9 June 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s News

Santina and I would like to thank the OLSH and wider Thursday Island community for their very warm welcome over the past week. This has been reassuring for us.

During the last week we have begun a clean-up of the school and with the help of Ray and Geoff the grounds have been mowed and whipper snipped. The clean-up will continue throughout the school and as we do this an inventory of material suitable for sale will be made. So in the near future those items will be offered for sale. Proceeds from the sale will be distributed to staff for the purchase of class supplies. Also, if anyone has a large mat suitable for office it would be most appreciated.

During assembly in the next few weeks I will be talking to students about expectations at our school. This week it will about being a productive member of our community and caring for one and another. Bullying exists. However, that does not mean we should tolerate or allow it to happen.

This week Braveheart’s will be visiting with their Ditto show on personal safety. Prep to Year 4 will be involved and a letter will go home to parents regarding the material in it should you not want your child to go. I saw them last year and the message and manner they use is age appropriate. The Police are strong supporters of the programme.

Each week on assembly I will acknowledge students who go out of their way to build the culture of our school and there are many. This week I have chosen 2 students form Year 6, Ben Mills and Parimah Daniel for their kindness to me in my first week. Students will be asked to nominate through notes or letters as well.

The Catholic Education Office and especially Bill Dixon, the director, has been supportive of requests I have made for assistance to the school for Information Technology supplies and furniture. Next term we will see them in the classrooms.

The staff are busy this week preparing reports so they can be out before school ends. Next term we will hold Parent – Teacher interviews. I would like to thank the staff for their help in the time I have been here.

The P and F meeting this week has been postponed until next week and it will be on Hammond Island. Details on transport and times will be out later this week.

Our school has a rich history and if any parent does not have copy of the excellent history book about it please collect one from the office.

With God’s peace
Paul Keenan

News from the APFL

Sunday mass was a celebration of Pentecost. Pentecost marks the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and every other follower of Jesus Christ. As followers, we remain very aware of the presence of God in our lives. In His presence, we seek to live by His message, through Christ, of peace and love for all. In His creation, we marvel at the achievements of our students and community whilst celebrating our diversity, free from any personal judgment.

We see in our school community the work of the Holy Spirit in our presence and simplicity of life. In presence; we care for one another, we know each other, we seek to love and we are welcoming. In our simplicity; we say what we believe and show it, we are honest before God and ourselves, we seek humility and modesty and we encourage simplicity in our lives.

Year 4/5 Class News

Year 4/5 warmly welcomes our school officer; Mrs Rosa Duffy to our class. Thank you to Mrs Duffy for your words of encouragement and your smiley, positive attitude.

Congratulations to our awesome SEL award winners

Week 4 and 5: Lahni, Georgina and Abbi
Week 6 and 7: Conner, Tashaun, Benji,
Week 8: Charles, Emily and Zach

Our class has been busy finalising end of term assessment. We have been developing our research skills by reading and filtering through online information and have successfully completed our first research project about the solar system.

If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to come me see during school hours or contact me on bjones6@cns.catholic.edu.au

Mrs Rosa Duffy

Eso for your support.

Yours in Education,
Briohny Jones

Year 2/3 Class News

Our Class had another busy week with researching Eddie Koiki Mabo and working on Bar graphs.

2/3 also thanks our special international visitor from Sweden, Hannah's mum who offered to help with reading.

We know we are very lucky to have our Miss Harriet, Mel and Sue who also help.

Year 1 Class News

Year 1 Students have been enjoying their AFL clinics every Thursday morning at school and on Tuesday's for some after school. They have been doing well with their Home Readers also, with most students returning them everyday! Thank-you!

In Science we have been focusing on the habitats of animals or insects and describing our creature of choice as well as where it lives. In Math we've been learning about Shapes, Measurement and Numbers while practicing skills of Retell and Story writing in English, as well as learning Magic words, Grammar, Punctuation and Communication. In Health we've been learning why each of us is unique and in PE we've been learning dance.

All of the students are enjoying their Show & Tell as well as looking forward to the big Under 8's day on the last Thursday of the Term! June 22nd! This event will be held at ANZAC park, please come along and be a part of a Great day!!

Prep Class News

Congratulations to Kade as our award winner this week.

In Prep this fortnight we have had fun with;

• Celebrating Jarrah’s 5th Birthday on June 3rd
• Doing playdough Maths in our buddy time on Thursday
• Learning some of the island dances from choir students at lunch
• Making Basil Pesto using our garden basil
• Practising repeated mathematical patterns and explaining them to our class

• Caring for our baby chicks and letting them up into their day cage each morning
• Making a puppet show of the Good Samaritan story
• Learning about Eddie Mabo and labelling islands from the Torres Strait on maps
• Drawing maps of our school and classroom for geography

Preps are planning to go on a walking excursion of Douglas Street next week. We will hopefully be able to visit some businesses and then draw a “bird’s eye view” map after having a picnic lunch. Please check your child’s bag for a note regarding this outing.

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

Helen Osborne
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au

Hammond Pre-Prep Class News

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are proud to welcome Malakai and Sean to our Pre-Prep Class on Hammond Island. They are both happy to share their background knowledge through play, songs, activities, reading, maths and technology.

Play dough chosen by Malakai was enjoyable and amusing as he was able to roll the dough, feel, squeeze and cut the dough using different shapes to make models. So did the other children who sat with their aprons on and entertained themselves sharing the different utensils. The children tried to shape their first letter in their names.

It was challenging to Learn how to write our names by copying is one of our areas we are focusing on in class. All children glued on bits of cut out papers to our cardboard letters of our names. For Maths we did number recognition from 0 – 5 which has been inspiring for some of us but fun! We have more knowledge in recognising our colours which we love because they are so bright. Last of all we have practised our 2D shapes in our maths area, we also built houses too!

Sand play! Yes, we are finally playing, digging and having lots of fun together in our sandpit box. Oh! What fun Jolene had cooking her lovely cakes with the assistance of Sean who helped to sprinkle icing on top of them. They both had a birthday party and lots singing of songs. Malakai and Xavier were interested in trucks by digging for sand to fill them up then tip them out. Bob enjoyed kicking the ball to Ms Dorothy on the cement.

Threading was an indoor activity which that Bob, Sean and Xavier completed together by discussing and sharing who had the longest necklace. This gave us the opportunity to identify the four different colours in sequential order.

Miss has been doing some tests with us with learning how to write and identify our names, letter sounds, colours, numbers, 2D shapes, Ipad skills, guided reading skills (what happened at the beginning, middle and end) of stories and recognition of the names of the different parts of a book.

For our science; Xavier found a butterfly with blue wings. We kept it in our class in a container with pieces of leaves and a little flower but it died because it was looking for the pre-preps to take care of it. We were very sad. Exploring in books about butterflies was our next step and drawing a picture of it. For art we will make colourful butterflies to remind us of the butterfly. However we found a white crane last week and rushed to it and before we knew it, it flew away. Oh Dear! I know we all get excited. We must learn to be very gentle and careful when we discover new animals at our school.

We would love any old magazines for our collage if you do have any to spare. Please leave at Hammond Island Campus or front office. Thank You.

I hope you enjoyed our news.

Kind Regards,
Marion Ball and Miss Dorothy

OLSH Choir News

WELL DONE- To all the choir members for your great performance at Star of the Sea Village last Thursday. You were clear and bright…the residents asked us all back the next day so I think it was a hit! Let’s keep it up!

Concert at Hammond School -6.30pm THIS Wed 7th June

• Gold Coin Donation/Yummy food for sale

• free drinks/water/tea/coffee/fruit
• All Hammond families are most welcome

Concert at Thursday Island - 6.30pm Thurs 15th June

Leaving for Cairns - Sunday 18th June
Return – Thursday 22nd June

Please make sure all trip payments- $110 each and girl’s dresses are $35-are now due.

Last day for this payment is June 9th (This Friday week 8) If you have already arranged to pay this off over a certain time please continue with your arrangements. Thanks.

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

Helen Osborne
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au

News from our Indigenous Liaison Officer

NAIDOC 2017:- THEME: Our Languages Matter

I would like parents/carers to give me some ideas on how we should celebrate NAIDOC this year. Our NAIDOC will be celebrated in Term 3. I will notify all with the NAIDOC date.

For any ideas for NAIDOC please email me on the following email address: cbenjamin@cns.catholic.edu.au

Cuppa & Yarn:-

Our next Cuppa & Yarn dates are;

Wednesday 19th July - Hammond Island 630pm to 7.30pm
Thursday 20th July - Thursday Island 6.00pm to 7.00pm

Invites will be going out Monday 10th July with your child/ren.

I will be away from Wednesday 14th to 23rd July. Please contact Miss Patricia Nakata at the school office for any absence or any other information you may need in regards to your child/ren.

Thank you for all your support this term.

Wednesday 10th May: -

Hammond Island Cuppa & Yarn. Thursday Island parents/carers were invited to come across to Hammond Island for this Cuppa & Yarn. Thank you to those parents & Carers who attended and those who sent in their apologies.

Wednesday 31st May:-

Thursday Island Cuppa & Yarn was cancelled due to Mrs Benjamin away sick.

Students Absences:-

I will be visiting or contacting parents/carers on both Hammond and Thursday Island to speak about absences from school from Wednesday 10th to Friday 12th June.

Thank you
Christine Benjamin

Week 7 Award Winners

Photos from Week 7

Week 7 Photos Folder

Term 2 Events

2017 Special Events and Public Holidays

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