St Benedict's Catholic School Shaw eNewsletter

What an absolute pleasure it is to be back at St Benedict’s! While it was an fabulous opportunity to work at TCE with the Staffing Guidelines Project as I have a particular interest in improving the current model and making it more reflective of contemporary school needs, I have missed our community immensely. I am definitely not ready to work anywhere away from our students anytime soon. Our students have treated me like a rock star upon my return and I have been bombarded with information about loose teeth, tooth fairy visits, stories about new baby brothers and sisters, sporting, dance and gymnastics accomplishments and I have thoroughly enjoyed every conversation. I managed to visit each classroom on the very first day where I have met new students at our school who have all told me how they have settled in beautifully and made friends already which is so great to hear. Many of our students were keen to test how many of their names I had remembered. Apparently I did okay but have some work to do :)

I was also especially impressed with the level of student engagement happening in every classroom (and outside of the classroom as we like to do here at St Benedict’s) with learning. I have had many students visit me in the office to show me their work over the last couple of days and it has been just wonderful to see how much pride students are taking with their learning.

It has been very exciting to return to school and see the progress with our final building project. We are looking forward to these additional spaces that will not only take us to a school of 700 students within the next few years but also provide a number of key spaces for visiting specialists to use and provide more space for multi-pupose use. With these spaces, we look forward to expanding our instrumental and arts programs as well providing more undercover space for students to play and perform.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Ros Baumann and the entire leadership team for their commitment to our St Benedict's community and for addressing a number of challenges that arose over the course of the last term and a half with such professionalism and care. I have always felt very blessed by the entire staff team we have at St Benedicts and the last few months have been no exception.

I look forward to engaging with you all as the term and the year progresses. Have a fabulous week and Go Queensland!

Cheers

Penny

What a wonderful week it has been. Thank you to our whole community for the flexible and responsive manner in which you have handled the transitions this week. From Penny’s return to the opening of our new roadway, there has been much to celebrate. We have received some wonderful feedback about the new roadway and there is no doubt the new traffic lights will be a blessing next year when completed. Counting our blessings is always a good thing. Taking time to reflect on them and appreciate the positive impact they have in our lives allows us to live them to their fullest. I pray that you find the time to be filled with the joy of your blessings this weekend.

Welcome to the end of Week 6! Our 2 Magpies led us on assembly this morning on Sorry Day. On this important day of commemoration, the Magpies invited us to reflect on the millions of footprints that traveled the Dreaming pathways and to give thanks for their wisdom and knowledge. They prayed that we might rise up and walk together in a spirit of reconciliation and unity, recognising and valuing each other.

The end of this week has seen me attend TCE’s annual APRE gathering, this year taking part in ACU’s ‘Spiritus’ course. The purpose of this course has been to work on new evangelisation in bringing God’s Spirit to life in the world so as to build a new humanity characterised by justice, mercy, freedom and compassion. As a group, we have been tasked with bringing this alive in our school communities and to inspire the young people to take the Gospel into the world and to foster a world of hope.

I’d like to leave you with a quote that I’ve picked up during this course, which St Augustine penned on the search for God -

“You were within me - but I was outside”.

My prayer for you, in the busy-ness of the weekend, is to be able find time and take a moment to find God within you.

Pax,

Nick

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Planning Days

During the next few weeks, our teachers are taking part in planning days to ensure we have the best start possible for

the next Term. During this time, our teachers collaborate with each other and myself, our Learning and Teaching Adviser, to gather

data, select the best teaching strategies, and plan for an engaging and student-centered learning experience according to the

Australian Curriculum. They work very hard to build relationships with their students, set individual goals, and plan so that every student has the opportunity to progress with their learning. We look forward to this time as our teachers design the best learning experience for the students in their year levels.

Yours in Learning,

Aleesha Rockemer

Learning and Teaching Adviser

This week is National eSmart Week!

All classes have been reminded of our Benny’s 6P’s to a Positive Digital Footprint. This year's theme is “Be your best self online”, this year’s event invites children and young people to explore what it means to have a positive digital footprint online. Here is “The 6P’s” so you can discuss at home.

On Assembly today Mrs Lucey reminded us:

We ALL have the right to feel safe ALL of the time this includes when you are online.
Talk to your safe people if you feel unsafe at school or away from school and online.
Create a network of safe people you can trust that you can talk to if you feel unsafe.
Remember that nothing is so awful that you can’t tell someone
Keep talking to your trusted adults until someone listens to you and something is done to help you feel safe again.

The message to the students was that they all have the right to feel safe. In all classrooms are our School Safe posters to help remind the children that there are lots of people at school who can help them if they are feeling unsafe.

Yours in Support

Rhylie Mathiesen

Pastoral Care Coordinator

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