Term 3 | Week 5 Newsletter

Key Information

• 13th August - Colour Run
• 21st-27th August - Book Week
• 24th August - Book Week Dress Up - details to be emailed seperately
• Friday 27th August - St Colman's Parish & St Joseph's Fete
• 30th-31st August - Prep 2022 Interviews
• 2nd September - Learning Breakfast from 730am
• 3rd September - Pupil Free Day
• 17th September - Last Day Term 3

Tuckshop Menu:

Uniform Shop

• Week 5 - CLOSED at this stage but will email parents if this changes

Homework Club

Homework Club is every Thursday from 3-4pm in the MacKillop Room for Years 5-9.

Coffee on Fridays

Coffee, Tea & Hot Chocolate will be available at each Assembly unless otherwise advertised.

Volunteers are always welcome, please contact the office and we'll pass your details on to the P&F.

Principal News

Welcome to Week 5, 

As mentioned in my newsletter last week I have been absent from school on yesterday and today for Professional Development in Townsville. I strongly believe that leadership development must be a priority in education, as it is through effective leadership that schools lead successful learners and achieve excellent outcomes. It is important however to acknowledge that ‘success’ looks different for each and everyone of us. I encourage you to spend some time talking with your child/children this week on what success looks like for them. Children can often get stuck in a rut when thinking about what success looks like and can resort to picking a certain academic grade, but it is important to remember that success can often be much bigger than academic achievements and that is okay. Challenge your child to not only identify success but also what steps they need to take to get there, ensuring that it is realistic. Take some time to share these answers with their classroom teacher, we would love to work together to achieve these goals. 

I would also like to take a moment to pray to those impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. There are a number of schools in NSW and the South East corner of QLD that have been greatly impacted which has included the closure of many schools. I am so grateful that not only our school but the schools in our Diocese are remaining open in a very difficult time. It is however timely to remind you that students must remain home if they are unwell. We understand that this can be difficult for families but it is important that our students, staff and community members are safe. Please work with us on keeping our school well and notify the office if your child is absent so we can record this as an explained absence. 

The Didjeribone School Performance occurred today which is an all inclusive show that focuses on Tjupurru’s own cultural journey through his musical talents. We also had Dance North join us last week. In the 2020 RADiI Survey both students and parents mentioned the need for more extra curricular activities at the school, particularly in the area of The Arts. Please know that we take the feedback we receive seriously, especially when it means improving the teaching and learning experiences of our students. In 2021 a leadership position was created after review of this feedback which Mr Scott Murray is currently leading, titled Coordinator of Sport and Extra Curricular. Mr Murray has put a great deal of time and effort into organising opportunities for our students and for that we are grateful. 

We will contact parents once our RADiI surveys become available for 2021. I encourage you to begin thinking about areas of the school that are functioning well and areas that may require attention, remembering that our students are at the core of everything that we do. 

I hope that you have a great week, 

God Bless, 
Samantha Kelley
Principal

APRE News

Our school is part of the St Colman’s Parish. As a school we are blessed to have our parish’s church located on the same premises, this means that we are able to have our regular faith based celebrations in our church. The patron saint of our parish is St Colman of Cloyne. Many of the early priests in our diocese came from the area of Cork and Cloyne in Ireland.

Colman Maclenini lived from approximately 522 to 606 A.D was a poet and the royal bard of Munster and chief chronicler and genealogist to the King of Cashel. He studied at the monastery of St Jarleth in Tuam. Colman became the Bishop-founder of Cloyne in County Cork where he established his own monastic settlement about 560 A.D and he laboured for more than forty years in his extensive diocese. He was reputed to be St Columba’s teacher. His cultus was approved in 1903 and his feast day is on the 24th of November. We have Mass every Sunday at 08:30 in the St Colman’s Parish church and all are welcome to attend.

This afternoon I will be traveling to Townsville for a two day Conference with the fellow Assistant Principal - Religious Education in our Diocese. I will be contactable via email on sdavids@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au  or alternatively please see our Principal, Mrs. Samantha Kelley in my absence.

Our Catholic Identity

Earlier this year we formed our school’s Catholic Identity Advisory Committee with staff, parent and parish representation on the committee. The purpose of the committee is to support the development of a deeper understanding of how the school's Catholic Identity is expressed and of how faith remains recognisable, credible, and meaningful for today. The Committee also reflects, perceives, imagines, and expresses the distinctiveness of the Catholic Identity so that school-based strategies are adopted and outcomes realised. The committee’s next meeting will be held on Tuesday the 17th of August.

Gospel Reading

Luke 1:39-56
Mary greets Elizabeth and sings God's praise.

In today's Gospel, Elizabeth and Mary recognise the work that God is doing through them. With eyes of faith they see the power and salvation of God breaking through into their lives and into the world.

Gather as a family and talk about what you know about Mary and her being a model of faith. Recall that we are celebrating a holy day, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day we remember that God took Mary to heaven, body and soul. Read together today's Gospel, Luke 1:39-56. In this reading we hear Mary's song of praise to God, the Magnificat. Invite each person in the family to write or draw one or more ways in which they see God working in your family life and in our world today. Use these prayers of thanksgiving to create your family's song of praise to God. Conclude by praying together this song of praise.

The Magnificat

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.

May God bless you and your family this week,
Shadley Davids

Pastoral Care

Filling Your Cup

I came across this image this week on social media and made me dig out the book "How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids" by Mary Reckmeyer and Tom Rath, to read to my kids.  

 It really made me think of how full a student’s cup may be and what we can do at school to fill their emotional cup. Such a great reminder that the little things we do can reap the greatest rewards.  

Wishing you all a fabulous week and hope your cup fills with love, affection and attention.

Kind regards,
Mrs Schneekloth

Prep

Week 5.

Thank you to those students who joined us in the rodeo parade on Friday evening. It was lots of fun! Miss Maggie and myself were also very proud of the Preps Mary Mackillop contribution on assembly last week! What beautiful singing!

This week we will see if our predictions about the effect the sun has on newspaper were correct. This is part of our Science weather unit.
In HASS we will continue to explore what a birds eye view looks like in preparation for creating a block model of the courtyard and also a pictorial map which will be used by a partner to find "treasure.”
In Math we will continue to explore number to 10 and beyond. The Preps are getting really good at showing numbers to 100 on tens frames! 
All going to plan we will have some exciting visitors on Thursday as part of our Health unit. We have the ambulance visiting and also Dr Leonie and Dr Emma who have some fun activities in mind for us!. 

As we weren't at school Friday, readers were sent home Monday.

Please keep practicing our tricky words with your child. This helps with their reading confidence and helps to develop a positive attitude to reading.  

Book Week is coming up this month and the dress up theme is Old worlds, New worlds and Other worlds. It would be great if your child could come dressed as a book character that fits this theme. There are lots of ideas online. 

We have a Colour Run planned for Friday this week (depending if our powder colours arrive in time). Sorry for the late notice but it would be great if your child has a white shirt to wear for the run.   

Yours in fun and learning,
Mrs McLauchlan

Year 1

Wow half way through the term already!

Here is a snapshot of our week ahead;

Mathematics:
This week we are consolidating our knowledge of our Australian coins. We have identified and described the features of these coins and are now moving towards recognising and ordering the Australian coins according to their value.

English:
We have been working really hard this term on understanding how different characters are developed in texts. This week we are again consolidating our learning so far this term with students having the opportunity to choose another character from The Cat in The Hat story and complete a character profile.

Science:
This term we have been learning about Chemical Sciences. In this unit we are learning about different materials, their properties and how they can change. This week students will choose a material and hypothesise what would happen to it if it were to bend, stretch and twist and then complete the experiment. 

Religion:
Our unit this term is focused on Jesus' mission and ministry during his time on Earth. Students can now Identify key events, places and characters in the life of Jesus as revealed in Gospel passages and identify similarities and differences between different Gospel accounts of key events, characters and teachings in the life of Jesus.

Reminders:
The Show and Share:  Our topic this week is; Tell us about the holiday you have been on. Favourite memory. (You are more than welcome to bring photos, drawings, souvenirs  or send a photo to my email.

Sport: Tuesday with Mr Murray
Library: Thursday with Mrs Chaplain
Colour run will be this Friday afternoon from 2:00pm, remember to wear a white shirt.

Have an amazing week,
Miss Brock and the always fun Year 1's.

Year 2

Wow, it's Week 5 already!

We had 5 new classmates join us on Monday! How exciting! Our baby chicks are looking very healthy and are a super fun addition to our classroom!

We are also learning about:
Tricky words: through, every, only
English: Procedural texts
Maths: Skip counting, multiplication

Our school fete is coming up on Friday of Week 7. Year 2 will be running a fishing game. For our game, we are asking parents to donate fun size, individually wrapped chocolates or lollies to use as prizes.

Reminder:
Wednesday is PE day
Thursday is Library day
Fun run this Friday!

Have a great week,
Miss Ansell

Year 3

Hi everyone!  

The learning highlights for Year 3 this week are:

• In Maths we finish our unit on symmetry, with an assessment towards the end of the week, and start the introductory lessons to our next unit on fractions. 
• In Science we will use graphs and tables to organise data on the different types of living things in our school.
• In Religion we will learn about the life and teachings of Jesus which are written about in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  

Homework and home readers were sent out on Monday. Please let me know if you haven’t received these. 

Reminders 

• Our Library lesson will be moved to Thursday for this week only. 

• PE: Thursday 

Fete News:

Year 3 will be holding a ‘bottle stall’ for the upcoming Fete. It would be a great help if students brought in any clean glass jars (e.g. jam jars, pasta sauce jars.) These jars can be sent into school empty or filled with small ‘knick-knacks’ such as hair-ties, lego pieces, bubbles, chocolates, lollies or any other fun item! Thank you!

Have a great week ahead. 
Miss Coombs

Year 4

Hi Everyone,

This week in Year 4 we have been continuing to work on Measurement, looking at how to read different scales and how to calculate area and volume. We will finish our week with a mini-olympics!

Meda: This term we are studying Media. This subject is on a Friday, so we have only had a couple of lessons, but we will be catching up over the next few weeks. The students are looking at camera angles, how to create moods and how to write a storyboard for videoing. Students will then produce a movie trailer in small groups.

Fete: the Year 4 class is holding a mini putt putt stall and a lollipop pick competition at this year’s Fete. It would be great if we could have donations of lollipops and other wrapped sweets such as chocolates. On the night I will just need help from the students, so feel free to put your name on the roster for some of the P&F stalls. This will be out soon. I look forward to seeing everyone at the Fete!

Mrs Wall

Year 5

Welcome to Week 5!

Half-way through the term...already?! 

Here is a snapshot into Year 5 this week!

ENGLISH: This week we are going to look at examples of what our assessment piece will be. From here he will examine what is required for when WE do our assessment!

MATHS: Students have been learning how to divide and multiply decimals by 10, 100 and 1000. We then move on to placing decimals on a number line and revising our knowledge of fractions. Next stop: Assessment! 

SCIENCE: During science this week, students were lucky enough to have Mrs Schneekloth come in and explain Summer and Winter solstices. We also investigated how the moon orbits around earth and the earth moves around the sun.

DESIGN TECH: This week we will be looking at healthy Vs. unhealthy foods. Students will also begin looking at the process of creating a successful recipe.

RELIGION: Students have been investigating the prayers of the Rosary and the many titles of Mary Mother of God. 

Reminders:

• The Year 5 Camp information meeting is this Thursday 4-5pm in the Year 5 Room.

• There is a fun ‘colour’ run this friday the 13th August in the Funtastic Friday time slot - 2:00 - 2:50pm. A change of clothes is advised for after this activity as the students will be covered in coloured powder.

Have a great week!
Miss Campbell

Year 6

Welcome to Week 5!

This term’s learning focuses are:

Religion: Students are learning about the messages, rituals and themes of Hanukkah 
English: We will be continuing our learning of creating tension filled body paragraphs for our informative writing 
Maths: Students will consolidate their learning of dividing decimals by whole numbers 
HaSS: This week, we will be learning about the Australian Constitution 
Science: We will be planning an investigation to test the effect that environmental conditions have on the growth of mould
Health: We exploring our identity and what influences it

Have a great week ahead!
Mr. Delaney and the Year 6 legends

Library News

Rock Pop - Updated times

Both Rock Pop groups will run until 4pm now for the remainder of the Term.
Same days still apply.

Please bring some afternoon tea, a drink bottle & appropriate clothing/footwear to dance in.

Keep an eye out in the Newsletter/School FB Page for any Rock Pop updates.

Fete

Plates for the cake stall and expressions of interest for volunteers will be sent home this week.
A reminder about the cake stall - that items are not to be brought it before the 27th August. All items donated need to be brought in the morning of the Fete straight to the Music Room.

You will see some emails come through from your child's teacher/s about donations for their stalls.
- Year 6 are seeking donations of chocolates
- Year 3 are seeking glass jars (filled with prizes or empty) for their bottle stall
- Year 4 are seeking donations of wrapped chocolates or lollies
- Year 2 are seeking donations of wrapped chocolates or lollies

If you are unsure if you've received email from your teacher please remember to check your junk folder or contact them directly.

A HUGE thank you to the sponsors listed in the attached flyer that have come on on board for the 2021 St Colman's & St Joseph's Fete 

Children's Mass - 15th Aug 830am

Dear Parents,

This Sunday we will be joining with St Colman’s parish to host a Children’s Mass. This is a wonderful opportunity for students and families to be a part of the parish community.

I would like to invite as many children to participate in the Mass. Their role could include doing a reading, acting out a reading, being part of the Offertory Procession, or participating in the hymns.  All readings and prayers will be adapted as much as possible for students to read easily.

If you can commit to your child attending the Mass, could you please email me.   If your child is given a reading at Mass, they will be given a copy to practise at home and we will also practise at school.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please join us after the mass for light refreshments in the Mary MacKillop Shed.

Kind regards,
Therese Curley
tcurley@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au

Casual Employment Opportunties

We are seeking casual School Officers and qualified Teachers to cover sick and leave days.
For more information please contact our office.
Teaching staff will need to apply here > https://tceo-portal.applynow.net.au/jobs/TCE679-supply-teacher-registration-2021

Community Notices

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