FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Term 3 - Week 1

Welcome back to all our students and their families and we hope that you were able to spend some quality time together over the holidays. We are ready to jump back into a fun filled term of learning.

NAIDOC WEEK

It was lovely to see our school community come together on Tuesday to celebrate a whole school assembly for NAIDOC Week. 

The NAIDOC 2023 theme – For Our Elders! – celebrates and pays respect to all Elders, honouring the important role they play as cultural knowledge holders and leaders in the wider community. It is also an opportunity for all Australians, especially school communities to ensure our young people are learning from our Elders' knowledge and perspectives, and that these continue to be passed down through generations for millennia to come.

Generations learn from previous generations. For many years, Elders have played an important role within communities and families across Australia, and we learn from their lived experiences and the knowledge they passionately share with us.

Our Elders have experienced many challenges, paving a way forward for younger generations and we are fortunate to be able to learn from these past experiences. Elders continue to play an integral role in preserving and passing down traditional cultural knowledge, practices, wisdom and insight.

Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families. They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones. 

Loved ones who pick us up in our low points and celebrate us in our high ones. Who cook for us to feed and or to comfort us, and let us not forget how they remind us of when we’ve gone too far, but only when we need them to. 

We draw strength from their knowledge and experience, in everything from land management, cultural knowledge to justice and human rights. Across multiple sectors like health, education, the arts, politics and everything in between, they have set the many courses we follow. 

The questions we therefore are asked to contemplate are: How can we at St Nicholas continue to pass on the baton for our elders? How can we ensure we are paving the way for future generations? After listening to Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann talk about dadirri (da-did-ee) a possible answer to these questions could be to listen. Listen to our elders, listen to the stories, listen for the underlying wisdom and knowledge within these stories, listen in periods of silence. 

Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann, 2021 Senior Australian of the year, is a renowned Aboriginal Artist and Educator who is dedicated to creating bright and fulfilling futures for Aboriginal children and youth.  She was the first fully qualified Aboriginal teacher in the Northern Territory and is the founder of the Miriam Rose Foundation.  Miriam Rose speaks five local languages along with English.

Miriam says “In our Aboriginal way, we learnt to listen from our earliest days. We could not live good and useful lives unless we listened. This was the normal way for us to learn – not by asking questions. We learnt by watching and listening, waiting and then acting. Our people have passed on this way of listening for over 40,000 years…”

Each one of us here at St Nicholas can listen intently in hope that we can one day say that we are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and ones that truly value, care for and respect everyone.

A big thank you to Mr Trevor French for his organisation of the NAIDOC Week activities. Your passion and commitment to celebrating culture is a credit to you and your family. On behalf of all our students and staff, thank you!

We look forward to sharing a highlights video in next week’s newsletter.

Welcome to our new staff

This term we warmly welcome some new Educational Assistants to the St Nicholas Staff. We were fortunate to gain the expertise of Leanne McClelland, Paula Carmody and Chloe Meehan who will be working with students across many different grades. It is wonderful to welcome more skilled, helpful adults to our learning spaces to support our students. 

We also welcome two students from Notre Dame University completing their final practicum placements. Molly Hayes and Alexandra Egan are completing their practicum experiences with Year 6 and Kinder and we look forward to working with them. We know that we will learn from them as well as them taking away new things they’ve learned from us. 

Athletics Carnival

The 2023 St Nicholas School Athletics Carnival was a fitting way to conclude Term 2. The carnival is just one example of how we promote an active and healthy lifestyle at St Nicholas. Congratulations to everyone who competed. 

An enormous thank you to Mrs Belinda Tyrrell and her band of many helpers for coordinating such a successful day. Thank you to the PT&F for their canteen services. Thank you to all our parents and carers who were able to volunteer their time, whether fulfilling a job or simply supporting their child. Please see a highlights video from the day in the “Sporting News” Tab. 

Have a great week,

Renee Dunst and Katie Daley

Assistant Principals