Issue 1512 October 2021

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 Families,

In this week’s newsletter, I’d like to express my gratitude for the amazing staff, school community and wider community that I have inherited as principal of St Rita’s. How blessed I am to have such a dedicated team of workers and volunteers that continuously put the interests of our children well ahead of their own. To say I was blown away by the way everyone pulled together last week is an understatement.

On Wednesday our staff put on a Trivia Night for the community which is an annual event as part of the Harvest Festival celebrations. This was very well attended with over 100 locals coming out to support the event. Our MC Extraordinaire, Mrs Jago did a fine job of entertaining everybody and we have since received some great feedback from the night. Our staff is to be commended for the effort they put in to ensure the night ran smoothly. It took a considerable effort from everyone to ensure the nights success. Our staff didn’t finish packing up to until after 10pm on a school night! Thanks to those competitors who stayed to assist with the pack up and a shout out to Babinda Bakery who provided some extra sweet treats with the pizza we ordered.

Congratulations to our P&F team for the amazing job they did in preparing our school float for the parade on Saturday. The team has been meeting regularly throughout the last term and I thought our float looked quite spectacular. A big thanks to our P&F President Cyndel for not only allowing us to use the truck but also for sitting with each student to prepare their tie-dye shirts. Her team of helpers including Jonathon, Christie, Trudi, Maria, Steffi, Rebekah and Maryjane were enormous in making sure our kids had a great float and a memorable time on the day. Thanks also to Selena and Leo who helped us unpack the float once it returned to school. Our float was judged 2nd in the school’s category. Great job team!

Our school was also responsible for the Food Stall at the Harvest Festival which is a mammoth job and I’d like to acknowledge Debbie Kurucz for the hours that she spent organizing and ensuring it all ran smoothly on Saturday, I don’t think she sat down all day! I cannot thank enough the volunteers that helped cook, clean or serve throughout Saturday. We had staff and parents volunteer but also people with no current affiliation to our school. Special mention to former principal, Judy Billiau and her husband Neil who made the trip from the Northern Beaches to Babinda just so they could help out on the day. Also past parents Shane and Chris Wiles for helping out on the night. Thanks to everyone who assisted, volunteering is often a thankless job but please know that it was greatly appreciated by myself and all of the students at St Rita’s school. What an amazing community we have!

Term 4 Changes

Please note that Monday is our new sports day this term. Please remember to wear sports uniforms and runners.

Swimming will commence on Thursdays’ starting from next week. This also means on swimming days students are able to wear their sports team coloured polo shirts. These shirts are available from the office for $13.00 should you wish to purchase them. We will advise the children what their teams are this week Palmerston (blue team) and Dalrymple (red team), if they are unsure. More information and permission notes will be provided in the coming days.

Pre-prep Program

Our pre-prep program commenced this week. Welcome to Ebony, Maddison, Madeline, Jaxson, Daniel and their families. They will join us at school on Tuesdays for the next 6 weeks.

Michael Rowe
Principal

APRE THOUGHTS

PLENARY COUNCIL

“The Church must explore new opportunities while remaining faithful to its identity as the People of God inspired by the Gospel of Jesus and served by the hierarchy, alert to the challenges and opportunities, graces and limitations particular to our time and place.” Archbishop Fisher (Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney)

This past week, the First General Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia has been held across Australia. Plenary Council is the highest formal gathering of all local churches in a country. It is being held to dialogue about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia, under the invitation of Pope Francis. An historic summit, it is significant since lay people, including women, have been invited to the summit.

Contemporary challenges of the Catholic Church were discussed to discern how to best operate the church in the 21st Century. Issues such as governance of the church, embracing diversity, inclusivity, and participation in sacramentality were addressed through a process of deep listening to the Spirit and each other’s diverse points of view. From this point following the consultations, proposals will be made concerning the future direction of the Catholic Church in Australia.

SOCKTOBER

So, what’s the big deal about socks? Though they may be small and seemingly insignificant, socks have a big part to play in spreading the message of Catholic Mission during Socktober. Partner-up! Socks work best in pairs, so we are invited to join together and support the most needy and vulnerable children in the world to have better opportunities in life and a hope filled future. Just as socks keep us warm, protect us and help us enjoy sport and have fun, our support allows Catholic Mission to protect, house, feed and educate children across the globe. And of course, there are so many different and diverse types of socks, which reminds us that every child is unique and special. An ‘everyday item’, something so normal for us can be the means to make a vast difference in the lives of those less fortunate than us.

Later this month, St Rita’s will ‘pull up our socks’ and join in with prayer and fundraising activities to support World Mission Month. Staff and students will have a Crazy Sock Day and are invited to wear either mis-matched or zany socks with their school shoes for a gold coin donation. This year, our collective fundraising efforts will support vulnerable children in Thailand through a kindergarten run by the Good Shepherd Sisters in Bangkok. The kindergarten provides a caring learning environment for the children and allows their parents, often single mothers, to work and support the family. More information regarding activities to support World Mission Month will be forthcoming in the following week.

MONTH OF THE ROSARY

The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary in the Catholic Church. Using prayers from Holy Scripture, the Holy Rosary meditates on a cycle of Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous Mysteries, and thus is a summary of the Gospels and Christian life. Centred on Christ, the Rosary honours the life of Christ in the passion, death, resurrection and glory, and contemplates Mary too, since her life is so closely linked with Jesus.

Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus, encouraged praying the Rosary to those she revealed to at various approved apparitions. Prayer is a means to experience a greater love for God and to develop a closer union with God. We too are encouraged to pray the Holy Rosary throughout the month of October and in doing so, foster a deeper relationship with God and allow ourselves an opportunity to transform ourselves into the people we are meant to be.

Perhaps you may make some time individually or as a family to pray the Rosary! Further information on how to pray the Rosary can be found at the link below:

DATE CLAIMERS

Please find listed below some important date claimers to celebrate our faith and mark significant community events:

Thursday 11th November – Remembrance Day Liturgy
Thursday 25th November – Year Six Graduation and Supper @ 6pm
Wednesday 1st December – End-of-Year Mass (Time to be confirmed)

Blessings,

Maureen Gaul

LIBRARY LINKS

Annual Scholastic Book Fair

The big metal crates are due to arrive in the next couple of weeks, and that can only mean one thing…..Book Fair 2021 is almost here!

Our annual Book Fair is always a much anticipated event and we look forward to sharing the many books on offer this year with our wonderful families. We all know the importance of instilling a love of reading in our children; once established, that love continues on into adulthood and beyond.

A Scholastic Book Fair is a lively and fun event that engages children’s interest in literature and promotes literacy. While enabling children, parents, teachers and community members to browse and purchase quality books and classroom materials at reasonable prices, this annual fundraiser also contributes to the earning of additional books for our school library.

Book Fair 2021 will open on Monday 25th October in the school library and will continue for one week. I will send home a reminder note detailing dates and times, closer to the event.

Until then……..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 Friday 17th September 2021.

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wished Jax Thomson, Hannah Lansdown, Abel Rowe, Jack Schulz and Jaxon Costello all the very best for their birthdays celebrated last term.

We hope you all had wonderful birthday celebrations Jax, Hannah, Abel, Jack and Jaxon!

P & F News

Dear Parents,

A huge thank you to all the parents who attended and assisted with this year’s Harvest Festival. The P&F support this year has been incredible. Last term and during the holidays we had many parents who helped with preparing the float and tie dying the t-shirts for the children to wear on the day. This was a huge effort

by everyone.

A special thank you to the Tanner family for the use of their truck for the parade. Yesterday the Harvest Festival Committee presented us with $100 cash for 2nd Prize in the ‘School’s Float Category’, a lovely surprise.

The canteen was a success, a huge thank you must go to all the staff and parents who helped man the canteen throughout the afternoon and evening, and for assisting with the setting up on Saturday morning and the clean up on Sunday morning.

Proceeds raised at the canteen are still being finalised, and this information will be at the next P & F Meeting on Monday 25th October 2021. We hope to see you there!

Maryjane Masina
P&F Secretary

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

MUNRO THEATRE

FEAST OF ST GERARD – TULLY