Term 2 Week 6 2023

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week is Laudato Si’ Week. Laudato Si’ is an encyclical of Pope Francis published in 2015 which focuses on care for the environment and all people as well as the relationship between God, humans and the Earth. Laudato Si’ is addressed to “every living person on this planet” (LS 3) and reminds us of our responsibility as stewards of God’s creation, calling on us all to care for our common home. The encyclical discusses environmental and human ecology and their relationship to our faith. At St Francis, we are committed to developing practices that align with Pope Francis’ teachings in Laudo Si’ to ensure the sustainability and longevity of our common home for future generations. 

This happens in many ways. In our classrooms, we teach units that are linked to sustainability practices. Our Planet Protectors (our student-led environmental group) are very active in our school community in trying to make a difference. They reminded us about the importance of caring for our common home last week on Assembly and throughout the year have been in charge of implementing their 2023 initiatives. The Planet Protectors asked each class to create a pledge which outlines how they are going to help protect our planet. You will find some of these in the newsletter this week.

This year The Planet Protectors have introduced Containers for Change where they are responsible for collecting the containers from each eating area in the school and sorting them ensuring only the correct containers are returned for a 10c refund. They have chosen to donate the returned money to the St Vincent de Paul’s Christmas Appeal. This demonstrates an understanding of the interconnectedness of our fellow humans and the preservation and protection of our planet. This group has also been busy preparing our herb and vegetable gardens and over the past week they have been using planting seedlings and seeds. They are looking forward to sharing their produce with our Tuckshop and hopefully our wider community. They have introduced composting and we are looking towards being able to use our compost on the gardens here at school.

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On Tuesday we had Ray Thompson from the North Queensland Cowboys Adopt-a-School Program and The Resilience Project visit. Ray talked with 6A and 1/2B before delivering a session to the teachers on The Resilience Project and later a parent session. Thank you to those families who were able to come along. During the parent session, Ray outlined the fundamentals of The Resilience Project - gratitude, empathy/kindness and mindfulness. Please find some tips below from Ray’s presentation.

Gratitude

We must talk with our children each day about gratitude. Some questions that we can ask them include:

• What went well today? 
• What made you smile today?
• What was your favourite thing you did today?
• What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Empathy/Kindness

We need to model empathy and kindness to our children in daily interactions with the people around us. We should be discussing with them what being kind looks like and why it is important. Ray also reinforced the importance of being present with another person and ensuring that we are actively listening to them when they are speaking. 

Mindfulness

Ray used a wonderful analogy when talking about mindfulness. He said that if we were to run a marathon we would do rehab on our bodies. He likened what happens in our heads every single day to running a marathon and therefore the importance of rehabbing our minds which is where mindfulness comes in. We can do this through meditation, yoga, connecting with nature, colouring or using an app such as The Resilience Project. What is most important is that we find something that works for us and for our children. Ray reinforced that mindfulness is about being self-aware, connected, being present and being in the moment and that we need to work towards embedding these practices in everyday life. 

Finally, Ray discussed the benefit of talking about failure and what we do in these situations with our children and the value in them seeing failure as a part of life. He commented that making failure normal, will help our children be open when they are facing tough moments in life.

Next week we begin our Term 2 Learning Breakfasts. These mornings are an excellent opportunity for families to come in and talk with their children about what they have been learning in class throughout Term 2. While it is important that we acknowledge students' effort with their work, we need to go deeper than just saying great job or focusing on the things that the student needs to do better when discussing learning. Students need to be able to reflect on their learning, where they started, where they are currently and where they are headed to. They need to be able to discuss the strategies that they have used when facing challenges as well as discuss the work they are proud of and why. I encourage you to use some of these questions when discussing learning with your child/ren at their Learning Breakfast. 

• What they are learning now.
• How do they feel about what they are learning now -  do they find it difficult?/ easy?
• What they do when they get ‘stuck’.
• How do they know when they have understood and can do the work independently?
• What makes them a good learner now and what they could do to be a better learner?
• The learning that has made them proud and why they are proud.
• Something they would like you to see because they are proud of it.

I will be away Wednesday - Friday next week at the Term 2 Principal’s Meeting. If you need anything during this time, please contact Nicole O’Connor.

Have a wonderful week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

Pentecost

Pentecost is celebrated in the Church this weekend. It is an important feast day on the Catholic calendar and commemorates the end of the Easter season and also the beginning of the Church. Pentecost is often represented by tongues of flame or a dove.

The story of Pentecost is found in the Book of Acts in the Bible where the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles and other followers of Jesus. Wind filled the room where they were gathered, and tongues of fire came to rest on their heads, allowing them to speak in different languages so that they could understand each other.

This phenomena is represented in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City as a dove. There is an apse at the end of the central nave where there is the Altar of the Chair of Peter. Right above the altar is a breathtaking window with a brilliant dove at the centre, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church which never ceases to help and to guide.

St Francis is hosting the Pentecost Mass this Sunday at 5:30 pm. We would love to see you there.

Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week is next week. It is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. Two of the dates within the week are significant milestones in the reconciliation journey; the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.

At school next week we will be acknowledging Reconciliation. Classes have been allocated books to read and discuss, and then they will complete a task to match. Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and First Nations peoples.

Whole School Christian Meditation

On Wednesday we celebrated Mary Help of Christians with our whole school Christian Meditation. The students participated reverently and were respectful of our hall changing into a sacred space for the                                                                            morning.

God bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

Why are words so important?

At a lecture on teaching English, the lecturer emphasised that the correct terms should be used with children from the beginning. He pointed to an air conditioning vent and told us that if a young child (toddler) asked what it was, we should use the correct terminology, not a ‘baby’ version that needs to be replaced with the correct term and relearnt. Children will stop asking questions when they have the information they want.

Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum for English specifies that by the end of Year 2, children will be familiar with and understand the terms; phoneme, grapheme and morpheme. There is an emphasis throughout the grades on expanding morphological knowledge.

So what do these terms mean?

A phoneme is a sound we hear in a word. For example, the term ‘form’ comprises three phonemes. Every time your mouth or tongue moves, or you feel a movement on your cheek, a phoneme is made when you say the word.

A grapheme is the written representation of a sound (phoneme). In the word ‘form’, the graphemes are  <f>, <or> and <m>.

 A morpheme is a unit of meaning. This is a prefix such as ‘un’, a suffix like ‘er’, a root such as  ‘phon’ or base words such as ‘run’ or ‘water.’

We all learnt about syllables at school, which refer to pronunciation units. All syllables must include a vowel but do not need to have a consonant.

This combined knowledge helps a child decode (read) and encode (spell) accurately.

Before children reach this stage, they need to have been exposed to a wide range of vocabulary through speaking and listening to stories. They need to be able to hear and distinguish sounds by separating the sounds they hear in a word (segmenting), putting together sounds they are given to say a word (blending) and then being able to add and delete sounds in a word.

Imagine the fun you can have creating rhyming words with young children, searching the origins, and working out the meaning of unknown words by identifying the morphemes with older students.

BLAH

Congratulations to Popi and Jake on accepting the opportunity to participate in BLAH. This initiative promotes communication skills and is sponsored predominantly by Rotary and JCU. They worked solidly for two hours under the guidance of a coach to develop the skills to express their ideas clearly to an audience.

What is ‘popcorn brain’?  I would love to hear what you think when you google the term.

Rita Cranitch,                                                                                  

Learning and Teaching Adviser

Inclusive Practices Teacher

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & EXERCISE

In the last decade, children’s participation in physical activity and exercise has been in decline. In this digital age, children are using computers and mobile devices, not only for learning, but for relaxation and recreation purposes. This sedentary lifestyle is having a detrimental effect on today’s youth. The key is finding the balance.

Research shows, that regular physical activity and exercise leads to changes in the brain. It improves cognitive function, elevates mood, enhances learning and improves academic outcomes. Playing sport helps kids develop fundamental movement skills impacting positively on their confidence, self-esteem and ability to develop social skills. Parents play an important role in helping children establish positive habits that will benefit their children in the long-term.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will discover practical advice relating to the benefits of regular physical activity and exercise, as well as tips on how to get their kids motivated and moving more.

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 Physical Activity & Exercise edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/physical-activity-exercise

Class in the Spotlight -

3A has been very busy.

We had fun in English adding words to our Word Noticing Wall that had graphemes for the phonemes /er/ and /or/. We also explored persuasive writing. We learnt about using emotive language when writing a persuasive text so watch out parents and grandparents, we have discussed who we want to persuade and why.

Mathematics was challenging with some fraction games and our fractions assessment. Money concepts always make our brains work hard. We are still consolidating making amounts with different combinations of money and giving change. We get to practise what we have learnt by using Matific.

We learnt about living a moral life as the Bible teaches in the story of the 10 Commandments. Yes, we know, ‘obey your parents’ although it is not always easy.

Science was fun because we were conducting experiments about substances changing as heat was added. We had to check our predictions about what happens when heat is added and then removed from jelly.

HAAS has been interesting this term learning about First Nations Cultures. Miss Naomi spoke to us last week about her home Thursday Island.

We loved having Mrs Eathorne back for P.E. This week we started high jump practice and loved it! We are looking forward to the Sports Carnival.

The Resilience Project lesson was a flood of emotions as we made masks to show different ways we can feel. 

We are having a great time this term learning so much, we can’t wait to see what the rest of the term brings.

P.A.T.H.

Tuckshop

Tuckshop are seeking help on Fridays.  If you are available to help out please complete the form below and return to the school office.

Prep Open Day

Athletics Carnival

Library

Community

CALLING ALL FEMALE FOOTBALLERS (PAST & PRESENT)

This year we have a jam packed program to celebrate Female Football Week!! Burdekin FC are proud to host a variety of events, open to all female footballers, to celebrate the growing development of female football in the Burdekin!

Please register your interest to any of the events by emailing the club: burdekinfc@hotmail.com

We can’t wait to see you there