3 August 2022

From the Desk of the Principal

Well done to our students who represented Good Shepherd at the Challenge Games. A great two days was had by our students. Thank you to our staff and families who also supported our students over these two days.

We have a few projects taking place around Good Shepherd at the moment. You may have noticed the new small compound being constructed at the end of D Block as well as the new solar panels being installed on many of our buildings. This is all part of the next stage of Townsville Catholic Education's solar project. Our new junior playground is also on its way to us. We are hoping it may be installed and ready for use by the end of this term. Tenders have also gone out for the construction of a new classroom on the end of I Block (Year 5). It is anticipated this building work will commence next term.

Our Year 4 students enjoyed an excursion to the Museum of Tropical Queensland on Monday. It was wonderful to receive the following feedback from Museum staff - I noticed, and the staff on the front desk mentioned to me afterwards that your group was one of the best we have had through this year for walking sensibly on the stairs and ramp and leaving space for others to pass. Please pass on our appreciation to all the students and teachers for their polite consideration. We love receiving positive feedback from the wider community and to hear that Good Shepherd is shining.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

ST MARY OF THE CROSS MACKILLOP

This Monday the 8th of August, we celebrate the feast of Australia’s first saint - St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Mary MacKillop was born in 1842 in Melbourne, Victoria. 
Mary cared about the people who had no-one to look after them such as boys and girls who just roamed the streets, children in the country who had no school to go to, people who were old and sick and people who had nowhere to live. Mary wanted more than anything to help these people.
Mary went to work as a teacher in a little country town in South Australia called Penola. There she met Father Julian Tension Woods who also wanted to do something for the poor children who could not afford to pay the money needed to go to school.
Together, in 1866, they began the first St Joseph’s School in an old stable. Two of Mary’s younger sisters also taught in the school and other young women came to help them.
On 19th March, 1866 – St Joseph’s Day – Mary started to wear a simple dark dress and began the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph. Now as a Sister, she dedicated her life to doing God‛s work. As more and more young women joined Mary as Sisters, they were able to start more schools. All children were welcome at their schools, even if they couldn‛t pay.
In Adelaide they opened a place for women who had nowhere to live, an orphanage for children who had no parents to look after them and a house where poor people could come and stay. The Sisters visited people who were in gaol and those who were poor and sick.
Mary MacKillop died on 8th August, 1909 in North Sydney. Mary helped many people during her lifetime and after she died the Sisters of St Joseph kept on doing the good work she had started.
Mary MacKillop kept her faith in God and bravely challenged those who did not support her vision for a more caring world.
Mary is an important Australian who spent her life helping people, especially children. She is Australia’s first Saint.

Mary MacKillop Prayer 
Ever generous God,
You inspired Saint Mary MacKillop
To live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and constant in bringing hope and encouragement
to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy.
With confidence in your generous providence
and through the intercession of Saint Mary MacKillop
We ask that our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit
so that we too, like Mary MacKillop, may live with courage, trust and openness.
Ever generous God, hear our prayer.
We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you Will Brennan (Townsville Diocese Seminarian), Year 5 Students, Staff and Support staff for your participation in a beautiful Catholic Education Week Liturgy.

To keep the program going in our school, we are asking families if they could assist by donating a spread or more for the toast (vegemite, jam and squeeze honey if possible) this term. All donations are gratefully received and can be left at the Office. 

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

We all know that a good night’s sleep makes it easier to deal with the ups and downs of daily life. It is no different for our children! Well-rested children are better able to learn, interact with peers, adjust to changes in routines and are happier. A “Happiness Survey” of almost 47,000 children (conducted by the ABC children’s program “Behind the News”) found that children who regularly have the recommended hours of sleep each night reported significantly higher levels of both happiness and feelings of safety.  

However, many parents struggle to get their children to bed at night, and we are frequently told about children being up until midnight playing games or waking up at 3am! 

The Sleep Health Foundation (www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au) offers the following tips for helping ensure children get a good night’s sleep:

1.    Establish a regular sleep pattern. Regular hours of sleep are important. It will help your child understand when it is time to sleep.  Also, your child will have better sleep. Bedtime shouldn't vary by more than an hour across all days of the week - whether your child has an early start the next morning or not. The same goes for getting up time.

2.    A consistent bedtime routine. It is good to have the same routine before bed each night. This will help prepare for sleep. Quiet activities are good, such as reading a book or being read to or having a bath or shower. In the half hour before bed, there are some things you don't want your child to do. These are more active games, playing outside, TV, internet or mobile phone social networking and computer games.

3.    Make sure the bedroom is comfortable. The bedroom should be quiet, comfortable and dark. Some children like a night light. This is fine. Make sure your child sees the bedroom as a good place to be. You can help do this by not using it as a place for punishment.

4.    Bed is for sleeping, not entertainment. TV, computers, mobile phones and other things that distract your child are not good for their sleep. Keep them out of the bedroom. “Needing” to watch a screen to fall asleep is a bad habit. This can easily develop, but you don't want it to happen. It’s also better if you can check on what your child is watching.

5.    Some foods can disturb sleep. A high intake of sugary or fatty foods has been linked with more restless sleep. Avoid sugary or high fat snacks before bedtime, as well as large meals. A small healthy savoury snack before bed would be fine.

6.    Caffeine is a stimulant. Caffeine is found in many popular drinks. These include coffee, tea, cola soft drinks and some chocolate products. It can make it harder to get to sleep. Your child should have as little of these as possible, and certainly not after lunchtime.

7.    Take care with daytime naps. It is normal for young children to nap during the day. As your child gets older, they will need less sleep. This means they will need to nap less. The number and length of naps depends on your child. If your child naps after 4pm (except for the very young) it can be harder to get to sleep at night.

8.    Exercise and time outside. Daily exercise is an important part of healthy living. It also promotes good sleep. Time spent in bright daylight does the same. Outdoor exercise achieves both these things. However, it is best to steer clear of vigorous activity in the hour before sleep.

9.    Work with your doctor. If your child is sick or isn't comfortable, their sleep will suffer. Some children suffer from specific sleep problems such as frequent nightmares, snoring or sleep apnoea.  It is important that these problems are dealt with. If you think ill health is involved, discuss this with your family doctor.

10.    Specific sleep-related issues in children. The Sleep Health Foundation has a range of helpful fact sheets for children with particular sleep problems. These include tips on sleep issues for children with ADHD (see ADHD and Sleep in Children) or autism (see Autism in Children and Sleep), as well as more general topics such as bedwetting (see Bedwetting), childhood snoring (see Childhood Snoring and Sleep Apnea) and behavioural problems with settling to sleep (see Behavioural Sleep Problems in School Aged Children).

SchoolTV also has a range of information regarding the sleep needs of children, including a report that shows that sleep is a key indicator of wellbeing in children. For more information click the below link or go to SchoolTV via the “student” tab on the Good Shepherd home page.

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

Census Collection Notice

What's Happening In Our Prep Classes?

Prep A have been working hard on forming their letters correctly in our weekly handwriting lessons. We use the chalk and blackboard to provide strong sensory feedback as a means of helping our brains recall the starting and finishing point of each letter. Recently we have looked at the capital letters and have matched them to their lower case letters. Some match easily as they are the same (Ss) or similar (Mm) however some are very different (Gg). We are concentrating on sounding our words and starting to read and write sentences. "Have-A-Go" writing is becoming a regular part of our week beginning with writing about our weekend...what we did or what we would like to have done. The Preps are also setting personal goals by identifying something they would like to get better at, and what they could do to achieve their goals. 

For Catholic Education Week, Prep B decided to do an act of kindness for the Parklands Aged Care Facility. We decided to make cards for the elderly residents with a special message inside to make them smile. Students worked hard to decorate and collage their cards with lots of colours and pictures. They had a go at writing a special message inside with their name to make it extra special for the residents. Prep B loved making the cards and thought it would bring lots of happiness to the elderly people at Parklands. We also drew special pictures for them too and rolled them up with a ribbon so they could open a special gift. We hope they enjoy our special messages! 

Prep C were excited to have our year 5 PALS join us to make our friendship bracelets last Friday. There was a lot of happy chatter; sharing and co-operation happening. Students made a bracelet for themselves then made another to give to a friend, which was lovely. We have been enthusiastic in learning about the weather and are keeping a record of the weather outlook throughout the day and are noticing that it doesn’t stay the same all day. We will be making a temperature gauge we can move to show the current temperature and we will also make a wind meter later in the term. At the end of the unit students will become weather reporters and orally present to the class.

Awards For The Week

Birthdays Being Celebrated This Week

~Matilda(PrepB)~Evelyn(PrepB)~Atticus(2A)~Bella(3C)~Clay(4A)~Kai(6B)

Assembly

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

Our lucky Praise Note winners last week were: Kashton(PrepB), Zeleta(1B), Yasien(2C), Samuel(3A), Nima(4B), Sophie-Rose(5B), Piper(6B). 

The Good Shepherd Way

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Hope where I see good all around me.

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: On The Playground.

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.

Parent Portal

Parent Portal

If you have any problems accessing please send an email to the school office at rsmssn@tsv.catholic.edu.au or call the office on 4774 0477.

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.

Library News

Eisteddfod 2022

Finished items for the Townsville Eisteddfod were due today, Wednesday, 3rd August. 

Thank you

Geraldine Feaver (4A)

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

Trees help to filter water, combat salinity, clean the air and increase flows into water catchments. They also provide food and shelter to Australia's unique wildlife and are an integral part of our country’s biodiversity. So, get your hands dirty and get involved in helping our environment.

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