Term 4 Newsletter 12th October- 2023
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGES
Welcome to term 4 St Francis Community
Being the best version of yourself
Everyday here at St Francis, we have been referring to ‘being the best version of yourself’ across the school. Either at parades, assemblies, in the classroom or on the oval, we are asking our students and staff to make a concerted effort in doing their best and being their best. At times, we make mistakes, our decision-making choices can let us down and we can get things wrong. This can happen to all of us from time to time. What we are expecting here at St Francis, is that when we are faced with the same situation or challenging moment in our lives, that we can learn from these mistakes, poor choices or misunderstandings, and work together to come up with a better solution, choice or action. Being a positive and active role model in our children’s lives is another way we can support our children to be the ‘best version of themselves’.
Learning can be tough, it’s challenging at times, but that is how we learn. Through encouragement, engagement and motivation from the school and from our parents, every child should feel and be able to celebrate success in their lives.
It is important that students are still trying their best and maintaining their effort all the way through until the end of the year. So, at this time of year, continue to encourage your child through positive encouragements, as it can make a big difference.
Show ‘n’ Shine
Please continue to support our school with the selling of raffle tickets for our 2023 Show ‘n’ Shine raffle. These are due back, sold or unsold by Monday 16 October, 2023. Not only are we offering some amazing prizes this year, but the sale of these tickets will go towards sending our year 5/6 students to school camp for next year. Please check out the recent posts on Facebook about helping out on the day or sending some home bake in. Any questions or if you need additional books, please contact Mr Red, the office, or Jessica Johnson. Happy Fundraising.
Prep and School Enrolments for 2024
Prep interviews for 2024 are underway. Our numbers are steadily coming in, so if you know of any interested families who have Prep aged children, please inform them to send their applications in as soon as possible so they do not miss out on the chance to attend St Francis. I appreciate your diligence in assisting the school.
School Fees for Term 4
Please keep an eye out for this term’s school fee invoices which are emailed to all families each quarter. If you haven’t received the email, please contact the office. As term 4 is shorter, it is vital that all outstanding accounts are rectified. Some families will be receiving a follow up phone call this week to double check current situation or change of circumstances. Chasing up overdue fees is a very time consuming task. Your prompt payment allows us to successfully pay for class resources and extra-curricula activities. It also enables us to confidently enter into the new year in a good financial position to continue to offer quality teaching and learning experience, state of the art facilities and desired staffing levels. Your continued financial commitment to the school is an investment in your child’s education and future.
Upcoming Dates
Term 4 Dates (please refer to our online calendar for our most up to date list of events for the year) https://sfdssclifton.schoolzineplus.com/calendar
Up coming dates for term 4
Thurs 19 Oct – Prep 2024 transitions and Yr 6 Clifton High School Transition
Fri 20 Oct – Ms Liisa Hammond visit – Principal of Assumption College, Warwick
Sat 21 Oct – Show n Shine Car Show at St Francis and the beginning of Country Week
Sun 22 Oct – Family Sunday Mass – 9:30am
Fri 27 Oct – World Teacher’s Day; St Francis Speech Competition 1:30pm
Sat 28 Oct – Clifton Races
Fri 3 Nov – Back Plains Speech Competition
Fri 10 Nov – Remembrance Day Liturgy – 2:30pm
Tues 14 Nov – High School Transition
Wed 15 – 17 Nov – Year 5/6 Tallebudgera Camp
Mon 20 – 22 Nov – Swimming Block Lessons
Thurs 23 Nov – Swimming Carnival – 9-12pm
Fri 24 Nov – Awards Night Celebration 5:30pm
Wed 29 Nov – Graduation Celebrations
Thurs 30 Nov – End of Year Mass 9:00am
Fri 1 Dec – Xmas Disco 9-11am
God bless and thanks for reading…
Cheers,
Brendan
Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal
The Christmas Appeal aims to support families and individuals who are struggling.
Each week there will be a theme for donations for this worthy cause.
This week we invite you to participate by donating Christmas Food items for the Christmas Appeal.
Thank you in anticipation for our Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal Tree. Help & watch it grow each fortnight.
MIDDLE LEADER
CURRICULUM COORDINATOR
With the upcoming speeches in the classrooms and the second round as a whole school competition, it is normal for students to be nervous when speaking in front of an audience. As a school, we ensure our students can speak in small groups informally in front of their peers. Addressing an audience publicly can be a scary experience for students and this is completely normal. To help your child be a confident speaker, here are some tips and strategies to practise at home.
- Have your child read their speech a lot! Knowing the subject well, ensures that even if they lose their place, they can get back on track easier.
2. Have your child say their speech in front of a mirror or record your child using your phone. This will help them to see themselves speaking, and they can practise confident body language by standing straight and tall.
3. Write in places to pause. When we are nervous, we tend to speak quickly, by marking in some spots to pause, this can help emphasise certain points.
4. Reading their speech aloud is a great way to understand and work on voice modulation, pauses, and emphasise points, improve pronunciation and build confidence.
Please keep an eye out for all of the extra-curricular activities this term.
Prep/ Yr1 / Yr2
Prep/Year 1/Year 2
We have had an exciting start to term 4 with the opportunity to care for and observe the changes silkworms go through as part of their life cycle. The excitement continued with Georgia bringing in her 5 puppies and talking to the class about caring for puppies. Students predicted and wondered about the observable changes puppies go through as they grow. These engaging hands-on experiences were ideal to use as the inspiration for our modelled, guided and independent writing lessons.
In English, we began exploring books written by the author Julia Donaldson. The Woolly Bear Caterpillar was our focused shared reading text. A story that encourages the acceptance of everyone. With empathy, students discussed the characters, describing what they looked like on the inside and outside and what the characters might be thinking or feeling. Prep/1/2 learnt that authors have special writing techniques that help to make the writing memorable. In the book, The Woolly Bear Caterpillar, we identified repetition and alliteration. Alliteration is when a writer uses a series of words that begin with the same letter or sound. Students enjoyed the challenge of writing a sentence using their name and the alliteration writing technique.
Mrs Malbon made many mulberry muffins.
Hunter has hamburgers. Isaac likes icy ice-creams.
Hunter’s hen hatched chicks. James juggled jam jars.
Tommy Turbo turned twenty-two. Blake bought a blue basket.
Georgia jumped over jellybeans and jelly. Nell put nail polish on nine nails.
Bryce brought blueberries and blackberries. Zarah’s zoo has zebras!
Students finalised their Country Week art and look forward to seeing their flowers, crop duster planes and scarecrows in the St Francis de Sales shop window display.
Thank-you Prep/1/2 families for supplying our silk worms with fresh mulberry leaves. They are certainly changing in size and shape!
YEAR 3/4
Year 3/4
Welcome back to term four! There are so many events to look forward to this term- swimming, school speech competition, advent, awards and graduation. We will endeavour to fit some teaching and learning in between all the fun and joy.
This term we have made curriculum connections in Science, HASS, English and Art to create a super unit on the Environment. We are learning to:
- Identify main types of vegetation in Australia.
- Explore how vegetation is important for sustainability.
- Explain human connection to the Land.
- Investigate life cycles and how living things depend on each other for survival.
Learners will read and write poems and information reports on a chosen environment- desert, Antarctica, bushland or rainforest. We plan on creating and responding to art works.
During Math this week we have been creating and describing number patterns with missing elements, ascending and descending order, multiplication, fractions and multiples. We even researched Fibonacci patterns! Believe it or not this concept has made us laugh and cringe as we solve each other's number patterns.
Year 5/6 News
Year 5/6
Expressive language has been found, the big words are being located… it is time for the Back Plains Speaking competition! The Year 5/6s have been very busy completing their speeches. The topics are varied and unique. Just like the beautiful students themselves. The students will bring home their palm cards on Friday. If they could say their speech a few times at home, I would appreciate it. This will just give them added confidence for Tuesday when they present them to the class.
In Health this week, we have been learning about our strengths and limitations. This relates to a growth mindset as students can understand that they can learn and grow over time. Just because they find one subject difficult, doesn't mean they always will. The students were all very open with each other in sharing their goals for the future.
Our seed art is looking amazing! Please come and see our St Francis window from the 19 October.
SPORT
PE with Mr Red
The students have begun their cricket skills unit for this term. Hopefully this has radiated towards home with an increase in hitting or catching balls around the house. We are looking forward to swimming and our swimming carnival is in week 8 (as per the dates in calendar). More information will be made available regarding our swimming lessons and carnival.
Yours in all things sporty,
Mr Red
P & F UNIFORM SHOP
Uniform Shop Co-Ordinator: Kylie Hay
Contact Details: kurlz@live.com.au or 0487 582 107
Uniform Shop Days: MOST Thursdays & Fridays
If you would like uniforms, please fill in the updated Invoice Sheet and email or text Kylie to either arrange a time to meet or for the order to be sent home with your child. If you have an old invoice copy, please bin it and replace with our updated one. This can be found on the Facebook page or request one from me directly.
UNIFORM SHOP NEWS
- We now have EFTPOS available in the Uniform Shop at the time of collection
- We have some good quality second hand winter uniforms and also summer uniforms available for $5 per item if you’re looking for an extra jumper, shirt, shorts etc. Please note that only limited sizes and items are available but you are welcome to request second hand if available.
- We are no longer stocking the following items however we still have limited stock available for a discounted price if you would still like to purchase them.
- Green Fleece Vest $10
- Sizes 4,6,8,12 & 14 available
- Long Sleeve Boys Polo Shirts $15
- Sizes 4,10,12,14 & Small available
- Girls Green Long Formal Pants $10
- All sizes except 10 available
- Girls Green Long Sports Pants $15
- Sizes 4,6,8,10 & 16 available
- Green Fleece Vest $10
If you urgently require uniforms on a day other than Thursday or Friday, please let me know and I can arrange this with the staff at St Francis De Sales. Please note I do work and will get back to you as soon as I possibly can.
STUDENT PROTECTION CONTACTS
Feeling Safe- All students have a right to feel safe and be safe.
If you are concerned about any form of abuse that is immediate, you should call 000. A significant risk or harm to a student, whether or not you have formed this belief on reasonable ground, should immediately be raised with one of our Student Protection Contacts.
ADMINISTRATION
School Fees:
We do recommend the setting-up of a direct debit facility to pay regular amounts into the school account. This alleviates overdue bills.
SCHOOL Bank Details
BSB: 064786
A/C: 100023789
Reminder: All P&F payments & Uniform payments are paid to a different bank account NOT the school account.
P&F Bank Details
BSB: 084610
A/C: 508684159