What a lovely week we have had with Catholic Education Week, Challenge Games and St Benedict’s Feast Day. Thank you to all our staff who make these events run so smoothly. Thanks to Nick Christie for all your work in organising Catholic Education Week and Feast Day. Thank you to Sarah Pugh who has played a big role in organising Benny’s Got Talent and to Ros Baumann, Theo Papazis, Mel Foley, Dana Kern and Stacey Toigo who supported our students at Challenge Games. Our amazing staff are what make all these extra events and activities available for our students. Thank you to all parents who have been able to come along too; we love having you participate wherever possible.

Validation

On Monday we have an external panel coming to our school to review the work we have done over our first five years as part of the Townsville Catholic Education Renewal Cycle. When we opened our school in 2018, we had our first five year School Renewal Plan in place with goals developed by parents and staff who were part of our Formation Committee. Each year we have written an annual plan based on this first five year plan but also responsive to any identified needs as we grew eg. class newsletters came from parents wanting more information about what students were doing at school and therefore we had goals around improving our communication. This year we are improving our connection to our faith by introducing Class Masses each fortnight as part of Pastoral Care, along with increasing our religious symbols around the school. 

This panel will be lead by Ross Horner, former Director for School Services at Townsville Catholic Education and will include a Principal from Marian Catholic Primary School, A Deputy Principal from Good Shepherd Catholic High School in Mt Isa, our Education Consultant, Laurence Hosking,  our Board Chairperson, Louise Costanzo and our Parish Priest, Fr Joseph Reddy.

Our leadership team will present a report based on the achievements from our five year plan, the Characteristics of an Effective Catholic School and the feedback from parents, staff and students. The panel will also speak to parents, staff and students to explore any questions they may have and will participate in a tour of the school and our classrooms.

Through the Pre-verification and Verification process we have done leading up to Validation, we have already drafted goals for our next five year plan that the panel will also review to ensure we have captured all our needs moving forward. I look forward to sharing their report with you in the coming weeks. 

Please have a lovely weekend.

Cheers

Penny

Welcome to the end of Week 3! It’s a special day at St Benedict’s today as we celebrate the Feast Day of St Benedict (which actually occurred on July 11).  As this date falls in the holidays, we have used Catholic Education Week as a time of also celebrating the saint who our school is named after - and what an inspiration to us St Benedict has been!

I found the following article by Sr Joan Chittester, a Benedictine nun, who writes of the importance that the Benedictine community had in Europe earlier this millennium.  From reading extracts from this article, we can see many similarities to how our school aims to run;

There are few institutions that did as much for any geographic region as Benedictine monasteries did for Europe across the centuries. They brought a Rule and a way of life that was balanced, ordered, realistic and, most of all, humane. This was a Rule, a monastic lifestyle, that could be trusted to build community that fed the people, educated them, healed them, even protected them in their round towers in case of siege

…

Four major characteristics marked the new order then and mark it still. Hospitality, productivity, community, and immersion in God gave Benedictines what no other religious groups of the time could provide. They were stable. They were agents of social change. They lived a communal—a family—life. They had one major commitment: “To Seek God.” Not only was God the center of their personal lives but God was also the center of the community life itself. Benedictine lives were a model for all the world to see—and come to expect. Why? Because it was socially productive and self-sustaining, internally well-organized, and spiritually rich.  Benedictine monasteries were at the center of every village and fast becoming assets to the larger society. Monastic communities became the hospices, the hospitals, the educators, the scriptoriums, the public mediators, and the judicial systems of the village square. Finally, of course, the monasteries became the spiritual centers of the local communities as well.

Our special liturgy this morning, presided over beautifully by seminarian, Will, asked for us to be inspired by St Benedict’s spirit of hospitality and generosity, and that we may be able to listen with the ear of the heart, respond with kindness and be people of love.  

I write this today after we’ve finished our liturgy.  Our students are now moving into activities with their buddy classes around St Benedict, Catholic Education Week and our St Benedict’s Way of Peace, and of course we finish this afternoon with our very popular, Benny’s Got Talent.  It’s wonderful to get the opportunity as a school community to come together and celebrate what makes us who we are!

Pax,

Nick

Challenge Games

Wow - what an amazing 2 days we have had.  I cannot express just how proud the children have made themselves these past two days and how extraordinarily proud our school is of them.  With games ranging from Long Jump, Shot Put, Running Races, Ball games, Field events like Frisbee, Fling - A - Majig, Bocce, Sports games like Cricket and Rugby League, Vortex throwing, Wheel-Chair Racing and the favourite Parachute - a fun 2 days was had.  The Challenge Games also saw schools from as far and wide as Bowen, Mt Isa, Central Queensland, Innisfail, Cairns and Townsville attending to participate in this truly inclusive event.  The joy on the children’s faces gained from the achievement and participation cannot be underestimated or undervalued.  The sense of sportsmanship, camaraderie and care the team showed for each other is to be commended.  A special mention to the parents and grandparents who were able to come and spend some time with their children also.  The children are already talking about coming back again next year and participating in more activities.

? Dealing with Big Feelings ?

Lots of kids struggle to identify and then deal with the big feelings they have along the way.  This takes time, patience and support to develop this skill set.  Big LIfe Journal has provided a My Tiny Book for Big Feelings that can assist with creating a safe space for parents and kids alike to discuss these big feelings.  This booklet has been uploaded to the FB Parents Page (check files section) for you to access the resources.  If you have any further questions or are seeking any support, please feel free to reach out.

P&F News

Thanks to all those who were able to attend the Term 3 Meeting.

The next meetings will be:

Term 4, Week 2 - Tuesday 11th October at 7.00pm.

Term 4, Week 4 - Tuesday 25th October

Parent Information Session on Student Transition (from 1 primary school year to the next AND highschool transition)

Term 3 Events: $5 entry per family - No Glow Products on Sale

Disco - Thursday 11th August 6.00 - 7.30pm

Sausage Sizzle & Steak Burgers on Sale

Benny Bake Sale will also be on offer

Father’s Day Bowling and Dodgems 

We are looking forward to another fun afternoon for Dad’s and their kids (the ultimate icebreakers!)  Tickets available from: https://townsvilletickets.com.au/event/bennys-fathers-day-tenpin-bowling-16371

Seeking: Father’s Day raffle donations.  If you would like to donate or know a business that might be interested, please let either Renee Neville or Ros Baumann know.  Thank you.  Raffle ticket sales available from the link above.

MS Readathon

The MS Readathon challenges kids to read as much as they can in August and raises money for vital support services to families with multiple sclerosis. 

The stats so far are:

• 15 students registered!
• $673 out of the $1000 goal raised 
• 24 Books read so far (what a great head start for reading in August!) 

 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR CHILD OR CHILDREN TO READ and then join our school!

Storytelling competition: To kick things off, MS Reathon are running a writing competition throughout August! They are asking all our super readers to submit a story about their favourite avatar. All students that submit a story will go in the draw to win 1 of 18 x Faber Castell connector pen packs! 

Once they have written a story, they can submit it at the storytelling competition page… Submit your story for the Storytelling Competition! 

Stewardship Action Meetings - National Tree Day

This week each class participated in their Termly ‘Stewardship Action Meeting.’ During this time students learnt about ‘National Tree Day’ and investigated how to plant a tree. They also set  class stewardship goals for the Term. 

Some of the ‘Stewardship Goals’ classes created this term are: 

• Prep Platypus: We will pull out the weeds from our garden beds during outdoor play with a team of ‘Wonderful Weeders.’ 
• Year 3 Galahs: We will use the paths around the school and not walk in our gardens.
• Year 4 Grasshoppers: We will create labeled containers for ring pulls, bread tags, and bottle tops.

Furthermore, yesterday I attended the City Council ‘Schools Tree Day Ceremony’ with Naida Payne and Noah Edmonds from Year 5/6. Next week, year 4 students will be planting grasses in the Bush Tucker Trail to help with erosion control, and year 5/6 students will be creating a new garden bed in our Wildlife Corridor on the lower oval. The Wildlife Corridor is a habitat for native wildlife between the oval (human structure) and the Bush Tucker Trail. 

Are you doing anything for National Tree Day this Sunday 31st July? Check out the TSV City Council event at Oakdale Heights! 

Yours in Learning, 

Aleesha Rockemer

(Learning and Teaching Adviser)