Dear Families
Welcome to this great new term. I am excited for a far brighter and more settled term ahead with many quality learning experiences taking place.
We had a surprise in store for our students as they arrived yesterday. Rei Joseph from Brighter Lines Qld had spent the last few days of the holidays painting a series of games and perceptual motor graphics to enhance our play time activities. This was a joint project with our Parents and Friends which we have been working towards for quite a while. We are very happy with the finished product and the students loved it too! A huge thank you for your contributions to the P&F Levy which helps make these projects possible.
In September we welcome Damien Kee from Domabotics to conduct a variety of robotic and programming workshops with our students. Along with technology skills and concepts, these workshops also cover other curriculum topics such as Math, Science, Technologies and Literacy whilst fostering problem solving and team work skills. This will be an amazing learning experience for our students.
We are also conducting a focused spelling project to examine the skills and strategies that our students are using and exploring ways we can improve their spelling through reading and writing. When it comes to spelling there are usually a number of misconceptions about spelling that can hinder our success in this area.
People often think that English is a complicated, random and chaotic language but in actual fact it isn’t.
Every word in English represents a story – a mini lesson in history, geography, linguistics, sociology and politics. Looking at it in this way opens up multiple ways for our children to learn to spell.
Words are much more than a string of letters and sounds and we simply cannot learn to spell every word in this way like a phone number. Our children benefit from exploring the meanings, patterns, sounds and history of these words.
Spelling is also not a sign of intelligence and it is not a natural ability that some people just have.
Research on spelling shows that we are not born naturally being able to spell. Only listening and speaking come naturally to us. Reading, writing and spelling are learned skills and how we learn depends on the structure of our brains and the kind of input we receive.
One of the most important things you can do to help your children with spelling is to get them curious about words. Start noticing patterns and interesting words together. Reading great books is one of the best ways to do this and I encourage you to read Mr King’s article this week about reading with your children. It has tips for not just school readers but for all books you share together.
If you would like to know more about helping your children with spelling please let me know. I would be happy to run a Parent Session for those who are interested.
God bless you and Live Jesus in Your Hearts Forever!
Jennett Mullane Principal
jennett_omullane@rok.catholic.edu.au
Monday 13
thJuly 2020
Term 3 Week 1
P&F Meeting tonight
6:30pm (14/07/20)
Please do not attend if unwell and ensure
you maintain appropriate hygiene and
distancing practices. Join us at 6pm for a
WELCOME HOME
‘Welcome home’ were the words Father Andrew greeted us with at the beginning of his homily at mass on Sunday. It has been many months since I was able to join with the community to celebrate the Eucharist. To hear those words from Fr Andrew was a blessing.
One of my goals on the holidays is always to read a book for pleasure. I managed to read a memoir written by a student at a school I taught at once. The heartache this young man endured as a teenager saddened me. Thankfully, he was able to show great resilience and determination to overcome the torment of his teenage years to become a very successful adult.
The book highlighted even further the importance of being kind – not just to your close friends but to everyone. There were many factors to the success of the young man in the story, but one thing that stood out was the kindness shown when he least expected it, by people he may not have expected to receive it from. CHOOSE KIND. The Responsorial Psalm on Sunday really brought this home –
‘The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.’
Are you a seed that falls on fertile ground?
MJR MESSAGE OF THE WEEK
4
/ 25
Be a Giver not a Taker
Happiness often comes from giving of ourselves to others. Even those considered to be very poor can be rich – rich in spirit, rich from love, rich from counting their blessings.
WEEKLY WONDERING
I wonder how we can become
‘good ground’
?
Striving for excellence is part of our mission at Star of the Sea.
Have a wonderful week and stay safe. Kellie Richardson
Assistant Principal: Religious Education
Be a lighthouse for your
family.
Over the next few months every student at SOS will be involved in a Diagnostic Reading Assessment. Oral reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and word reading skills are assessed through the careful analysis of student reading behaviours and either oral or written responses. The results of these assessments provide information on the student’s independent reading level which can then be compared to an expected level for their age.
In order to help your child continue to progress with their reading and comprehension abilities, we are encouraging you all to continue to commit to daily reading at home. As a part of every year level’s homework, reading is expected. I too am a parent so I understand how hard this can be a times. Here are some tips to help you commit and enjoy your time reading with your child.
Establish a home reading routine. Read aloud with your children everyday. Ten minutes for each child around a book of his/her choice. Share your excitement for reading and this will be the model your child will adopt.
The reader holds the book! There is a lot of power and control in the world of reading. The reader needs to have the power.
During home reading time, turn off electronic devices and give each child ten minutes of your undivided attention.
Before you read a book, set your child up for success. Talk about the illustrations and the title. Read the blurb and talk about the author, talk about any unusual words, read a page here and there or every second page.
If reading time is stressful, move the reading to a new location. Instead of sitting at the kitchen bench, move to the lounge room or go outside and sit under a tree or on the trampoline.
Find a reading time that works for your family. Set a timer! At the end of the 10 minutes, ask questions that encourage discussion, for example: What was your favourite part? Tell me about the characters. What do you think will happen next? What did you think about that setting? What do you like/ dislike about this book?
Avoid judging your child’s reading with words such as: ‘good’, ‘excellent’ or ‘getting better’. Instead say things about the strategies your child uses when reading such as: ‘I like how you read on when you came to that difficult word.’ ‘I like how you changed your voice to be the voice of the character in the story’. ‘I noticed that you reread the bit that did not make sense.’
Let me know if any of these tips work! Have a great week everyone!
Anthony King.
Assistant Principal: Curriculum
• We pray for our school community as we begin this new term: May we be filled with kindness, unity and determination in all we do.
• We pray for our leaders: May they be guided by wisdom and compassion in their decisions.
• We pray that nations will put aside their divisions and work more urgently for justice and peace.
• We pray that the sick and housebound will be renewed and sustained by the everlasting grace Christ offers.
• We pray that those who have died will come to the eternal home God has built for us.
IN OUR PRAYERS
CURRICULUM NEWS
Despite the relaxing of restrictions across
Queensland things have not changed a lot
for schools at the moment.
Social
and
physical
distancing
protocols continue to apply to adults
in a school setting so we ask your
support in ensuring the following
measures are followed at Star of the
Sea:
• Students, parents and staff who are
unwell must not attend school
• Physical distancing of 1.5 metres is
required by all adults
• Adults must not gather in and around
school grounds, car parks, school gates
and outside classrooms
• The Church drive thro
ugh is still the
preferred way to drop off and collect
students but you are allowed to walk in to
drop off and collect if needed. Please do
not walk into collect your child until just
before the bell please.
• PLEASE NOTE
- Entry to the school
grounds during school hours must be via
the Front Office. Drop Off and Pick Up
access can be via any of the school
gates but, between 9am and 2:30pm,
these gates will be locked to redirect
visitors from the Public to the correct
entry point.
We are very grateful for the way parents
have tried to work with us to make our
afternoon pick up run as smoothly as
possible. The name cards have been a
great help and we appreciate you
displaying them prominently in your
car as you drive in.
The Car Park area is a focal point for many
of the issues we are having at the moment.
We ask that you please observe the
following points:
•
Children must not enter the car
park area unsupervised. It is essential
that you keep your children beside you and
safe as you approach your car.
•
To reduce some of the issues
we
ask
parents who are walking into the
school to use the dirt car park at the
top of the Cul-de-sac off Tank St if
possible
.
This will stop some of the
congestion occurring as people exit the
Herbert St car park.
•
Anyone exiting the car park
should give way to those coming
through Church Pick Up to allow the flow
of traffic to keep moving.
•
All cars should also turn left
when exiting the car park please. There
is definitely no right turn at this time of the
day please.
An important note re our
Term Three School Routine
SCHOOL CAR PARK AND PICK UP
ARRANGEMENTS
Dear Friends
STAGE 3 BEGAN ON THE WEEKEND
This weekend we resumed our regular parish Mass schedule. After nearly four months of being unable to celebrate Mass together, it was a great joy to see many of you back in Church. Please remember that for now it is still necessary to register online (www.sosgladstone.eventbrite.com.au) to secure your place at any of the Sunday Masses as there are still limits on our numbers. If you need help registering yourself, please contact Bernadette Ariens (0417 513 515). Bernadette has kindly agreed to help with the registrations to take some of the load off our very hard-working parish secretary Maree.
If you are rostered on for a ministry (eg, music, reading, Communion minister, altar server, co-ordinator, etc.), please make sure you register yourself for a place at that Mass.
When you do come to Mass, please keep the following in mind:
• Try to arrive a bit earlier than normal so we can sign everyone in before Mass begins • At Star of the Sea Church, please enter only through the Herbert St side door
• Make sure the name, phone number and address of each person attending is recorded at the Church door
• Maintain at least 1.5m between you and others (including when processing forward for Holy Communion)
• Receive Communion only in the hand • At the sign of peace, refrain from physical contact
• Use the hand sanitiser provided at the Church door
• Sit only in the designated seats (1 person per small pew, 2 persons per large pew in Star of the Sea Church, unless you are from the same household)
• Avoid gathering in close proximity before or after Mass
• If giving your parish offering (either loose or in an envelope), please come forward and place it in the basket in front of the altar at the Preparation of Gifts
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Our COVID co-ordinating teams would be grateful for any volunteers to help with the sign-in, seating and cleaning procedures that have to happen at our Masses. Can you help with some of these jobs so that we can make the process as smooth as possible? If so, please get in touch with the co-ordinator at your church:
Star of the Sea: 8am Jun Pepito (0418 180 941) & 6pm Lisa O’Brien (0400 787901)
Calliope: Christine Holman (0431 829 835) Tannum Sands: Bernadette Ariens (0417 513 515)
LIVE-STREAMING
Masses will no longer be live-streamed on our Facebook page. With the increased numbers of people in the Church from this weekend, the presence of a camera in front of the altar will be a distraction and a potential safety hazard. For those who will still not be able to come to Mass, I would recommend accessing the live-stream from our Cathedral at 9:30am Sundays,
which can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/StJosephsCat hRton
Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/sosparishgladstone) for other useful information.