17 February 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s News

Dear Families,

The Mission Statement for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is the following:

At Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, we acknowledge God’s presence in our everyday lives. In our Parish and School we foster Gospel Values. We worship, communicate, nurture and develop as a Catholic Faith Community.

Through our motto ‘All for Jesus’, we provide a unique and welcoming environment, which recognises strong parish and school links and values parental involvement.

With a dedicated staff, educational initiatives are at the forefront. The faith, life and values of the people of the Torres Strait are acknowledged in our teaching.

We encourage the development of the whole child in the search for their place in the world and their inner happiness.

Yesterday, the staff reflected on the first section of the Mission Statement of our school, identifying the following phrases as extremely meaningful to their experiences and hopes for the school:

God’s presence in our everyday lives
Worship, communicate and nurture
Unique and welcoming environment
Value parental involvement
Foster Gospel Values

As we actively live out our Mission statement, I would like to thank all the parents who have been actively involved in the school community over the last month, celebrating Mass with the students and Parish on the weekend, attending parent workshops and meetings, and just being there each morning and afternoon. Positive relationships that nurture one another are what binds us together as a community.

Thank you to parents who have provided positive feedback on the changes that we have made for wet weather arrivals. The safety and wellbeing of all students and families is important to us. We appreciate your support in using the stop drop and go process and not entering the car park during wet weather. This provides a much safer environment for all members of our community.

In 2017, we continue to support the feedback and actions identified from the 2016 Working Parties.

At present, we are commencing our Kai Kai 4 Life Programme which will assist our school community and local community in becoming more aware of the significance of healthy choices that nourish our hearts, minds and bodies. We already have a number of people who have signed up with Tilly for the individual sessions. Please feel free to contact Tilly using the details provided on the flyer if you would like to do so as well.

This week, we commenced activity sessions with students from Prep to Year 6 as part of the Australian Curriculum Health and Physical Education Curriculum.

This programme encompasses our goals identified last year for increased opportunities for community engagement and nurturing the wellbeing for all in our community.

As we settle into the school year, we acknowledge all the children who are making a huge effort to come to school each day and be actively involved in a variety of learning activities. I am continuously amazed at the experiences our children are being provided with in class. I can’t wait to see the beautiful rug that the Year 5/6 class are about to commence!

Take care and have a terrific weekend with family and friends.

Au esoau
Sharon County
Principal

Religion

Monday’s Commissioning Mass was a welcome to a fresh start of our school year. We commissioned our new leaders, both amongst the pupils and in our education staff. Our leadership is underpinned by the values embedded in the Gospels. In Matthew, we see that Jesus speaks about the necessity for leaders to “take the lowly position” (Matthew18:3-4). This example of leadership implies that our school leaders have an expectation to be a support and a voice for our community.

We must remember too that in leadership ‘people hear the words, but it is the attitude they truly feel’. All of us, however, are leaders at some point; for we all have an integral part in supporting and guiding our community. When we face challenges, we should always bear in mind that we are all working towards the same goal in shaping our children to have fulfilling and moral lives.

I thank the parents, our friends of the school and the wider community for the great support at the commissioning mass.

Photos from our Commissioning Mass are in our Photos section of this newsletter.

‘All for Jesus’
Cale Fisher

Our Teacher/Librarian

Hello everyone

My name is Yvonne Grant and I am the District Teacher Librarian employed by Cairns Education Services to work with students and staff at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on both Thursday Island and Hammond Island each term. This is my second year in the role.

I look forward to working with the students and staff to create valuable experiences to support the learning goals of the school Community. Within this role I will further build on the reading culture within the school; promote the inclusion of information literacy and inquiry based learning as reflected in curriculum; foster digital citizenship in students; offer a ‘hands on’ approach to work beside teachers to maximise student learning; as well as evaluating and digitally packaging resources for teachers for use with classes.

This week students will be involved in World Read Aloud Day with volunteer students from the older grades coming to the library to read to younger students. World Read Aloud celebrates reading and the fact that countries like ours have access to reading and the skills to read.

Prep News

Congratulations Isabelle Bryce and Charlie McNeil on being our award recipients in week 2 for getting along with all your new classmates and doing your very best in all activities in prep. Last week’s award winners were Kade Stevens for his listening and patience with Beebots and Rennaer Benjamin for getting along and doing her best every day.

In Prep this fortnight we have had fun with;

• Being introduced to Beebots, Ipads and Chromebooks with Miss Grant.
• International Read Aloud Day and visiting the elderly at HACC to read aloud together.
• PMP rotations on Mondays with the year one class.
• Swimming lessons on Fridays-thanks to those parents who have come to help or support the prep class.
• Guessing our baby photos and exploring our family.
• Visiting the church for the opening school Mass on Monday, and participating in singing, prayer and reflection during the service.
• Designing and constructing “things” with open construction time.
• Pirate games in Maths and English with Mr Worland.
• Completing Maths graphs and surveys each morning as we come to school.

DON’T FORGET students need a pair of thongs on Fridays to wear to and from swimming.

JUNK

Prep families are welcome to bring in their “JUNK” recycling from home on a regular basis. This will help us in art activities/construction and also reduces your landfill contribution in the bin each week. Donations could include but are not restricted to…egg cartons, empty boxes, cardboard rolls (not toilet rolls), margarine containers, LIDS, ice-cream containers…Thanks.

Please contact us at the school/email below if you have any further queries,

Helen Osborne
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au

Year 1 News

The Year 1 class has been enjoying their time learning together and getting to know each other lately, both inside and outside the classroom. They have had 'buddies' from Year 4/5 visit them to help them with their Handwriting, and they are also doing PE rotations on Monday's with the Preps.

Year 1's are also engaging with Chromebooks now and learning about internet safety as well as having the opportunity to learn from a Nutritionist over the next few weeks.

We have been focusing on getting the students reading program into full swing with the PM readers and have had positive feedback so far. The students have also been doing different creative homework tasks, such as 'Design a Story Book Cover' and to bring in special things in a box from home to talk about with their classmates. Writing and Spelling of sight words is also being undertaken to improve student's English skills.

Math homework has also been sent home to reinforce concepts that are being taught in class, especially skip counting by 2's, 5's & 10's to 100, as well as learning basic groupings of numbers for multiplication tasks.

The students are thoroughly enjoying their Science lessons, Health and P.E. also, along with Music and their Religious studies. Technology is also another subject that challenges the students and that they have been excited about, using I-Pads and Bee Bots in recent weeks.

The class is moving forward and has a dedicated team behind them and we thank Ms. Hogan, Mr. Worland and Miss Nadine for their ongoing commitment to their education.

Special thanks to visiting specialists such as Yvonne Grant and Tilly Orero for their assistance in helping with the students learning with Technology and Health.

Also a special thanks to the P & F Association & other organisations on T.I. for their kind donations last year that enabled us to buy new books!

And the quote for this newsletter, inspired by books, "There is more treasure in books than all of the treasure on Treasure Island." Walt Disney.

Bradley Worland

Year 5/6 Class News

The Grade 5 /6 students have are well immersed in their Science, Geography and Technology learning journey exploring enhanced greenhouse gas emissions and how the effect climate change.

As part of our Science component in the learning journey we are growing plants and developing hypotheses around the effects of climate change on the natural environment. The seedlings we grow will represent plants in the natural environment during our experiments.

Fun times ahead as we construct a few different versions of our experiment to work out which design p will give us the most accurate results.

In this image Talitha and Lilly Ana are taking care of the seeds we have planted (Seth is photo bombing)

Year 4/5 Class News

In Year 4/5 our class rules are Respect for Self, Respect for Others and Respect for Property/The Environment. We are striving to live these out in our actions and behaviours.

We have been learning about our amazing planet and the various weather patterns around the globe and we know more about Climate Change and how it impacts on Australia, especially the Torres Strait. Everyone has been engaged in this learning and sharing their understandings to the class.

We have been learning about Character traits and how we form opinions of these characters while also learning about the makeup of a narrative in our English lessons.

In Maths we have been focusing on learning strategies to solve problems and learning doubles and near doubles to help us with quick recall of number facts. We have been learning the language of maths such as factors and multiples and other names for =,+,-, multiplication and division.

It has been a great start to the school year with a team feeling amongst the class as we share our knowledge and we learn from one another and the wellbeing of all students and members of our school community is discussed each day.

Thank you to our parent helpers in the pool and for being part of this great school community.

Regards,
Peter Shorthouse

Year 2/3 Class News

In Year 2/3, we have had a busy few weeks of learning. In English we are looking at opinions and different points of view. In Maths we are learning about place value and multiplication. Children are exploring what it means to Pursue their Personal Best.

We also had a very exciting visit from Hannah McLean's Guinea Fowl chicks. They were very cute and everyone loved to see them.

Home Reading is up and running. Thanks very much to Sue Dale and Mel McLean for helping out with reading. It is very much appreciated. Any other volunteers are welcome.

Thank you and Peace be with you. Ms Annette

Little visitors – Guinea Fowl Chicks. How Cute!

Choir News

The OLSH choir are already working hard preparing for our big trip to Cairns in June. The details below outline our plans for anyone in years 3-6 in the choir. This stems from our generous grant from TSRA of $25 000 and other funding of $12 000 to help us with airfares and accommodation.

• June 18th-22nd to Cairns Music Eisteddfod.
• Island dancing, songs in language and competition songs.
• Visiting schools and the Mercy Centre for performances.
• One fun afternoon before returning on flight Thursday 22nd.

We will be having elders coming in every 2nd Monday to teach us Island Dancing and our Island songs.

RAFFLE TICKETS

• Tickets for sale $2 each from all choir members and various school community helpers.
• Ms Chi Chi has been working to make sure the prizes are exceptional…see below…
  Friday Island Lunch/Tour for 2 donated by Kazu Pearls and Chi Fuji
  Camping pack tent/2x camping chairs donated by Godfrey Constructions
  Breakfast for 2-donated by Chris Lemke at Grand Hotel
  Gab Titui Voucher $50 donated by Leilani bin Juda
  Easter Pack (Cooler bag/Easter eggs, goodies)
• Drawn Monday 27th March (week 10)

Please contact us at the school/email below if you have any further queries,

Helen Osborne
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au

Office Notices

Term 1 School Fees are now due for payment. If you have not received your statement to pay as yet, please contact the office on 4069 2203. If you need to speak with someone regarding special arrangements for payment, please contact the office.

Our new office hours for the School Secretary: 9am to 4pm Monday – Friday

Please advise the office of your child’s absence by 9.30am, this will ensure that you do not receive the SMS reminder sent through our Attendance administration system. Thank you to those parents who are notifying the school of their child’s absence, your communications are greatly appreciated.

The New School Uniform is not quite ready yet! We still have not received our delivery but we are expecting it very soon. Exciting times ahead!

Late Notes

Please remind all children who are late to school to pop into the office and collect a late note, then go straight to class and hand the late note to the classroom teacher. The office keeps track of all school attendance, lateness and absences.

School Session Times are:

8.30am Start of Session 1
10.30am 1st Break (40mins)
11.10am Start of Session 2
1.10pm 2nd Break (30mins)
1.40pm Start Session 3
3.00pm End of School

Available from the School Office:

• Library Bags $10
• Team Colour Reversible Hats $8.50
• Mesh Shorts (Navy) $25
• Skorts (Navy) $25
• Culottes (Navy) $29
• Yellow & Light Blue School Uniform Shirts $28

(Please note: The Blue and Yellow school uniforms can still be worn this year during our transition time.)

$10 Library Bag available from the School Office

School Counsellor News

A big hello to students, families and the wider OLSH community.

It was such a wonderful feeling as I travelled across on the ferry for the first time this year and sighted the OLSH Church spire! And I loved my “welcome home” salutation from Patty as I arrived damp and bedraggled in the office for what continued to be a wet and busy week.

This term I am at OLSH Monday to Thursday in weeks 3, 6 and 9. I will be on the Hammond Campus on the Wednesday of each visit. However, as always, I am available and keep in touch with staff and parents in between visits by phone or email. My next visit is on Monday 27th February.

I had a very busy first week visiting both campus’ reconnecting with students and families and meeting the new staff. I will be working closely with Cale, our new Assistant Principal of Faith and Learning and Stephanie, our new Learning Support Teacher to support our students through a holistic SEL approach for a happy and successful 2017. Christine Benjamin and Paige Axon continue in their roles to provide broader opportunities for families – how lucky we are to have such a diverse and experienced team!

Well done to our students for a very positive start. It can be a bit daunting attending school at the beginning of the new year, transitioning into a new class with a new teacher and for some, travelling across for the first time to attend the TI campus.

Your first point of contact if you do have any concerns about your child is always their class teacher. The class teachers see students every day and focus on building good relationships with them to support their learning and well-being. They are best placed to begin the everyday interventions which can help them and will keep you informed about how they are travelling. I can of course take calls/emails direct for general enquiries or for issues of a more confidential nature. Just ask Patty to get in touch with me.

Do look out for the notice about the Triple P programme. We are very fortunate to have this programme running in school for parents this term.

It truly is a privilege to be working with you all and I look forward to another memorable school year together

Veronica Sandall

Week 3 Award Winners

Photos

Choir Practice on Mondays with Mrs Osborne

Term 1 Events

2017 Special Events and Public Holidays

Community Notices

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