22 March 2023

From the Desk of the Principal

Prep Open Day

Thank you to all current and new families and friends who joined us for our Prep Open Day yesterday. Thankfully the rain didn't dampen our spirits! A special thanks to our teachers Mr Chris Reiterer, Ms Karena Davis and Ms Sharon Griffey for organising such wonderful activities for our current and future students. Thank you also to our Year 6 Leaders for providing school tours to visiting families. The feedback from these tours was very positive and our visitors were impressed with the maturity of our leaders. Thanks also to Melville's Animal Farm and Amy from NQ Event Solutions for providing the extra activities as well as Chloe from Frankie's Beans for fulfilling our coffee needs. Be sure to pop your Prep applications in as soon as possible. We will be commencing Prep 2024 interviews in early Term 2. 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Glenda Scrase

Principal

gscrase1@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Religious Education

 Project Compassion at Good Shepherd Catholic School.

Don't forget to continue to use your Project Compassion box for your donations or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website at lent.caritas.org.au

REFLECTION - THE ANNUNCIATION
This Saturday 25th March is the Feast of the Annunciation. On the Feast of the Annunciation, we celebrate the day that the Angel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary announcing that she was going to be the mother of Jesus. Even though Mary did not understand completely, she trusted God’s plan for her life, and she said yes to becoming the mother of God and our mother.
The words of the “Hail Mary” come from the Angel’s greeting: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” God’s grace lives in each one of us, but Mary was full of grace because she was born without any Original Sin.

Thu's story - Vietnam

Thu was just 12 years old when he lost his leg. One day, he was looking after his cows when he stepped on an unexploded land mine.  
“War is most terrible with great loss. At the end of the war, there are still consequences such as unexploded ordnance, causing many losses, casualties and death,” Thu says. 
Thu lives in the Quảng Trị province, located on the Northern Central Coast of Vietnam. Situated along the demilitarised zone that divided Vietnam, the province was one of the most heavily bombed areas during the Vietnam War and is considered one of the most polluted provinces in terms of unexploded ordinances (UXOs) in Vietnam.
In addition to being the breadwinner for his family, Thu had to take on the role of caring for his wife, Linh, after she suffered a stroke. Determined to turn their lives around, Thu and Linh joined the Empowerment of People with Disabilities program, run by Caritas Australia’s local partner in Vietnam, the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD). 
The Empowerment of People with Disabilities program supports people living with disabilities to establish Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLA) so that they can access affordable loans. Through the VSLA he was able to obtain a low-interest loan, which he used to open his own barber shop on a new road that was constructed near his home. 

Watch a short film about Thu’s story here 

Rebecca Kershaw

APRE

rkershaw@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

PARISH MASS

Friday 17th March at 10am
Good Shepherd Community Centre
Prep 1B and 3B will be attending.
Parents are also welcome to attend.

From the Desk of the Assistant Principal Administration

Everyone Belongs:  Harmony Week 
On Friday, students and staff ae encouraged to wear something orange to mark Harmony Week.
Harmony Week is celebrated each March to highlight the diverse cultures which make up Australia and help us better understand each other’s experiences and backgrounds. Harmony Week is an opportunity to recognise Australia's multiculturalism, which embraces people from all over the world, especially indigenous Australians. As a nation, we are encouraged to promote respect, understanding and appreciation for all cultures.

According to SchoolTV’s special Harmony Week report, Australia's multicultural background has been shaped by migration since 1945, which at times has culminated into situations that have been challenging and sometimes leading to conflict due to a lack of understanding. Harmony Week reminds us to appreciate everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Families can join in the celebrations of Harmony Week and view it as an opportunity to join in the activities that unite cultures demonstrating that everyone belongs. There is no set way to celebrate the week but wearing orange or even just having a meaningful conversation with someone about their cultural background, can help show your support.

Students at Good Shepherd will participate in a range of activities throughout the week, culminating in each class decorating a puzzle piece which will be joined together to symbolise that “everyone belongs”. 

For further information on Harmony Week, visit SchoolTVs special report by clicking here or visit the Harmony Week website.

 NAPLAN
Naplan testing at Good Shepherd is almost complete, with only a handful of students who were absent required to complete catch-up tests.
I would like to congratulate all students for their calm approach to the tests, and for the effort they put into completing each test to the best of their abilities. A huge thank you to our staff, too, who helped keep students calm and equipped them with the skills and knowledge required to tackle the tests.
I look forward to seeing the results in a few months’ time.

Maxine Nolan

APA

mnolan@gstsv.catholic.edu.au

What's Happening In Year 4/5

Over the past few weeks the students have been involved in looking at food webs and how human impact in different environments can create a number of negative effects on different animal species. Students are now using this Scientific knowledge to construct a persuasive text outlining the effects that shark nets can have on the marine environment. During our Religion lessons we have been sharing our ideas about prayer and how it helps us. We have also focused on a number of Marian prayers: The Hail Mary, Litany of Mary of Nazareth and The Rosary. In Maths, students are working on different strategies and participating in games to develop and recall their multiplication facts.  Our Year 5 students have commenced NAPLAN. They have been preparing for these tests since the start of Term 1 during our rotations on Tuesdays. 

4/5 A During Religion lessons, we have been using the Who You Do Through model when composing prayers. Our class has written prayers of thanks and praise. 

4/5 B Under the guidance of Mrs Weaver, 4/5B have been learning about the famous Pop Artist Andy Warhol and creating their very own piece of Pop Art.  

4/5C  What haven’t we done in 4/5C?  Our eight weeks have flown by so quickly, that it’s hard to believe that we only have ten more school days left of Term 1. We have been working hard on getting to know each other, learning new ways from a teacher who is new to both Good Shepherd and to Townsville.  We’re re-visiting GSCS ways and working harder when we require reminders and guidance to get back on track. We’ve learnt the Bluearth framework to help motivate our kids to move more and our kids are certainly strengthening their skills in this area.  

4/5D  Thank you Ms Shaxson and our Deadly Learners for sharing your knowledge about the Aboriginal flag this week.

4/5 E We have been digging deep into our creative treasure chest and have been working on a pirate theme in our literacy groups. There has been some interesting writing so far! Arrrgh!

Year 4/5's

Awards For The Week

Birthdays for this week!

~Taite (1A)  ~Wyatt (4/5B)    ~Eden (4/5C)  ~Charleigh (6A)    ~Finn (6B)    

Assembly

4/5D  will be presenting our Assembly this Friday in the BBC at 8:40am

Our lucky Praise Note winners last week were: Lesila (Prep B), Mason (1A), Bailey (2C),  Mia B (3C),          Finlay (4/5C),  Pryden (4/5D),  Kiara (6A)

The Good Shepherd Way

This week our Good Shepherd Way Gospel in Action value is Service where I ask the Lord to help make us strong in faith and active in good works.   

Our Service 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: In the Eating Area.

Parent Library Borrowing

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.

Environmental News

26th March - Earth Hour

Earth Hour is the world’s largest grassroots movement for climate change action. Millions of people in over 180 countries take part in Earth Hour by switching off their lights as a symbolic gesture to show that our planet needs stronger action on climate change. "Take the Earth Hour Pledge" switch off for 1hr :8.30pm - 9:30pm

Parent Portal

Parent Portal

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

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.

Tuckshop

Wednesday - Thursday - Friday

Please contact the school office or Ann-Maree at Tuckshop with any enquiries.

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. 

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