EcoFest

Congratulations to the Year 6 students, their teachers, Mrs Christie our eProject Coordinator, and the whole school community for another successful EcoFest. Each year I listen to and watch our students as they engage with the stalls, and I am increasingly impressed by their understanding, empathy, respect, and inquisitive nature as they learn about caring for our environment.

Science Week - Can you help?

Each year I have organised an interactive ‘Science Center’ in the library for each class to visit during Science Week. This year the theme is “Species Survival: More than Just Sustainability.” 

If you think you may be able to help, can you please email me (Aleesha) by Monday the 5th August? arockemer1@stbenedicts.catholic.edu.au 

Possible ways you might be able to help: 

• Do you have any materials or items that we could showcase or students could interact with (maybe you own them yourself, or you work for a business/ organsiation with resources?)
  For example, items might include: 

• Artefacts in relation to native animals or plants
• Information about protecting animals and plants
• Photos of bee hives, fruit/veggie gardens etc
• Anything you think the students may like looking at or interacting with (related to science or animals/plants)

• Science at home - caring for our environment
  Do you have family bee hives, chickens, fruit/veggie gardens, compost bins, or any other ways you care for your environment at home? We would love to see photos of your family with whatever it is you have (or no people in the photo if you prefer), and a blurb explaining how you use it or any interesting information! I will use the photos to create a display called ‘Science at home - caring for our environment.’
• Do you work in the area of Science?
  I would love to have a display of ‘Our Local Community Scientists’ at the Science Center!
  Can you please create a poster explaining your job and include a photo of yourself in your uniform? I am happy to help put the poster together if you send me a blurb and a photo!

Please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions or you think you may be able to help in any way. Thank you in advance for your time and support!  

National Tree Day

Today we celebrated National Tree Day at school. Our ‘Year 5 Junior Rangers’ visited each class and discussed the importance of trees! The Townsville City Council is holding an event this Sunday at Melrose Park (see ‘What’s On Townsville’ for more information). If you are able to “Lend a hand to help the land! Spend your morning planting native plants to help protect our natural environment.”

Collecting Data to Inform our Teaching - Setting Goals 

You may notice Prep to Year 1 teachers having extra time out of the classroom over the next couple of weeks as they are conducting one-to-one interviews with students. This is part of the Townsville Catholic Education Early Years Literacy and Numeracy Project. Each year we collect data through these interviews and year 2 conducts the testing as a class. We then meet to analyse the data and evaluate our teaching and learning. This data, along with the many other data collected within the classroom, is also used to set learning goals. Each child is unique and we work extremely hard to ensure every child is able to reach their full potential.