Dear Colleagues,

Trinity Catholic College's historic first day

Tuesday, February 4th, was a historic occasion for the Diocese.

The first Year 11 students were welcomed to Trinity Catholic College alongside the incoming Year 7 students.

As they walked into their first day back, a new name, new uniforms, and new senior space awaited the first Year 11 cohort at Trinity Catholic College, formerly St Pius X High School.

Watch this video to see the excitement of the historic first day. 

Holy Cross Primary School Glendale

Yesterday marked the first day of kindergarten, more than just the start of school—it’s the beginning of an incredible journey.

Kindergarten is where a love for learning begins. It’s where children learn to be part of a group, share, take turns, and express themselves. It’s the first step toward gaining confidence in their abilities and discovering who they are.

The first day of kindergarten is unique because it marks the start of something big—a journey of learning, friendships, and unforgettable moments.

Identical twins Annjela and Anndrea Reano were quietly excited to start kindergarten at Holy Cross Primary School Glendale on Thursday, 6 February

Link to Newcastle Herald article

Reminder - Call to Serve Mass – Wednesday 12 February at 6.30 pm

This is a reminder that the Call to Serve Mass will be held at the Sacred Heart Cathedral on Wednesday, February 12, at 6:30 p.m.

This beautiful tradition is a lovely way to celebrate the start of the new school year. It's a time to acknowledge the call to serve our school communities, and express gratitude for the opportunities and rich learning experiences will be afforded in the year ahead. Let us come together, united in our mission.

Diocesan Awards of Excellence (HSC Awards), Emmaus Awards, and Years of Service Awards

This year, the Emmaus Awards have been separated from the Called to Serve Mass. It is envisaged that several award ceremonies will be combined into one prestigious ceremony, which would include Diocesan Awards of Excellence (HSC Awards), Emmaus Awards and Years of Service Awards. Principals have been advised that initial planning is underway, and further information will be communicated once details are confirmed. At this stage it is our intention to confer these awards during Catholic Schools Week. We sincerely thank those who nominated a colleague in recognition of their expertise and service to our schools. We look forward to honouring the award recipients in the coming months.

With my best wishes,

Jacqui

Register Your Interest for the 2025 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Catholic Tri-Annual Assembly

Every three years, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) hosts a National Tri-Annual Assembly.

In 2025, the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is honoured to host this gathering on the lands of the Wonnarua people at Rydge’s Hunter Valley from Monday 29 September to Friday 3 October 2025.

With the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” inspired by Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year, this Assembly promises to be a meaningful event.

The success of the assembly relies heavily on the Host Diocese and our generosity and/or attendance.

Complete this form to register your interest in attending or volunteering: https://forms.office.com/r/5XDUHy3Vrc

Enquiries can be sent to mission@mn.catholic.org.au

 Jubilee Year Launch

Bishop Michael invites all to celebrate the Jubilee Year with a Diocesan pilgrimage from Nobby’s Beach (8am) to Sacred Heart Cathedral, culminating in Mass (10am) and a Festival (11am) in the Cathedral precinct grounds. Make your community known during the pilgrimage with flags and banners. The festival will feature an official Launch of Project Compassion 2025 and distribution of resources. All corners of the Diocese are encouraged to have representation and involvement as we mark Pope Francis’ theme - Pilgrims of Hope.

Blessed Carlo Acutis International Exhibition

We are also excited to announce that we have secured an international exhibition celebrating Blessed Carlo Acutis. This will be accessible in the Toohey Room. Explore our stalls of Hope, food vendors and entertainment. Everything is free of charge. For more information email mission@mn.catholic.org.au

Sisters of Faith Dinner – Thursday 20 February

Join our annual dinner that provides an enjoyable and respectful evening of dialogue among women from diverse backgrounds and faiths, fostering learning, sharing, and unity. We are pleased to welcome Rev. Faaimata Havea Hiliau – Moderator of the Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT as this year’s guest speaker. The Moderator is elected to give prophetic and pastoral leadership to the people and congregations of the Synod and called to remind the church of our hope in Jesus Christ. 

Tickets for the dinner are limited to 100 women and can be purchased at a heavily subsidised price of $35 from this link: https://sisters-faith-2025.eventbrite.com.au

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email mission@mn.catholic.org.au  and one of our wonderful team at Mission & Evangelisation will be able to assist you.

Called to Serve Mass – Musician Practice – 6 February @ 4pm Cathedral

In line with the Catholic Schools 2025 theme One Call. One Mission, aligned with the Jubilee Year theme “Pilgrims of Hope”, Fence Banners have been produced for schools that have fences in high visibility locations.

The fence banners have been ordered and will arrive at schools in the next week, to be placed on fence lines to help celebrate the Year of the Jubilee. Any schools who don’t receive a fence banner and believe they a highly visible place to hang, please contact Tim Bowd tim.bowd@mn.catholic.org.au or Gemma Hunter gemma.hunter@mn.catholic.org.au.

SchoolTV will continue to be a resource schools can use to support families. It has a range of relevant topics to support parents/carers at the start of the school year including:

• School Transitions – this topic focuses on starting a new school, transition to high school as well as between years. It also has a Special Report on Starting Year 7;
• Friendship and Belonging – explores how parents can support children and young people to navigate the ups and downs of friendships;
• School Refusal – helping parents understand this complex situation and how to support their child/young person.

Safer Internet Day topics include:

• Digital reputation
• Managing screentime
• Online gaming
• Cyberbullying
• Internet addiction

Each topic has short video clips with leading specialists, articles, fact sheets and resources. These can be shared through the School Newsletter, Compass, at Parent Information Nights, at PEG events, and for individual families. Staff may also find many of these resources useful.  All parents and staff can access SchoolTV through a link on your school’s website.

For more information or how to promote SchoolTV in your school community contact Nerissa King or Lizzie Watkin.

Dear Principals

As you will recall, the Family and Community Engagement Forum Guidelines (FACE Forum Guidelines) have been finalised.

In 2025, in consultation with their school community, principals can continue to oversee a P&F Association or Parent Engagement Group (PEG) or, transition to the FACE Forum.

To assist school communities that seek to transition from a P&F Association or a PEG, a FACE Forum Transition Guide has been developed and is stored on SharePoint (School Improvement > Family Engagement). 

In addition, a ‘drop-in’ information sessions will be hosted on Teams for principals at the following times:

Topic:                          ‘Support for how to transition from a P&F Association to a FACE Forum’
Date:                            Tuesday 25 February 2025
Time:                            12pm-1pm
Teams link:                    Join the meeting now 
Teams Meeting ID:         410 675 299 07
Teams Passcode:            Be7bW272
RSVP:                           lizzie.watkin@mn.catholic.edu.au 

Topic:                         ‘Establishing a FACE Forum in your school’ 
Date:                           Wednesday 26 February 2025
Time:                           12pm-1pm
Teams link:                   Join the meeting now 
Meeting ID:                  479 607 122 222
Passcode:                     eE7hk2Nm
RSVP:                          lizzie.watkin@mn.catholic.edu.au

These sessions are intended for principals to drop in and ask any questions they may have. The sessions will be co-hosted by myself along with Michael Burg (Catholic Schools Finance Partner) and Katy Mooney (Manager, Legal), both of whom were instrumental in the development of the Guidelines.

In addition, ‘drop-in’ information sessions will be hosted on Teams for parent representatives at the following times (principals are also welcomed to attend these sessions):

Topic:                       ‘Support for how to transition from a P&F Association to a FACE Forum’
Date:                         Wednesday 26 February 2025
Time:                         7pm-8pm
Teams link:                 Join the meeting now 
Meeting ID:                489 077 282 450
Passcode:                   W2CE7vN9
RSVP:                        lizzie.watkin@mn.catholic.edu.au 

Topic:                       ‘Establishing a FACE Forum in your school’ 
Date:                         Tuesday 11 March 2025
Time:                         7pm-8pm 
Teams link:                 Join the meeting now 
Meeting ID:                 427 101 954 302

Passcode:                   2bB2EQ9u
RSVP:                        lizzie.watkin@mn.catholic.edu.au

Details of these information sessions will be shared with parent representatives, early next week.

In addition to these drop-in information sessions, you are welcome to contact me at any time with questions you have regarding the FACE Forum. I would be pleased to set up a meeting with you either face-to-face or via Teams, to assist you lead the transition and the implementation of the FACE Forum in your school. 

*Please note that from 2026, FACE Forums will be the only approved Family Engagement Forum model in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Kind regards,
Lizzie Watkin
Professional Officer- Family Engagement

Dear Principals

Over the next few weeks, I will share templates that you may like to consider adopting to aid communications and relationship building with parents and carers in your school community.

The first in this series are ‘Meet the Teacher’ and ‘Meet the Leader’ templates, which are attached to this edition of Connect, and which are also available at any time to staff on the Family Engagement tile on SharePoint (School Improvement > Family Engagement).

The templates are fully customisable and include a space for you to add your school logo as well as the staff member’s photo, information about their professional experience, interests outside of work, contact information and more.

It is not mandatory for schools to adopt these templates as part of your communications with parents and carers. Rather, they are there for your consideration.

To assist with consistency in tone across the school community if you do choose to encourage staff to populate these templates, consider putting in place a peer review process before they are shared with parents and carers.

In addition to staff sharing their customised profiles with the parents and carers of children that they teach (via Compass), you may also like to include a staff profile (including a mixture of both teacher and leadership profiles) in each edition of your school newsletter. The benefit of sharing the profiles of various staff in the newsletter is to build families’ awareness of the breadth and talent of the staff across the entire school community and, gain a greater understanding of the various roles that exist within the school to support their children’s learning and wellbeing (please note that if you intend to share the ‘Meet the Teacher’ templates with the wider school community that you may like to remove the ‘Contact information’ section, and consider revising the introductory summary so it is not so class-specific).

If there are other templates you would like to see developed to assist your staff to build relationships with parents and carers, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,
Lizzie Watkin
Professional Officer- Family Engagement

Meet the Teacher Template

Meet the Leader template

Dear Principals

Please see attached a list of upcoming parent information sessions that you are encouraged to promote to your families.

The information sessions are free to attend and presented by reputable providers covering topics including online safety, parenting habits and post-school pathways.

Please note, the session hosted by the Diocese’s Federation of P&F Associations featuring Madhavi Nwana Parker on the topic of parenting, will be promoted directly to parents and carers via a CSO Compass push. If you do not wish for this session to be promoted directly to your parents, please notify lizzie.watkin@mn.catholic.edu.au by Wednesday 12 February.

Also, don’t forget to proactively promote School TV topics to your parents! Each school has its own School TV portal on its website that includes short videos, fact sheets and special reports that parents can access at any time. Series covered by School TV include Cyber Safety, Mental Health, Positive Parenting, School Survival, Diversity and Inclusion and Health Bodies.  

Kind regards,

Lizzie Watkin
Professional Officer- Family Engagement

Parent and Carer Information Sessions for Term 1

• National Apology Day – 13 February
• Close the Gap Day – 18 March
• Harmony Day – 21 March
  Upcoming Conferences and Initiatives
• What Schools Can Do
• What Teachers Can Do
• What Students Can Do
• Next Steps & Recommendations for the Principal
• Contact details for the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander team at Catholic Schools

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING – UNPACKING SUCCESSFUL FOUNDATIONS: GOING DEEPER

All Kindergarten teachers attended the Successful Foundations professional learning day on Tuesday, 4 February 2025. The opportunity to learn and collaborate through our keynote address, Insight Sessions and facilitated conversations were valued by participants to support our Kindergarten children as they transition to school this week.

 “Great day! Always feel inspired when I leave a Successful Foundations PL Day”

“The rotations today proved very effective providing me with an overall picture of the Successful Foundations philosophy. I’m motivated to meet these littlies and apply my knowledge now!”

“Amazing, thought provoking, practical PL that I can put into practice at my school immediately.”

SUCCESSFUL FOUNDATIONS 2025 – SCHOOL VISITS

Our school visits will begin next week, starting on Monday February 10, 2025. Confirmation emails will be sent to individual schools by the end of this week.

Bridie Stanger

Education Officer – Early Learning