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- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- DEPUTY PRINCIPAL
- ASSISTANT TO THE PRINCIPAL PRIMARY
- ASSISTANT TO THE PRINCIPAL FORMATION & IDENTITY
- REMINDER OF PROCEDURES
- STUDENTS INVESTIGATE SCIENCE
- NEW SBA STUDENT
- GRAPHING THE STAFF CAR PARK
- DESIGNING A DRAG RACER
- TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION
- YEAR 6 MATHS
- ART OPPORTUNITIES
- SCHOOL BANKING
- UPCOMING EVENTS
The school has successfully returned to face-to-face teaching and for parents and caregivers I am sure you are pleased to have your children back at school with their teachers. No doubt, the learning@home phase of schooling we have just gone through has presented challenges for you.
However, I encourage all parents and caregivers to remember the significant role they continue to have in the daily learning of their children. Parents and caregivers play an essential role as the first educators of children and it is important to have ongoing family-led learning in every home.
Ideally, family-led learning is focused on high aspirations for children, shared reading, a positive environment for homework, parent-child conversation, a cognitively stimulating home environment and support for social and emotional wellbeing.
Research and good practice points are some specific things parents and caregivers can focus on to support and facilitate their child’s overall learning. The ideas below are a starting point :
- Build supportive relationships with children and work hard to maintain these when circumstances are difficult.
- Communicate the value of education and the importance of schooling.
- Encourage educational aspirations and career goals; make plans with children for their future.
- Regularly ask children what they are learning and doing at school, and praise real effort and achievements.
- Take an interest in homework, provide help where needed and offer encouragement and support for children to solve problems for themselves.
- Have high expectations for children’s academic success and their behaviour.
- Encourage physical activity and set reasonable boundaries for television, electronic games and online socialising.
- Engage children in meaningful conversations about everyday life and topical issues, and encourage critical thinking and the development of ideas.
- Have positive interactions with teachers; share knowledge, ideas and concerns.
- Participate in class-based, year level or co-curricular activities to show support for children’s learning at school and build relationships with teachers and other parents.
As always, I encourage you to contact your child's teachers if you have any queries or concerns about their learning or wellbeing.
God Bless
It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm and work ethic of all students since the re-commencement of face to face learning in Week 6. It has been a challenging time and the resilience of the staff and students, as well the evidence of collaboration to find solutions to learning challenges, has been very pleasing. Staff are eager and willing to support students in the completion of assessment over the coming weeks to ensure that all experience a positive and rewarding conclusion to the semester.
For secondary parents, the school is participating in a trial phase in issuing Semester reports through our new Student Information System “Sentral”. For existing families, you will notice that the format of the reports will change with the development of a new template structure and the hope will be that all secondary parents will receive reports electronically over the holiday break. I will provide some further information in relation to this closer to the end of term.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if there are any questions or concerns as we head towards the end of term. Live Jesus in our hearts. Forever.
Matthew Brown
Deputy Principal
ASSISTANT TO THE PRINCIPAL PRIMARY
Within the past two weeks, classroom routines have been reestablished and learning has returned to normal. As part of this, the concept of growth mindset was revisited in last week's assembly. With a growth mindset - as opposed to a fixed mindset - we are more likely to take risks with our learning, recognise that we can learn more complex concepts, extend ourselves beyond what we are comfortable with and also react in a resilient way when we make mistakes. For some learners, this is easier said than done whilst for others it comes more naturally. One of our responsibilities as adults within the child's world is to provide them with strategies for dealing with situations - not remove those obstacles for them or solve the problems ourselves. Learning is not easy - and if it is easy, it's probably that you are not learning! You may have heard your child talking about the Learning Pit or the 5Bs. These are just some of the strategies we use in the classroom to encourage the children to look for alternative ways to solve problems.
In the last two weeks, we have participated as a campus in the National Simultaneous Story Time event and students have continued to learn their poems for the school-based Eisteddfod. Maths activities have included making patterns in Prep, data collection in Year 4/5 and working with time zones in Year 6. In English, writing of narratives has been a focus for some year levels whilst in other grades, the focus has been on subjective and objective language and inference in reading. With the term drawing to a close in a few weeks, the teachers are beginning to finalise their data for reports and as part of that, some have been conducting reading and comprehension assessments. There is such a lot happening at any one time on this campus. It certainly makes the time go quickly!
Yesterday we celebrated School Officers' Day with a special morning tea for the school officers who offer so much support to the teachers and the students. We are extremely lucky to have such capable and generous people around us and we appreciate very much the contribution they make to our school.
With God's blessings
Sarah Yates
Assistant to the Principal Primary
ASSISTANT TO THE PRINCIPAL FORMATION & IDENTITY
Understanding Religions
Students in Year 6 are currently involved in exploring Jewish High Holy Days including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Passover. This has proven to be both interesting and fascinating to the children, building on their knowledge of Judaism established in previous years.
The study of Judaism and Islam, together with other world religions including Buddhism and Hinduism, provides an opportunity for students to explore the relationships between religion and society. It introduces students to the connections and differences between religions, encouraging a dialogue between understanding our own beliefs and those of others. Through these interactions, students are able to build their capacity to be active and informed citizens within their local and global communities.
Megan Mahoney
Assistant to the Principal Formation & Identity
A friendly reminder regarding correct procedures for late arrivals, early departures and visitors as follows:
- For student absences, parents are advised to either call the office on 4681 5900 or email stanthorpe@twb.catholic.edu.au opposed to emailing student's individual teachers. If no advice is received, an SMS will be sent seeking confirmation, followed by a phone call if required.
- All contractors, parents and visitors must sign in and out of school during school hours if they are visiting classrooms or coming into other parts of the school. This does not apply to parents dropping students off before school and collecting them after school. A sign in Kiosk has replaced the sign in book in the coming weeks.
- All late students must report to the Office. The late slip has now been replaced with a sign in kiosk. Late students can now sign in at the kiosk, and will need to bring their printed late slip to class.
- For early departures, the usual parental permission is required, however, the students sign out with the kiosk and receive a printed slip. Parents can assist the student when they are picking them up from the Office if needed. Returning students MUST present this printed slip to the office before heading back to class. Should the student not return to the office with the slip prior to returning to class, they will be marked as absent for the remainder of the day. All students in Prep to Year 11 leaving early, must be collected by a parent / caregiver. Parents are asked to wait at the office - we will have the child come to the office.
- Call ahead to the office if you wish to make an appointment with the Principal, Principal's Assistant or the Bursar.
Students in Year 6 have been investigating the science of tectonic plate movement, earthquakes and engineering.
They created wobble boards to simulate the activity of an earthquake, identifying the key variables. They then had to design a tower that stood 8cm tall and could withstand an earthquake for 3 secs.
Year 10 student, Isobella Evans recently signed up to complete an SBA (Traineeship) for a Cert 3 in Education Support.
This qualification requires her to complete units of work in the area of study as well as working to gain experience and to demonstrate competency.
Isobella will be undertaking her school based traineeship in our Year 1 classroom with Linda Charlton as her supervising teacher.
She is to be congratulated on her placement and the commencement of her training.
The students in Year 4/5OB have been learning to collect data and construct a column graph from this collected data.
Friday, 29th May, saw students take their learning outside to see what data can be collected from the staff carpark. Students decided what data they wanted to collect and finished up with a column graph to represent their findings.
Some of the things the students graphed were:
- Letters on the number plates
- Colour of cars
- Brand of car
- Cars parked facing in or reversed in.
Thankfully, no one thought to graph which teacher’s cars were clean or not!!
A number of Year 6 students this semester have joined Mr Steele in Tech/Digital Tech.
Students have gone through the design process to create a CO2 drag racers to compete in one of two categories - speed or most creative design.
They have all completed their safety modules and been able to enter the wood workshop to start building their design. Students are excited to finish their design and race them in the coming weeks.
The Year 6 students have been developing their collaborative skills as they worked together to draw an accurate map of Australia using selected resources.
Not only did they label this map with states, cities, oceans, etc. but they also explored the idea of time zones and how this affects transportation and communication within our country and the world beyond.
Students were finding that as they answered the set questions, they seemed to be asking more and more questions which they will need to take some time to research. Some of these questions have included: Why is the Central Time Zone in Australia half an hour different to the Eastern one? Can we make one day last forever by moving through time zones? Who even invented time and time zones?
What are we learning about?
"We are learning about measuring length. We started by making a chart of all the heights of the people in our class, we started by asking who was the tallest and the shortest in our class. On Wednesday 3rd of June, we went on a length scavenger hunt around the Primary School, and found objects that were either about 1 cm, less then 20 cm, about 1 m or greater than 1 m these were only estimates. We have also learnt to convert millimetres to centimetres, millimeters to metres and centimetres to metres. We are learning to estimate and measure length accurately." - By Emily Robinson and Emily Doyle.
Upcoming Visual Arts competitions and events
Create an artwork about drought, fire or COVID-19.
Theme: Earth, Air, Fire, Water
- Up to A3 in size
- 2D media of choice
- Various age categories
- Prize money to be won!
Art room will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday during big lunch for those who would like to make an artwork to enter. (You can of course make your artwork at home!)
See Miss Mason to register your interest !
‘PERFECT PLACES’
Awards for Excellence in Art Design competition
Produce an original artwork that reflects the theme “Perfect Places”
- Can use any media – may be painted, drawn, collage, sculpture or photographic work.
- Max size: 60cm x 100cm
- Categories: Years 7-8, Years 9-10, Years 11-12
- Prize money of up to $250!
- Entries close: Friday 24 July
See Miss Mason to register your interest !
Art room open on Tuesday/Wednesday (commencing Wk 8) if you would like to work on entry for this competition.
DRAW ALONG WORKSHOPS
Sharpen your pencil and get ready to draw along from home in a virtual drawing workshop with artist Bill Platz on Zoom.
- 10.30am every Saturday in June (each week is a different drawing focus)
- Free
Register online: https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/events/virtual-events?mc_cid=d6e4749c1b&mc_eid=739180ada3
FILM WORKSHOP
- For those who registered their interest last term, the Film Workshop is tentatively booked to occur in Wk 5 of Term 3.
- This will be confirmed closer to the date (as some COVID regulations may still be in place).
Due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, the School Banking program will remain on hold until further notice.
Students will be kept informed with any updates including the management of the Dollarmite tokens for students.
In the meantime, here are some handy online resources for parents who wish to maintain momentum with their child’s financial education:
- Start Smart: these resources have been created to improve children’s money management skills, and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and the National Consumer Financial Literacy Framework.
- The Beanstalk: offers videos and fun activities for children to learn about money.
26 June | Student Free Day |
Term 2 Finishes | |
13 July | Term 3 Commences |
22 October | Awards Night |
19 November | Year 12 Graduation Mass & Dinner |