Thank you to our APRE, Nick Christie, our Defence Mentor Leza Triffett and the Year 1 Wallabies for leading us in a beautiful liturgy this morning for Remembrance Day. Special thanks also to Sari Beeton for delivering an address as the child of a member of the Defence Force. Your words were very meaningful to us all.

I would like to advise our community that we have almost finalised staffing for 2023 and we are in the process of confirming class lists. In 2023 we will lose Miss Cienna Jewell as she heads back to Brisbane with her new husband, Mrs Reitano as she leaves to have her baby, and Ms Massatto (temporarily) as she heads off on 6 months leave travelling the world and Mr Villi as he moves to Mt Isa to begin his teaching career. New teaching staff to St Benedict’s will include Amanda Prideaux, Kate Andrews, Toni Pilcher, Abbey Huckvale, Belinda Fern and Isabelle Dow. Returning to st benedicts’ will be Mrs Kandis Huston (Orr), Mrs Charley Favalli and Mrs Laura King. We will advise class allocations for these teachers in our school newsletter at the end of Week 8 before Step Up Day on Tuesday 29 November. 

Our current teachers are currently writing report cards for this semester so we can all move into the last three weeks of school where we still have swimming lessons for Years 3-6, our Swimming Carnival, Year 6 Rite of Passage, End of Year Mass and the much loved O’Holy Night.

Please have a lovely weekend and let’s all stay as calm as we can in the lead up til the end of the year.

Cheers

Penny

It’s the end of Week 6, and it’s hard to believe that there’s only 3 weeks left of the year!  We started today with a beautiful Remembrance Day Liturgy led by the Year 1 Wallabies.  It was great to see such a great parent turn out for what was a lovely commemorative morning.  The Defence Children, led by Miss Leza, did a wonderful job in assisting the Wallabies, and our groundsmen had our Defence Memorial looking beautiful this morning as well.

As we are nearing the end of the term, there are many upcoming events.  I urge you to keep a track on the newsletter and our schools official Facebook site to keep up to date with what is happening to finish out the year.  I thought now would be a great time to give you some information about these upcoming events.

Swimming Carnival - Friday 18 November

The note for this was sent out through Compass earlier in the week.   I have shared below information for both the carnival and a rough idea on the order of events.  Please note, you can order your students a Sausage (put on by the P&F) through the Flexischools App on the date.  The Tuckshop will also be open 2nd break if you require this service for your children.

End of Year Mass

This will be celebrated by Fr Clement on Friday November 25.  We will celebrate the year that was and farewell our departing Year 6 students as a group.  ALL are welcome to attend.

Step up Orientation Day

Our ‘Step Up’ Day will take place on Tuesday November 29 between 9:00am and 10:30am.  ALL students attending St Benedict’s in 2023 will spend the morning with their classroom teacher and peers for 2023.  Our teachers and students are always very excited for this day.  This event is specifically for students.  Parents of new students are invited to attend at the Hall where they can talk to the Leadership Team, OSHC staff and other community members.

O Holy Night

Our Christmas Carols event under the stars is back again this year (weather permitting) on Wednesday November 30.  All classes (as well as the Kindy) perform at the event. ALL are welcome to attend this event. 

Pax,

Nick

The Writing Project

This week I presented at Catholic Education Office with 2 of our wonderful teachers, Rebecca Curley (year 4) and Anne McGrath (year 2). Writing has been a focus at St Benedict’s, and Rebecca, Anne and I have spent this year rearching best practice, collaborating with others, and analysing student data to teach students the best way possible. 

Have you ever wondered what good writers do? The ‘6+1 Traits of writing’ is a resource that we are now using to teach ‘effective writing’ to our students. The 6+1 traits are: 

• Ideas - Start with great ideas, focus your idea, and write supporting details

• Organisation - Text structure - make your words, sentences, and paragraphs easy to follow. There is a beginning, middle, and end in my writing. 

• Voice - Sound as if you are really interested in your topic

• Word Choice - Choose the best words (topic specific vocabulary)

• Sentence Fluency - Use sentences that are fun and easy to read

• Conventions - Accurate spelling and punctuation

• Presentation - Publish your writing for an audience

Writing will continue to be a focus at St Benedict’s in 2023, and we look forward to seeing some common language and ideas throughout our school. I am very proud of Anne and Rebecca for their commitment to this project and their enthusiasm in leading others. 

Yours in Learning, 

Aleesha Rockemer (Learning and Teaching Adviser) 

Compass - Parent Portal - Semester Two Reports

We have provided some instructions on how you can access your child's Semester Two Report using the Compass Parent Portal. Reports will be available on Monday 28 November. Please ensure you can access Compass prior to this date. If you require any assistance please contact the school office.      

How to Access Your Child’s Semester Report

Please be reminded that children are not supervised at school before 8.00am unless they are at OSHC. It is not reasonable or safe to leave children unsupervised at school.