8 November 2024
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
The month of November is traditionally a time in which the Catholic community remembers those who have died. The Feast of All Saints day on November 1, is closely followed by the feast of All Souls on November 2, a time for us to remember and give thanks for all of those who have gone before us. This is a lovely little prayer to say when remembering your loved ones; just add their name/s after the second line.
Our final group of 2025 Kinders joined us on Thursday. We are all looking forward to their second orientation visit over the next few weeks, but their Year 6 buddies are especially excited.
You are welcome to join us on Monday as the school marks Remembrance Day (11am sharp!). We will gather outside the Year 1 classroom.
Warm regards,
Liz
Liz Watts
Principal
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Monday 11th November - Remembrance Day ceremony
- Monday 11th November - Brainary Robotics Workshops for Stage 3 at school.
- Monday 11th - Friday 15th November - MHOC Buskers’ Festival at recess.
- Tuesday 12th November - Reconciliation Retreat
- MHOC Choir singing at K-Mart Wishing Tree
- Thursday 14th November - 2025 Kinder Orientation - Group 1
- Tuesday 19th November - SJPC 2025 Year 7 Transition Day
- Tuesday 19th November- SJPC 2025 Year 7 Parent Info Night
- Thursday 21st November - 2025 Kinder Orientation - Group 2
- Sunday 24th November - Sawtell Parish Christmas Markets
- Wednesday 27th November - Year 5 Leadership Retreat
- Thursday 28th November - 2025 Kinder Orientation - Group 3
- Thursday 28th November - SJPC 2025 Year 6 Orientation Day
- Sunday 1st December - Family Mass MHOC Church
- Friday 6th December - Big Banana Waterslide Night
- Monday 9th-13th December - K-2 Water Safety Program
- Wednesday 11th December - Year 6 Graduation Mass & Dinner
- Wednesday 18th December - MHOC Christmas Concert
- Wednesday 18th December - Last day for students 2024
- Monday 3rd February - Year 1-6 students return
- Monday 3rd-Friday 7th February - Kindergarten BestStart assessments
- Monday 10th February - Kindergarten students commence
WHAT'S THE BUZZ?
Year 6 Camp
Our Year 6 students had a wonderful time at The Gold Coast this week! Thanks to the staff who took time away from their family to attend, and the Year 6 children who behaved so beautifully.
Brainary Robotics Workshops
On Monday, all children in Years 5 and 6 will take part in robotics workshops run by the Brainary team. We look forward to a day of challenging fun!
MHOC Christmas Concert - Save the Date
Our annual Christmas concert is scheduled for Wednesday 18th December at 11:30am. All welcome!
Launch of the Kmart Wishing Tree
Our Year 5 and 6 Choir will be singing at the launch of the Kmart Wishing Tree this Wednesday 13th November at Toormina Gardens. Parents and carers (and anyone who loves a good Christmas Carol), are welcome to come along and support them.
LOVING LEARNING
Year 5 Loving Learning
This term, Year 5 students are diving into an important and timely topic in Geography—bushfires. They’ll explore the risk factors that contribute to bushfire outbreaks and examine some of Australia’s most significant bushfires. An exciting part of the curriculum includes learning about the updated bushfire ratings introduced in 2022, designed to help communities better understand and prepare for potential fire dangers. Students will also take a hands-on approach by creating a bushfire survival plan, including a detailed checklist for a survival kit to keep their families safe.
We were also fortunate to have guest speaker Kale Hardie-Porter, Air Crew Officer, Firefighter and Environmental/Bushfire Planner. He shared his insights on bushfire preparedness. He talked to students about the science behind bushfires and emphasised the importance of community readiness, which sparked great questions and discussions.
Here’s what some of our Year 5 students had to say:
“I learnt that Kale has been involved in a number of bushfires in the area. He spoke about his job where he gets to use a very expensive camera and a winch in the helicopter he uses to fight bushfires” - Layton
“Kale had a great way of explaining the work he does and this was engaging for us. You could tell he was very experienced in what he does.” - Abby
“I found it very interesting to hear about the different equipment and machinery he used in his job. “ - Nate
Margaret Ryan
Assistant Principal
Learning & Teaching
FROM THE MISSION DESK
What’s been happening in Religious Education in Year 3?
This term, Year 3 has been learning about the four parts of the Mass. We are creating a multi-modal text on the iPad app Freeform to show everything we are learning about the Introductory Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Concluding Rites.
Kinder Class Mass
The Kindergarten students went to the church on Tuesday for their class Mass. During the homily, Fr Joy explained the Gospel reading from Luke 14:15-24, which tells the parable of the Great Banquet. He spoke about how Jesus used this story to show that God invites everyone to share in His love and joy, just like being invited to a special feast. However, many in the parable made excuses and missed out on the celebration, reminding us all of the importance of saying "yes" to God’s call with open hearts.
Threads of Hope
Threads of Hope is a fantastic way to find quality clothing at affordable prices, while also making a meaningful difference in the world. Every purchase you make of quality second-hand clothing after Assembly on Fridays, supports not only our commitment to sustainability and reducing waste, but also helps us give back. All proceeds from the stall are donated to a disadvantaged school in Cambodia. Thank you for your support.
Term 4 Class Mass Roster
Tuesday 12th November - Year 2 followed by Reconciliation Retreat
Tuesday 19th November - Year 3
Tuesday 26th November - Year 4
Tuesday 3rd December - Year 1
Tuesday 10th December - No Mass (Yr 6 Graduation Mass on 11th December)
Tuesday 17th December - No Mass
MHOC School-led Parish Mass - Save the Date
Next term, we will have our school-led Parish Mass on Sunday, December 1st, at 9am at Sawtell Church, with Father Michael and Zippy.
Amber Biddle
Assistant Principal
Mission
Toni Fletcher
Leader of
Catechesis
MHOC SCHOOL COMMUNITY FORUM
MHOC SCF Big Banana Fun Night
Order now on Flexischools.
Sign up for this New Parent Workshop
Bingo
Parents, MHOC's BINGO team urgently requires 4 additional volunteers. Being a BINGO volunteer is a fantastic way to assist and support various MHOC projects that are funded by BINGO. The best aspect of this volunteer opportunity is that you will only need to dedicate 3 hours, once every 5 weeks, making it easy to coordinate with your busy schedule. With more volunteers on board, we can distribute the work evenly, making the task smoother and less stressful for everyone. Be a part of our team and help us make a positive difference in our school community.
Sign up now by texting Gemma on 0404340494.
The rostered teams for the next few week's Bingo are:
- Thursday 14th November - team no. 1 (Gemma's team)
- Thursday 21st November - team no. 2 (Kelly's team)
- Thursday 28th November - team no. 3 (Catherine's team)
Jo Melinz
SCF President
SPORT NEWS
Basketball Gala Day
On Tuesday, a group of our Year Five students, along with Mrs Waterworth and Mr Livolsi, headed to Sportz Central to compete in the regional leg of the BNSW Schools Tournament. We were entered into pools with a range of local Catholic and public schools and endured some stiff competition in both the boy's and girl’s divisions. As always, our students represented MHOC with a positive attitude, great sportsmanship and showed some amazing resilience & determination against some very well-established teams. Our girls were mostly netball converts with only one of them having any basketball experience, however they left the day feeling more confident and enjoyed the experience of trying out a different sport. Our boys had a little more experience in their side, with some great defensive skills on display as well as some elaborate dribbling and shooting tricks. See the huge smiles on these little faces!
Rebecca Bennett
Sports Coordinator
Geraldine Hourigan
Sports Administrator
HABITS OF MIND AWARDS
Term 4 Week 4
Kinder | Mara Smith, Arlo Hayes, Jordyn Thomson, Charlie Wright |
Year 1 | Lily Jones, Penelope Edwards, Etta Johnson, Archer Doman, Ava Boundy, Brian Dunkley, Savannah Murphy |
Year 2 | Daisy Stitt, Alexa Wills |
Year 3 | Daisy Biddle, Jeevan Dhami, Emmy de Dassel, Ben McPherson, Marley Cooper, Layla Fowler |
Year 4 | Jessica Melinz, Zac Pearson, Atticus Hobson, Lauren Waugh, Ned Rapley |
Year 5 | Gurfateh Mallhi, Alice Maddison, Evelyn Nicholls |
Year 6 | Alexander Howard, Hugo Hobson, Henry Rowe |
CANTEEN NEWS
Canteen Red Day - Pizza
Order now on Flexischools.
What's Cooking?
Canteen Helpers
Parent and grandparent volunteers are always needed and welcome. Please phone the school, complete this form or email sawp-canteen@lism.catholic.edu.au if you can spare some time in the canteen.
Lisa Mangan
LIBRARY WHISPERS
I’m still waiting to hear from Scholastic Books about when they expect to deliver the latest Book Club orders; hopefully they should arrive next week.
For this week’s Library Hot Seat in Year 4, I was really pleased that two students who had never done it before, got up in front of the class to chat about the books they’ve been reading. They both spoke really well and piqued the interest of the other students who now want to borrow the books once Ella and Atticus have finished reading them. The Hot Seat is such a great opportunity for children to share what they’ve been enjoying reading and also let their peers (and me) hear about new books.
Rachael Hewitt
Librarian
OSHC
Week 4 at MHOC OSHC: Building, Crafting, and Creative Fun!
This week at MHOC OSHC has been all about construction play and creative crafts! We’ve seen a renewed love for Mobilo and LEGO, with children building fantastic structures alongside our building blocks. Our young engineers have also had a blast making imaginative creations from cardboard boxes and launching fun projects with our rocket launcher!
In arts and crafts, we explored our creative sides with adorable turtle and rabbit crafts and enjoyed hands-on sensory play with playdough. It’s been a fantastic week of creativity, teamwork, and endless fun!
Jemma
Laura McDiarmid
OSHC Coordinator
NEWS FROM OUR PARISH
Baptism
The Sacrament of Baptism is available to those requesting it. Please ring Jennifer at the Parish Office (66583544) or talk to Amber Biddle, Liz Watts or Margaret Ryan at school if you have any questions. Alternatively, if you wish to register for Baptism, there is now the option of an online request form .
Parish Website , E-bulletin & Facebook Page
For all the latest news from our parish, check out the Parish website or subscribe to our new e-bulletin which can be sent directly to your inbox each week. Why not sign up today by entering your details in the sign up box on the Homepage or Contact page of the website!
And don’t forget to check out our FaceBook page
Carolyn & Marja
COMMUNITY NEWS
