Report cards

Report cards were made available to parents through the Compass portal on Monday. It was pleasing to see that even with the disrupted learning we had due to COVID, most students were able to achieve success and make progress throughout the semester. Our teachers did an amazing job navigating their way through the learning at home experience right in the middle of this reporting period and were able to make professional judgements about student achievement that was meaningful for families and for our students. Our School Board discussed some interesting points about reporting at our meeting this week that I would like to explore with our community at a later date.

School Photos

We have school photos scheduled for this Monday, August 3. Please ensure all students are wearing their academic uniform please with all black shoes, white socks above the ankle and school coloured hairbands if required.

Tuckshop

You will notice a couple of changes we have made to our Tuckshop menu this week. This includes having slushies available at second break only along with ice blocks and icecreams. We’d love for you to also have a chat to your children about what they are eating out of their tuckshop order as many children have a lot of food they do not get to, especially if they have slushies and icecreams as these become the priority for children. We will also have our school officers assisting with tuckshop collection to avoid some of the delays we get when children collect the tuckshop box.

We would also love to hear from any parents (or grandparents) that may be interested in making fruit kebabs or fruit cups on a regular basis to help with this on tuckshop days.

Covid-19 reminders

Please remember that while we have many things back to normal like our morning gatherings and our first assembly today, we do still need to maintain restrictions with limiting parents on school grounds. I appreciate how challenging this is but with things ramping up in other states we have to remain vigilant. I have particularly noticed a growing number of parents in our Prep area and in the hall in the afternoons. Please where possible arrange to pick up from the front of the school or if you absolutely need to be on school grounds, please maintain social distancing expectations. I am sure that none of us want to go back to school closure situations. Please also be vigilant with student health. If they are sick, keep them home. If they have COVID-19 symptoms, please see your doctor or seek medical advice. 

It is also very important over the coming weeks that you monitor the exposure to information that your children experience. With the media flooded with news about the situation in Victoria and New South Wales, it can be very distressing for children especially seeing people wearing masks and the overwhelming concerns in aged-care facilities.

Book Week

Book Week is in Week 7, Tuesday 25 August at 9.00am and unfortunately it is unlikely that parents will be able to attend, so we will stream it like we did with the talent show.  This year’s theme is ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’.  We’d love to see some creative dress ups for the parade.

Please continue to make safe health choices over the coming weeks. Have a fabulous week. 

Cheers

Penny Collins

Principal

Welcome to the end of Week 3!

It was great to be able to have our first assembly together with our student body today.  A big thank you to our Year 3 Kookaburras who did a wonderful job in leading us on the theme of ‘The Feast Day of St Joachim and Anne’.  Sts Joachim and Anne were Jesus’ grandparents, and the Kookaburras assembly recognised the importance that our grandparents play in our lives and included some very special prayers for these very special people!

This week was also Catholic Education Week, marking 175 years since the first Catholic school opened in Queensland. Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all 307 Catholic schools in Queensland to celebrate and promote their distinctive mission and ethos.  Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community, challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.   

Have a great week and God bless,

Nick 

CONTEMPLATIVE CORNER

Gazing at an picture/image

• Choose one image to contemplate (it might be online, in a picture frame on the wall, in a book, a photo, literally anywhere)
• Sit or stand and look at your chosen image. for at least a full minute. 
• This is a lot longer than you might think; you’d be surprised how quickly most of us look at a painting, photograph, or sculpture.   
• If you grow restless, shift your gaze to focus on a different part of the image, or scan slowly from one side of the image to the other.  Or very slowly move closer to and farther away from the image.
• Answer the following questions:
• What did you first notice about this image?
• What else did you notice as you kept looking at it?
• What thoughts went through your mind while you were looking at this image?

What feelings or memories (if any) did it bring up for you?  What stood out to you?  What impacted you?  What challenged you?  What inspired you?

This week in Year 2, we have been looking after our chickens.  We joined with Mrs Trigg to plant some food for the chickens.  We were lucky enough to get some wonderful plants from our local Bunnings store. Year 2 Lorikeets have planted some Tarragon, Chamomile, Borage and Dandelion plants.  Year 2 Kingfishers have planted sweet potatoes and Year 2 Curlews have planted Parsley, Sage and Basil.  We have learned from Mrs Trigg about how to care for our plants and how we can use them to make sure our chickens are getting the full range of nutrients they need to be healthy.  Remember: Happy chickens lay lots of eggs!!