24 March 2021

From the Desk of the Principal

It was lovely to see our school in a sea of orange on Friday as we celebrated National Day of Action Against Bullying and Harmony Day and also witnessed our school captain Emmi lose her locks in the World's Greatest Shave. Thank you to our Student Wellbeing Committee for organising a number of activities for our students to participate in. Thank you also to Emmi and her family for allowing our school community to be involved in her fundraising and witnessing her participation in this worthwhile event.

It is hard to believe that there is only a week left in this term. It is a busy finish for our older students as our Year 6 students head off to camp on Monday. Our Year 5 and 6 students are also involved in the Bill Nettle Rugby League Challenge and the NQ Netball Challenge on the last day of term. 

I hope that many of you have had the chance this week to catch up with your child's teacher in our SPT (Student, Parent, Teacher) Meetings and have had a chance to discuss where your child is currently at as well as some goals for them to continue to work on both at home and school. I thank you all for making the time to continue to strengthen these partnerships between home and school.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

Parklands Visit

On Saturday morning nine Mini Vinnies visited residents at Parklands Aged Care in Kirwan. The students and residents look forward to these visits. On Saturday, they played games and painted. One of our Mini Vinnies, Riley, even drew a portrait of a lovely lady called Pat. Pat was thrilled with his gift to her. Here are some photos…..

Parish Mass

On Saturday evening, some of the Year 3A and Year 3C students and their teachers, along with some members of our school choir attended Mass at the Good Shepherd Community Centre. They all sang beautifully. Thank you to the families and staff members who came along to celebrate Mass – what a great way to build community!

Fifth Week of Lent

Halima is raising her two children in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, while caring for her mother who has a disability. Widowed at 21, Halima fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, arriving at the camp with nothing.
Caritas Australia, through Caritas Bangladesh, helped Halima with shelter, cooking equipment, hygiene and sanitation training. She took on the role of community trainer herself, organising the cleaning of washrooms, wells and toilets.  
Halima aspired to “Be More” and is proud that she is able to earn a small income, while maintaining the health of her family and the cleanliness of the camp community.
        •    In the Cox’s Bazar district, women and children make up 78% of the total refugee population where 52% of children are aged 0-17. (UNHCR)

Watch a short film about Halima’s story here. 

Aspire not to have more, but to be more. (St Oscar Romero)

Project Compassion at GSCS

Please return all Project Compassion boxes before the end of next week.

The Annunciation

This Thursday 25th March is the Feast of the Annunciation. On the Feast of the Annunciation, we celebrate the day that the Angel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary announcing that she was going to be the mother of Jesus. Even though Mary did not understand completely, she trusted God’s plan for her life, and she said yes to becoming the mother of God and our mother. The words of the “Hail Mary” come from the Angel’s greeting: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” God’s grace lives in each one of us, but Mary was full of grace because she was born without any Original Sin.

Judy Bell

APRE
jbell17@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

Students are at the centre of all we do at Good Shepherd. With that in mind, we are embracing the “responsive planning” method being promoted by Townsville Catholic Education. 
So, what does that mean for your students? 
Prior to responsive planning, teachers created term or semester units that met Australian curriculum requirements and outlined what students would be taught each week. Lessons were planned ahead of time, and there was limited flexibility as the unit had to be finished by the end of term.
By contrast, responsive planning is short-cycle, covering no more than five weeks, and lessons are more tailored to suit the individual needs of students. Teachers look at data collected from a variety of assessments, and use that to design lessons to fill the gaps in student knowledge. This “assessment” can be formal testing such as the Early Years testing, and PAT Reading and Maths, as well as formative tasks such as exit slips, Kahoot games, class discussions and in-class work.  
From this data, teachers identify what students already know, and where they have gaps in their knowledge, and where they need additional support. The beauty of the responsive planning, is that extensive time is not spent going back over what students already know – teachers can move on to the next concept. Similarly, if students are missing some knowledge and do not have a good grasp of a concept, teachers can spend additional time on it. Checks for understanding are built in to lessons, so teachers are constantly monitoring, and responding to student learning needs.
Responsive planning is in use across the school for Mathematics, with more subjects being planned responsively in coming terms.

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening in Our Year 1 Classes

This term Year 1 has continued PAL (Pathways And Learning) into our weekly learning experiences. PAL gives the Year 1 students play based opportunities to explore various sensory activities, build on their fundamental motor skills, and engage in creative activities and social interactions. The students have had the opportunity to build with wooden blocks, boxes and lego. Create master pieces with play dough, bracelets, pasta necklaces, drawing, painting and craft activities. They have continued to use their imaginations to create roads and dinosaur worlds, as well as engage in dress up role play, cooking in the play kitchen and café shops. These quality play based experiences will assist the students with language development, encourage students to explore, negotiate and take risks that will benefit their learning in the classroom. It also gives the students opportunity to build relationships with all Year 1 students and to enjoy their learning here at Good Shepherd. 
Our Responsive Planning for Maths has allowed the Year 1 students to engage in Maths lessons with all of the Year 1 teachers and all Year 1 students throughout the term. The students continue to learn through hands on activities using concrete materials to reinforce their knowledge. 

Awards For The Week

This Week's Birthdays

 ~ Isabella    PrepA                ~ Sophie   3B                       ~ Finn   4A         

Assembly

2A will be presenting our Assembly this Friday in the BBC at 8:40am.

Our lucky Praise Note winners for last week were: Lizette (PrepA), Sienna (1C), Yasmine (2C), Anarchy(3B), Sophie-Rose (4A), Gemika (5A) and  Jai (6B).

The Good Shepherd Way

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Service where we are encouraged to help and respond to the needs of others.

Our Service prayer is also 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 Give My Best: Assembly, Community Centre, Moving Around School and the Pick Up Zone.

FACE (Family And Community Engagement) Network News

Don't forget to retun your tickets to the office. If you would like some more tickets we would be glad to help - just pop in and see the Office. Thank you for your support.

Have You Enrolled For Prep 2022 Yet?

Students turning 5 by 30 June 2022 are invited to enroll for Prep 2022. Applications are available from our School Office. Alternatively they can also downloaded from our website at https://www.gstsv.catholic.edu.au/enrolment/enrolment-package/

Tuckshop

Wednesday - Thursday - Friday

Please place your order with Flexischool no later than 8:30am on the day you wish to order. You will find a menu on our webpage. If you wish to place an order of cupcakes for your child's birthday please place your order the week before.

Can you help Ann-Maree on a Wednesday or Thursday?

If you are able to spare some time please give her a call on our office number or email rsmssn@tsv.catholic.edu.au.  She would love to hear from you. 

Library News

Environmental Tips

Earth Hour is the world’s largest grassroots movement for climate change action. Millions of people in over 180 countries take part in Earth Hour by switching off their lights as a symbolic gesture to show that our planet needs stronger action on climate change. "Take the Earth Hour Pledge" switch off for 1hr :8:30pm - 9:30pm.

Sports News - Charli and Isabella

Charli (6A) and Isabella (5B) recently competed at the Queensland Athletics Competition in Brisbane. Below is information about their performances as supplied by their families.

Charli

Charli Placed in the following:
2nd in the 200m Heat and 6th in the Final with a PB
2nd in the 100m Heat and missed out by split seconds for the final Placed 9th  in the State with a PB
2nd in the 80m Hurdles and qualified 6th Fastest for the Final which was cancelled due to the severe weather, with a PB.
15th in Long Jump out of 37 girls
19th in Shot Put out of 33 girls
We are so proud of Charli achievements from the weekend. The competition was tight and the times were close down to the split seconds for placings. Her hard work and dedication to the sport reflected in her outstanding performance and she was able to keep up with the best in the State. Charli is looking forward to the 2022 LAQ Regional trials that will be held in Townsville in September of this year, where she can qualify to go on to represent in the 2022 LAQ State Championships again to be held in Brisbane next year.

Isabella

It was a very big competition and we’re so proud of her being this was her first time at States and just making it to States itself Is a massive achievement. 
She placed 5th in her 60m Hurdles race and 24th overall
Placed 25th in High Jump and a PB
31st in long jump.
This year was all about experience and she can't wait to get back and start training and the new season to start. And bring on regionals in September and hopefully States again in 2022 bigger and better.

Under 11's Rugby League Trials for Thuringowa

If you would like your child considered for the Under 11's Rugby League School trials please contact Mark Wilson our Sports Co-ordinator (mwilson14@gstsv.catholic.edu.au) by Thursday afternoon.

Thank You For Supporting Emmi

Big Mob Brekkie

Upcoming Events

Teacher Contacts

Community News