31 October 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principals Report

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for the warm welcome back. I had such a fantastic time with my family and loved the whole trip, but it is also nice to be back home.

Today was an amazing day with the St Kieran’s whole school orientation morning where year levels get a chance to experience the next grade up. We have reached that point in the school year where we make decisions on who will be teaching each year level in 2019.

This year we are saying farewell to three marvellous teachers Mr Raegan Cooney, Miss Meg Richardson and Mr Tyler Hardy. Mr Cooney will be heading to the Sunshine Coast to teach and be closer to his family. Miss Richardson is moving over to Townsville for family and will be working at St Claire’s and Mr Hardy will also be in Townsville and filling a PE position at Kirwan High. All three of these teachers have placed so much time and effort into our beautiful school and it is very sad for me to say good-bye. I have known all three of these teachers for a long time and they are always so dedicated to their job. They will be very missed in our school community and we wish them all of the best for their new chapter in their life. I am sure they will keep us up to date with what is happening next year.

Joining our school community next year will be Katherine Spring who is currently teaching Year 1 at St Joseph’s Cloncurry and she is already very excited to be teaching Year 5 next year. See our 2019 Teaching staff below:

At this stage, we are still looking for a teacher in Year 6. TCEO are currently helping in this situation. At the present, I am still working out the rest of the staff and I will keep you all up to date in the coming weeks.

May God Bless and have a great week.

Claudine Dank

APRE Report

This week we celebrate All Hallows’ Eve and the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. All Saints’ Day (Thursday) is a holy day of obligation, commemorating those who have died in God’s service. In the time of the early Church, this day was to honour martyrs. By 741, the feast day came to include all the saints in heaven. November 1st became a holy day of obligation in 1484, by Pope Sixtus IV, and the day before became known as “All Hallows’ Eve” or Hallowe’en. On All Saints’ Day, it is common for Catholics to visit the cemetery and pray for those who have died: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. Year 5 will leads us on Assembly this Friday to celebrate this feast day.

Why Do Catholics Pray to Saints?

Some people wonder why Catholics pray to saints when it seems obvious that Christians should pray to God alone. Catholics do pray to saints, on All Saints Day, and throughout the year.

However, the word "pray” simply means to request. If you examine common prayers to the saints, these prayers are actually asking the saints to pray for us. When we "pray" to the saints, we are asking them, by their examples and prayers, to lead us closer to Christ.

The saints are in heaven and in close communion with God. They are fully living in a state of prayer, and since we are connected to them in the communion of the saints, the saints are constantly in a state of prayer for the Church, and we are the Church.

Heavenly Father,
Bless our school.
Jesus watch over our community.
Mother Mary please keep us safe.
St Kieran guide our learning as we pray and play together.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal 2018

We are all asked to give a small donation to St Vincent De Paul to help out families who are less fortunate than our own. Each class will be provided with a basket to fill with donations of non perishable items that families will be able to use over the Christmas period.

Parish Information

Plenary Council in 2020 is about the future of the Church. Place a thought on the Plenary Wall behind the lectern OR on the Wall near the Catholic centre side door.

Teaching Religious Education in State Schools - would you like to know more about spending 30 mins a week sharing God’s love to the young ones in the State system schools?

Catholic Women’s League - will hold its A.G.M on Sunday 18th November 2018 at 10am. All women are welcome to attend.

Kitchen Hand - The Parish now has a vacancy for a permanent part-time job, 2 hours/day, from 10:30am - 12:30pm, kitchen-hand. If interested, please apply to Corena at the Parish Office.

Parish Cleaner - There is a vacancy for a part-time cleaner for about 2 months from mid-November to mid-january. Please see Corena in the Parish Office for more details.

NAPLAN Online

Next year Saint Kieran’s will be completing the NAPLAN test online. Year 3 students will undertake the Reading, Numeracy and Language Conventions online but will complete the Writing Test on paper. Our Year 5 class will be completing all tests online. To prepare for this to occur our current Years 2 and 4 students took part in what is called a School Readiness Test (SRT). These tests were an opportunity for schools to become familiar with the NAPLAN Online test platform and to identify any technical or administrative issues.

Author Visit

Today our Years 3-6 classes were lucky to take part in writing workshops with children’s author Allison Marlow Paterson. Allison spent time in each class giving tips and ideas to our budding writers and worked with them to create their own story plans. This was a wonderful opportunity to work with a published author who is passionate about writing.

Get to know our staff – Mr Cooney

How long have you been at St Kieran’s Catholic School and what year do you teach? This is my second year of teaching at St Kieran's and I have taught both year 4 and 6.

What do you love the most about teaching? When your students have that 'light bulb moment' , nothing compares to that. I also love the banter you can have with kids, they are all so unique and everyone of them have something different to bring to the table.

Who inspires you? My best mate Matt, he has been through so many challenges both, physically and mentally but always come out stronger.

If you could be any animal what would you be? A shark, being surrounded by endless waves and ocean sounds perfect.

P&F Dates

We would love for all new and old families to attend the school P&F meetings. Times starts at 5:30pm in the school staffroom.

Below are the dates;

November - 5th

Buy, Swap, Sell St Kieran’s

Gas Lift Chairs - $10 each excellent condition

Kitchen Sink - $40

Scale Playground equipment - $300 and comes with instructions

If you have something that you would like to Buy, Swap or Sell please let us know and we are happy to place it in the newsletter.

Tuckshop Meal Deal – Term 4

Thursday 1st November - Butter Chicken and Rice
Thursday 8th November - Hotdog
Thursday 15th November - Asian Noodles
Thursday 22nd November – Tacos
Thursday 29th November - Chicken Leg & Chips

Injilinji Kindergarten’s Open Day