Week 8/9 - Term 2

From the Principal

I recently attended the Townsville Catholic Education Principals' Meetings and Safe Persons Training. The Principals' Meetings are held each term and provide a space for principals to learn about changes and updates within the teaching and learning arena, and to collaborate with other principals on Townsville Catholic Education initiatives to improve outcomes for our school communities. This term, the topics included upcoming improvements to data tracking, Inclusive Education and Indigenous Education, issues related to the introduction of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, as well as topics related to the operational management of schools and staffing.

I was joined on the third day of the Principals' Meeting by Mrs Melanie Menzies and Mrs Kristy Sylvester, who are our school Safe Persons. The Safe Persons Training is an annual event, attended by all of the Principals and their Safe Persons. Throughout the event we were presented with important information regarding keeping our children safe and how student protection is guided by current legislation. Safe Persons hold an extremely important role within our schools, as they promote and organise child protection initiatives within our schools, and support colleagues with student protection processes.

Semester 1 Reports will be issued via Compass on Wednesday, 21 June. It is important that parents and students take the time to read the comments that were written by their teacher and take note of both their areas of strength and areas for improvement, as well as comments about their attitude towards learning and levels of effort. I encourage you to discuss the key points made in the comments with your child and then help them set a learning goal for Semester 2. I have been reading the comments from the teachers and I take great pride in the progress made by all of our students. I would like to congratulate all of the students on their efforts this semester and look forward to even greater improvements in Semester 2.

God bless,

Alicia

Religious Life of the School

Hello everybody, welcome to the end of Term 2! The past two weeks have been filled with excitement at St Mary's, particularly with our annual Social Justice Day. I'd like to take a moment to thank the local St Vincent de Paul's Store and its members who kindly donated their time and items. In addition, we'd like to thank Stephen Gasparini, St Vincent de Paul's youth coordinator, for visiting us and for his inspirational talk on homelessness and reaching out to those in need. Thanks to generous contributions from the St Mary's Community, a large portion of money was raised for our local St Vincent de Paul's Store. This Saturday, members of the youth group will be donating some of their time to help out at the local store, please email me at swindridge@smbtsv.catholic.edu.au if you think your child might like to attend (mainly for the teenage age range). 

Catholic Social Teachings (CST)

I was fortunate to recently attend a course on Social Justice at Townsville Catholic Education, run by Professor Peta Goldburg. Catholic Social Teachings are an essential part of what it means to be Catholic, with 6 key themes the Church bases its teachings around:

• Common Good
• Option for the poor
• Solidarity
• The dignity of all people
• Subsidiarity and participation 
• The stewardship of Creation

Teachers at St Mary's are tasked with incorporating these teachings into the everyday curriculum by taking an inquiry approach and asking questions such as; Why is it happening? What is the history of the situation? What are the major structures (institutions, policies and processes) that affect the issue? What are the connections, explicit and implicit, between these structures? What is the future direction of this situation? What do the people need or want? What institutions have shaped the situation for better or worse? These questions can be integrated into a range of different units, including Science, History, Geography and Technology, enriching the students learning by encouraging them to look beyond the ordinary, with a Catholic worldview.

Although we are all busy, we still need to take the time to reflect and ask ourselves, in what small ways could we contribute to a more just society? If you are interested in reading more about the Catholic Church's teachings in this area, there are many Vatican papers on the subject including: Fratelli tutti (3 October 2020) | Francis,   Laudato si' (24 May 2015) | Francis and Caritas in veritate (June 29, 2009) | BENEDICT XVI.

Whole school Mass- Friday 23rd, 9 am

We are wrapping up Term 2 with ‘Mary’s Big Day Out’ on the last day of term to celebrate students hard work and good behaviour. We will begin the day with a whole school Mass in the Church at 9 am. This will be a lovely way to end our term and further reflect on what we have learnt in the last couple of weeks.  All families are encouraged to come along if they are free to join us. 

Rite of Confirmation - Saturday 17th June, 6 pm St Mary’s Church

We would like to wish all students who will be completing their Rite of Confirmation on Sunday morning well. We welcome them into the Church community and congratulate them on completing their final sacrament to become part of the Catholic Church and community. Bishop Tim will be attending and if anyone is interested in joining the Bishop and Parish members for dinner that night, please email Rachael Young at ryoung@smbtsv.catholic.edu.au 

Youth Group- Saturday 17th Horseshoe Bay, 11 am

This Saturday we will have a St Mary’s Youth Group excursion. We will be walking up Mother Beddock, followed by a picnic and games on the beach, and we hear that the weather is going to be perfect! We will be meeting at 11 am at Horseshoe Bay. Everyone is warmly invited to attend. 

Thanks everyone for a great term!  I truly hope you all have a blessed holiday with your family and loved ones. 

Mrs Windridge. 

Learning and Teaching

Learning and Teaching

Over the past 18months our school has started their journey with reviewing literacy practices to ensure that Literacy Instruction is of a high quality and reflective of current research. As part of this Alexandria Wenta, Suzette Windridge, Melanie Menzies and I have been participating in The Writing Project, delivered by TCE. We are in our second year of the project and I would like to commend our classroom teachers on their efforts and commitment towards implementing the findings of the project.

One of the areas for improvement in our school after completing a literacy audit indicated the need to roll out a balanced literacy block and introduce mentor texts. Our students have been engaging well with mentor texts and the 6+1 traits of writing, along with, starting to set up routines for a balanced literacy block. We are already witnessing a renewed love of writing and look forward to seeing many improvements across our school in the area of Literacy, ensuring we develop literate, lifelong learners.

Literacy intervention is another focus area which resulted from the audit, and we currently offer two Tier 2 Intervention Programs to our students: Minilit and Macqlit.

MiniLit

MiniLit is an integrated and balanced program of 80 carefully structured lessons, divided into two levels of 40 lessons each:

Level 1: Teaching the basics of letter/sound knowledge and decoding skills for CVC words

Level 2: Extending word attack knowledge by teaching commonly used digraphs and longer words.

Who is it for?

• Specifically aimed at students finding Literacy challenging from Year 1 and up.

• Also appropriate for ‘at-risk’ students

MacqLit

MacqLit is an explicit and systematic reading intervention program for small groups of older low-progress readers. It provides teachers with a comprehensive sequence of lessons that includes all the key components necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Who is it for?

• Ideal for students who fall in the bottom 25% of a standardised reading test or curriculum-based measure, and who have particular difficulties in the area of word recognition.

• Specifically aimed at struggling readers in Year 3 through to high school.

Kathryn Lowcock (MiniLit) and Christine Davidson (MacqLit) implement the program in our school, and we thank them for their commitment to providing quality intervention opportunities to our learners. As part of our review processes I am excited to be able to share with you all that as of 2024 we will be rolling out the most up to date version of MiniLit, which is MiniLit Sage.

We would like to thank Abbot Point Bulk Corporations for purchasing this program for us through a community grant, as their ongoing support to ensure that our learners have access to high quality resources is greatly appreciated. More information regarding MiniLit Sage will be shared during Semester 2.

Kind Regards,Krystal LandLearning and Teaching Adviser

STEM at St Mary's

Mrs Menzies, Mrs Ninnes and Year 2 have been involved in a special STEM project run by Townsville Catholic Education.  This project focuses on introducing a wide range of stem resources including robots and Lego into the classrooms. Teachers in the TCE Enrichment STEM Lending and Assistance (TESLA) Project are encouraged to use these fantastic resources as part of students' everyday learning.  So far, the students have programmed the robots during English to say their sight words and to help them learn about adjectives.  In Mathematics, they have used the robots to add and subtract on number lines and to code a path through a maze.  They have used lego to build and code in Technology and Year 4 has been busy creating with Legos as well.  On Thursday Mrs Jacqui Francis, the Executive Director of the Townsville Catholic Education Office, visited us and watched us use our robots to record our adjectives.  She was impressed with our use of such fun and innovative technology at St Mary's!

Free Dress Day !

Prep 2024

We are currently taking Prep enrolments for 2024.  If you have a child beginning school next year or know someone whose child is due to begin Prep, please get your enrolment forms in ASAP. These forms can be found on our school website. Please follow this link to access our current enrolment form.  

Celebrating 150 Years of St Mary's

In light of our Fancy Dress Disco tonight, this week we are looking at some photos of Fancy Dress Balls from the past.

Please email photos to bwn@tsv.catholic.edu.au 

150th Anniversary Event

Design a Brick Fundraiser

The 150th Anniversary Committee will be holding a Design a Brick Fundraiser, providing the opportunity for past and current students and their families to have a brick engraved with their name, for installation in our school grounds.

Order forms are avaialble on our school website at https://www.smbtsv.catholic.edu.au/150-years/commemorative-brick-fundraiser/

We hope many families will be as excited as we are about the opportunity for our families to leave a lasting mark on the school.

Under 8's Day

Our students from Prep to Year 2 had a wonderful day at Queens Beach State School attending under 8's day.

My New Gallery

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From the Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - MANAGING SCREEN TIME

As a result of the global pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift in the amount of time people spend on screen-based devices. Families are transitioning back to pre-COVID routines but many are still struggling to re-establish the boundaries and rules around screen use. Some continue to deal with digital conflict and tech-tantrums on a daily basis.

Parents play a crucial role in modelling a positive and healthy approach to using screens and assisting children to navigate the content they watch. It is better to model and mentor screen use, rather than monitor it. Children tend to do more of what they see us do, and less of what we tell them to do. However, it is still important to outline the risks and highlight the benefits of screen use to ensure you keep a balanced attitude. Encourage discussions around the issues that people experience in monitoring their screen time and be honest about your own difficulties.

Parents need to remain firm in their approach to managing screen time. Excessive screen time can be detrimental to a child’s overall wellbeing. Ensuring the correct privacy settings are in place is vital to prevent children from being inadvertently exposed to inappropriate content or online predators. Parents need to also be mindful of the potential impact screen time can have on a child’s social, emotional, educational, behavioural, and even physical domains.

In this edition of SchoolTV, care-givers will be provided with a range of guidelines and strategies to help manage screen time at home.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school guidance counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Managing Screen Time edition of SchoolTV
https://smbtsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/managing-screen-time

Award Winners Week 8, Term 2

In Week 8, our weekly awards were presented to students who have been following Mary's Way by showing "M" Mercy and Outreach.

Mary's Way Award Winners:

Back row: Letti Williams, Xavier DeGroot, Chelsea Woodward, Leland Acton

Front row: Caleb Brookbank, Jaxon Malone, Alexander Schmiede, Jet Saffell

Praise Note Winner of the Week:  Aubrey Cunningham ( not present)

Star Reader:  Enoch Zhang

Award Winners Week 9, Term 2

In Week 9, our weekly awards were presented to students following Mary's Way by showing "C" Compassion and Care.

Mary's Way Award Winners: 

Back Row: Samantha Pugh, Anderson Graf, Mahir Beygirci

Front Row: Georgia Jeffrey, Robert Sylvester, Isabella Mestroni

Paise Note Winner of the Week:  Petelo Ngauamo 

Star Reader: Koha Haare ( not present)

Birthdays

Birthdays

        Evan Moxham                                                                                                       Elishia Petersen

Extra Activities

P&F News

St Mary's P&F

Tuckshop Menu Term 2

Mary Mackillop OSHC

OSHC at St Mary’s Catholic School is now operating Monday to Friday from  6.30 am to 8.30 am and 2.45 pm to 6.00 pm.

The government has announced changes in the way that Child Care Subsidy is worked out. The income limit for CCS will be increasing to $530,000, meaning that the cost of OSHC will reduce for the majority of families. The changes will come into effect on 10 July.

Currently the service costs $17.50 for Before-School Care, and $22 for After-School Care, before CCS reductions are applied. Food (breakfast and afternoon tea) is provided at no extra cost. Please see below for more information about the upcoming reduction in fees.

If you would like more information or to register, please contact Miss Rob on 0428 216 062 OR at bowenoshc@mmcnq.catholic.edu.au

Term 2 Week 10 and Term 3 Week 1 Important Events

• 16 June - Under 8's Day at Queens Beach State School; P&F Fancy Dress Disco
• 18 June - 8am First Communion and Confirmation Mass
• 19 June - Athletics Carnival
• 23 June - 9am End of Term Mass; MMBDO

Community News

Holiday Music Program