Thank you for your support of your children and St Benedict’s over the past two weeks. The start, stop nature of the beginning of the school year was unfortunate. Despite this, I have witnessed first hand the wonderful spirit of this school and the friendly, positive nature of the children. The calmness displayed last week in the lead up to Ex Cyclone Kirrily was a credit to both parents, carers and staff. The weather continues to be unpredictable and in the case of any further severe weather events, we will continue to communicate with parents via email, text and our official St Benedict’s Facebook page.

For me, the past few weeks have been a wonderful introduction into this great school. The welcome I have received from the school leadership team, staff, parents and students has been incredible. Thank you everyone. I look forward to meeting more parents in the coming weeks. 

Next week I will be attending my first School Board Meeting, P & F Meeting and Parish Pastoral Council Meeting. This will give me more opportunity to learn more about our school and the importance of partnerships between staff, parents and parish for the benefit of our students.

Welcome to our new staff

I wish to officially welcome our new staff members to St Benedict’s.

Andriana Papadimitriou Amanda Prideaux Ondrea Stumer Krystal Bachmann

Melissa Warren Alexandra Wenta Zoie Howard Chloe Bassett

Elisha Hudson Mark Fleming

We also welcome back Pierina Masatto to St Benedict’s.

The new staff and I have been made to feel very welcome by the current staff members. The new staff members bring their own experiences, talents and knowledge to St Benedict’s. This combined with our talents of dedication of our existing staff bodes well for a great 2024 school year.

Foundation

I am discovering each day the amount of work and commitment that has gone into this school since its foundation. I wish to thank all staff and parents for their hard work and commitment to the students, each other and St Benedict’s over the past six years. The scale of the work required to establish a new Catholic school is quite extraordinary. 

I would also like to acknowledge the work and dedication of our Foundation Principal, Penny Collins. 

Penny has left a great legacy here and her efforts and vision will be long lasting and remembered.

I would also like to thank and acknowledge the leadership of Ros Baumann and Mardi Grubba who filled Acting Principal positions last year. Congratulations to Mardi on her appointment as Foundation Principal of Mary Help of Christians Catholic College. The St Benedict’s community stands ready to support and assist the development of Townsville Catholic Education’s newest school. 

I am most grateful and excited about the opportunity to be part of St Benedict’s Catholic School. I very much look forward to working in partnership with our talented leadership team, staff, parents and parish. One of my goals is to learn all the children’s names by the end of Term 1. Wish me luck.

Patrick

Welcome back to 2024!  It’s wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces around the place.  Taking away the weather, it’s been a smooth start to the year for most of our students as they are becoming more aware of the routines around the year.  

Way of Peace

You may have seen your child come home with a ‘PEACE Sticker’ already this year.  Here at St Benedict’s we employ a ‘Way of Peace’ - this is a way of being which enables us to be the best members of our community that we can.  PEACE is an acronym for Persistent, Empathetic, Accountable, Caring for Community and Engaged.  If you see your child come home with a Peace sticker, I’d encourage you to ask what they got it for and hopefully they’ll be able to share, as it’s certainly worth celebrating!  

Parish

You may be aware that our school is a part of the Ministerial Region of the Good Shepherd (parish), which is overseen by two priests, Fr Joesph and Fr Joe (who is new to our Parish this year).  We do many things to support the parish, and also have fortnightly visits from our priests to do special prayers for masses with selected classes.

Each year, the Parish runs a Sacramental Program for students to prepare for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Holy Communion.  It was wonderful to see a large number of students from St Benedict’s signing up for the sacramental program this year, and we wish them all the best for the next step in their faith journey.  

DATE CLAIMER

Our assemblies this year will remain on a Friday at 8:45am in the Hall.  These will begin in Week 5, Friday 23rd Feb.  Our Beginning Year Liturgy will be taking place on Friday 16th Feb at 9:00am in the Hall - our entire school community are invited to attend this event.  I would particularly like to extend a welcome to our parents of Year 6 children, as we will be recognising them as leaders in front of the school for 2024.

Assembly Timetable - Term 1

Pax,

Nick 

Community - Parents and Friends

With our school term now settling into its regular rhythm, we would like to invite our community to come together to meet our Principal, hear the upcoming community events for the year and find out how you can be involved with all things St Benedict’s.

We host our meeting face to face in the boardroom for those who can make it in.  For those who would like to participate or just listen but can’t make it, we also offer an Online option via Zoom.

Our first meeting is Tuesday 6th February at 7pm. 
 

Join Zoom Meeting

ID: 68487140781

Passcode: 373606

Prep Family Information Night

We are pleased to announce our rescheduled time for the event.  Please join us on 

Wednesday 7th February from 5 - 6pm in our school Library and Resource Centre. 

Please note: this is a student free event.

Straight into Learning! 

What a wonderful start back to the year. The Leadership Team has been through many classrooms and it is very exciting to see so many eager students already. Everyone is getting to know their new class, their teachers, and moving into routines and structures to enable a successful term. I can’t wait for the next step in the learning journey. 

Parent Engagement 

As parents and carers, you play a primary role in supporting your children’s wellbeing and learning, guiding and supporting them successfully through educational processes. At St Benedict’s we recognise and value the partnerships between parents and carers, the community, and the school to promote student learning and high expectations for student success and personal growth. We foster positive parent engagement through a variety of ways, some of them being: 

Class Newsletters: These are emailed by your child’s teacher (or another teacher from the same year level) on a fortnightly basis. These newsletters have important information, please take the time to read them each fortnight. 

Open Classrooms: From week 5, we will roster classes each week and invite their families to the classroom to showcase work and possibly engage in learning activities. Students will generally share their learning portfolio and other work they have been doing throughout the term. Open Classrooms are held after assembly each Friday morning, from around 9:20am - 10:00am. 

DATES TO PUT IN YOUR CALENDAR:  

Open Classrooms for this Term will be: 

Week 5 (Friday Feb 23rd)

• Year 6 Scorpions
• Prep Bilbies
• Year 1 Possums
• Year 2 Curlews

Week 6 (Friday March 1st) 

• Year 4 Grasshoppers
• Prep wombats
• Year 1 Bandicoots
• Year 2 Magpies

Week 7 (Friday March 8th) 

• Year 5 Turtles
• Prep Koalas
• Year 1 Wallabies
• Year 2 Kingfishers

Week 8 (Friday March 15th)

• Year 3 Brolgas
• Prep Platypus
• Year 1 Echidnas
• Year 2 Lorikeets

Week 9 (Friday March 22nd)

• Year 6 Crocodiles
• Year 3 Kookaburras
• Year 4 Dragonflies
• Year 5 Jellyfish

10 Questions To Ask That Gets Kids Talking About School

1. Tell me about the best part of your day.
2. What made you laugh?
3. Who did you play with? What did you play?
4. What are you looking forward to about tomorrow? 
5. What did you learn about in PE/Music/Drama/Dance/Spanish/Technologies?
6. What games did you play at lunchtime? 
7. Tell me about what you read in class. 
8. Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?
9. What was the most interesting thing you learned today?
10. What was the hardest/most challenging thing you did today? 

NAPLAN 

NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. Year 3 and Year 5 students complete NAPLAN Online, with the exception of the year 3 writing test which is completed on paper. Coming up to the tests, students will be engaged in learning about the types of questions that will be on the NAPLAN test and how to navigate the site. Students will also participate in a practice test in order to become familiar with the platform. 

If you would like to, you and your child can access the Public Demonstration Site  to familiarise yourselves with the type of questions and related functionalities available in the NAPLAN Online assessment.

This website ‘NAPLAN For Parents & Carers’ provides further information and resources about NAPLAN for parents and carers.

Parents or carers may choose to withdraw their child from the tests for religious beliefs, philosophical objections, or your own other reasons. It is recommended that withdrawal be considered in consultation with your child's teacher. If you would like to withdraw your child from NAPLAN please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible and you will need to sign a form along with the Principal by Monday 4th March (forms can be found from Janeen or Mel at the office).

If you have any questions or concerns regarding NAPLAN please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. As stated, we appreciate that NAPLAN is a point in time assessment, and we know your children for all their strengths and achievements outside of standardised testing. 

Yours in Learning, 

Aleesha Rockemer 

APPL

The Zones of Regulation

Here at St Benedict’s, we use The Zones of Regulation, an emotion regulation program that teaches individuals to categorise the way they feel into four coloured zones. Feelings determine what zone they are in at any particular time. Students then learn strategies to manage their feelings depending on the zone they are in.

The Red Zone is used to describe extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions.  A person may be elated or experiencing anger, rage, explosive behaviour, devastation, or terror when in the Red Zone. 

The Yellow Zone is also used to describe a heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions, however one has more control when they are in the Yellow Zone.  A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, the wiggles, or nervousness when in the Yellow Zone. 

The Green Zone is used to describe a calm state of alertness. A person may be described as happy, focused, content, or ready to learn when in the Green Zone.  This is the zone where optimal learning occurs.  

The Blue Zone is used to describe low states of alertness and down feelings such as when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored. 

The Zones can be compared to traffic signs.  

When given a green light or in the Green Zone, one is “good to go”.  A yellow sign means be aware or take caution. This applies to the Yellow Zone.  A red light or stop sign means stop, and when one is in the Red Zone this often is the case. The Blue Zone can be compared to the rest area signs where one goes to rest or re-energize.  

All of the zones are natural to human experience, but the framework focuses on teaching students how to recognize and manage their Zone based on the environment and its demands and the people around them.  

For example, when playing on the playground or in an active/competitive game, students are often experiencing a heightened internal state such as silliness or excitement and are in the Yellow Zone, but it may not need to be managed. However, if the environment is changed to the library where there are different expectations than the playground, students may still be in the Yellow Zone but have to manage it differently so their behaviour meets the expectations of the library setting.

At St. Benedict’s we are committed to ensuring all students at our school have the opportunity to participate in this program. Classroom teachers have been trained and will be delivering the program to their classes each week.  

For further information on the program, please reach out to Rhylie Mathiesen, Pastoral Care Coordinator or your child’s classroom teacher. 

Yours in Supoort 

Rhylie Mathiesen 

Pastoral Care Coordinator