Term 2, Week 5 - 20th May, 2021
From the Principal
Dear families,
Welcome to Week 5! It is hard to believe that we are almost half-way through the term.
In Week 3, I spent four full days in Stanthorpe participating in the Term 2 Leadership Forum. This year the chosen theme to focus our work is ‘Being distinctively Catholic.’ The forum provided an opportunity for principals and senior leaders from TCSO to reflect on and come to an agreed understanding of the expected indicators of being distinctively Catholic. Below are five indicators that were identified that I would like to share with you and that I believe St Maria Goretti does well.
In Catholic schools…
- People are treated with respect and dignity. Every student and staff member feels three things about their experience of school or place of work: I belong. I am valued. I will be successful here.
- Religious Education is our ‘flagship’ subject. For a growing number of students, knowledge of the Catholic faith will largely start with, and be confined to, the Religious education they receive at school. Our aim is to encourage critical, independent and rational thinking.
- Prayer and liturgy experiences present and nurture a frame of reference which often express in meaningful ways a credible faith perspective to prevailing cultural conditions and life experiences.
- The school/college charism is utilised as a practical, credible vehicle for communicating the Gospel message.
- The spiritual formation of staff is given prominence and sufficiently resourced.
The Colour Run
The St Maria Goretti Colour Run was a huge success! Thank you to our parent and staff volunteers who helped make the day a great one. I am proud that our small school can provide the community with a fun, family-friendly event, while raising much needed funds. The PPF made approximately $1100.00 from the day. We will be discussing where this money will go at our next PPF meeting. Shout out to Mr Jeff Hannaford for donating the colour, Mr and Mrs McNamara for donating the onions for the BBQ and Mr Tony Stevenson for donating the bread. We look forward to running the event again in 2022!
INSPIRE Math
Our 2021 Annual Action Plan (AAP) outlines the following strategic intent for teaching & learning:
- To engage in the expected and effective actions of the Inspire Mathematics strategy so that our learners are engaged and curious because it is our role to build capacity in our learners and teachers.
- To improve our mathematics results using evidence based high impact pedagogical practices.
This year, we continue our journey with the Inspire Mathematics Strategy to engage learners and evoke collaborative inquiry and authentically implement the Australian Curriculum. We have been specifically designing learning which explores the Mindset, Skillset and Toolset of Mathematical learning. Each classroom has the following expected and effective strategies implemented: Mathematical Mindsets, Number Talks, Thinking Routines, Questioning and more! We have been working closely with support staff from TCSO, as well as other schools like our context to improve our pedagogy and practice.
This week, Mrs Kerri Shooter (EO: Numeracy) visited our classrooms to model lessons to the teachers on the ‘Big Ideas’ of mathematics, including Number and Multiplicative Thinking. Our teachers took away some new ideas to implement in their classrooms.
Are you a fan of Rubik’s Cube? Do you like to build something to solve a problem? In the spirit of math, please enjoy working on this problem at home with your child.
National Mass 200 Years
Our big event for this term is our celebration of 200 years of Catholic Education. This will take place on Monday 24th May. We have a few things planned for this day including a livestream mass from St Patrick’s Cathedral, followed by a morning tea for the students. Times have not yet been finalised, but we will endeavour to get this information out as soon as possible.
GoZen Program
Each fortnight some of our students in 3-6 are participating in the GoZen program, run by our school counsellor Jennifer Fenn. The GoZen program provides students with the tools to manage stress, improve resilience and emotional intelligence. The animated characters explain what anxiety is, how the brain works in response to anxiety, and ways to change your thinking so that you are in charge of your thoughts and feelings. Please follow this link to a blog post written by GoZen Social Anxiety: 5 Proven Methods for Boosting Confidence (gozen.com)
Lost property
Please ensure your child’s items are labelled with names clearly. This includes hats, jumpers, drink bottles and food containers. Most unclaimed items have no names so cannot be returned to students. Thank you for your assistance.
Parent Partnership Forum (PPF)
Please join us in the P-2 classroom at 3:30pm on Wednesday the 26th of May. All families are very welcome to join us to contribute their ideas.
If you are looking for something to do this weekend, Miss McNamara, Mr Zahner and myself will be playing football at the Macintyre Sports Complex from 1:30pm. Come down and cheer us on!
Yours in Education,
Casey Robinson
Principal
Life and Learning in the Library
This week is Library and Information Week, an Australian wide event focusing on the way libraries satisfy our need for information and stories. We celebrated story by taking part in National Simultaneous Storytime (NSST) and we highlighted access to information via our library database. All students experienced the reading of "Give Me Some Space" from the International Space Station today. Older students have had some opportunities to explore the links on the AccessIT homepage to read and view sources from the Australian Space Agency and NASA. Over the next two weeks, students in the Yr 3-6 class will be locating answers to questions they have about space and life on the International Space Station.
Read - aloud Stories
The students, along with Mrs Smith and Mrs Anderson, (our readers) have been engrossed in the reading of "Meet Nellie" and "Forest of Silence. These books are written by great Australian authors and are part of series which have been well loved over the years. All students want to hear the next book so we are all winners! Ask your children about these stories.
Happy Reading
Anne Anderson
Teacher Librarian
Office News
Term 2 Fees:
Term 2 school fees have been processed this week. Check your emails for your latest statement. If you require a copy of the invoice, please see the office.
Please see Casey if you have any concerns around payment of outstanding fees.
Laptops for sale:
We have some ex-student laptops for sale for $50 each. Please see the office if you are interested. *Note that these laptops are no longer under any warranty and are sold 'as is'.
Uniform Survey:
If you haven't yet completed the uniform survey, please click on the button below to complete it. We will be discussing the results at our PPF meeting next week.
Students of the Week
Congratulations to Riley and Jeshia on receiving students of the week this week .
MacKillop Way Award
Congratulations to Brooklyn Gurd for receiving Week 5's MacKillop Way Award for "Always being happy to help other students"
Our next focus for Week 6-10 is "Forgiveness is love". We will be looking for students who are forgiving others and saying meaningful apologies.
Sight Word Awards
Congratulations to Hunter on his sight word award!
Darling Downs Cross Country - 17th May
On Monday Kaylah McPherson travelled to Kearneys Springs representing the MacIntyre Zone Cross Country team in the 12 years girls age group. Well done Kaylah!
Year 6 Fundraising
The Year 6's have begun fundraising for their end of year trip with a competition to guess how many lollies are in the jar.
Each guess is 50 cents. Please see Olivia for your guess.
**Hint - there are between 50 and 550 lollies in the jar!
Other Year 6 fundraising:
The Year 6's also sold tickets in a $100 money board at our colour run on the weekend. Congratulations to Sara Price on being the lucky winner!
The Year 6's are still accepting cans, bottles and poppers for the Containers for Change scheme. They can be dropped into the marked wheelie bins under the school.
Win State of Origin Tickets!
Raffle tickets were sent home to each family at the beginning of term. Please return them as soon as possible (even if not sold). There are more books available from the office if you would extras to sell. All proceeds will go to the Parent Partnership Forum.
Parent Partnership Forum
Chairperson: Christine Apted
Secretary: Jade Johnson
Next meeting: Wednesday 26th May at 3:30pm in the Prep-2 classroom.
Please see Casey, Christine or Jade if you would like anything added to the agenda.
Tuckshop Roster
Notices
