Issue 17 - 27 October 2015

Newsletter Articles

GRANDPARENTS’ DAY 2015

A Drop of Me

I loved you way before I saw you,
The tiny speck of life you were,
Tucked away inside your mother,
Yet still a part of me for sure.

That happy day my arms received you
No greater joy could ‘ere be mine.
My heart embraced you, priceless treasure,
And overflowed with love divine.

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last Sunday we celebrated a very special event in Queensland, Grandparents’ Day. This day gives us a chance to thank grandparents for their love and support, and for the community to acknowledge the significant contribution that grandparents make to families. It is also an occasion when we recognise the efforts and devotion of grandparents who are full-time carers for their grandchildren.

Did you know that in 2011 around 937,000 Australian children received child care from a grandparent on a regular basis. This represented over a quarter of all children (26%) aged 0-12 years who regularly attended some type of child care.

I know we have many active grandparents in our school community who help with homework, do the school run and try to be involved in their grandchildren’s school. I hope these very special people had happy celebrations on the weekend. To acknowledge the love and support our students receive from their grandparents, they were invited to be our special guests at St Rita’s yesterday. They joined us for a whole school liturgy, classroom visits and morning tea.

It is not only grandparents who are special. This Friday is World Teachers’ Day, and we will be acknowledging the wonderful individuals who teach St Rita’s students next Monday. At our school, we do not distinguish between the various teaching roles, so we will celebrate the extraordinary work of our teachers and school officers. I know that parents and students also appreciate the dedication and commitment of our staff, so you might like to send a special message to school with your child next Monday!

“Celebrated in over one hundred countries, World Teachers’ Day acknowledges the efforts of teachers in an increasingly complex, multicultural and complex society. It is a day on which students, parents and community members can demonstrate their appreciation for the contributions that teachers have made to their community”.

On behalf of the St Rita’s School community, I wish a HAPPY WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY to the exceptional staff of our school:

Mrs Bernadette Anthony
Mrs Bec Burns
Mrs Lisa Calcagno
Mrs Debbie Carrigan
Mrs Taryn Greenwood
Mrs Vicki Jago
Mrs Debbie Kurucz
Mrs Donna Lauridsen
Mrs Maryjane Masina
Ms Julie Parker
Ms Tua Snowball
Mrs Jenni Stone

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.

Lastly, as we are nearing the halfway point of term, I encourage you to spend a little time reflecting on this thought-provoking passage. It is worth the read!

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 & blessings,

Judy Billiau
Principal

DAY FOR DANIEL 2015

The 11th annual Day for Daniel will be held on Friday 30th October. 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 is about educating children and adults about keeping children safe through child safety and protection initiatives. It also aims to help empower our children to ‘Recognise, React and Report’ if they feel something is not right.

The objectives of ‘Day for Daniel’ are:

• 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 have over 1 million people Australia Wide to participate in Day for Daniel.

This Friday morning, our school will go on a ‘Walk for Daniel’ through Babinda town. By wearing red shirts and carrying red balloons, St Rita’s will be making a statement about the importance of child safety. I invite all parents and families to join us for this short walk as we promote the message of keeping our children safe in our community. Special thanks to Sergeant Doug Godden who will be leading us for the walk again this year!

APRE THOUGHTS …..

The last two weeks have seen some very caring actions from the children of St Rita’s. ‘Crazy Sock Day’ was held on Friday 16th October and it was a huge success! Whilst raising awareness of the positive work Catholic Mission is doing in many countries including Madagascar, we were able to have fun and use our spare change to help those less fortunate than ourselves. The children held a coin race, which involved breaking into our two houses and seeing how far we could make the coin line reach. Dalrymple was the winner of the longest line and Palmerston raised the most money! It was very close and the line reached all the way across the eating area. We have already set our goal for the line to be even longer next year! Just by using silver coins (mostly 5s, 10s and 20s) we raised approximately $60! A super effort! Again I would like to thank the parents and the students for getting behind this event.

On Monday we celebrated Grandparents’ Day, with a beautiful liturgy held in the church. I would like to thank the P-3 classes for all the effort they went to, making flowers and practising reading and singing, to celebrate the beautiful gift of grandparents. Grandparents have a unique relationship with their grandchildren and although not always easy to verbalise, you certainly can feel the love in the room when grandparents are around. I was so lucky to have three of my grandparents well into my adulthood, and the memories I have of them are so clear and special. Thank you to all the grandparents who were able to attend this special occasion.

Our next Mass will be held on All Souls’ Day, Monday 2nd November at 11:30am. This is a whole school Mass and parents and friends are very welcome.

SEL NEWS

As you are aware, this term we are focussing on Persistence. One of the tools we need to have for persistence is to know that there are setbacks in life and sometimes we can prepare for these and sometimes we can not. During our staff prayer this week, there was an interesting discussion around this very topic. Sometimes when setbacks occur we feel that we are ‘no good’. We begin to doubt our abilities and may wish to hide or quit. However there is a different way of looking at this. When we think about trees or our garden, we don’t think twice about the fact that we have to cut it back to ensure it grows to look as beautiful as it can. We can look at our own lives in the same manner. A setback could be seen as nothing more than a pruning, a chance to step back and evaluate and then continue to grow, better than if we had of just kept growing at the same speed. If a tree just died when it was pruned back – then we would never know its true beauty. The same may be said for all of us. If we quit or run and hide when things get hard, we may never know our true potential in this area.

Have a great week everyone!

Bec Burns
Assistant Principal (Religious Education)

CASTING THE NET

What ‘more than enough’ can teach us

I come from a family of hoarders and am presently going through a decluttering phase. It is not easy. Often when I try to throw out something I think of the ‘what might happen and how could I use this?’ options and end is a state of paralysis…and the object is just moved somewhere else. But earlier this week I had a breakthrough. I read this aphorism: You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. This comes at my dilemma from a completely different angle. It makes me think of what ‘more than enough’ is doing to my life. Basically too much clogs up my life and stops me from doing what really would give me life.

This is partly why Jesus warns us so vehemently about the dangers of riches. He is not being a spoil sport: he is wanting to free us up and liberate us into a fuller life. The pursuit of and care for too many things stifles us. If we stop and start thinking what too much looks like, we actually are drawn into a mindset that lets us ask, ‘What do I realistically need for me and my loved ones to live a good life?’

We do want more…and we will always want more: we are made in the image and likeness of God. That is the world’s greatest drive for exuberance. We will not be happy if we allow our possessions to stifle that. The only thing that can let that exuberance have free range is love, both of God and of each other.

Loving God, let me see what is enough for me and let me find my true riches and security in loving as Jesus loved. I ask this in his name confident that you will hear me.

Sr Kym Harris osb

COUNSELLOR’S CORNER

I want to be just like you

Dear Parents,

In the world that we live, children are exposed to all sorts of adult concepts, words, behaviour and dance styles. We often see our children mimicking something they have heard on the TV, what a relative has said or done and/or repeating what you have said. I always try to think…is it funny now and in 10 years time or is it inappropriate?

As the grown up in the child’s life, it will be your role to answer these tricky questions. Sometimes it is not easy to know whether when your child repeats, “Just wait a minute Mum, I am busy” or “I am talking Dad, you need to wait”, to laugh or think…hmmmm…maybe I say that once too often a day.

There is so much time for children to be adults, to have to be an adult. So many times I hear young adults say, “I wish I wasn’t a grown up”. Allow your children the time to be children. Expose them to children activities, children language and child like dancing.

Actually, why not join in and learn to slide down a slide, swing on a swing, go to the pool or creek and have a swim, draw a crazy picture, do some craft, kick a ball, throw a basketball through a hoop. So often we ask our children to go to the shops, come to an appointment, be at an adult function and behave like a grown up. Do we repay the favour and sometimes make time for a child activity or just be a child with them…laugh… sing…enjoy life.

Yours in Counselling,

Carmel Parisi

CURRICULUM

At Consistency of Teacher Judgment Day this year, classroom teachers in the five schools of the southern deanery collaborated on the planning and assessment of Reading Comprehension. During meetings, teachers often explain to parents that although decoding skills are solid, their child has difficulty comprehending the text adequately. “The process of comprehending texts involves much more than the ability to decode words”. Teachers must plan to develop effective comprehension skills in readers. At St Rita’s, the ‘First Steps’ literacy program is one of the programs 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 sight 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)

CONGRATULATIONS!

St Rita’s congratulates the Lansdown Family on the safe arrival of Flynn Gavin recently. Flynn is the first son of Jacinta and Gavin, and brother for big sisters Hallie (Year 2) and Hannah. Welcome to the world Flynn Gavin Lansdown!

DATE CLAIMERS
Term 4
Tuesday 27th October	Newsletter Issue 17 Homework Club 3:00 - 3:30 pm
Wednesday 28th October	‘Auskick’ AFL 1:15 pm Week 4 Tuckshop orders due
Friday 30th October	‘Day for Daniel’ Walk – wear a red t-shirt Swimming program No Tennis Coaching
Monday 2nd November	World Teachers’ Day at St Rita’s All Souls’ Day Reconciliation 11:15am Mass 11:30 am
Tuesday 3rd November	Melbourne Cup Homework Club 3:00 – 3:30 pm
Wednesday 4th November	‘Auskick’ AFL 1:15 pm Week 5 Tuckshop orders due
Friday 6th November	Assembly: Prayer Year 2/3 Swimming program Tennis coaching Prep - Year 3: 2:55pm - 3:25 pm Year 4 - 6: 2:55pm - 3:40pm
Tuesday 10th November	Newsletter Issue 18 Homework Club 3:00 – 3:30 pm P & F Monthly Meeting
Saturday 14th November	St Rita’s Community Fair 3:00pm - 7:30pm

2015 TERM DATES
TERM 4	Tuesday 6th October - Friday 4th December 2015 9 weeks
2016 TERM DATES
TERM 1	Monday 25th January - Thursday 24th March 2016 9 weeks

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

St Rita’s School congratulates those students who were awarded ‘Student of the Week’ at Assembly on Friday 23rd October 2015.

Prep/Year 1	Latoya Ambrum	Achieving ‘Gold’ level in sight words.
Year 2/3	Max Schep	Persisting with his reading comprehension test.
Year 4/5/6	Roisin Stager	Working persistently at her process writing.

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

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

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

We congratulate the students who successfully contributed to the Cairns Post ‘Post Ed’ feature on Tuesday 13th and Tuesday 20th October. Hallie Lansdown and Sorayah Salvestrin wrote an interesting recount of ‘Science Day’ and the different experiments they had enjoyed. Harrison Stone and Max Schep wrote about Babinda’s annual Harvest Festival and what a fun day it was.

St Rita’s congratulates our young writers!

Left to right: Hallie Lansdown, Sorayah Salvestrin, Harrison Stone and Max Schep.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

P & F NEWS

Dear Parents,

As you have heard and seen in the note that got sent out last week, we are having our ANNUAL FETE on 14th November 2015 from 3:00pm to 7:30pm. Yipeee! On Friday we’ve put flyers around town and we will also send one home very soon. Please spread the word: “Come one, come all, to our Community Fair at St Rita’s School in Babinda!”

We are busy organising our different stalls. We will provide hot food, have a Cafe with coffee, tea and cakes, a variety of fun stalls for the children, like the “asteroid blaster”, the jumping castle and the Footy Throw, a “novelty stall”, Laser Tag, Mini Cent Sale, a plant stall, bric-a-brac, an art show, and of course our sweets, cakes and preserves stalls. We have also offered stall bookings to the public and have already secured some tables to local ladies.

Our ‘St. Rita’s Has Talent Show’ will be held in the afternoon as well as other groups that will perform in the afternoon and evening. If you are interested in a performance, please let the office know! It would be wonderful to see your child or a group that you know, perform! Judy van Dyke will perform her “Coco goes Troppo”, a story to empower a child to read. Her ‘Fun Time Reader Pack’ will be available on the night. We are very much looking forward to this.

On Tuesday this week we will meet for a ‘craft afternoon’ to make items to sell on this stall. Please come along and help by putting your touch to something that needs to be prepared. You do not need to be “crafty”, we just need you to help. If you wish to make craft at home, that would also be appreciated. Thank you!

We are also compiling a list of parents who are donating cooking ingredients or promising cakes, slices, confectionery, jams and preserves to be made at home. Please phone or call into the Office to add your name to the list soon.

• Trash & Treasure - Send into school any time
• Preserves & Jams; Cakes & slices and Sweets - Let Julie or Judy know if you are cooking
• Cent Sale prizes - See Jenni for a letter if you know of any businesses who may donate

We sincerely thank you for the wonderful help and support we have received in the past few weeks. This year’s fete is a combined effort by the P & F and the school. It should be a wonderful team effort!

Have a great week!

St Rita’s P & F Committee

BABINDA COMMUNITY KINDERGARTEN

COMMUNITY NEWS