News
RE News
Hello!
Last week our students engaged in some activities for St Patrick’s Day and St Joseph’s Day. It always amazes me how we can hear something many times, but on each occasion we can ‘hear’ something new. I hope your children came home talking about what they had learnt about these two great men.
We are continuing our Lenten journey and I’m hoping that everyone is still collecting loose change for our Project Compassion fundraiser. As a school, we are hoping to raise at least $1000 and we need your help to do this! We will be doing a Hot Cross Bun fundraiser through Kytons Bakery over the next few weeks, with delivery of the buns being the last day of term, Thursday April 14. These Hot Cross Buns are some of the best in the state and with every purchase you will be donating some funds towards our Project Compassion fundraiser. We would love to see lots of orders coming through to help those much less fortunate than us! This will be done all through QKR app and once we have uploaded the order forms to the system, we will make sure to advertise and let you know that ordering is open. Thank you so much in advance for your generosity.
God Bless,
Miriam
Principal's Report
Dear Families,
It’s certainly been a week. To be completely honest I can’t remember working at a school in a more complex time.
What’s been made clear over the past week and a half is that the Southern Yorke Peninsula is experiencing an increase in the amount of COVID cases in the community. This obviously has a direct impact on both students and staff at SCMS. I always communicate everything I can with our families in this space. In fact, If we count this article as an update we are totalling 59 updates over two years. The information below will hopefully bring you up to speed about where our school currently sits and what the current advice for families is going forward.
Our school has been impacted this week in the following ways:
- Some staff becoming close contacts due to being exposed to cases outside of SCMS. This has an impact on staffing in each classroom. As you might be aware there are only limited relievers in the SYP and with many schools experiencing more significant staffing issues than ours, relief teachers are hard to find. Fortunately we have been able to cover all classes currently.
- Some students becoming close contacts due to being exposed to cases outside of SCMS. I can’t tell you how much I value the communication with those families who have followed guidelines and communicated with honesty around their circumstances. These students remain home for 7 days.
- We have students who have become classroom contacts (different to close contacts) due to being on buses with students from other schools who are COVID positive. At this time of writing we have had one positive case in our school community who may have been infectious when on site. In all honesty this person is unlikely to have been infectious while at school, but we sent the letter to that classroom group to be on the safe side.
- We have experienced lower attendance rates due to an abundance of caution from families keeping their children home with symptoms, or awaiting the results of PCR tests.
- All students who have out of caution taken PCR results this week have returned negative tests.
Where do we go from here?
If your child is symptom free, we’d prefer you send them to school. It’s important for their own wellbeing and the continuation of their learning that they attend. Our school staff are incredibly diligent in following the Educational processes on site to mitigate any spread. Anytime there is a case in a classroom each staff member completes a round of 7 tests in order for them to test to stay to attend work each day.
If your child is in isolation due to being a close contact outside of school, contact the classroom teacher and we will do what we can to provide some learning for your child. Please understand that the classroom teacher will be providing teaching to students in class and that there are staffing pressures at the moment.
If your child is unwell, either due to being a positive case or with cold symptoms they need to remain home. They need to rest, recover and return to school when they are able to.
Other Updates
Unfortunately, the Department of Education have made a decision to cancel the Primary and Secondary Interschool Athletic Carnivals scheduled for next week. St Columba’s was scheduled to participate in both carnivals as it has both primary and secondary students.
There is potential for the Primary Interschool to be rescheduled to later in the year as the Primary State Carnival is held later in the year.
I am meeting tonight about the proposed basketbal and netball carnivals in Week 10. At this point these will proceed.
Regards,
Scott
Middle Primary News
Last week in our Science lesson we learnt all about a ‘Fair test’ through a fun relay game. The class was divided up into three groups and each group had to put on some clothes and run to the cone and back to their next team mate. But the students soon saw and learnt that the relay was not fair for all groups, with some having to put on more clothes AND run farther away. We realised that this would impact on the outcome and that it wasn’t fair. This led into a good discussion about science experiments and how we have to keep things ‘fair’, that our variables need to stay constant as we test one thing at a time to see how it affects the outcome.
Senior Primary News
This term our 5/6/7 class has been working very hard to improve the quality of their writing. They have been using the seven steps to writing as a tool to improve the quality. This week we completed a ‘Fast Five’ task where students had five minutes to write a Sizzling Start, inspired by an image put up on the TV in the classroom. Students had five minutes to write each Sizzling Start. Here are some examples written by some of our students. Students needed to try and engage the reader by using descriptive language.
BMX:
I zoomed down the track, leaving the others in my dust. The adrenaline rushing through my body, was enough to charge a battery. My front wheel lifted off the ground and I felt my head hit the dirt - Jade
Ready! Set! Go! We shoot off, kicking up dust as we drift around the track. All I can see is the path in front of me. I’m not winning, but I’m in for a chance - Isabella
Bungee:
I was so high that it made my palms sweaty and my legs shake uncontrollably. I felt sick to my stomach. As I jumped into the unknown, I screamed louder than an entire crowed at a rock concert - Tanja
I was standing on the edge of a platform that would ultimately decide my fate. A hero or a chicken? What was I going to be? - Riley F
Spanish News
Each week at Assesmbly we will ask the students a Spanish question in relation to everyday cultural/historical facts placed in each newsletter.
Did you know that chocolate was brought to Europe in the 1500's by Spanish conqueror Cortes, when he invaded Mexico? It was used only as a drink by the local natives of Mexico, and they thought it gave one strength. When the Spanish people tasted it, they added sugar to make it sweeter. From Spain, drinking chocolate then spread around the world.
Yorketown Netball Club Registration Day
Monday 28th March pop up to the courts 3.30pm - 6pm if you have shown your interest to play netball this season.
Register and find out all other information regarding our season.
Please contact us if you can’t make it. ❤️💙
Principal's Report
It has been another incredibly busy fortnight, as we have prepared for Sports Day, welcomed new students, celebrated the start of Lent and launched new programs across the school.
Spelling!
The launch of our new Spelling Program across year 3-7 has been terrific. As I wrote in a post on Facebook. Learning to spell is tough. It requires repetition, and the learning of complex rules and exceptions to the rules. This program in a similar way to the Initialit program is explicitly taught. The teacher follows a script, which has been developed through research on the best possible way for students to be taught literacy. There is a huge amount of craft involved in teaching these lessons that our staff are slowly learning, but it’s been wonderful to see the engagement in our students so far.
After implementing this program Year 3-7 I’m confident it’s a program that we can use to achieve spelling mastery for all our children, not just some.
Excitingly we are looking to launch another program in the near future called Reading Tutor. Reading Tutor is part of the Multilit suite and is designed for Year 3-6 students who have below average reading ability. This intervention program will support our other programs in the school and ensure further consistency across R-7.
Sports Day
Sports Day is tomorrow! Quick lot of reminders:
- Sports day is tomorrow Thursday the 10th of March!
- Students will need to be at the Yorketown Town Oval by 8:50am to assemble ready to start by 9:00am.
- Students will be dismissed at 1pm after Sports Day has concluded and parents/caregivers will be responsible for ensuring their child has been picked up.
- There will be savoury and sweets to purchase at Lunch time, but your child may wish to pack their own lunch also.
- Students are encouraged to wear a t-shirt with the colour of their team. Hair may be coloured but needs to be completed at home.
- Minlaton and Stansbury school vans will run in the morning but not in the afternoon.
- Department buses will pick students up in the morning but not in the afternoon.
- Please read the timetable that will guide you to where your children are throughout the day.
- Please ensure your children have all the appropriate ‘extras’ they will need - drink bottle, hat and sunscreen.
- Marquees are set up for each class. Parents are required to bring their own chairs and shade if they require them.
And the most important reminders….
- Please give kind comments to your child focusing on trying and effort, not on results.
- Friday is a Student Free Day!
God Bless,
Scott
Junior Primary
This week the Reception and Year 1/2 students have been working on their number skills through engaging hands-on learning experiences.
Tasty Tuesdays
Just a quick reminder - Tasty Tuesdays will not be running for the remainder of the term but will be back in Term 2.
For new families, Tasty Tuesdays is a Gather & Grow initiative where students can bring in food to be toasted or heated up by volunteers. We will pop a reminder up on Facebook closer to the date.
RE News
Hello!
Last week we started Lent on Ash Wednesday with Mass with the year 5/6/7 students and some of our regular parishioners. Not having all the school together for this made me realise just what a privilege even getting to Mass is. In many countries, due to government systems that don’t allow for the public practice of faith, or due to distance and a lack of priests, a large amount of people are without access to this most beautiful sacrament. As the year progresses and as restrictions ease and we can have parents on site, I hope to run a ‘What is the Mass?’ info night for those of you who are new to it or who just have some questions. We would love to see more of our community come to these school Masses and be part of something so special and important. In the meantime, please feel free to email me or call or come and see me if you have any questions about not only the Mass, but any other areas of the Religious Ed curriculum. I always say to the students that they must always make sure to ask questions, explore and search for truth, especially in matters of the faith, and this goes for us as adults too!
Next week we have two important feast days, St Patrick on the 17th and St Joseph on the 19th. As we celebrate the same feasts every year, we can fall into the trap of becoming disconnected to them or having ‘feast day fatigue’. But I think it’s important to see these days, like birthdays, as another year to highlight the good in the saint and celebrate God’s work through them and looking for something new to highlight.
St Patrick is known as the person who brought Christianity to Ireland and is Ireland’s patron saint. Because many of our forebears are Irish, his feast through the years has been widely celebrated here in Australia. Our Catholic faith here in Australia, is in a large part, due to the Irish immigrants who came here. We can be grateful to St Patrick for his work and in turn for our faith.
St Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster father to Jesus, is the patron saint of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. These nuns were the women who founded our school. We look to St Joseph as an example of Holy obedience and also genuine humility. So next week when these days roll past, I encourage you all to take a moment to find God’s hand in the lives of these two men. What can they teach us about God?
Finally, PLEASE don’t forget to keep up with our fundraising campaign for Project Compassion. Every dollar counts.
Have a wonderful long weekend,
God Bless,
Miriam
APRIM