass app. We ask
that you please send a note or email to notify the school as any leave taken without seeking
permission maybe be unapproved. Any leave taken of more than 10 days needs Principal
approval.

WEEKLY SNAPSHOT

We can now obtain data to show where our year cohorts are tracking in regards to
attendance statistics each week. Every delagram I will now keep you updated on the
numbers for each year level and each week.
Our aim is to keep our weekly numbers above 85% and if not higher.

Year      Week 1           Week 2
7              88.91                90.21
8              91.20                79.74
9              93.73                89.35
10            86.23                88.01
11             87.94               84.93
12            100.00             100.00

Mrs Kath Staines
Attendance Wellbeing Officer

School Travel

Finance

SCHOOL FEES REMINDER
A quick reminder that we have only 7 weeks until the end of the school year to ensure that the School Fee Accounts are fully paid up for 2024. Due to our fee structure being set up as three payments over three terms, Instalments 1, 2 and 3 should now be paid and if not, are now overdue. Now is a good time to 'check in' with your fee balance to work out your plan of action before the end of year is reached. We will be sending out Statements shortly to provide you with the latest up-to-date balance on your account.
3rd Installment Billing and Due Date:
Term 3 Billing date: 02/08/2024 and Installment Due date: 16/08/2024If you have not received your School Fee Statement via email, please contact the school
office to ensure that we have the correct email address on our system.

Just a reminder that payments can be made by the following payment options:
 Account balances can be accessed via Compass and payments can be made on the App.
 BPay Payment References are readily available on the Fee Statements.
 Direct Debit Forms are available at the school – just call or email to enquire.
 EFTPOS is available in person at the office or you are welcome to make payment over the phone.
 Centrepay Forms are available from ServiceNSW or call / email and we can arrange one to be sent.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the office by calling (02) 6354 5100 or by emailing the
school on lasallelithgow@bth.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions relating to your
account or if experiencing any difficulty so we can do our best to find a suitable solution.


Kind regards,
Narelle Lee
Office Manager

Statement by the Bishop of Bathurst

CEBD Community Charter

Atomi Resources for Parents and Carers

Karate Classes

We are a local karate school who have been operating for over 25 years with experienced, qualified instructors.
We provide fun, affordable karate classes for kids, teens and adults to develop fitness, determination, focus and self defence in a safe, welcoming environment.
Our karate school is a traditional school that follows the virtues of respect, peace and perseverance and helps to develop students in the dojo as well as in their daily lives.
We are offering a FREE trial lesson to all new students.

Kind regards,
Tamara Snow
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

Student stationery pack

Becoming a foster carer

Canteen- Flexischools App

Canteen cut off times for order are as follows:

Recess:10am

Lunch time : 12pm 

If you are interested in helping in the canteen please call our office 6354 5100

Thank You

Regards
Leanne
Canteen Manager

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

Community Events

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.