10 November 2021

From the Desk of the Principal

Last Wednesday afternoon we were happy to announce that Mrs Rebecca Kershaw had been appointed as Assistant Principal Religious Education (APRE) here at Good Shepherd Catholic School from the commencement of the 2022 school year. The following announcement was made by TCE Executive Director Jacqui Francis:
It is with pleasure that I announce the appointment of Rebecca Kershaw as Assistant Principal – Religious Education at Good Shepherd Catholic School, Rasmussen, commencing in January 2022.
Rebecca is currently teaching at Good Shepherd Catholic School having joined the staff in January 2020. She moved to the Townsville Diocese after three years as a Religious Education Coordinator in the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese and has over twenty years’ experience teaching Kindergarten to Year 6 in Catholic primary schools in New Zealand and Sydney as well as the central coast and rural NSW.
Rebecca has a Master of Theology from The Broken Bay Institute and is a member of the Good Shepherd Parish, Rasmussen.
Please join me in congratulating Rebecca on her appointment.

Last Friday evening Ms Jeni Gillman was presented with an Outstanding Contributions to Preservice Teacher Learning from James Cook University. Jeni was nominated by her pre-service teacher Mollie Larney and received her award from JCU Professor Anne-Marie Morgan and Townsville Catholic Education Executive Director Jacqui Francis. 

Congratulations to both Mrs Kershaw and Ms Gillman.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

REMEMBRANCE DAY

On Thursday 11th November each class will commemorate Remembrance Day with a special prayer service in their classrooms.  It will be a time to give thanks to God for the wonderful land in which we live and to remember those who have fought in wars around the world to defend our freedom.

Loving God, 
who embraces those who suffer from war, 
teach us your ways so that we may walk in your path, cultivating peace and compassion for those whom we encounter,
 inspired always by the loving model of your Son, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

DEADLY LEARNERS END OF YEAR CELEBRATION
Thursday 11th November 2021
Please join us at 5:00pm in the Deadly Learners room as we celebrate and reflect on our deadly year. 
Dinner and drinks will be provided for all.

Judy Bell

APRE
jbell17@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

Franki will be absent from school every Monday for the remainder of the term, as we undertake the formal component of our Therapy Dog Australia training. 
Many people have asked what a therapy dog actually does, and how it differs from an assistance dog. Some also think “therapy dog” is just an excuse to bring a pet to work!
As a therapy dog team, Franki and I are required to undergo extensive (and expensive) training. The formal part of her training, which started this week, involves five days of online lectures and activities, with additional worksheets and activities to be completed each week. We are also required to film Franki completing a variety of set tasks and submit those weekly.
In January, Franki will also need to complete additional obedience activities and a temperament test. Once these are completed and passed, we will be qualified as a therapy dog team, able to provide Animal Assisted Education. We will then be [Grab your reader’s attention with a great quote from the document or use this space to emphasize a key point. To place this text box anywhere on the page, just drag it.]
 reassessed at least annually, but possibly more frequently as she is still a very young dog. 
It is important to note that we are a team – Franki and I will always work together, she will not be sent into a classroom or to work with a student under the supervision of another person. This is because we are trained to work together, and I am there to support Franki and ensure her safety and wellbeing as well as that of whoever she visiting with. This means that if I am not at school, Franki will not be here either, as she can’t be assigned to someone else for the day.
Therapy dogs work with a variety of different people every day, and rely on a human-animal bond being established. This can take time, but has psychological, physical and emotional benefits for all parties involved. Therapy dogs can facilitate social interactions, emotional regulation and physical activity. Research in health care fields has shown that speaking to and patting a dog reduced stress indicators in children (7 – 11 years old) visiting the dentist, while the presence of a friendly dog during physical examinations reduced children’s (3 to 6 years old) blood pressure and heart rates (Friedman, Son and Saleem, 2015). These findings are transferrable to school settings, where therapy dogs reduce stress for students and staff alike.
Assistance Dogs perform a very different role and are trained to help a specific person with their daily needs. They should not be treated like a therapy dog and expected to support a variety of people.
Finally, having Franki as a therapy dog is not just an “excuse” to bring my dog to work. Yes, Franki is my pet when we are at home, but even there she is expected to meet certain behaviour standards, particularly when other people are present. Home is also where we continually practise the skills required for work. At school, she is a working dog and this can be very tiring for her (which is why she only works three days a week). 
If you see Franki and I moving around the school, please feel free to stop, give her a pat, and enjoy the benefits of a few minutes with our very own therapy dog!

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening In Our Prep Classes

Prep A students enjoyed the challenge of making a sock ball for Mission Week's Socktober challenge. They compared its weight, durability and ability to roll with another ball around the same size. This activity lent itself nicely to our Science enquiry this term focusing on the question of 'How Things Move'? The students are designing toys which move, using our recycling. I have been impressed with the enthusiasm and skills developed in our class rotation subject, Digital Technology. Many students have been able to log in successfully and independently, open a program (Paint and more recently Word) and create a drawing and/or written item. The rosary beads were a very popular way to pray last month, and many students said they hoped to set up their own prayer space at home with some of the artefacts we created and sent home (cross, prayer mat, rosary beads). In Circle Time, we used a fun "check out" process where the students rested their hand on the diaphragm of their elbow buddy, and felt the laughing as they sent a giggle around the circle. The students are also encouraged to challenge themselves in their reading, writing and across all the key learning areas. This includes completing large puzzles independently, developing persistence and problem solving skills. Well done to all the Preps and thank you to all of our supportive parents and carers.  

Prep B have been very busy this term finishing up units and completing assessments. Within our RE Unit ‘Prayer, Us and the Church’ we have been investigating Church rituals and celebrations and the ways believers pray. This led us to making our own Rosary Beads as October was the Month of the Rosary. Mrs Bell came for a visit to teach us more about the Rosary and how to pray the ‘Joey Rosary’ which is a shortened version named after a sick boy named Joseph Benjamin. The students were very excited to receive a letter on Tuesday from Molly Mahoney, the manager of Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, a toy store that makes toys for Santa. She knows the students are now experts on how toys move and has asked for new ideas for toys that either; push, pull, spin, roll or slide. The students are now busy designing their ideas and will then make their toy using everyday items so Molly Mahoney can start manufacturing the toys in time for Christmas. Prep B continue to work hard in English on their writing and reading strategies and answering simple questions to collect data in Maths.

Prep C have been excited to learn about the forces ‘push’ and ‘pull’ as well as investigating how toys move – spin, roll, bounce, slide etc. A variety of experiments have been carried out to show how toys move and that by changing one variable in our test we get different results e.g. the size of the marble gives a different result when we tested how far it would roll. Students were keen to design and make their own toy and have given a presentation to the class to show their toy, discuss the materials they used and how it works as well as teaching others if the toy moves by a push or a pull movement. There was a lot of enthusiastic conversations happening throughout the class after our presentations. Here are a few of the toys made: pull a long car, a couple of robots, a spinning top and a vacuum cleaner.

Awards For The Week

Birthdays For This Week

~Chad (1B)    ~Averley (1C)    ~Ted (3B)    ~Brax (3C)    ~Ruby (4A)   ~Riley (4B)    ~Lillian (5B)

Can You Help???

Assembly

3A will be presenting our Assembly this Friday in the BBC at 8:40am.

Our lucky Praise Note winners for last week were: Matilda (PrepA), Lexie (PrepB), Arianah (PrepC), Araya (1A), Leon (2A), Liam (3B), Kathryn (4A), Talei (5A) .

The Good Shepherd Way

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Justice where we are encouraged to make right choices.

Our Justice 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 Safe Responsible Fair: Tuckshop, Office, Assembly, Community Centre, Moving Around School, Pick Up Zone. 

Congratulations to Deizel, Yasien and Adam who were our GSCS Way VIPs last week.

Library News

FACE (Family And Community Engagement) Network News

We are looking for donations for our Christmas Mega Raffle!

Tickets have been sent home with families and are to be returned by Friday 26 November.

Running Club

Running Club is held each Tuesday and Thursday on the oval and is open to all year levels and age groups. Can you help us get to Tokyo for the Olympics?

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 on the link below.

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.

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.

Environmental Tips

National Recycling Week.
You CAN recycle wherever you are - whether at home, work, school or around town. When you recycle one aluminum drink can, a milk bottle or a single newspaper you may not think you're doing much for the environment. However, you need to remember that millions of other people are doing the same as you. Together we can all make a big difference by recycling.

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