Term 2 Week 10 2023

From the Principal

Dear Families,

Tomorrow, St Francis will celebrate NAIDOC Day.  It is a significant occasion to celebrate the rich history, diverse cultures, and remarkable achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  NAIDOC Day allows us to honour their contributions, recognize their resilience, and promote reconciliation.  

As a Catholic school, it is crucial that we incorporate Indigenous perspectives and knowledge into our curriculum and everyday practices.  Tomorrow, the students will participate in a liturgy and cultural activities to deepen their understanding, celebrate diversity and promote an inclusive community.

I would also like to bid you farewell as my time at St Francis ends. Though short, being part of this wonderful community has been a whirlwind of activity and an honour.  Thank you for welcoming me with open arms.

I extend my gratitude to the exceptional teachers and staff who work tirelessly to create a nurturing environment for their students.   To the students, continue embracing knowledge, pursuing your dreams, and following the Good Samaritan's P.A.T.H.  Your potential is boundless.  

I wish you all continued success and happiness.  Amanda will be back in the principal seat at the beginning of next term!

Warm regards,
Sharyn Bell
Acting Principal

Religious Life of the School

Well we made it through another term. It has been a busy term with lots of liturgy and Masses. I would like to thank everyone who has helped in any way or attended any of these celebrations.

Saturday celebrates the solemnity of John the Baptist, June 24th. John the Baptist was a significant figure in the New Testament of the Bible and played a crucial role in preparing the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist was born to elderly parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was a cousin of Jesus, as Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth were related. John's birth was announced by the angel Gabriel and was marked by miraculous circumstances.

He emerged as a prophetic figure in the wilderness, wearing camel's hair clothing and a leather belt. He preached a message of repentance, urging people to turn away from their sins and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. His preaching attracted large crowds, and many people were baptized by him in the Jordan River as a symbol of their repentance, even Jesus. This marked the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.

John the Baptist's message had a profound impact on the people of his time. His call for repentance and baptism played a significant role in preparing the hearts of people for the arrival of Jesus and the establishment of His kingdom. Jesus Himself spoke highly of John, describing him as a prophet and the greatest among those born of women.

His unwavering commitment to his mission and his willingness to speak truth to power, continue to inspire believers today.

NAIDOC DAY

Our NAIDOC Day will be a fun day tomorrow.  We will start our day learning about NAIDOC and what Elders are. Liturgy will be extra special with a visit to the garden to place our hands as part of the liturgy reflection. Our hands have been decorated with images, words or prayers about the people we think of as Elders in our lives.

After lunch we will participate in classroom activities including art using local language words, Aboriginal games and the Torres Strait Islander Taba Naba dance.

During the afternoon we will clean up Country and gather together to share our day. Look out for photos on Facebook.

Wishing you a blessed and safe break. I look forward to seeing you all next term.

God bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

SEMESTER REPORT TIME!!

What will be the first item on the semester report that you will look at on Friday at 3.00 pm when reports are released?

The results for each subject in P-6 will not predict the level of success in Years 11-12.

The most significant indicators of success are a positive attitude to learning, a high attendance rate and a consistent effort.

The classroom focus is student progress. You may think your child is not progressing because they receive a ‘C’ in each reporting period. A student who consistently gets a ‘C’ is progressing well.

The Achievement Standards for each subject in each year start with:’By the end of Year…….’ The Semester One report is a progress report rather than an end-of-year summary. It indicates if your child is successful.

If your child is not achieving a ‘C’ standard, you will be requested to meet with your child’s teacher. This meeting will focus on the possibility of a learning difficulty or disability if one has not already been identified and diagnosed. The teacher will explain the strategies they will implement to support your child’s learning in the classroom. Often even with strategies in place, your child will continue to achieve at a ‘D’ standard, but the emphasis is on progress. Is your child making visible progress with learning?

 If your child is achieving an ’A’ standard, the question to ask is if my child is making progress. It is possible to have a child receiving an ‘A’, but the learning progress is minimal. The ‘A’ standard means they are engaging with complex and unfamiliar tasks extending their analytical and problem-solving skills.

As you review the Semester Report with your child, ask them about their achievements and challenges and together, set one goal they can work towards next term. Write the goal and display it where it is easily seen regularly. This becomes a great reference point to talk about learning next term.

May the holiday be filled with fun activities and quality sharing time.

 Rita Cranitch,                                                                                  

Learning and Teaching Adviser

Inclusive Practices Teacher

CONGRATULATIONS to Popi and Noah for participating in the BLAH finals in Townsville last weekend. Cheers to Popi on her win!

Blah Communication Challenge

On the night of Saturday the 17th of June we went to JCU to compete in BLAH - a Public Speaking competition similar to Col’s Lecturette. 17 children in Grades 4-6  from Townsville and the Burdekin competed for the top prize of 300 dollars worth of Officeworks gift cards.

Jake’s Experience 

 At the first training with Joanne I was scared to think that I have to speak about my best skill - drawing. Then after a week of writing and practising my speech  I went to the heats and got feedback from the adjudicators, adjudicators in training and Joanne. When I got home I started on my speech. I added more detail and converted it to palm cards and started practising a lot. On Saturday 17 June at JCU Popi and I went to the finals. I was the 2nd person to go up and deliver my speech and then Popi was the 8th person. Suddenly Popi won and we celebrated with a Triple Whopper. It was good to eat.

Popi’s Experience

I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the feedback I got from Joanne (our coach) and the adjudicators. Joanne helped me to get ideas for my speech and helped me make it amazing. When I first put my speech on palm cards I realised the speech was way too long so I cut it down to 2 minutes and 44 seconds. Palm cards were amazing because they added a sense of calmness that I could just look on to them and see where I was at.  All I had to do after I put  my speech on palm cards was to practise. I was very sad I had to miss the Townsville heats for Netball because I could have gotten even more feedback. Some of the feedback  I got said I had a good pace which was very important and I was very confident in delivering my speech. I was the 8th person to say mine and I was extremely afraid because there were some amazing speeches before me. 

There were really good speeches  at BLAH and the suspense of the winner was killing us. After all of the speeches were made the adjudicators made their decisions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd.. Joanne gave out chocolates for the people who didn’t get anything. Suddenly they called  the winner. It was Popi. She won 1st place and then we went to Hungry Jacks to celebrate. After all of that it was an amazing experience and we learned so much about public speaking.

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - INTERNET ADDICTION

In today’s digital environment, the internet can be viewed as a valuable tool for education, research and entertainment. Young people today tend to go from one screen to another, but how much is too much? Time spent in the ‘screen world’ has parents concerned that their kids may be missing out on real life experiences. Therefore, it is vitally important to a child’s wellbeing for parents to regulate a child’s internet use.

Internet addiction can cause significant psychological and social problems for children in years to come. The true effects on future generations is not yet known, but there are strategies that parents can implement now.

In this edition, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg discusses what causes internet addiction, who is most at risk and what parents can do to regulate the amount of time their kids spend online each day.

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 Internet Addiction edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/internet-addiction

Class in the Spotlight -PB

Prep B is our Class in the Spotlight this week. What a busy week we had in Prep B!  On Monday, we got to be big Grade 1 and 2 students for the morning while Miss Tatnell was meeting new Kindy friends at the 2023 Prep Open Day. We had lots of fun and loved having a buddy to guide us through our activities.In English this term we have been learning about Fairytales and identifying our likes and dislikes about the different characters. Each week we focused on a new story and wrote about our favourite parts. We have also been practising our drawing and writing skills by providing feedback to each other. On Tuesday, we took our Literacy Rotations outside. We worked on our drawing skills, word blending and CVC writing. We even got to write on the big brick wall, but don’t stress we made sure we cleaned it off! In Maths, we have been learning all about teen numbers. We have focused on identifying that a teen number is a whole 10 and some extras. We used MAB Blocks, tens frames and unifix cubes to build teen numbers. We also love to say our chant “Numbers in the teens, start with a 1” to help us when we write our teen numbers. In Technology, we have finally learnt how to log onto our laptops and navigate to the different websites we use to help us to learn. Some of our favourites are Literacy Planet, Matific and ABCya. Finally, on Thursday, we participated in our first-ever Athletics Carnival. We ran really fast and loved going around to each rotation and showing off what we have learnt during PE Lessons. Thanks, Mrs Eathorne, for all of your hard work and making sure we were ready for our big day!

PB

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 33

Next

P.A.T.H.

Athletics Carnival Results

Aggregate Trophy - Samaritan            Spirit Trophy - Champagnat

Supporters Day

Supporters Day

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 9

Next

Book Fair

Community