4 September 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s News

Dear Parents and Guardians

On Saturday night, the P and F ran their main fundraising activity for our school, the famous “Wongai Ball”.

And what a night it was. All the tickets were sold before the event and the setup and clean up went smoothly with plenty of help there to do so.

I would like to first thank the Torres Hotel, R and F shop, Margaret See Kee and family, the Band Gloried Butter, Mr Anderson the sound man, Gateway Torres Strait Resort, Sea Hops, Le’s Takeaway, Torres Cleaning and Maintenance, Andy and Sue Dale, Torres News, Lulu with her acoustic music, teachers and parents of OLSH.

Special thanks to the P and F crew who just knew what to and how to do it. The food was very well received and the entertainment got people up and dancing. A great night.

This week we have Ms. Myree Sam from the Catholic Education Office working at the school on student assessment, pedagogy for teaching in the Torre Strait and looking at the teaching of traditional languages at the school. Myree calls Saibai home.

On Monday, we had a visit from the Principal of St. Teresa’s College, Abergowrie Mr. Rob Corboy and some of the college’s boarding staff. Mr Corboy was impressed by our school. Abergowrie is an all boys school with a history of students from the Torres Strait attending it.

We also have the Natural Fertility Services visiting Thursday Island and Hammond Island. They will be showing movies and running talks for Year 1 to 6. They are regular visitors to our community. They will be visiting Hammond Island on Thursday night from 6.30-7.30pm at the school. The Commonwealth Heath Services and the Diocese of Cairns sponsor them.

The school has undergone several structural changes in the last few weeks aimed at improving the learning and relationship interaction of students. Deb Calder our Learning Support Teacher has organised support sessions individual and group support sessions. In Year 4,5 and 6 there are extension groups for English and Mathematics running.

In the relationship area Mrs Kirsty Dunn, our Student Welfare Officer is offering lunchtime activities and a Thursday afternoon “Genius Hour”. She has started assisting our student leaders in understanding their roles and being involved and running school activities. Kirsty has a wealth of knowledge in this area and we are fortunate to have her at OLSH.

I feel that OLSH as school is starting to run the way a good school should. I spoke to staff about the signs you look for to see improvement. One of the first is that staff self-motivate and take risks with what they do. So, we get Science Week, extension groups, lunchtime activities and once that starts then it becomes the norm. There is a simple saying that when a staff is happy so are the students and their parents. This does not mean we sit back and think what we are doing is exemplary. That is not the case we should see that where we are is the start and then look for other areas that we need to work on. One of those is our behaviour management policy and processes. An area as staff we will work through before presenting to the P and F for further consultation in Term 4.

This week is Father’s Day and I wish all fathers a good family day. Mr Fisher will inform fathers on what we will do on the day.

One with Mary

Paul Keenan
Principal

Prep Class News

Congratulations to Charlie and Nate as our award winners in the last few weeks. Well done!

In Prep this month we have had fun with:

Science week filled with earthworms, experiments and making ice-cream
Book week where we read new award-winning books, visited book fair, and dressed up for the book week parade
Continuing with our family artefact presentations for history
Designing and building an obstacle course for the toys with our year 1 friends
Writing a secret spy class book.
Please contact us at the school/email below if you have any further queries,
Ms Sue, Miss Helen & Miss Katrina

hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au

Year 5/6 Class News

Grade 5 /6 Host Science Week

The Grade 5/6 students hosted a day of science activities for National Science Week. They facilitated rotations for three classes over the course of the day. Rotations included; balloon rockets, helicopters, soap powered boats, ocean currents and colours on the move.

Students learnt about force, energy, chemical reactions and ocean currents during an action-packed day.

Year 1 Class News

Congratulations to Phillip, Salome, Miley & Kade as our award winners in year 1 these last 2 weeks. Well done!

Thank you for all your milk carton donations. We are going to need as many as you can give us. If they are clean it is even better! Tell everyone to keep their cartons! Please see our photos for the beginning of the “Igloo Construction”.

Some Igloo Facts found out in year 1:

• Real igloos are made from hard snow, can hold up to 20 people and can be warmer than 30 degrees inside.

• Our igloo is 3.2m wide.
• The first layer used 68 3L milk bottles and at that rate we look like needing ____________ for the first 3 levels.
• We will need about _____________2Litre bottles in total to finish our class construction. Our whole class will fit inside standing up.
• Igloos trap heat inside by having a small, low door and solid, thick walls.

In Year One this fortnight we have had fun with;

• Earning warm fuzzies to watch a movie and have a construction afternoon
• Making icecream in plastic bags
• Writing a retell of our favourite Old Testament Story
• Dressing up for the Book Week/Book Fair Parade
• Learning about ½ and ¼ and measuring area/capacity around the school
• Having our Dad’s visit for the Father’s Day liturgy and giving them our presents/cards
• Making dioramas of a landscape with Mr Worland
• Taking the Tamanu and Malu turtles home to share some family time and telling the class about it in share time
• Getting ready for NAIDOC celebrations and enjoying weaving with our elders

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

Ms Helen & Ms Nadine
hosborne@cns.catholic.edu.au

News from the Welfare Officer

Hello school community!

Over the past few weeks we have had students and teachers come to the Library to visit the newly created Wellbeing room. This is a space where students and staff can come to relax, participate in alternate activities and connect with additional support services offered through our school.

The Wellbeing room is student orientated with the focus of it being a place of comfort and rejuvenation. We have a ‘Student wall of fame!’ where we display student work and drawings, a desk space to work from, motivational posters and quotes line the walls, an oil diffuser with relaxing oils, relaxation music, audio storybooks, over-sized cushions, percussion instruments and an array of other chill out items. The room is still very much a work in progress but please feel welcome to come and familiarise yourself with the space at any time.

During Book Week I had the pleasure of running some lunchtime activities with the students that were all focused on this year’s theme of “Escape to everywhere”.

The students were offered the following activities:

• Character drawings of a character they would want to escape from
• Creating a promotional poster about Book Week 2017
• Chalk drawings of a place they would like to escape to – real or imaginary
• Book mark creations – mindfulness template or create your own

Students from all grades enjoyed participating in the activities! The dress up parade was also so much fun – however it took a very long time for Little Miss Sunshine to transform back to Mrs Dunn!

A timetable of alternate lunch time activities has been placed on the Student Welfare Officer board. The activities provided are as follows:

• Mindfulness colouring
• Nature Crafting
• Community Service projects for school enhancement
• Book club
• STEM challenges
• Drama games
• Story time

Additionally, I am regularly meeting with the school leaders and working with them to facilitate not only these activities but to also provide lunch time sports orientated activities for students such as handball competitions.

Genius Hour has also got off to a great start! Please remember that all students attending need to have completed a permission note which can be collect from the Student Welfare Officer notice board.

Student Shout Out!

I have been approaching various students within our school community to give them a ‘Shout out!” form. This form is an opportunity for the student to share their likes, interests, hobbies, talents and favourite subject at school. This is a great way for students to showcase who they are as a person.

The shout outs for this newsletter are:

1. William Maguire from grade 2 – Maths and Science are my favourite subjects and I enjoying doing Jujitsu
2. Estelle Dunn from grade 1 – Art and I am good at reading. I enjoy dancing, especially ballet.
3. Talitha Maguire from grade 5 – English because I love to read. I find it fun and easy. I love animals and little kids, I play netball and read. I know how to make dog biscuits as well as know a lot of stuff about dogs.

Healthy Eating Program

We are excited about the fact we have 6 beautiful fruit trees that will be planted in our school grounds. Over the coming years as these plants grow the school community will have access to Blood Navel Oranges, Kaffir Limes, Washington Navel Oranges, Emperor Mandarins, Meyer Lemons and Red Grapefruits. The students will be responsible for the nurturing of these plants to ensure they grown and thrive.

On Monday the 4th September a Breakfast program will commence at OLSH as part of our Healthy Eating Program. The program will operate every Monday morning from 8-8:30 am where students are welcome to come and eat breakfast. We will have a selection of cereals and fresh fruit. I have had some parents mention to me they might bring a picnic from home and join us to share breakfast with their students before the day begins. This is a fantastic idea and we welcome that!

Thank-you to all those who have continued to donate items for our nature crafting. We are still in desperate need of:

• Driftwood
• Shells
• Sea Glass (we currently have none!)

Additionally, we need some donations of the following materials for our STEM challenges:

• Paper tubes (from paper towels or toilet rolls)
• Newspapers

Until next time…

Kirsty Dunne

“If you never did you should. These things are fun, and fun is good!” – Dr. Seuss

Year 4/5 Class News

Congratulations to all our recent blue award recipients! Year 4/5 said a smol yawo to Pyntara Mosby and extend a warm TI welcome to Oliver Burgess to our class this week. We thoroughly enjoyed our Science Week afternoon. Mina Big Eso to Ms Michelle, Ms Nadine and the Year 5/6 class on your organisation skills and your science expertise! We recently celebrated book week activities and the book week parade where students dressed up or made face masks as their favourite book character. We have a very busy last few weeks of school. Please ensure your child is at school every day. If your child is absent please phone the office 07 4069 2203.

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

Choir News

Our choir did a fantastic job in ANZAC Park and at HACC last week as they performed for National Senioor’s Week. See the pictures below for a glimpse of their efforts. It was lovely to hear them singing along with our elders at HACC last Thursday in particular, young and old enjoying songs from the Torres Strait together.

Thanks everyone.
Au Esoau, Koeyma Eso, Many Thanks,
Helen Osborne

Indigenous Liaison Officer News

NAIDOC

EVENT: SCHOOL NAIDOC DAY CELEBRATION
WHERE: OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART SCHOOL
DATE: FRIDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER
TIME: 9.15am

I, apologise for the cancellation of our Cuppa & Yarn for Wednesday 30th & Thursday 31st August due to another event happening at both campuses. Please note the new dates for our next Cuppa & Yarn below.

"CUPPA & YARN":

WEDNESDAY 11TH OCTOBER
EVENT: Hammond Island Cuppa & Yarn
TIME: 6.30pm to 7.30pm

THURSDAY 12TH OCTOBER
EVENT: Thursday Island Cuppa & Yarn
TIME: 6.30pm to 7.30pm

I will be sending out a new "Cuppa & Yarn" Flyer in the next week.

My contact details are below if you have any information or concerns regarding your child or children.

Cheers
Christine Benjamin
cbenjamin@cns.catholic.edu.au
Phone: 07 4069 2203

Book Week Parade Results

It was wonderful to see so many dressed up for this year’s Book Week character/book parade and once again the judges found it difficult to choose overall winners. Ms Chi Chi was delighted to see all the pictures having missed Friday due to illness. She is preparing small prizes for those lucky winners listed below, however has something special for all those magnificent costume wearers in the younger grades also.

Congratulations to..

Prep: Nate Jones & Rennaer Benjamin
Year 1: Alaila Ball & Joseph Manaena
Year 2/3: Eddie Stevens & Hannah McLean
Year 4/5: Connor Holland & Abbi Taylor
Year 5/6: Ben Carswell & Talitha Maguire
Parents/Staff: Ms Nadine and Mrs Dunn

Mrs Christine Benjamin’s 30 Years of Service Award

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