28 May 2020

Newsletter Articles

IMPORTANT DATES

Monday 8th June - Issue 4 Book Club Due
Friday 12th June – Term Two School Fees Due

PRINCIPALS REPORT

Dear Families

It was so wonderful welcoming our Year 2 - Year 6 students back to school this week. We had many happy and a few nervous faces on Monday morning, but all were very excited to see their teachers and their friends again. It certainly did not take long before they were back into learning at school!

As it has now ended our period of Online Home Learning I would like to thank our teachers and our Parents, for their commitment to ensuring it has continued for our students over the past five weeks. I know at times the challenges seemed great, but it has been a process we have all learnt something new from. The staff and I have been grateful for the positive messages and emails regarding the past 5 weeks.

A very big thank you to all those families who have responded so positively to the Stop, Drop and Go routine. I know it is not ideal and that the line is now quite long, however, we are following the guidelines set out for us, as our students return to school.

If parents must walk their Prep or other child/ren to their classroom, we ask that they not enter the room or gather around outside the classrooms. Please make sure that you are 1.5m away from other parents. If you wish to speak to your child’s teacher please, contact them via email, via the office or they can give you a call.

Stop, Drop and Go has also increased our drive through pick-up traffic. We are doing our best to ensure the flow of traffic is maintained. Thank you for your patience and support in this matter.

We will continue with our current cleaning and hygiene practices. Classrooms will be cleaned each afternoon, toilets, desks and high used surfaces are always being cleaned. Students will wash or sanitize hands upon entering and leaving classrooms and before lunch breaks. New sanitizer and antibacterial wipes are within every classroom. We ask all who enter our office to use the sanitizer provided and to refrain from wandering around the school.

God Bless and take care
Claudine

APPRAISAL SURVEY

2020 is the third year of Claudine Dank’s four year term as Principal - St Kieran’s Catholic School, Mount Isa. In line with Townsville Catholic Education Office procedures, an appraisal of Claudine Dank’s performance in the role is carried out at this time. She has written a Self-Review as the first step in the appraisal process. In the Self-Review, she looks at her work with six leadership and management aspects: Faith and Mission, Education, Staff, Community, Strategic Management and Organisation.

I am asking for your assistance in gathering some feedback from the staff and parent communities to assist Claudine to continue to develop her leadership skills. You are invited to take part in this process by completing the electronic survey, which I have prepared in consultation with her and returning it by clicking on the SUBMIT button when complete.

If you could provide your responses to me by Friday, 5th June it would be appreciated. Anonymous contributions will not be considered.

Click on this link to access Survey B Survey B - Claudine Dank

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

Kath Tarttelin
A/Education Consultant

APRE

Sunday's reading focused on the Ascension of the Lord. This was Jesus’ last bodily appearance on earth before he was taken up to heaven. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke as well as the Acts of the Apostles recount the event which occurred on the Mount of Olives near Bethany outside the walls of Jerusalem. Traditionally celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter. Matthew 28:16-20 - The eleven disciples went to the hill in Galilee to meet Jesus. He said, “I have been given all authority on heaven and on earth. Go then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples; Baptise them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

This Sunday the church celebrates Pentecost. ‘Pentecost’ means ‘fiftieth day’ in Greek. It marks the end of the Easter season and is often referred to as the birthday of the Church, as it was from this event that the disciples went forth to spread the good news and establish the Church. The scripture reads, “...the believers were gathered together. Suddenly they heard a powerful wind and it filled the whole house. Then they were tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages. People from every nation were amazed to hear them speak in their own language.” John 20:19-23. To mark this important event of the Church’s calendar each class will have special activities and prayers to partake in.

Come Holy Spirit!
Fillout Hearts with your gifts
And kindle in them the fire of love
Amen.

PARISH INFOMATION

Re-Opening of Churches

Last week the Queensland Government outlined a road map for the return of services after COVID-19. Bishop Tim has written to all Priests and Parishes to advise that Churches will remain closed until the commencement of Stage 2 which is the weekend of the 13th of June. Bishop Tim has asked Priests and Parishes to prepare plans to provide a COVIDSafe Parish from this date. It is our responsibility to ensure that when our Parishes open, they provide a safe and hygienic environment for the community to gather.

Stage 2 only allows for 20 people to gather for any individual gathering. How this will happen in unique for each Parish.

Please continue to stay connected to your Parish community through these notices and join in an online Mass. Pray at home information and resources is available from the link below:

Project Compassion

Thank you for your support of Project Compassion in 2020. In these difficult times we have proved that we can “Go Further Together.” You are invited to return your Project Compassion box to your local Parish or go online and make a donation

DIOCESAN INFORMATION

Mary Help of Christians

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord which happens to fall on our National and Diocesan Patronal Solemnity which is "Our Lady Help of Christians". The Bishops of Australia have decided to join together united in prayer to entrust our nation to Our Lady Help of Christians. The Bishops have also written a word of encouragement to the Catholic People of Australia. You can read it here -

Safeguarding Update

The safeguarding webpage has been updated to include the reviewed and approved policy and its procedures. Please visit the link below to access the safeguarding documents. Your feedback, via the webpage, is directly submitted to the Diocesan Safeguarding Coordinator. You can also speak directly with your Parish Priest or Safeguarding Representative.

Your involvement and support to our parishes is critical to ensure we put into action, our commitment to protect our most vulnerable and to create a safer environment for everyone. This includes how we apply our safeguarding policy in ministry and how we report if we have concerns about a person’s safety or conduct.

For more information regarding the Safeguarding policy and our procedures, please contact Mr Craig Brereton on 4726 3264 or cbrereton@tsv.catholic.org.au

CURRICULUM

This week has been great to see all our happy little learners back at school. Our teachers are busy checking in to see how all of their students have been going with their learning over the past five weeks, revising important concepts and moving forward with new content.

This semester our students will receive a modified report which will look a bit different to reports sent out in the past. We will be reporting only on Maths, English, Religion and Science this semester. When we modified our online learning we made the decision to teach a five week block of Science for the first 5 weeks of the term and HASS as a 5 week block for the second half of the term seeing as Science lends itself more to independent and at home learning. At this stage we are looking at sending reports home on the last day of Term 2 to allow our teachers to have more time to assess and make judgements on where our students are achieving.

Thank you to all of our parents who worked hard over the past five weeks to support your child's learning at home, you have all done an amazing job.

PREP ENROLMENTS 2021

Families seeking enrolment of their child into Prep for 2021 are invited to complete an Application for Enrolment, available on our website or alternatively collect an application package from the School Office.

As we are anticipating that there will continue to be strong demand for placements within our Prep groups for 2021, it is important that applications are received by the school as soon as possible.

Please note that if you have a sibling of a current St Kieran’s student you will also need to complete an enrolment application for your child for Prep 2021. Students enrolled at St Joseph’s Kindergarten or St Mary Mackillop Early Learning Centre are also required to complete an application form.

St Kieran’s Catholic School works in partnership with St Joseph’s Catholic School and Good Shepherd Parish to coordinate the Prep enrolment process so that the best opportunity is afforded to all.

ESMART (CYBER SAFETY)

Practical tips to use with under 5s

Many of us didn’t need online safety skills when we were children, so we are still learning how to manage the risks ourselves. To help parents and carers of children under 5, eSafety has developed some easy-to-follow tips.

1. Model good screen habits

The first thing you can do as a parent or carer is to be more aware of how you interact with digital technology, especially how often you pick up your phone. This can start from when your child is a baby — remember, they are watching and learning from you every moment. Think about how much time you devote to texting, checking social media or being distracted by screens.

Read more advice on how to model good screen practices for your child.

2. Set some rules

Toddlers and preschoolers can learn rules to keep them safe while they are using devices, like when to ask for help. They can also be encouraged to think critically about who can contact them and how sharing information might affect them.

You can fill out our family tech agreement with your child to help set some boundaries – the characters from ABC Play School make it fun to do. You can also watch a special Play School episode about online safety together.

For more ideas, read our advice on managing time online.

3. Start talking about using screens safely

Talking about using screens safely from a very early age encourages habits that will help your child as they explore, learn, create and connect with others online.

You can begin by talking to toddlers and preschoolers about what you are doing on your screen as you search for an address, send a text or post a picture on social media. Encourage them to ask questions and help them to understand what you are doing and why. You can also talk to your child about what they like to do online – read how to choose good online content to help guide this discussion.

Next, start including our four key eSafety Early Years messages in your conversations — they will help your child both online and offline.

• Be safe — help your child understand the connected world, how they can protect their personal information and who it is safe to communicate with online.
• Be kind — show your child how to be kind and respectful online and model good habits around device use and online sharing.
• Ask for help — teach your child when to ask for help and let them know they can come to you with any issue.
• Make good choices — help your child to think critically about the content they watch and how they spend their time online.

HPE

Welcome back to all of our wonderful students who were doing home schooling!

In PE for the remainder of this term, our Prep students will participate in a range of cooperative games to complete fun challenges as well as basic soccer skills. Year 1 and 2 students will be creating games incorporating fundamental movement skills and equipment for other students to participate in. Year 3 and 4 students are creating movement sequences that involves soccer skills and fitness circuit activities to music while the senior students are participating in cooperative games.

In regards to our school sport program, we have been advised, as expected, that all sports have been cancelled until at least June. At our last School Sport meeting there was no further news as to the return date of sporting programs but we will keep you updated as we hear any news.

Indigenous Education

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the newest member of our Indigenous Education Team Miss Kiana Mills-Keed. Kiana has joined us from Forster in NSW. She will be working with our students across the whole school.

Yesterday we invited teachers and families to join us to view the documentary ‘In My Blood It Runs”. This was an excellent insight into the role of education in the lives of Indigenous children. A huge thank you to Tammi Webber for hosting our evening and leading our discussion after the film.

This week we have acknowledged National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week. Our classes have taken part in prayer services, discussions and activities based around the theme ‘In This Together’.

Next week we will be checking in with our Years 2-6 students to reset their goals and focus their learning for the next 8 weeks.

LIBRARY

On Wednesday at 11am the whole school listened to the story of the Chicken Divas. It was such a fun story and the students had many laughs. They even made their own Chicken Divas to go with the story.

ECO WARRIORS

Eco Warriors have continued to work tirelessly to get our garden up and running. We now have, in addition to our parent group, a dedicated staff team working together to make sustainable practices part of our everyday routine here at Saint Kieran’s. Our staff team comprises of Mrs Lagiono, Miss Kate Andrews , Mrs Siemer, Mrs Ormes, Miss Stark and Mrs Schlencker. We had a meeting this week and delegated roles and responsibilities (our list is pretty long!!!) Next week we will restart our recycling, composting and energy saving initiatives as well as continue to work on our garden space.

A huge thank you to all of the students who worked hard during our afternoon working bees and a special thanks to Gary Dank for taking off some of the roof so our plants can get some more sunshine. Thanks to Mrs L, Mrs Schlencker and Mrs Wheeler (and their husbands) who spent some of their weekend moving sand and setting up irrigation. Thank you also to Mrs Dank for painting our awesome garden rocks.

Next Friday 5 June, we will be raising funds for future garden projects (who knew gardening was so expensive!!) by holding a pizza lunch. Order forms will be sent home today so please return these to school as soon as possible.

PLAYGROUND

Starting on the 29th May our new playgrounds will start construction. They are hoping it will take 2 weeks. Below are pictures of what they will look like.

Big Kids Playground

Prep Playground

TUCKSHOP

Term 2 Meal Deals

Did you know the tuckshop could make cupcakes for your child’s birthday? $1.00 each, please enquire at the office for an order form.

COMMUNITY NOTICES