16 August 2023

From the Desk of the Acting Principal

We are excited to announce that from next week, we will have a second Story Dog joining us each week at Good Shepherd. Denise and her dog Audrey will visit every Wednesday to read with a small group of Year 3 students, with Daphne and her dog Pippi continuing to visit on Thursdays to read with Year 2 students.

The Story Dogs mission is to “make reading fun for children, so they become confident, lifelong readers” and we have seen first-hand the improvements made by students who have the opportunity to read with the dogs. A reading session is approximately 20 minutes long, where each child is one-on-one with the dog team. During the session the handler often speaks through the dog, such as; “Simba doesn’t quite understand what is happening on this page could you help him out?” The child becomes the teacher; confidence soars!

Story Dogs provides their service for FREE but ask that we support them once a year with a fundraiser. This year, our Student Wellbeing Committee will be selling icy poles at snack and after school on Friday next week (25 August) for 50 cents. All money from the sale will go to Story Dogs. Please support them!

Each week we have a couple of dedicated volunteers who help out in our tuckshop, and we really appreciate their time and efforts! However, many hands make light work, so if you have some spare time on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, we would love it if you could help at the tuckshop too. Please contact the school office if you are able to help. Thank you in advance!

AP

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

A Special Feast Day – Tuesday 15^th August

The Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, was taken up body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life. As a Church we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15 each year.

The Assumption signals the end of Mary's life on Earth and her return to heaven to be reunited with Jesus. This doctrine was defined as dogma by Pope Pius XII on 1st November 1950.

A dogma, in religious terminology, is a principle or set of principles believed to be true. It is therefore a required belief of all Catholics and followers of the Catholic Church. This Tuesday our PaL classes joined together to celebrate a special liturgy for this feast.

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

PARISH MASS     

Friday 18th August at 10am                                                                      Good Shepherd Community Centre

Prep A and 6A/B will be attending.
Parents are also welcome to attend.

NEXT PARKLANDS VISIT

The next Mini Vinnies visit to Parklands Aged care Facility will be this Saturday 2^nd September 9:00-10:00.

Please note:

• Parents are once again allowed to stay during the visit. This year you are very welcome to join us during our visit or to drop the children with Mrs Kershaw and return to collect them at 10am.
• At this stage the Flu shot is also NOT mandatory, but this is subject to change and we will be notified if the requirements change.

During the visit to Parklands your child will be involved in some or all of the following activities: -

• Talking to residents
• Playing games
• Craft Activities
• Taking residents for walks

(Students wear coloured clothes for these visits and closed in shoes.)

From the Desk of the Acting Assistant Principal Administration

Talofa lava parents, carers and students!

There is much to acknowledge and celebrate across our wonderful school. Check out below for what’s happening in curriculum, sports and events.

Curriculum News 👩‍🏫🍎📖

Each year, our Year 2 to 6 students undertake PAT testing in Maths, Reading and Grammar and Punctuation. PAT testing will begin in Week 8. PAT testing forms one part of a range of assessment data that teachers use to measure students’ knowledge, skills and understanding; to identify starting points for learning and targeted teaching and to monitor growth.

Sports News ⚽️ 🏀 🏈 ⚾️ 🎾 🏐 🏉 🎱

On Monday night, a team of Year 6 boys and girls competed in Round 1 of the Les Stagg Rugby League Cup. The aim of this knock out night competition is to provide a positive rugby league experience for 11-12 year olds. Our GSCS team was defeated 32-10 by a very strong Holy Spirit team and therefore knocked out of the competition. They played with heart and left everything on the field. We are proud of their efforts and good sportsmanship. Thank you to the volunteer coaching and training staff Mr K and Mrs Nelson and to Year 6 parent volunteer Richie for running water. Special thanks also to our parent supporters for getting their children to Brother’s Rugby League on a cold, Monday night and for cheering us on!

School Events 📅🗓📆

Book Week 2023 

Each year since 1945 the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through Children's Book Week®. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians create colourful displays, develop activities, run competitions and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading. 

This year’s Book Week theme is Read, Grow, Inspire.  GSCS will be celebrating Book Week with a whole school Book Week Parade on Wednesday 23rd August in BBC from 8:45am. Students will come dressed up as a character from their favourite book. Mrs Maccarone will also be running activities in the library throughout Book Week. We look forward to seeing you at the parade!

Have a wonderful fortnight ahead and please come and say talofa or hello when you see me around!

Rebecca Rowan

AAPA

rrowan6@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening In Year Prep

Prep enjoyed writing special cards for the residents at Parklands Aged Care. The children took their time and were thoughtful with their messages. They tried hard to make their cards special for the people who got to read it. This was their act of kindness for Catholic Education Week. 

What's Happening in Year 3

In Year 3 this term in Science we have been looking at classifying living and non-living things. At the beginning of the term we looked at the different features of living and nonliving things in the environment. We were able to establish that if something needs to breathe, reproduce, get rid of waste and move it is indeed a living creature. We have then learnt about how to further classify animals into groups such as mammals, marsupials, amphibians, insects, fish, reptiles and birds. Learning this knowledge has come in handy for our English information reports as we begin to research an Australian animal and write about what it is, what it looks like, what it eats, and where it lives. 

We have been very lucky to receive our Pen Pal letters from our friends in St Louis, Missouri. We have been working very hard on creating our responses and drawing our Pen Pals pictures that they can enjoy. We will be sending these out by the end of this week and hope to hear from our Pen Pals soon. We have also had the pleasure of participating in our inaugural Deadly Day Out that was celebrated For Our Elders. As part of this celebration, each class participated in our Deadly Door Competition and displayed who we would be celebrating.

Breakfast Club and Running Club

Both Clubs will run every morning. Breakfast Club will run from the Tuckshop from 8:10am and Running Club will be held on the Junior Oval from 8:10am as well.

The Good Shepherd Way

Week 6

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Justice where I make right choices. 

Our Justice prayer is below:

Week 7

The Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action for Week 7 will be Love where I share my good heart with others.

Our Love prayer is below. 

The GSCS Way

The GSCS Way is our positive behaviour support program here at Good Shepherd Catholic School.

All in our community are encouraged to:

• Give My Best
• Show Respect
• Compassion and Care
• Safe Responsible and Fair

Each week we focus on a different area of our matrix.

This week we are focusing on: In the Library.

In Week 7 we are focusing on: In the Toilets.

Parent Library Borrowing

Environmental News

Oceans

Australia is a marine nation. We have one of the largest ocean territories in the world, and it drives our climate and weather, generates employment, provides food and resources, and offers lifestyle and recreational opportunities. When you look after our oceans you are looking after the future.

Tuckshop

Wednesday - Thursday - Friday

Please contact the school office or Ann-Maree at Tuckshop with any enquiries.

CUTOFF time to order TUCKSHOP
from FLEXISCHOOLS
is 8:30am.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL ORDERS ARE TO BE PLACED ONLINE AT THE LINK BELOW. Please visit the website to set up your account if you are new to Flexischools.

Flexischool How To Guides for Parents and Caregivers
• Online help is available any time at Flexischools via the link below.
• Phone between 8am - 12pm (AEDST) on weekdays or on the parent phone line (1300 361 769). 

How-To Guides for Parents
Flexischool has spent some time over the holidays developing some quick how-to guides for  parents. If you'd like to see these, please click the link below.
They include: 
•    Introduction to Flexischools;
•    How to Register; 
•    How to Top-Up;
•    How to Place an Order. 

Teacher Contacts

Parent Portal

If you have any problems accessing please send an email to the school office at rsmssn@tsv.catholic.edu.au. 

The Parent Portal allows you to:

View your child’s timetable and the school calendar
View up to date attendance information for your child
Enter details of upcoming absences or explain past absences or late arrivals for your son or daughter
Access your child’s Semester reports
Make bookings for Parent Teacher Interviews
View a news feed of school announcements, alerts and updates
Provide consent for school events/excursions
Communicate by email with your child’s teachers
Update your contact details (email and mobile phone number).

The parent portal is a web-based system that can be accessed by clicking this link:

An app called Compass School Manager is also available for both iPhones/iPads (via the App Store) and Android phones/tablets (via the Google Play Store). When you have installed the app, search for “Good Shepherd Catholic School – Rasmussen”.
The browser version of the Parent Portal contains more features than the app.  Please click the link below to access the Compass website which has an online guide and video for the Parent Portal.

Community News