11 October 2023

From the Desk of the Acting Principal

Week 2, Term 4

Welcome to Term 4!

We have had an exciting start to the term, with last week’s Mission mini-fete, rainbow run and liturgy. It was lovely to see so many parents and carers stay for these events – your participation is greatly valued and welcomed.

Term 4 is the shortest term of the academic year, with only nine weeks, but it is an important one. Students will be consolidating their learning from the previous terms, completing assessment, and preparing to move to the next year level. This means it is vitally important that students attend school on time every day (unless they are unwell). Missing even 15 minutes every morning adds up to over an hour a week, and to nearly two full days over the nine-week term. Many students miss more than that every day, and the impact on their learning can be significant. 

The school and Townsville Catholic Education Office also track student attendance, and regularly report on those with frequent absences. When these absences are unexplained, schools (and classroom teachers) are required to follow up with the parents. This can be in the form of a phone call, email, or in-person discussion. If you are queried about your child’s absences, please don’t be offended. Rather, accept that the school is genuinely looking out for your child’s best interests. If your child is going to be absent, emailing the school at rsmssn@tsv.catholic.edu.au to advise they will be away means the absence is recorded as “explained”. 

AP

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Acting Assistant Principal Administration

Term 4 Week 1/2

Talofa lava parents, carers and students! 

Welcome back to what promises to be a fast and fabulous Term 4. It was wonderful to celebrate Shepherd Day during our first week back. The Colour Run was a definite highlight for me personally and I’m sure many of our students too. If anyone has a hot tip to share to get the green out of my hair, please email me!

Curriculum News 👩‍🏫🍎📖

Pastoral care in schools involves the development of the whole child. At its simplest, pastoral care is the provision a school makes to ensure the physical and emotional wellbeing of students. It is the essential foundation upon which learning can take place. 

At GSCS, class teachers and support staff are well placed to tend to the pastoral needs of our students. We are also lucky to have the professional support of our school Guidance  Counsellor, Lena Hewitt. In addition to this, the school also engages external services, supports and programs to support the pastoral care and social/emotional needs of students. For instance, last term we partnered with Stride’s Me Too program to deliver the ‘IYKYK’ (If You Know You Know) social skills program to a cohort of students. 

We are pleased to announce we have recently secured Commonwealth Student Wellbeing Boost Funding.  This will support resourcing pastoral and wellbeing initiatives to continue to support our students. Next week, Mrs Nolan and Mrs Kershaw will attend a network meeting with Principals and Pastoral leaders from Townsville Catholic Diocesan schools to discuss whole school and system level Student Wellbeing and Pastoral Support Services. 

Sports News ⚽️ 🏀 🏈 ⚾️ 🎾 🏐 🏉 🎱

Students in Prep – Year 2 have commenced their swimming lesson program at Kylie’s Swim School. Please ensure all belongings are clearly labelled with your child’s name and grade and remember to check lost property for any missing items.

School Events 📅🗓📆

Australia will celebrate the teaching profession on World Teachers’ Day on Friday 27 October 2023.  

Let’s celebrate Australia’s teachers for their skilled work in educating, inspiring and supporting our students.

Hats off to teachers this World Teachers’ Day!  

Day for Daniel

Australia's largest child safety education and awareness day, Day for Daniel is held annually on the last Friday of October and honours the memory of Daniel Morcombe. The Daniel Morcombe Foundation asks all Australians on this very special day to Wear Red, Educate and Donate. 

Parents, carer, and educators are encouraged to start a conversation with children and young people about personal safety. Schools and Early Learning centres conduct child safety education activities. Business and communities come together to raise awareness of child safety issues. 

Good Shepherd Catholic School will hold our annual Day for Daniel acitivities on Friday 27th October. Student can wear a red shirt for a gold coin donation to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and will engage in lessons and activities on personal safety. We look forward to continuing to support this important cause. 

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

Rebecca Rowan

AAPA

rrowan6@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

THE ROSARY

October is the month of the Rosary. This is primarily due to the fact that the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated annually on the 7th October. The word Rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses, the rose being one of the flowers used to symbolise the Virgin Mary. The Rosary is a devotion in honour of Mary. The Holy Rosary is considered a perfect prayer because within it lies the awesome story of our salvation. With the Rosary in fact we meditate the mysteries of joy, of sorrow and the glory of Jesus and Mary.

For a guide to saying the Rosary please check out –

https://cam.org.au/catholic-faith/prayers/how-do-i-pray-the-rosary/

The month of October is devoted to the Missions. During this time, we have an opportunity to act in solidarity through fundraising, prayerful support, awareness and advocacy.  Catholic Mission is one of the organisations that our Diocese has chosen to support. 

SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER is MISSION SUNDAY. It’s the one Sunday in the year when the entire global Church comes together to support mission. And every single donation from these worldwide Masses goes to support churches, hospitals, schools and vocations in countries where the Church is new, young or poor.

Every Catholic community, in every country, sends a powerful message of faith, hope and love on this special day.

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

North Queensland School National Championship - Futsal

During the school holidays, we had a few Good Shepherd students attend the North Queensland School National Championships for futsal. Georgia and Leilani were fortunate enough to play in the girls 10's team and made it to the semi-finals. Their team came 4th overall in the competition.  Georgia was also selected to represent Australian in Fiji next year aswell. Goodluck to Georgia!

What's Happening In Prep

Prep has had a wonderful start to the term!! 

They started off with a busy first week back making playdough for the Mini Fete. Thank you Prep families for your generous donations. We raised a lot of money for Catholic Mission Week. See the attached photos of Prep A and their recounts of their favourite thing about Friday. 
In Maths, students have been exploring measurement and the concept of length. They had fun using informal units of measurement to determine how many unifix blocks long are their arms, legs, etc. We are looking forward to moving onto capacity and mass over the next few weeks. 
Students enjoyed their first lesson for swimming for the year! We look forward to our final term together in Prep!

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

Term 4, Week 1

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Stewardship where I care for all creation. 

Our Stewardship prayer is below:

Term 4, Week 2

The Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action for Week 2 will be Stewardship where I connect and engage. 

Our Community 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: Moving around school. 

In Term 4, Week 1 we are focusing on: At the pickup zone. 

Parent Library Borrowing

Environmental Tips

Dishwashers 

Dishwashers – Scrape plates well before packing them in the dishwasher. Clean the filter between washes. Run when fully loaded.  Use the economy cycle.

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