Term 2, Week 9 - 16th June, 2022

From the Principal

Dear families,

We are at the end of a very busy Week 9! Teachers are currently finalising Semester 1 Report Cards and these will be distributed on the last day of school. If you have any questions about your child's report card, please send their teacher an email and we can organise a meeting early in Term 3.

Our end of semester DISCO is tomorrow evening to congratulate students on the wonderful learning they have done so far this year. The event begins at 5:30pm and concludes at 7:00pm. It is $5.00 entry which covers food for the evening. Students are encouraged to wear RAINBOW colours. Due to the cold weather, we will be holding the disco in the 3-6 classroom, so please don't let the weather discourage you.  There will be tea & coffee available for parents. Thank you to our fundraising coordinator, Mrs Michelle Walker, and the PPF for organising this wonderful event. Please note that students must attend school tomorrow to be able to attend the disco.

Attendance Matters

It is extremely important to send your child to school as much as possible. There can be social and academic implications when students take significant periods of leave from school. I have included an excerpt from the Education Department around absentees:

Going to school every day is the single most important  part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind. 

We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school. If students miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes. Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading.

It is acknowledged that from time to time a student may be absent from their educational program. To comply with their compulsory schooling obligations parents/carers are required to give a 
reasonable reason for each absence by letting the school know via phone, email or replying to the automated absence text message.

In accordance with the Toowoomba Catholic Schools 'Managing student absence procedure', the following patterns of absenteeism requires formal management by the school:

• when a student is absent three or more consecutive school days without a reasonable excuse
• when a student demonstrates a pattern of problematic absenteeism as reasonably determined by the school principal
• when a student’s overall attendance falls below 85% in any given school term

Phase 1 management would include an 'Attendance Concern' letter home, a meeting with parents to jointly problem solve solutions, and completing an attendance improvement plan.

We are setting a goal for Term 3 to acheieve a total of zero unexplained absences for each student.

Remember - every day counts. If your child must miss school, speak with your classroom teacher as early as possible. If you’re having attendance issues with your child, please let your classroom teacher know so we can work together to get your child to school every day. Our school is here to support you with any attendance issues you may be experiencing.

Friendships & Conflict

During primary school children go through many stages of making friends and along the way will 
experience conflict at some stage. It is very normal for children to experience conflict from time to time as this a way of children discovering what works with friends and what doesn’t – put simply children are developing their social and emotional skills. Some children may get confused when they have a disagreement or conflict with another person and may call this bullying. There is a great difference between conflict and bullying and here is a simple way to differentiate between them:

• Misunderstanding – usually problems around communication.
• Disagreement – do not agree on something and both want their own way.
• Conflict – people usually want to solve the problem. Can be over a period of time if not sorted 
  properly.
• Bullying – threatening, repetitive, targeted, deliberating wanting to harm, abusive, no attempt to resolve issue.
  

If your child does experience conflict, this is a teaching moment to guide them and help them learn about how to get along with others. Sometimes children can resolve conflict themselves, particularly as they grow into the upper years of primary, but when they are young they may need guidance, and most importantly emotional support.

The best way to give emotional support is to use ‘reflective listening’. When we practice this type of listening, we listen to the content of what your child is saying and listen for the emotion and then we reflect back what they are saying e.g. “it sounds as though that really frustrated you when you did not get to play your game”. We can then try to help them problem solve the situation by giving them lots of opportunities to brainstorm a solution without stepping in too early to solve it for them.

Bullying

We have a no tolerance policy to bullying at St Maria Goretti.  When bullying is reported, school staff follow the school's policy and procedures.

Reporting 

Research has found that students often do not report bullying because they fear not being believed or not having their concerns appropriately and thoughtfully addressed by relevant adults. Different ideas about what bullying is and is not may also contribute to students not reporting bullying. Fear of making things worse is another reason students give for being reluctant to report.

At St Maria Goretti, we respond in a supportive, measured and respectful way to reassure students that their reports will be taken seriously and handled appropriately.

Please encourage your child to speak with their classroom teacher, school student protection contacts (Mrs Robinson & Mrs Smith 2), a trusted adult or the school principal if they believe they are experiencing bullying.

How families can respond

Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues. Schools will work with you to resolve the situation and will also work with the other student's parents. Due to privacy laws, they will not be able to share information about any other students involved.

Tips for contacting the school

Prepare by:

• making a time to talk with your child's teacher, school counsellor or guidance officer
• writing notes (and any other records) based on what your child has told you so you can be as clear as possible about what happened
• Continue to be calm and constructive. In the first instance contact your child's teacher if possible.

During meetings with staff:

• refer to your written notes to be as clear as possible about what happened and write notes of the discussions with your child's teacher or other staff
• ask what steps will be taken and if a plan is to be developed with home and school strategies
• recognise that investigating the situation at school will require time
• keep a written record of when you contacted the school, who you have spoken with, and any agreements that were made
• stay in touch with the teacher and let them know if problems continue or something new happens.

If you are unable to achieve a satisfactory solution with the class teacher, make an appointment to meet with the principal by calling 4652 1109 or emailing casey.robinson@twb.catholic.edu.au

Whole School Updates

COVID update - We currently have no staff members or students in COVID isolation. 

School Guidance Counsellor - I am very pleased to let our community know that we have been successful in recruiting a Guidance Counsellor for our school. Mr Paul Fomiatti will begin next term, working once a fortnight, and will help us support our students social and emotional needs.

3-6 Classroom Teacher - I am still working on the recruitment of a 3-6 teacher to replace Mrs Osborne while she is on maternity leave. Please note that Olivia will be working for the first four weeks of Term 3.

Confirmation

Congratulations to Daniel and Riley Mead who celebrated their Confirmation at St Mary's Catholic Church in Warwick.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Yours in education,

Casey Robinson

Principal

“God will provide for the future.” (Mary MacKillop, 1907).

Library News

National Simultaneous Storytime 

Our story for this national event this year was Family Tree by Josh Pyke and Ronojoy Gosh. A beautiful eucalypt tells it’s life story alongside the story of the family growing up around it. The student mime, during the book reading enriched the short text by expanding on the ideas and unspoken meaning of the story. Thank you Year 3 - 6 students for bringing this story alive on stage for our younger students.  

Inspiration to Change

During Reconciliation Week, we were challenged to grow in our understanding of Indigenous Australians so we can be brave and make a change as part of the ongoing reconciliation with our First Nations people. We can find such inspiration through books available in our student collection. Here are some examples curated by Mrs Smith;

Holidays are Coming!

BORROW, BORROW, BORROW and READ,READ,READ

Please provide your students with plenty of opportunity to read their library loans and favourite books over the break.

Check out this exhibition at the Toowoomba Cobb & Co Museum;

Spy: Espionage in Australia - Cobb+Co Museum (qm.qld.gov.au)

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Learning News - Writing in P-2

In P-2, the students have been learning how to improve their writing by 'stretching out a sentence.' 

What is a stretched sentence?

A stretched sentence (or expanded sentence) is when additional details or clauses are added to the main clause of a simple sentence. Students in P-2 have learnt that an effective way of stretching a sentence is to use the 5Ws (Who, What, Where, When, Why). 

Simple Sentence: 

He ran.

Stretched Sentence Example:

Joe ran to the ice cream truck after lunch because he was still hungry.

Joe (Who) ran (What) to the ice cream truck (Where) after lunch (When) because he was still hungry (Why).

Will (Year 1) wrote a wonderful sentence and is very proud to share his work in our newsletter. Will took his writing one step further and added an adjective! Well done, Will! Keep on committing to your learning and you will go far!

Learning News - Reading Growth

86% of our school is at or above typical reading growth by year level!

At St Maria Goretti we focus on the growth of our learners. If our students are achieving positive growth - they are getting closer to their reading goals! Our whole school reading goal for 2022 is for 80% of our students to be at or above the typical reading growth by year level - so we are very pleased with our results as we have achieved 86% of students at or above. These postive results are due to the hard work of our school team, students and parents. 

Please see the graph below that details the percentage of students at or above typical growth by year level for Semester 1. This graph compares our growth to the average growth of other Towoomba Catholic Schools (a total of 31 schools in our Diocese). 

It is wonderful to see that our Prep, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6 students are all at or above the typical reading growth for their year level. Students in Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5, on average, are very close to the average growth of the Diocese. 

Learning News - 3/4 HaSS

Sustainability

In Year 3/4 HaSS, students have been learning about sustainability and waste solutions. For their assessment tasks, students conducted a waste audit to identify the types of waste thrown away in the classroom rubbish bin. After collecting the data in a tally chart, and representing the data on a column graph, students had to reflect on their findings and then take action. 

Students created a poster to inform our school community of the actions they can take to reduce the waste thrown away in the classroom and in the wider community. Please see some of the wonderful posters below.

Students of the Week - Week 8

Students of the Week - Week 9

Sight Word Certificates

Happy Birthday

Commonwealth School Data Collection

Parent Partnership Forum

Notices

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish - Mass Times

Sunday 19th June - 9am - Lay Lead Liturgy

Sunday 26th June - 9am - Mass

Sunday 3rd July - 9am - Lay Lead Liturgy

Saturday 9th July - 5:30pm - Mass