1 June 2017
Newsletter Articles
Principal’s News
Dear Parents, Students and Staff
We look forward to our time, that is Santina and me, back on Thursday Island. The last time we taught here was last century.
The changes to the buildings and infrastructure are outstanding. However, the people and feeling remains the same. We have come back with happy hearts and hope to make a difference at Our Lady of the Sacred School during our stay.
We will be here as long as needed.
My last school was St Clare’s in Tully and I would like to bring elements from there into our school.
I have specific expectations of staff and students especially in how we treat each other and what we do to learn. It is our job to help students in their studies and theirs is to do their best and put in the effort.
I will also invite parents to be partners in school life. Please feel free to see me and discuss what we can do to make a positive difference. Ultimately the adage remains happy kids, happy staff and happy parents. We do this by having shared expectations and maintaining open communication lines.
There are things to do before the term ends including mowing the school and church grounds. I have started to round up a group to be our garden gurus and soon classes will be allocated duties to make the school as beautiful as it can be.
Reports are due to be out before the end of the term and I will read and comment on them all.
Our Lady was crowned on the weekend and I was fortunate to attend the service on Hammond and today was the celebration of 25 years of the Torres Strait flag. Our captains walked in the parade and carried the school banner. As I type this music is still coming from the park.
With God’s peace
Paul Keenan
Acting Principal
APFL News
Last week, our year five and six students participated in leadership training and camp. We have had very positive feedback from our students who attended the camp. We give great thanks to Michelle Hall, our grade five and six teacher, for her efforts in making this camp so enjoyable. We also give thanks to our students who acted as responsible and mature school leaders.
I would also like to extend a welcome to our acting Principal Mr Paul Keenan and his wife Santina Keenan. The Keenans have both been actively involved in their previous parish and have also worked and lived here in the Torres Strait. Their expertise and knowledge will be a great asset to our school.
We further working on our sacramental program. On the 28th of July, Bishop James Foley will be visiting Thursday Island. During this time, we intend on running a confirmation mass. Over the next two months we will be preparing participating students to receive this sacrament. As we finalise the program for this sacrament, we will ask parents and carers to nominate their child to participate in the program and receive the sacrament. Please keep a lookout for a letter going home concerning this.
God bless!
Prep Class News
Congratulations Charlie in week 5 on your award and to Rennaer as our award winner this week.
Please can prep have;
- Empty, clean 2 litre milk or juice bottles
- Rolls from glad wrap/alfoil. (No toilet rolls please.) We will be needing these for construction projects and under 8s activities.
All lids are still being collected for another lid project. Please put them in the bucket outside prep. Thanks
In Prep this fortnight we have had fun with;
- Visiting the Family Fun Day at ANZAC Park last Friday for National Families Week.
- Learning about Sorry Day and doing kindness activities to hang in the street.
- Having Scrap Boy, Dirt Girl and Costa visit to talk about gardening and see our classroom.
- Practicing directional language in maths drawing games and direction giving. (beside, above, under, left, right, forward…)
- Watching our chicks hatch, looking after & naming our 5 new babies…who are now named Fluffy, Sticky Beak, Hay Hay, Chick Chick & Pretzel. (As a result of a fair nomination and voting process throughout the prep room.)
- Relocating our fully grown frogs (6 so far) to healthy wet places around the school
- Discussing Who is my Neighbour? in Religion activities
- Exploring all sorts of maps for Geography
Please contact us at the school/email below if you have
any further queries,
Helen Osborne
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au
Year 5/6 Class News
Year 5/6 made Sorry Day Hearts and placed them around the tree at Bobby’s Takeaway.
The Seniors (Year 6 Students) got to go on their leadership camp to Seisia. A fun time was had by all.
Meanwhile, back at TI the children who participated in the Tiny Turtles Project got to sit in a video link-up with students from Erub and Singapore on Thursday 25th May. The video conference was made possible by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra who hosted the link-up. It was great to be able to speak with and see all the other students who participated.
Since the video link-up, Lilly-Ana See Kee has joined her Grandmother, Diann Lui on the trip to Singapore for the actual opening of the exhibition.
Year 2/3 Class News
2/3 had fun painting and using different techniques and
shades.
Another fun classroom activity were puppets!! Thanks Ms Helen.
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Year 1 Class News
The Year 1 Class farewelled Mrs Hogan this week. We had a special assembly to thank her for all her time spent with us.
Thank you Mrs Hogan.
Hammond Pre-Prep News
Dear Parents/Guardians,
First of all we like to share our ‘Show and Share’ which Bob brought in last week. It was ‘Missy’ his baby turtle. We all took turns to touch the turtle gently and asking three questions: where did he find the turtle (a family member), what is the turtles name (Missy), and what type of food the turtle eat (pipi shells). Missy was placed under Ms Dorothy’s table and later returned home with Bob when Mum picked him up. Yes! This relates to our Sea Creatures. I wonder what will be our next surprise.
Our class have been busy making collage, colouring pictures and creating our paper models of the sea creatures in our ocean. Reading lots of books about sea animals and matching to these to the posters and art work around our classroom. Yes! Each of us have taken turns with fishing in our classroom for a fish, turtle, shark, octopus, sea horse, squid, whale, jelly fish, crab and sting ray. It was exciting and fun to pull up and identify the sea animals. We also counted them together with our teachers.
Ms Dorothy designed a beautiful boat and assisted the pre-preps with colouring their dinghy with paints. Miss also made our anchor using cardboard and alfoil, we are waiting for our rope so that we can go out in our dinghy and catch some fish for our families. Jolene and Mrs Ball will need to make our sandwiches and find some fruit to take with us plus our water bottles. Yes, we must remember to wear our hats and put on some sunscreen. It will be fun, I can’t wait! I wonder what we will catch?
We are proud to bring our photos of our families, this is displayed on our curtain. It was exciting to identify each member of our immediate family. Our Mums and Dads we love dearly and our brother/s and sister/s. Bob has the most people in his family. Jolene and Xavier has the same amount of people in their families. But most of all we just LOVE our families! We too are receiving new students to Pre-Preps on Hammond Island and hope they will both enjoy their learning, sharing and having fun with all pre-preps.
Next we will be reading and learning about ‘Grandpa and Thomas’. This is based on the roles of our aka’s and athe’s (grandparents), where they took their grandchildren and what they did at the beach. Also other stories about the sea in Indigenous books and library books. We even counted a sea animals in a number book too!
Xavier enjoyed building with the form 2D shapes. He built a house and other types of objects. Identifying the shapes and colours was fun for him. Xavier was able to match the triangle shape as the roof, the square as his house and the rectangle as his door and the circle was the clock in our classroom.
Our new challenge was copying the different types of straight lines on the worksheet. Each of us had a go taking turns and doing our very best. We look forward to other and new challenges of writing and reading.
Yes, Mrs Ball have shown pre-preps the books she has received from Indigenous Literacy Foundation which is to enhance reading with young children. This is from the two day workshop she attended in term 1. The Hammond pre-pre parents plus other mums with young children will be invited in for a discussion regarding this resource kit from the First5Forever workshop by Kylie Webb and Lauren Reardon. The rest of the books will be sorted out. Reading is great for your children, you don’t have to finish the story. You can continue with reading the next page. Look at all the words your child has heard to add to their vocabulary and the pictures they have seen.
Have a great week.
Kind Regards,
Marion Ball and Miss Dorothy
Choir News
THANK YOU
- To Miss Margaret and all her troupe/choir families who baked and prepared food for our stall last Saturday. This raised a massive $1172.10 to go towards the choir trip and we appreciate all your help very much.
- To Miss Nadine and the year one teachers for all your help in raising funds at the Mother’s Day stall. This also raised over $200 in profits for the choir trip.
- To Cecelia-Mary Wright for inviting us to sing down at ANZAC Park last Friday for Families week. Thank you too to all the families who supported our performance and the Preps for accompanying us and joining in with the family fun.
WELL DONE- To all the choir members who have been rehearsing for some part of every day, lunches, breaks, after school. It is nearing the end and we are a little tired but looking and sounding great. Keep it up.
Check Your Choir Child’s Bag…
Cairns Trip Medical Forms/Permission and details Forms will be heading home this week to all choir members. They will contain all the details for the camp and upcoming concerts/travel details/itinerary/what to bring etc. All student detail forms and permissions are due back to school by no later than Friday June 9th.
We are still to have some important concerts and fundraisers before we go which all students and parents from both campus’ are welcome to attend so stay tuned to this spot. These include;
- Performing at Star of the Sea-Next Thursday June 1st
- Concert at Hammond School Campus-6.30pm (P & F provided ferry leaving 5.20pm) Thursday 8th June
- Concert at Thursday Island Campus 6.30pm Thursday 15th June
- Leaving for Cairns-Sunday 18th June
- Cairns Eisteddfod-Tuesday June 20th
- Return –Thursday June 22nd
Please make sure all trip payments of $110 are now coming in. Last day for this payment is June 9th (Friday week 8) If you have already arranged to pay this off over a certain time please continue with our arrangements. Thanks.
Please contact us at the school/email below if you have any further queries,
Helen Osborne
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au
Movie Night Information
Our special Movie Night event which was supposed to happen on Friday 19th May has been postponed until further notice.
Please watch this space for further details.
Awards
Cross Country Age Champions
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Community Announcements
