St Francis Catholic School - Hughenden eNewsletter

From the Principal

This week, we were fortunate to welcome Mr. Peter Stower, Director of Learning and Teaching at TCE, who visited our classrooms and enjoyed hearing about the wonderful learning happening throughout our school. Mr. Stower is retiring at the end of this year, and we wish him all the best as he embarks on this exciting new chapter in his life.

Tomorrow, we celebrate World Teachers' Day. We are in a unique position where all of our staff are accessible to every student, providing care, guidance, and support. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our team: Miss Brown, Miss Margy, Miss Allison, Miss Howie, Miss Rowe, Miss Eriksen, Miss Edgerton, Miss Kim, and Miss Nicole. Thank you all for your unwavering commitment to our students.

We will also be marking Day for Daniel tomorrow, with students engaging in important activities to promote personal safety. This is a valuable opportunity to empower our children with the knowledge they need to stay safe and aware.

This week, I had the pleasure of spending time in the Prep/1 room and in the pool for PE lessons. It’s been a joy to work with our youngest learners while Miss Brown attended an Early Years Network meeting, collaborating with other local early childhood professionals.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Sharn Greenaway

Principal

School TV Topic of the Week-Understanding Adolescence

In this edition of SchoolTV - Friendship & Belonging

Learning how to make new friends and keep them involves a number of skills every young person needs to understand and develop. For some these skills will come very naturally, allowing them to easily move between different friendship groups, sharing their experiences and opening up to new people. For others, this can be much harder to navigate. Belonging to a group that is like-minded with similar interests is highly beneficial to a young person’s wellbeing. It gives them a sense of security helping them feel valued which in turn builds their confidence.

Positive friendships are an important part of the journey to adulthood. Adult carers can support their child or teenager by providing guidance in the many social and emotional skills required for a healthy relationship. This will help them to obtain, retain and maintain friendships. However, not all friendship are regarded as positive. Sometimes young people develop negative or toxic friendships. Therefore it is also important for them to learn how to identify, avoid or deal with such a friendship.

In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers can learn how to support their young person’s friendship so that they experience a sense of belonging.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Friendship & Belonging edition of SchoolTV
https://sfsh.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/friendship-belonging

Assembly

Spotlight is Year 5/6. Join us from 8:30am in the library for assembly!

Student Of The Week

P/1: Jimmy Crozier

2/3/4:Bella Harriman

5/6: Rhianna Angus

22/10 Hayley McMclymont

24/10 Krystal Shard

Prep/1 Happenings

Prep/1 students took their learning outdoors to explore the concept of volume in a hands-on and exciting way. Using water, sand, and rocks, the children experimented with different containers to see how much each could hold. With buckets, cups, jars, and scoops in hand, the students eagerly filled and poured, discovering how the size and shape of each container affected its capacity. Some found that it took many small cups of water to fill a large bucket, while others noticed that rocks piled up differently than sand in the same container. These activities not only made learning about volume fun but also helped develop important language skills as students used words like "full," "empty," "more," and "less" to describe their observations. It was a great way to connect maths with the real world and foster curiosity in a natural setting.

Miss Brown,

P/1 Teacher

This Friday is Day for Daniel, an annual day to recognise Child Safety in Australia. In this lesson, students learned about the story of Wobbly Jelly, a young cat learning to RECOGNISE her body clues, REACT when she felt unsafe, and REPORT to a safe person. In this lesson, students identified their safe people, recognised their body clues when they were feeling unsafe, and said how they would react in that situation. A reminder: students are invited to wear Red on Friday for Day for Daniel.

Miss Allison,

Year 2/3/4 Teacher

This week, the Year 5/6 students were excited to welcome Sister Rita, who shared insights about the history of the Catholic Church and its role in our community. She also spoke about significant saints, including St. Francis of Assisi, who inspires our school and parish. She shared her stories and experiences in the Catholic community and what it was like when she was growing up. Her visit helped deepen our understanding of our faith and the values of compassion, equality and service. Students will now use this valuable information as they apply it to their upcoming Religion assessment, where they will reflect on how these teachings and saints influence their faith and community.

Miss Rowe,

Year 5/6 Teacher

Specialist Lessons- Miss Eriksen

In P/1 music this week we continue to explore beats and keeping in time when we sing. We sung a range of songs including the ants go marching and this old man. After, the students had a go at playing hot cross buns and Mary had a little lamb on the glockenspiel.

Miss Eriksen,

Specialist Teacher/Inclusive Practices Teacher

Wonderful writing at St Francis

Krystal Shard - Year 6

Library News

We are preparing for our bookfair in Term 4! This years theme is Bookaneer!

Tuckshop Notices

We will no longer be serving Homebake treats in Tuckshop.
Tuckshop requires more helpers. If you can volunteer your time on a Friday from 9am-11:30am that would be greatly appreciated. The staff serve second break so parents are only required to cook & serve first break and then cook and package second break meals.