22 November 2023

From the Desk of the Acting Principal

Week 8, Term 4 

Next Tuesday, 28 November, we will host our annual full school transition day. On this day, students will have the opportunity to meet their teacher and classmates for 2024.

All our new Preps will be in attendance, along with several students in other year levels who are joining Good Shepherd. We ask all students to wear our uniform (academic or sports), and all new students to wear comfortable sun safe cloths and closed in shoes.

Our 2024 Preps are invited to wear their “I am ready for Big School” shirts. All students should also bring a hat, a water bottle and food for both breaks, as well as a brain snack.

All students will go with their 2023 classes from the Shed to the BBC, where we will introduce staff for 2024. Year 4 – 6 will move back to the shed and find out their classes, while Prep to Year 3 will stay in the BBC to find out their classes.

Following class announcements, there will be a family information session in the BBC. This will
include a cuppa and morning tea, as well as the opportunity to speak with a range of support staff
and find out about the many wonderful services they offer.

At the end of the day, students will return to the BBC where Preps will receive Welcome pack and all
other year levels will receive a mini information pack. Students will be dismissed from the BBC. We
look forward to welcoming everyone on Transition Day!

Transition Day is not the only big event in the next two weeks – we have Good Shepherd’s Got
Talent grand final and Captains speeches on Thursday, the Christmas Concert on Monday 27th , Rite of
Passage on Wednesday 29 th and the end of year liturgy and last day of school (finishing at 12 noon)
on Friday 1 st December. As always, family and friends are welcome to attend these events.

With the end of the school year upon us, I want to take this opportunity to thank the entire school
community for your support throughout 2023. I hope you have the opportunity to take some time
off over the Christmas break, spend time with your loved ones and truly rest and relax. See you all in
2024!

Maxine Nolan

AP

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Acting Assistant Principal Administration

Term 4, Week 8/9

Talofa lava parents, carers and students!

With only a week and a half of school to go until Summer holidays, please see below for happenings around our school in curriculum, sports and events.

Curriculum News 👩‍🏫🍎📖

Writing Project

Last Friday I joined Mrs Nolan and Mrs Weaver at Townsville Catholic Education’s Writing Project Showcase and shared the amazing work of the teachers and students who participated in the project throughout 2024. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate student growth in literacy achievements and to share good practice in the learning and teaching of writing. Congratulations to Mrs Weaver and 4/5E and Mrs Karambasis and 2B for their exceptional work and participation in the Writing Project this year.

Academic Awards 

Last Wednesday we gathered as a community for our Academic Awards Ceremony. Students from Prep to Year 6 were presented with Academic Excellence, Academic Endeavour and Good Shepherd Way Gospel Values awards. Awards were also presented to the Junior and Senior Indigenous student of the Semester, Sportspersons of the Year and the Kerry Bevan Citizenship Award. Congratulations to all our award recipients. 

Reports

Semester Two student academic reports will be released on the Compass Parent Portal next Wednesday 29th November. Please ensure you have access to the Compass Parent Portal so you can read the reports. 

Sports News ⚽️ 🏀 🏈 ⚾️ 🎾 🏐 🏉 🎱

Today, Mrs Foord and Mrs Robson are chaperoning 37 students to the Primary School Futsal Cup. We wish them luck. 

Teachers were once again the champions of the annual Student vs Teachers game last week. The atmosphere in BBC was electric, with chants, cheers, challenges and charts (posters!) supporting both sides fairly equally. Our resilient Seniors showed grit and determination and never gave up even in the face of defeat. Congratulations teachers!

School Events 📅🗓📆

I have thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of being welcomed into and working with the Good Shepherd Community this year. I wish you and your loved ones a happy, holy and safe Christmas holiday and hope to see you in the new year. 

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

What is Advent?

Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in the church and consists of the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas day. The word Advent comes from the Latin word meaning "coming". Jesus is coming, and Advent is intended to be a season of preparation for His arrival. While Advent is typically regarded as a joyous season, it is also intended to be a period of preparation, much like Lent. Prayer, penance and fasting are appropriate during this season. 

Advent is not as strict as Lent, and there are no rules for fasting, but it is meant to be a period of self-preparation. The purpr colour associated with Advent is also the colour of penance. The colour of the Third Sunday of Advent is rose. This colour symbolizes joy and represents the happiness we will experience when Jesus comes again. The Third Sunday is a day of anticipatory celebration. It is formerly called "Gaudete" Sunday; gaudete means "rejoice" in Latin. 

Finally, Sundays during Advent, just as during Lent, should not be given to fasting, but instead to celebration because we celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord every Sunday. It is important to remember, however, there are no particular rules for how the laity should observe Advent. 

Advent Prayer

God of Love, 

Your son, Jesus, is Your 

greatest gift to us. 

He is a sign of Your love. 

Help us walk in that love 

during the weeks of Advent, 

as we wait and prepare 

for His coming. 

We pray in the name of Jesus,

our Saviour. 

Amen. 

Christmas Blessing

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends,

Sending prayers and hearty Christmas greetings to you. May you receive the most special of God’s blessings during this amazing Christmas season!

Merry Christmas. May God bless you and your families richly throughout the year.

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening in Prep

In Science, the Prep classes have been exploring how things move. They have spent time playing on the equipment to see how it moves and how we use our body to move on it. We have found items in our classroom to explore how they move and learnt lots of new vocabulary to explain this like spinning, rolling, floating and crawling. Students then had to really dig deep to design a toy that they would eventually build that would move. They had to follow the design process of working out the materials they would use and how they would hold it all together. They then got to work and created their masterpieces. The students completed  a feedback sheet to reflect on their work. A lot of students could articulate what worked, what didn’t work and what they would do differently if something didn’t go to plan.

What's Happening in Year 2

Year 2 have been studying Forces in Science, learning about the effects of gravity, friction, push and pull. During the unit students created and tested paper planes, paper helicopters and balloon powered cars. As part of their Design Technology they drew a plan for how to make a balloon powered toy and then built and tested their toys following their plan. They analysed their designs and discussed how the toys worked and what could have worked better. And most importantly, they had fun while learning!

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 8

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

Our Justice prayer is below:

Term 4, Week 9

The Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action for Week 9 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: On the Oval. 

In Term 4, Week 9 we are focusing on: In the Library. 

Environmental Tips

Our beautiful country needs help and it starts right here at our school. We’re calling on all students to play their part in keeping Good Shepherd Beautiful. Use recyclable lunch boxes, put litter in the bins and care for our gardens.  Big changes start small so, come on Good Shepherd, let’s take on the challenge.

Tuckshop

Thank you to all of our Tuckshop Helpers for 2023. You are amazing!

Tuckshop will be open

Wednesday 29th November - Lunch and Snack 

Thursday 30th November - Lunch and Snack

Friday 1st December - Lunch ONLY 

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