Term 2 Week 4

Weekly 5 With Leadership

Gullarn ngheeree - Welcome to this beautiful place,

What an incredible blessing it was to host our Open Morning yesterday, the rain clouds held off, the grounds looked amazing and the air sparkled with excitement.  Students were thrilled to share a little part of their learning day with mums, dads, grandparents, and other special people.  Gratitude to the Year 6 Mission Leaders who shone a bright light on our Catholic identity as they guided new families along School Street to the library, classrooms, and out to the oval and playgrounds. Visual Arts and Performing Arts lessons gave an insight into the many learning opportunities for students each week.  Morning tea, hosted by the Parents and Friends group showcased the St Francis Catholic Primary community.

Parent School Improvement surveys (emailed to parents) close this Monday 13 May and provide an opportunity for a collective and positive partnership between school and home, many thanks for your time and your thoughts.

This week’s school newsletter has a flier that shares with parents the context of school fees for Catholic schools in our Diocese.  As a Catholic school, St Francis Catholic Primary receives a percentage of government funding compared to the public school sector. School fees account for the difference in this funding and have done so for many years.  However, the model of government funding to non-government schools is changing, with an explanation in the article below. Further information from Catholic Education will be provided in the coming weeks to keep our parents abreast of these changes.

God’s blessings on your weekend,

PAX et bonum - Peace and all goodness,

Meredith Grove
(Principal 2024)

School Fees - Context for Catholic Schools, Diocese of Rockhampton

CEDR Media Release - Appointment of New Director

Weekly 5 with Leadership - APC

Reading is one of our school priorities for 2024. Teachers continually monitor reading progress and guide students to set and work on reading goals. During last term's Parent Teacher Conversations, these goals and reading progress were shared.  Many of our staff meetings this term are allocated to developing the teaching and learning of reading, based on best practice. Although we don't have compulsory homework at St Francis Catholic Primary School, it is essential that all students read at home every day. This may look like parents reading to children, children reading to parents, or older readers enjoying books themselves. A wonderful opportunity has been provided to us from Griffith University - details are below.

Academics from Griffith University have set up Griff Linc – the Griffith University "Literacy in Context" initiative. This reading research project, led by Professor Beryl Exley and Dr Frances Hoyte, is for students aged 8-14 years of age who are struggling with reading information texts.

Griffith University has given Ethics approval for this research project but it is important to note that the project is an “outside of school” initiative, meaning families and students can engage, independently of the school, without creating additional workload for school staff.

The project involves the following:

• Interested students/parents can make contact with the Griff Linc Reading Research team (contact details in the flyer).
• The Griff Linc Reading Research team will send interested students/families an information sheet and application form. 
• The tutors will either be the student's parent/family or a volunteer Griffith University preservice teacher. All tutors who are not the student's parent will need a Blue Card.
• Tutors will be provided with training before the tutoring sessions commence, including learning:
  • how to use Griffith University's Co-Pilot AI account to craft a short high-interest information text appropriate to the reading level of the student, and
  • how to conduct the 6-step tutoring session (based on the work of Dr Jennifer Rennie from Monash University).

• All tutoring will be free of charge and conducted online 2-3 times per week, for 30 minutes, outside of school hours, over a six-month period.
• Student progress will be monitored over the six months using the ACER PAT-R Adaptive online assessments. ACER has partnered with Griffith University on this project and is covering the cost of the ACER PAT-R adaptive online assessments. Students at St Francis Catholic Primary School in Years 2-6 are already familiar with this platform.

Free Online Tutoring for Reading

Are your children safe online?

Recently, I undertook some training with the e-Safety Commissioner on the topic of helping our students be cyber-safe. There were some alarming results and one word of advice was around Parental Controls on home devices. The esafety.gov.au/parents site is a treasure chest of tips and resources. Some platforms to be super-vigilant are Roblox and TikTok. Please see some ways that parental controls may help your family stay safer on devices. Please reach out to me if you have any futher questions, Kylie Linforth APC.

From the Sports Desk

SAVE THE DATE: St Francis Catholic Primary Athletics Carnival - Friday 24th May 8:30-2:30. Students in the 10-12 years age group who make it to the next level  will compete at Zone Athletics on the 14th June.

Students in years 3-6 compete weekly in heats of track and field events from weeks 3-5 during Senior Sport on Friday afternoons - please remember to wear house shirts.

Attached is a run sheet for the carnival. Flexibility is required on the day with events. Some generous parents are co-ordinating a BBQ and will be sending out requests for help. We also need help at some events on the day and these will be added to the Genius Sign-on link. 

This year, we encourage students to be earth-friendly in their decorations - plastic single-use pompoms are not Franciscan - perhaps you could be creative and recycle some existing decorations.

Parents of 9-12 year old age groups are requested to log in to Parent Lounge and accept the carnival invitation for their child/children. This event permission covers athletics and swimming carnivals for the year. If you have trouble with Parent Lounge events, please reach out for assistance.

School Improvements Survey

Ways to communicate with us ...

Award Affirmations

Congratulations to all our awards winners.  Great to see our little people learning and growing in such beautiful ways.

Under 8's day Celebration

Parent Workshop Date Claimer

Parents & Friends Group News

Mass of Thanksgiving

Transport Assistance Scheme

School Uniform - New Addition

We need you!!