Welcome back to Term 2. I hope that you all had some time over the Easter break to enjoy some rest and relaxation. While we have certainly had a wet week, it has been lovely to see all our students again.  Over the break, our teachers participated in a Diocesan gathering with all teachers from across our Diocese called ’Encounter’. We all had the opportunity to engage in keynote presentations and workshops around our faith journey. The presenters challenged us to deeply reflect at times about the different ways we encounter God in our lives, in the everyday, in our joy, in our struggles and in community. We were reminded about the importance of a relationship with God and the commitment required to build and maintain that relationship, just as we do with any other good relationships in our lives. The Encounter gathering was a great source of personal renewal for myself and I hope that it was for many of our staff too. It was also a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our school community and consider the way we encounter God. This has already been a source of much discussion and I look forward to building on our faith journey together.

Over the last couple of days our leadership team has met off site so we could engage in some uninterrupted work in preparation for our verification this year and to reflect on current practices to identify areas for improvement or consolidation. One of the things we plan to introduce this term is a leadership retreat for our Year 6 students. Now that we have a full-sized group, we have identified opportunities for them to have some added responsibilities. We will share more about this in the next few weeks. 

We have also decided to have a deeper, more specific whole school focus on each of the areas in our Way of PEACE. This term we will be looking for:

Persistence- Developing good manners- saying Please and Thank you

Empathy- Understanding our sense of the other- saying Sorry

Accountability- Put things where they belong- school and classroom resources

Care for Community- Aiming for a litter free school. Yes we will still have rubbish but it will all be in the appropriate bins

Engaged- Demonstrating gratitude with participation in prayer before meals.

Students will still be acknowledged for demonstrating other examples of Persistence, Empathy, Accountability, Care for community or when being particularly Engaged, especially within their classrooms but these are our whole school focus for this term. Hopefully we such a difference in our school by fulfilling these expectations that we can set all new goals for next term.

Uniforms

Please be reminded that the school uniform needs to be worn as expected. I have spoken to a number of students wearing their sports shirts with skorts instead of their sports shorts. I have also noticed a number of students not wearing school shoes as expected (before they all resorted to wet weather shoes which is fine). School shoes need to be all black joggers (laces or velcro is fine). With the cooler weather starting, it is also timely to consider a school jacket too. Other jumpers are not acceptable.

Anzac Day Liturgy

Thank you to all those families who were able to join us for our ANZAC  Day Liturgy this morning. Special thanks to Petty Officer Adam Pownall who was our guest speaker. It always adds to our service to have members of the Australian Defence Force in attendance. I hope to see many of our families at the ANZAC Day March on Sunday and that you all get to enjoy a long weekend.

Have a great week.

Cheers

Penny

A big welcome back to what is sure to be busy and eventful Term 2.  Already this week we have had 12 students in our school complete their Sacramental journey (more on this below) and commemorated ANZAC Day as a school.  Throughout the term we also have our rescheduled Fun Run, NAPLAN, Simultaneous Story Time, Under 8’s Day, Sorry Day, NAIDOC Week, Reports and Athletics Carnival, to name a few things!

I have attached here a schedule of which classes will be presenting assembly throughout the term.  ALL are welcome to attend these assemblies, which begin every Friday morning from approximately 8:45am in the Hall, lasting around half-an-hour.

Sacramental Program

Congratulations to those students who this week received their Confirmation and First Holy Communion through our parish, the Ministerial Region of the Good Shepherd.  The message of these celebrations was centered around the gifts we have received through the Holy Spirit, that these gifts stay with us and we can, and should, be using these throughout our lives.  We were fortunate to have Fr Joseph and Fr Clement be there each night, with Fr Dave and Bishop Tim sharing the roles of Confirming these children.  These sacraments see the children as being fully initiated into the Catholic Church, in that they are able to participate fully in mass through receiving Jesus Christ.  If you would like your own children to continue their faith journey, our parish runs its sacramental program each year in Term 1, offering it to students in Year 3 and above.  Keep an eye out at the end of the year for dates and information about the program in 2022.

I have attached some photos I was able to take on the night, but unfortunately couldn’t get everyone.  If you have a photo you’d like to share, please feel free to email it to me.

Pax

Nick 

Welcome back to Term 2.  We have been greeted with some further wet weather, which is where we left off Term 1.  This weekend on Sunday, St Benedict’s will participate in the Thuringowa Anzac Day March.  Whilst it was great to have our Light up the Dawn commemorations last year, we are excited about the return to more traditional Anzac Day format.  If you are unable to attend the March, please do try and find some time to pause and reflect on the service and sacrifice of our Defence Personnel and their families.

Whilst the rain in Term 1 meant that we had to postpone our P&F Burgers by the Billabong, the P&F are excited to be bringing you the first Mother’s Day Wine and Cheese night.  The event is being highly anticipated and we would welcome many of our St Benedict’s mothers, Aunts, Grandmothers and Special carers as possible to attend.  Tickets are by Pre-Sale only for catering purposes.  Tickets are available for purchase over the next 2 weeks, please see Mrs Baumann in the office for tickets.

Thanks

Ros

NAPLAN Testing Dates.

Year 3 and 5 students will partake in NAPLAN testing on Tuesday 11th May. There are four tests that years 3 and 5 will undertake:

• Writing
• Reading
• Conventions of Language

As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics.

NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

This year our students are moving to online testing, with the exception of the year 3 writing test which will still be completed on paper. Students have been engaged in learning about the types of questions that will be on the NAPLAN test and how to navigate the site. You and your child can access the Public Demonstration Site  to familiarise themselves with the type of questions and related functionalities available in the NAPLAN Online assessment.

This website (https://www.nap.edu.au/home) provides further information and resources about NAPLAN. 

The NAPLAN schedule for St Benedict’s Catholc School is below.