Term 2 Week 8 2022

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would to begin the newsletter this week with some exciting news.  St Francis has been lucky to receive a 2022 Woolworths Landcare Grant.  Please see below for more information about our project. 

As we move towards the end of the term, students are busy finishing off assessment pieces and teachers are finalising report cards. Semester 1 Reports will be available via the Compass Portal from 3pm on Friday 24th June.  Please make sure you are able to access Compass before this time.  If you need any help or have forgotten your password, please contact the Office.

Last week I attended the Term 2 Principal’s Meetings.  On Wednesday, Principals and APRE’s from across the Diocese came together to continue our work on developing the Catholic Identity of our schools.  During the day we explored the importance of dialogue and encounter and how these help us enhance our identity as a Catholic school. On Thursday, Rita joined me for our annual Safe Person Training Day.  The Safe Person role is of great importance in our schools and is a role that is grounded in legislation.  Each school has two dedicated Safe People.  The role of the safe person is to promote and organise child protection initiatives in our school, support colleagues on student protection processes and educate our students and staff on the role of the School Safe Person.  

On Thursday evening the Principals attended the Welcome Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral for Archbishop Charlies Balvo, Apostolic Nuncio to Australia.  We were also fortunate to have him come and speak to the Principal group on Friday.  During his homily on Thursday night, the Archbishop reminded us that everything we do should be grounded in love and on Friday he shared some of Pope Francis’ thoughts on education.  Some of these thoughts included the importance of families as the first educators of their children, the need to walk alongside our students in education and that the voice of children and young people must be listened to and heard so that we can build a future of justice and peace.   

On Saturday I attended the Catholic School Parents Queensland Parent Engagement Day alongside Annalea Matthews and Sonia and Grant Dablestein. We were fortunate to have Andrew Fuller who is a clinical psychologist and family therapist presenting.  Andrew specialises in how children learn and how their educational outcomes can be improved.  On Saturday he entertained and informed us about the tricky behaviours we see in children and the building blocks for the mental health of our young people.  One of Andrew’s main points for the day centred around the idea that when children feel connected, protected and respected it is then that they thrive.  Andrew also spoke of the importance of children having a family member love them unconditionally and knowing of this unconditional love.  In addition, Andrew stressed that children need to have a diverse group of friends and the value of someone from outside of their family who believes in and sees the good in them.  It was a wonderful day as Andrew has a wealth of knowledge and was very entertaining throughout his presentation. I highly recommend checking out Andrew’s website https://andrewfuller.com.au/ as he has a lot of information and great resources. 

This Friday we will be holding our first Prep Open Day for 2022 with our second session being held on Thursday 16th of June.  I am looking forward to meeting our prospective Prep students and their families and showcasing all the wonderful things that St Francis has to offer.  If you or someone you know has a child due to start Prep in 2023 and haven’t yet registered for one of the Open Days or submitted your enrolment forms I encourage you to do so.

If you haven’t yet completed your School Satisfaction and Feedback Survey it’s not too late.   Please take the time to complete this survey as your feedback is important in helping us identify and plan for areas of improvement as well as ensuring we know where we are being successful.  Surveys close this Friday 10th June.

Have a wonderful week

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

The first Sunday after Pentecost is celebrated as the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Jesus appeared to his disciples (John16: 12-15) and sent them out to make disciples of all peoples. He told them to baptise people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As part of our Catholic faith, we believe in the mystery of the God who shares himself with us through the three persons of the Trinity, the Father who created us, the Son who was his human presence on earth and showed us how to live and the Holy Spirit who fills us with God’s love and the courage to carry out his mission in the world. Years 3 and 4 will be celebrating Mass on Thursday with Father Manoj at 9am with the theme of the Trinity. All are welcome to join us.

Prayer 

God of yesterday, today and tomorrow, 

we call to mind your presence within us and around us.

Open our ears that we may hear your Word.
Open our hearts that we may understand your Word.
Open our mouths that we may speak your World.

Inspire us with the Gospel message,           
that we may celebrate all that is life-giving,
restore hope where it has been lost, and work to bring about                        
change where it is needed.

May we live the Gospel with courage, constancy and love.
May we be open to the challenge of your call to true freedom.
May we be faithful to you in our daily choices and decisions.
May we make your love known through our words and actions.

May the triune God reign in our hearts, now and forever.

Amen

Faith, Mission and Identity: Last week I attended a three day cluster meeting with APRE’s across the Diocese with the theme; ‘Growing Dialogical Schools’. We were joined on the third day by the Principals as it is important that they, as the school leaders, support and guide the shift towards dialogical schools with a strong Catholic Identity. The presenters were Associate Professor Robyn Horner and Dr Teresa Brown from the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University - Melbourne Campus.

We explored the need to articulate our Catholic Identity in dialogue with the community and school context. The ECSI (Enhancing Catholic School Identity) Surveys give us data to help guide the direction we need to take in the strengthening of our Catholic Identity. I thank all parents who did the surveys to assist us in this most important development.

 An interesting move is towards recontextualising prayer. Data has shown that children and adults who have a strong personal prayer life have a strong faith. We as teachers will be exploring the steps to recontextualising prayer and scripture to make it more meaningful and plausible for our students in their current context.  We are lucky our school community has a strong parish community that supports us in our prayer life and comes along to our class masses.

God Bless

Mary

Aiming for Excellence

Ready Set Write! 

We are continuing our 15 minute daily writing to develop our students’ stamina with writing. Stamina is required when they are to complete a written task within a set time limit.

NCCD

We are continuing to upload evidence of student learning needs, the adjustments being provided in class and parent contact. Based on the evidence, as a school, with advice from our Advisory Visiting Teacher - Inclusive Education, we determine the level of adjustments being provided for the students. This is then shared with TCE before being forwarded to QCEC (Queensland Catholic Education Commission) for review and then final submission to NCCD. 

Is Google your best friend?

Like best friends, Google provides a great deal of information giving you access to many sources but not all of it is correct all the time.

When researching, it is always best to go to a trusted, reliable primary source rather than a source that repeats what they have read or heard elsewhere.

We have noticed that even in some online programs there are technical inaccuracies.

One example is the description of the method of multiplying by 10. Many of us would have been taught: ‘When you multiply by 10 you move the decimal point one pace the make the number bigger.’ This is what appears to be happening, but in real Mathematics, the decimal point does not move, it is the numerals in the number being multiplied that move to the next house (place) because it is becoming 10 times larger and our number system is based on 10 hence our decimal system.

To describe it as moving the decimal point makes it easy for the children to remember but deprives them of the understanding necessary for extending mathematical learning.

It is far easier, especially online, to explain a process rather than trying to explain why the decimal point ‘appears’ to be moving.

If you have any questions or observations you would like to share,please do not hesitate to contact me via email. (rcranitch@sfatsv.catholic.edu.au) for an appointment or a telephone call.

Rita Cranitch

Leaning and Teaching Adviser.

Inclusive Practices Teacher

From the Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - RESILIENCE

Resilience is one of those skills that all kids need and should have. It refers to their ability to cope and adapt in situations when confronted with challenges such as adversity, trauma, tragedy, or even stress. It is essential to their mental health and wellbeing as part of their journey to adulthood. It is a skill that can be learned from an early age through the support of an adult role model.

However, being resilient does not mean your child won't experience any difficulties, but it will better equip them to manage those situations. Over-protective parenting can be viewed as being unhelpful towards the building of resilience. Although this may be a natural instinct, potentially experiencing failure is all part of the process. Encouraging children to take healthy risks will help them trust their capacity to deal with uncomfortable situations and increase their capacity for courage.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will gain an understanding of how to support their child’s brave behaviour to help them adapt and build resilience.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school guidance counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Resilience edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/resilience

Reflection

The picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The month of June is specially dedicated to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our parish in Ayr is named after the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I wish you all a very happy feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a particular time to look at this most famous picture of Jesus and understand its very touching meaning.

Heart:  The love of God is the focus of this picture. It is revealed in the pierced Heart of Jesus, the Son of God. It symbolises the passionate love of Jesus for all of us.

The Flames: Fire is associated with divinity in the Old Testament. The love of Jesus is so intense, like fire.

Crown of thorns: Did you see the crown of thorns wrapped around the heart? It symbolises not His head which was crowned with thorns but His heart. When we do not obey Him and do wrong things, it pains His heart.

The Cross: The cross above the heart reminds us of the agonising death He willingly undertook for the sake of each of us.

As we get ready to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our parish on Sunday, 26^th June, at the 9am mass, I invite you to that special time to honour the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Please come and experience that passionate love that  Jesus has for each of us.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us, Amen.

Fr. Manoj Mathew, C.Ss.R.

Administrator, Burdekin group of parishes.

Students of the Week

Lost Property

Please call in to the school office to collect if one of these items belongs to your family.

Sports

Ryan Di Lullo, Joe Pappalardo and Aidan Butler represented Burdekin at the U12 NQ Football (Soccer) Trails. Joe was selected for Possible and Probables Team.

Cowboys Visit to PE

Community