27 April 2022

From the Desk of the Principal

I am currently on long service leave and will return to school on Monday 16 May. Maxine Nolan is Acting Principal in my absence and is assisted by Rebecca Kershaw (APRE). 
I hope you are all continuing to keep well and I look forward to catching up with you all when I return.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

Eastertide

We are currently in the Liturgical season of
Eastertide, it is the time of new life. Eastertide is the
period of 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to
Pentecost Sunday. It is celebrated as a single joyful
feast, called "great Lord's Day". Each Sunday of
the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter.
The Easter season continues for 50 days, through
the Ascension of Our Lord to Pentecost Sunday, seven full weeks after Easter Sunday! Indeed, for the purpose of fulfilling our Easter Duty (the requirement to receive Communion at least once during the Easter season), the Easter season
extends a bit further, until Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost.

We are now in the middle of the Easter Season, and our focus at this joyful time continues to be the Risen Lord who passed on from the darkness of the grave to the brightness of the new supernatural life, that does not know end. What a beautiful truth we believe in. Yes, we all must go through rough times in this imperfect universe. And it can be seen more clearly at this time; that is why Easter comes to remind us that our faith tells us that no virus or any other power has the last word, but our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already destroyed death through his death; the spectre of death the worst enemy of our humanity could not get hold of him. Let us keep praying for those who have died in these terrible times, for those who are sick, those who are working to keep the country running and those who want to keep everybody safe. Prayer that this time is a wonderful weapon against the obstacles we are faced with daily.

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

Friendships and Belonging
One of the most common student issues teachers and the leadership team deals with is that of friendship – conflicts arising because students want to be friends, they no longer want to be friends, struggle to deal with sharing friends, or listen to and spread gossip and innuendo. It can be difficult for children to realise that conflict is a normal part of friendship. Add social media into the mix and the issues multiply! 
It is not always easy for children and teenagers to always know how to manage friendships. Learning how to make new friends and keep them involves a number of skills every young person needs to understand and develop.

For some these skills will come very naturally, allowing them to easily move between different friendship groups, sharing their experiences and opening up to new people. For others, this can be much harder to navigate. Belonging to a group that is like-minded with similar interests is highly beneficial to a child’s wellbeing. 

Friendships are full of ups and downs and it is better for children to learn how to manage and build their own friendships, even though as an adult carer you may be tempted to interfere. 
SchoolTV has a series on “Friendship and Belonging” that offers practical information and strategies for navigating a host of friendship issues. Including coping with cliques, whether they have “enough friends”, being a good friend, and a parent’s guide to toxic friendships. 
To view the Friendship and Belonging edition, please click the below link or go the SchoolTV, which can be accessed from the Student tab on the Good Shepherd home page.

Naplan 2022
Students in years 3 and 5 will participating in NAPLAN tests during week 4 and 5 of term. Our Naplan schedule is:

The tests run for between 40 and 50 minutes and are all conducted online with the exception of the Year 4 Writing test, which is paper based.
You can help your child prepare for Naplan by ensuring they have a good night’s sleep before the tests and eat a nutritious breakfast before coming to school.
If you have any concerns about Naplan, or your child’s participation in the tests, please speak to their classroom teacher as soon as possible.

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening In Our Prep Classes?

Prep A students have been creating a “Visual Feast” as part of their engagement with The Arts Curriculum and will be showcasing their visual representations of their ideas, experiences, observations and imagination.  In doing this, the Preps have become aware of how and why artists present their ideas and how these ideas can be developed using different forms, styles, techniques, materials and technologies. The Visual Arts enhance their perception skills by learning to notice and represent objects and events in their lives. Preps use and apply conventions such as line, shape, colour and texture. Not only are they are sharing their works with one another but they also get to be part of the audience. Their undertakings are suited to their level of development. 
If you get the opportunity, take your children to the Perc Tucker Gallery in the city before the 3rd July to view the current exhibitions. Admission is free. 

In Prep B, students have been learning about God's creation. They made 'God goggles' to wear on their nature walk around the school. Students enjoyed finding different plants, flowers, butterflies, birds and insects around the gardens. In Maths, students have been exploring different shapes and their attributes. This week, they sorted shapes by their colour, shape and their size. Students enjoyed using hands-on materials to explore shapes and sort objects based on their characteristics. Prep B students enjoy visiting the library each week and they look forward to borrowing books to take home. We look forward to learning many new things this term as we continue to settle into school.

Prep C are beginning to work on a new unit for Science. We are looking at the properties of different materials which will culminate in the making of a hat for one of our toys – it will either provide sun protection or water protection. We spent some time discussing our last Science unit where we investigated what plants need to stay healthy. We conducted an experiment where we changed one variant for each test plant – one had a lot of seedlings in one pot to see if plants need space; one had sand in place of dirt to see if that mattered to a plant; one was kept in the cupboard to test if light affected a plants’ growth and one plant we did not water to observe what happened. Students worked in a small group to check and note changes of the plants so they could share with the class their plants progress or lack thereof. Here we are setting up some of our test plants.

Awards For The Week

Birthdays Being Celebrated This Week

~Jazmyn (PrepA)    ~Byren (2A)      ~Joshua(2C)    ~Annabell(4B)    ~Candice(5A)    ~Kailey(5B)    ~Dante(5B)

Assembly

4C will be presenting our ANZAC Assembly this Friday in the BBC at 8:40am.

Our lucky Praise Note winners will be drawn at Assembly on Friday.  

The Good Shepherd Way

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

Our Compassion 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: Before School, Classroom, Eating Area and Playground .

Fun Run - Rescheduled Tuesday 3 May

We are hoping to hold our Fun Run (Cross Country) next Tuesday at 8:45am, please contact your child's teacher if you would like more information.

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.

Library News

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.

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. 

Environmental News

Prevention is better than cure. 
Think about what you buy and how it is packaged.  Consider your own little practices and start picking up rubbish in your neighbourhood.

Teacher Contacts

Community News