Term 4, Week 5 - 4th November, 2021

From the Principal

Dear families,

Welcome to week 5 of term 4! The first 5 weeks of term have been busy with teaching & learning. Final assessment tasks will be conducted with students in classes over the next week so that Semester 2 report cards will be ready to send home in Week 9. 

This brings me to the importance of attendance. Many factors influence student achievement including the quality of staff, access to resources, and student engagement in the curriculum. Of these factors, attendance is a very important contributor to a student's academic achievement - all school days matter. The correlation between absence and achievement is negative and declines in student achievement are evident with any level of absence, in particular, longer patterns of unexplained absenteeism. Building and maintaining positive attendance patterns is a three way partnership between students, parents and schools, where all parties hold an important piece of the puzzle. I strongly urge you to reach out to the school if you need support. 

Our Catholic identity

Catholic identity refers to how an individual, group or organization expresses and witnesses the teachings of the Gospel.

In the midst of a rapidly changing cultural, ecclesial and educational landscape, St Maria Goretti is committed to ensuring a vital and tangible Catholic identity is reflected across every aspect of our school. 

We do this within the tradition of the Sisters of St Joseph (the Josephite charism), founded by Mary MacKillop, where Christian values are an everyday lived experience.  

What is charism?

In a Catholic Christian educational context, charism can be viewed as a spiritual energy that permeates a particular school based on significant people, values and stories.

Our Josephite Charism

​St Maria Goretti Catholic Primary School has been associated with the Josephite Charism since Bishop Roper blessed and opened our school in 1951. The Sisters of St Joseph arrived in Inglewood in 1951 and were there until 1985 after 35 years of dedicated service.

The Sisters of St Joseph are sometimes known as the Josephites or the ‘Brown Joeys’ (on account of the brown habits they wore). Today, there are still about 850 Sisters living and ministering throughout Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Peru, East Timor, Scotland and Brazil. 

The Josephites were founded in Penola, South Australia in 1866 by an Australian woman,  Mary MacKillop, and an English priest Reverend Julian E Tenison Woods. 

More information about the Josephite Charism can be found here.

Our MacKillop Way Award, presented twice a term on assembly, draws upon the life of Mary MacKillop and how she lived her life through faith. Her quotes have been unpacked and recontextualised so our students can make meaning and "live like Mary did". 

Our focus for the remainder of term is detailed below. 

Our School Motto

Emitte lucem (Latin) - "Send out light and truth"; "Send forth thy light"; "Let your light shine"

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)... Jesus had just finished healing thousands and giving us the gift of the eight beatitudes.

But what does it mean to "Let your light shine"? In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus wasn’t talking about making sure we turned on our verandah lights at night. He was talking about letting the Holy Spirit shine brightly within us.

Some of the greatest times of a child’s life can take place at school. The activities, friendships, and events provide fond memories, but these memories are even better when they include academic success. A child’s educational experience is a journey for which they must be prepared.  As adult figures we must all focus on the big picture and the impact that educational success will have on the lives of our children and encourage them to always "shine their light".  

Please enjoy our new school song, "Let your light shine" which we composed with Josh Arnold earlier this year. 

INSPIRE Maths 'Chat with your child' task 

Try this at home!

Topic: Arrays in real life scenarios

Questions to ask your child:

• How many do you think there are and why?
• What would be an estimate that's too low?
• What would be an estimate that's too high?
• What different ways could we group them?

Upcoming School Camp - Week 7!

Semester 2 is a time when we see much growth in our students in terms of their independence as they participate in our whole school camp at CYC Burleigh Heads.  The experience incorporates team-building and leadership skills, whilst also enhancing social emotional skills, learning to understand each other, problem solving and overcoming fears.

Importantly, we see a significant strengthening in teacher/student relationships, often developing unique bonds because they get to see each other in a different light – outside the four walls of the classroom.

I take this opportunity to thank  the staff who take time away from their lives and commitments to travel with our students and provide exceptional leadership and care 24 hours a day, in sometimes challenging conditions, something which is daunting given that many are yet to experience being a parent (including myself!). Thank you also to the parent volunteers who also make camp experiences possible. We certainly appreciate your ability to take valuable time away from your jobs and families to contribute to the success of our school camp.

Camp information will continue becoming available over the next week. Please keep an eye out for notices and contact the school office if you have any questions. 

Tomorrow will be our last transition day for our Pre-Preps before they join us at 'big school' next year. We are very pleased to welcome 10 new faces to our school in 2022 - bringing our predicted enrolment to a total of 36 students! I am currently finalising staffing for 2022 and will communicate arrangements for next year as soon as possible. 

Next week I will be in Toowoomba for the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Leadership Forum. Mrs Terry Carter (Manager Teaching & Learning TCSO) will be at school as Deputiser. 

I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Yours in education,

Casey Robinson

Principal

"With God on our side what need we fear?" (Mary MacKillop, 1890)

Life and Learning in the Library

Only one more borrowing opportunity left this year so enjoy reading and sharing the library books your children have chosen. All loans will be due by Wednesday 24th November (Week 8). Students were very engaged with their borrowing choices, book talks and book reviews today.

 5 Ways to Get Your Kids Hooked on Books Video | Common Sense Media 

Please view this Common Sense Media video for some encouraging ideas to implement at home. Check out the other useful content on this website while you are there.

Thanks for doing all you can to engage children with reading for pleasure. It is one of the easiest and most enjoyable things you can do to boost their literacy skills. 

 Summer Reading Ideas 

* Give books as Christmas gifts 

* Visit and borrow from your local public Library 

* Sign up for a membership online and explore the digital resources from the State Library of QLD 

* Enjoy the stories from Storybox Library (https://storyboxlibrary.com.au) smg (username) stories (password)

ClickView

ClickView is a curriculum aligned video streaming service that offers a wide range of content for learning and general interest. Take a look here; https://clickview.com.au Students sign in using their school email and password. Teachers are using these resources with students but they can be great sources of information and discussion when shared at home. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica

This is another digital resource subscription that can be accessed from home. As well as current, reliable information at 3 reading levels, Britannica offers interactive learning activities for younger students. Log in with the following details at https://school.eb.com.au  (username)  (password). 

Last browse and borrow session ever in the St Maria Goretti library today for our

Year 6 students!

Pig the Pug stories never fail to entertain!

Happy reading everyone!

Anne Anderson

Teacher Librarian

Important Dates

Choice and Affordability Funding

We have recently been advised by the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office that we will be receiving "Choice and Affordability Funding". The purpose of the CAF is to drive national priorities including supporting parental choice and affordability of schools. Thorough acquittals are required by the government for this funding.

At St Maria Goretti, we are using this funding in two ways:

1. Paying for all students to attend camp in 2021. (Parents attending are asked to pay $100)

2. A new uniform for each student. This includes a new sports/formal shirt, and a pair of shorts/skorts. 

A form will go home this week to indicate which uniform you would like.

Students of the Week - Week 4

Students of the Week - Week 5

Principals Award - Week 4

Last week Jordon received a Principal's award for taking pride in his uniform.

Sight Word Certificates

Mary MacKillop Award

Riley received the MacKillop Way award for "using good manners and thanking the teachers." Well done, Riley!

MacIntyre Young Writers Award

Congratulations to Collette Cover who received a Major Award from MacIntyre Young Writers for her story: The Chook Revolution. You can read her story below.

The Chook Revolution

Written by Collette Cover

How should I start this tale? I know! There was me, I’m not like every other kid you would know, because I have a chook as a pet. Most kids have lizards or snakes or cats or dogs you get the point, no one really likes chooks. I would normally get teased about it a bit, but I did not mind because it only matters about what I think about chooks. My mum works at a death camp for chooks, and I always warned her that every chook will turn on her, but she would just laugh at me. I even told her our plan to take over the chicken farm, but she would still laugh at me. One day I wrote a letter to warn the boss, of the chooks taking over, but once again everyone just laughed at it. Then I told myself that I was not going to sit around while the chooks were getting killed, so I told the chooks to make the first move.

“SABOTAGE!!!!!! Start with breaking the machines and quickly drag some chooks out of the deadly place and bring them to our secret base.” I whispered quietly to my beautiful chooks.

So, you probably think that is all I am going to do to the place, but I haven’t even started yet.

I taught my darling chooks to talk. I know what you are going to say. “Why teach the chooks to talk?” So, they can tell the people that they are selling the chicken to, that machines are breaking down, and less chicken is being sold.  Mr Woolworths warned Andrew the chicken farm owner, that he will close the place down if they do not sell fresh chicken to them.

It was time Andrew made the workers work harder, so mum was home less which gave the chooks and I more time to plan the destruction of the chicken farm.

It was time to make the next move, QUESTIONING!!! We started with questioning the boss. He gave us relatively good answers, then we went on to question the workers about the farm. Most of the workers told us about a secret tunnel where they hide when there is danger. I quietly told some chooks to block the tunnels and make sure nobody was in there. We escorted the workers back to the farm blindfolded, so they would not know where they were.

Once we finished that, there was somebody who we desperately wanted to question, which was the owner of the death camp, Mr Yong. We swiftly and carefully kidnapped him, checked him to make sure he didn’t have any weapons on him, and let him come into our secret base. We questioned him all night, and he gave us brilliant answers, exactly what we wanted to know, like, where he kept the keys to the chookhouse, security room, his office and bedroom.

“Now my darling chooks it’s time for move three FIRE!!! The extra exhausted workers will never see it coming but, we need to start with small fires then we will build it bigger and bigger then nobody will want to work there and eventually they will work until late at night and they will have to stay the night and I did not see my mum for weeks.

“We are going to my favourite part of the mission step four PRANKING!!! We will start with oil with the water that already there.” We swiftly travelled to the security room to watch so nobody will hear us. So we got comfortable. We watched as workers slip and slide we tried so hard not to laugh but it was useless the owner stormed into the room were the shocked workers were and as he did he slipped then the chooks and I burst into laughter “I think somebody heard us.” I whispered to the chooks. Then I told them “Come on go in the vents.”

We eventually found our way out. “That was close” I told the chooks. The next prank is get fake snakes and spiders and put them in the workers cabins. We watch from the cupboard. It is hilarious! Now for the last step ATTACK!!! All chooks in position now attack! We pecked like we never pecked before.

The chooks won the long hard war and made the death camp for chooks  no more instead a place where chooks can live there life in peace.     

Birthdays

Year 6 Graduation Mass

Annual Awards Night Celebration

Prep Transition Days

Parent Partnership Forum

Notices

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish - Mass Times

Sunday 7th November - 9am - Lay Lead Liturgy

Saturday 13th November - 5:30pm - Mass

Sunday 21st November - 9am - Lay Lead Liturgy

                                                          Sunday 28th November - 9am - Mass