Term 3 - Week 2 / 20th July 2023

Principal - Ms Katrina Dunne

Welcome back!

School attendance is crucial for students and plays a significant role in their academic, social, and personal development. I trust that everyone was able to spend some quality time with their children over the holiday break and look forward to seeing all students back at school every day this term. If your child is unable to attend school for the day, please use the parent portal application to communicate their absence.

TCS Quadrennial school review for St Mary’s School

In term 4, St Mary’s will undertake a quadrennial school review. This review is facilitated by the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office and provides reliable, up-to-date, and timely information to the community to inform strategic planning. It is a source of data available to the school community to monitor progress and set goals for the future. If you would like to become familiar with the current report, in particular the key recommendations, please use this link https://www.charleville.catholic.edu.au/policies-procedures-and-guidelines to locate the ‘St Mary’s School Charleville School Renewal And Improvement Plan.’ We look forward to sharing more information regarding the upcoming review as the term progresses.

NAIDOC Week Celebrations

Last week, our community celebrated NAIDOC Week. Thanks to Donna Enders and Karren Needer for the organisation behind the scenes and hosting this years’ ceremony. Our students enjoyed workshops with visiting artist, Alara Briggs on Tuesday. Photos from the week have been shared on our Facebook page.

Year 5/6 Camp fundraising – Bingo Night

Did someone say ‘BINGO!’ Come along to the Bingo Night on Saturday 29^th July to support the fundraising for Year 5/6 Camp. Doors open at 6:00pm for a 6:45pm start. Tables of 6 – 8 people can be reserved for the evening. Please phone the school office to secure your table for the night. Flyers and further information will be shared on Parent Portal and/or the Facebook page this fortnight.

Catholic Education Week

Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across Queensland from 23^rd – 29^th July. This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the wonderful things that take place in Catholic schools every day.

Monday 24^th July will be a Pupil Free Day as staff travel to Cunnamulla for the Bishop’s Inservice Day which is held at the start of Catholic Education Week each year. Toowoomba Catholic Schools Executive Director, Dr Pat Coughlan and Bishop Ken will travel out and join us, along with Sacred Heart from Cunnamulla and St Finbarr’s from Quilpie.

On Friday 28^th July, St Mary’s will hold our Catholic Education Week in-class Liturgies in each classroom at 9:30am. We invite all family and friends to attend a classroom of their choice as we celebrate Catholic Education Week together as a school community. Parents and Carers are invited to join in sharing scones and tea/coffee at 10:30am in our outside eating area.

Have a fabulous fortnight!

Cheers

Katrina

Date Claimers

Learning Support News - Mrs Belinda Phillips

Welcome to a new term in the Learning Hub! This term we will be trialling a new approach to reading, writing and mathematics intervention support for students. Mrs Lines and I will continue to provide small group or one-on-one support to students who require support in these areas. We are also implementing a new Tier 2 intensive approach with School Officers in classrooms. In writing and maths concepts, School Officers will work with students in small groups to provide them with a small boost to their learning in specific areas as identified by the class teachers. Class Teachers will plan these support sessions while School Officers will implement them and reflect with the teachers on student progress. It is hoped this will provide a targeted approach to in-class support which students require.

School Officers are also working hard to support students in the area of reading through the Toowoomba Catholic Schools’ approach: RAFTS (Reading Advancement for Targeted Students). School Officers will plan, prepare, and implement these reading advancement sessions for specific students who might be just below the expected reading benchmark level for their grade. School Officers are well-equipped for these sessions, having received training in the planning and delivery of the RAFTS program by the TCS Acting Learning Support Advisor, Sally Yin last term. These sessions will run several times a week during class Literacy blocks.

We sure do have the best School Officers in the game!

The Auslan sign for this newsletter is:

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Please feel free to contact me via email: Belinda.Phillips@twb.catholic.edu.au if you would like to meet next week during my school visit.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Belinda Phillips

Eat a Rainbow of Fruits and Vegetables

Hi Families,

This term at St Mary’s we are exploring the wide variety of fruits and vegetables that we can eat raw as snacks. We are also discussing the benefits of eating raw fruits and vegetables for our growing bodies. Please see this fortnight’s information about Red and Oranges Fruits and Vegetables. What colours do you think we will be exploring next fortnight?

This week’s questionnaire: Have you eaten a red or orange fruit or vegetable before? What was it? What did you like about it? What red or orange fruit or vegetable would you like to try next?

Send your thoughts to vanessa.alexander@twb.catholic.edu.au to be published in next week’s newsletter with the subject line of Week 4 Newsletter: Eat a Rainbow of Fruits and Vegetables.

St Mary’s Staff

Library - Mrs Michelle Sheehan

Two St Mary’s teams competed in the Readers Cup competition held at the School of Distance Education in week 9 of last term. This competition involves the students reading five nominated titles and then answering questions for each book. It was an extremely close competition with the Reading Renegades ahead of the Question Marks until the final round.

Reading Renegades

Absent Ella-May Owens

Question Marks

The Question Marks are off to Brisbane for the state finals in September.

Congratulations to the Year 4 class who received free time in the library last week.

There are so many exciting things to share with you this issue!

Scholastic are giving away up to 3 FREE books with all LOOP orders.

There is a new feature in the catalogue BooksPlus. Families can scan the QR code on featured titles for additional content including sneak peeks inside the books, book trailers and much more.

Book Club Orders Due

Thursday 27^th July

Coming Soon!

Book Week Character Parade 2023

Tuesday 22nd August

Prep - Miss Imogen Hunt

Welcome back to Term 3!

Can you believe that we are halfway through our school year already.  We started this term off well and have been eager to learn.

We were lucky to have a NAIDOC workshop where we learnt about boomerangs and the different techniques of throwing them. Students enjoyed throwing them and trying to catch them when they returned.

Students thoroughly enjoyed daily math challenges last week. They all strived for excellence, and it was fabulous to see students taking ownership of their learning and asking for help.

In Buddies we explored the topic of having a growth mindset in everything we do. It was fabulous to listen to students’ ideas about sayings that could motivate them. Students then were able to create a “Magical Yet” which stated what they couldn’t do yet, but they will be able to do this soon. It would be fabulous to use this language at home as well.

In library we listened to an engaging dream time story which explored an echidna and turtle which explained why turtles have shells and echidnas have spikes. Students then had to complete a Kahoot to check their memory of the story.

Key dates

• Athletics carnival – Friday 21^st July
• Bishops Inservice Day (pupil free) – Monday 24^th July
• 100 days of prep celebration – Tuesday 25^th July
• Catholic Education Week Liturgy – Friday 28^th July
• Movie night - Friday 28^th July
• Bingo night – Saturday 29^th July

I am looking forward to seeing what we get up to in prep over the term.

Thanks Imogen

Year 1 - Mrs Bernice McPhee

Welcome to Term 3

I just wanted to share a couple of things that happened at the end of Term 2.

In Buddies we looked at what it means to be a “Bucket Filler”. Students from Year 4 helped us to identify what things we could do to be a Bucket Filler”, such as being kind to everyone you meet, helping those who are struggling, paying someone a compliment, being respectful and showing someone, you care.

During the last week of Term 2 we were fortunate to have Madalynn Shearwin join us for work experience. Madalynn did so well in our class, helping students with their work, listening to readers, reading stories to the class, playing games and working with small groups during Maths. Also, during week 10 we had a visit from Emmanuel College from the Gold Coast. Students joined us, spending time with students and helping with their work.

Week 1 this term, we celebrated NAIDOC week. We had a visit from Alara Geebung who showed the students different types of boomerangs and told them what they are used for. The let the students have a go at throwing a returning boomerang.

This term we are learning about the Mercy value of Excellence. We have made some posters to display in our room about what we think Excellence means.

Year 2 - Miss Holly Price

Busy start to Term 3!

We were very fortunate to have Alara Geebung at our school, teaching us about the use of different types of boomerangs and how to throw them properly. The kids loved this, and all did an amazing job showing our St. Mary’s Mercy Values.

Mrs Sheehan shared a wonderful Dreamtime story with us, ‘How the Kangaroos got their Tails’, during our library lesson.

We also worked with our year 3 buddy class to complete some artwork that celebrates NAIDOC week.

With Performing Arts festival approaching, we have started to practise our choral poem, and will continue this over the coming weeks.

Miss Holly Price.

July Birthdays

P & F News

Flyers