Week 5, Term 4, 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
Last Thursday evening I had the pleasure of attending the Toowoomba Regional Council Mayoral Achievement Awards. These awards recognise those students who have achieved at school in times of adversity and challenge. Each school across the Darling Downs is able to nominate one student for this award.
This year Nathaniel from Prep T was the recipient from St Saviour's Primary.
Whilst Nathaniel was receiving his medal and certificate from Mayor Geoff McDonald, the following information was read about him:
When starting at St Saviour's Primary, Nathaniel was reported to be shy and reserved in his new environment. This stands to reason as he had been in Zimbabwe with his grandparents, separated from his parents for the past 3 years, due to the pandemic. Nathaniel arrived in Australia 2 weeks before school commenced. He spent this time adjusting to life in Australia with his parents who were concerned that his schooling might suffer due to the fact he had been away for so long.
At the presentation, Nathaniel was one of the youngest students who received an award. As we were sitting down the back of the venue, both his dad and I asked if he wanted us to walk up with him. His response was a resounding 'no'. Nathaniel proceeded to confidently walk up onto the stage, get his medallion and certificate, get a photo and high five the councillors as he walked off the other side.
A very worthwhile recipient of this award and a credit to his family and the Prep T Class.
Leadership Forum
This week I have been attending the Term 4 Leadership Forum being held at the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office. The termly forums are an opportunity to listen, learn about and discuss issues relevant to schools in the Toowoomba Diocese.
St Saviour's Primary is the host school of this particular forum and I would like to thank the team who have helped prepare prayer, mass and dinner for approximately 50 people. Thank-you to Jodie McLachlan, Alex Sleba, Julie Robinson, Nicki Prentice, Ann-Maree Ward and Fr Michael who have played a large part in the success of the event. Also those members of PEN who volunteered, it is most appreciated.
Staffing News
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mrs Lisa Cavanagh (current Year 3 teacher) on her appointment as Principal at Holy Name Primary School commencing in 2024.
This is a well-derserved appointment and an opportunity for Lisa to continue on her leadership journey as she has held APRE and Education Officer roles in the past.
Although Lisa has only been at SSPS for this year, she will definitely be missed. Please join me in congratulating Lisa on this appointment.
Sam Hannant
Principal
Dear Parents and Carers
Last week, we all came together to celebrate our Term 4 Mass hosted by Coolock. From the pictures on our socials and those posted below, you can see it was a beautiful celebration where we were reminded about Compassion. We can always have room for Compassion in our lives, whether it's giving or receiving. Students were reminded as to how we can show compassion to others every day. Thank you to Fr Michael for making a real life connection between the Gospel and how we can live our Mercy values.
Our Groundsman, Mr Warren lives out the Catholic Social teaching of Care for Creation by looking after our oval, gardens, plants and green spaces. A huge thankyou to Warren for always working extra hard to keep our school beautiful. Check out the pictures on the school’s Facebook page!
This week, Principal’s from all over the Toowoomba Diocese came together for the day Leadership Forum. This term, it was our turn to host. In true SSPS spirit, the students called upon to take part, didn’t hesitate and proudly represented our school. Thank you to the following students; Prayer – Charlotte Franklin, Jimi King, Joseph Black, Lola Wood, Jaishan Francis, Audrey Hubbard, Owen Thomas and Ivy Ferguson; Mass Choir – Abby Phillips, Alistair Scotts, Madeline Franklin, Alessandra Ocamp, Emily Carrigan and Claudia Shoebridge for singing and reading. After our beautiful Mass, we shared a meal together at the school. It was a beautiful evening to share together.
Date claimer! Please join us for our final School/Parish Mass for the year, on Sunday 12 November at 9am. ALL WELCOME! Let us know you can make by clicking on the link below
Prayer for Gaza The last few weeks we have watched the atrocities unfold in Israel, Palestine and more recently in Gaza. As a school community we feel dismayed and saddened by the outbreak of violence that has shaken our world. We pray for peace in the world, particularly keeping in mind the people of the Holy Land and the Ukraine.
We share the sorrow of the families who have lost their loved ones and the distress of those who are injured or at risk.
We pray to God to give consolation, courage and hope.
We pray for the healing and comfort of all those who are suffering from violence, fear and grief.
We pray for peace.
Let us pray the Peace prayer attributed to St Francis.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Have a great week.
Thanks for reading,
Ann-Maree
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Report Cards
All report cards will go out via the Parent Portal App in the last week of school. Please ensure you take the time to save these somewhere safe so you have them for the future. Once your child leaves the school you will not be able to access the Parent Portal. Anyone who hasn’t set up the Parent Portal please come and see one of our friendly office staff for support.
A-E explanation for achievement
I’ve included the information below to show you the description of each of the Achievement standards.
I think it is important to draw your attention to what it means to receive a ‘C’. If your child is receiving a C – this is great news! It means they are exactly where they need to be for that year level. They are meeting the targets required of them and this should be celebrated.
A C is a grade that indicates your child is developing academically at an appropriate level.
Changes to Social Learnings
We have made some changes to the Social Learnings section of the report cards to more clearly reflect what we value here at SSPS. See below for the new sections we will report on this Semester. If you have any comments or feedback, please be sure to let me know!
Our learner qualities have been used across all year levels for nearly two years. They have given our students an understanding of what they need to do to be a successful learner. They have provided us with a common language of learning, so we can all be on the same page when it comes to what we can do to be even better. Please have a chat to your children at home and see how they think they’d score on each of the learner qualities.
Dear Parents,
VERSION 9.0 OF THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM IS COMING TO ST SAVIOUR’S!
This year staff have spent a considerable amount of time familiarising themselves with Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum and we are excited to implement Version 9.0 in Maths, English and HASS in 2024. Next year, in English, St Saviour’s will be taking on a synthetic approach to phonics, which will include lots of evidence based research on the Science of Learning and The Science of Reading.
The Science of Learning is evidence based research on how students learn. Next year we will be building on our knowledge of how the brain learns best. This will involve looking at how learning is a change in long term memory, how students process new information and how students develop and demonstrate mastery. Further knowledge in this area will have a direct impact on our approach to teaching, especially in the area of reading, where we will be incorporating the Science of Reading approach in our classrooms.
The Science of Reading provides the strongest evidence about how young children learn to read. Understanding the cognitive science behind how students learn to read and the research will make it easier for our school to align policy and classroom teaching with evidence. The science of reading has a strong focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary/oral language and of course comprehension.
Learning to read proficiently is critical to a student’s entire education and life beyond school. Explicit teaching around the Science of Reading will be happening in all classrooms at St Saviour’s next year and a new approach to phonics will be researched and implemented.
Stay tuned as we navigate through our own learning and demonstrate to students how we too are life long learners who continually learn new skills.
We are very excited by these changes in 2024 and look forward to seeing the positive impacts on our students,
Bec Thomas
We are open for business in our temporary library and all is going well!
- Students borrowed free choice books and home readers this week.
- We only have one more weekly borrowing opportunity until all loans are due in Week 7.
- Continuing students are very welcome to borrow for the summer holidays during Week 8 at lunchtime on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd November.
We look forward to your support to return loans and to borrow for holiday reading!
Procedure for Overdue/Damaged Library Items
Please be aware that overdue notices are emailed automatically from the library management system as a reminder to return loans. Long term overdues (100 days) are invoiced once every term. If a library item is damaged, an invoice for the replacement cost will be sent to families. Please only pay when you receive an invoice, thank you.
Anne Anderson
Teacher Librarian
Afterschool Rugby League Sessions
Afterschool rugby league sessions have started with around 40 students attending. These sessions are organised through Sporting Schools and funded by a grant accessible through the Queensland Government. This initiative provides students with the opportunity to try out new sports and engage with their community. Rugby league is a popular sport in Australia, and it's wonderful that students have the chance to participate in these sessions. It not only promotes physical activity but also helps build teamwork and sportsmanship among the participants (picture below).
Weekly Sport Stars
Sophie Enders had a busy and successful weekend of swimming competitions. At the DDRSA Junior Excellence development clinic and Fairholme Time and Technique swim meet, Sophie participated in various events and achieved some great results, including two 3rd place finishes, two 4th place finishes, and a couple of personal best times (PBs). Swimmers being judged on both their time and technique is a testament to her dedication and hard work in the pool. On Sunday, at the Allora Open, Sophie continued to perform well, earning a 4th place finish and two more PBs. It is exciting to hear that Sophie will be competing at the Toowoomba Open at Milne Bay this coming Saturday. She's set to swim in a variety of events, including the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Freestyle, in addition to the 50m events. It's clear that Sophie is committed to her swimming and is making excellent progress. Best of luck to her in the upcoming competition (picture below).
Zone and Darling Downs Trials
All Zone and Darling Downs trials will be placed on Parent Portal. Please check Parent Portal regularly or set up notifications on your phone if you wish for your child to be eligible to trial for Zone and Darling Downs sporting teams as you will be required to obtain paperwork from myself. I am unable to nominate students after the closing date so please make sure you do keep an eye on Parent Portal. Any questions, please contact me at brendan.luck@twb.catholic.edu.au.
Cheers
Brendan Luck
HPE Teacher
Scholastic Book Club:
Book Club orders have been distributed last week to families who placed orders with Book Club. We look forward to sharing more catalogues next year for all our families.
Prep 2024 Parent Information Night:
We look forward to welcoming our Prep 2024 Parents to the Mercy Centre on Wednesday 15 November, 2024.
Prep 2025:
Enrolments are now being taken for Prep 2025. Please ensure you have submitted your enrolment application via the following link:
https://www.sspstwb.catholic.edu.au/enrolments/enrolment-process
Interviews are taking place early Term 1, 2024. If you know of a family seeking enrolment at St Saviour's Primary please encourage them to apply soon as numbers are filling fast.
To the SSPS and St Patrick’s Cathedral Community,
Unfortunately, the SSPS & St Pat's 2023 Derby Day Event due to be held this Saturday is going to be postponed. I do apologise for the late notice; however, we have found ourselves competing with a busy time of year and multiple other events happening in Toowoomba this weekend.
I appreciate the efforts put in by the volunteers who have been proactive in organising this event, including Fr Michael, Rachel Harlen, Elise Bishop, Bee King and Rebecca Thomas.
We would especially like to thank all the generous businesses and individuals who have donated prizes for this event. They will be used to create a fundraising event at our upcoming SSPS Christmas Concert and tickets will be available for purchase on the night.
We will look to reschedule this event to early next year, in the hope that more people will be available to attend.
Thanks again for booking your ticket and we do appreciate the support. Refunds will be processed through TryBooking and will be refunded to the method of payment used to purchase.
Thank you and Kind Regards
Sam Hannant and the SSPS & St Pat's Race Day Team.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Please see the Term 4 Roster below for Tuckshop Volunteers to help out in the Tuckshop.
Week 5 - 3/11 - Year 3 parents
Week 6 - 10/11 - Year 4 parents
Week 7 - 17/11 - Year 5 parents
Week 8 - 24/11 - Year 6 parents
Contact Renee on Renee.kilpatrick@twb.catholic.edu.au or 0417797854 if you can help out - even if it is only for a short amount of time.