Term 3 Week 2 2025
From the Principal
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
What a week for St Francis, a week that truly reflects the heart of our vibrant Catholic community!
From the excitement of our Athletics Carnival to the warmth of our Prep Interviews, there’s been a real buzz around the school. The two day Athletics event was an absolute highlight, with students showing determination, teamwork, and school spirit—just like they did at Cross Country! A huge thank you to Miss Lynch, who once again orchestrated a fantastic carnival (we’re not sure how she kept the rain away, but we’re grateful).
Our Prep Interviews have been such a delight meeting our future little learners and welcoming new families is always a special time. A friendly reminder to all current families: if you have a child starting Prep next year, please ensure their enrolment is submitted as soon as possible to secure their place.
We’re also looking ahead with great excitement to this Sunday’s celebration of Sacred Heart Church’s 100th birthday. What a blessing to be part of such a rich history of faith and community. We hope to see many of our families there to share in this beautiful milestone.
Wishing all our families a restful weekend and a heart full of gratitude for the gift of community.
God Bless,
Lisa Fitzsimmons
Religious Life of the School
Dear families,
3/4B Assembly
Thank you to 3/4B who led our Assembly this week. They reminded us of the importance of following our PATH rules: Persist with Learning, Act Safely, Treat Others with Respect, and Help your Neighbour. Well done, 3/4B, for your thoughtful presentation and for helping us all remember how to be our best selves each day at St Francis Catholic School.
Next week we celebrate Catholic Education Week in Queensland. This special week is a time to recognise the positive impact Catholic schools make—encouraging students to follow the example of Jesus, grow in their faith, and become compassionate, active members of their communities, always striving to be their best selves.
The theme for Catholic Education Week, “Communities of Faith, Hope and Love,” has been a guiding message over the past few years. This year, however, it takes on a deeper meaning with a special focus on Hope, aligning with the 2025 Jubilee Year theme, “Pilgrims of Hope.” It reminds us of the powerful and universal importance of hope in our lives and in our world.
Our school captains and I will be attending the Catholic Education Mass in Townsville on Tuesday. This beautiful celebration brings together many schools from across our diocese to reflect on and promote the unique mission and spirit of Catholic education.
Locally, the three Catholic schools in the Burdekin will come together on Friday at BCHS for a shared Mass and activity day. We are looking forward to a joyful day celebrating our Catholic identity and the legacy of our founders. All families are warmly invited to join us for Mass at 9:30 am in the Marcellin Centre.
Founders’ Day
Next Friday, 1st August we will celebrate Founder’s Day with St Colman’s and BCH. Students are to come to school as usual and will travel to BCH at 9:30 am, returning to St Francis at 2 pm. There will be no supervision at BCH for St Francis students before or after the event.
There is no cost for this event and fruit break and a sausage sizzle will be supplied. Please ensure you complete the online consent through Compass.
Feast of St Mary Magdalene – July 22
On Tuesday, we celebrated the feast day of St Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ closest followers. She was the first to see Jesus after His resurrection and is often called the "Apostle to the Apostles." St Mary Magdalene reminds us of the power of faith, forgiveness, and the importance of sharing the Good News. May we, like her, always stay close to Jesus and live with courage and love.
Sacred Heart Church – 100 Year Celebration
Hope to see you all at the celebration of our Sacred Heart Church this Sunday. Join with Bishop Tim as he celebrates Mass for us at 9am. Then join us over at the Samritan Hall for BBQ and a Cent Sale. Thanks to those who have offered to help us serve drinks.
Save The Dates - Term 3
Sacred Heart Parish - 100 year celebration - Sunday 27 July 9am followed by lunch at Samaritan Centre
Founders' Day - Friday 1 August BCHS Mass 9:30am
Whole School Christian Meditation - St Mary of the Cross Feast Day - Friday 8 August 8:45am
Sacramental Masses - Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August
Years 3, 4 & 5 Class Mass - Thursday 21 August 9am
Youth Mass - Sunday 24 August 5:30pm
Prep & Year 6 Class Mass - Thursday 28 August 9am
Years 1 & 2 Class Mass - Thursday 4 September 9am
Samaritan Day - Friday 19 September
Prayer to St Mary Magdalene
St Mary Magdalene,
you were a faithful follower of Jesus,
standing by Him at the cross
and the first to witness His Resurrection.
Help us to stay close to Jesus,
even when things are hard.
Teach us to love Him with a brave and open heart.
May we, like you, share the Good News with joy and courage.
St Mary Magdalene,
pray for us.
Amen.
God bless,
Maria
Learning Corner
LEARNING and TEACHING
Every minute counts!
Don’t you love advertising!
They promise the best of all things but the delivery of those promises is often disappointing.
Over the last five years, schools have been inundated with advertisements for educational programs. On the surface, they are all enticing, and in the appropriate settings, they work very well and fulfil their promise. However, there is no ‘one size fits all’ program.
Each school makes its own decision about choosing programs to support teachers and meet the educational needs of its students.
Factors taken into account are:
- Needs- What do we need and does it meet that need?
Is the need a priority? What does the evidence we have tell us?
What evidence is available to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program being considered?
- Cost- Are there funds in the budget to cover the cost?
- Staff: Are school officers required to support teachers to implement the programs? If so, how many hours need to be allocated for the implementation of the program? Considering the available school officer time, will the allocation of these hours be equitable?
I am sure needs and cost are considered by all families when making decisions about major purchases. Schools are no different as schools also have a budget that determines the amount that can be spent on programs.
Across the diocese there are a range of programs that support the educational recommendation to use a structured synthetic phonics approach to teach literacy skills.
About seven years ago we began our investigation into programs that would address all the factors listed above. We discovered PLD (Promoting Literacy Development) and offered to the Prep teachers to trial.
We were attracted to PLD because it provided an Australian, evidence-based approach to Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) for primary school educators. It was aligned with the Science of Reading, and extended from the junior primary years through to upper primary years providing us with the option for a whole school approach.
Diana Rigg, the driving force behind PLD, was a familiar name in the field of resources for teaching Phonics and displayed a passion for the development of Literacy skills for all children. PLD was a program recommended by AUSPELD to support children with a Specific Learning Disorder, such as Dyslexia.
The observed results in the lower years over a three-year period encouraged us to implement PLD across the entire school in 2025. Professional development was offered to all staff. The program has lived up to its promise of readily and easily providing advice and support, and keeping its resources updated in response to ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of what it provides.
As we have an online subscription to the resources, we access updated resources without extra cost. We have had whole-staff Zoom meetings with a PLD consultant, who advised on grouping students to meet their needs and answered questions or concerns raised by teachers.
Children are screened each term to monitor their progress and identify their Literacy learning needs. The screening is done online in Prep and will be introduced to other year levels, thus making the screening process a more straightforward and time saving process for teachers.
If you would like more information about PLD in general or in your child’s class, please visit PLD or schedule a time to meet with your child’s teacher or me.
PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE
There is a fun competition and a strong determination to win between 1/2B and 5 B. Who will be the eventual winners?
1/2B has read 875 books (182.29% of the target of 480) - they are way off our progress chart!
5B has read 590 books (157.33% of the target of 375) - they are off the chart too!
3/4B has read 310 books (64.58% of the target of 480)
1A has read 298 books (64.78% of the target of 460)
3A has read 162 books (38.57% of the target of 420)
PB has read 100 books (31.25% of the target of 320)
6A has read 90 books (20.69% of the target of 435)
4/5A has read 70 books (14.58% of the target of 480)
Only a few weeks left!
Keep up the reading and remember to bring your reading records to the library.
Enjoy the week ahead
Rita
Guidance Counsellor
My name is Teneille Jorgensen and I am the newly appointed Guidance Counsellor at St Francis School. I look forward to working alongside the St Francis School community to optimise student wellbeing and engagement in 2025.
Please find below some information about the Guidance Counsellor role. I will be onsite at St Francis School on Thursday and Friday each week.
What does a Guidance Counsellor do?
Guidance Counsellors within Townsville Catholic Education provide a range of support services to students, staff, and families, focusing on student wellbeing and academic success.
They offer counselling, assessment, and support related to personal, social, emotional, and educational needs, while also collaborating with external agencies and school staff. Some of these services may include:
- Facilitating short-term brief counselling to students with personal, social and emotional needs.
- Assistance with planning and programming strategies for students who require significant adjustments to their learning.
- Facilitating and administering appropriate assessments to determine the nature of student learning difficulties and wellbeing concerns, resulting in recommendations for educational adjustments and interventions.
- Consultation with parents, teachers and other relevant staff around mental health, psychological wellbeing and educational success.
How to access Guidance Counsellor Services:
- Firstly, it is important to discuss any concerns you may have with your child’s classroom teacher so that they are aware of any potential impacts on learning or engagement in the classroom.
- Students may be referred for counselling, psycho-educational assessment or small group interventions via a Student Wellbeing and Pastoral Services referral form. The referral form must be completed by the classroom teacher in consultation with the school leadership team.
- Access to assessment and classroom support requires teacher and classroom planning, intervention and monitoring before proceeding.
- Parents/Carers will be required to provide Informed Consent for assessment, classroom support or counselling services to be provided in relation to their child.
- Counselling may be provided around areas of difficulty such as:
- Anxiety
- Emotional regulation
- Social skills
- Grief and loss
Class in the Spotlight - 1/2B
What a busy week we have had in 1/2B!
We have started working on duration and telling the time in Maths, information writing about dingoes in English, creating flip book animations in Media Art and looking at the Old Testament in Religion.
We have also been preparing for our much anticipated Athletics Carnival on Thursday. It was a fantastic day filled with lots of laughter, determination and fun! Miss Tatnell is so so proud of 1/2B for their efforts during the carnival. Thank you Miss Lynch and Miss Parsons, for preparing us for our big day!
1/2B
Library
Athletics Carnival
Community
