31 October 2019

Newsletter Articles

IMPORTANT DATES

Principals Report

It is hard to believe we are a third of the way through the term. Still so much to do and only a short time to accomplish everything. Last week we celebrate World Teachers Day. With so many special days throughout the year it can be easy to simply add a day like this to others. It is a special day however, as teachers play a vital role in the development, education and growth of the students entrusted to their care. 'Entrusted to their care', is a key statement that the teachers at St Kieran’s take very seriously. It isn't just their academic development that they care about, it is the whole person and their well being that they care about, each and every day.

I am always humbled by the level of dedication that our staff show towards our students. The extra time and effort given in good faith for the benefit of students, the level of personalised attention to students needs, and their willingness to give of themselves are hallmarks of our fantastic staff. This year has seen our students achieve amazing results across all areas of endeavour, and engage in many wonderful opportunities. The achievements belong to our students but in the background is a member of our staff, planning, supporting, giving of their time or seeking opportunities for our students to showcase their talents. I am incredibly grateful for all they do to make our school an amazing place, but in particular a place where every student is considered and cared for each day.

Mrs Peta Laffin

This year is Mrs Peta Laffin appraisal for APRE. If you are able to assist with a few minutes of your time to fill out the survey that would be fantastic.

Dear Parents and Staff,

Mrs Peta Laffin, Assistant to the Principal Religious Education, currently is in the process of undertaking her performance appraisal and we are seeking feedback from you. Please find the link HERE, and I would appreciate if you could find the time to complete the survey. Anonymous contributions will not be considered.

Many thanks for your assistance and I look forward to receiving your input.

Laurence Hosking
Education Consultant

CONGRATULATIONS

During the holidays Kristen Merli and Adam Searby tied the knot and said “I DO” at Airlie Beach. I was told that it was a beautiful wedding and which family and friends all enjoyed. Below is a photo of the happy couple.

GSCC Awards Night

Last week Wednesday night I was privileged to attend the Good Shepherd Catholic College Awards Night. The award night highlighted for me the wonderful results of parents, staff and schools working in partnership. I congratulated and handed out certificates to Year 7’s and was pleased to see that the nurturing we do in their primary years pays off in their secondary school experience. You cannot beat a good foundation. Congratulations to Mr Peter Scott and his Administration Team for presenting a professional and enjoyable awards night.

Below is a list of ex - St Kieran students who achieve Highly Commendable, Bronze, Silver or Gold award.

This is Kelsey who is our school trainer. She has done an amazing job and we are so proud of her with her Gold Award.

Bishop’s Dinner

On Thursday night I had the pleasure of attending the Bishop's dinner with 14 other staff and parent members. Below are photos of Mrs Peta Laffin with 20 years service award, Mr David Boyce for helping out the Parish Community and Mr William Webber who received the Mark Mappas award form the P&F. If you see these people around can you please congratulate them.

Take care,
Claudine Dank

APRE

This week we celebrate All Hallows’ Eve and the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. All Saints’ Day (Friday) 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. All Saints Day has been mandated in our diocese as a time for meditation. Please join us for prayer and meditation on Assembly this Friday.

Minni Vinnies Social Justice Evening - 15th of November (Years 2-6)

If your child is attending this evening please return permission notes by this Friday (1st Nov). Further information and notes are available from the office. Please continue to bring in donations to make up packages for those in need. Some ideas include: soaps, shampoos, canned goods, spaghetti, rice, face washers, wipes, deodorants, shaving items. You may also put together the ingredients for a meal (minus the meat). A tally for each class will be recorded and updated on facebook. The winning class will receive a special prize!

SOCKTOBER

Thank you to all for supporting our Mission Month fundraiser - Crazy Sock Day. As a school we raised $126.70 for the day!!!! Well done!!

Parish Information

Position Vacant - Good Shepherd Parish - Parish Secretary. Corena Powers is finishing after 12 years in the parish Office. We will have an opportunity to farewell her but applications are open for the position. Please see the Parish office for details.

ALL SOULS’ DAY MASS - As the Cemetery is out of bounds because of the bats there will be Mass at the Church at 8am and people will be given bottles of Holy Water to take to their graves for a blessing.

CHILDREN’S LITURGY - More helpers would be appreciated - all literature and support provided. Please contact Lorna - 0402 934 489.

Reconciliation 2019

Another important step in the spiritual development of your child is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As your child may have been part of Confirmation and Eucharist this year or last year, you may wish for your child to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Before committing to what is offered please have a read of the following notes:

1. Penance, Reconciliation and Confession are some adult terms used for this Sacrament. Some concepts we look at are forgiveness and sorry - Reconciliation, making up – Penance, admitting we did something wrong – Confession. How this is expressed in our lives and the need we have at times to make it formal or expressed in not only words but also in the action of forgiveness is important.
2. Completing the Sacrament entails: Who – the whole family (even if they have completed this Sacrament in the past as it is an ongoing event). If you start the program and think your child is not ready, you do not have to complete it until you think they are. This Sacrament can happen before or after they have made Confirmation and First Eucharist.
3. There will be two Retreat sessions before the celebration where the child and a family member must attend. Retreat sessions will be held at St Joseph's and St Kieran's after school. Depending on the number of candidates, we may have 2 sessions offered at each school. We would like a parent or guardian to be present with the child at this time. It is always good to have some parent input as well into the session.

Forms have been handed out to all Year 3 students and a PDF copy has been emailed to all families, hard copies are also available at our school office. When the form is complete return it to either our school office or the Good Shepherd Parish(07 47498555).

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact either Peta Laffin (plaffin@skmtsv.catholic.edu.au), Jo Lynch (jlynch8@sjmtsv.catholic.edu.au), Jacqueline Warren (jwarren2@goodshepherd.catholic.edu.au) or the Good Shepherd Parish Office (mountisaparish@tsv.catholic.org.au).

A date for the Sacrament of Reconciliation is to be advised.

Diocesan information

Plenary Council 2020

The Plenary Council invites people to continue to participate in the journey towards the Council sessions in 2020 and 2021. The “Listening and Discernment” phase recently opened, and a guide has been developed to encourage groups to take part in communal discernment on the National Themes for Discernment. Learn more about the Christian practice of discernment and download the guide, “Let’s Listen and Discern”, at the link below:

Ordination of Emene Kelemete

Bishop Tim Harris would like to invite you to attend the Ordination to the Priesthood of Deacon Emene Kelemete on Thursday 31st of October from 7pm. The Ordination will take place at the Edmund Rice Hall at Ignatius Park College, Ross River Road. There is ample parking in the Holy Spirit Parish Car Park, Ignatius Park College car park and on Ross River Road and Albert Street. There will be light refreshments afterwards. All are welcome to attend.

Curriculum

EPIC

This week we have had the pleasure of our researchers Linda and Beryl returning to us. They are researching how to Engage Parents in Community through technology. The purpose of this trip was to sum up with what has been happening all year with the teachers Miss Merli, Miss Pether and Miss Spring and also to capture final audio recordings of participants and to video record footage for use in video vignettes for the project. These vignettes are intended to be housed on the Catholic School Parents Queensland website (CSPQ is a partner on the project).

The ladies and teachers had a wonderful time debriefing the year with the challenges and successes. We hope we have made some progress with the parent community with the project and this is something Claudine would like to see continue into next year.

HPE

At the start of this term, we were lucky enough to have Hannah Casswell who is the tennis schools development officer for our area, come to St Kieran’s and run some tennis skills and drills with all our grades for three days. The students loved all the fun activities we did to develop tennis techniques and we can’t wait to have her back next year!

Our swimming carnival is being held this Thursday 31st Oct and will be a wonderful event the student’s swimming abilities! We hope you can all make it.

Year 6 Class Piece

Indigenous Education

RAP Report

This term our Saint Kieran’s RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) returns to draft as we review our plan to ensure it reflects what is currently happening in our school.

Wahoo

ST KIERAN’S GOT TALENT!

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE TALENT? DO YOU WANT TO IMPRESS YOUR TEACHERS AND FELLOW CLASSMATES WITH YOUR FANTASTIC TALENT?

WELL COME AND JOIN ST KIERANS GOT TALENT AUDITIONS STARTING WEEK 5!!

If you wish to come and show the school your great talent. There are many possible things you can do like dance, rap, sing and even comedy it is all up to you!

DATE: AUDITIONS Week 5 FINALS: TUES 26 NOV

ENTRY FEE: $2 per person

Groups: Prep - year1 , year 2 - 3 , year 4 - 6

All forms must be returned by Monday the 4th of Nov.

Library

Starting on the 11th November is the school’s Book Week all about DINOSAURS. This year there will be activities based on colouring in competition for each grade, to write about favourite dinosaur or a poem, fun facts around the room about dinosaurs. This is a great time to support the school as you can buy some of the books for Christmas presents. They make great gifts for family and friends.

You Can Do It

Get to know our staff – Miss Taylor Andrews

Hi my name is Taylor Andrews, this is my second year working at St Kieran’s and working as a teacher. I am currently teaching year 1 but taught grade 4 last year. I grew up in the small town of Ingham (north of Townsville) with my parents and twin brother Jack. I have always wanted to be a teacher since I was small and moved to Townsville in 2014 to study. Once I graduated I really wanted to go somewhere new and different. I applied everywhere out west and luckily Claudine gave me a call! I moved out pretty quickly and also got two little kitties at the end of last year. I absolutely love living in this community and St Kieran’s, I am very blessed.

P&F Dates

All meetings start at 5.30pm

Wednesday 30th October
Thursday 28th November

Playgroup

Little K’s Playgroup is free and all are welcome. Mondays 8:30am to 10:00am in the Parent Engagement Room.

Tuckshop

31/10 - Hot Dog + Popper, Popcorn & Zooper Dooper
7/11 - Asian Noodles + Popper, Cupcake & Zooper Dooper
14/11 - Burrito + Popper,Brownie & Zooper Dooper
21/11 - Crumbed Chicken Leg + Chips & Popper, Popcorn & Zooper Dooper

St Kieran’s Buy, Swap, Sell

2005 Toyota Camry

$9,000

Excellent condition, only had 1 owner. 130,000klm. 2005 model. Great original car with no issues and drives well. Just had a service.

Guinea Pigs

Two guinea pigs for sale with cage. One male and female (she is pregnant). The are well cared for, but children are no longer wanting them. Needed to go to a good home. Call the school if interested.