Issue 7 - 27 May 2020

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,

I wish you a very warm welcome to the new term at St Rita’s and I’m happy to be sharing this next newsletter of Term 2 with you. Although it seems ‘online learning’ has made our staff even busier in the past five weeks, we have nonetheless had time to miss our little people and were looking forward to once again having personal contact with our students every day of the school week. We had a very smooth start to the week, and apart from missing school hats and incorrect uniform pieces, I am happy to report that everyone is settling well into school routine once again.

As you will note from the range of signage on the school fence and outside the front office, parents and siblings are to strictly adhere to the very limited access to the school grounds. We have developed and implemented a COVID-Safe School Management Plan to ensure the physical safety and wellbeing of all members of our school community and to minimise the possibility of COVID-19 being brought into schools. However, we very much look forward to once again having face-to-face contact with you in the future.

Last Friday we celebrated a significant school event in a very different way, as for the first time in many years the St Rita’s Feast Day was not celebrated in our parish church. In the Catholic school tradition, a school ‘Feast Day’ is a celebration of its patron saint and a noteworthy event on our religious/liturgical calendar. Our patron is St Rita of Cascia, who was born in 1381 at Roccaporena in Italy. She died on 22nd May, 1457 in Cascia, so we celebrate St Rita’s Feast Day on this day each year.

The beautiful weather today allowed the senior class and Mrs Stone to begin our gardening program for the term. It is quite later than usual, however this perfect weather will ensure we will be harvesting a bumper crop of vegetables and herbs to use in our cooking classes next term. A bucketful of sweet potatoes was harvested while the students were preparing the beds today, and we are all looking forward to cooking these delicious vegies next week.

Stay well and have a good fortnight. I do encourage you to keep in touch with us by phone of email even though we are unable to meet face-to-face at present.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

At the same time as our return to school, the cooler weather has necessitated the children wearing warmer clothing to school in the morning. Our school uniform includes a navy blue winter jacket for the colder season, and this should be worn in the coming months. The jacket ($25) and long pants ($5) can be purchased from Debbie in the Office. Please ‘name’ these items as the children have a tendency to take them off in the playground! Thank you for your cooperation in following our school uniform policy.

Stay safe and stay well everyone!

Regards and blessings,
Judy Billiau

APRE THOUGHTS

St Rita’s Feast Day Like No Other…

I cannot help but marvel at the ingenuity and resourcefulness that has come into play since social distancing restrictions have been applied! With the closure of churches, many parishes have utilised technology beautifully, to continue mass and prayer services for The Church (that is, us, the people), by live streaming events and uploading them to YouTube for viewers to access. This practice has brought the rituals of Christian Tradition into our personal spaces, and has proffered a virtual experience of prayer with our choice of parishes, at a time that we select!

This was how we celebrated the feast day of our school patron Saint Rita of Cascia last Friday; it was one like no other! From the relaxed setting of our classrooms, we viewed the intimate mass celebration, which took place in Innisfail’s Mother of Good Counsel Church. Father Kerry celebrated mass with three representatives from our school – Mrs Maryjane Masina, Eva and Latoya, along with Mr Greg Hoare (school principal) and two students from St Rita’s South Johnstone school.

In ‘normal’ times, whole school masses are quite a coordinated feat. Rather, the live-streamed mass, shared between the two schools felt like a sweet gift. Seemingly a popular one too, with 57 views at last check! To everyone who was able to join us online for our mass celebration, thank you! And thanks also to Mrs Masina and our two girls for being present on our school’s behalf, Father Kerry for officiating the mass, the technicians for their production expertise, as well as Mrs Karran Burzacott, (APRE of St Rita’s South Johnstone) for liasing with our school to prepare for the mass…well, maybe it was still a great coordinated feat!

Our feast day festivities continued over to Monday with craft, quizzes and games centred around St Rita, when school restarted from remote learning. Should you wish to participate in virtual local mass, go to Mother of Good Counsel Parish’s site, and follow the link to live streaming on YouTube, or click on the link below.

National Reconciliation Week...In this together, online, and ongoing

At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians.

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) started as the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation in 1993 (the International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples) and was supported by Australia’s major faith communities. In 1996, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation launched Australia’s first NRW. In 2000, Reconciliation Australia was established to continue to provide national leadership on reconciliation. In the same year, approximately 300,000 people walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of NRW, to show their support for reconciliation. Today, NRW is celebrated by businesses, schools and early learning services, organisations, and individuals Australia-wide. Hundreds of NRW events are held each year.

National Reconciliation Week 2020 will be celebrated entirely online. Check out how you can become involved in online events, films, book club, colouring-in and learning something at 20 Ways to be in this Together in 2020.

The ABC is currently presenting a ‘Walking Together’ Campaign to unpack the truth-telling of our nation’s history and actively acknowledge and embrace Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and contributions. Different programs can be viewed on ABC’s iView, and for children, search the ABC Kids Listen Little Yarns series.

You may also delight in the international virtual recording of ‘Rise Up’ by Andra Day , which included members of the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir. It is a strong message of hope and unity, and is a joy to listen to! All Australians are invited to continue to walk together on a journey to reconciliation.

Blessings,

Maureen Gaul
Assistant Principal (Religious Education)

CURRICULUM CORNER

Reflecting On Our Learning

As we return to school to restart our classroom learning, it will be important to take time and acknowledge the emotions that many of us will be feeling. There will likely be: excitement to reconnect with school friends, nervousness to leave the safety and comforts of home, and frustration in finding it hard to concentrate and control emotions. Whilst some will be bursting with anticipation, others will be experiencing trepidation and uncertainty. It is vital that we recognise these feelings as the transition back to school begins.

At St Rita’s, our staff are all very aware that it will take time to readjust, and aim to ‘be present’ to children and families. We are preparing for the growth of a ‘new normal’ as we all re-engage in school life. So, to this end, we would invite parents to stay connected with our teachers via Seesaw, and let us know of any concerns that arise. Supporting each other – school staff, children and families – is our first priority.

At the end of this term, your child will receive their formal Semester 1 Report. Please be aware that this will look different to previous reports. It will appear as an abridged version, shorter than versions you have received in the past. As you will appreciate, with the advent of home learning, the teaching and learning programs have slowed, with a deliberate focus on consolidating learning. Teachers must report on the parts of the Achievement Standards that have been taught, and are therefore assessable, in each Learning Area. Due to the reduced teaching time over the past months, please expect that the teacher comments will be shorter. Nonetheless, they will be a true reflection of content that has been delivered, and depth of understanding that has been demonstrated by your child/ren.

As a school, we are very proud of the inclusive practices and equitable decisions we have made in delivering a combination of revision materials through the Home Learning workbooks, and new learning through MAPPEN, to support the diverse needs of our community. Equally, our intention has been to ensure the well-being of all staff, students and families throughout this most unusual time. We are indebted to those parents and carers, who took on the role of supporting their children’s’ learning so adeptly, and are grateful for your continued support of the school, as we move into our next phase of learning.

Maureen Gaul
Curriculum Support Teacher

DATE CLAIMERS

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

ONE TIME CLEANING

GOOD COUNSEL COLLEGE

MSF CANE TRAIN SAFETY INFORMATION