St Maria Goretti School, Inglewood eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear families,

We are nearing the end of Week 7 and it's crazy to think we only have three more weeks of learning to go this term! Our students are busy consolidating their learning and will begin completing end of term assessment tasks in class over the next few weeks.

International Women's Day (8th March)

Imagine a gender equal world.

A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

A world where difference is valued and celebrated.

Together we can forge women's equality.

Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.

Thank you to Mr Zahner for cooking breakfast for our staff on International Women’s Day earlier this week.

Supporting Readers at Home with the 3Ps

The 3Ps (Pause, Prompt, Praise) describe a simple technique that will support your child to practise his/her reading and to develop more reading confidence.

The principle of Pausing – then Prompting – and then Praising is very useful to remember and apply anytime your child is reading aloud to you.

The 3Ps technique is best used when your child is reading and ‘gets stuck’ on words that they can’t read or are new to them. When your child encounters words that are difficult for them to read, the 3Ps technique will allow him/her the opportunity to have another go, self-correct, or if needed, find out (or be told) what the problem word is.

Two important things to remember from when using the 3Ps:

The goal of reading is to understand (make sense) of what is read, so always keep this in mind when you are prompting and praising your child.
Try to ensure that you are relaxed, interested and supportive, which in turn, will help your child feel OK when they make mistakes or just can’t work out a word and need to be told what it is.

Please find a helpful visual resource that we use at school when responding to reading errors, below.

Math Mindset Message

Studies have shown that our brains are capable of tremendous growth as we study and learn new things. At St Maria Goretti, we encourage positive math norms in our classrooms. Students are encouraged to believe in themselves and that there is no such thing as a “math brain” or “math gene”.

Please find out more by reading the following article.

Anyone Can Learn to High Levels - YouCubed

Year 6 Leaders

This morning on assembly our school leaders for 2022 Rory and Jaxon were presented with their leadership badges.

Please join us on Tuesday the 15th of March at 9:30am to celebrate our 2022 school leaders. All are very welcome to attend. Our visiting parish priest Fr Franco Filipetto will be running Mass at Our Lady of the Southern Cross Church and some students have reading roles during Mass.

COVID-19 Recent Update

As you will be aware from 6pm Friday 4 March:
• face masks are no longer required in schools, including for staff, students and visitors and most workplaces
• face masks are still recommended whenever you can’t socially distance
• the other limitations and restrictions applied as part of the back-to-school plan for Term 1 2022 are also removed but the vaccination mandate (for staff, volunteers and contractors) still applies in school (i.e. high-risk) settings.

The following rules apply for wearing face masks in Queensland:
• A diagnosed or close contact person must wear a mask for 7 days after the end of isolation
• Required in healthcare settings, residential aged care, disability accommodation, on public transport, in prisons, detention centres, airports and on planes
• Required for visitors to healthcare settings , but mask may be removed while undergoing a face-to-face service (as determined by your healthcare provider)
• Required when on public transport or its platform / terminal, or when in or waiting for a taxi, rideshare vehicle or commercial shuttle
• Required outside of your home or accommodation if you have a temperature equal to or higher than 37.5 degrees, or if you have COVID-19 symptoms, or if you’re awaiting a COVID-19 PCR test result
• Required if you’re diagnosed with COVID-19, are a close contact, or are an international traveller (in accordance with other public health directions).

More information about Queensland rules and restrictions can be found here.

Project Compassion 2022

First Week of Lent (Week beginning Monday 7^th March)

We begin our annual Lenten Project Compassion journey by learning about Anatercia, a 12-year-old girl living in a small village in southern Mozambique. She began to take on more and more adult responsibilities as her mother has chronic health issues. She did most of the household chores and had to travel up to five hours every day to collect clean water. Water scarcity also meant that harvests were poor and there was never enough to eat.

With your support, Caritas Australia’s local partner, Caritas Regional Chokwe, was able to help Anatercia’s family to irrigate their farm to improve their food security. They also improved water access for households in the village, delivered sustainable farming training, and provided Anatercia with essential school supplies.

Anatercia’s health, education and quality of life have improved, along with the outlook of her whole community for all future generations.

Watch a short film about Anatercia’s story here.

Please continue collection coins in the collection boxes sent home. Thank you for your generosity.

Term 1 Parent-Teacher Interviews

Strong communication is fundamental to a postiive parent-teacher partnership. As your child’s greatest teacher and role model, it is important that you get involved in their schooling. Evidence shows that positive communication between parents and teachers help improve a child’s academic performance.

Our parent-teacher interviews are being held in Week 10 (beginning the 28th of March) of this term. Notes have gone home to families to schedule a suitable time to meet. Parent-teacher interviews are a great opportunity to communicate with your child’s teacher and hear how your child is tracking. They are also a great way to discuss any troubles or questions you may have regarding your child.

Think about what you would like to discuss with your child’s teacher, so that you make the most out of your allocated time with him/her. When discussing learning issues you’re concerned about, ask for ways you can help at home that reinforce any learning that’s going on in the classroom.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Yours in education,

Casey Robinson

Principal

“God will draw good out of evil.” (Mary MacKillop, 1874).

Life and Learning in the Library

Our winning entry for the Queensland School Libraries week art competition was created by Amelia Walker. Amelia showed how reading and using the library can be at the heart of our learning. Congratulations Amelia!

Other outstanding images from Year 3 – 6 students will be shared on the AccessIT homepage, found here;

au.accessit.online/STM33#!dashboard

Library Learning for Year 3 – 6 students this Term...

Students have revised their search skills in our library database and have started to create a list of books they might borrow in the future

Our Prep-2 class love their borrowing time in the library! Here they are enjoying their free reading time sitting on our new cushions

Please enjoy a story from Storybox library with your children this week;

www.storyboxlibrary.com.au Username: smg Password: stories

Happy viewing!

Anne Anderson

Teacher Librarian

Important Dates

You can access the school calendar directly on our website www.inglewood.catholic.edu.au or from within the newsletter:

Students of the Week

Sight Word Awards

Happy Birthday

Welcome to our new students

On our very first assembly for the year we welcomed all our new students and their families to our school.

National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence

Planning for a safe and supportive school community

On Friday 18 March 2022, St Maria Goretti is participating in the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). The NDA is Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative, connecting schools and communities to find workable solutions to prevent bullying.

The theme for the 2022 NDA is Kindness Culture. St Maria Goretti will demonstrate Kindness Culture by wearing orange, and promoting inclusiveness, respect and community belonging for all students.

Planning for a safe and supportive school community requires a whole-school community approach. Whole-school responses to bullying prevention build positive and supportive school environments by incorporating strategies for intervention at all levels, inclusive of students, teachers, parents and carers.

Three key characteristics outlined in the national definition of bullying distinguish bullying behaviours from other forms of peer aggression behaviours which do not constitute bullying. The key characteristics of bullying include:

power imbalance
deliberate intent to cause harm, and
ongoing and repeated behaviour.

While the following behaviours of peer aggression do not constitute bullying, these behaviours may still be serious and require intervention at home and at school:

arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
single acts of social rejection or meanness, or
isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.

It is important for our entire school community, including our staff, parents, carers and students to have a clear understanding of the definition of bullying to be able to distinguish these behaviours from peer aggression, and correctly identify and respond to incidents of bullying.

The full national definition can be read here.

Knowing the types of bullying behaviour can also help you identify if the incident is bullying, or peer aggression. While neither of these behaviours are tolerated at [insert school name], they do require different management strategies, and the first step for responding is to correctly identify the behaviour.

If you have concerns that your child is being bullied, please contact the classroom teacher in the first instance. You will be referred to the Principal if a satisfactory outcome is not achieved. If you believe the behaviour constitutes a crime, or is a serious incident of cyberbullying, please refer to the Bullying. No Way! website for information on how to report to other authorities and gaining further help.

For more information, please visit the Bullying. No Way! website for additional resources.

Prep-2 Classroom news

This term in Maths we are working hard on recognising and making numbers up to 100 as well as connecting number names, numerals, and quantities. In Literacy this term we are practicing our decoding skills by stretching out words to hear each individual sounds.

In Prep-2 we have also been working hard on our independence. As a class, our goal is, to by the end of the term be carrying our own bags to and from school every day and putting our lunchbox and fruit snack away by ourselves.

It has been a great start to the year, and we are looking forward to some great learning!

Birdie Stories

Parents may find Birdie Stories useful in talking with little ones about the current storms and floods. A fantastic range of story books are available as flipbooks online.