Week 9, Term 4 2021
Dear All,
SSPS learners, today we recognised and congratulated your learning on academic achievements as well as leadership and service in diverse dimensions of school life. It’s my hope that at the core of that successful learning is an open mind and a generous heart. Today’s awards validate the outcome of your learning and spirit. More important to your long term success and happiness is the process of learning; the skills you employ to learn rather than the learning of content itself.
Research is telling us this. The World Economic Forum in their Future of Work study in 2020 identified the Top 10 Skills that will be needed in 2025. Broadly speaking, they are classified in four baskets: Problem solving, Self management, Working with people and Technology use and development.
We have no real idea what the workforce will be when many of our learners leave school. The multiple influences of this technology such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, blockchain and bitcoin, edge computing and digital skills … to name just a few will influence their work choices. While this is true, I noted that of the many skills listed only two related directly to technology. The rest are thinking skills, people skills and skills in managing yourself. They are the skills that Dyson and his company have applied to be successful and inventive. They happen to also be the skills that St Saviour’s Primary School reinforces through our Learning: to strive in learning and life.
This core business occurs within our mission as a school. That mission is to be a Catholic school in the Mercy tradition and therefore a school with a clear set of values. These cornerstone values are intrinsic to our school culture: compassion, quality, service and commitment. It has to be lived everyday wherever SSPS children find themselves.
Staff and students are to be commended for the commitment that is made daily to the realisation of an authentic, innovative learning community.
2021 has been one of continued success, accomplishment and progress. From a long list I highlight the following from 2021:
- The beginning of our construction projects: 4 new GLAs, new administration and staff facilities
- The Review of Religious Education program
- The introduction of our Learning Dispositions
- The enrolment of 420 students
- The excitement generated by Once Upon a Fairy tale Crisis Musical – On Stage!
- The vibe of the STEM SHOWCASE
- PREP transition mornings for 2022 learners
- Catholic Education Week celebrations and activities
- Our success in Swimming and Athletics carnivals
- The recent Christmas Concert
- Service activities to the wider community
- 7 Darling Downs representatives; 1 Qld representative in sport
- Introduction of Positive Education Enhanced Curriculum from Prep to Year 6
- Grandparents' day, School Open sessions
- Welcome BBQ, Trivia Night, Mother’s and Father’s Day events, End of Year BBQ
St Saviour’s Primary offers the latest in teaching and learning, technology, extracurricular activities, and the benefits of being a high quality inclusive Catholic school. We offer our students a rounded education that encourages personal growth based on Christian values. We encourage students to develop a knowledge of other cultures, languages and environmental and social issues.
We manage to provide all these essential components of education, thanks to a lot of hard work from some very dedicated people.
Thank you to the members of the P & F committee, Renee Campbell, Danielle Hart, Brendan McDonald, Christine Scott, Terry Sanders, Shannon Zimmerlee. Thanks to Cathy Condon for organizing our Pizza Treat days and Kate Boyd-Pratt for the support given to various P & F events across the year. Your dedication and enthusiasm is appreciated and doesn’t go unnoticed.
I extend a huge thank you to the members of the SSPS School Board, Mr Adam Ottobrino, Mr Chris Black, Mrs Samantha Eagleson, Ms Shauna Green, Mr Sam Hannant, Mr Peter Ramsay, Miss Margaret Doljanin and Fr Michael O'Brien. This group of committed and dedicated parents and parishioners are of tremendous support in ensuring our Catholic school continues to provide an exceptional educational program for all our learners. Mr Adam Ottobrino will be leaving this group at the end of the year, and I wish to thank him for his generosity of time, support and the wisdom that he has given over the past ten years on our School Board. You will be missed Adam. Also, on behalf of the SSPS community, I extend our thanks to Samantha Eagleson for her contribution to the School Board over the past two years. As we move into the next phase of our Master Plan, I extend an invitation to any parents who could bring their building expertise to the school board. If you are interested please contact me so that I can talk with you about your role as a board member.
Thank you to all our volunteers, those that assist in the tuckshop, library, in class support, Book Club, excursion helpers and our Pastoral Care group, your support to the staff and students of St Saviour's Primary School is outstanding. Your generosity of time and assistance never goes unnoticed and is greatly appreciated.
Special thanks to Ms Sharon Collins, staff and the St Saviour's College community for assisting us throughout the building construction this term. We are truly grateful for being able to access the necessary rooms and facilities in the College.
We are looking forward to beginning 2022 in our new Year 1 classrooms, Music and Drama room and the new administration and staff facilities. Progress photos:
Many people contribute to this great school and I thank each and every one of you for your support.
All of these events and many more have defined and enriched us in 2021; just as it has for the past 158 years. With God’s blessing it will do so again in 2022. I look forward to sharing that journey with you. Wishing you all every blessing for the Christmas season. I look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday 25th January, 2022.
Madonna Sleba
Happy Final Newsletter for 2021,
An Advent Prayer
Loving God, as we come closer to celebrating the feast of Christmas, may we take time to bring hope and joy to others.
Give us open hearts and hands so that we may become people of peace and love, generous with all we have and willing to share it with others.
We ask this prayer in Jesus’ name.
Dear Parents and Carers,
As expected, the last couple of weeks have been quite busy and so I have included a few photos so you get just a taste of the busyness of school life.
AWARD RECIPIENTS: Congratulations to the following students who have received special end of semester awards, presented at today's assembly.
Catherine McAuley Award
Congratulations Edge Luck
Edge has shown the same compassion and caring attitude throughout his schooling life, as Catherine McAuley generously gave during her life. This award is a gift from St Patrick’s Cathedral, acknowledging the great work St Saviour’s Primary does to engender wonderfully Christ-like values in our school community.
Catherine’s mother taught her independence, dignity, charm and compassion which influenced her entire life. Edge is growing in the same way. He is committed to quality, continuous learning and improvement. He treats everyone with respect, accepting their right to spiritual, emotional and physical safety and care.
In Catherine’s words;
“The simplest and most practical lesson I know . . .
is to resolve to be good today,
but better tomorrow”.
Catherine McAuley.
Mahdi Baptism from Prep T: Last Friday Prep T gathered with Mahdi and his family to share the special occasion of his Baptism. We were so privileged to be a part of this special occasion.
St Vincent De Paul Grocery Gather: Thank you to everyone who donated to the Year 5s' Service Project where they collected items for our local branch of St V de Paul. Terry Ryan accepted our donations which he said will be gladly shared to those of our local community who need some help this Christmas period.
Final Week:
In the last week, we have seen Mr Luck, setting up his office in his Sports Shed, due to a lack of space (and probably to avoid the crowd in the library!!) and 1S making their own Christmas decorations, using some of their STEM skills!
St Patrick's Cathedral Parish 2022 Sacramental Program: 2022 Year 4 students and families are reminded to complete and submit their Enrolment Form if they wish to take part in the Sacramental Program which commences Week 4 of Term 1 next year.
The Enrolment Form, plus copy of Baptism Certificate is to be handed in either to the Parish or School Office early next year.
Sergeant Kirsty Gleeson (our SSPS Adopt a Cop) had class visits this week, reminding our students, prior to the holidays about Protective Behaviours (Staying Safe) and also Respectful/ Sensible Behaviours in general.
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and joy-filled Christmas break!
Judy
2022 SCHOOL LEADERS
On Wednesday last week, we recognised all of the 2022 Year 6 students as the future student leaders of St Saviour's Primary School.
To add to this, several students were elected to be either a school or vice-captain, a house captain or a councillor.
Plese see the list of elected leaders below:
COUNCILLORS
Library- Addison Guy & Sianna Thomas
Service- Charlee Smith & Paige Fletcher
Technology- Amelia Taylor & Riley Woods
Welfare- Claire Wilson & Abby Coffison
HOUSE CAPTAINS
COOLOCK- Kyara Flanigan & Archer Klemm
GORETTI- Evie Phillips & Scarlett Bishop
MCAULEY- Thomas Prust & Piper Dolley
XAVIER- Ariana Jeffrey & Charlotte Stockwell
VICE- CAPTAINS
Ashton McHugh & Abigail Allan
SCHOOL CAPTAINS
Taylor Wann & Erin Ward
AWARDS ASSEMBLY
As you are aware the Awards Assembly took place today.
Recognised at the assembly were all students who received an outstanding academic achievement certificate in class on Wednesday.
Also recognised were those students who represented Darling Downs and QLD this year for sport. They included:
Emma Barram – DD & QLD Swimming
Hunter Tate-Roche – DD Rugby League
Carter Wicks – DD Softball
Evie Phillips – DD Hockey
Ariana Jeffrey – DD Netball
Maya Smith – DD Soccer
Evie Phillips – DD Cricket
To add to this the Margaret Doljanin award was presented for the Sportsperson of the Year. This is the first time this award has been presented and it has been named after Marg due to her amazing contribution to sport at St Saviour's Primary over her 46 years at the school. The winner of this award in 2021 was Emma Barram for her outstanding swimming achievements which culminated in her being selected in the QLD Schools Swimming Team.
Also for the first time, the St Saviour's Primary Cultural Award was presented for outstanding contribution to the Cultural Life of the school. In 2021 this award was presented to Aiden O'Reilly for being a member of the school choir, drama club, drama festivals, Eisteddfod and participation in school masses.
Congratulation Aiden.
RACE DAY WRAP UP
Again, a massive thanks to all of the sponsors and attendees of the St Saviour's Primary and St Patrick's Cathedral Race Day in October.
Overall, just over $11 000 was made on the day which is a fantastic achievement. Thanks to the committee of Fr Michael, Bee King, Julie Robinson, Katie Boydpratt, Bec Warner and Madonna Sleba for their help and contributions.
The money has been split with $7000 going to the school and $4000 to the Parish. This money will go towards some new play equipment for the lower school at St Saviour's.
Have a great break.
Sam Hannant
Adopt A Cop Awards 2021 Term 4
Cornerstone Value Awards 2021 Term 4
Merry Christmas to all our families at St Saviour's Primary for 2021.
We look forward to sharing another action packed year of school life with you all in 2022. We do have a few last reminders for you all before the school year ends tomorrow.
- 2022 Direct Debit forms must be returned by tomorrow for processing.
- All 2021 school fees should now be finalised for the school year.
- The office will remain open until the Friday December 17 and reopen on Monday January 10, 2022 (9am - 2pm)
- Reminder school finishes at 1.00 pm tomorrow
- If your child is NOT attending tomorrow you will need to submit an absentee notification for them via the portal or contact the office
- Year 6 Graduation - 9am Mercy Centre
- Uniform Shop opening hours attached to today's Newsletter
- Year 4 2022 Surface Go Devices invoices will be processed next week and sent out to those families who are purchasing devices.
On behalf of Jodie, Julie and Alex we wish you all a wonderful break.
Congratulations Week 8 Weekly Awards
Library Highlights for 2021
Students, teachers and library staff have been learners and readers together as we have;
- Borrowed, read and listened to fabulous books found on our shelves
- Promoted books we have enjoyed with book talks and book reviews
- Challenged ourselves to broaden our reading choices by searching in AccessIT (our database), browsing carefully and taking recommendation advice from teachers and peers
- Listened to and viewed a story from the International Space Station for National Simultaneous Storytime
- Spent a term exploring the 2021 notable books and voting for our favourites in the QLD children’s choice BIBLY awards
- Been invited to respond to a notable book in a variety of ways in the Notables Challenge
- Explored different types (genres) of books and where they fitted in the theme "Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds"
- Celebrated Book Week with a wonderful dress up parade
- Shared some time online with Australian author Oliver Phommavanh during ‘Step into Stories’
- Learnt the main divisions in the Non-fiction classification system and the difference between primary and secondary sources of information
- Practised locating and judging the value of information in Britannica online and websites
Some Statistics...
- There were 58,762 items issued and returned from the library collections this year!
- 734 new items were added to the student and teacher collection
- 8,352 videos became available via our ClickView subscription
- Family book purchases via Book Club and Book Fair earned over $1 500.00 worth of new books for the student and reader collection
Thank you, parents, for sharing and caring for the library books borrowed by your children.
- Notices for outstanding loans have been sent home regularly across the term.
- Please locate any overdue items and return them to school as soon as possible.
- Invoices will be sent for Term 4 unreturned loans in Term 1 2022.
Thank you to our wonderfully loyal library volunteers, Kerrie Rowling and Merryl Nunn who have given generously of their time all year to support the operation of the library.
Thank you to our volunteer Book Club coordinator, Michelle Standing who works quietly to offer this service to our families across the year.
You are appreciated!
Keep reading over the long Summer break!
Some Ideas...
*Join the Summer Reading program on offer from the QLD State Library
Summer Reading Club | State Library of Queensland (slq.qld.gov.au)
* Visit and borrow from Toowoomba Regional Libraries
* Sign up for a membership online and explore the digital resources from the QLD State Library
* Give books as Christmas gifts
* 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).
Christmas blessings and a happy, safe holiday to everyone!
PE in 2021
What a great year of sport we had compared to 2020. Still a couple of events were missed due to COVID but overall, a fantastic year. We kicked off with our SSPS Swimming Carnival with Goretti winning the carnival and relay on the day. Next, we had our SSPS Cross Country which was very exciting as this was the first sporting event parents were able to attend since the start of the pandemic. This was an awesome day full of cheering and smiles from students and parents with Xavier taking out this event. We also had our SSPS Athletics Carnival which was very exciting to see. Xavier also won this carnival and took out the field event trophy with McAuley taking out the relay trophy. Throughout the year St Saviour’s Primary were also lucky enough to attend Catholic, Zone and Darling Downs carnivals, Gala Days, Interschool Sport, Fitness Club, SWQ Touch Football Carnival and Friday Night Basketball. I am very excited to see what 2022 brings for our students at St Saviour’s Primary. Have a safe and Merry Christmas and I look forward to seeing our families in 2022.
School Sport
Over the year many students have competed in sport at a higher level representing the Central Zone team, Darling Downs team or the State team. Unfortunately, due to COVID not all events took place this year, so some students made the team but where unable to compete. Students who did make these teams have dedicated a lot of their time and energy to training in the lead up to events and are to be commended for the effort they bring to every training session and competition. Below is a list of students who made school sport teams.
Swimming
Zone – Mia Casagrande, Lucy Hardy, Taylor Wann, Emma Barram, Harper Eagleson and James Currie.
Darling Downs – Emma Barram.
State – Emma Barram.
NRL
Zone – Taylor Wann, Hunter Tate-Roche and Murdoc Thompson.
Darling Downs – Hunter Tate-Roche.
Softball
Zone – Carter Wicks.
Darling Downs – Carter Wicks.
Basketball
Zone – Addyson Jackson and Scarlett Bishop.
Hockey
Zone – Evie Phillips.
Darling Downs – Evie Phillips.
Netball
Zone – Ariana Jeffrey.
Darling Downs – Ariana Jeffrey.
Soccer
Zone – Maya Smith.
Darling Downs - Maya Smith.
Cross Country
Zone – Maya Smith, Erin Ward and Taylor Wann.
Cricket
Zone – Evie Phillips.
Darling Downs – Evie Phillips.
Athletics
Zone – Edge Luck, Aiden O’Reilly, Hunter Tate-Roche, Taylor Wann, Joseph Black and Rose Stead.
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.
Congratulations
Congratulations to our AMAZING children on your recent sporting success!!
EVIE PHILLIPS -: Darling Downs Cricket (placed 7th overall)
LILY KILGOUR-HENRY -: Gymnastics competition in Townsville. 1st overall on floor, 2nd on floor, 2nd on bar, 5th on beam, 4th overall.
TAYLOR WANN -: Swimming Club competition in Allora. 1st 50m Butterfly, 1st 50m Backstroke, 2nd 50m Freestyle, 4th 50m Breastroke. Taylor also made the DDRSA swim team for U10 relay, freestyle and medley (backstroke). Taylor is now in the Darling Downs A team and will compete at Chandler on the 11th December.
THOMAS PRUST -: 200km bike ride for children with cancer. Thomas has raised over $1000 for the Great Cycle Charity.
Cheers
Brendan Luck
PE Teacher
To the entire St Saviour’s Community
I would like to thank all of you for making me feel so welcome for the past six years.
I have loved my time working here. You are so lucky to have such a talented and dedicated staff who work so hard to achieve the best for these wonderful students. There have been many highlights over the years here. I do always seem to remember the performances – our wonderful choirs, ‘The Three Trees’ – Easter Play, the Josh Arnold Colour Run inspired song and video, the lovely little munchkins who supported the St Saviour’s College with ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and the brilliant ‘Once Upon a Fairytale Crisis’ musical of 2021. I have also really enjoyed playing the piano at St Patrick’s Cathedral to accompany the choir leading the singing at school masses and on Sunday celebrations.
I would like to extend an extra special thank you to Mrs Anita McVeigh. We have had so much fun, working together as a Music/Drama team and I have learned so much from her. I will MISS YOU ALL!
Anne-Maree Spalding
2021 Our Year in Review
