16 October 2020

Newsletter Articles

IMPORTANT DATES

Monday 19th - Friday 23rd October - Book Week
Thursday 22nd October - Book Week Dress Up
Friday 30th October - Day for Daniel - Dress in Red (gold coin donation)
Monday 9th November - 13th November - NAIDOC Week
Wednesday 11th November - School Transition Day
Monday 23rd - 27th November - Book Fair
Thursday 26th November - End of Year Mass
Monday 30th November - Year 6 Graduation
Wednesday 2nd December - Year 1 Nativity Play
Wednesday 2nd December - Wet Wednesday
Wednesday 2nd December - Christmas Concert at 6pm
Friday 4th December - Last day of school finish at 12pm

PRAYER / SPECIAL MESSAGE

The Francis Factor (Reflecting on the Words & Wisdom of Pope Francis)

“Put on Christ”

Jesus brings God to us and us to God. With God, our life is transformed and renewed, and we can see reality with new eyes, from Jesus standpoint, with his own eyes. For this reason, I say to every one of you today: “Put on Christ!” in your life, and you will find a friend in whom you can always trust; “put on Christ,” and you will see the wings of hope spreading and letting you journey with joy toward the future; “put on Christ,” and your life will be full of his love; it will be a fruitful life. Because we all want to have a fruitful life, one that is life-giving for others. (Address, World Youth Day, 25 July, 2013)

Reflection

Is your life transformed and renewed by Christ? Have you put on Christ as the centre of your life?

PRINCIPALS REPORT

Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome back to all of our staff, students and families. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and are relaxed, re-energized and ready for Term Four.

At the end of yet another successful school camp program, I take this opportunity to thank our teachers who spend many hours outside of normal classroom planning and preparation to coordinate these experiences for our students. They take time away from their lives and commitments to travel with our students and provide exceptional leadership and care 24 hours a day, in sometimes challenging conditions, something which is daunting given that many are yet to experience being a parent! Thank you also to the parent volunteers and school staff who also make camp experiences possible. We certainly appreciate your ability to take valuable time away from your jobs and families to contribute to the success of camps. I must say I had an amazing time away on the Year 6 camp and it was wonderful to chill with the students outside of school time. I always learn more about students when they are away and having fun.

From time to time you may have a concern or question that may arise. If you do, please book a time to meet with your child’s class teacher or myself as we are all very happy to discuss any issue you may be having in relation to the schooling life of your child. Open communication between home and school is vital in supporting your child and their education. I assure you that all matters are dealt with confidentially. At St Kieran’s we strive to work in partnership with parents and guardians as we aim to provide each student with the opportunities to reach his or her full potential.

With only nine weeks it will be a busy term ahead and we will be welcoming the Christmas Season in no time! I look forward to working with you all again this term and celebrating another great year at St Kieran’s.

God Bless
Claudine Dank

RELIGIOUS LIFE OF OUR SCHOOL

The Word

Some Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus. They said to him, “Teacher, you are not afraid of anyone so tell us what you think. Is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?” Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why do you try and trap me? Pay to the Emperor what belongs to him and pay to God what belongs to God.” (Matthew 22:15-21)

We are loved by God who is disappointed when we get off-track by following some ‘other’ god, like money or things. It is not that God wants to control us. Rather, God knows that we will be happiest if we live according to the divine plan.

This year (during the month of October) we invite you to explore The Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, in Northwest Cambodia, who have been assisting people with disabilities for over 20 years. Bishop Enrique “Kike” Figaredo founded initiatives like the Arrupe Centre in 2001 to specifically help children with disabilities to access education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. As we will learn, at the Arrupe Centre, children who have been injured due to the presence of landmines, are able to access education.

This year in his World Mission Day Message 2020 Pope Francis urges us to continue Jesus’ mission:

“…. the mission of Jesus in history …. sends us everywhere so that, through our witness of faith and the proclamation of the Gospel, God may continue to manifest God’s love and in this way touch and transform hearts, minds, bodies, societies and cultures in every place and time.”

Our Year 6 Leaders, along with the Year 5 Class Representatives will attend a combined Catholic Mission meeting at Good Shepherd Catholic College this week. This will give students from the three Catholic schools in Mount Isa to meet and brainstorm ideas around fundraising for Catholic Mission Month. They will then be able to take the message back to their schools. Catholic Mission Month will be launched here at St Kieran’s this Friday on Assembly. Please visit the website so you are able to access the stories of the children who we hope to help .

PARISH INFOMATION

Christmas Appeal

The Parish is asking for donations for the Christmas appeal. If you have any questions, food donations, toy donations please send to the Parish.

DIOCESAN INFORMATION

Mass Livestream

Sunday Mass from the Sacred Heart Cathedral will continue to be Live Streamed for the community. You can find the stream here

Prayer resources and other important information can be found at the link below.

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

SCHOOL RENEWAL PLAN AT ST KIERANS

Each fortnight we will profile a section of our Annual School Improvement Plan for 2020. This is the document that guides our plans and priorities for the year. We prepare this document based on initiatives set by the Townsville Catholic Education Office and through consultation with our school stakeholders: parents, staff and students.

LEARNING & TEACHING

Our first week back at school this term has been full of hands on, exciting learning experiences for our Yr 3-6 students as they experienced camp. Yr 6 enjoyed the beauty of Magnetic Island with a focus on team building, Yr 5 enjoyed the spectacular Paluma Ranges with their camp having an environmental focus, Yr 4 stepped back into the time of the dinosaurs in Winton and Yr 3 experienced their first sleepover and local art tour of town. Each one of these camps offered our children near experiences and challenges and an opportunity to spend time with their teachers and classmates outside of school. A huge thank you to all of the staff and parents (and Father Emene) who either accompanied or helped out with the various camps, it is a big time commitment but camps couldn’t go ahead without your support.

With only a short term ahead of us it is more important than ever for our children to be attending school regularly. Unless your child is unwell we hope to have them here every day to ensure they don’t miss any important content taught this term. There is a strong link between attendance and academic achievement and we hope to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed at school.

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 below 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)

Kids help line has now developed information for parents and students in regards to cyber safety. If you have time have a look.

LIBRARY / CHILD PROTECTION

Book Week, this year, will be held from Monday 19th – Friday 23rd October, 2020. This year asks children to embrace the theme “Curious Creatures, Wild Minds”.

This exciting invitation opens a world full of possibilities when it comes to book week theme ideas. This is an opportunity to escape into another world where your child can be anything they want to be!

Book week is a fantastic opportunity for your child to celebrate their favourite characters from their favourite books by dressing up.

Here at St Kieran’s we invite students to come dressed up on Thursday 22nd Oct.

However, if you’re the sort of parent that cringes when you hear the phrase “Book Week” then here are some book week costumes ideas.

Each student will receive a Curious Creatures, Wild Minds bookmark and the most imaginative costume from each class will be awarded a prize.

From,

Mrs Anderson

ECO WARRIORS

Eco Warriors have kicked off Term 4 by planting a grape vine, capsicum and strawberries in the garden. Make sure you check out pumpkin hill, our pumpkins have gone crazy and are working their way up the fence. Our tomatoes are just about finished but our zucchini, beans and celery are still growing nicely. The students have taken the lead in our Staff Vs Students competition thanks to our Yr 4s bringing their recycling back from camp as well as the MacNamara kids bringing in recycling from home. Well done students, we’ll have to get Mrs Ormes to drink some more ice coffee so we can take the lead again!!!

This week we are submitting an application for a $1000 grant from TCEO to go towards projects that make our school more sustainable. So fingers crossed!!! Thank you to Mrs Schlencker for working on our application as well as adding to our watering system in the holidays.

TUCKSHOP

Thursday Meal Deals

Term 4

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.

PLAYGROUP

Monday Mornings between 8.30am - 10am. Open for all community members’ ages between 1 - 4year olds. While we always have a plan for each week, activities are child directed, letting them explore, create and learn at their own pace.

Last week at Little K’s we started with Craft in mind but ended up creating boats from used coffee pods (thanks mums!) and paper and floating them in plastic bowls. This was led by one of the children and all the other children were excited to join in too. We also created some hammering activities, following the interests of another little one.

This week we had our Spring Picnic. It was a lovely morning to be outside in the Sacred Space and Reconciliation Garden. The children enjoyed some croquet, picnic food and playing on the playground. We also had some bird visitors and the children had a chance to use the school’s bird posters to work out what they could see.

LOST PROPERTY

We have a number of items in the office that we don’t know who they belong to. Below is a brief description of the items we have. If they belong to you, please collect them.

• Grey and red Spinach Boost glasses
• Blue Fitbit watch
• Black Vogue Glasses Case with purple and cream Vogue glasses
• Star Wars Lanyard with a green key ring and a key ring that say “No 1 Son” with keys on it
• Size 6 Left foot Black Jazz Shoe.