22 May 2024

From the Desk of the Acting Principal

Week 6 , Term 2

Parent Code of Conduct

I would like to take this opportunity to thank those in our school community who actively promote the many positives of Good Shepherd Catholic School.

Unfortunately, there is also a section of our school community who share negativity with others, approaching others in public arenas to disparage our staff and school, and posting negative comments on social media. While obviously everyone is entitled to their opinions, ALL families who
enrol students at Good Shepherd are governed by Townsville Catholic Education’s Code of Conduct for Parents.

That Code of Conduct includes the requirement to: 

• Maintain a positive and cooperative attitude and interact positively with other
  parents and school community members.
  
• Be mindful of the hurt and reputational damage social media may cause to staff
  members and other parents; ensuring the school, staff and community members should
  not be mentioned in a defamatory or damaging way.

Families are also reminded that if there are concerns, the first point of contact should always be the
classroom teacher. If the concern continues, contacting the school office is the next step so your concern can be redirected to the appropriate member of the leadership team.

We look forward to your continuing support of Good Shepherd.

Safety in the Carparks

A reminder that students being picked up are required to go to the Drop Stop Go Zone. There has been an increasing number of people trying to pick students up from the bus zone area in front of Prep or expecting students to walk across the carpark or out of the school grounds to be picked up. This causes a considerable safety risk!

The only students going to the Prep area should be those being picked up by a day care bus. All others go to the pickup zone. Parents can then pull into the zone, collect their children, and drive out. If you park, please walk across to your child – do not call them across the carpark.

It would also be appreciated if, while in the STOP DROP GO zone, you pull as far forward as possible, and remain with your car. This allows the flow of traffic to continue and helps keep everyone safe.

Maxine Nolan

AP

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Acting Assistant Principal Pedagogy and Learning

Talofa lava parents, carers and students!

Please see below for what’s happening around our school this fortnight.

Curriculum News 👩‍🏫

Townsville Catholic Schools Spelling Bee

We are thrilled to be participating in the inaugural Townsville Catholic Schools Spelling Bee being held at Marian Catholic School this Thursday night from 5pm.

Student representatives were nominated from Years 3-6 and have been preparing in class, at home and with our APPL Ms Rowan for this exciting new event on the Catholic schools calendar.

We wish our nominated spellers Mattias, Madeleine, Jade, Naleekah, Olivia, Arielle, Alex and Anarchy all the best this Thursday. We are so proud of their efforts!

Sports News ⚽️ 🏀 🏈 ⚾️ 🎾 🏐 🏉 🎱

Next Friday 31^st May, 15 Year 5 and 6 students will travel to Palm Island with staff to participate in the annual Obe Geia Challenge.

The Obe Geia Challenge was established in 2009 by the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys to bring communities together and promote the importance of inclusion in North Queensland. This hugely popular event has grown to include local and mainland teams of 15 players aged 10-12 years. This year there are 11 schools competing in the challenge.

Named after former Cowboys player and Palm Island local Obe Geia, the carnival promotes the benefits of sport, fitness and healthy living and grassroots rugby league and also aims to increase positive attitudes and behaviours and reduce truancy.

The day is enjoyed by all involved and features a strong cultural education component, with students having the opportunity to experience first-hand the beauty of Palm Island, its people and their culture.

We wish our GSCS team the best of luck!

School Events 📅 

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 NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

The dates for NRW are the same each year; 27 May to 3 June.

These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening in Year 6

In Week 4 our cohort went to Tinaroo Environmental Education Center in far North Queensland. Students played a part in caring for our fragile and beautiful planet through Science lessons which promoted sustainability. The students developed their social and emotional skills and navigated several challenges through a range of inspirational and motivational activities. 

Some of our activities included kayaking across the Tinaroo Dam, searching for living organisms in the water to determine the quality of water, and orienteering through the bush using nothing but a physical map (No Google Maps!!!). On the following day, we braved the high ropes and climbed up higher than our teachers, which was quite easy). Some of us even made it up above 20 meters off the ground! We got to finish off the camp with some team-building activities, one of which was making catapults. We had to be in groups of about 6-7 students and learn how to tie knots and aim accurately to hit the targets. Through several modifications of our catapults, we were able to achieve success. 

To finish, we left the camp early Friday morning to make the long journey back home. A big thank you to our teachers, staff volunteers and parents for coming to camp with us. We left nothing but our footprints and took heaps of photos. See Facebook for more photos. 

Library

Deadly Day Out

Story Dogs

Eisteddfod 2024

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 2, Week 5

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Inclusion where I involve and accept others.

Our Inclusion prayer is below:

Term 2, Week 6

The Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action for Week 6 will be Justice where I make right choices.

Our Justice 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 Term 2, Week 5 we are focusing on: On the oval. 

Prep Orientation 2025

Environmental Tips

Be careful about feeding birds in your garden. Try not to let native birds become too dependent on the food supply. For the long-term, plant native shrubs and trees to provide birds with natural food.

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. 

Lost and Found

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