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Dear Parents / Carers,
What a fabulous morning we have had with our Under 8’s Day. I am always so impressed by our staff commitment to these events with their planning and their dress ups. We had a Circus theme this morning with lots of participation in juggling, obstacle courses, sack races, body art, balancing, building and dressing up. Our students also enjoyed sensory interactions with slime, popcorn and cotton wool ball cups and sand play. A special thanks to Caitlin Smith for being our school coordinator, to Matty Bowen from the Cowboys for joining in the fun and also to Woolworths who donated fruit for our Brain Break. It was also lovely to have the Kindy children join us today as well.
This week Mr Christie has spoken with Year 5 & 6 students about their upcoming camp to Action Challenge in Mackay in a couple of weeks. Everyone is very grateful that this opportunity is going ahead this year with so many changes to our school calendar due to COVID-19 restrictions. Camp is a wonderful opportunity for children to experience a different environment with different challenges designed to build and test their character. School camp can be such a great time to form different relationships with peers as we tend to see each other differently when not just in a school context. Know our students will be thoroughly looking forward to this experience.
Over the next couple of weeks our Early Years teachers will be released from class to do post testing with each of their students individually for the Townsville Catholic Education Diocesan wide Numeracy and Literacy Assessment. This is one of the many ways we can measure a student’s progress over the year.
Please note that we have a P&F Meeting coming up on Tuesday 11 August which will be the first one we have had in a couple of months. We’d love to see many parents coming along to chat about building our school community.
Please continue to make safe health choices over the coming weeks. Have a fabulous week.
Cheers
Penny Collins
Principal
Just like that we are well into the Term already and it feels like we were never away!
The school has certainly been a hive of activity this week. One of the highlights was for our Year 1 and Year 2 classes who had visits from the Wulgurukaba Walkabout Dancers. It was wonderful to have them at school to share their culture, knowledge and wisdom, this time sharing and teaching different dances to the students. From all reports the students were thoroughly engaged in this and we look forward to having them back later in the year.
We also had our wonderful Under 8’s Day celebration this Friday in the morning session. There were plenty of activities on offer and our students looked to be having a tremendous amount of fun. It was great to see our teachers getting into the spirit with some wonderful clown outfits on display as well.
On another exciting note, we will be starting back Friday morning assemblies for our students - it will be a great opportunity to pray and celebrate each week together. Unfortunately we are still unable to host parents at these events, but stay tuned as we are looking into ways of having members of our community present.
Have a great week and God bless,
Nick
CONTEMPLATIVE CORNER
Contemplative Reading
God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution.
Amen.
Choose a passage of writing (see poem above) and take your time, slowly savouring every word, in contrast to your normal reading pace. In the Benedictine tradition, monks undertake Lectio Divina (meditative reading of the scriptures) to deepen and refresh their understanding and comprehension. Read through the passage and consider what stood out to you. What impacted you? What challenged you? What inspired you?
In the classroom, you could pick a book or a poem to read and ask students to focus on a certain page/line that stood out to them.
As a part of our science and design and technologies unit we are exploring natural and processed materials and their different uses. On Thursday, we investigated the properties of wool by conducting a variety of tests such as flexibility and water absorption/resistance.
Report Cards
At St Benedict’s, student achievement is recognised and celebrated in many ways throughout the school year; at informal meetings, parent/teacher interviews, through class work, and through written reports. Of course due to COVID restrictions, some of the face to face communication that would normally happen throughout a year has occurred through emails or phone calls. Semester One Student Reports will be available via the Compass Portal at the beginning of next week. Also due to COVID and Learning at Home, reports will look slightly different this Semester.
Written report cards are one source of feedback about student progress and achievement. These reports reflect your child’s current progress on their journey towards the Achievement Standard in the Australian Curriculum.
The Federal Government mandates that all Year 1 to 10 report cards must give an overall grade on a five point scale. Prep and Year 1 are reported using the following grades: ‘Applying (AP), Making Connections (MC), Working With (WW), Exploring (EX), or Becoming Aware (BA). Year 2 to 10 are reported using the grades A, B, C, D or E. The second page of the report card will have further information and explain what each grade means. Please note that, a ‘WW’ shows the child can work with the relevant year level curriculum, and a ‘C’ shows that a student’s work typically demonstrates a sound level of knowledge and understanding of concepts, facts and procedures, and application of processes. Essentially, A ‘WW’ or ‘C’ shows that they have achieved the relevant year level curriculum that is being assessed. An ‘EX’ or ‘BA’ and a ‘D’ or ‘E’ indicates students are demonstrating some or limited understanding of the required knowledge for the relevant year level curriculum that is being assessed. A ‘MC’ or ‘AP’ and a ‘B’ or ‘A’ shows they are working at a higher and deeper level with the relevant year level curriculum that is being assessed.
All of us understand our own children’s strengths and weaknesses, the things that make them unique, their special interests and their attitudes. Please remember that the Semester Report Card is one form of feedback about your child’s achievement and progress at school.
As always, if you have any further questions or concerns about Semester Report cards please see your classroom teacher.
Compass - Parent Portal
We have provided some instructions on how you can access your child's Semester One Report using the Compass Parent Portal. Reports will be available on Monday 27 July. If you require any assistance please contact the school office.
