Issue 16 - 25 October 2016

Newsletter Articles

VISION STATEMENT

St Rita’s School will be a compassionate and supportive community built on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, specifically incorporating the Mercy Values which are lived out. We will be a values-based community reaching out to and welcoming the wider community. Our strong school spirit will shine. St Rita’s will be a school in which every member is respectful of self and others

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Parents and Carers,

The first weeks of Term 4 have been incredibly busy and exciting at St Rita’s. The community spirit, which is so evident in our school, was especially highlighted last week during the Harvest Festival celebrations. Our annual Trivia Night last Wednesday evening was once again a huge success with people of all ages enjoying an evening of fun and games. We thank the many parents who contributed by baking for the supper or making up a table of trivia competitors.

If you couldn’t make it this year, I urge you to come along next year to join in the fun. Getting a team together, dressing up for fun, and finding out how much you know or don’t know, is all part of this fun social event. Congratulations to the Babinda State School team, the ‘Stragglers’, who won first place for the fourth consecutive year.

Staff needs also to be congratulated for organising a vibrant school display and colourful parade float for the Harvest Festival. Everyone had to ‘hit the deck running’ last week to complete these extra tasks before Saturday. I would like to especially thank Russell Lauridsen and Mirriwinni Lime for once again supporting St Rita’s by providing the vehicle for the street parade. Also, our float was made larger and more effective by the generous loan of a trailer by Curly Lauridsen. Thanks from St Rita’s!

I appreciate that older children are often not keen to participate in a street parade, so staff was pleased to see a good turn-out of our senior students this year. Representing the school with pride in community events sets a good example to younger students and demonstrates leadership potential. Well done Mrs Masina and the Year 5/6 class!

The 12th annual Day for Daniel will be held on Friday 28th October and students are asked to wear a red t-shirt with their sports uniform on this day. The Daniel Morcombe Foundation held the first Day for Daniel in November 2005. This National Day of Action aims at raising awareness of child safety, protection and harm prevention. It also aims to help empower our children to ‘Recognise, React and Report’ if they feel something is not right.

By participating in ‘Day for Daniel’, St Rita’s aims:

• To raise awareness about child safety and protection and to promote a safer community for children.
• To educate children regarding their personal safety and empower them to ‘Recognise, React and Report’.
• To provide free safety and educational material.
• To honour the memory of Daniel Morcombe.
• To be part of the more than 1 million people Australia-wide who participate in Day for Daniel.

Next Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day, everyone is encouraged to have a little fun and “dress up” for the day. Students can come to school dressed for the occasion; as a jockey, horse or in fancy race wear. This is not a fund-raising event, but we ask that students remember to wear sun-safe clothing and appropriate footwear as normal school activity requires. Please no thongs or singlets!

As we are nearing the halfway point of Term 4 this week, and the busyness of the Babinda Harvest Festival is behind us, I encourage you to spend a little time thinking about how you can slow down and take time to do some of those little things in life. It is worth reflecting on this thought-provoking passage.

TAKE TIME

Take time to rest – it is the foundation of health and vitality.
Take time to think – it is the source of achievement.
Take time to read – it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to play – it is the secret of staying young.
Take time to be quiet – it is the opportunity to seek God.
Take time to share – it is too short a life to be selfish.
Take time to be aware – it is the opportunity to help others.
Take time to laugh – it’s the music of the heart.
Take time to be loved – it nourishes the soul.
Take time to be friendly – it is the road to happiness.
Take time to pray – it is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to dream – it’s the well of inspiration.
There is time for everything.

Have a good week!
Regards and blessings,

Judy Billiau

STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS 2016 - 2019

Direction 4: Prophetic and creative leadership

Evidenced by:

• Capacity building partnerships and processes
  Community capacity building is defined as ‘the process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organisations and communities need to survive, adapt and thrive in the fast-changing world’ (Wikipedia). In Catholic schools, we aim to empower all members of the community to increase their knowledge and skills to improve the learning outcomes and opportunities for the students in our care.
• Community partnerships which enhance the opportunities for students, families and schools to contribute to the common good
  Catholic schools strive to be places were all members of the community feel welcome to share in the life of the school. We strive to instil in our students an understanding of the common good through our social justice programs and providing opportunities to care for others less fortunate than ourselves. In our highly connected world, we provide our community members with the opportunity to be part of global conversations about the common good and inclusivity.
• Quality staff recruitment and retention through emphasis on wellbeing, growth, renewal and collaboration
  Catholic schools are committed to engaging quality staff in our schools and providing them with opportunities to grow and develop in their chosen profession. Our schools care for the wellbeing of our people and provide a nurturing environment and ongoing opportunities for learning.

At St Rita’s School we strive to provide opportunities for leadership for all members of our school community. Students are encouraged to be leaders within their classrooms by being positive and active learners as well as taking responsibility for caring for their class environment. Our older students have the opportunity to be school leaders and to become role models for our younger students in active engagement in the wider community. Each staff member is a leader in their own right and is empowered to make decisions which support student learning outcomes. We also encourage parents to be leaders within the school community by being active members of the Parents and Friends Association.

Judy Billiau
Principal

APRE THOUGHTS …..

This is a very exciting week in our calendar. As previously mentioned, October is Mission month and after celebrating our Mission Mass in Week 2, this week we are holding our fundraising activities. The first is Crazy Sock Day, where all children wear the craziest socks they can find to represent the concept of “Sock it to Poverty.” In the last session of the day, we will be holding a coin race between the houses, the longest line wins! Also on this day we will be having our 2nd Annual Paper Plane competition. A gold coin entry fee will be charged and there will be prizes for the longest throw and best design. This will be held during second lunch break on Wednesday. During the week, the children will be participating in lessons that relate to the work the Missions do, with the focus in 2016 on Cambodia.

Last week’s prayer assembly was beautifully presented by the Year 2/3/4 class. Thank you for those who continue to support our assemblies. The next one will be held on November 4th with the Prep/Year 1 class leading the prayer.

In Week Five we will also have the visitors from Natural Fertility Services, presenting the Wonders of Living Program. At St Rita’s we participate in this program on a bi-annual basis. Notes have been sent home providing information. Please remember all parents are invited to the Parent Information Session and are also welcome to join us for the session with their children during the day.

Finally, we ask you to keep Father Grundy in your prayers, as he has been transferred to Cairns Private Hospital where he continues to recover from his illness. Have a lovely fortnight everyone!

Bec Burns
Assistant Principal Religious Education

SEL SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING)

As mentioned last term, we have been trialling the program Play is the Way, with great success. You may have seen us most afternoons outside playing games together as a whole school. These games are working towards encouraging skills such as cooperation, strategic thinking, concentration and communication. We have trialled a number of games already, with many new ones to follow. The games are followed up with classroom activities that concentrate on a ‘Life Raft’ strategy with key concepts. These key concepts include, ‘Treat others as you would like them to treat you’, and ‘Be Brave’. More concepts will be focused on during 2017.

You may also notice in the coming years that the SEL curriculum will be more closely linked to the Health and Physical Education, Australian Curriculum. Cairns Catholic Education is placing a lot to time and effort to ensuring that these are matched so teachers have the best chance of delivering lessons and activities that improve the growth of the students’ emotional wellbeing, whilst meeting the requirements of the Australian Curriculum without overloading an already crowded curriculum.

It is very interesting to see how many areas of the ‘You Can Do It’ program are now linked directly to the Australian Curriculum, in both the General Capabilities as well as, HPE.

Bec Burns
SEL Coordinator

CASTING THE NET

Our Friends, the Saints

Friendship is one of the deepest joys we can know. Their love and support enhances our joy and pleasure in good times and helps us face pain and sorrow that could cripple us. Our experience of friendship is not confined to those here with us on earth. Those who have died continue to love us still. I experienced this somewhat dramatically in the past month. Without realising it, I had developed a serious heart condition. The local medicos were wonderful…but nothing was showing up on tests. I felt worse and worse till I prayed to Sr Joan, who had passed away last year.

We had lived together for 12 years and developed a deep friendship. From the bottom of my heart, I asked, ‘O Joan, please sort this out.’ Within 24 hours I was in Brisbane, a few hours later having an angiogram. During this, I felt I was dying but I was calm: Joan was with me, more real than if she had been sitting there. I lived. The relief of the stent was that dramatic but more dramatic was the loving presence that had been with me. Thank you Joan.

Sr Joan is one of my personal saints. You have yours. They are the people who have known and loved you over the years – your grandparents and friends, work colleagues and, perhaps especially a child who has died. They watch over us, caring and loving us. They are with us and we need to take the time to sit and bask in their love. Next week, the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints. This is our time to delight in our friends, our saints.

Loving God, I thank you for the people who have loved me through my life. Let me appreciate how much care my departed loved ones have for me and let me delight in speaking to them of our love and of my need. I ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear me.

Sr Kym Harris osb

COUNSELLOR’S CORNER

Nature versus Nurture

Dear Parents,

Over the years there has been much discussion about how much of children’s behaviour is influenced by their genetics, “Gosh…he is just like his mother/father”, or how much it is influenced by a child’s environment, “Who taught our child that?”

This debate has changed its focus over the years to not what percentage can be attributed to either nature or nurture, but to how each part contributes to the child’s overall development.

I think it is always important to think about what media does your child have access to, what friendship groups does your child keep, what sporting groups your child is in and what do they represent? We also need to ask ourselves:

• What values do we encourage in our family?
• Are the adults being good role models for the children in the household?
• What part does respect of self and others play in your house?

We have heard that it takes a whole community to raise a child, so let’s make sure that we know, support and monitor the environments we allow our children to enter either physically or virtually.

Yours in counselling,

Carmel Parisi

CURRICULUM CORNER

At Consistency of Teacher Judgment Day this year, classroom teachers collaborated on the planning and assessment of Reading Comprehension. Reading is a huge part of the English curriculum and it is much more than decoding the written word. Classroom teachers often explain to parents that although decoding skills are solid, the child is not necessarily comprehending the text adequately, as the process of comprehending texts involves much more than the ability to decode words. In the classroom, teachers specifically plan to develop effective comprehension skills in readers. How do they do this? At St Rita’s, the ‘First Steps’ literacy program is used to teach comprehension strategies.

Why Teach Strategies?

Effective teachers have an understanding of how reading occurs and are able to plan learning experiences and instruction that support students to become more successful readers. Teachers play an important role in ensuring that all students build up a bank of knowledge that can be accessed during the reading process. Teachers often work tirelessly to ensure that students have knowledge of:

• a growing list of high frequency words
• graphophonic elements
• grammatical features of the English language
• text structures and organisation
• topics and concepts
• cultural and world matters.

One of the most crucial elements of supporting reading development is the explicit teaching of reading strategies so readers are able to access their prior knowledge during reading. The process of comprehending texts involves much more than the ability to decode words. A reader must actively integrate a range of strategies, including both word identification and comprehension strategies to draw upon all available knowledge in the form of cues. Efficient readers have often automated many of these reading strategies so many occur subconsciously.

The teaching of comprehension and word identification strategies is essential. Explicit demonstrations, on-going scaffolding and opportunities to practise and apply reading strategies will support all readers to identify unknown words, prepare for, monitor and adjust their reading.

(‘First Steps’ Reading Resource Book, Department of Education, Western Australia, 2013, p 112)

SWIMMING PROGRAM

Swimming is an integral part of the H.P.E. curriculum provided by St Rita’s. It is expected that all students participate in the six-week swimming program during Weeks 2 - 8 of this term. It is a safety requirement that slip-on style footwear (such as thongs) be worn when walking to and from the pool, and that a sunshirt or t-shirt be worn to provide sun protection during the lessons. Each class will have a minimum of three instructors; Mrs Masina, the accredited instructor, the classroom teacher and Ms Tua.

We encourage all students to have their own roll-on sunscreen in their school bags so it can be applied before leaving for the pool. Because of the possibility of allergies to specific sunscreen products, the school cannot provide sunscreen to students. H.P.E. is not an optional subject, so students will need to bring a note (written in student diary) if they are sick and unable to participate in a lesson.

Many thanks to Alana Mellick for assisting our coaches in the pool every Friday!

AROUND THE CLASSROOMS

On Saturday the 22nd of October, St Rita’s school were part of the Harvest Festival parade. The theme this year was ‘Colour’. We were all dressed up as Mexicans. We painted our own vests in very colourful patterns. We sat in the back of the trailer and the older children walked behind us. We waved at everyone as we went past and we had maracas to shake. They made a lot of noise. Lots of people took photos of us. Our mums and dads stood in the street and watched us walk past.

In the parade, there were also dragons, dancing people, a rainbow pony and people drumming. The other schools were in the parade too. St Rita’s won 2nd place!

After the parade, we went to the festival where there was lots of food and drinks to buy. Some of us had strawberry slushies. Our school made wraps, which are called burritos. There were chips as well. We saw the pretty princesses. They were wearing crowns in their hair and holding flowers. They looked like they were in a wedding.

Then a helicopter dropped lots of lollies down on the grass and all the children ran to get the lollies. The man didn’t even say ‘Go’ so we were told we might not have a lolly drop next year.

In the night time there were fireworks and pony rides. It was a very fun and exciting day. We can’t wait until the next Harvest Festival.

By Prep and Year One

LIBRARY LINKS

Hello to all our St Rita’s families.

We all know how very important it is for children to develop a love of reading, early on in their lives. As parents, we try to foster a love of books and what they can offer, by reading to our children whenever possible and also by listening to them read to us. This sharing of stories is always special time spent together. In our time poor world, it is sometimes difficult to have time to sit down together in the traditional way. Consider having your child read to you while you prepare dinner, or while you are driving together in the car. It doesn’t matter how this sharing of stories happens; what matters is that it does.

Children love telling me about a book they have read recently, what they liked or didn’t like most about it and why. Sometimes they feel they could have come up with a better ending themselves! In that spirit, I thought I would share ‘Becoming Better Readers’. There are some great conversation starters to give you an insight into what your child enjoys reading and why.

HAPPY READING!

Lisa Calcagno
Library Assistant

DATE CLAIMERS

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

St Rita’s School congratulates those students who were awarded ‘Student of the Week’ at Assembly on Monday 24th October 2016.

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wishes Elijah Geary and Emerson Burns all the very best for their recent birthdays. We hope you had wonderful birthday celebrations. Congratulations Elijah and Emerson!

P & F NEWS

A huge thank you to our wonderful St Rita’s teachers, parents and students for a successful 2016 Harvest Festival! We were struck by awesomeness as we watched the St Rita’s amazing Mexican float in the procession. A very special thanks to Mrs Donna Lauridsen and staff who, as usual, put in a huge effort to achieve such a creative and striking result.

The Mexicana theme carried on into the food stall. This was a sell-out success and a delicious one at that!

Thank you to all the parents and teachers who worked to plan, prepare and serve the food. We are very proud of the healthiness and flavour of the wraps that were served at the St Rita’s food stall and we had lots of good comments. Julie Schep and helpers, thank you for bringing this all together, we appreciate your hard work. The Sunday clean-up also went well with everything done in about two hours. Thank you again parents and children for your support!

We are always overwhelmed by the number of people that step up and help out on occasions such as these. St Rita’s is truly blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive school community.

Regards,

St Rita’s P & F Committee

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

COMMUNITY NEWS

Well Women’s Clinic – Babinda Hospital

(This clinic is available to Medicare eligible clients)

Wednesday 9th November 2016

All services are provided by a specially-trained Women’s Health Nurse.

For appointments phone 4067 8200

BABINDA CATHOLIC WOMEN’S GROUP ‘CENT SALE’

The Catholic Women’s Group invites you to its Christmas Cent Sale on the 5th November. It promises, once again, to be an afternoon of fun and games, with 250 prizes, $200 meat raffle, $200 Christmas tree raffle, Christmas hamper spot raffle and a scrumptious afternoon tea.

Details as follows:

When: Saturday 5th November 2016
Where: R. S. L., School Street
Time: Doors open at 12.00 pm for a 1.30 pm start
Entry: Adults $5.00 Children $1.00