Issue 9 – 5 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

MISSION STATEMENT

St Rita’s School mission is to create a community which inspires a love of holistic, life-long learning grounded in the Catholic Christian faith. Childhood is celebrated and nurtured by caring adults. A student’s capacity for their best future is realised in the context of our small rural community. We provide a safe and supportive environment, characterised by strong, life-giving and respectful relationships with students, staff, families, parish and the wider community. The school strives to ensure we are living out the Mercy values.

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Parents and Carers,

Since our last newsletter, our gifted ‘Borobi’, the official mascot of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, has arrived at St Rita’s! We were so very fortunate to win one of the four Borobis that the Cairns Regional Council was offering to schools in the region after the Games had concluded. Division 1 Councillor, Mr Brett Moller, visited school last week to officially present the Borobi to St Rita’s and to see its new home. Many thanks CRC and Councillor Moller!

On Thursday 24th May, all students and staff left the school for excursions to Under 8s’ Day at Babinda State School and a visit to the Cairns Aquarium. I had an awesome day with Mrs Masina, Miss Dewis and the Prep, Year 1s and Year 2s celebrating Under 8s’ with art, craft, music, dance, outdoor sport, and everyone’s favourite, a petting zoo. On behalf of St Rita’s, I would like to thank the organisers of this special event for the young children of the local district. Well done!

Mrs Jago, Mrs Harbour, Mrs Stone and Mrs Calcagno transported the older students to Cairns on that morning to visit the Cairns Aquarium. Without the support of staff and parents in providing transport on excursions and camps, these events would not be possible. The children enjoying viewing the extensive range of animals in the aquarium and having the opportunity to learn more in the Science units that are presently being studied, Animal Habitats and Underwater Environments.

It has been wonderful to witness the progress the children have made with Mrs Masina’s athletics program this term. Skills in sprinting, distance running, relays, high jump, long jump and shot put have been fostered in PE lessons and Thursday afternoon rotations. High Jump training has been very popular, with the focus being on achieving a higher P.B. even of one centimetre. On Assembly last Friday, Mrs Masina encouraged all children to aim a little higher, as some athletes are very close to breaking the school records for their ages.

To further promote skills in athletics, last Wednesday Miss Natasha Di Carlo from Little Athletics Program for Schools (LAPS) worked with Mrs Masina during P.E. lessons to provide additional specialist coaching for our students. We appreciated Natasha’s visit and the children were particularly keen to use new equipment, such as the vortexes and hurdles, to demonstrate their athletic skills. We are looking at purchasing additional athletics resources this term with our Coles Sporting Schools vouchers.

The highlight of the term’s lessons is our Interhouse Athletics Carnival, which has been rescheduled to take place on Wednesday 20th June. After completing a program of track events at Bill Wakeham Park, we will return to school for the field events and ball games in the afternoon. Parents and families are most welcome to join us on the day. A team of older students (9 - 12 years) has been selected to compete at the Combined Schools carnival at Babinda State School on Friday 15th June. Mrs Masina, Mrs Jago and Mrs Julie Schep will be assisting at this competition next Friday.

Our Term 2 Disco plans are well underway! We have invited all children in the Kindy to Year 7 age groups this year, and the P & F hopes to host another successful social event to end the school term. The theme for the disco is fluoro colours, with prizes for ‘best dressed’ outfit and the many games which will be enjoyed during the evening. The P & F is organising a BBQ, so parents can have the ‘night off’ cooking and enjoy a relaxing evening together. For catering purposes, could you please complete and return the attendance and food order slip that was sent home yesterday. See you there!

As a proud Queenslander, this Wednesday holds special significance for everyone in this great state of ours. Queensland Day, 6th June, is a celebration of Queensland’s birthday and its official separation from New South Wales as an independent colony on 6th June 1859. Celebrated annually, Queensland Day is an opportunity to commemorate the state’s culture, heritage, people, places and industry.

This year, Queensland will mark its 159th birthday on Wednesday 6th June. In celebrating Queensland Day, the community can share a sense of pride in being both Australian and a Queenslander. It is a time to reflect on how lucky we are to be part of such a wonderful, diverse state.

On the weekend, a staff team, ‘The Dominoes’, competed in the Aloomba State School Trivia Night. I am ashamed to admit, we did not know the answer to the question about Queensland’s bird emblem. Although we knew the animal (faunal) and floral emblems, no team member knew which bird is depicted on our state’s Coat of Arms. Although this bird has featured on the Queensland Coat of Arms since 1977, it wasn’t until January 1986 that it was announced as the official bird emblem of Queensland.

On this Queensland Day, I challenge you to learn more about Queensland, not only learning about our bird emblem, but the Queensland gem and our state’s aquatic emblem also.

Have a happy Queensland Day everyone, and GO THE MAROONS on Wednesday night!

Regards,
Judy Billiau

THE 3Rs: RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RULES

St Rita’s School-wide Positive Behaviour framework, the 3Rs, is committed to providing students and staff with a safe and happy learning and working environment. The policy promotes the development of quality interpersonal relationships between all members of our school community through positive attitudes and behaviour.

The Framework provides set guidelines for student behaviour, helps students develop appropriate strategies for solving problems and resolving conflicts, and fosters positive relationships between all members of the school community. It includes an outline of a three-tier process for consequences of inappropriate behaviour that is used within the classroom and playground settings.

RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES go ‘hand in hand’. Put simply, for every right that a child has at school, there is a related responsibility. For example,

I have the RIGHT to be respected at school.
And it is my RESPONSIBILITY to respect others at school.

Rights, responsibilities and rules are linked together by relationships within the school, and should work together to create a caring school community.

The aim of the 3Rs framework is for students to take ownership and responsibility for their own actions and behaviour, to respect the rights of others and acknowledge their responsibilities towards others, and to support positive relationships within the school community.

WINTER UNIFORM

The cooler weather has arrived! And so has the need for parents to find the St Rita’s winter uniform that has been stored away during summer. We stock navy blue jackets and long pants which are our winter uniform at St Rita’s.

As stock is available in all sizes at the School Office, we ask that you ensure your child is wearing the correct school uniform to school during the winter months.

• Navy blue jacket ($30)
• Navy blue long pants ($25)

Thank you for helping St Rita’s students look smart at school!

ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING

Over the past weeks, teachers have been extremely busy preparing Semester One Reports for the students at St Rita’s School. In the last week of term, from Wednesday 27th June, these formal written reports will be available for viewing and downloading on the Parent Portal. I encourage you to review your child’s Report thoroughly and to contact your classroom teacher for an interview if you have any concerns or queries.

For your information, I am including an excerpt from the Cairns Catholic Education Services Guideline on Student Reporting document, which provides instruction to schools for complying with Australian Government and Diocesan requirements for reporting student achievement:

Rationale and expectations:

In Catholic schools, student achievement is recognised and celebrated in many ways throughout the school year; at informal meetings, through awards at school assembly, parent/student/teacher interviews, through class work that is sent home, through class oral presentations and through written reports.

Reporting communicates information that has been obtained from a variety of assessment processes and involves a professional judgment made on a body of evidence about a student’s progress and achievement against a set of clearly articulated standards. In Catholic schools in the Diocese of Cairns the key principles of reporting are:

• Teacher professional judgment is at the heart of reporting student achievement.
• Teachers’ knowledge and observation of the students’ progress contributes to this professional judgment.
• Teacher professional judgment is informed by assessment data and referenced to the curriculum framework.
• The teacher develops assessment tasks and identifies the criteria which inform judgments about the child’s achievement.
• Teachers utilise the evidence from a body of work to make a judgment against standards at a point in time.

Teachers should keep a folio of the evidence of a student’s work.

When reading your child’s Report and reviewing their Student Work Folio, please keep in mind that these are only two sources of feedback about student progress. Throughout the year there are opportunities for parent-teacher interviews to provide parents with comprehensive feedback on individual student progress. This includes feedback on your child’s behaviour in class and discussion of potential learning goals that the teacher has targeted for the individual student.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK

29 July – 4 August 2018

Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across Queensland from 29 July – 4 August this year. This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day. The theme for this year’s celebrations is: Discovering New Horizons.

Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.

During Catholic Education Week 2018, Catholic education communities across Queensland are invited to celebrate how they are discovering new horizons. There are 304 Catholic schools in Queensland that educate around 147,000 students and employ more than 19,000 teachers and staff, and most will celebrate Catholic Education Week in some way.

St Rita’s School is planning a number of activities during the week and we hope you are able to join in the celebrations with us.

APRE THOUGHTS

Mercy Values

In the latter years of the 1800s, and throughout the 1900s, the Sisters of Mercy were instrumental in establishing many of the Catholic schools in Far North Queensland, as populations in small towns grew. Indeed, the history of the Catholic Church in the far north is intrinsically linked to these religious women’s commitment and ministry through their work in the order of the Sisters of Mercy.

Many of these women journeyed from Dungarvan in Ireland, leaving their families, to live in service to Catholic communities in an unfamiliar land. They established and administered many Catholic schools, beginning with St Mary’s in Cooktown in 1888 (following the discovery of gold in the region) and ending with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School of Thursday Island in 1968. St Rita’s Parish School, in Babinda, was established in 1926.

Founded by Venerable Catherine McAuley, the Sisters of Mercy were dedicated to serving those who experienced injustice borne out of poverty, illness or lack of education. Much ministering was provided to vulnerable women and children in particular, with a focus to empower them through further education and skill development; hence the creation of fifteen parish schools in the Far North Queensland, most of which are still in operation.

Though Catholic schools in the Cairns Diocese are no longer staffed by religious women, those established by the Sisters of Mercy are still regarded as ‘Mercy’ schools. Still today, connections to the order are deeply valued, and the Mercy history and traditions are celebrated. In all Mercy schools, we try to emulate the Mercy charism and ethos. Mercy Education Values include: Compassion, Justice, Respect, Hospitality, Service and Courage.

Sacramental Program

Last Friday afternoon, the five candidates from our Sacramental Program received their First Rite of Reconciliation with Father Kerry. The next stage of their faith journey is the Sacrament of Confirmation, which is the second Sacrament of Initiation. Confirmation follows on from the Sacrament of Baptism, reaffirming promises made at Baptism, and expresses full belonging to the Church. Confirmation ‘seals’ recipients with the Holy Spirit and strengthens them for service.

The ceremony of Confirmation will be celebrated at St Rita’s Church by Bishop James Foley and Father Kerry Crowley on Thursday 21st June, commencing at 6pm. All parish and school families and friends are welcome to attend this significant occasion in support. Please note that this will be a liturgy only, not a mass. We ask also that you keep these young people in your prayers, as they continue to prepare for this sacrament.

Whole School Mass and Reconciliation

Please feel very welcome to join the St Rita’s school community on Wednesday 6th June from 12:15pm, as we celebrate our Whole School Mass. Prior to this, the Year 5/6 children will have the opportunity to participate in a Reconciliation ceremony, commencing at 11:15am.

Blessings,

Maureen Gaul
Assistant Principal (Religious Education)

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING

HELPING CHILDREN LEARN POSITIVE FRIENDSHIP SKILLS

How friendships develop and change

Friendships require give and take. By sharing toys, time, games, experiences and feelings, children learn that they can have their social needs met and can meet the needs of others. Since friendships develop through this kind of mutual exchange, close friendships are usually based on well marched needs.

Similarly, children’s ideas about friendship change as they develop. This is reflected in the different kinds of activities that children like to spend time doing with their friends at different ages.

Friendship patterns in the primary years

Children choose friends who have similar interests and enjoy similar activities. During primary school close friendships are most often with a child of the same sex. This is related to children’s preferences in play. Boys tend to prefer active kinds of play in groups, whereas girls typically prefer gentler games in pairs or threes and use talk more that action. Such preferences may be especially strong around the age of 8-9 when many children become more aware of social expectations regarding girls’ and boys’ behaviour. These expectations can create difficulties for boys who are interested in gentler kinds of play and for girls who prefer the kind of active play that is usually associated with boys.

Friends cooperate and communicate more with each other than with other children. They also have conflicts more often, but usually manage to settle them without upsetting the friendship. Friends influence each other’s behaviour. Over time they may take on similar mannerisms, language and preferences. Although friendships usually have positive effects, friends who have behaviour in one another.

As children’s interests and developmental needs change their friendship patterns may also change. By the middle of primary school it is common for children to form small friendship groups based around similar interests. These groups often establish their own rules about who can join them. Setting rules and learning to negotiate them is important for helping children to develop their understanding of social relationships. However, when children lack cooperative relationship skills it can lead to friendship groups being dominated by some children and excluding others.

Source: Kids Matter; Australian Primary Schools Mental Health Initiative: ‘Component 2 Social and Emotional Learning for Students’.

QUEENSLAND FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

Join Queensland’s Great Escape

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services have created an epic adventure for young families, to help them prepare their home for fire. Take part in the adventure on Friday, June 22. Visit the link below to get them fire escape ready.

Get your kids involved in Queensland’s Great Escape

Children around the state are learning to be fire escape ready in Queensland’s Great Escape. It’s an epic adventure where your kids can be junior fire safety officers for the night. Held on Friday 22 June, this fun activity will teach your children about fire safety, while preparing your home for fire. Guided by their new friend ‘Red’, the night is some family fun and games that could mean the difference between life and death.

Video animation to share on social media:

CASTING THE NET

Think Twice

‘I tell my children and I try to do it myself: “Think twice about what you are doing and going to do. You can even use it in learning people’s names”.’ So said a neighbour, while chatting recently. They are wise words, words to live by. Children can drift through situations, not noticing what is happening and then explode, overt react or get into trouble when things move beyond their control. But a little thought along the way, a little mindfulness can make their lives and ours a richer, better experience.

Jesus tried to provoke such thoughtfulness. His whole way of teaching wasn’t a series of straightforward, black and white rules. Rather his parables, his short sayings, some of which seem to contradict each other, are meant to challenge us to ask ourselves, ‘What does God want me to be, to do in this situation?’ We need to use thought and prayer to discern what to do in changing circumstances. Our brains are not there just to keep out ears apart. Along with our heart, we are meant to use this precious gift so that we can live as humanly as possible in the varying events of life.

Loving Father, send us your Spirit that we may know how to apply the teachings of Jesus to our lives. Filled with his Spirit may we have loving thoughts and wise hearts. We ask this in his name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

CURRICULUM

ICAS TESTING: UNSW Global Educational Assessment Australia

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) is an independent, skills-based assessment program which recognises and rewards student achievement. For more than thirty years, Educational Assessment Australia (EAA) has continuously improved and enhanced ICAS. Today, this experience is a modern, quality assessment that provides cutting edge data on student performance.

St Rita’s encourages its high achieving students to be acknowledged through participation in ICAS Testing. If you are interested in your child sitting the ICAS English and Mathematics tests this year, registrations are now open for the testing which is scheduled to take place on 31st July and 14th August 2018. The cost per test is $9.90. Please contact the Office by Friday 8th June if you wish to register your child for ICAS Testing next term.

Source: info@eaa.unsw.edu.au

‘STEPHANIE ALEXANDER KITCHEN GARDEN’ PROGRAM

Wow! Now, watch our garden grow!

Ready, set, dig! Over the past few weeks, the senior class students have been doing gardening during our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden time with Mrs Stone. We are learning how to grow our own food. In a few short months, we will harvest the vegetables and herbs we are growing. Then, we will use them to make some scrumptious healthy recipes together in the kitchen!

Firstly, we had to weed the gardens. It was raining so we weeded between the rain showers. We got a little bit wet, but we eventually got the job done. Mrs Stone showed us how to use our garden tools to turn the soil and level it after we weeded. We soon realised we would need extra soil to top up our garden beds. Mrs Stone made a phone call to Cairns Mulch and spoke to Mr Panebianco. He arranged to deliver the requested soil for us. The donated soil was there in a flash! Within an hour of Mrs Stone’s call, we were shovelling the new soil into our prepared gardens. The soil went in quickly because we all worked well as a team.

Next lesson, we watched and listened as Mrs Stone explained how the organic fertiliser would improve the quality of our garden soil and help our plants to grow. Oh man did it smell terrible, it reeked! Teachers came out of their classrooms and the office to find out what smelled so bad. Then, it was our turn to use our garden forks to mix the fertiliser through the soil. After we had finished, Mrs Stone gave the garden a good water with the hose.

Finally, it was time to carefully plant our seedlings. Some were very kindly donated by Mr Castlehouse, some were bought by school and Mrs Stone bought us some herbs to plant. We planted capsicum, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, fennel, snow-peas, beans, cucumbers, basil and parsley. Afterwards, we gave them all a good drink of water before spreading sugar cane mulch carefully around the plants to protect them.

Our garden is all set and ready to grow, grow, GROW!

By Harrison Stone
Year 5

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

A Platform for Action World Environment Day is the UN's most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries.

The People's Day Above all, World Environment Day is the "people's day" for doing something to take care of the Earth. That "something" can be focused locally, nationally or globally; it can be a solo action or involve a crowd. Everyone is free to choose.

The Theme Each World Environment Day is organized around a theme that focuses attention on a particularly pressing environmental concern. The theme for 2018 is beating plastic pollution.

The Host Every World Environment Day has a different global host country, where the official celebrations take place. The focus on the host country helps highlight the environmental challenges it faces, and supports the effort to address them. This year's host is India.

LESSONS IN THE LIBRARY

Year 2/3/4

The Year 2/3/4 class has been hard at work building and programming with Lego WeDo2.0. These Lego Educational kits were purchased through sponsorship received from the local Babinda Community Bank. The robotics learning activity has been wonderful for the students, as it has provided them with many opportunities to improve their collaborative skills and develop strategies to operate successfully as a team.

By applying problem solving skills and developing their programming knowledge, the students have been able to display the transformation of a tadpole into a froglet. Students will be put to the challenge next week as the project culminates in the building and programming of an adult frog. We look forward to seeing the students’ creations come to life!

Year 5/6

Lights! Camera! Action! The Year 5/6s have commenced filming their stop-motion animations on a notable historical figure. Using the iMotion app, students have been bringing their still drawings to life. With mouths moving, eyes blinking, and hands waving, their computer-generated figures will be the subjects of their historical inquiries over the coming weeks.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The 2018 Premier’s Reading Challenge is underway! Letters have been sent home with details on how to participate. It would be fabulous to see as many students as possible participating in this reading initiative. School reader record forms are due back to the library by Friday 24 August. Happy reading St Rita’s!

Michelle van Dugteren
District Librarian & Resource Teacher

DATE CLAIMERS

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wishes Havana Postic and Tony Pham all the very best for their recent birthdays. We hope you had wonderful birthday celebrations. Congratulations Havana and Tony!

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

We congratulate Jamie Brose and Max Schep who successfully contributed to the Cairns Post ‘Inspire’ on Tuesday 22nd May 2018. Jamie and Max wrote an article about the Year 5/6 class’s construction of sugar glider nesting boxes. Well done Jamie and Max!

CLASSROOM AWARDS

On Friday’s Assembly, Mrs Masina presented M100W (Magic 100 Words) Certificates to two children in her class. We especially congratulate Hayley Geary and Katara Ambrum for working so hard at learning high frequency words and achieving their 100 and 300 Words certificates!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

COMMUNITY NEWS

BABINDA UMBRELLA BALL

MULGRAVE SOFTBALL TRIALS