17 February 2021

From the Desk of the Principal

At Good Shepherd Catholic School, we value the 3 R's - Relationships, Relationships, Relationships! Relationships within a school come in many forms - student to student; student to teacher; student to parent; teacher to parent; parent to parent; teacher to teacher; school with community and so on.

Over the last week, I have seen many examples of these relationships in action. Thank you to our parents who attended our Parent Information Evening last week. The relationship between home and school is one of the most important ones that can be fostered. I hope that you were able to gain a better understanding of what happens in your child's classroom. Later this term you will also have the opportunity to meet with the teachers as part of our Parent Teacher meetings. More information will be sent home in the coming weeks.

Our classes are also assigned PAL (Play And Learning friends) classes. This is an opportunity for relationships to be formed between our older and younger students. Over the last week we have seen our PALs coming together for a number of occasions including Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Our students are also afforded opportunities to build relationships at our various Lunch Club options including our Computer Club, Lego Club, Music Club, Science Club and Defence Club.

Last night parent relationships were also formed at our first FACE (Family And Community Engagement) Network meeting. Please see below to read the minutes of the meeting. Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 16 March and new families are always welcome to attend.

Today our relationship with the NQ Cowboys was also affirmed with a visit from our Adopt-A-Cowboy Kyle Feldt. We thank Kyle for visiting our school and students and wish him well in the 2021 footy season.

In the words of Dr James Comer "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." I look forward to the relationships between home and school continuing to strengthen in 2021 to ensure success in our student's learning.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

Parish Mass
Saturday 20th February 6:00pm
Good Shepherd Community Centre
All GSCS families are welcome to attend.

Good Shepherd Catholic School supports Caritas Project Compassion.

This week the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, which also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice.
We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Each family will receive a Project Compassion box for their donations or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website at: lent.caritas.org.au    
Saint Oscar Romero is our inspiration for Project Compassion 2021, so in his words let’s “Aspire not to have more, but to be more.”

We begin our annual Lenten Project Compassion journey by learning about the story of Jamila and her family. Jamila, 22, is a Rohingya woman, living in the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. A single mother, she fled armed conflict in Myanmar to save herself, her elderly mother and eight-month-old baby. 
With the support of Caritas Australia, through Caritas Bangladesh, Jamila was able to access emergency food and shelter. She also received counselling, emotional support and learnt sewing skills, to help her earn an income.  Jamila now feels less alone, with a sense of community around her. She is able to ‘Be More’ to her little family.  
860,494 people remain in the densely populated camps, in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, especially due to COVID-19. (UNHCR) 

Watch a short film about Jamila’s story here.

Judy Bell
APRE
jbell17@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

Greater Release of Responsibility is a high impact teaching strategy being used across all Townsville Catholic Education schools. Here at Good Shepherd, staff and students have embraced “GRR” and are appreciating its many benefits for learning.
GRR consists of four steps – modelled instruction, guided instruction, collaborative learning, and independent learning – which can be completed in any order. All phases can be covered in one lesson, or across several lessons.
In the modelled phase, the teacher uses “think alouds” to explain what they are doing and thinking, and model the learning for students. Students are only required to watch and listen, not to answer questions or complete work as the teacher has the full cognitive load.
The guided phase has some of the cognitive load moved to the students, with the teacher using questioning, cues and prompts to provoke student thinking.
Students work with their peers during the collaborative phase, completing activities based on a structure or instructional routine. For example, they may explain to a peer how to complete a maths problem, work on a collaborative poster where each person is responsible for a particular aspect, or share all the facts they know on a topic.
In the independent phase, students complete a task independently in order to apply what they have learnt. Students are also required to think about their own thinking (metacognition) and be able to explain what they are trying to accomplish, the strategies they are using, how well they are using the strategies and what else they could do.
Throughout all four stages, teachers gather data on student learning, and use that to shape future lessons and activities.
GRR is being used in all classes, and students are becoming very familiar with the different phases. I would encourage you to ask your child about GRR, and see if they can identify what phases they worked in today.

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening in Our Prep Classes

Our Prep A staff have enjoyed meeting and getting to know you and your child and there has been a lot for the Preps to do, learn and remember. We have started our Christian Meditation, which we participate in several times a week. Last week we met our Year 6A PALs and together we did some puzzles, reading and table activities. We look forward to forming a relationship with them over the coming year. If you were unable to attend our recent information session, packs were sent home last week. Feel free to come in and see some of our work displayed around our room. 

Prep B have settled well into the class and school routine and are now settling into new learning routines within the classroom. In Maths we have been learning to use appropriate language to describe the position of objects and our class monkey has been helping us with this. Each day the monkey will hide and the next day if the students find the monkey they quietly tell the teacher where they have seen the monkey using their words. We have started our Science Unit: Growing Well and will be investigating what plants need to grow and stay healthy. 

Prep C have enjoyed getting to know each other as they become used to new routines and activities associated with school. We made up our own class rules to help us follow the GSCS Way in our classroom. We played some games to help us get to know each other- here we all had puzzle pieces and had to find the other people who had puzzle pieces that would complete our pictures. We have loved doing the obstacle course on Wednesdays and Fantastic Friday activities where we get to know all the other Prep students from Prep A and Prep B.

Awards For The Week

This Week's Birthdays

 ~ Indee   Prep A            ~ Oliver   Prep B               ~  Dylan   1A                  ~  Kloe   2A

Assembly

6A will be presenting our Assembly this Friday in the BBC at 8:40am.

Our lucky Praise Note winners for last week were: Harrison (Prep C), Atticus (1A), Joshua (2C), Ted (3B), Caprice (4A), Kahlo (5A) and Oliver (6A).

The Good Shepherd Way

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Hope where we are encouraged to see good all around us.

Our Hope 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 Compassion and Care: Oval, Library, Toilets, Tuckshop and in the Office.

FACE (Family And Community Engagement) Network News

Thank you to all who attended our first FACE Network Meeting for 2021. Please find the minutes from the meeting attached below.

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 16 March at 7:00pm in the Staffroom.

School Fees Update

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

School fees were emailed out last week. 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 have commenced  at Little Snapper Swim School and will continue for the next few weeks. Here are the remaining dates for students.

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

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

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

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

Year 6 Camp Update

Due to the dates of the Kathy Tarpaullin Netball and Bill Nettle Rugby League now being confirmed for Thursday 1 April, the dates of the Year 6 Camp have been changed from 30 March-1 April to 29-31 March to accommodate our students being able to participate in these sporting challenges. An update of these dates is being sent home to Year 6 families.

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

Using cold water can save up to 80 percent of the energy required to wash clothes. Choosing a low setting on the washing machine will also help save water.

Litter Free Lunch Tuesdays

Each Tuesday is "Litter Free Lunchbox Tuesday". We encourage our children to bring along a litter free lunch.

Can you support Emmi?

Our School Captain Emmi is taking part in the Leukaemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave. Emmi will shave her head  here at school on Friday 19 March.

Please click on this link below to support Emmi's Greatest Shave. 

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