Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Check it out!!! H.S on Northern District Times Website

Holy Spirit Primary reaches Wakakirri Grand Final

Story below....
http://northern-district-times.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/holy-spirit-primary-reaches-wakakirri-grand-final/

Miracles DO Happen


Congratulations to our WONDERFUL Wakakirri team who have been selected as one of the NSW State Finalists to perform on 16th September at the Entertainment Centre!


Let the rehearsals begin....

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Mary MacKillop on BTN


On the weekend lots of Australians went to special church services to mark the life of Mary MacKillop who might become Australia’s first saint. Do you know what a saint is? How to you become one? Is it a vote? Nathan finds out who Mary MacKillop was and how she could become a saint.The story explains:
- the significance of Mary MacKillop’s life
- what a Saint is
- the process of becoming a Saint
Click the link below....

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Monday, August 3, 2009

Life of Blessed Mary MacKillop by Alyssa


Life of Mary MacKillop


This Friday is 100 years since the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop...will Mary MacKillop become Australia's First Saint?


MacKillop was born in Melbourne in the suburb of Fitzroy. She was the eldest of eight children. Her parent’s names were Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Mary became a shop girl, a governess (a nanny) and a teacher. She did all this to support her family. She was selfless at a very young age, and she also lived the gospel values at a very young age as well.

She taught at Portland in a catholic school, and founded the sisters of St. Joseph to care and teach the poor children. She listened to God; her order was to educate poor children, especially in the bush. God spoke to Mary and Mary was always ready to listen!!!

In 1883, Bishop Reynolds told her to leave her diocese and also banned her from being a sister. When he was on his death bed he called for her and, he asked her for his forgiveness she forgave him as Jesus would and live the gospel values.

Mary maintained her life well until she died in 1909. She suffered from stroke in 1909. Living by her motto “never see a need without doing something about it”. She spread the gospel values and word by opening schools for the poor. She showed God’s love through her courage and trust.


Mary was Beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19th January 1995.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Catholic Weekly...Bl Mary inspires school’s ‘miracles’

Very exciting....Holy Spirit's Wakakirri story has made headlines in The Catholic Weekly....

Check out the article below...

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=5893&class=News&subclass=CW%20National

Monday, July 27, 2009

Holy Spirit North Ryde in About Catholic Schools


The Countdown in ON…..


Next Tuesday is our dress rehearsal. We will perform our item Miracles Happen for each grade. This is the first time we will wear our costumes!

Mr. Sam Spurr from the Catholic Education Office is coming out to watch our performance and take some photos! Mr Spurr is writing a report about our story and how our school has adopted the spirit of Mary MacKillop for About Catholic Schools, which will be published in the magazine next month.

It is very exciting and we can’t wait to perform our item for everyone!!!

Wakakirri Heat….Friday 14th August. The Hill Centre, Castle Hill

Don't forget.... 8 August 2009

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Mary MacKillop and Wakakirri by Carla O & Jenna C

Our Wakakirri item this year is “Miracles Happen” which is based on Mary Mackillop’s first miracle.


During our practices we have been learning about Mary Mackillop and how she lived her life.

Mary MacKillop was:
· Brave
· Believed in herself
· Not afraid of what other people thought of her and what she did
· A very powerful person

The cast are enjoying learning new steps and how much COURAGE Mary Mackillop had!

Mary MacKillop.... A woman who dared to believe in her dream

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

STOP PRESS...We have our performance date



Holy Spirit North Ryde will be performing their item MIRACLES HAPPEN on Friday 14th August at the The Hills Centre, Castle Hill. ONLY nine weeks to go......
WE ARE SOOOO EXCITED!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Spreading the Word

This week Mr. Sam Spurr, from the Catholic Education Office in Sydney came out to visit our Wakakirri Cast. Mr. Spurr is going to write a report on our Wakakirri performance and how Mary MacKillop has inspired our story this year. The report is set to be published in About Catholic Schools, The Catholic Weekly and Catholic News Online.

Mr Spurr spoke with Mrs Hansell & Miss de Vries (our Wakakirri Co-ordinators) about what Wakakirri means to our school and why our story is so important to us this year. He also took some photos.
The report is due to be released next month as our performance date is draws closer.

Watch this space….

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Waka Rehearsals


For Wakakirri, our rehearsals have already been dance-packed! We practice on a Monday and Tuesday in lunch-time. At first we only started of with 1 or 2 groups but now we are up to the whole cast. Practices have been filled with new moves and so much FUN!! All the children have come out with a grin on there face having learn't something new. It is a great time to have fun and dance to your best ability.


The Mary MacKillop theme has just made everything a whole new experience.We have all adapted to another style of dance! It is great for all of the kids to have a different styles of dancing under there belt.

Adrian Z

Painting the Backdrop for Waka- by Ronda Oliveri


After the working bee Cheryl and I meet one morning to check out our paint collection and start a bit of our own investigation into the site of Mary Mackillop's first school “St Josephs School in Penola South Australia” to get some ideas of what the school house looked like the colours of the landscape and the type of native plants, trees, bushes and grasses.

So we started to paint our vast calico backdrop. We started with the sky, hills, the base grass and dirt.
We were then joined by Mandy, who bought a new perspective to the project. The three of us started trying out 3D techniques on scrape paper until we were happy with the result then we applied this to the canvas. We started on our rocks then sheep, trees, detail of bark leaves and branches. Then on the home stretch we added all our grasses, bushes and plants.
When the last brush stroke was painted we stood back to look at what we had achieved we were quite pleased with ourselves. We hope you enjoy the fruits of our labour. It was a pleasure to have been involved in a small part of the production it truly is a school community effort.

Holy Spirit Working Bee!




On Sunday 8th of March, Holy Spirit School had a Wakkakiri Working Bee. Our theme for this year is Mary Mackillop: Australia’s First Saint.

We had some parents volunteer to help out as well as our two dance teachers Miss De Vries and Mrs. Hansel. Some mums used the overhead projector to trace the stain glass window on to a large piece of calico. Then they started to trace the letters on reading ‘Mary Mackillop: Australia’s first saint’. After the tracing was done some mum’s volunteered to paint the letters. The stain glass window still in progress.

When this was done the other mum started to trace the outback back drop on a very large piece of calico. This is going to be used in the mining scene.

Later on, other parents hammed down some coke tins, from last years Wakkakiri, to make the drip. They also tracked down a pole and then they spray painted the whole drip in a silver spray paint.

We also managed to find an old cane rocking chair that is going to be used as the wheelchair.

Overall it was a great success and we say thank you to all the parents that helped out. A big Thank You to Mrs. Hansel and Miss De Vries for organizing the whole of Wakkakiri.

We will keep you updated shortly about the rest of the Wakkakiri props still in progress.

By Alessandra