Week 5, Term 4 2021

Dear Parents,

The Tuckshop is in urgent need of helpers for the remainder of this term.  In particular every Friday (the busiest day) and in 2022 as the new school year commences.

The Tuckshop as you know operates on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

However, for the viability of sustaining the operation for 3 days a week has raised concerns.

In order to keep the Tuckshop operating  over 3 days your help is needed.  Our Tuckshop convenor requires at least 2 volunteers every Friday for the rest of the school term.  This can be for as little as 1-2 hours in the morning to help with labels on bags, or over the lunch period to bag up orders. 

If you can help please contact Natasha Biggar on 0408 986 317.  

Please consider helping in the Tuckshop if you can.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Nearly 10 years ago, I purchased a book entitled ‘The Courage to Teach’ which was written by an American educator, Parker J Palmer. It was first written late in the 1990s and it was a 10th anniversary edition that I had bought. It is a book that has influenced many teachers over many years in many countries. For a long time, it has been the foundation of teacher professional development in innumerable workshops and courses. In my view, one of the reasons for its longevity is how Palmer so clearly articulates the place of the heart in the work of good teachers.

‘Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique but is rooted in the identity and integrity of the teacher. Good teaching takes myriad forms but good teachers share one trait: they are authentically present in the classroom, deeply connected with their students and their subject. These connections are held in the teacher’s heart - the place where intellect, emotion, and spirit converge in the human self.’

I share these thoughts with you as we celebrated and acknowledged World Teachers Day last Friday on 29^th October.

At St Saviour’s Primary School, we are fortunate to have access to extensive resources that is unmatched for its openness and space. While these are important, they are not as important as the teachers who bring the hearts and minds of our learners alive. It is their professional skill and expertise as well as their care, passion and compassion that helps to make the school what it is. They are the good teachers that Palmer describes.

It is reassuring to know that our teachers are appreciated by our community and this has been clearly evidenced in recent years.

Thank you to the Parents and Friends (FACE) for providing morning tea on behalf of all parents.  It was well received by our staff.

In the 2021RADII survey a bi-annual school survey, the quality of our teachers was identified as one of the leading reasons why our parents choose to send their children to St Saviour’s Primary School.

Through the survey, students indicate that they feel very supported by their teachers in their learning experiences. They describe their teachers as relational, helpful and encouraging. Students appreciate the commitment of teachers and value their subject and curriculum knowledge. Students indicate that they are inspired by their lessons because they are appropriately challenging …

Further to this feedback, in the past week, I received a very affirming letter from one of our parents in which they commented:

I also want to take the opportunity to thank you and each and every member of the St Saviour’s Primary teaching community for the excellence in education they have provided for our two children who have completed their education at St Saviour’s … and continue to provide for our youngest son … For all our children the teachers have instilled a love of learning and a will to strive for excellence and fair play in whatever they choose to do.

Finally, in acknowledging teachers at St Saviour’s Primary School it is appropriate to celebrate the work of all teachers. By and large teachers are selfless individuals who do not seek attention for the good work that they do. So WTD is an opportunity to shine a light on the contribution that they make in the lives of the young people that they teach. This is articulated in this Video message from the Executive Director of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission Dr Leanne Perry.

YEAR 6 LEADERSHIP 2022

In the few short weeks left of this term, that follows the energetic exit of the current Year 6 class as they complete their primary years here at SSPS, there is still much to focus on for our younger learners.  For our current Year 5 learners, there continues to be mixed emotions of excitement and their own anticipation of the slow transition into their final year as school leaders.  I was most impressed with the fourteen students who prepared their expression of interest to be the school and or vice-captain for 2022 to the Leadership Team.  I look forward to hearing alongside parents and students of Year 4, 5 and 6 their speeches and the voting process in Week 7 of this term.

Our current Year 5s in many ways step up to leadership that is evident academically in the classroom and in more subtle ways like the transition into the playground as leaders.  Wishing all our Year 5 leaders the best in the coming weeks as they begin their leadership journey.  

Next week our Year 6 students are lucky enough to be going to the Gold Coast for their camp.  This is a time for our students to celebrate their Primary school years as a cohort and perhaps learn a little more about themselves by experiencing some  challenging and team building activities.  We hope they all have a wonderful time and look out for each other whilst they are away. Thank you to the staff who will accompany them and generously give their time and energy in looking after the students.

ADMINISTRATION RELOCATION:

The relocation of the school administration, staff facilities, learning support room and Year 1W classroom has begun this week. All of these areas need to be relocated by next Thursday 11^th November. 

Administration will operate from the school library from Wednesday 10^th November.

Year 1W will relocate to the classroom at the bottom of the stairs leading to the ‘old’ tuckshop by Thursday 11^th November.

Library will be closed from Friday 5^th November to students.

Learning Support team will continue to provide support to the students in their classrooms.

Staff will be utilising the St Saviour’s College facilities for the remainder of the year.

Thank you for your patience during this time. We welcome any offer of assistance in helping with the relocation/move.  Please let the school office know if you are able to assist in anyway.

Have a great week everyone.

Regards

Madonna Sleba

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 5! As expected, this term is flying along, with the end of year activities on the horizon. Last Wednesday, we had a hugely successful gathering for our 2021 Grandparents' Day, with approximately 235 family members able to join us for Mass (Catholic Mission), our Socktober Kick Off and our open sessions in classrooms. Comments, particularly from grandparents, were heartwarming as many had not been able to visit the school for quite a while, due to restrictions and distance.

Madonna Sleba had a lovely letter (handwritten and posted), a part of which I have included here...

"To the Principal, we had the pleasure of attending the Grandparents' Morning ....yesterday with our grand-daughter... We thoroughly enjoyed it, and it will stay with us as one of these special memories to keep forever in our hearts.

We travelled in from Taroom especially for the Grandparents' Morning and then my husband returned to Taroom. The early start and the hours of travel were well worth it, offset by the wonderful experience that we had at St Saviour's Primary School.

Congratulations on all the wonderful work that you and all the staff are doing, creating our leaders of tomorrow."  

Many photos were taken on the day, with just a small sample included below. We are already talking about what we might do for Grandparents' Day next year!

SSPS Christmas Concert (Saturday November 20- from 3:30pm)

Parents and families please ensure that you have date-claimed the Saturday, just over two weeks away as you won't want to miss the wonderful performances by all the students, presenting a combination of Music, Drama & Dance with a festive feel!

Students are invited to wear something "Christmasy" but practical, that they can safely move around on the stage in. Performances will commence in the Mercy Centre at 3:30pm and should be done by 4:30 with a BBQ and socialising continuing on afterwards. 

The order of classes, commencing with Year 5s, is below. Further information about where to drop off and collect your child/ren will be communicated closer to the day. We look forward to seeing you all then.

Judy

RACE DAY

Thank you to all parents and friends who attended a very successful St Saviour's Primary School and St Patrick's Cathedral Race Day last Saturday at Clifford Park.

St Saviour's is once again very appreciative of the following gold sponsors from the day:

• MJH Finance 
• Vision Exercise Physiology
• Somerfield Constructions
• Maskill
• Sedl Agencies
• Land Transport

Also to Obadare for their donation of the major auction prize and Fix & Clean for sponsoring the Calcutta and an auction prize. 

Several school related businesses and families also donated items as raffle prizes. Your generosity is very much appreciated. 

SEMESTER 2 REPORT CARDS

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, Semester 2 report cards will be sent home via Sentral.  This will occur in the final week of this term.  Hard copy report cards will be provided to all Year 6 students and any student who is leaving St Saviour's and is not attending another Toowoomba Catholic School.

YEAR 6 GRADUATION

Year 6 Graduation is taking place on the final day of Term 4 (December 3) at 9am.  

To comply with our COVID Safe Plan, parents attending will need to book a seat.  A trybooking link will be sent home on Monday.  Seats will be limited to 6 people per Year 6 child.

Sam Hannant 

APA

Special thanks to Nam Tran from Six West Studios who kindly took photos on Saturday.  Please click at this link. to view the photos from the RACE DAY.  

The password to view the photos is goodness

Please visit Six West Studios website link below:

www.sixweststudios.com

We thank Nam for his wonderful photography on Saturday.  As you can see by the photos, everyone had a wonderful day celebrating Derby Day.  

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Why Self-Efficacy and Dispositions at SSPS will lead to greater success for our students

As suggested in the quote above, how students see themselves as learners contributes greatly to how successful they are at school. In fact, research shows that the belief a child has about their abilities contributes more greatly to their success than actual capability. These ideas centre around self-efficacy, which is a person’s knowledge or belief about how successfully they can produce an outcome.

Children with higher levels of self-efficacy are far more likely to learn and continue to learn for life. They have a bank of strategies, dispositions and beliefs about themselves as learners that they draw on when they are challenged. They persist when things are tough and if they don’t get the answer or result they want, they draw on other dispositions or strategies and try again until they achieve success. Students with low levels of self-efficacy tend to avoid challenges and give up more easily. They are less engaged in the learning process and often don’t participate in discussions. When things are hard, they blame themselves rather than realizing it was their approach to the challenge that made them unsuccessful.

Take for example the task of solving a challenging Math problem. A child with high self-efficacy would first be curious – they could pick apart the question and ask, what am I being asked to solve? Next, they’d draw out key words and have a go at answering the question. When they check it the first time, they’d notice the answer is incorrect. Now, where a student with low self-efficacy would ‘switch off’ to learning, give up and see themselves as ‘bad as Maths’, this student would simply try another way. They know learning is hard but have a belief in themselves, as well as the tools and dispositions that they need to keep trying. So they draw on their determination disposition and re-read the question and try another way to solve the problem. They redo their working out and discover what went wrong the first time. If we can get our children to believe in themselves and use the dispositions to help them in their learning, we can make an incredible difference to how they grow academically. Good at learning, good at life!

Some tips for encouraging self-efficacy at home and school

• Remind your children often that learning is hard and that is ok!
• Talk about the dispositions with your children – ask them which one they could use when they are struggling to do something at home
• Ask your children how they see themselves as learners and encourage positive self-talk
• Don’t wait for your child to be perfect at something to praise them – praise them for getting in and having a go!

Warm Regards

Nicki Prentice

Aquathon 

On Friday, Emma, Taylor, Thomas and Mia (Year 5 and 6) competed in an Aquathon in Dalby against students from other schools within the region. This race consisted of a 1KM run, 200M swim and then another 1KM of running. All four students did a fantastic job completing this event and commented that it was a very hard race with some talented competition (picture attached).   

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. Any questions, please contact me at brendan.luck@twb.catholic.edu.au. 

Cheers 

Brendan Luck 

PE Teacher 

brendan.luck@twb.catholic.edu.au  

This week has been the last opportunity for library borrowing. Enjoy reading with your students and please supervise the return of all library loans next week. 

Parents of Year 6 students and those not returning in 2022, may I please ask you to check items are returned. Invoices for unreturned items will be sent in Week 8. 

 5 Ways to Get Your Kids Hooked on Books Video | Common Sense Media 

Please view this Common Sense Media video for some encouraging ideas to implement at home. Check out the other useful content on this website while you are there.

Thanks for doing all you can to engage children with reading for pleasure. It is one of the easiest and most enjoyable things you can do to boost their literacy skills. 

 Summer Reading Ideas 

* Give books as Christmas gifts 

* Visit and borrow from Toowoomba Regional Libraries 

* Sign up for a membership online and explore the digital resources from the State Library of QLD 

* Enjoy the stories from Storybox Library (https://storyboxlibrary.com.au) ssps (username) stories (password)

ClickView

ClickView is a curriculum aligned video streaming service that offers a wide range of content for learning and general interest. Take a look here; https://clickview.com.au Students sign in using their school email and password. Teachers are using these resources with students but they can be great sources of information and discussion when shared at home. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica

This is another digital resource subscription that can be accessed from home. As well as current, reliable information at 3 reading levels, Britannica offers interactive learning activities for younger students. Log in with the following details at https://school.eb.com.au stsaviour (username) sspsqld (password). 

Happy reading everyone!

Anne Anderson

Teacher Librarian

Friday Lunch Mindfulness Sessions 

We have explored Body Mapping which involves drawing our body sensations and feelings onto a body outline.  We are so used to paying attention to the outside world that it can take significant practice to turn our focus inwards. 

First, we relax as much as we can and take some deep breaths. Then we can begin to scan the inside of our bodies for various sensations. Starting with actual sensations such as cold/hot, tight/relaxed can be useful for children as they get used to this new skill.  We can then also look for angry, sad, scared, happy feelings and draw them. 

Identifying body sensations is the first step to being aware of our feelings. It is linking our body with the emotional part of our brain with the thinking part of our brain. 

When we are aware of our feelings, we have greater capacity to make choices about what to do with our feelings.

This takes time………brains are not fully developed until the early to mid 20’s!! 

From Kid’s Helpline Helping kids identify and express feelings | Kids Helpline 

Here are some of the ways you can help your child learn about and express their feelings: 

• Tune into cues - Sometimes feelings can be hard to identify. Tune into your child’s feelings by looking at their body language, listening to what they’re saying and observing their behaviour. Figuring out what they feel and why means you can help them identify, express and manage those feelings better. 
• Behind every behaviour is a feeling - Try to understand the meaning and feeling behind your child’s behaviour. You can help your child find other ways to express that feeling once you know what is driving the behaviour. 

• Name the feeling - Help your child name their feelings by giving them a label. Naming feelings is the first step in helping kids learn to identify them. It allows your child to develop an emotional vocabulary so they can talk about their feelings. 
• Identify feelings in others – Provide lots of opportunities to identify feelings in others. You might ask your child to reflect on what someone else may be feeling. Cartoons or picture books are a great way discuss feelings and helps kids learn how to recognise other people’s feelings through facial expressions. 
• Be a role model - Kids learn about feelings and how to express them appropriately by watching others. Show your child how you’re feeling about different situations and how you deal with those feelings. 
• Encourage with praise - Praise your child when they talk about their feelings or express them in an appropriate way. Not only does it show that feelings are normal and it’s ok to talk about them, it reinforces the behaviour so they are likely to repeat it. 
• Listen to your child’s feelings - Stay present and resist the urge to make your child’s bad feelings go away. Support your child to identify and express their feelings so they are heard. When feelings are minimised or dismissed, they will often be expressed in unhealthy ways. 

Last day of Term 4:

The last day of Term is Friday 3rd December.  This is also the Year 6 Graduation ceremony. 

Year 6 Graduation:

The Year 6 Graduation ceremony is being held on the last day of Term, Friday December 3.   Information will be sent home via the Parent Portal on Monday about booking seats for the Graduation.  A link will be sent from TRY BOOKING - all families will need to book allocated seats for Graduation.  Six tickets per family. (not including your Year 6 child)  Please keep an eye out for this link and book your seats as soon as possible.

Direct Debit forms 2022:

Please return completed Direct Debit forms for next year to the office ASAP for processing.

Use of Device Agreements:

These forms are due back by the 22nd November.

Prep 2022:

Prep Information Night for parents is coming up on Wednesday 17th November from 5.30pm - 6.30pm to be held in the Mercy Centre.  All parents are asked to attend this evening.

Prep Transistion morning - December 1. 

Last Day of Term:

St Saviour's Primary OSHC will be providing care for families from 1.00 pm on this day. Bookings are essential. Children who are already enrolled at OSHC can book directly via the xplor app.  Families do not attend OSHC will need to enrol by Friday 19th November.  Please email Brooke Chittenden at Brooke.Chittenden@tckc.qld.edu.au for all enrolment information and enquries.

To enquire/book please phone 0429 381 561.  

Perth Street parking:

It has come to our attention that quite a lot of parents are parking on footpaths in Perth Street.  Please refrain from parking on the footpaths of residents who live in Perth Street.  We understand it is difficult to find parks particulary as the building works are happening, however it is important that parking does not occur on the footpaths.

Also if you are parking in Perth Street PLEASE use the crossing. We need to teach our children the right way to cross a road - not to J walk.  

There have been several reports of young mothers with children gathering on Perth Street and crossing mid way down the street.  Visibility can be quite dangerous and cars come at speed around the corner from Ruthven Street at peak time.  It is only a matter of time before an incident occurs.  Please take an extra 5 mins and drive to where you can cross safely or find a park on Lawrence Street and walk your child in.  We cannot stress the importance of this enough.

Office Furniture - FOR SALE:

The office has several pieces of furniture/chairs that we are selling off.

If you would like any of the items (see pics below) please come and see us and make an offer.  These items will need to be collected by Wednesday of next week.

LIST OF ITEMS:

Coffee Table x 2

Small side table x 2

Black couches (2 seater and 3 seater)

Black Futon Couch  (used in sick bay)

Assortment of office chairs 

Black Dining Chairs 

Tables (round white and rectangle) 

Congratulations to our Weekly Awards from Week 4 and 5

Week 4

Week 5