Term 4, Week 2, 2024
Dear Parents,
Welcome to our first newsletter for Term 4.
Planning for the 2025 school year is well and truly underway and a very large component of this is staffing. Although there will be further updates, below is the teaching staff movement at present:
Firstly, I would like to mention Ms Margaret Doljanin, who has decided to retire very early in the 2025 school year. Marg has been an integral part of the St Saviour’s Primary community for 49 years, with next year being her 50th year of service. Marg is going to start her 50th year in a learning support role for 4 weeks before retiring. Planning for a celebration of Marg’s incredible career has begun and further details will be shared as they become available. Congratulations Marg and we do hope you enjoy spending more time with family.
Congratulations also to Mrs Natalie Lamb (Lancuba) who is expecting her second baby next year. Nat will remain on maternity leave for the 2025 school year. Eliza Smith will also be on maternity leave next year as she is expecting her first child around Christmas time. Luci Hogan will also remain on leave in 2025, however we do hope to see Luci around the school as she continues with supply work. Finally, Mrs Linda Harris is taking leave in 2025 to move to Longreach to be closer to her family so she can help out on the family property at Winton. We look forward to welcoming Linda back in 2026.
We also look forward to welcoming some new staff to St Saviour's Primary in 2025. Ms Meghann Kimmorley will be staying on in a more permanent role next year. Meghann has been working at SSPS whilst Ms Doljanin has been on leave and will continue to do so as Marg retires at the beginning of the year. Miss Taylor Morrison will be welcomed to St Saviour's Primary at the beginning of next year. Taylor joins us from St Mary’s in Charleville where she has been teaching in the upper years for four years. Lastly, Mrs Geraldine Priebbenow will be joining us from Our Lady of the Southern Cross College in Dalby. Geraldine has many years teaching experience in primary schools and is looking forward to relocating her family to Toowoomba.
The leadership team and I are now in the final stages of allocating teachers to year levels. There will be some changes from this year due to the movement mentioned above. Requests for classes/friendships etc will be asked for in the next newsletter in two weeks time.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to spending time with grandparents tomorrow.
Sam Hannant
….experiencing FAITH in the Mercy Tradition
Dear families
Welcome back! It’s so great to see our students back together ready for a busy and exciting Term 4. It’s my favourite term. It’s the final term to celebrate a year of successes and challenges, it’s a time to look towards planning and preparing for a new school year with new goals and directions and, more importantly, it leads us into Advent, a time of waiting for the Birth of Jesus.
We began our term by celebrating our Mercy Day and Grandparent’s Day! Thank you to everyone taking part in our celebration. Check out the school’s FB page for photos! It is wonderful to have our community to not only be with us during Mass, but to also share morning tea and visit our classrooms. Your children love to show you what they’ve been learning. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the day's success, those who have had roles during Mass, our choir and recorder groups, singers, our Music Teacher Mrs Kelly, Mrs Kilpatrick in the Tuckshop and all the staff who have worked together to organise the day. Thank you!
This month of October also means we celebrate World mission month and our students will take part in the awareness and fundraising program as part of World mission month, called “Socktober’. You can read all about it at https://www.socktober.org.au/ .
We encourage everyone to celebrate World Mission Month! Together, we have the power to create change and build a more just world for people everywhere. By supporting missionaries in their work, we can create life-changing opportunities for countless children, families, and communities worldwide. Join us in making a difference for our sisters and brothers.
What is Socktober? Socktober for Mission Month cultivates the passion of students to rise up, engage their local community, and take action against poverty through the world game of soccer. It provides young people in Australia with the opportunity to lead in mission, encouraging them to think not only of what they will do to help, but why they will do it. Each class will design and create a soccer ball by only using socks, plastic bags and string. It is a simple and creative way to bring people together through sport by sharing a simple item that represents a soccer ball.
Date claimers
Week 4 Friday 25th October – Day for Daniel fundraiser – gold coin donation and wear red
Thanks for reading.
Ann-Maree Ward (Assistant Principal – Mission & Identity)
Welcome back for Term 4! I hope the students had a refreshing holiday and families are prepared for a busy final term. Last week I had the privilege of attending the Year 5 camp at Emu Gully. The camp has an ANZAC theme and uses famous stories of the ANZACs through history such as ‘Lenny the Legend’ and the 'Tunnel Rats of Vietnam' to act as inspiration for the activities. The ANZAC values of courage, mateship, perseverance and self-sacrifice were not only explored and explained, but the activities enabled students to display these qualities. Reflection was an equally important part of the challenge and students were encouraged to identify how the values were not only present, but the affect this had on achieving the challenge goals. The activities themselves, whilst very safe, were also quite daunting and designed to place people in uncomfortable and unexplored situations. This style of experiential learning helps to normalize mistakes, encourage risk taking and creative problem solving whilst exploring how to work collaboratively.
I was really impressed with how the students engaged in the camp and their reflection skills. Below are some student reflections on what they learnt during camp that they shared with the group on the last day:
A leader is not necessarily the person in front telling people what to do.
We all need to work together to achieve our goals.
Never let anybody give up.
Don’t leave people behind.
You can help others face their fears.
Be selfless.
Don’t just worry about yourself - think about others.
Make other people your priority.
We all can be leaders even if we don’t have a title.
There is more than one way to be a leader, there are different styles.
Leadership is a behaviour that anyone can display.
When asked to reflect on their own personal learnings the students were equally as reflective and insightful:
I am capable of anything if I put my mind to it.
Making friends isn’t as hard as I thought.
I don’t need to be so scared about new, challenging things.
I should push my limits and rise to the challenge.
I need to at least try even when it is uncomfortable.
I should always give 100%.
Just give things a go, you never know what you can do.
With reflections such as these I feel the Year 5 students are well on their way to becoming excellent leaders and I wish them well as they begin to consider how they might lead next year.
Reflecting upon the camp personally, it struck me how much the ANZAC values align with the Mercy values that guide our day-to-day interactions at St Saviour’s. Jesus, the ultimate guide, inspired Catherine McCauley to live a life of compassion, service and excellence and we as a Catholic community equally strive to follow in their footsteps and do the same. As the students identified in their reflections, everyone has a role to play in a team and we can all be leaders. As we round out the year in our final term, I encourage all members of our school community to be guided by our values, to look for opportunities to reach out to others, respond with compassion and strive to give 100% in all our efforts.
Katie Hauser
Assistant Principal Administration
Physical Education – Term Four (Prep to Year Two)
In Term Four, Prep to Year Two students will participate in a Striking/AFL and Soccer unit. This unit will incorporate skills such as an in-step kick, punt kick and hand pass. Students will then play modified games of AFL and Soccer focusing on game play and working as a team. Students in Prep to Year Two will also engage in station activities where six stations are set up and they rotate between them throughout the lesson. These activities included passing, catching, kicking, dribbling with feet, hands and hockey sticks, shooting hoops, scooter boards, skipping, goal shooting, ups and downs with tennis rackets, hopping, jumping, side stepping, animal crawling and balancing.
Physical Education – Term Four (Year Three and Year Four)
Students in Year Three and Year Four will be engaged in a Sport, Sport, Sport unit. The students will learn four different sports on a two-week rotation. In the first week, students will learn the skills and rules required to play the game and then play the sport the following week. The four sports students will learn this term are Halfcourt Basketball, Gaelic Football, Soccer and Buroinjin which is a tradition Aboriginal game. Students will not only learn many gross motor skills but also learn game play and to work collaboratively while engaging in games from other cultures.
PE – Term Four (Year Five and Year Six)
In Year Five and Year Six students will complete a modified games unit working in groups teaching the students to cooperate with their peers. The students will create their own modified games and then teach these to their class running the game as students participate in it. Students will be given the opportunity to make changes to their game once they receive feedback from their peers looking at what is working and what is not working. I look forward to seeing what games the students come up with.
Health -Term Four (Prep)
In this unit students will explore information about what makes them unique, identifying their strengths and achievements. Students will identify safe settings where they can move and play safely and identify actions that keep them safe in different settings. They will identify different emotions people experience in different situations. Students will also identify and describe different emotions people experience and explore and practice ways to interact with others in a variety of settings.
Health -Term Four (Year One)
In this unit, students recognise similarities and differences in individuals and groups, and describe how these differences can be respected. They will identify and practise emotional responses that reflect their own and others' feelings. They examine and demonstrate ways to include others in activities, and practise strategies to help them and others feel they belong. Students also identify social changes that occur as they grow older and recognise ways, they can take some responsibility for their own safety in different situations including road safety.
Health -Term Four (Year Two)
In this unit, students explore safe and unsafe situations so that they understand their responsibility in staying safe. They examine the safety clues that can be used in situations and will explore the emotions they feel in response to safe and unsafe situations. Students consider different aspects of sun safety and how they can promote their health, safety, and wellbeing. Students will also examine the purpose of advertising and the techniques used to engage children. They explore health messages seen in advertising and how they can be used to make good decisions about their own and others' health and wellbeing.
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.
Australian Country Swimming Championships
During the school holidays Sophie and Liam Enders competed at the Australian Country Swimming Championships in Darwin, Northern Territory. This event was open to swimmers from country areas across Australia with over 300 swimmers in attendance. Both Sophie and Liam did an amazing job at the carnival. Liam finished with a 6th, 7th and 8th and set new personal best times in all his races. Sophie competed in four Finals with her best being a 6th place. Sophie also set 8 new personal best times in her races. Congratulations.
Cheers
Brendan Luck
HPE Teacher
Book Fair
Our Scholastic Book Fair runs from Thursday morning the 17th October and concludes on Tuesday afternoon 22nd October. Please consider supporting this event as the commission is used to purchase new library books and teaching resources.
Sale times are as follows;
Thursday 17th October - 8.00-9.00am and 3.00-4.00pm
Friday 18th October - 8.00-9.00am and 3.00-4.00pm
Monday 21st October - 8.00-9.00am and 3.00-4.00pm
Tuesday 22nd October - 8.00-9.00am and 3.00-4.00pm
Flyers with instructions for online payment will be sent home next Monday.
* All purchases will earn a ticket in a book raffle prize
Student-led Lunchtime Activities in the Library
We currently have a drawing class led by Year 6 student Georgina Sullivan each Tuesday from 12.45-1.15pm and starting next Monday, Piper Sullivan will lead a singing group on Monday at the same time.
Year 6 Library Team
This dedicated group of students volunteer their time to assist with library tasks one or two lunchtimes each week. This week we started the process of adding 900 home readers to the database and the team have been busy sorting and adding barcodes to these booklets.
Family Book Club
Please consider reading our Term 4 book "Night Ride into Danger" by Jackie French with your family and join in our chat in Week 7.
HAPPY READING EVERYONE!
Anne Anderson
Teacher Librarian
