St Francis Catholic School - Hughenden eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Parents, Carers and Community Members,

How lovely to have woken to the rain this morning and this glorious weather! This week has been another busy one with School Photos and a visit from our Advisory Visiting Specialist for Hearing Impairment, Ali Cavanagh. We always receive such lovely feedback from our visitors about just how wonderful our children are! This is always lovely to hear and our children should be very proud of themselves for the way in which they represent our school.

We have 3 students travelling to Blackall today to compete in the Northwest School Swimming trials. We wish Miranda, Rhianna and Rory all the best as they compete against other students from Richmond, Cloncurry, Julia Creek, Winton, Longreach, Barcaldine and Blackall! What a wonderful achievement it is to be selected in this team. Swim hard and have fun!

Next Friday we have the Midwest Touch, Netball and Rugby League trials in Julia Creek. Miss Rowe and Miss Eriksen will be attending with the students. Once our numbers are confirmed we will liaise with our Year 5/6 parents for travel options.

We are having our first FACE meeting next Tuesday at 3:00pm in our library and would love to see everyone there! We will be discussing topics such as school camps, reviewing last year and date claimers for 2024.

NAPLAN is soon approaching and our Years 3 & 5 parents would have received communications about the testing schedule this week on COMPASS. If you have any questions about this testing please reach out to your classroom teacher!
Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Sharn Greenaway

Principal

Additional Pupil Free Day 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Townsville Catholic Education Office has approved an additional professional development day in 2024. The date will be Friday 26th April, 2024 and will be a pupil free day. This day follows on from the ANZAC day public holiday on Thursday 25th April. The reason for granting this additional professional development day is to provide the time and opportunity for all teachers to prepare for the implementation of V9.0 of the Australian Curriculum at the commencement of 2025. This planning day will focus on supporting teachers to have a deep understanding of the changes to content and assessment from the current Australian Curriculum to the newly revised curriculum. There is much planning already occurring in all schools to ensure all teachers are well placed to provide rich learning experiences for their students. This additional professional development day (pupil free day) will only occur in 2024.

School Drop off:
As we navigate through our daily routines, we want to ensure that everyone is aware of an essential policy regarding drop-off times. We kindly remind all parents that classroom doors will not open until 8:00 AM each morning. We request that there are no early drop-offs before this time.

This policy has been put in place for the following reasons:

Staff Preparation: Our dedicated educators use this time to prepare their classrooms, ensuring everything is set up for a successful day of learning ahead.
Supervision: To guarantee the safety and security of all children, our staff members are ready to supervise and assist students promptly from 8:00 AM onwards.

We understand that mornings can be hectic, and schedules can sometimes be tight. However, adherence to this policy is crucial for the smooth operation of our facility and the safety of all children in our care.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in ensuring a safe and structured start to each day for our children.

Road Safety:
As our students head home from school each day, it's crucial to reinforce the importance of road safety. With busy streets and various modes of transportation, it's essential that our children are equipped with the knowledge and habits to stay safe.

It has come to our attention that students need to ride on the roadside due to their being minimal access to footpaths in our streets (Mowbray & Flinders). We ask parents to please discuss with your children about riding on the road safely and where possible, in a single file line as to not take up the road. With heavy traffic during drop off and pick up we are concerned for our students safety as we have noticed an increase in children using the middle of the road to ride home. We will continue to work with our local council and police to ensure road safety is a key priority for our students and their well-being.

Student Of The Week

P/1 - Jack Krogh

2/3/4 - Sophie McNamara

5/6 - Adley Crozier

Happy Birthday Bella Harriman, we hope you have a wonderful time on Sunday!!

A big Happy Birthday shout out to Miss Allison for today, we hope you had an amazing day!

Please come along this Friday to hear about all the wonderful things Prep/1 have been doing!

School Captains Report- Adley Crozier

Hi my name is Adley Crozier and I am so excited to be elected as the school captain of St Francis for 2024! Now everybody knows that breakfast is one thing in the morning that gets your brain motivated and ready to learn! The athletic season is starting to roll around so we need to be getting as much energy into our bodies as we possibly can. If you don’t have time in the morning to have brekkie, on a Thursday morning you can come and visit Mrs Howie for a lovely brekkie snack at breakfast club! That's all for now.

Kind Regards,

Adley Crozier

School Captains Report- Bob Harriman

Hi my name is Robert Harriman, I am looking forward to seeing what the year brings as School Captain of St Francis for 2024. As a new week is about to approach we wish luck to Rhianna, Miranda and Rory as they leave for blackall on Thursday for midwest swimming trials. Now lets see how Rory is feeling! Rory has got a lot of feelings going on such as nervous, excited and eager emotions! Let's see how Rhianna feels she feels nervous,excited and still confidant. Finally lets see how Miranda feels about the swimming trials? Miranda is feeling anxious but still excited. We wish them luck at Blackall. That is all for now.

Bob Harriman - School Captain

Prep/1 Happenings

We love all things building in Prep/1! When it comes to construction we use moblo, unifex cubes, wooden blocks and connecter disks. Did you know that building with things like this is a great form of fine motor? Fine motor refers to the group of skills involved in the ability to manipulate smaller objects with the hands and fingers, for example, grasping, holding and pinching. Fine motor helps us develop our writing skills!

Miss Brown,

ebrown17@sfsh.catholic.edu.au

In Religion, 2/3/4 have been exploring different types of prayers and their purpose. In this lesson, students explored the You-Who-Do-Through structure of prayers and wrote their own prayer for someone they care about. Each student put their prayer in a lovely card to give to that person to help make their day a bit brighter.

Year 5/6 have been exploring the meaning behind personal and communal prayer in Religion. Students have been looking at what structure goes into writing a prayer and how to incorporate this. In our lesson, students used the You-Who-Do-Through structure and wrote their own prayer for something or someone that they are grateful for. To make our prayers special, we used our Chromebooks to create posters. We added pictures to go along with our words. It was a fun way to show what we're thankful for and learn about prayers at the same time!

Miss Rowe,

growe@sfsh.catholic.edu.au

Library News

Good afternoon everyone to continue our inclusion and diversity theme for this term, this week in Library we read the story The proudest blue written by Ibtihaj Muhammad (She was the first American muslim woman to compete in the olympics in a hijab).

The story is about two sisters of Muslim faith learning about being strong and proud of who they are.

We had a class group discussion and activities regarding diversity and inclusion and being accepting of others regardless of their culture or religion. I would like to leave you with a quote from the this book:

Don't carry around the hurtful words that others say.

Drop them.

They are not yours to keep.

They belong only to those who said them.

Miss Margy

Specialist Lessons- Miss Eriksen

In our 2/3/4 art lessons we have been exploring the elements of art. We have been looking at how these can help us create different artworks. This week we explored the element of value, which saw us mix black and white to make different shades and tints of colours.

Wonderful Writing At St Francis!

This week’s wonderful writing piece comes from Rhianna Angus in Year 5:

Reminders & Notices

Uniform Reminder:

Formal Academic - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

Sports - Wednesday & Friday

Senior Shirts (Yr 6 Only) - Wednesday & Friday

Important Information:

As part of our ongoing efforts to support families, we wish to provide you with information regarding the Non-State Schools Transport Assistance Scheme (NSSTAS), an initiative funded by the government and managed by Queensland Catholic Education Commission.

About:

What is it: The Students with Disability program helps reduce transportation costs for families of those students whose disability necessitates transport assistance to and from non-state schools.
Application Process: We encourage you to visit https://www.schooltransport.com.au/ for a straightforward online application.
When to apply:

Semester 1 Travel: Please apply in May 2024.
Semester 2 Travel: Application opens in October 2024.

What’s New in 2024:

Following the discontinuation of the Education Adjustment Program (EAP), the eligibility criteria has been updated.

Revised Eligibility Guidelines:

NCCD Requirement:

The student must be recognised in the most recent NCCD submission as requiring supplementary, substantial, or extensive adjustments due to a disability. OR
If the student is in Prep or a new student, the student must have a diagnosed disability and the school must confirm by the end of Term 1 that the provided adjustments align with the descriptors of supplementary, substantial or extensive in the NCCD guidelines.

Individual Education Plan:

An Individual Education Plan or equivalent document must highlight transport needs unique to the student’s disability, that are demonstrably different to those of their same age peers.

Travel Capability Rating (TCR):

The student must have a TCR of C, D, E, or F as per the Student Travel Capability Rating Scale.

Or meet Exceptional Circumstances eligibility:

Additional provisions are in place for those meeting specific exceptional criteria.

We recognise the complexities surrounding these changes and wish to assure you of our support throughout this process. Our goal remains to facilitate a seamless and hassle-free travel experience for your child and family.

Should you have any questions or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us