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Term 3 Newsletter, 19th July 2024

Principal's Message

Resilience is a vital quality that empowers students to overcome challenges and persist in their learning journeys. At St Francis de Sales, we believe fostering resilience helps our students navigate obstacles, adapt to change, and continue striving towards their goals, no matter the difficulties they face. That is why, it is one of our Learner Qualities.

This week, our students showcased remarkable resilience during the Central Zone Athletics Sport Day. Despite the cold conditions, they demonstrated unwavering determination and perseverance. Competing in such challenging weather is no small feat, and we are incredibly proud of how our students braved the elements and gave their best performances. Their resilience is a testament to the strength of character we aim to instill in all our students.

This term, we are delighted to extend a warm welcome to our two new families joining the St Francis de Sales community. We are excited to have you with us and look forward to getting to know you better. Your presence enriches our school community, and we are here to support you as you settle in. We also welcome Mrs. Katie Green as the Year 4/5/6 teacher (Monday – Thursday) and Miss Lily Osborne the P/1/2/3 School Officer (Monday – Thursday). The warmth, commitment, dedication that Mrs. Green and Miss Osborne have already shown has been wonderful. We are so blessed to have such quality staff join us.

Week 3 marks Catholic Education Week, a special time to celebrate the distinctive mission and achievements of Catholic schools. At St Francis de Sales, we are committed to nurturing the spiritual, academic, and personal growth of our students, guided by the teachings of Christ. To commence this meaningful week, we invite all families to join us for Mass on Monday at 9 am in the church. This gathering is an opportunity to come together in prayer, express our gratitude, and seek blessings for the continued success and wellbeing of our school community.

Please remember that Friday 28 July is a Pupil Free Day. This day provides an opportunity for all staff members to gather with Bishop Ken Howell and celebrate together as Catholic educational communities. This year the theme of Catholic Education Week is ‘Communities of faith, hope and love’.

Additionally, we remind you about the family Mass on Sunday, 28 July. This special service offers a wonderful chance for families to participate in our parish life and come together as a community. You are all welcome to attend. To help us organize this event, please register your attendance via our Facebook page. We look forward to celebrating Catholic Education Week with you and your family. Let us embrace this time to reflect on the importance of Catholic education and the positive impact it has on our students' lives and our wider community.

Please head over to Facebook to register your interest for the Term 3 events. We have the Bush Dance and the Father’s Day breakfast coming up soon.

In Week 5 – Friday 9 August it is Grandparent’s Day. Our students will be dressing up as “Grandparents” so please begin thinking about costumes for this day.

In Week 7 – Tuesday 20 August it is our Book Week celebrations. St Francis is going to be hosting this event with various local schools attending. The theme is. “Reading is Magic!” So please start thinking about costumes

Mrs Busiko,
Acting Principal

Prep/1/2/3 News

This term we welcome Miss Osborne as our classroom school officer. Miss Osborne supports the classroom on Monday to Thursday. She supports small groups and individuals to help to differentiate the learning across the P- 3 classroom. Miss Osborne is enjoying getting to know the students and has felt very welcomed by the community.

This term in HASS we are learning about past and present. We are studying how family roles and structures have changed. We have noticed families were larger while the houses were smaller. We have also noticed instead of video games children worked for the family business or played outside in the streets or even swam in the Sydney Harbour after school.

We are reading Roald Dahl text to widen our vocabulary, increase rigor and stamina and fluency. Maybe you have some Roald Dahl texts at home on the shelf you could read. Often you can access audiobooks on Spotify if this is something that interests your family.

We have completed our time unit of work in math. Most are continuing to consolidate to and past times as in twenty to eight is the same as 7:40. This skill can take time to embed. The older students enjoyed engaging with elapsed time problem solving. This week we have started working on money. I would encourage you to count small collections of coins at home to practice. Children have been curious about the concept of credit cards and debit cards.

Mrs Skillington

Yr 5/6 News

Welcome back students and families to term 3! I am thrilled to share the exciting activities and learning that we have planned this term.

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Central Downs Athletics Carnival and gave it their all. Being brave enough to compete in such chilly weather was a feat, let alone a smile! Thank you to all the dedicated parents who gave up their time to drive and support their children and our school at this event. We are truly blessed to have such a caring and committed community.

This term in English we are diving deep into persuasive writing and how companies market their products to persuade us to buy their goods. We will be learning about the Lawyer Paragraph structure, sentence types, a range of text connectives and persuasive devices and how our vocabulary choices can change the tone of the text. What literary devices do companies use and who are the audiences they are targeting with these clever devices. Don't be surprised if your children come home and say that they HAVE to watch the ads on TV as it's homework! This connects with our HASS economics unit where we are exploring influences on our consumer choices and what strategies we can use to make informed financial and ethical choices as consumers. This includes how our decision to buy a certain product affects their family (did they have to put off buying a different product because of the price of this one), and the local community such as jobs.

In Math, students will be learning how to solve problems involving decimals and percentages, including in practical measurement and financial contexts.

We really do have a jam-packed term ahead, full of learning and fun activities. I do understand that this is the time of year for sickness, however, if we could keep absences to a minimum, that would be greatly appreciated. Catching students up on work they have missed is difficult.

Mrs Green

Middle Leader

At St Francis, our teachers are always learning! At the end of Term 2, all our teachers received feedback on our teaching from our Education Officer at Toowoomba Catholic Schools. Our teachers have all been implementing daily reviews in the classroom. This allows the students to receive repeated, spaced exposure to content while allowing knowledge and understanding to incorporated into the student's long term memory.

One way in which teachers can facilitate a daily review is with student white boards. When using the white boards, the students are all familiar with the terms.

Hover it, Chin it, Tick it or Fix it, Bin it and Park it.

What do these terms mean?

Hover it – allows the student to write the answer, and however the board with the answer facing the floor. This allows all of the students to think and record their answers. It lets the teacher see who is ready.

Chin it – the students flip their board and show their answer. The board is placed under their chin.

Tick it or Fix it – This allows immediate feedback. It also allows the children to change their answer and correct any misconceptions.

Bin it – Rub off the board

Park it – Put the board on the floor and don’t touch it.

These phrases are used all throughout the school in multiple subjects. Having a common language ensures the students know what to do, which allows their brain to focus on complex tasks and use their higher order thinking skills. We call these Low Variance Routines.

The Toowoomba Catholic Schools Diocesan Approach to Reading lists a range of teaching strategies – Low Variance Routines is one of these.

We love working with our whiteboards, as students can receive instant feedback on their knowledge and skills. They also ensure all students are engaged and participating in lessons while allowing the teacher to check for understanding.

Mrs. Busiko

Library News

Book Week Celebrations 20th August

2024 Theme: Reading is Magic!

Perhaps the most exciting thing about term 3 is Book Week! Book Week is an initiative of the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA), Children's Book Week is a fantastic opportunity to promote a love of reading and to celebrate Australian authors and illustrators. Book Week has been going since 1945 in primary schools and libraries all over Australia.

Book Week is more than just a celebration of literature; it's a golden opportunity for educators and schools to inspire a lifelong love for reading, foster creativity, and strengthen community bonds. With this in mind, we are very excited to begin planning this year’s Book Week Celebrations at St Francis de Sales.

Similar to last year, we have invited other schools in our cluster to come and share the day with us. We will once again parade down the main street in Clifton showcasing our fabulous costumes. Our staff are busy preparing book activities to showcase some of this year’s shortlisted books for rotational activities. We are looking forward to once again having local author Terese Eglington visit to share her books with us. This year the students and staff of Emu Creek State School are going to run a Reader’s Cup in the afternoon – more information regarding this will be available in coming weeks! It is shaping up to be another incredible celebration of Australian literature at St Francis de Sales!

In semester 1 our students began corresponding with children’s book authors as pen pals. Prep-3 students pen pal is Liz Oxenbury and Jacqui Halpin is our pen pal in years 4-6. We are very lucky as Jacqui is a located in Brisbane and has agreed to come to visit us at school. Currently we are planning this for week 8. Jacqui writes a range of books for all, so we are very much looking forward to her visit.

Mrs. Groombridge