Penny has been away this week so I have been left in her seat.  It is wonderful to be able to do this with such a supportive group of teachers, school officers and administration officers who all pitch in and help out to ensure the efficient running of our school.

We started the week with Prep Platypus presenting assembly about Father’s Day.  The Prep students all do a wonderful job and it was lovely to see them presenting in their dads t-shirts.  We also had two special guests on assembly this week.

TMSG

The first was Danielle from  the Townsville Multicultural Support Group.  We were able to present the items which our community has donated to create welcome packs for refugee families settling in to Townsville.  In doing so we were able to show two of our four main values of Love and Community.

Child Protection Week

Our second visitor was Katherine from Townsville Catholic Education.  She is the Student Protection Coordinator at TCE. Katherine presented prizes to two of our students from 5/6, Haydan and Olivia, who created  bookmarks which have now been sent out with messages for Child Protection Week. This visit marked the start of Child Protection Week, where we remind our children of protective behaviours to improve their safety.  All classes conducted lessons with this focus in mind. If you wanted to continue these conversations, some talking points could include:

• Who are their 5 adults that they can talk to? 
•  Do these people know that they are their safe person?
• What is a good and a bad secret?
• Nothing is too bad that you can’t talk about it.

As adults, it is all of our business to ensure the safety of the children within our community.  

Parliament Visit

On Tuesday, our Year 5/6 students got the opportunity to watch a session of the Queensland Government Regional Parliament.  This was a great experience for our students. Many of them reported that they were disappointed that their session finished just as the politicians were starting to get argumentative.  You may have seen some of our students on the news or heard them on the radio while they were at the event.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher interviews will be held next week on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon between 3:30 and 6:00pm.  These interviews are intended for parents who would like to meet with their child’s teachers to discuss their progress, however, it is anticipated that not all parents will require this meeting as these are not compulsory meetings.  The booking system is now open in Compass and will close on Monday afternoon at 2:00pm. If you experience difficulty in booking an interview time, please either contact your classroom teacher or the office who can help to organise a time for you.

NAPLAN RESULTS

This week parents and carers of children in our Year 3 and 5 classes received their children’s individual NAPLAN reports.  We would encourage you to review these results through the lens that this is a point in time test and one part of a data set that our teachers use to assess and plan for future progression in our students Numeracy, Reading, Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling and Writing.  Of course, this just makes up one part of your child’s education, we also ensure that we are growing our students through their spirituality and wellbeing along with their academics.  

Eco Fest

I would invite and encourage everyone to attend our 2nd annual EcoFest.  It proved a great success last year and it’s only looking to expand this year.  As well as each of our classes contributing (at least) 1 stall to show off their learning about sustainable practices in their eProjects, our 5/6 Turtles have organised 15 local businesses to attend and share information about how we can live a more sustainable lifestyle.  There will also be a Coffee Van available, with a discount offered to those who bring in their own reusable cup. We are really looking forward to this event and look forward to seeing you there. It is a great culmination in showing off our value of Stewardship and I can’t wait to see what the students have to show!

Have a great week and God bless,

Nick