Newsletter Term 1 Week 4

39 Benfer Road VICTORIA POINT 4165

Ph: 07 3207 6628 Fax: 07 3207 6734

Email: pvictoriapoint@bne.catholic.edu.au

Online: www.stritasvp.qld.edu.au

For all absentees please log into the Parent Portal by clicking HERE1

Office Hours: 8am - 3.30pm weekdays

OSHC: 0477 550 700

Parish Office: (07) 32079177

Click here2 for Parish Information & Mass Times

1https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Pages/attendance.aspx 2http://www.stritasparish.org/

To enrol now for Prep 2020. We have already received many applications, so get your application in so you don't miss out. Limited spaces in other year levels.

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Guardians,

In the past two weeks we have held our Opening of School Mass, Welcome BBQ and Year 6 Camp. It

was lovely to see so many families join us for the BBQ. Thank you to the members of our St Rita’s Parent

Network, community representatives and staff who helped at the BBQ. Thank you also to Janine and Annaliese for organising the food and drinks.

Year 6 Camp

Our Year 6 students returned on Friday tired but full of great stories about the camp, most agreed that it

was ‘the best one ever!' Thank you to Mrs Therese Rae, Ms Aoife Condron, Ms Maria O ’Donnell, Mrs

Toni Schmalkuche, Mrs Colleen Barton, Mr Mario Collavino and Mr Brian Mason for attending the camp

and supervising the campers. Thank you to our Year 6 students for being great representatives of St Rita’s, as collaborative and cooperative team members.

Staff

On Thursday and Friday Mr Brian Mason, Mr Nathan Mulhearn, Ms Sue Maclean and I will be attending

our Leadership Cluster Conference. This annual event brings leadership teams from clusters of schools

together for the purpose of hearing from some of the BCE Senior Education Officers prior to time being

given for goal setting, review and compliance matters. Mrs Lisa-Marie Raisch and Mrs Wendy Anderson will be replacing us in the office on Thursday and Mrs Lisa-Marie Raisch and Mrs Lisa Touhey on Friday.

Complaints Procedure

On our Parent Portal and the St Rita’s website is a fact sheet outlining the procedure for complaints - the

BCE Parent Complaint Procedure.

Generally, any educational or social concern a family may have regarding a student is directed in the first instance to the classroom teacher.

If required, this issue may be escalated to one of the Leadership Team - for students in Prep to Year 2, Mr Nathan Mulhearn is the contact and for students in Year 3 to 6, Mr Brian Mason is the contact.

Issues requiring further investigation will be directed to me as Principal.

Most concerns can be resolved at the classroom level with open communication between teacher,

student and parents. Classroom teachers know the students and understand their social interactions

with their peers. It is important to have this information when investigating any issue, similarly it is important for school staff to have information about any concerns that are shared at home.

Uniform Survey

Last year we conducted a survey about the proposed uniform changes. The results of the survey are

below, questions 2 and 4 were the sections to provide comments. We had 162 responses to the survey

with some great suggestions and comments. The next step is to reconvene the Uniform Committee and review the results to make a final decision about uniforms and the policy changes.

School Board

St Rita’s has a School Board made up of staff and family representatives. We operate a Pastoral Model

for the meetings, with this being one opportunity for different voices in the community to contribute to

governance issues. We meet once per term at 6pm for dinner and then have a report and discussions

about school strategic goals, especially in relation to Learning and Teaching and Catholic Identity. These meetings are usually scheduled on a Wednesday or Thursday.

Last year a couple of our parent representatives resigned from the school board as their children had

moved on to high school. Ideally, we would like to have one or two new parents join the board. This

would be a great opportunity for new families to build connections with other families and staff in our community.

Therefore, I invite parent nominations for representatives on the School Board. Please let me kno w if

you are interested.

Best wishes to you and your family,

Carolyn

From the APA

Year 6 Camp – Currumbin Valley Rescue

Last week I had the pleasure of attending our Year 6 Camp at Currumbin Valley with our Year 6 students

and staff. The camp facilities, staff, food and program were all excellent and our Year 6s participated

enthusiastically in the various activities offered, all of which had a rescue theme that challenged the students to Communicate, Value others and be Resilient. Congratulations Year 6 !

St Rita’s Safety Alerts

As mentioned in our first newsletter, last year we developed a series of three “St Rita’s Safety Alerts”,

which are information documents outlining and explaining our various protocols, systems and

expectations designed to keep all in our community safe.

• St Rita’s Safety Alert 1 - Duty of Care and Supervision of Students

• St Rita’s Safety Alert 2 – Traffic Safety in and Around School

• St Rita’s Safety Alert 3 – Dogs & Pets and Bikes & Scooters on School Grounds

These are found on the Parent Portal 3in Forms & Documents – School Communications. For your

immediate reference, we have attached them with this week's Newsletter. All parents and carers are

asked to please read these documents carefully and support the requirements and expectations.

Use of School Playgrounds

We have noticed that many students have been playing on the Prep Adventure Playground and the

Years 1 & 2 Adventure Playground before and after school. This is not permitted, even with parent or

grandparent supervision, due to potential Workplace Health & Safety and liability issues. Safety Alert 1

outlines this in greater detail.

Disabled Parking Spaces

Within our school and parish community, we have several students, parents and grandparents who have

personal mobility issues and challenges. We have a very limited number of marked Disabled Parking

spaces, so parents and carers are asked to please show respect, consideration and support for these

members of our community who genuinely need them. Unless you have a physical disability and are

displaying a Disability Certificate on your dashboard, please do not park in the designated disabled spaces at any time – even briefly.

Have a great Week 4.

Brian Mason APA

3https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Lists/Forms and

Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx

From the APRE

Thank you to all families who donated to show the love for Townsville. We raised $600 to support flood

relief efforts. This was part of a wider campaign for all Brisbane Catholic Education schools. I hope to share in the next newsletter the system wide fundraising total.

Six members of Mini Vinnies will join Mrs Rae and myself at St Stephen ’s Cathedral on Tuesday 5 March

for the Project Compassion Launch. Our Mini Vinnies group will be commissioned by the Archbishop. The students will be blessed and receive a scroll of commissioning to be brought back to school.

On Sunday 17 March Galway House will lead the 9am Parish Mass. Student’s are able to wear casual

green clothes in honour of St Patrick’s Day. If you would like your child to have a job on the day

(reading/delivering symbols, gifts), please email nmulhearn@bne.catholic.edu.au4. Please bring a plate to share for Morning Tea afterwards, green or Irish theme.

4mailto:nmulhearn@bne.catholic.edu.au

From the PLL

English in the Classroom for Weeks 4, 5 and 6

Prep

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the central text for this English learning and teaching cycle. The students

are identifying connections between the book and their personal experience. They are applying their

developing knowledge of concepts of print. When writing and speaking they are developing an

understanding that their texts can reflect their own experiences. They are learning to retell events and experiences with peers and known adults.

Year 1

To introduce connects of real life and literature this term, the Year 1s are looking at the book Mil li, Jack

and the Dancing Cat. Through this text students are learning how to listen to others when taking part in

conversations and learning how to interact in different situations. Students will be given the opportunity

to learn and practice the skills of visualisation and listening and transfer their learned knowledge to

create texts that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images. Students

will work in small groups, pairs and whole class discussions, to learn to interact with others and take turns.

Year 2

Giraffes Can’t Dance is the central text in the current English learning and teaching cycle. The students

are identifying language features used to describe5 the characters in the text. They are reading texts that

contain varied sentence structures and some unfamiliar vocabulary. When discussing experiences,

students use everyday language features and topic-specific vocabulary. The students create texts drawing on their own experiences.

Year 3 are enjoying working with the text- The 13 Storey Treehouse. The students are exploring how

language features, images and vocabulary choices are used for different effects. They are reading texts

that contain varied sentence structures and images that provide extra information. When writing the

5http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Curriculum/Continuum?a=F10AS&t=Describe

students create texts including images to express and develop6, in some detail, ideas and characters. The students are creating texts for familiar audiences.

The year 4 students are using a variety of texts by a variety of authors including: Paul Jennings. Roald

Dahl and Jeannie Baker. They are also working specifically with: When Henry Caught Imaginitis by Nick

Bland, The Girls with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts and The Shop at Hoopers Bend by Emily

Rodda. The students will explain7 how language features and vocabulary are used to engage the interest of audiences. When writing the students will use language features to create add detail to their texts.

Year 5

6http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/glossary/popup?a=F10AS&t=Develop 7http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/glossary/popup?a=F10AS&t=Explain

For the next three weeks, Year 5 students will be looking at text structure from a variety of texts,

including Digital, aspects of the novel Nanberry, Jackie French and historical Ozbox information cards.

Students will be learning how to explain8 how text structures assist in the understanding of a text. By

analysing a variety of texts students will be able to explain9 literal and implied information. Students will

be looking at images, headings and the body of writing and select specific vocabular, to he lp them

understand what the author is wanting their audience to know about the text.

Year 6

Year 6 have recently returned from their Leadership Camp and are planning for the week 5, 6, 7 cycle

this Friday. Some key focus areas in this week's planning will be reading texts analysing and explaining

how language features and vocabulary are used in relation to qualities of good leaders. The students will

be creating detailed texts in the form of a letter to nominate for leadership positions in the school.

Gotcha Awards

Well done to this week's Gotcha award winners - Slate in 3T and Luke in PK. Their photo is on our Learning Enhancement Blog.

Music News

Just a reminder that all arts groups are now in full swing. I have put names of students/groups for

Ukulele and Choir on the music room door. All class teachers also have these lists and should be

reminding students of these times.

8http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/glossary/popup?a=F10AS&t=Explain 9http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/glossary/popup?a=F10AS&t=Explain

Also a reminder that Junior and Senior Drama groups have been postponed until term 3, due to the number of ukulele groups.

Have a great week

Paul Tyrrell

Tuckshop News

Thursday 21st Feb

Cathy Nicholson

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2nd Break

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Friday 22nd Feb

Catherine Gillian

Sharlene Spiller

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2ND Break

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Q & A's

• We have not gone cashless. We still accept brown paper bags.

• Qkr! has replaced Flexischools

• Year 3 to 6 are the only students who can purchase over the counter with money.

• We only sell ice blocks and Slushy's at 1st Break. We do encourage that all students order these

through Qkr! or come to the tuckshop first thing in the morning to purchase the token for ice

blocks or Slushy's. Tokens do make the lines move more quickly so we can serve more students.

• Students may purchase anything from the snack part of our menu and drinks over the counter at 2nd Break but please remember there is very limited time for this to happen.

• Sushi Orders - from now on the sushi will come in a bag of its own and anything else you order for your child will come in a separate bag.

Volunteers - For anyone wanting to volunteer in our school a Student Protection Training must be done

first. This can be found on our schools website under Forms and Documents. Once you have completed

the training (which should only take about 15 min) print out the last page, fill it in and hand it in at the front office. We look forward to seeing some new faces volunteering in our school.

For all enquiries please do not hesitate to contact me.

E.renee.schafer@bne.catholic.edu.au

Renee

Uniform Shop

HOURS

Thursday 8.00 to 10.00am

Friday 8.00 to 10.00am

Enrolment Information for High School

Please read the information provided in this link10 regarding enrolment for San Sisto College

10https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Lists/Forms and Documents/San Siso College

Tour.pdf

Please see the link11 regarding the Chisholm Catholic College Discovery Day to be held on Thursday 7 March from 1pm to 6pm. All Welcome.

Did you know?

Did you know that if you click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner of your Sway newsletter you can navigate straight to sections within the newsletter, e.g. Uniform Shop? Try it and see for yourself.

School Banking with Bank of Queensland

Major Sponsor for our 2017 SPRINGFEST

Banker of the Week

Congratulations to James I (5L) you are the winner of a bonus $2 deposited into your account

today. Don’t forget we will also continue our incentive programme, where all you need to do is bank a

minimum 14 weeks this Semester and you will earn a $10 movie voucher to Cineplex Cinemas!! In the

meantime, can you please make sure your books have been updated with your new class for this year to

ensure a safe return of your banking books. Any questions please feel free to call us direct on 3207 6133,

email victoria.point@boq.com.au or pop in and see us at Victoria Point Shopping Centre (food court

end). Have a great week from BOQ Victoria Point!

Mon to Thurs 9.30am – 4.30pm

Fri9.30am – 5pm

Saturday 9.00am – 12pm

11https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/_layouts/15/Lightbox.as px?url=https%3A%2F%2Fextranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au%2Fparent%2Fstritasvp%2Fourschool%2FLists%2FForms%20and%20Document

s%2F2019%20Discovery%20Day%20Chisholm%20College.jpg

Have a great week and happy saving from BOQ Victoria Point!

Parent Portal Frequently Used Links

• Archived Newsletter Page12

• Forms and Documents13

• Calendar14

• Class Blogs15

ADVERTISING

12https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Lists/Archived Newsletters/AllItems.aspx 13https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Lists/Forms and Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx 14https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Lists/Calendar/calendar.aspx 15https://extranet16.bne.catholic.edu.au/parent/stritasvp/ourschool/Pages/Class-Blogs.aspx