18 August 2017
Newsletter Articles
News from the Principal’s Desk
I was having a conversation about the weather recently and how I could not remember it being so windy in the past. They agreed and we talked about the silly season that comes after a long period of strong winds.
This has been a peculiar time. The Wongai tree beside the school house has already dropped all of its fruit. Now the Mangoes are coming. Will we have an early Mango season?
I think the weather has a strong influence on children. In Canada, where I worked, it was called “cabin fever” when the cold kept you indoors for long periods of time. Here it is the wind and in the last week it has been noticeable with our students that they are not as settled as they have been this term.
So, we will change our play areas to give more space to play and separate the bigger students from the smaller ones. Last week OLSH appointed Mrs Kirsty Dunn as our School Welfare Officer and she is working on providing a wider range of activities at lunch breaks.
Kirsty will also have a major role with our CES support services, our Learning Support Teacher, Deb Calder, Our Indigenous Liaison Officer, Chris Benjamin and other staff in assisting students with their wellbeing.
We welcome Kirsty to the community of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
Last week we had the Bangarra dance Troop visit and run workshops with our students. They were a very professional unit and their programme was well received by students.
This week Mia Lumley, CES Counsellor is working at the school. Catholic Education Services provide a range of support to our schools. Mia works with a number of students and this service is available to at our Catholic schools by request. If you need further information please contact me.
Paul Cazzulino, our School Development Officer is visiting from Tuesday to Thursday. Part of Paul’s role is to support the Principal and staff at OLSH. On this visit, we will be looking at the building plans for Hammond Island. This project is out to tender a planned start to the project is Term 4.
Our Assumption on Mary Mass will be on Thursday 17th at 9.30am with Years 4 to 6 in attendance. Preps to year 3 will have liturgies in class on the day. The Assumption of Mary is holy day of obligation. The way of Mary is a foundation pillar of the Marists and they were here until 2012. Mary is seen as the first disciple of Jesus and was at his birth, death and resurrection.
Marists view the life of Mary as a way to live your life in service to God.
Present research shows that a 20-year-old will possibly change jobs 10 times at least in their lives.
So, it is with great pleasure I announce that Mrs Chris Benjamin will be receiving her 30-year award for service with Catholic Education. I think it may be longer because she was at OLSH when it was run by the nuns. This a fine accolade for devoted service for Chris and we look forward to the next milestone.
In the way of Mary
Paul Keenan
News from the Deputy Principal
The Athletics Carnival ran very smoothly! We had great support from the community, parents and staff. For that we express our deepest gratitude. We saw an outstanding display of team spirit and sportsmanship. This was a display of unity for our school community as we saw all come together for an enjoyable and warming event.
Over the week, we will be holding class liturgies and a mass for the Assumption of Mary. We will be celebrating the bodily taking up of Mary into Heaven. In each class, we will focus on the importance of Mother Mary in all our lives; that she is a maternal figure who love us, care for us and guides each and every one of us.
We have also begun to look at the formation of a Youth Ministry group through the Parish. If anyone might be interested in helping us pull together such a group, please let me know as soon as possible. This will provide us a great opportunity to evangelise and engage youth!
God bless.
Thank you to the Staff, (Cale Fisher (Deputy Principal), Michelle Hall (Yr 5/6 Teacher) and Mr Bradley Worland (Teacher/PE) and those Parents who were present at this Cuppa and Yarn on Hammond Island.
Indigenous Liaison Officer News
Cuppa & Yarn Dates:
Cuppa and Yarn on Wednesday 30th August at Hammond Island and Thursday 31st August at Thursday Island Campus from 6.30 to 7.30pm.
Indigenous Liaison Officer Schedule Timetable:
* Wednesday weekly contact or visit Thursday Island Parents/Carers
* Thursday weekly contact or visit Hammond Island Parents/Carers
Indigenous Liaison Officer Contact Details:
For any concerns regarding child/ren's education or any other matter that concerns parents/carers please don't hesitate to contact me.
PHONE: (07) 40692203 (School Office) or cbenjamin@cns.catholic.edu.au
NAIDOC - Friday 8th September:
Please keep this date available, I will update everyone in next newsletter.
News from Our New Welfare Officer – Mrs Kirsty Dunn
Hello parents and the extended OLSH community!
For those of you who don’t yet know me I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kirsty Dunn and my daughter is Estelle attends grade 1 here at OLSH.
I am a registered teacher and for the past 10 years I have worked in high schools on the Gold Coast after completing my degree in Primary Education. I have worked not only as a classroom teacher but as a curriculum expert, Head of Department, behaviour management specialist and Dean of Middle School. I have a great passion for the wellbeing and welfare of students and have thoroughly enjoyed previous roles that have seen me specialise in this area.
My husband Christian and I moved to Thursday Island in June of 2016 with our three children Estelle, Freddy and Maeve. We are very happy here in our island home and intend on staying for some time.
My aim is to provide social, emotional and pastoral support to students, staff and families. I believe I am an easy person to talk to and I strongly believe in developing meaningful relationships with people. I am always available for a chat! I will be on campus from 10 am – 2pm each day with additional programs being facilitated one afternoon after school and one morning before school. These are some of the main areas I will focus on and some initial ideas on how I will aim to achieve them;
- Genius hour for students after school commencing on 24th August and running each Thursday afternoon from 3:15-4:15
- Work with the school leaders to implement a friendship program including the creation of a friendship bench in the school yard
- Facilitate programs with students and staff that target resilience and confidence in students
- Various events and activities to support and promote healthy eating initiatives
- Collaborative art programs
- Alternate lunch time activities for students
- Mentor student leaders in taking initiative for implementing events and programs within the school
Additionally, I provide an extra dimension to the school’s care, guidance and support of students needs in the following ways;
- Available to support staff with individual behaviour or welfare concerns
- Work collaboratively with support staff to ensure the needs of students are met
- Provide individual support for students in need
- Assist students and families with the transition from primary school to high school
- Assist students and families with the transition into school
- Assist with the welcoming of new students and their families to the school
How can you contact me?
I am very open to any ideas, suggestions or concerns you may have and encourage you to connect with me. Messages can be left for me at the front office or alternatively you may contact me on kdunn@cns.catholic.edu.au
Once I have gathered feedback from staff and students I will provide the school community with a detailed timetable of the alternate lunch activities and programs that I will be offering.
Prep Class News
Congratulations to Kaitlyn, Jarrah, Poppy and Kade as our award
winners in the last few weeks. Well done!
Please send in any empty 2L or 3L plastic milk/juice bottles for a construction project in the year 1 room. Scraps of fabrics for our rag mat would also be appreciated. LIDS are always welcome, but we are pretty right at the moment for any other recycling junk- thanks. (Storage a problem at present) Thank You very Much
In Prep this month we have had fun with:
- Celebrating Catholic Education Week by making our footsteps up the veranda and going to Mass
- Celebrating Isabelle’s birthday
- Saying goodbye to Isabelle and wishing her all the best for her return to Albury
- Welcoming Lionel Bear to our class and sharing our learning with him
- Preparing our artefacts boxes for a History presentation
- Investigating old fashioned and modern objects
- Hearing about God through bible stories from the Old Testament with the year 1s
- Writing to the Maitland students who visited with our class last term
- Looking after the environment by watering and weeding the top garden
- Following clues to find some treasure
- Creating a spy hideout, reading and writing in code, written secret hidden messages, and making spy telephones
- Exploring patterns and ordinal numbers.
Please contact us at the school/email below if you have any further queries,
Mrs Osborne, Ms Sue & Miss Katrina
Choir News
Choir upcoming dates to sing/perform. Please check your choir child’s bag for a note regarding these outings to our community…
Monday August 21st -
Senior Week concert at ANZAC Park 11-12pm. (times to be confirmed)
Thursday August 24th -HACC in Douglas
Street-morning tea for Senior’s Week
Tuesday September 12th -Tagai Culture Day
dance/singing participation
Au Esoau, Koeyma Eso, Many Thanks,
Helen Osborne
Year 1 Class News
Congratulations to Bella, Paper, Estelle, Julian, Joseph & Josie as our award winners in year 1 these last 3 weeks. Well done!
Thank you for making me so welcome in year 1 and for everyone’s patience with staff changes in the junior rooms. Our students in Prep/1 are into new routines and responding very well to the changes.
In Year One this month we have had fun with;
- Celebrating Catholic Education Week by making our footsteps up the verandah and going to Mass
- Preparing our relays, sprints and ball games for athletics & the carnival
- Observing/drawing environments in Science and making Dioramas in Geography for Mr Worland
- Celebrating Estelle’s birthday
- Workshops with the Bangarra Dance team
- Earning warm fuzzies to make popcorn, have a treasure hunt & a pizza party
- Improving our sentence writing with adjectives and verbs
- Looking after our school environment and gardens together
- Celebrating Science week with Ms Nadine and Ms Michelle’s exciting mad scientist ideas
- Answering daily questions and exploring tally/graphing and surveying together
- Hearing about God through bible stories from the Old Testament
- Getting to see the Tagai High School dance team perform for us
Please contact us at the school/email below if you have any further queries,
Ms Helen & Ms Nadine
.jpg?ts=1503034767)
Tuckshop News
|
Mince Rolls available every Tuesday from
the Tuckshop Please order by 9am. |
.jpg?ts=1503034764)
Year 5/6 Class News
The Grade 5/6 Class been learning about the importance of soil and what the components of healthy soil is. We conducted experiments on the soil in our school vegie patch. Our class discovered that our soil has most sand, with some silt and very little clay. We concluded that we need to add some silt and clay to our soil to create a healthy soil with a good mix of all three.
Year 4/5 Class News
Wow! Welcome to Week 6! It’s been another jam packed and productive term with students participating in Sports Day, Catholic Education Week, Science Week and commencing Torres Strait Language lessons. Students learnt how to make Paper Mache during Art and Design – our designs included: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Piñatas, and Spider-Man. Check out our work in the photo gallery. Mina Big Eso to Mrs Duffy for your patience and expertise!
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
Eso for your support.
Yours in Education, Briohny Jones
Community Announcements
