Term 3 Week 1 2023
From the Principal
Dear Families,
Welcome back to Term 3! I hope you and your family had a fantastic break over the past two weeks and are now ready for another term full of learning, sporting and cultural experiences. It has been great to see all the smiling faces this week and hear about the adventures that were had throughout the holidays.
Last week you would have received the calendar for Term 3. As you would have seen it is already jam-packed with events. If you didn’t receive the calendar, please check your spam folder or contact the office to have a copy sent to you. You will also find a copy in the newsletter this week. Please keep an eye out in the Newsletter, on our Facebook feed or Compass messages for any updated information in regard to the calendar.
Mulkadee
Next week we have students from Years 5 and 6 taking part in Mulkadee. They will head to Townsville every day to take part in a week of musical experiences. Together with students from all over our diocese they will be practicing and preparing for their culminating performance of Robin Hood on Friday night. We wish them safe travels each day and all the best for their performance. I am looking forward to seeing the final production on Friday night!
FACE Meeting
Our FACE meeting for this term will be held on Tuesday at 8:30am in the Board Room. All are welcome to attend. At this meeting, we will discuss our Term 3 events, Father’s Day stall and our Mission Statement.
Founders’ Day
You will have received a Compass message this week about our annual Founders’ Day event to be held at BCHS on Monday 24th July. This is a wonderful chance for the three Burdekin schools to come together to share the story of the founders of the religious orders that established each school and take part in activities to celebrate our unique communities. Please ensure you complete the Compass permission for your child/ren.
Have a wonderful week.
Take care and God Bless
Amanda
Religious Life of the School
Welcome back. I trust you enjoyed the break from routine and are looking forward to Term 3. We have Catholic Education Week coming up, which will be a busy time and many Masses and a liturgy in August.
On Monday at assembly, we will have a visit from two Seminarians that are spending time in the Burdekin over the next week. We welcome Grant Sutherland and Bradley Davies, from the Holy Spirit Seminary.
Save the date
3rd August, Class Mass for Prep and Year 6
7th August, St Mary Mackillop Liturgy presented by 4A
24th August, Class Mass for Years 3 and 4
27th August, School Youth Mass
31st August, Class Mass for Years 1, 2 and 5
Prayer for the New School Term
Dear Heavenly Father,
As we begin this new school term, we come before you with grateful hearts for the opportunities that lie ahead. We thank you for the gift of education and the chance to learn and grow in knowledge and understanding. We ask for your guidance and wisdom as we embark on this journey. Help us to approach each day with a spirit of curiosity and a willingness to learn. Grant us the ability to grasp new concepts, overcome challenges, and achieve success in our endeavors.
Bless our teachers and families with patience and wisdom to nurture young minds.
We pray for students, that they may develop their friendships and support one another throughout this school term. May we create an environment of respect, kindness and inclusivity where everyone feels valued and encouraged to grow.
Lord, we surrender this school term into your hands, trusting that you will guide and bless us every step of the way. May we glorify you through our efforts and use the knowledge we gain for the betterment of ourselves and others.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
God bless
Nicole
Learning Corner
Welcome back to Semester 2!
Seeing how quickly and easily children settled back into routine was great. The holidays quickly became a distant memory as teachers introduced the new topics and skills for the term.
Students in Prep to Year 2 will complete the TCE Literacy and Numeracy Post tests this term. By the end of this term we will have a measure their learning growth over a six month period.
In the final weeks of this term, students in Years 2 to 6 will complete PAT Adaptive Tests in Reading and Mathematics.
Teachers will use the information to plan for the identified learning needs. For example, if the results show that a class has a strong understanding of fractions then this does not need to be a focus for teaching with the time allocated instead to areas that were identified as requiring more work. The learning needs of individual students are also identified and addressed. This review of what students have been taught and are expected to know often confirms judgements teachers have already made, but it is always helpful to have the data to support those judgements. However, as with all standardised tests, results will be considered with the evidence we already have about the student’s learning.
NAPLAN: NAPLAN test results were this week made accessible to all schools in digital form. The individual Student Reports are mailed to schools from mid to late July. As soon as these arrive and the student details have been checked, they will be sent home with the letter explaining the sections of the report.
Students will be allocated one of four levels of proficiency for each test.
They are:
Exceeding: The student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
Strong: The student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
Developing: The student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
Needs additional support: The student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
We will review the NAPLAN results as teaching staff to identify our curriculum areas of strength and those that need further development.
If you have questions or would like more information about anything mentioned above, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or me.
Rita Cranitch,
Learning and Teaching Adviser
Inclusive Practices Teacher
Rita Cranitch,
Learning and Teaching Adviser
Inclusive Practices Teacher
Guidance Counsellor
A SPECIAL REPORT: Celebrating NAIDOC Week
NAIDOC week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is celebrated by all Australians and is a great opportunity to recognise and learn more about the history and culture of indigenous communities.
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced back to the Aboriginal rights movement, when on Australia Day 1938, protestors marched through the streets of Sydney to highlight the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Today, it is a week-long celebration held in July that consists of range of traditional and contemporary activities.
NAIDOC Week is an important event that helps build positive relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. It enables a deeper understanding of our differences and similarities. NAIDOC week is an opportunity for all Australians to eliminate bias and discrimination by reflecting and reconciling the wrongs of the past to facilitate hope and build a fairer future. Families are encouraged to join in and support young people in learning the significance of NAIDOC Week.
This Special Report offers suggestions on how families can celebrate NAIDOC Week together. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.
If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to your special report:
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-celebrating-naidoc-week
Class in the Spotlight - 1A
We dived straight into some fun Year 1 work as we start Term 3 in 1A.
In English, we’ve continued working on our PLD phonics and enjoyed making craft to match our focus sound /er/. In Literacy Rotations we enjoyed some new activities like our word webs, smart chute and some typing club activities on our laptops.
In Maths, we’ve starting learning how to skip count. We went outside and did some number skipping then used our knowledge to work collaboratively with our classmates to make some visual representations of our 2’s, 5’s and 10’s skip counting patterns.
This week we also started our first ‘theme’ lesson where we are learning some fascinating information about insects to support us in completing our English information writing, Science, Media Arts and Design and Technology units which are all based around the insects we are studying. To kick off our theme lessons we looked at grasshoppers, we learnt some interesting facts to write a report, drew diagrams, made models with playdough and looked at their life cycles.
In Religion, we are starting to learn about Moses. We learnt about when he was a baby and Moses and the Burning Bush.
Finally, in PE we started our Gymnastics unit. This week we learnt about balance, strength and flexibility. We tried out some tricky balances and tried to remain still for 5 seconds! Some were super easy, some were a little more challenging.
1A
School Uniform Policy
Birthdays
Community
