Term 1 Week 3 2022

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am pleased to inform you that we have appointed Kylie Farrell as our Tuckshop Convenor.  We are excited that Kylie is joining the St Francis staff and I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating her on her new position.  Kylie will be reopening the tuckshop on Monday 7th March with an exciting new menu.  

Many people within our school community have tested positive for Covid over the past few weeks and there are many students who have been unwell.  We have sent many students home who have developed flu-like symptoms during the day.  I would like to thank families for picking their students up promptly.  Just a reminder that if your child presents with flu-like symptoms, please keep them home until they are well, regardless of a RAT or PCR test results.  We understand that this can be difficult for families; however students with a persistent runny nose, coughing and an elevated temperature will be asked to go home.  Thank you for helping us maintain a healthy school.

We understand that family life is busy with many parents working full time and juggling commitments.  It is important that we maintain contact between home and school. Here’s how we can work together to make that happen:

• Ensure that your contact details are up to date.  If you aren’t receiving correspondence from the school or teachers, there might be an email issue.  Please contact the Office to check your details.
• Check your spam/junk folder.  School emails can sometimes be diverted to these folders.  If you find emails from the school there, be sure to mark them ‘not as spam’ so that you receive correspondence from the school directly to your inbox.
• Like our Facebook page so that you receive updates via social media.

At the end of last year our P&F Executive all stepped down from their roles.   The P&F plays a key role in organising and supporting events that bring our school community together – students of all ages, their families, friends and the staff of St Francis.  Through fundraising, the P&F also makes a significant contribution to activities that support your children’s development.  Getting involved in the P&F is a great way to meet new people and make a difference to the social life of the school.  Schools do not succeed by themselves, therefore I encourage you to be actively involved in the life of our school.  Please let me know if you are interested in putting your hand up for any of the following positions: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Fundraising Officer, Diocesan Representative.  As I have said before, many hands make light work and at the end of the day everything that we all do is for our students, your children, and the more involvement families have in our school, the richer your children’s education will be.

Each year we write our Annual School Improvement Plan (ASIP) which sets out our goals for the year.  This plan is quite detailed.  Below are summaries of just some of the goals we will be working towards in 2022.

Writing

The skills associated with writing are important and something that many students find challenging.  Therefore this year we will be focusing on developing writing skills from Prep through to Year 6.  This will involve a dedicated writing time each day in which students will be focusing on the skills of writing.  The leadership team will be in classrooms during this time, helping to provide verbal feedback to students.

Catholic Identity

This year our Catholic Identity team will continue to work on developing the Special Religious Character of our school.  This team is made up of two parents, two staff members, our Parish Priest and both myself and Mary.  We will also be participating in the Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project as part of our five year school renewal cycle.  Students, parents and staff will shortly be invited to participate in a survey that looks at how our community understands and relates to our Catholic Identity.

Liturgical and Prayer Experiences

In 2022 we will be focusing on our Prayer and Liturgical Experiences especially in using our yarning circle, labyrinth and prayer space.  We will be exploring the elements of the spaces and how we use them to enhance our prayer experiences.  We will be continuing our buddy class Masses in 2022 and focusing on school based liturgies and whole school Christian Meditation.

Student Protection

As part of our commitment to ensuring that our students are safe we will be continuing to raise awareness of safety messages with our students.  This will be done via our School Safe People (Mrs Jones and Mrs Cranitch), staff professional development and engagement with key calendar days such as National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, Day for Daniel and Child Protection Week.

Environmental Practices

In 2022 we will continuing to enhance our environmental practices within the school.  We will be particiating in a range of ecological justice days, reinvigorating our student led environmental group, promoting awareness of environmental practices and developing a school based plan which contains links to curriculum and the development of projects across the school.  

School/Parent/Community Partnerships and Engagement

I have said it before, but schools don’t succeed on their own.  Our parent and community partnerships are essential for our success.  We will continue to focus on how we can develop and enhance our relationships with both families and the wider community.  We will be having our Learning Breakfasts again in 2022 and introducing a few new initiatives throughout the year.  

Inclusive Education

We will continue our focus on inclusive education.  We are always looking at ways we can make St Francis even more inclusive than it already is.  Teachers work hard in classrooms to develop wonderful relationships with their students so they know what their individual strengths and needs are. Our teachers and support staff have also completed professional development in regards to inclusive education.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

In 2021 we began our journey of revisiting our Behaviour Management Policy through Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L).  Our staff have been involved in professional development and we have a team of staff who make up our PB4L Team.  This team has been working to come up with a set of clearly defined rules that can be used both in the classroom and out of it.  We wanted to ensure that our rules reflected the Charism of our school so after much discussion we have come up with:
The Good Samaritan’s Path

• Persist with learning
• Act safely
• Treat others with respect
• Help your neighbour

The next step is for us to teach all students what these rules look like in the various areas of our school (the classroom, the playground, at the tuckshop, at Assembly etc).  Our journey to a final product will take some time, but we are very excited by where we are heading.

Have a wonderful week

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

WIN A SET OF SCHOOL UNIFORMS!!!!

How would winning a set of formal and sports uniforms enrich your life??

How much would your kids love a class pizza party??

Let us tell you how you can make this happen!

All you have to do is participate in the 2022 ECSI Survey.  Your participation will assist us in better understanding how our Catholic identity is expressed in work and practice here at St Francis.

For every parent that participates, you will go in the draw to win a set of formal and sports uniforms from Michael’s Menswear.  The class with the largest percentage of parents completing the survey will also win a pizza party.  So how do you get in on this amazing opportunity??  Keep reading….

The Catholic University in Leuven has designed a process and tools, based on sound research, to accomplish the goal of understanding our current Catholic identity and where the school community might like to see itself in the future.

The ECSI Survey is a key element of this process and I write to request your participation. The online survey gathers responses from students in Years 5 and 6, all staff and our parent community.

You are asked to complete the survey online.  Try not to get caught up in the questions, simply respond intuitively. 

Keeping a record of your individual user code and password will allow you to complete the survey over two or more sessions.

The survey is only available through the project website; please refer to the Instructions for Survey Completion for Parents. Your responses to this survey are guaranteed to be kept anonymous.

If you have any questions, please contact me through the school office.

If you would like your voice to be heard as to what our school’s Catholic identity will look like in the future please participate in this survey.  Your voice is a valued contribution. 

The survey will close Wednesday 30th March.  In order to go in the draw for the uniforms and pizza party, you need to have completed the survey by this date.

Heavenly Father,
We give thanks for the initiative of the first Parish Priest,
Father Jules Bucas, who responded to the need of the
Parishioners for a Catholic Primary School. 
We give thanks for the parishioners who donated the land,
financed the building of the school
and continued to give generous support over the years.
We give thanks for all staff; priests, Good Samaritan nuns,
Marist brothers and laypeople, 
who have provided Catholic Education at our school.
We give thanks for all the students and their families
who have been part of our Catholic school community since 1912. 
We ask that You grant us guidance in this process 
so that we may build on the Catholic Identity of our school
now and for the future.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

All:   Amen.

Aiming for Excellence

READY,  SET,  WRITE

This week we begin our Ready, Set, Write time. This daily quick write strategy is one of the many strategies we will be using throughout the year to help our students become excellent writers. Each day between 8.50 and 9.05 am all students in Year 3-6 will be writing in response to a stimulus. Years P-2 will join us formally in Term 2.

The only feedback that children will receive on this morning writing is verbal. The feedback will be on the writing skill that is the focus for the week. This week our focus is ‘sentence structure’. During the week the teachers are working on the improvement of sentence structure. Sentence structure is one of the ten essential elements for excellent writing.

During their first week at school, all children in Years 3-6 wrote a narrative. The student work samples were analysed to identify the stage of development with sentence structure that the students had reached. Using the Australian Curriculum Literacy Progressions, teachers were able to plan the next steps required for each student to develop their skill of sentence structure. Each week will focus on  the development of a different writing skill while still practicing the skills that had been extended in the previous weeks.

Combined with demand writing (students are presented with a prompt (question or scenario) and are given a specific time limit to complete it) and written responses in other subjects, children will have the opportunity to develop stamina to write effectively for a sustained length of time. Years 5-6 will use keyboards for sustained periods of writing in preparation for NAPLAN.

 In Week 3 of Term 2, the students in Years 3-6 will again write a narrative that will be compared to the one they wrote at the beginning of this year. This will show us how their writing skills have developed and  highlight what is needed to continued their development into excellent writers.

Do ask your child about the skills they practicing. If you have any concerns about your child’s writing please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Rita Cranitch

Learning and Teaching Adviser

Inclusive Practices Teacher

Students of the Week

Community

Catholic Youth Commission, Townsville Diocese - Expanding Membership

The Catholic Youth Commission commenced in 2021, assisting the Bishop in planning and strategising to grow youth ministry in the Diocese. Bishop Tim is now looking to expand its membership for 2022 and is inviting expressions of interest in joining the Commission. Bishop is looking for a senior high school student, 2 young adults and 2 adults over 30. Express your interest by Friday 4 March 2022 through emailing youth@tsv.catholic.org.au for an EOI pack. Contact our youth office for more information - 07 4726 3262.