La Salle Academy Lithgow eNewsletter

Assistant Principal

Semester Two Exams: Years 7-10
As the 2024 school year comes to a close, we are proud to announce the successful
completion of end-of-year exams for students in Years 7-10. After weeks of dedicated study
and preparation, our students showed great resilience and commitment to their learning.
The exams provided an opportunity for students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they’ve developed throughout the year, and we commend each of them for their effort and determination. We also acknowledge the hard work of teachers, who supported their students every step of the way.
Now that exams are behind us, students can look forward to a well-deserved break, while teachers will begin the important task of finalising results and providing feedback. We encourage all students to take this time to recharge and reflect on their accomplishments.

Attendance Reminders
I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents and students about the importance of
regular attendance. Reports will not be finalised until the last week of school so there is still
plenty of learning taking place! If, for any reason, your son/daughter is unable to attend
school, please make sure to provide an explanation via Compass. Furthermore, if a student
arrives late, they MUST sign in at the office. This not only helps us maintain accurate records
but also ensures the safety and well-being of all our students. Your ongoing cooperation in
this matter is greatly appreciated.
Higher School Certificate Results
HSC Results for 2024 will be released on Wednesday 18th December at 6:00am. Year 12
students can access their results by logging in to students online using their NESA number a
PIN. We look forward to celebrating the results with our students on this day.
Year 10 and 11 RoSA grades are available now for students to access via students online.
Students need to activate their account with their NESA student number and email address
first before they can access their grades. If you are unsure how to do this, please come and
see me.

Mrs Jenny Holgate
Assistant Principal

From the Religious Education Coordinator

Our school community has much to celebrate and reflect on during this busy and meaningful season!

On Friday, 15th November, five of our 2025 Year 12 Leaders attended the IRISE Leadership Day at St. Mary’s in Wellington. It was an inspiring and enriching experience where our students had the privilege of conversing with Bishop Michael McKenna and learning from a range of dynamic speakers. Highlights included:

Wiradjuri Echoes exploring Indigenous Spirituality.
Fr. Rob Galea speaking on Christian Leadership.
Phil Glendenning sharing insights on Leading Social Justice.
Fr. Paul Devitt addressing the care for Our Common Home.

This event was a wonderful opportunity for our students to deepen their understanding of leadership in a faith context and reflect on their role as young leaders in the Church and society.

Additionally, congratulations to Evie Whittaker, Ally McSorley, Natalie Swan, Arden Cutler, and Emily Highley, who completed the theory component of their Sacramental Program on Tuesday, 21st November. This marks an important milestone in their faith journey, and we commend their hard work and dedication. A heartfelt thank-you to Ms. Jackie Tse and Ms. Imogen Della Bosca for their outstanding facilitation of this new and highly successful program.

As we enter the season of Advent, it’s heartening to witness the incredible generosity of our students and staff. Our staff are donating toys and non-perishable food items for Thrive, while our students are contributing to our Annual St. Vinnies Christmas Appeal with toy donations. Additionally, this year our Religion classes are creating food hampers to support local families in need. These acts of kindness remind us of the importance of living out our faith through service and helping our community, reflecting the love and hope that Advent calls us to share with others.

Looking ahead, there are several exciting events to mark on your calendars:

Youth Group Gathering Christmas Movie Night – 6th December 2024.
Christmas Trivia Night – 10th December 2024.
Closing Mass – 13th December 2024.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and involvement in these meaningful initiatives. Together, we are living out our faith and making a positive impact.

Mrs Wilsmore-Smith
Religious Education Coordinator

Youth Minister

La Salle Academy Toy Drive and Hamper Donations
We are calling for any last minute donations for our La Salle Academy Toy Drive and Hamper donations for the Christmas Season. As we come to the end of the year, we are looking to make an impact in the lives of those in our community who are less fortunate and to help make their Christmas a little more special this year! We are incredibly grateful for any donations we have received, as each and every one can make a great impact in the lives of others this Christmas and spread holiday cheer.

Term 4 Youth Group Gathering
This Friday the 6th of December we are having a Christmas movie night to finish off our term. We will be screening a loved classic, ‘The Grinch’ in our school hall starting at 4:30 till 7:00pm on Friday afternoon and we will also provide a delicious sausage sizzle for dinner. Don’t miss out on this night of laughter, good food, and holiday fun for everyone!

Canteen Christmas Guessing Competition
Leanne has a christmas guessing competition that is happening over the next few weeks. Feel free to go over to the canteen at recess and lunch times and have a guess, for $1 a guess!

Imogen Della Bosca
La Salle Youth Minister

Pastoral and Wellbeing Co-ordinator's

Welcome to Week Eight!
The exam block is now officially over for our 7-10 students. We hope that everyone tried their best and got a feel of what it is like to be in exam conditions. We also hope that all the students learned some study skills, and identified some areas that they need to work on within their subjects. Receiving assessment results can be a stressful process for students, but is always a good time to reflect on their learning and focus on how they can improve next time. As we get closer to the end of the term, I am reminding students to have a think of some learning goals that they would like to create for themselves for next year. This could be as simple as doing 20 minutes of study per day, or improving a grade for a subject that they would like to do well in. Each student is capable and encouraged to try their best!

Year 9 Peer Support Training
Congratulations to our Peer Support Leaders for 2025:

Jasmin Cole
Lauren Takle
Addisen Welch
Emily Commins
Connor Byrne
Parker Maloney
Rasul Trifogli
Vann Cutler
Mitchell Lane
Macy Hutchinson
Lily Wallace
Siana Aiaga
Claire Taylor
Kaedynce Boyd

On Thursday of Week Seven, all of year 9 engaged in Peer Support training. Our Peer Support Program utilises the potential of student connection and support for their peers in school as well as fostering communication and friendship between older and younger students, students of the same age, and between staff and students. During the training the students identified their personality traits, leadership skills and communication styles. With the help of the current Year 10 Peer Support Leaders, Mrs Helen Johnston and myself, we selected 15 students that displayed strong leadership and mentoring skills. They engaged in further training on Friday of Week Seven to prepare them for the role and further enhance their skills. A big congratulations to these students.

Year Six Orientation Day
On Tuesday the 3rd December we had our Year Six orientation day. This was an opportunity to engage with the school for the last time as primary students, and to make some connections that will support them for when they start next year in year Seven. Our newly elected Peer Support leaders helped facilitate the day and were able to make the Year Six students feel welcome and supported.

The students engaged in some ‘get to know you’ activities as well as experiencing a taste of what High School subjects are like. The students engaged in a Japanese class with Ms Hodgekinson where they got to play a game of Fukuwarai, learn to speak and write some words in the Japanese language and some awesome facts about Japan. With Mrs Griffiths the students dodged the rain (mostly) in the Agriculture Plot and engaged in some water testing and field work. Then with Mr Makejev, the students engaged in a PDHPE lesson in the gym where they showed their competitive side and had lots of fun. It was a great opportunity and we look forward to having all those students be a part of the La Salle Community next year. Thank you to all the staff and students who were involved on the day.

Ms Kerry Hogan
Pastoral Wellbeing Coordinator

Library News

Accelerated Reading Challenge Update

For the month of November, the team at Renaissance who developed the Accelerated Reader program, are running a reading challenge based on the amount of words students read in the month. Students in Years 7 - 10 have been engaging their reading skills to complete texts and undertake quizzes on the platform which then registers the amount of words read.

So far, our Year 7 students are leading the charge with 571, 963 words. Year 8 is in second place with 141, 953 words, followed closely by Year 10 for third place with 97, 804 words.

The competition will run until Friday 29th November, so there is still time to get those word counts up!

Remembrance Day

To honour the significance of this day in world history, a library display showcasing the historical fiction and non-fiction texts from the collection was created. Additionally, the inclusion of the wonderful work of Year 9 History students (which included letters, diary entries and newspaper articles written from or about Australian soldiers) into the display, helped to engage staff and students. A big thank you to Mrs Doohan for her creativity in the composition of the display and to Mrs Prineas for sharing the work of her amazing students.

HSC Webinars

The State Library of NSW is running a series of HSC Webinars during November and December. These webinars are free and are designed to aid Year 12 students in learning search skills as well as showcasing the online resources available such as academic journal articles, literary criticism and books for HSC subjects.

Webinars are available for the following subjects:

English
Legal Studies
History (Ancient and Modern)
Visual Arts
Aboriginal Studies
Society and Culture
Science Extension

For more information and to register, head to the State Library of NSW website: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/hsc-help

New Books

Each month we receive a delivery of new fiction titles for our collection. Our last delivery of the year has arrived and here are some of the wonderful titles available:

Heir by Sabaa Tahir

Lovers of Fantasy Fiction will devour this novel. It is the story of three young people who are all fighting their own demons and the injustices that have happened to all of them in the past. The story is told from each of our three main characters’ points of view.

It is the intertwining of their lives and their hunt for the truth, in the ruthless and magic-filled world in which they live, that will have you wanting to read until the end. It is certainly dark and violent at times, but there is also a romantic element to it as well, with twists and turns at every corner. Best suited to more senior readers, aged 15 and above.

Just another story by Ernesto Saade

A stirring and thoughtful non-fiction work in graphic form, going beyond headlines or statistics to provide a powerful individual account of migration and the lengths that people will go to for a better life.

Happy reading
Mrs Devine

La Salle Junior Basketball Team

On Monday and Tuesday in Week 4, the La Salle Junior Girls Basketball team travelled to Bankstown to compete in the State Titles, after qualifying by winning the Diocesan tournament.The girls played 5 games throughout the 2 days and played very hard in every game. In spurts the girls played quality basketball, however a bad quarter in three of the games led to close losses, while we also had to play both finalists who won comfortably.
All of the players in our team should be proud of their efforts, Chloe De Losa led the team in scoring in the tournament while Indiana Lee ran the team well at the point and hit a lot of threes and midrange shots. Lila Moloney and Laila Oliver played very strong defence and rebounded well in the paint, and Emerson Crowe played well all over the court. Ruby Moss, Arden Cutler and Mikayla Johnson provided fantastic support in both offence and defence all tournament.
A big thanks must go to Mrs Narelle Lee for coaching the team at the Diocesan carnival and at State, as well as all of the parents and guardians who travelled and supported the team.

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

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
END OF YEAR REMINDERS
As we are approach the end of Term 4 and the year, can I please remind parents that now
is not the time for students to be away from school. The NSW Education Act (1990) and
the Catholic Education, Diocese of Bathurst requires parents to ensure that children of
compulsory school age attend school each day the school is open for instruction.
If your child is in Year 10 or Year 11 and they are looking to leave as they have obtained ie:
full-time work (25 hours or more) an apprenticeship, traineeship or starting a full-time TAFE
course, the appropriate paperwork needs to be submitted to the front office before the
student can be un-enrolled and their schooling at La Salle finishes. The appropriate
paperwork can be obtained from the front office

AS WE APPROACH THE END OF TERM WE LEARN UNTIL THE END

UNEXPLAINED ABSENCES
A friendly reminder to parents that all absences need to be explained within 7 days from the
time of absence. There are a number of students who have unexplained absences awaiting
explanation. Emails and notification of absences have been sent out to parent/guardians.
Could I please ask that parents return these by email or have your child drop these off to the
front office. It is the responsibility of parents/carers to provide the school with explanation
of all absences in a timely manner. You have many options to do this:
 Compass Parent Portal
 Call the front office – 6354 5100 and explain the absence
 Email – lasallelithgow@bth.catholic.edu.au or k.staines@bth.catholic.edu.au
 Send in a handwritten note and have student give it to their admin teacher or the
front office

If your child is having problems with attending school please reach out to the school as we
are here to help in any way possible.

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 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
7	86.65	82.25	86.47	88.85
8	85.53	82.99	93.58	81.05
9	89.29	86.16	86.67	79.64
10	82.41	76.28	82.25	73.81
11	85.22	88.98	88.05	90.63

Mrs Kath Staines
Attendance Wellbeing Officer

Army Cadet Unit Lithgow

Please see the flyer for the Information Night on Thursday, December 12th, 2024 about exciting opportunities for your students to join the 220 Army Cadet Unit Lithgow, a youth development program that fosters leadership, teamwork, and personal development.
The program offers engaging activities such as outdoor training, community service, and adventure challenges, all designed to build confidence and essential life skills.
The minimum age for cadet membership is 12, provided the cadet will turn 13 in the calendar year of their enrolment. The maximum age for a cadet enrolment is their 17th birthday. Cadets age out of the program at the end of the calendar year of the 18th birthday.
Students will benefit from:• Enhanced leadership and communication skills.• Valuable teamwork experience and discipline.• Fun, challenging outdoor activities and community involvement.Our dedicated team provide mentorship in a supportive environment, helping cadets grow while having fun.

School Travel

Finance

SCHOOL FEES REMINDER
Thank you to all those families who have finalised their account for the year. With only 2 weeks until the end of the school year, now is the time to ensure the account is finalised for 2024. Please reach out and contact the school should you need to have a discussion about your account.
3rd Instalment Billing and Due Date:
Term 3 Billing date: 02/08/2024 and Installment Due date: 16/08/2024. If 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

1_STATEMENT_BY_THE_BISHOP_OF_BATHURST_ON_THE_ESTABLISHMENT_OF_CEDB_Ltd_5Sep2024.pdf

CEBD Community Charter

1_CEDB_Community_Charter_WEB_Version_2022.pdf

Atomi Resources for Parents and Carers

Atomi_resources_for_parents_and_carers_NSW_version.pdf

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