Hi everyone,

This week our Prep students have reached another milestone in their school journey- 100 days at school. This is a lovely milestone as it is a great time for the students to look back over all the things they have learned and recognise how much they have grown, especially in confidence and in their enthusiasm to have a go. We are very proud of how our Prep students are progressing and our teachers have had a lovely time celebrating this milestone with them.

Catholic Education Week

Next week we celebrate Catholic education week with the theme- ‘Many Voices, One Spirit’. This theme was chosen to promote and support inclusiveness.  The ‘Many Voices’ represent those of students, teachers, families, communities, parish, social services and government within all five dioceses in Queensland and include all educational ages (kindergarten to university) and beliefs.

‘One Spirit will be interpreted differently by different audiences and could include for example: faith, the Holy Spirit, charisms or school spirit, team spirit, parish spirit. The theme brings feelings of energy, enthusiasm, love, joy, values, relationships, togetherness, learning, unity and belonging- all ideals relevant to Catholic schools in Queensland.

St Benedict’s will celebrate Catholic Education Week in a number of ways including taking our students who completed the Sacramental Program this year to the Catholic Education Week Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral and we will be attending the Spirit of Catholic Education Awards ceremony where our Inclusive Education Coordinator, Bernadette Herron is being recognised for her dedication to Catholic Education especially in the way she advocates for an inclusive education approach for all students. 

Bernadette is an exemplary role model for our staff in her compassion, her understanding and her ability to set and maintain high standards. Bernadette has mentored numerous teachers and school officers to develop their capacity to engage students with disabilities within an inclusive classroom and to ensure the students receive a high quality education where they are valued and feel safe. Much of Bernadette’s work is the work that goes unnoticed, sometimes because of her unassuming nature and because she is happy being in the background even though we would consider her the backbone that holds it altogether. We are very blessed to have Bernadette on our staff and congratulate her sincerely on her achievements.

We will have a series of activities for students to do on Friday to celebrate Catholic Education Week.

Federal Parliament Experience

Next week our students in Years 4-6 will have a visit from the Parliamentary Education team from Canberra to learn more about how Federal Parliament works. They will get to participate in role play situations to experience the work of our politicians. Towards the end of this terms they will observe the visiting Regional Parliamentary sitting session here in Townsville to see the real deal in action. You can’t beat real life learning experiences.

Challenge Games

Next week we have a number of students heading off to Townsville Sports Reserve to represent St Benedict’s in the Challenge Games. Challenge Games is an event for children with varying disabilities to participate in a range of competitive activities that are fun and exciting. We wish our students well and know they will have a great time.

Eco Warriors

A group of Year 3 students will be joining many other school representatives from our diocesan catholic schools to participate in a day designed to focus on our roles as stewards for God’s Creation. The students get to engage in a number of fun activities highlighting some of the things they can do to protect the environment. We got lots of ideas from this event last year for our own Ecofest.

Inaugural School Community Acknowledgement- Tree Sculpture

I hope everyone has had a chance to see that our tree sculpture has been installed this week. We are just waiting on the book logo part to go with it, then we will have a blessing ceremony to recognise our Foundation Year in 2018.

Mulkadee

We are thoroughly looking forward to watching the Mulkadee performance tonight. This event is always a spectacular showcase of wonderful talent in our catholic school students and the event is a real credit to Townsville Catholic Education. Congratulations to all of our students who have worked so hard this week preparing for tonight, I know you’ll love the final extravaganza.

Have a fabulous week. 

Cheers 

Penny