Term 1 Week 4 2023

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last Wednesday we welcomed our Townsville Catholic Education Service Team to St Francis. Our Service Team is made up of Laurence Hosking (Education Consultant), Anita Livingston (Religious Education Advisor), Katherine Nelson (Learning and Teaching Advisor) and Krista O’Connor (Indigenous Education Advisor). During their visit with our Leadership Team, they went through the goals in our 2023 Annual School Improvement Plan as well as the strategies and actions that will be undertaken to achieve our goals. Our goals and strategies are:

Development of a high-expectations culture

• Staff professional development to establish what this looks like in our school.
• Good Samaritan’s P.A.T.H - this is a continuation of the work started last year. It is a significant body of work over several years. Keep an eye out in the newsletter for our progress with this goal.
• Data-competent staff - developing the skills to use data effectively to enhance student learning
• A feedback culture that promotes learning and development for staff and students
• Development of a pedagogical framework and site for staff

Catholic Identity

• To respond to the recommendations outlined in our 2022 ECSI (Enhancing Catholic School Identity) report establishing a 4-year plan
• Provide authentic, meaningful and engaging liturgical and prayer experiences for our school community
• To develop the religious life of our school so our story is known and lived
• To reimagine the school mission statement and logo
• To provide an RE Curriculum that offers students deep learning experiences

Writing

• Participation in the TCE Writing Project
• Analysis of writing data
• Professional development around the teaching of writing
• Use of mentor texts to teach writing

Staff and Student Wellbeing

• Introduction of Pastoral Care Weeks
• Circle Time and Resilience Project as a way of developing social/emotional skills for students
• Lunchtime activities for students
• Staff well-being to develop a resilient workforce

FACE Meeting

We held our first FACE Meeting for 2023 on Thursday evening. It was wonderful to have so many families attend this meeting. Please see below the outcomes from the discussions we had:

• Carnival Disco has been rescheduled to 17th March
• Trivia Night originally scheduled for Term 2 has been moved to 11th August to avoid other community events (Burdekin Race Day)
• Concerns about the pick-up time
• Please do not cross the double line on Burke Street. 
• On Burke Street near the entrance to the car park is a no parking zone - as per the yellow painted gutter.
• Edward St - please be considerate of the Stop, Drop and Go area.  If you are walking children in, please move forward and park in the parking bays.
• It can be difficult to see down the footpath when exiting the car park.  We will look into getting a mirror to help with this situation.

In 2023 teachers will be sending home a weekly overview of any important information for their class each week via Compass. You will receive this by Sunday each week. If you haven’t received yours, please check your junk/spam folder and mark the email as safe. If you still haven’t received your weekly overview, please check that the Office has your correct email address.

Thank you for supporting our information night last Tuesday.  If you were unable to attend please contact your class teacher for the information presented on the night.

Information Evening

Finally, this Friday 17th February we have our Beginning of Year Mass and Induction of Student Leaders at 9 am in the Samaritan Centre.  All families are welcome to attend.  We ask that all students wear their formal uniform for this special occasion

Have a wonderful week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

Week 4 and things are really starting to get busy. This week on Friday we will celebrate our Beginning of Year Mass where we will also induct our student leaders and that evening is Fr Daniel’s farewell. Sunday will be our Youth Mass at Sacred Heart, we would love to see you there. Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday, it will be a casual day with a gold coin donation for Caritas and pancakes. Remember clothing worn needs to be sun safe and shoes need to be closed in. Wednesday we will have a liturgy for Ash Wednesday which will mark the beginning of Lent.

School Meeting Prayer

Last year the Catholic Identity Committee created a school prayer to use for meetings. The prayer went through many versions and one was finally agreed upon. It was very satisfying to be able to use the prayer a few times this last week. The prayer focuses on using Jesus as a guide to help all involved work collaboratively and for the good of others.

Parish News  

Last week we were blessed to have Fr. Vitalis join our Parish.

This week we welcome Fr. Manoj back from his break with family and friends. We look forward to hearing all about his travels.

On Friday we sadly farewell Fr. Daniel. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

God bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

Do you search for books to read?

 OR

Do you avoid books?

Reading is a taught skill made up of many supporting skills. An ability to enjoy reading and to read well is not genetic. If you are an avid and skilled reader, it does not mean your child will automatically be a skilled reader. In the same way, if reading is something you find difficult, it is not an excuse for your child to avoid reading.

For many students, learning to read is a challenge. Skilled reading happens when students are able to read text fluently while simultaneously comprehending it.

In 2001, Dr. Hollis Scarborough, a Literacy Researcher created the Reading Rope using pipe cleaners to convey how the different “strands” of reading are all interconnected yet independent of one another.

Scarborough’s rope is important because it provides a framework for understanding the different skills that are necessary for reading comprehension. It also highlights the importance of teaching these skills concurrently, rather than in a sequential order.

What is happening this week?

NAPLAN

Teachers administering the NAPLAN tests revised the test process for this year and finalised our school schedule for the tests. We reviewed the protocols for the NAPLAN testing and identified students who will require adjustments to access the test. These adjustments are already being used in class, and parents will be contacted so these adjustments can be formalised. Some parents have approached teachers about withdrawing students and these forms are now available from class teachers parents to complete.

Students in years three and five have commenced familiarisation with the format of the tests. The practices are not about the content of the tests but rather about the types of questions students will encounter and how to use the tools such as the ruler, reading of questions, enlarging print, scrolling and the timer and how to log into the tests using their own unique logins. Teachers will also be practising how to administer the tests, providing breaks and troubleshooting technical issues.  Test practices will take place in the same way that the NAPLAN test will be administered and will be completed over the next two weeks.

If you do not wish your child to participate in these practices please let your child’s teacher know as soon as possible.

 Early Years Testing

 Due to some technical issues the tests for years One and Two have been delayed. They will be completed next week.

If you have any concerns about your child’s learning please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible. Please do not wait for improvement!

Rita Cranitch

Learning and Teaching Adviser

Inclusive Practices Teacher

Class in the Spotlight - Prep B

What a fantastic week we have had in Prep B! We have been working like superstars!

In English, we have been working hard on rhyming words. We have been trying hard to listen if words rhyme and then come up with another rhyming word to match. We have also started learning about Casey Caterpillar and how she helps us with our letter formation. We ended the week creating our Ants on Apples that go with our letter A sound. 

In Maths, we have focused on building and identifying patterns. We have looked at how we can make patterns using different objects. We spent the week creating lots of AB patterns and finished the week creating our Pattern Snakes.

In Religion, we learnt how to make the Sign of the Cross and why we do this before prayer time. We discovered the different features of our Church and why it is a special place. 

Finally, in Health we began learning all about ourselves and what makes us special. We completed a self-portrait and had to make sure that what we drew matched our own features.

Prep B

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P.A.T.H.

Our P.A.T.H. note winners for Week 4 are: Ronan Thomas, Freya Minuzzo and Cara Stockham.

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - SLEEP

Students today have extremely busy schedules, with ever increasing responsibilities at school and at home. Many kids, especially adolescents, are going to bed later and later and are at risk of sleep deprivation. This affects three areas of a child’s development: psychological, physiological and psychosocial. All three are essential to a child's growth, learning ability and overall wellbeing. Sleep is vital to a child’s overall development and is as important as diet and exercise.

Sleep also strengthens a child’s immune systems and supports their ability to function properly on a daily basis. Children who do not get enough sleep show increased levels of aggressive behaviour, are less attentive and are much less active. Trying to catch up on sleep on weekends is not the answer and can still lead to severe sleep deprivation.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will learn about the importance of sleep and how sleep deprivation can have adverse effects on a child’s health and wellbeing.

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 Sleep edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/sleep

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