Country Farm Playground

We have had such a busy week with lots of outdoor activities in this gorgeous weather. Our Country Farm Shed became available for students to use and our teachers have been keen to get out there too. So far, it has been used for literacy rotations and for a cooking experiment with our freshly harvested potatoes. If you are not following our school Facebook page or haven’t joined our parent Facebook group, I’d encourage you to do so as we post regular photos about what our students have been up to.

I was sorry to hear we may have disappointed a couple of children by not putting horses and pigs or an indoor ninja park in there but all I can say is that the space is evolving. The outdoor table and seats in there at the moment won’t stay and we’ll discern the best use of the space as we move forward. At this stage, who knows what could become of the area? Our landscapers will be back in a couple of weeks to add the much anticipated windmill that we have purchased and some benches with a sink in the farm shed. 

Bush Tucker Trail

Mrs Trigg has made further progress with our Bush Tucker Trail, adding some numbered signs throughout to indicate particular species. We are currently looking at partnering with JCU to have some of their students create an app in consultation with our students that would provide an innovative way of sharing interesting information about each of these numbered signs. It is early days but we do hope to have this done before the end of the year. This will create an opportunity not only for our students to be more deeply engaged with the space but also for us to be able to invite students from other schools and yes, of course our own parent body too. I believe Townsville Catholic Education may already be keen to have their staff visit too. 

We were lucky enough to have Ecologist and Environmental Officer, Brandon Espe and Zoologist Haley Harding here from JCU’s TropEco Team to explore the space with our Year 5 and Year 6 students. They even discovered echidna burrows indicating we have our very own echidnas living in this habitat. Not surprisingly though, with 40 students around, they were nowhere to be seen. 

Nexus Arts- Phillip Green

Next week we look forward to welcoming Phillip Green to our school where he will showcase some fascinating artefacts from around the world. Phillip is a National Geographic photographer and has had many adventures that he loves to share. In particular he will be doing this show around Aborignal Survival Technology.

Staff Award Nominations

Our School Officer- Ngaire Trigg - Outdoor and Environmental Projects,  has been nominated for a Student of Year Award through her study about Community Engagement. Ngaire has been shortlisted in the top three in the state and will find out next week where she has placed. We are ever so grateful for the work that Ngaire does at our school and we are so proud to see she has been recognised at this level. We wish Ngaire all the best next week and know she is already a winner in our eyes.

Mrs Jacqui Whalley has also been nominated for a significant award with QCEC, the Spirit of Catholic Education Award. These are normally celebrated at this time of year but have been moved to Term 4 due to Covid. We are so blessed to have such a passionate member of staff influencing our young readers. Jackie has established our temporary library over the last three years to be a welcoming space that inspires children to explore. She is deeply committed to the needs and interests of each child and always endeavours to use whatever niche she can to inspire reading practices. Best of luck Jackie

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

Cheers

Penny Collins

Principal

Welcome to the end of another week!

Thanks to the Year 1 Echidnas who shared their assembly with us this week.  Their assembly was about St Mary MacKillop, whose Feast Day is August 8 (tomorrow).  Mary MacKillop is celebrated as she is our first Australian saint! She is well known for starting the Sisters Of St Joseph, who were instrumental in setting up schools around Australia so that all children could access an education.  One of her famous sayings is, “Never see a need without doing something about it”.  She certainly lived by this motto, and is a notion which holds great potential and inspiration for us all.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Bush Tucker Trail this week to lead a meditation for our students in Year 3 and 4.  We all found a different spot  around the trail and spent some time listening and looking at the world around us and appreciating its beauty, which we so often walk past.  Most of our students did a wonderful job and I hope they were all able to take something away from our time.  I always love getting the opportunity to meditate with classes, and it was certainly special being able to do this in our beautiful natural environment.  

Pax

Nick

Contemplative Corner 

Outside Meditation

Go outside if you can. Simply sit and look at and listen to the earth and environment that surrounds you.

Focus on something specific, such as a bird, a blade of grass, a clump of soil, cracked earth, a flower, bush or leaf, a cloud in the sky or a body of water, whatever you can see.

You can also let something find you, be it a leaf, the sound of a bird, the feel of the breeze, the light on a tree trunk. There’s no need to try, just wait a while.

Be still and silent and listen.

Following this quiet time, there may be, on occasion, value in expressing in some way your experience of this quiet, still listening. You may wish to talk about the experience or journal, write poetry, draw, paint or sing. This needs to be held in balance - the key to dadirri is in simply being, rather than in outcomes and activity.