Issue 15 - 15 September 2015

Newsletter Articles

ST RITA’S SCHOOL PRAYER

O compassionate God,
look on me today with tenderness and give me the grace
to walk on the path of mercy and kindness.
May all I do today reflect our school values
of learning, respect, community and faith.
St Rita, pray for us.

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Parents and Carers,

Wow! We are at the end of Term Three. It certainly has gone quickly and I have really enjoyed my time working with all the St Rita’s community while Mrs Billiau has been away. We welcome her back at the start of Term Four, and I will return to the Prep/One Class and my role as APRE. I would like to thank all of the staff, students, parents and parish for their support over the past six weeks. It has been a great experience and I have enjoyed it very much. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mrs Deborah Carrigan for teaching the beautiful Prep/One class over the past six weeks. The children are certainly smiling and are very lucky to still have the benefit of Mrs Carrigan’s experience and knowledge each Friday during Term Four.

I hope everyone has the opportunity this holiday to take the time to be together and enjoy the company of family. Term Four will start with Harvest Festival and I imagine the nine weeks will disappear before we realise!

Many parents feel they have to constantly entertain children over the holidays. Other experts argue that not always providing entertainment for our children can be just as beneficial. Dr Kim Payne states,

Think of boredom as a ‘gift.’ … boredom is often the precursor to creativity. Think of a bridge between ‘doing nothing’ and the sort of deep creative play … The bridge is almost always paved with (the frustration of) boredom. ‘I’m bored.’ Now that is when something interesting usually happens.” (Payne, 2010. Simplicity Parenting).

Steven Spielberg offers a warning about technology use;

‘Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.’

Daydreaming and using our imagination is one of the biggest gifts we can give our students. Creativity or thinking ‘outside the box’ is what the world requires to face the new and existing challenges. I hope you and your children have some time to daydream over your holiday break.

Blessings,

Bec Burns
Acting Principal

PARENT SURVEY

SOCK IT TO POVERTY

October is Catholic Mission Month. During this time ‘anti-poverty’ week is held between October 11 –17. This year’s theme is ‘I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink’ (Matthew2 25:35). The following is an excerpt from the Catholic Mission website. “This year we focus on Madagascar. Although surrounded by water Madagascar lacks access to clean water for washing, cleaning, cooking and most importantly, drinking. This forces the community to use dirty water, which is making them seriously ill. Alarmingly, each year, thousands of children die from preventable diseases like diarrhoea because of the lack of clean water and proper sanitation.” ( https://www.cm.org.au/WMM2015/teachers.html . We will be holding a crazy sock day on Friday October 16 (Week 2) to raise money for this campaign. More information will be available early next term.

CASTING THE NET

Patience and Passion

Some of the best wisdom comes from people in their old age, especially when death is approaching. St Benedict in his old age edited over the Rule he had written, when he was younger, for his monks, adding a few nuggetty bits of wisdom. One of the best was ‘for it is by patience that we share in the suffering of Christ.’ As Christians, the Cross is our sign of love in the most awful of circumstances and we know that we are called to carry our own cross, sharing in Christ’s self-giving love. When we think of a cross, we usually think of some hard, dramatic challenge. Yes, that sometimes is the case but St Benedict’s wisdom points us to a more mundane, realistic experience. More often than not we know our cross when we have to be patient with those around us.

The word for ‘patient’ shares the same Latin root as the word for ‘passion’ – which is a word that describes both strong emotion and the sufferings of Christ. The implication for us is that when we are being patient, kind, caring, even when we don’t feel like, or rather especially then, we are actually being passionately in love. Our best love may well be given in the most hidden of ways. And what is more, we are allowing the same gracious love that was unleashed in Christ’s passion to flow through us and be a reality in our families, friendships and community. This is our triumph of the Cross.

Loving Father, you know how those I love can try my patience. Send me your Holy Spirit that I might show in my loving the wisdom and strength that Jesus shows in his. I ask this in his name confident that you will hear me.

Sr Kym Harris osb

COUNSELLOR’S CORNER

Life is a journey

I don’t think I fully understood the saying that ‘life is a journey, not a destination’ until I was somewhere in my 30’s. Up until then, there always seemed to be somewhere I needed to be, an end to get to or a goal that needed to be won. I could not really say what happened to make me realise that every single day is simply part of a bigger plan and a longer journey.

The shift in thinking helps me to continue in my professional growth and also as a mum. When my children come home and haven’t managed to get the grade they wanted or into a team they had hoped to be in, the wonderful thought that these are just small stepping stones in their journey helps both them and me to not worry so much. Just as being wrong is a lesson in itself, change and opportunity is also a lesson.

I will be moving on to a new role in term 4, but have loved sharing my journey with St Rita’s. Thank you to you all for sharing your beautiful school with me and I hope our paths cross again in the future.

Bec Finucane
Counsellor

AROUND THE CLASSROOMS

This Term the Prep/One class have been learning about animals from all around the world. Here are two of their reports on African Animals written by Eva and Timmy. A wonderful effort by our prep students.

Eva – Cheetah. The cheetah can run fast. It can run 110 kph. They eat antelope and gazelle. Their fur has black spots. There are 10,000 left in the world. I like cheetahs because they run fast.

Timmy – Lion. The lion sleeps a lot. The lion lives in the prides. The lion girls do most of the hunting. Our roar is so loud it can be heard far away. Lions are the second largest cat in the world.

CHILD PROTECTION WEEK

Last week was child protection week. Our school took this opportunity to look at cyber safety.

In a recent interview on ABC radio, Brett Lee, an ex-detective and cyber safety consultant offers five tips for parents to keep their children safe on line.

1. Open discussion – the internet can sometimes seem it is keeping our children in a private world. It does not have to be this way. Just by talking to our children about the games they are playing and apps they are using, we offer the opportunity for discussion about appropriate and inappropriate actions.
2. Set rules and boundaries. For some reason parents seem very scared of this concept. We set boundaries in all parts of our child’s lives, seatbelts, bike helmets, bed times and parents need to do the same for internet use. Mr Lee explained that even if they don’t know it “children use this as a safety net.” They are not always ready to make decisions about safe internet behaviour or responsible digital citizenship and it is a parent’s responsibility to assist in this area.
3. Keep up to date. This is not keeping up to date with every piece of technology but it can involve googling the apps your children are using and reading up on them. This gives you an idea.
4. Use Parental controls - this is not taking trust away from your children but is allowing you to have more control around what your child is doing and seeing on the internet.
5. Lastly and perhaps most importantly you as the parent have the last say on rules surrounding technology. It is not who owns the device or who knows the most about technology – it is you the parent.

If we use these five tips we can feel more confident in our own ability to parent around the ever changing world of technology (ABC radio on 08/09/2015).

For more information and a downloadable parental guide please see:

We will be following this up further this week on Wednesday afternoon from 1.45 with two whole school experiments. Please feel free to join us.

Bec Burns
eLearning coordinator

CRICKET GALA DAY

On Friday 4th September the Senior Class attended the Milo T20 Cricket Bash Gala Day. It was hosted by the Babinda State School and many schools in our area attended. The children walked down to the school with Mrs Masina, Ms Snowball and Mrs Burns. There were four games played on the day in this version of the game. There are eight players on a team and batting teams work in pairs. Each child bowls one over and each batting team bats for two overs. The children all played with exceptional energy and there was great team spirit amongst our students. It was a wonderful way for our children to participate in team sports. St Rita’s would like to thank Dwyane Richardson for his organisation of this event. A highlight of the day was Ariah Salvestrin being named ‘Sportsperson’ of the day. Well Done Ariah! All of the children who attended displayed good sportsmanship throughout the day.

FATHER’S DAY

On Friday 4th September the Father’s Day BBQ and sleep out was held at school. Tents were sent up and the children and their father’s had the opportunity to spend some time together and the dads had time to socialise with other fathers in our school community. Children and dads were able to play cricket or table tennis or test their thinking skills with some brain teasers. They even had the chance to check on the footy scores (a bit sad for our Bunnies supporter). A beautiful BBQ was provided thanks to the P&F and to the chefs, Mr Stone and Mr Musumeci. The movie of the evening was The Lorax which was enjoyed by many, especially as ice cream was provided at intermission. Most slept well, although some were playing guess who’s snoring (the answer was a lot of different people). In the morning Mrs Stone and Mrs Burns cooked toast and fresh coffee, which was enjoyed by all. A great big thank you to Mrs Parker for setting up the BBQ , the mums who helped with chopping onions and to Mrs Stone, who worked until late Saturday night and was back by 6.30am to start again! It was a great event – Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, uncles and grandads!

WOOLWORTHS ‘EARN & LEARN’

Thanks to all the families who have supported the school and bought in their stickers and/or completed sheets. The promotion has now closed and we need to do a final count. Please return any stickers to the office as soon as possible. Thank you.

DATE CLAIMERS
TERM 3
Tuesday 15th September	Fete Committee meeting 3.00pm
Friday 18th September	Tuckshop Menu Week 10 Tennis Coaching 3:00 – 3:30pm
TERM 4
Monday 5th October	Public Holiday
Tuesday 6th October	School resumes Homework Club 3:00 to 3:30 pm
Wednesday 7th October	Cricket clinics 1:45 to 2:55 pm Trivia night – theme ‘Flower Power’ Starts 7:00 pm sharp
Friday 9th October	Tennis coaching 3:00 to 3:30 pm
Saturday 10th October	Harvest Festival - Gather at Abbeyfield Parade 2:45 pm
Tuesday 13th October	Newsletter Issue 16 Homework Club 3:00 to 3:30 pm

2015 TERM DATES
TERM 3	Monday 13th July - Friday 18th September 10 weeks
TERM 4	Tuesday 6th October - Friday 4th December 9 weeks

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

St Rita’s School congratulates those students who were awarded ‘Student of the Week’ at Assembly on Friday 11th September 2015.

Prep/Year 1	Timmy Pham	For organisation in his bookwork and in all his lessons.
Year 2/3	Hallie Lansdown	For organisation with her school work, always begins immediately and works independently.
Year 4/5/6	Nicholas Blonner	For organisation in his presentation of the Hubble telescope.

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wishes Sorayah Salvestrin and Mitchell Forrest all the very best for their birthdays over the school holidays. We hope you have wonderful birthday celebrations. Congratulations Sorayah and Mitchell.

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

We congratulate the student who successfully contributed to the Cairns Post ‘Post Ed’ feature on Tuesday 1st September 2015. Ariah wrote a wonderful recount of the ‘Community Carers’ recent visit to the Babinda Hospital. Well done Ariah!

PREMIER’S READERS CHALLENGE

Congratulations to the students who completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge, certificates were presented at Assembly on Friday. The successful readers were Sorayah Salvestrin, Ariah Salvestrin, Roisin Stager, Rhya Maxwell, Kaelan Maxwell, Nicholas Blonner, Steele Day, Harper Wiles and Emerson Burns. Well done!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

P & F NEWS

Dear Parents,

Last week of Term Three, wow, time flies.... we hope you’re all looking forward to the holidays.

Thank you to all parents that attended last week’s meeting. The following topics were discussed:

HARVEST FESTIVAL on Saturday 10th of October, ‎FIRST WEEKEND after the school holidays. FLOWER POWER!!!!! We will meet at 2.45 at Abbeyfield to assemble for the parade. We will also have the same food stall we had last year: Roast Rolls and Hot Dogs. We have sent out a flyer looking for volunteers for preparing the float in the morning and taking on a shift in the afternoon/evening for the food stall. We are hoping for lots of helpers. Please return your form by the end of this week so we can organise the roster for that day. Thank you very much.

FATHER’S DAY. Thank you so very much to everyone that helped selling raffle tickets. We have raised about $350, we are still collecting our expenses to finalise the exact amount. This is such a huge success! Winners are 1. Prize: Marie Torisi- Wildlife Dome Zoom. 2nd Prize: Zeira Zanoletti - Set of Steak knives from Babinda Meat Mart, 3rd Prize: Rixon - $50 Brother’s Leagues Club. The Father’s Day evening was a success, thank you to all helpers. Everyone had lots of fun.

PREP OPEN DAY. What a beautiful day it was. All kids showed so much effort in getting dressed up and choosing their favourite character out of their favourite book. Thank you to the Babinda Kindergarten for coming along and enjoying a fun day! Thanks to all staff, especially Rebecca Burns, and also the P&F for their effort in showing what a great school St. Rita’s is!

ST RITA’S BABINDA COMMUNITY FAIR. If you haven’t already heard.... YES! We are having our Fete again, this year on the 14th of November from 3pm to 7.30 pm. Please watch out for the flyer that will be sent home after the school holidays!

Another BIG THANK YOU goes to all parents, grandparents, staff and volunteers that helped wherever it was needed. Thank you also to Christina Forrest for organising the tuckshop every week. We really appreciate it!

Have a wonderful holiday!

St Rita’s P & F Committee

COMMUNITY NEWS

HEALTHY EATING

Babinda Hospital

EARLY BIRD ENDS FRIDAY 11 SEPT

REGISTER FOR TYC
SPRING DRAMA SCHOOL PROGRAM
BOOK NOW & SAVE - LIMITED PLACES

Spin along to TYCs Spring Drama School Programs for children and young people aged 5yrs - 12yrs these holidays!

First up the chase is on with TYCs Jurassic Island running from Tuesday 22 Sept through to Friday 25 Sept from 9am - 3pm with special guest Hayley Gillespie. The mission to retake the Jurassic Island begins!

In the second week we step back in time to an age of conquests with Medieval Mayhem where you can make your claim for the throne starting on Tuesday 29 Sept through to Friday 2 October from 9am - 3pm.

To book today and receive an Early Bird Saving click here

or continue reading for more info. All programs held in TYCs Adventure Theatre, 169 Bunda St, Cairns City (opp Cairns Central on the Railway side)

GOLF IN THE HOLIDAYS

TRIVIA NIGHT