Issue 8 - 7 June 2022

Newsletter Articles

VISION STATEMENT

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Families,

Pentecost Sunday

Last Sunday, our church celebrated what is known as Pentecost Sunday. The feast of Pentecost celebrates the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples and energizing them to set about their mission of continuing the ministry of Jesus.

What a success this was! This small group of people, filled with courage, went out into the world to evangelize the Good News of the Gospel and it spread to every corner of the globe, despite the hostility shown towards the first Christians. It’s amazing to think that from that small group in Jerusalem, we now have approximately 2.8 billion people on the planet that claim they are Christian, some 2022 years after Pentecost. As a Catholic school, we aim to continue this mission, to share the Gospel and the hope and assurance we get from knowing Jesus. Christian or not, there is no doubting that Jesus’ teachings can inspire and challenge us all to be better people. I pray that our young people can find solace in his teachings, in what’s becoming an increasingly secular and complex world for them to navigate. May they spread the Good news to others by showing mercy, forgiveness, empathy, kindness, hope, and most importantly, love towards all who they encounter, each day of their lives. As St Francis of Assisi is credited as saying, "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Peninsula AFL

Congratulations to our super-sister duo of Katara and Latoya who are jetting off to Maroochydore this week to compete in the AFL State Championships as part of the Peninsula team. Both girls had to try out to make the squad and have been training hard in the lead-up to the tournament. I am very proud of their achievement and know they will represent our school and region admirably over the next week. Mrs Masina will be accompanying the girls to Maroochydore, Mrs Carrigan will be teaching in the 3/4 class during her absence.

Uniform

Please note that hats and shoes are required to be always worn while the children are outside. We do have a small number of spare hats and spare shoes that can be utilised but we encourage all children to be responsible for their belongings. This is for health and safety protocols that as a school, we are mandated to follow. If there are any issues with the uniform on a given day, please provide a note for your child’s teacher.

St Rita’s Artwork

Last week we launched our St Rita’s Artwork competition. This will be the second year we have run this annual event. Each student has been challenged to artistically represent our patroness, St Rita in a new and creative way. They need to try and encompass the school and its values into the picture. The art will be voted on for class and overall winners. This will be announced during Catholic Education Week, next term.

Small School Athletics

Our Combined Small School Athletics Carnival will be held at Babinda State School on Tuesday the 21st of June. Parents are welcome to attend, a permission note will be sent out in the coming days. Our students have been training for their events throughout the last few weeks. McDonnell Creek SS will be running a Tuckshop on the day. A note went home last week with details for those who would like to order food, paper bags and money should be returned to the office by Friday 10th June.

Thanks, Lansdown Family

I’d like to acknowledge the Landsdown family for their continued support of our school community. Gavin has once again done a splendid job on the school yard, mowing, whipper-snipping, and giving the whole place a great general tidy-up. Jacinta has also volunteered to cook and provide pasta to students who would like it as a tuck-shop option on Fridays. I’d like to thank both Gavin and Jacinta for volunteering their time for the school, it is much appreciated.

Reports

Parents will receive hard copies of Student Reports this semester. While we’d prefer that people accessed them via the Parent Portal, we understand this can sometimes be tricky and inconvenient for families. Semester 1 reports will be sent home at the end of week 10, we will continue to also upload them to the Parent Portal so parents can access them there, along with historical reports.

Blessings for the week ahead,

Michael Rowe
Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

Dear parents and carers,

This week Michael and I had the pleasure of visiting St Mary’s in Woree to learn about “Learning Walks and Talks”. Five key questions are asked during learning walk and talks with students.

1. What are you learning?
2. How are you doing?
3. How do you know?
4. How can you improve?
5. Where do you go for help?

Learning Walks and Talks help instructional leaders understand how they can best support assessment – informed instructions. The purpose of these sessions is to:

• Understand high – impact classroom practice .
• Build a common language for administrators, leaders and teachers.
• Reflect on developing patterns and trends in schools.
• Ask five key questions to determine explicit instruction
• Ask parallel reflective questions about teacher practice to enhance collaboration.

In continuing our work with Lynn Sharratt in Clarity, there is no doubt that when educators in schools care about improvement, they create relationships that enable positive collective capacity. By walking in classrooms daily and talking about assessment that drives instruction sends a clear message that a focus on achievement is attainable for all learners. With a focus on authentic learning conservations, collaboration is able to blossom. During these conversations, staff are able to elaborate, extend, apply and evaluate their thinking to create new knowledge about their practice. We look forward to making Learning Walk and Talks a part of our everyday practice in preparation for Term 3.

Kind regards,

Sam Benvenuti
Deputy Principal – Leader of Learning and Teaching

Mindful Parenting Friday June 17th

Counsellor’s Corner

Making Friends

Making friends is a social skill that we learn from our family members and community. The school community is one place where friendships can be practiced and nurtured. Opportunities to practice and develop friendship making skills can occur when new students are welcomed to a school community or if your child starts a new extra curriculum activity with a new club or sporting team.

Professor Matt Sanders shares that having good friends is important to a child’s self-esteem but, unfortunately, children do not always know how to look after friends. As parents we can lend a hand by helping our children develop healthy social skills. Talk to our children about being a good friend and encourage them to practice skills such as:

• Looking at and listening when someone is speaking to them, such as a friend telling them a story
• Taking turns in games and activities
• Asking what others might like to do rather than assuming that other children will always want to follow
• Thinking about other people’s feelings. “I wonder how Tom is feeling now. How do you think you would feel if that happened to you?”
• Helping others (we as parents can lead by example)
• Asking your child what being friendly and welcoming to a new child in class looks like.

To help your child make friends, and so your child can practice being a good “host”, you may like to invite another child to your home for a play. Be prepared to contact the parents to organise this if your child is too shy to ask.

For more information about supporting your child with their social skills go to the link below or welcome to contact your School Counsellor Miss Jo.

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 27th May 2022.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

MUNRO THEATRE

LEARN TO PLAY GOLF IN BABINDA

MIRRIWINNI WONDERLAND DISCO