It has been an absolute treat to see so many students joining Run Club since school has commenced. We even have many Prep students who are getting all the way out to the back oval for a run. Our first Assembly will be on Fri 26 February and by the way many students are going, some will be ready for Run Club Prizes by then.

School Renewal

Townsville Catholic Education has a 5 year cycle that each school within the diocese participates in for School Renewal and Improvement. As we are in our 4th year, we will be engaging in a part of that process called Verification this year and concluding with Validation next year. This year will involve a lot of reflection, consultation and critical thinking. It is very valuable for us as a school community to contribute to this process as much as we can as we will always strive to meet the needs of our community and aspire to provide the best learning community we can. We will provide a variety of opportunities including surveys, parent forums and through our School  Board and P&F to give everyone a voice.This will be a time to identify and celebrate our successes but also to identify areas for improvement and to establish goals moving into our next 5 year cycle.

I encourage you to get involved with this process wherever you can including the upcoming ECSIP (Enhancing Catholic School Identity) Survey. It’s not the easiest survey to get through but it does provide us with very valuable information to guide our future decision making. We would really appreciate your time on this.

In 2017, the year before our school opened, we had a wonderful group of parents who were our Formation Committee. We worked together alongside Fr Dave, some TCE staff and our foundation staff once they were appointed to discern the type of school we wanted St Benedict’s to become; essentially developing our Mission and Vision of the school together. Through this time and into 2018, as the School Board we also developed our Initial School Renewal Plan. Each year, we develop an annual School Plan to break those year goals down into yearly ones that we then review and reflect on at a School Board and staff level.

Do you know our School Mission and Vision for St Benedict’s Catholic School? Please see it attached to this newsletter?

Parents & Friends Association

This Tuesday night will be our very first P&F Meeting for the year and is a great opportunity to meet other parents and to get involved in building the community of St Benedict’s. All parents are welcome to attend. The meeting starts at 7.00pm in our Staffroom at the back of the Administration building.

Have a fabulous weekend. See you all next week.

Cheers

Penny Collins

Phew, we’ve reached the end of our first full week, and it’s fair to say that we are now off and running!

St Benny’s Way of Peace

You may have noticed your child come home with a ‘Peace’ sticker and wondered...what is this all about?  

At St Benedict’s, we are employing a ‘way of being’ which enables us to be the best members of our community that we can.  This way of being is a ‘Way of Peace’ - Peace being an acronym for Persistent, Empathetic, Accountable, Care for Community, Engaged

This has been taken, not simply because we like the idea of being peaceful, but because PEACE formed the basis of the teachings of St Benedict.  The Benedictine motto is quite simply the word ‘PAX’ - which in latin means peace.

The idea behind this ‘Way of Peace’ is to give a language around how we speak to students around behaviour (positive and negative) in ensuring we are being Persistence, Empathetic, Accountable, Care for Community and Engaged.  It would be expected that EVERY class discusses PEACE and what this looks like for them in their context in the classroom, playground and other areas of the school.  

Sacramental Program

We had the largest number of St Benedict’s families enroll in the parish Sacramental Program then we’ve ever had last week (13).  It’s wonderful to see our families engaging with our parish and taking the next step of their children’s faith journey.  If you are interested in attending mass, our Parish Priest, Fr Dave Lancini, welcomes everyone to mass in our parish.  Mass times over the weekend are as follows:

Saturday (Upper Ross Community Centre) - 6:00pm

Sunday (Upper Ross Community Centre) - 7:30am

Sunday (Ryan Community Centre) - 9:30am

Sunday (Ryan Community Centre) - 5:00pm

Date Claimer

Our assemblies this year will remain on a Friday at 8:45am in the Hall.  These will be starting in Week 5, Friday 26 February.  Our Beginning Year Liturgy will be taking place on Monday 15 February at 9:00am in the Hall.  This will be our last liturgy overseen by Fr Dave, with Fr Joseph and Fr Clement visiting to meet our community as well.

Pax

Nick 

Well done - we have made it through our first full week of school.  Many of us are feeling a bit tired and ready for a good rest and recharge.  Taking some time out for rest, engaging in positive activities and simply just being together is important not only for adults but also children.  This website (link) has some great tips on supporting children to recharge and rest, ready for the new week ahead.

Alongside our St Benedict’s Way of PEACE, students have been engaging in our lessons for Zones of Regulation.  By learning about the 4 zones - Green, Blue, Yellow and Red along with the emotions and behaviours that can fit the zones, students develop a common language to express how they are feeling emotionally and mentally, as well as the physical and behavioural strategies they can use to manage these emotions.  By expressing their feelings, students are able to develop self-regulation skills and build their emotional intelligence.

Yours in Support

Ros