The Way of PEACE

It has been so exciting to see children receiving our new PEACE stickers when they are spotted doing something Positive, showing Empathy, modelling Accepting actions, being Caring and being Engaged in their learning. As a new initiative, we are seeing many children embracing the value of these qualities and really trying to demonstrate the Way of PEACE at our school. We look forward to this becoming a valued part of our school culture.

School Board

Last weekend our School Board attended the Diocesan School Board Formation day where we were led by  Dr Dan White who was formerly the Director for Catholic Education in Sydney. We were guided through a workshop where we explored the challenges Catholic Schools face in our increasingly securalised world to maintain our Catholic Mission and Identity. The day was a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on the difference between governance and management and how, by establishing a few simple, but vitally important guiding principles to underpin the work of our School Board, the overall effectiveness of our meetings can be greatly enhanced. We certainly identified that our school is in a very important time (3 - 5 years) in our development where we need to be ensuring we are embedding our culture and expectations as a community. We all left the day feeling quite inspired about the direction we want to take and we are certainly prepared to ask ourselves some tricky questions.

Parent Communication

Please know that communication with families has been an area we have set as a priority over the last 18 months to improve and we are very grateful for parents efforts in being part of this goal. Over the last couple of weeks however, we have had a couple of concerns raised around parents communicating in ways that are simply not acceptable. Please note that our teachers are always more than happy to discuss your child and your concerns and we certainly appreciate how important your children are to you and our goal is always to establish and maintain positive relationships. 

Most of our teachers are available from 8.00am - 8.15am and after school most days. If you need to ask a question or clarify something, quick drops ins are welcome. For anything that requires more time, please email or call to make an appointment with them so they can allow the time you need. Please understand that there are times when our staff have commitments elsewhere and understand that they will do their best to meet with you as soon as they can. Email is always a welcome form of communication. Please be mindful of using language that can be intimidating or threatening in nature as this is completely unnecessary and is not conducive to the school environment we are working to develop. Please refer to our Townsville Catholic Education Parent Code of Conduct.

Early Years Precinct- next stage

On a positive note, we have seen the draft plan from our landscaper for the next stage of the Early Years play area - heading up along Dalrymple Road side of the school behind Yellow Block. This area will feature a country farm type theme and will include a tractor (a real one that the kids can play on, decommissioned of course), a working windmill, an orchard, a new chicken coop area with wash down station for our garden spaces and a fairy garden. This space will also include a loose parts style natural looking play space, see saws, swings, a checkers tiled area and a matchbox car track. We have some work to do on this initial draft but should be ready to start as soon as the area dries up a bit more.

Have a fabulous week ahead. I’m off to a Principal’s Meeting and a Strategic Staff Planning session for the first few days next week so will see you when I’m back. Mrs Matthiesen will be helping out in the office on Wednesday when the leadership team is away together.

Cheers

Penny

Thank you to the Year 3/4 Emus who presented on assembly this week on the theme of ‘The Second Week of Lent’.  During their gospel reflection, they spoke of walking a path that Jesus showed us. They said to walk down this path we need to show peace, forgiveness, compassion, justice, kindness and love.  They finished with the message that we can show these things at St Benedict’s everyday, a great take home message for us all!

Sacramental Program

At St Benedict’s we have 5 students taking part in the Sacramental Program run through the Good Shepherd Parish.  Congratulations to Bryce, Jack, Sophie, Ella and Marie-Claire who last week continued their Sacramental journey in undergoing the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  These students and their families have been attending meetings once a week to prepare them for the Sacraments and before the end of the term they will have received Confirmation and First Holy Communion as well.  

Excursions

A lot of our classes have already been able to attend excursions this year to extend their classroom learning.  We’ve had Year 1’s attend the Bohle Wetlands site to support their eProject, the Year 3 and 4 classes attend the Townsville City Council Materials Recovery Facility (recycling) to support their eProject and next week, Year 5 and 6 classes will be attending a show at the Civic Theatre to support what they have been learning in English.  These excursions are a great way to extend what students have been learning about and see ideas and practices in real life. At St Benedict’s, all classes attend excursions throughout the year, so keep a lookout for when your child's class will be attending an excursion next!     

Have a great week and God bless,

Nick             

PREP OPEN DAY

We invite all potential Prep families to St Benedict’s in 2021 to attend our Prep Open Day on Thursday 19th March from 9:00-10:00am.  We invite you to attend with your child starting Prep in 2021 and have a tour of our school led by our senior teachers.  You will also be encouraged to book your Prep enrollment interview for 2021 at this time. If you are unable to attend this day, our Principal will be running tours on the following times:

Monday 23rd & 30th March, 9:00-10:00am AND 

Thursday 25 March and 2nd April, 4:30-5:30pm.