Term 4, Week 3 - 21st October, 2021

From the Principal

Dear families,

Welcome to a wonderful week 3.

This week, I am writing to you from Toowoomba as I participate in an online intensive course through Australian Catholic University that goes towards a Masters of Educational Leadership.

The intensive is called ‘Enhancing Catholic Identity—Introducing the Leuven Project.’ The Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Project is deployed throughout many Catholic dioceses as a tool for enhancing Catholic identity in schools within an increasingly secular and pluralist environment. It provides a theoretical framework and language that assists staff, students, and school communities in clarifying their Catholic identity and beliefs, ascertaining the Catholicity of their school, and confirming their future direction and practices.

I look forward to sharing my reflections with you over the next few weeks.

The Cent Sale

What a success! Our Cent Sale fundraiser has almost been finalised with a grand total of almost $9000 raised! This money will be directly used for more resources in your child’s classroom. A great deal of work goes into the organisation of such a successful event, and I would like to extend my thank you to Sara, our PPF fundraising coordinator, for her organisation, dedication, and efforts. I would also like to thank Mandy for her huge contribution of time, Zalae for MC-ing on the night, and Jo and Alycia for coordinating the catering. Thanks also goes to the parents, students and staff that either helped to set up and clean up, served at the bar, served food, sold raffle tickets, sold cent sale sheets and ran the buckets on the night. Lastly, I would like to sincerely thank the families and community members for their very generous donations of prizes, etc. What a great community we are a part of!

INSPIRE Maths: Sharing of Practice

Next week, Brady will be travelling to St Patrick’s primary school in Mitchell as part of our Small Schools Collaborative (LINC) INSPIRE Maths Sharing of Practice tour.

Brady will participate in a day of professional development where he will observe other teachers teaching maths in a multi-age classroom, analyse student mathematics data and set learning goals for the students, set professional goals for himself, and spend time co-planning maths lessons.

It is critical for teachers to have ongoing and regular opportunities to learn from each other. Ongoing professional development keeps teachers up-to-date on new research on how children learn, emerging technology tools for the classroom, new curriculum resources, and more. The best professional development is ongoing, experiential, collaborative, and connected to and derived from working with students and understanding their culture.

Brady will be away from Tuesday-Thursday and Philippa Sly will be in the P-2 classroom. We are looking forward to hearing about Brady’s time at St Patrick’s when he returns on Friday.

Math Task

Try this with your child at home!

How many triangles do you see? Chat about 'how' and 'where' you see them.

Please send your responses to casey.robinson@twb.catholic.edu.au

Recontextualisation in Art

Jan Hynes, an artist from North Queensland has a beautiful painting titled “Bonding time: the Nativity in Townsville”. Asking what the nativity might look like if it were to take place in Australia today, Jan comes up with a scene set in a roadhouse somewhere along one of Australia’s remote highways. This painting is a recontextualised (putting something in a new context to attract new meaning) depiction of the nativity. 

Here the sojourning Mary gives birth in the Parenting Room. The Christ child is wrapped, not in swaddling clothes, but in paper hand towels from a dispenser on the wall. Garage attendants and mechanics are the first witnesses as Mary wears a simple dress and Joseph dons a blue singlet. And take note, Joseph is holding the child. This could be a statement about modern practices where the father is present at the birth and there is a keen interest in both parents being involved in the process of bonding.

At St Maria Goretti, our teachers are supported to develop Religious Education (RE) lessons using resources such as this piece of modern art to aid in the bringing to life of stories from scripture and promote the use of dialogue and questioning in the classroom. Through recontextualisation, meaning is made.

What can you notice or make connections to in this image?

Day for Daniel

We will be participating in Day for Daniel on Friday 29 October to reinforce the importance of Keeping Kids Safe in a physical and online environment.

Students are invited to wear something RED this day.

In class, students will learn about the importance of personal safety using a range of resources developed by the Foundation. The Foundation is strongly committed to the development and education of Respectful Relationships for children and teenagers in our schools and communities.

World Teachers’ Day 2021

Next Friday we celebrate World Teachers’ Day. Our teachers deliberately make a connection with every child in their class. Our teachers share stories about Jesus to serve as a role-model for the children. Our teachers nurture, care and support your child’s emotional growth. Our teachers have a laser-like focus on your child’s learning. Our teachers plan, collaborate, question, discuss, explore, reflect, and discover ways to help your child be the best they can be.

It’s a job we enjoy. Because we are working with people, it’s not as easy as putting a recipe together. The intricacies of working with kids involves discovering how to get the best out of each one of them. It is complex and challenging work… and even though it’s serious work, it is also a lot of fun.

Our teachers are privileged to work with your children. Your children are blessed and very fortunate to have our teachers helping shape their young lives. Please join me next week to say thank you to the teachers and staff at our school.

Have a great weekend.

Yours in education,

Casey Robinson

Principal

“Be faithful and lose not one opportunity of merit that presents itself to you.” (Mary MacKillop, 1873)

School Tuition Fees

Term 4 School Fees were issued last Friday and are due for payment by the 26th November, 2021. 

At St Maria Goretti, we have several payment options for your convenience: Cash, Cheque, Direct Deposit and Centrepay. For further details on these payment options, please see the school office.

Direct Deposit Details:

Important Dates

Socktober

This year our school is partnering with Catholic Mission by participating in Socktober. We invite our students to connect with young people experiencing challenges in the developing world through education and the world game of soccer.

This year, our collective fundraising efforts will support vulnerable children in Thailand through a kindergarten run by the Good Shepherd Sisters in Bangkok. The kindergarten provides a caring learning environment for the children and allows their parents, often single mothers, to work and support the family.

As a school, we have the opportunity to contribute in a special way, but only if all of our stars jump onboard. I’d like to invite you to take a moment to visit our fundraising page -

The good news is you don’t have to come up with all the funds. The fundraising works by sharing the page with family and friends and asking them to sponsor the effort.

Whatever we raise will support the basic needs of vulnerable children around the world, such as food, clean water, healthcare, and education.

$35 can help towards the cost of school supplies for a child for one year.

$102 can help towards the meals and snacks for one child at the kindergarten for a year.

$300 can help purchase milk for all the children at the kindergarten for two weeks.

$1500 could purchase one school uniform each for all 59 girls at the kindergarten for one year.

In Term 4, we’ll have a chance to come together at our school’s Socktober Event, where the children will be able to kick goals for kids in need around the world.

We will keep you updated in school newsletters and emails throughout Term 3 and Term 4 as we continue to build momentum towards our Socktober Event on the 25^th of October.

Thank you for your support and for helping your child/ren ‘sock it to poverty!’

Students of the Week - Week 2

Students of the Week - Week 3

Happy Birthday!

Prep Transition Days

Parent Partnership Forum

Notices

Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish - Mass Times

Saturday 9th October - 5:30pm - Mass

Sunday 17th October - 9am - Lay Lead Liturgy

Sunday 24th October - 9am - Mass

                                                         Sunday 31st October - 9am - Lay Lead Liturgy