Issue 7 - 25 May 2022

Newsletter Articles

VISION STATEMENT

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Families,

St Rita’s Feast Day

Sunday was the Feast Day of our beloved patroness, St Rita of Cascia. Saints are prominent in the Catholic Church. They act as role models for believers. Often, they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things. Their lives challenge us to be more than we are, all for the Glory of God.

Saint Rita was no exception. Rita was born in 1381 in Cascia, Italy. There were signs that she was someone special. From an early age, she wanted to enter the convent however her family had arranged for her to be married at the age of 12! Her husband was not a kind man and treated her with contempt. He had many enemies however Rita eventually influenced him to become a better man. Unfortunately, he was killed due to a family feud. Her sons were intent on avenging his death however they fell prey to dysentery and also died. After trying insistently, Rita was finally allowed into the convent at the age of 36 and lived out a virtuous life. Many miracles have been attributed to her intercession.

To celebrate our patroness, for the second year running we arranged to join with St Rita’s South Johnstone for a combined Feast Day celebration. Fr Kerry celebrated Mass for our schools before we cut the commemorative cake and participated in several fun activities. We thank St Rita’s South Johnstone for hosting us once again and organising a very special day.

This week we are also launching our St Rita’s Artwork Competition. The challenge will be put on all students to create an artwork that depicts Saint Rita, her life, and her affiliation to our school. The overall winner will have their artwork converted to canvas and permanently displayed in our front office. There will also be classroom winners who will have their art framed and permanently displayed in their classrooms. We will announce the artwork winners early in Term 3.

Sports Roadshow

Last Wednesday our 3-6 students were fortunate to attend the Peninsula Sports Roadshow at Mourilyan. By all reports, this was a great day, and our students had the opportunity to have a go at many sports including AFL, Hockey, League, Union, Tennis, Cricket, Soccer, Athletics, and Touch. The children had a fantastic day, thanks to Ms Douglas and Mrs Masina for supervising our students.

Under 8’s Day

Our Prep-2 students didn’t miss out, with a fantastic under 8’s Day at Babinda State School. There were many activities including, cricket, Zoo to You, a visit from the Army and lots of fine-motor and gross-motor activities for our children to enjoy. A big thanks to Babinda State School for hosting and organising this great community event.

New Fans and Fridge

We have had some recent additions to our undercover eating area in the last few weeks. A brand-new fridge and two new fans have been installed to help keep us cool. This was paid for by the fundraising efforts of our Parents and Friends group. Thanks to Cyndel and her team for helping raise the funds for these much-needed upgrades.

Principals Award

At our last assembly I had the pleasure of presenting one of our prep students with a ‘Principal’s Award’. Ebony was presented with her award for bringing joy to her classroom. As I was walking around the school one day I heard this beautiful singing voice coming from the P/1/2 classroom. Upon investigation, I walked in to find Ebony singing for her class. She was teaching them to sing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ a song that her nan had taught her. Ebony sang with great confidence and assurance despite the giggles of others. It was brilliant to see and made my week. Thanks Ebony!

Play Group

A reminder for parents that playgroup has kicked off again. It is held upstairs each Tuesday from 9am-10.30am. All parents with children aged 0-5 in our community are welcome. There is no cost and it’s a great way to network with other families, build friendships and play!

Congratulations

To Reid, Cyndel, Eyvi and Reyne for the safe arrival of their son and baby brother, Ari. Eyvi was very excited to tell our school at assembly and her classmates. We pray for continued good health and lots of sleep for all in the Tanner household.

Enrolments

It’s that time of the year again when we start to enrol Preps for 2023! If you have a child ready to start Prep next year please let us know. To meet the age criteria, the child needs to turn 5 before the 30th of June 2023. If you know of prospective parents, please encourage them to book a tour to come and see all our school has to offer.

Blessings for the week ahead,

Michael Rowe
Principal

STUDENT REPORTING

At this stage of the term, teachers have been extremely busy preparing Semester One Reports for the students at St Rita’s School. In the last week of term, on Wednesday 22nd June, these formal written reports will be available for viewing and downloading on the Parent Portal. I encourage you to review your child’s Report thoroughly and to contact your classroom teacher for an interview if you have any concerns or queries.

For your information, I am including an excerpt from the Cairns Catholic Education Services Guideline on Student Reporting document, which provides instruction to schools for complying with Australian Government and Diocesan requirements for reporting student achievement:

Rationale and expectations:

In Catholic schools, student achievement is recognised and celebrated in many ways throughout the school year; at informal meetings, through awards at school assembly, parent/student/teacher interviews, through class work that is sent home, through class oral presentations and through written reports.

Reporting communicates information that has been obtained from a variety of assessment processes and involves a professional judgment made on a body of evidence about a student’s progress and achievement against a set of clearly articulated standards. In Catholic schools in the Diocese of Cairns the key principles of reporting are:

• Teacher professional judgment is at the heart of reporting student achievement.
• Teachers’ knowledge and observation of the students’ progress contributes to this professional judgment.
• Teacher professional judgment is informed by assessment data and referenced to the curriculum framework.
• The teacher develops assessment tasks and identifies the criteria which inform judgments about the child’s achievement.
• Teachers utilise the evidence from a body of work to make a judgment against standards at a point in time.
• Teachers should keep a folio of the evidence of a student’s work.

When reading your child’s Report and reviewing, please keep in mind that these are only two sources of feedback about student progress. Throughout the year there are opportunities for parent-teacher interviews to provide parents with comprehensive feedback on individual student progress. This includes feedback on your child’s behaviour in class and discussion of potential learning goals that the teacher has targeted for the individual student.

Kind regards,
Michael Rowe

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

SEMESTER 1 REPORTS

At the end of this term, your child will receive their formal Semester 1 Report. Teachers must report on the parts of the Achievement Standards that have been taught, and are therefore assessable, in each Learning Area. They will be a true reflection of content that has been delivered, and depth of understanding that has been demonstrated by your child/ren.

The teachers will be reporting on students’ progress over the entirety of Semester 1. They will be reporting on English, Maths, Science, HASS (Humanities and Social Science), Design and Technologies, HPE (Health and PE combined), Religion, and The Arts. The reports will be uploaded to the ‘Parent Portal’. Information regarding the Portal and how to access your reports is as below

HASS: Investigation Hour

This Term, across the school we have been investigating all about rain. During investigation time students have been examining and forming an awareness of places within our world. Alongside Mrs Jago’s Science lessons, students have explored the relationship within our weather system and the impact of the changes of weather in the context of Babinda. We look forward to an upcoming excursion visiting Tully to see the big gumboot. Please ensure you return permission notes once they are sent out.

Kind regards,
Sam Benvenuti
Deputy Principal – Leader of Learning and Teaching

PARENT PORTAL

St Rita’s School has a Parent Portal for the purpose of engaging with the parent community. Access to this portal is restricted to parents and guardians of students at our school, so an individual logon is required. An account has been created for you using the email address you have provided the school, and the details on creating a password are outlined in the attached set-up document.

The Parent Portal will enable easy access to information about happenings in the school, permission slips that need authorising, contact details for staff, forms, documents and much more. There is also a special section to allow you to check the details we have recorded in our enrolment system about your children, and if necessary, advise us of any changes. You can also check on information about your child’s Attendance, academic Student Reports, teachers, timetables, and NAPLAN performance (if applicable).

We will be making increasing use of the Parent Portal to provide a range of information to parents in the future. The initial login requires you to verify your identity and create a password. The attached document will lead you through the process. Please follow the steps carefully and enjoy using the St Rita’s Parent Portal in the future!

Relationship Education

Relationships are an intrinsic part of the human experience, and yet they can at times be one of the most difficult aspects of life to navigate. Human beings flourish when we experience healthy connection, therefore it is vital to educate on how to have happy and thriving relationships. The quality of our relationships matter and teaching our children the information and skills to have healthy respectful relationships starts with us as parents having conversations about bodies, respect, consent and boundaries.

Children are naturally curious and will seek out information related to human nature and development. It is important that our children feel safe with us to have these conversations, rather than seek out information in other platforms such as technology which can lead to incorrect and inappropriate learnings.

To support your learnings from home, Catholic education teach young people about consent and how to have respectful relationships. Catholic Schools have a beautiful resource in Theology of the Body, that when taught as a values framework, offers young people a hope filled vision for relationships. Consent is about respecting yourself, other people, everyone’s bodies and belongings. Learning about consent starts long before it has anything to with intimacy.

For our Prep to Year 4, the Relationship Education delivery focuses on protective behaviours content from the Daniel Morcombe Curriculum. Years 5-6 are the recommended ages to be covering content including puberty, safe use of media and technology, identity, and friendships. The CES endorsed program for this is Real Talk Education.

Parent and Carers information zoom sessions on the above content of the Relationship Education programs in 2022 will be held:

Prep-Year 4 Thursday 4th August 13:30-14:30

Year 5 – Year 6 Tuesday 2nd August 19:30-20:30

Tune in via the link below.

Here you can hear what will be covered in the Relationship Education sessions and learn practical tips and tools to help you speak about these topics with your child at home.

Warm regards,
Miss Jo
School Counsellor

DATE CLAIMERS

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

St Rita’s School congratulates those students who were awarded ‘Student of the Week’ at Assembly on Friday 13th May 2022.

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wished Mia Bennett, Riley Ballarino and Brayden Ballarino all the best for their recently celebrated birthdays.

We hope you all had wonderful birthday celebrations Mia, Riley and Brayden!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

MUNRO THEATRE

CIRCLE OF SECURITY PARENTING GROUP

TRIPLE P POSITIVE PARENTING PROGRAM

MIRRIWINNI WONDERLAND DISCO