3 February 2021

From the Desk of the Principal

Congratulations to all students on the fantastic start they have made to our 2021 school year. It is wonderful to see so many of our new and existing families settling in to school life.

This week we have a number of Townsville Catholic Education staff visiting us here at Good Shepherd. On Thursday we will welcome our Service Team - Laurence Hosking (Education Consultant), Sharyn Bell (Religious Education Advisor), Katherine Nelson (Learning and Teaching Advisor) and Krista O'Connor (Indigenous Education Advisor). The Service Team will visit all classes before meeting with myself, Judy and Maxine and reviewing our Annual School Improvement Plan (ASIP). The ASIP sets out our goals as a school for the year. Our 2021 ASIP is attached below for your information.

On Friday we also look forward to welcoming our Townsville Catholic Education Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) - Jacqui Francis (Executive Director), Louise Vella-Cox (Director of Catholic Identity and Indigenous Services), Peter Stower (Director of Learning and Teaching), John Nuttall (Director of School Development Services) and Jennifer Blackshaw (Director of Organisational Services). The SLT will be attending our first liturgy for 2021, presenting us with our School Renewal Certificate after our successful validation in 2020, visiting all classes, having lunch with staff and meeting with myself, Judy and Maxine.

On Friday we are also looking forward to celebrating our Opening School Year and Leaders Induction Liturgy. I look forward to inducting our 2021 school leaders - Emmi McCartney and Matthew Milne (School Captains), Charli Cox and Lillian Nelson (Bohle Sports Captains), Olivia Buschel and Slater Pech (Ross Sports Captain) and Jack Campbell and Garrett Morgan-Tapau (Stuart Sports Captains). I also look forward to inducting our 2021 Deadly Learners. Just a reminder that due to COVID restrictions, this event can only be attended by parents of our Year 6 students. We will be livestreaming the event on our Facebook page.

Next week we are holding a Parent Information Evening on Wednesday 10 February. This is an opportunity to come and learn about the happenings and routines in your child's class. There are three sessions - 5:00pm, 5:30pm and 6:00pm. More information can be found in the Upcoming Events below. We hope to see you here.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

OPENING LITURGY
Friday 5 February 9:00am
Good Shepherd Community Centre
Senior students, School Captains, Sports Captains and our Deadly Learners will be presented with their badges.  Unfortunately, Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only the parents of Year 6 students are permitted to attend. 

PARISH MASS

Saturday 20 February 6:00pm

Good Shepherd Community Centre

All GSCS families are welcome to attend.

The students in Prep C and 5A have been invited to help at the Parish Mass and a note regarding this will go home shortly.

Judy Bell

APRE

jbell17@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

It’s been fantastic to see GSCS students back at school, meeting new friends and engaged in learning. We all know students learn a lot in these first few weeks of school, but did you know the teachers are busy learning too? In the coming few weeks, many of our teachers will be attending professional development sessions covering a wide variety of topics, from various special needs, to cued articulation (a popular visual signing system used to help students learn speech sounds and to support their speaking and literacy skills), to training in the skills required to support and mentor others. 
Next week, students in Prep to Year 2 will also participate in Townsville Catholic Education’s Early Years Project. This consists of an individually administered Oral Language and Numeracy screener for Prep and Year 1 students, and a Numeracy and Literacy test for Year 2 (done as a whole class). These screeners help teachers identify the strengths and areas of need for students in their class, allowing learning to be tailored to suit. The screener is repeated later in the year, to track student growth. If you have any questions about the screeners, you can ask your child’s classroom teacher.

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening in Our Year 5 Classes

Like all classes here at Good Shepherd, the Year 5s have been busy settling into new classroom routines. They’ve begun establishing new friendships with their classmates and building new relationships with their classroom teachers. 
The teachers and students have been working hard revising and implementing the GSCS Way. Our students have been completing many ‘Getting to Know You’ activities and have particularly enjoyed investigating and sharing the origin of their Christain names, and determining their hopes and wishes for our 2021 school year. 

Awards For The Week

This Week's Birthdays

Assembly

Due to our Opening Liturgy and Leader's Induction, there is no Assembly this week. The Liturgy will be livestreamed on our Facebook page.

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 Compassion and Care: Before School, in the Classroom, in the Eating Area, on the Playground.

The Good Shepherd Way

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Compassion where we are encouraged to show care and concern for others.

Our Compassion prayer is also below:

School Fees Update

Townsville Catholic Education is in the process of implementing a new finance program into our school system.

Just some information on the new system – 

• School fees will be emailed out on or near 15th February. The new fees will have the option to BPay your fees, but unfortunately at this stage we do not know the BPAY details. We will provide you with them once we have received them.
• Direct Debits for this year will commence on 11th February. If you would like to commence a direct debit from that date (they are processed either weekly or fortnightly on Thursdays), you can complete and send the Direct Debit form attached below to the school email address (rsmssn@tsv.catholic.edu.au) or drop it into the office.
• If you would like to make payments for your fees yourself the details you will need are BSB – 034668; A/C Number – 116228; Reference (Please contact the school to find out your reference code).
• You can also pay your fees in the office by either cash or eftpos.

If you have any queries about your school fees, please don’t hesitate to contact our Finance Secretary Sheridan Turner at sturner9@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

Year 3 to 6 Swimming Lessons

Year 3 to 6 Swimming Lessons commence next week at Little Snapper Swim School.

Year 3 and 4 students will be attending on the following Tuesdays:

• Tuesday 9 February
• Tuesday 16 February
• Tuesday 23 February
• Tuesday 2 March
• Tuesday 9 March

Year 5 and 6 students will be attending on the following Mondays:

• Monday 8 February
• Monday 15 February
• Monday 22 February
• Monday 1 March
• Monday 8 March

Tuckshop

Opening Hours

Wednesday - Thursday - Friday

Please place your order with Flexischool no later than 8:30am on the day you wish to order.

Can You Help?

Ann-Maree is always looking for helpers in the tuckshop, 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. 

Environmental Tips

Use short cycles for washing clothes: Modern washing machines have an “Eco Wash” option you should take full advantage of.

Upcoming Events

Community News

Teacher Contacts