Term 3 Week 9 2023

From the Principal

Dear Families,

This week is Child Protection Week. On Monday we welcomed Alyse Howard and Krystal Stevens from the Student Protection Department at Townsville Catholic Education to Assembly. Alyse and Krystal spoke to the students about the 3 R’s - Recognise, React and Report. Students were encouraged to use their body clues such as butterflies in their tummy, sweaty palms, shaky legs as well as clues in the environment to recognise when they are in an unsafe situation. Students then react by yelling or removing themselves from that environment before reporting to an adult what has happened. These messages have also been reinforced across the week through the various activities that have been completed in classrooms. Students have reviewed their 5 safe people, that is the adults in their lives that they can talk to if something is wrong. Classes have also participated in Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson which is provided by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. I encourage you to talk to your child/ren about what they have learnt this week.

What a fun filled morning we had this morning where the youngest members of our community were celebrated at our annual Under 8’s Day. Under 8’s is about acknowledging the importance of learning in the early years of a child’s life and is designed to embrace the joy of early childhood. The theme for 2023 was Play… You, Me and our Communities. We were very fortunate to have many members of our local community join us for the morning. Thank you to our early years teachers and support staff for making the morning such a wonderful experience for not only our students but also children from our community.

Have a wonderful week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

Samaritan Day

Next Friday we will celebrate Samaritan Day. It is a day we celebrate the special Religious character of our school. We focus on the three Charisms that have given us our Catholic Identity.

1. The Good Samaritan Sisters were founded by Bede Polding and began teaching students in our school in 1912.
2. The Marist Brothers joined the Sisters teaching at our school in the 1960s.
3. St Francis Xavier who our school is named after was a missionary and is a Patron Saint of Australia.

Together, these three Charisms have been broken down to give us our Catholic Identity Model of: Love of Christ, Love of Neighbour and Love in Action. All three demonstrated these qualities and give our school inspiration for how to live our lives.

We will start our day with a liturgy in the Samaritan Centre and all are welcome to join us.  Students will then break into three groups and complete rotation activities with some activities competing in their house colours.  Students may wear an appropriate sun safe shirt in their house colour for the day.  We are looking forward to a fun day to finish off Term 3.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Next Thursday, September 14, is The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a Catholic feast day. It commemorates the discovery of the True Cross of Jesus Christ by Saint Helena during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 4th century. This feast emphasises the importance of the Cross as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice and redemption, reminding believers of the central role the Cross plays in their faith and salvation.

Assembly

Thank you to 3/4B for assembly last week and teaching us about Child Protection Week.

Save The Date

15th September, Samaritan Day Liturgy 9am

God bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

Is knowing enough to succeed?

Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum in Mathematics has been reshaped to emphasise the importance of skills in Mathematics. These are the proficiencies that are present in every year level. The proficiencies were always present but now they have been emphasised.

The proficiencies describe the actions that students can engage in when learning and using mathematical content.

The proficiencies are:

Understanding:  This is when students develop an understanding of the relationship between the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of mathematics. They can describe their thinking using the language of mathematics. 

Fluency: Students are fluent when calculating answers efficiently, using the processes that suit the question. They recall definitions and number facts and use this knowledge to answer questions.

Reasoning: Students are reasoning mathematically when they explain their thinking. They adapt the known to the unknown and explain their choices.

Problem-solving: Students are problem-solving when they make choices, interpret, formulate, model and investigate problem situations, and communicate solutions effectively. They apply what they know to seek solutions, and then check that their answers are reasonable.

These proficiencies work together like strings forming a braid to develop successful learners in Mathematics. Mathematics is more than knowledge and recall of mathematical facts.

Congratulations to ‘The Gargantuous Brains’, our team of Year six students who participated in the Townsville Catholic Education Quest for Knowledge. The quest was completed online using Google Classroom and observed via Zoom. Each team was sent three sets of 20 questions to finish in 20 minutes. They then received the next set of three sets followed by a brief break. This process was repeated three times. The question sets covered a range of topics, including Mathematics. It was terrific to observe how the four students collaborated and shared their knowledge and experiences to decide on and justify their answers.

The next challenge for interested Year six students is the B.M. COLLS MEMORIAL

LECTURETTE COMPETITION. Held on Wednesday evening, November 1st  in Home Hill, entrants will be required to deliver a three-minute persuasive speech.

Rita Cranitch,                                                                                 

Learning and Teaching Adviser

Inclusive Practices Teacher

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - RAISING GIRLS

Raising girls in today’s modern world can be a difficult path for parents and carers to navigate. These days, girls are transitioning to puberty a lot earlier than they used to and the physical, psychological and emotional changes they experience are challenging. As a result, by mid-adolescence, girls are twice as likely to develop mood disorders more so than boys.

Some parents and carers may feel uncertain about how best to support their daughter through the ups and downs of adolescence and how to keep the lines of communication open. With the rise of social media and technology, mental health difficulties in girls are increasing as often they are faced with online images that make it difficult to see themselves as acceptable. Ensuring a daughter’s opinions are heard and her views listened to, will go a long way towards making her feel loved and supported as she tries to establish her own identity.

In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers will attain a clearer picture of what girls are wanting from their adult carers and how best to support them through adolescence.

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 Raising Girls edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/raising-girls

Class in the Spotlight -

English and Science 

• We have been learning about various insects
• We created an information report about our favourite insect
• On pumpkin leaves we were able to see tiny red mite bugs under the microscope moving around. 
• We have 3 Lacewing bug eggs waiting to hatch. They are hanging upside down on the pumpkin leaf 

Media Arts

• We have been creating stop motion animations
• We created an insect out of clay, painted it and created its habitat. 
• We then took 50 + photographs to create the animation 
• After creating our animations we recorded a voice over about our insect. 

Child protection

• This week we have a been looking at child protection and what it means to feel safe
• We listed our safety people at home and school

Under 8's Day was so much fun!

1A

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