Issue 4 24 March 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,

Our term is fast coming to an end. It’s hard to believe how far I’ve seen our students come in only one short term. Our prep students are now well and truly into the swing of school life and are growing more confident by the day, I’m sure they’ll enjoy a well-deserved break in the upcoming holidays.

This week we welcomed Mrs Wendy Smith to our school. Wendy is replacing Larissa as our school counsellor and will be at our school each Wednesday. Wendy is an experienced primary school teacher and school counsellor, who most recently was the school counsellor at Freshwater Christian College.

I am also pleased to announce that we have employed another teacher to join us for the remainder of the year. Samantha Benvenuti will join our staff as of next week. Sam has previously worked at Good Counsel Primary School in Innisfail, where she was awarded the Early Career Teacher award in 2017. We look forward to welcoming Sam next week, she will working across our school providing support to both students and teachers.

This Friday we are looking forward to our P&F group hosting our Welcome BBQ. It will be a great opportunity for everyone to catch up between 3.00 and 5:00 pm. I’d like to congratulate and thank Cyndel (President) Rebekah and Trudy (Vice-president/Treasurer) who have taken on leadership roles for our P&F group this year.

Also, thanks to those families who have kindly donated to our Easter raffle, and sold their tickets. The basket is looking very impressive at this point in time, please remember to bring in your sold tickets by next Tuesday.

A reminder that next week we begin Holy Week in our Catholic Church. Holy Week is a time of reflection on the sacrifice of Jesus. The main events of Holy Week are Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. We commemorate these days in our church in the lead up to the celebration of Easter Sunday.

I wish our families a safe and blessed Easter break, and looking forward to seeing everyone energised and refreshed for Term 2.

Regards and blessings,

Michael Rowe
Principal

APRE THOUGHTS

5th Sunday in Lent: Inspiration from Pope Francis

“To those who ‘wish to see Jesus’, to those who are searching for the face of God…we can offer three things: the Gospel, the Crucifix and the witness of our faith, poor but sincere. The Gospel: there we can encounter Jesus, listen to Him, know Him. The Crucifix: the sign of the love of Jesus who gave Himself for us. And then a faith that is expressed in simple gestures of fraternal charity.”

Caritas Café

During Lent, St Rita’s joins with the millions of Australians who want to end poverty and injustice in our world. Through our simple actions of prayer and giving, we demonstrate faith, love and hope, and contribute towards a more just world. As such, we invite you to join our final fundraiser for Caritas’ Project compassion for 2021 - Caritas Café and a Free Dress Day.

Caritas Café is an annual event at St Rita’s which is highly anticipated! Lovingly prepared by the Year 5 and 6 students through the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program, and under the tutelage of Mrs Stone, a simply delicious meal of vegetarian fried rice and home-made lemonade can be enjoyed by all for a small donation of $5. Orders may be placed as per our regular brown bag system for tuckshop. Caritas Café will be held on Tuesday 30th March during our second lunch break.

And finally, on the last day of Term 1, students are invited to wear free dress for a gold coin donation. Please be mindful of appropriate styles for sun safety, and safe, closed-in footwear.

All monies raised will be donated to Project Compassion to assist them in implementing various outreach programs, both domestically and internationally. Final fundraisers for Caritas’ Project compassion for 2021 - Caritas Café and a Free Dress Day.

Caritas ‘K’s Day

Each day, many thousands of children, youth, women and men around the world have to cover many kilometres to access basic necessities like food, water, education or healthcare. In an act of solidarity for those who need walk long distances to collect water for their families, St Rita’s would like to invite students to bring along a 2-litre plastic container filled with an appropriate amount of water to carry on a 30-minute ‘walk for water’ session on Thursday 1st April.

Holy Week Liturgy

In the Church’s Liturgical Calendar, we are drawing closer to the celebration of Easter - the pinnacle event upon which our Catholic faith is based. The week preceding Easter is known as ‘Holy Week’ where we remember the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Christ, such as: Palm Sunday, Jesus’ Last Supper with the disciples, the Passion of Christ and his Resurrection. On Thursday afternoon, at 1:50pm staff and students of St Rita’s will celebrate a Holy Week Liturgy together. Please feel most welcome to join us,and stay afterwards for the Caritas K’s walk.

Happy Easter, Happy Holidays!

Blessings to our families and friends as we move into the Easter holiday break! May I extend wishes for many happy family moments together, safe travel and personal rejuvenation in preparation for Term 2.

Blessings,

Maureen Gaul

CURRICULUM CORNER

NAPLAN Online

As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.

NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

Federal, state and territory education ministers agreed to gradually transition NAPLAN online by 2022. NAPLAN Online is a tailored test that adapts to student responses, providing better assessment and more precise results.

Accessed 21st March 2021.

Across Australia, students from Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are beginning to prepare for the technical demands of participating in NAPLAN Online testing. Our students too have been learning how to operate within the platform, so that they can be confident to navigate their way successfully through the literacy and numeracy tasks.

Students from Years 3 and 5 will complete their NAPLAN Practice Tests on Thursday 25th March, along with thousands of others from around the country. As well as gaining skills to work through the tasks online, this test will also ‘test the load’ to ensure less likelihood of disruption on official testing days in May. Your support of this is event appreciated. Further information for parents and carers can be found at the link above.

Our official NAPLAN Online testing dates for Years 3 and 5 students are as follows:

Catch-up tests will be arranged for students, should they be absent on these school days. Thank you in anticipation of your support for this National event.

Further information for parents and carers can be found at the link above.

Thank you for your support to make our school a great school for everyone!

Blessings,
Maureen Gaul

Library Links

Wall of Happiness

Twentieth of March, International Day of Happiness, is always a day worth celebrating. What a great thing to remember; that even in challenging times there are always reasons to feel happy & optimistic. I thought it might be a nice idea to have our wonderful St Rita’s kids share one thing that makes them happy (and our awesome staff too!). We will be unveiling our Wall of Happiness on our library display board, showcasing our responses. It was a given that everyone’s family & friends make them happy, so we dug a little deeper and got to know something new about each of us. What FUN!

Encouraging Holiday Reading

Discuss favourite books while driving in the car. Lengthy car trips during the holidays are a perfect time for the family to enjoy long chats. Read a new and interesting book together the day before you leave and encourage your child to talk about what happened in the story. Ask them who their favourite character was and why, or how the story made them feel and why.

For children who aren’t keen to read books over the holidays, perhaps you can cook together. Let your child read the recipe ingredients and quantities for you. Additionally, a great way to learn measurement and temperature, while conveying to children just how useful & enjoyable reading can be in everyday life.

As someone who is blessed to spend part of my working day in a library, I get excited when kids are eager to share a book they have enjoyed. Last week, a student asked me if I could recommend a book of poetry (what an ‘aha’ moment for a librarian!). Children will move through stages of reading, sometimes choosing novels or picture books and at other times preferring non-fiction or even graphic novels. Let’s celebrate the fact that they are reading and opening themselves up to information, ideas and varying opinions.

Hoping the remainder of Term 1, and the upcoming holidays, bring each of you many opportunities for happiness.

See you in Term Two, when we jump into Creativity!

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 12th March 2021

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wished Pearle Logan all the very best for her recently celebrated birthday.

We hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration Pearle!

P & F News

Dear Parents,

Following the Annual General Meeting on the 15thMarch. I would like to formally welcome the new P & F Executive Committee for 2021. The outgoing committee was extended many thanks on behalf of the St Rita’s community, as we recognised and the work of last year’s team; Chloe Donahue, Maryjane Masina, Chelsey Hansen and James Larkham.

Congratulations on the election of the following Office Bearers:

• President: Cyndel Tanner
• Vice-President: Rebekah Rowe
• Secretary: Maryjane Masina
• Treasurer: Trudy Turner

This Friday 26th March, the P&F will be holding our first fundraising event for the year. There will be lots of fun, games and a barbeque from 3:00 to 5:00pm. Please return your attendance notes for catering.

Come along and meet the staff and other families.

Kind regards,

Maryjane Masina
P&F Secretary

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

MUNRO THEATRE

Well Women’s Clinic – Babinda Hospital

(This clinic is available to Medicare eligible clients)

Wednesday 13th April 2021.

All services are provided by a specially trained Women’s Health Nurse.

For appointments phone 4067 8200

CATHOLIC EDUCATION SERVICES

Message from the Editors of the Cairns Diocesan News

We are pleased to advise that the Easter edition of the magazine, including all parishes Easter Mass Times, is now available for viewing. Please click on the link below and this will take you straight to our magazine.

For parents and carers who have subscribed, you will receive a copy to your inbox. For those who wish to subscribe, please follow this link

We thank you for your support and welcome you to our readership.