Out and About the School
NAIDOC Week Celebrations
On Monday 1 July, St Xavier’s Primary School, Baptist Pre-School, special guests and families celebrated the beginning of NAIDOC Week with a Welcome To Country and Smoking Ceremony performed by Aboriginal Elder Mitchum Neave. Students and parents were invited to walk through the smoking ceremony and immerse themselves in the smoke.
NAIDOC Week is celebrated every year in the first week of July. NAIDOC stands for 'National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.’ We celebrated and recognised the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The NAIDOC celebration ended with a song and sharing cake for morning tea. Thank you to all those who shared in our special celebration.
Year 6 Police Dog Unit Visit
On Monday 1 July, Senior Constable Jesse Swain, a previous student of St Xaviers visited our Year 6 class along with his Police dog Bonus. He explained how long he had been in the dog unit, and how they trained the dogs to search for certain items.
They gave a demonstration on how Bonus finds items or people that may have gone missing and how he used his nose to navigate his way towards the target. Jesse Swain has been accompanied by Bonus for two and a half years, meaning that Bonus and Jesse have a strong bond towards each other.
Bonus demonstrated his athleticism by leaping over the largest tunnel in the playground and the rock climbing wall, whilst also showing his obedience towards Jesse by staying still as Jesse walked away, before responding to commands in an instant.
Written by Thomas Martin and Lucy Semmler.
Year 3 St Vincent de Paul Visit
Year 3 had a special visit from Mrs Stanley and Mrs Shakeshaft representing St. Vincent de Paul. Year 3 have been learning about the organisation as part of their Pentecost unit in Religion.
Year 6 Debate
On Tuesday the 2nd of July, four Year 6 students competed in a zoom debate against St Nicholas, Tamworth. These students were Matthew Leys, Patrick Dangerfield, Ella Sloan and Isabella Hamilton. Ella was our first speaker, Isabella our second, Matthew our third speaker and Patrick our fourth. The debate for the topic was, ‘Australia should introduce a tax on foods high in sugar and/or fat’ and we were the affirmative team. The chairperson for the debate was Thomas Martin, meaning that he ran the debate and he did a great job.The competition was tough as St Nicholas’s rebuttals were very strong in the beginning compared to ours, but overall, Matthew brought us home and we ended up winning! Our adjudicator was Mr Peter Flynn, he was very honest and supportive. At the end, we received some feedback from Mr Flynn and reflected on how we can make our speeches better for our next debate. We had so much fun! Thank you to Miss Tahlia Morrissey for guiding us on our journey through the world of debating.
