Term 2 Week 6 2024

From the Principal

Dear Families,

This week is Laudato Si’ Week. Laudato Si' Week 2024 takes place from May 19 to May 26. This week is dedicated to commemorating Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home," which emphasises the importance of ecological awareness and action within the Catholic community and beyond.  The week is dedicated to promoting awareness, understanding, and action on the environmental issues highlighted in the document. The theme for 2024 is "Seeds of Hope." This theme encourages participants to foster hope through faith and love, particularly in the context of the ongoing ecological crisis. At St Francis, we are committed to developing practices that align with Pope Francis’ teachings in Laudato Si’ to ensure the sustainability and longevity of our common home for future generations. On Monday our Planet protectors led us in a Prayer and Assembly and encouraged our community to reflect on how each person here at school can take meaningful steps towards a more sustainable and just world. This year the Planet Protectors are continuing to work on embedding our composting and Containers for Change program. Our gardens are growing beautifully thanks to the hard work of the group and Miss Emily. The Planet Protectors also would like to encourage everyone to bring Nude Food on a Thursday. They are looking forward to sharing more about their projects throughout the year.

Fellowship

Each year the Institute of Sisters of Mercy Australia and Papua New Guinea in association with Catholic Religious Australia and Catholic Earthcare offer a fellowship program for emerging leaders in Integral Ecology awareness. This fellowship is inspired by Laudato Si’ and Indigenous wisdom and is designed for those who have a desire to be part of action for justice in response to the cries of the Earth and of those rendered poor.  I applied to be a fellow in this program in 2024 and have been accepted as part of the program. Throughout this program we explore the interconnections of our faith, spirituality and integral ecology and how we might inspire our communities towards living in greater harmony within the Earth’s limits. This is something that I have had great interest in over the past several years. Throughout this program, not only do I engage with professional reading and discuss the reading with a diverse group of people but I also participate in three immersion experiences. Unfortunately I missed the first immersion experience last term when I was unwell, but I am looking forward to heading to Queenscliff in the June holidays for the second experience and then to Cairns in August for the final immersion. During each immersion we visit sustainable/ecological sites, Indigenous local areas and participate in a range of contemplative activities. I look forward to deepening my knowledge and sharing my experiences with you all after participating in the immersions. 

We have our Prep Open Days coming up on the 7th and 10th of June.  If you or someone you know has a child due to start Prep in 2025, we invite you to come along for a taste of Prep. Please let us know if you are coming to one of our Prep Open Days and don’t forget to fill in your enrolment forms and drop them into the Office.

Nicole, Rita and I are looking forward to our Coffee and Chat with the Leadership Team on Wednesday morning. This is a chance for you to stay after dropping the kids off and have a chat with the three of us and with other parents in our community. This is an informal morning and we hope to see as many of you as possible. Our coffee and chat will be held in the Samaritan Centre. 

Don't forget that we will be hosting the sausage sizzle at Max Place Markets tomorrow and raising funds to go towards our playgrounds. We will also have a number board there with $5 numbers for a chance to win a $100 voucher to Butcher on Queen. We hope that you can come down and support our school. 

Have a wonderful week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

UR STRONG

“Help! My Child is Gossiping & Causing Conflict!”

Is your child getting involved in conflict? Do they seem to be sparking or spreading Friendship Fires?

As social creatures, we all want to feel that we belong. Sometimes children will gossip as a means of feeling close with others. So, it’s a matter of helping your child seek connection in positive ways instead.

Here are a few angles we would suggest in your discussions with your child:

1. BUILDING TRUST: In order to foster healthy friendships, your child needs to be trustworthy. If they’re at a URSTRONG School, they would have learned that Friendship Fact #3 states that Trust & Respect are the two most important qualities of a friendship. Ask your child, “How can you build trust with your friends?” Use the Friend-o-Meter in your discussion, reminding them to be a Green-Zone Friend. Here’s an activity to guide your chat!
2. BE KIND-ON-PURPOSE: Explain to your child that research shows that kids who are kind are the most well-liked and trusted by their peers. Get your child to brainstorm ways they can be Kind-on-Purpose to their classmates and friends. Intentional acts of kindness not only fosters feel-good friendships, but will also improve your child’s own wellbeing (evoking positive emotions).
3. SPREADING or SPARKING FRIENDSHIP FIRES: Remind your child that it’s important that they make choices that make Friendship Fires smaller, not adding fuel to Fires or spreading them around. Ask your child, “How can you put out Friendship Fires?” Here’s a video to show your child!
4. STAYING OUT OF THE MIDDLE: Encourage your child to focus on their own friendships and not get stuck in the middle of others’. In Friendology, they learn about not being in the middle of a Friendship Sandwich – it’s sticky & messy in there. Here’s a video to show your child!

Lastly, here’s a little reflection sheet that might be useful. It’s helpful for children to reflect on conflict in friendships and try to see the situation from a more objective perspective. The ‘fly on the wall’ question helps them to see things from another perspective, which ultimately, helps to strengthen empathy and compassion for others.

Religious Life of the School

Dear families,

Thank you to all of the families who came to our Youth Mass last Sunday. Your presence is greatly appreciated by our school and the parish. Fr Truong gave a lovely homily about the symbols of the Holy Spirit. He spoke of fire and how it is used to get rid of what is not needed on the cane, just as the Holy Spirit helps us get rid of what is not needed such as jealousy and greed. Water is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit Father Truong spoke about and how they both help us to be cleansed.

Laudato Si

This week has been Laudato Si Week. We celebrated as a school community on Monday at assembly and Prep, Year 5 and Year 6 celebrated again with their class mass on Wednesday morning.

Laudato Si' is an encyclical letter by Pope Francis, published on May 24, 2015. The title, "Laudato Si'", translates to "Praise Be to You" in Italian. It is taken from the opening line of Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun, which praises God for the creation of the different elements of the Earth. This encyclical is notable for its focus on environmental issues, marking a significant moment in the intersection of faith and environmental advocacy.

In the Bible, the creation story reads,

“Then God said, “Now let’s make humans who will be like us. They will rule over all the fish in the sea and the birds in the air. They will rule over all the large animals and all the little things that crawl on the earth.” (Gen 1:26)

This passage means that the earth and the animals are in our care. We are stewards of this beautiful world it is our job to take of each other, the planet and even the smallest of creatures. We were not asked to rule over it to have power but to be caretakers and take responsibility for its care.

Pope Francis understands this and by framing environmental stewardship as a moral and spiritual issue, he has sought to galvanise action across different sectors and communities, emphasising that caring for our common home is a shared responsibility.

Our Lady, Mary Help of Christians

Today is the feast of Mary, Help of Christians. Mary Help of Christians is the Patroness of Australia and the Townsville Catholic Diocese. The feast focuses on Mary’s help to those in need through her intercession to confront sin and to stand against anti-Christian forces. 

Today we acknowledged the occasion with a Whole School Christian Meditation.

Reconciliation

Best wishes to all of our students participating in reconciliation next week. May the Lord bless you on your First Reconciliation, may His love be upon you and His presence always guide you.

God Bless

Nicole

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - BODY IMAGE

Kids today are more obsessed with their body image than those in past generations. This is partially influenced by the media and their social connectivity. Encouraging kids to have a healthy body image in childhood, can lay the foundations for good physical and mental health later in life.

A recent study highlighted that body image is one of the top three concerns for Australian youth. Over half of girls in high schools have tried to lose weight. One-third of teenage boys wanted to be thinner and another third wanted to be larger. Children need to understand that their body shape and size is not a reflection of their health or success. Parents and schools need to work together to help kids understand that everyone is born with their own ‘body-suit’.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will learn how to encourage their child to have a positive body image and why it is so important to their mental health.

Here is the link to the Body Image edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/body-image

Library

Class in the Spotlight -3A

🌟 What an Exciting Week in 3A! 🌟

This week has been jam-packed with engaging activities! Our exploration of informative texts in English led us to discover fascinating facts about various animals. Using our laptops, we dived into research, focusing on different habitats. Our favourite project was creating triaramas. Each of us chose an animal, researched its habitat, and illustrated it. We then crafted a model of our animal to place inside its new home. They turned out fantastic!

We were thrilled to welcome the Adopt-a-School Cowboys for a special visit. They assisted us with our triaramas and answered all our curious questions about their work. They even showed us where to find more information about their team online.

Wednesday was extra special as we took part in National Simultaneous Storytime. We read 'Bowerbird Blues' by Aura Parker and transformed into Bowerbirds for the afternoon, embarking on a colourful scavenger hunt around the school. Mrs. Eathorne also joined us for a lesson on measuring length. We had a blast measuring different objects around the classroom and feel well-prepared for our test next week! 

In addition to all this fun, we've been working on our handwriting skills and keeping up with our PLD. We also kicked goals at the Eisteddfod last week. A big shoutout to Andi,  Joey and Arlo, who placed for their drawings! Great work guys! 

It’s been a fantastic week filled with learning and fun! Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend ahead!

3A

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