Issue 7, 2023 Term 3, 11th August

Principals Report

Dear Parents, friends and community. 

 Principal’s Leadership Forum 

I have just returned from what was a meaningful and informative Principal Leadership Forum held in Millmerran. Thank you again to Mrs Mary Rutledge and Mary Donnelly for all of their help and volunteered time during this week, we are so grateful they are able to give up their time for us. 

One of the agenda items for the week was a look at the TCSO Behaviour Management documents. We, as schools reflected on what we are doing well in this area, what does our behaviour management structures look like at our school and is it effective? We were grouped into like schools and the one common trend we all recognised in our schools was that we had very low to sometimes no major behaviour problems, and almost low to no minor behaviour incidents as well. As a group we reflected on what we do as a school and wider school community to assist in supporting these consistently good behaviour results. There were a few similarities that we all agreed upon that assist us in supporting the optimal behaviour as follows.  

• School context, we are very lucky to be in the context we are in our towns 
• Clear and strong expectations whether it be about leadership inductions, uniform, community events, communicating with others, playground, parent engagement with staff etc. These clear expectations reflect in our students behaviour. They are aware of what is appropriate. 
• Consistency and follow up communication  

• Policies and Procedures available to families  
• Our school is proud to be a valued member of the community  

We were able to identify areas that we can work towards in continuing to adapt and grow the behaviour plans we have in place.  

Thank you to each and everyone of you who also have clear expectations and values towards your child’s learning and understanding the impact that has on them. By enrolling your children at St Finbarr’s you have all at some point seen the Parent Engagement Charter and I thank you for your efforts in complying to the expectations. It would be no surprise that the impact your presence has in the community is a direct reflection at times on our school. We are very lucky to have the parents we do who are so supportive and invested in their children’s education and share the same passion of ensuring we are helping to grow thoughtful, kind and respected members of our community. Please take the time to reflect on the influence you have on your child’s interaction with other children. If you would like to read the Parent Engagement Charter again please ask at the office.  

Charleville District Athletics Carnival  

Last Friday I had the privilege of taking our students to the Charleville Athletics Carnival we also took the students who qualified from the Quilpie State College. Thank you to Miss Kait (QSC) for your assistance and to Dan Hoch who generously gave up his time and drove the bus for us. We are very grateful, once again Thank You!  

The carnival proved to be a great day with a number of our students receiving placings. We had Ava, James, Abbie and Digby qualify for the Regional Athletics Carnival which will be held in St George in week 8. We are very proud of your dedication, and we wish you good luck! Congratulations to all students. 

QUILPIE COMMUNITY NAIDOC WEEK ACTIVITIES 

This year the Whole Quilpie Community will be involved in a week long celebration in partnership with a number of entities and schools. Our school will be hosting the Naidoc Activities on Thursday the 24th August. Ruby Andrews and Brendan Andrews have kindly agreed to assist us in our rotations. We will host the Quilpie State College and cook Johnny Cakes and create Aboriginal Canvas Art. On the Wednesday 23rd August Eromanga State School will be hosting us in Eromanga. We will need some parents to assist in transporting the children to Eromanga as the buses will not have enough seats for everyone. If you are able to assist in the transportation of your own child or children please contact the office. More information will be released as there was a NAIDOC meeting today to finalise the weeks agenda.  

Charleville Performing Arts Fest  

Student from 3-6 and Charlie in Year 1 will be attending the CPAF on Friday the 25th August. I will be taking them in on the bus and we will return late that afternoon. We thank their Music Teachers, Mrs Lindy Sommerfield and Mrs Leia Johnson for all the online sessions and work they are doing in preparation for the day.  

Whole School Camp 

The Whole School Camp digital form was set to finish today. If you have not done so yet please go back to your text messages or email to follow the link and fill in the critical form as a sense of urgency so we can begin to make our final preparations in planning the school camp. We need to know if your child is able to attend our Gold Coast Whole School Camp.  

 Until next time 

 Kara Marsh 

APRE News

Feast Day of Saint Mary Mackillop Celebrations

Our year 6 students were servant leaders as Mary Mackillop was, on Monday as they prepared the special Mary Mackillop Feast Day Tuckshop. They designed, prepared and served their peers. We thank them and the staff who helped them.

On Friday, 3-6 led a Prayer/Assembly to remember Saint Mary Mackillop. Mary Mackillop is our school patron’s saint and we pride ourselves in living and learning in her influence through “never seeing a need without doing something about it”.

Mary Mackillop’s Feast Day is celebrated annually on August 8^th. On this day, her achievements are celebrated with prayers and scriptural readings. Special services are often held to honour her, and people send prayers thanking her for all of her hard work. Mary MacKillop was the first Australian beatified by the Roman Catholic Church and the first Australian to be recognized as one of its saints. 

3-6 Classroom News

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through Term 3. The Term has started by welcoming a new student, celebrating the life of our first saint, and participating in athletic, musical, and academic pursuits. 

 Maths has involved the children becoming experts in understanding and applying the concepts of chance and probability to situations. Questions such as, what is the chance of rolling an even number on a dice, what percentage chance is there of selecting a diamond card from a pack of cards? If a coin is tossed 10 times, how many heads would you expect to see?’  Additionally, students have been expanding on their knowledge of basic mathematic skills to solve single and multi-step problems.  

Language has seen the children enhance their poetic skills with the children writing a range of poetry; sonnets, haikus, cinquains and tankas. Please keep an eye out for some examples of the children’s poetry in the current and future newsletters. Students are also demonstrating a wonderful attitude towards learning this year’s class poem, Mulga Bill. We are looking forward to sharing this with you at the Award’s Night. 

 In HASS and Science, the students have had some cross-curricular learning taking place with the students investigating the development of our current world set up – from Pangea to today’s 7 continents, earthquakes, tectonic plants, continental drift, rifting, biomes, volcanoes are all being studied by the students. A really interesting and engaging unit of learning. 

Finally, a big thank you to Ms Kerri and the G5/6 students who did an excellent job of running tuckshop on Monday. It was delicious and greatly appreciated by all. 

SPHEROS!!!

3-6 Class Poetry; sonnets, haikus, cinquains and tankas.

P-2 Science

While it looks like a fun afternoon at the beach it was Science with Mrs Rutledge and the theme was 'Water Wise'. Students learnt about water runoff, rain catchments such as lakes and rivers  and much more. We coloured the water/rain  to watch it run down off our hills and into the rivers and creeks we made, and watched as some water evaporated and some didnt.  Fun in the sand!

Student of the Week & Gotcha Winners Term 3

Gotcha tickets are given out each week when students are seen to be following our school rules and values.  Actions may include caring for each other, greeting other students, staff and parents warmly or showing respect and responsibility.  Actions may also be following the words of Mary Mackillop -  'Never see a need without doing something about it.' 

SOW Winners         Wk 5- Ella-Rose & Walter 

                          Gotcha Winners- Wk5-  Indie & James                                                                                             

Quilpie & District Carnival Dates 2023

Swimming – Friday 24th November

Regional & State Sport

This past week in the Wide World of Sport, young Digby Grimm travelled to Cairns to represent the South West at the  State Soccer Carnival  . The team had some close games, even a draw against the North West side. The great  defence of the South West team  kept some of the metro teams low scoring. This year they even scored a goal which is not an easy feat in soccer.

Digby's soccer talents helped him win player of the match in one of his many games, Well done Digby!

Prep 2024 Enrolments

Add these dates to your diary!
We are so excited to welcome all families who would like to attend our Prep Transition Mornings in Term 3 and Term 4.
We use these mornings to observe and get to know your children to take the pressure off you with preparing them for school. We are completely committed to ensuring we are prepared for your child in 2024.
A great opportunity for all Quilpie and surrounding areas children to experience a morning in the classroom.

Enrolment Application | St Finbarr’s School, Quilpie (twb.catholic.edu.au)

PPF Meetings

This coming Wednesday there will be a PPF meeting in the Staffroom at 5pm, all are welcome to  come along and join the meeting. If you have any items you wish discussed at this meeting send them in to the school or your PPF reps before Wednesday.

Jeremy Grimm, Amy Kuhn, Kerri Thompson & Louise Hoch 

School Assembly

Every Friday is school assembly in the Mary Mac room, at 8.45am. When the school bell rings we head down to the Mary Mac room where student awards and other news is presented. Parents and friends are more than welcome to attend. 

This morning during assembly the  Gr 3/6 presented the Mary Mackillop liturgy, well done all.

Cricket Queensland

This week Harry & Marne from Queensland Cricket came to school  and helped to sharpen our cricket skills in readiness for the upcoming cricket season with the Killer Whales!. For those interested in Junior cricket with the Chaleville & District Cricket Association scan the QR code or Ctrl click  Play Cricket for more information

Clay Target Shooting

We have some very sporty students here at St Finbarr's, and they have a varied array of sports to choose from in Quilpie. From school sports to weekend sports of  Motorbike/Horse  gymkannas, Polocrosse, Rugby  to Clay target shooting. Good luck to Nate McC this weekend who is competing in his first Sporting Clays Carnival in Quilpie, Good luck this weekend Nate we hope you have a sucessfull weekend

Tuckshop Term 3, 2023

Please provide during Term 3

Snack attack @ 10am

Morning tea @ 11am 

Lunch @ 1pm

$9 per student

 Parents please remember to send cutlery to school with your childs lunch box if their meal requires utensils. 

Happy snaps

Staff & Gr 5/6 Mary MacKillop Tuck shop & GG's Birthday cake

School Absences

School Bell Times

Please don't send students to school before 8.30 unless prior arrangements have been made, playground supervision doesn't begin until 8.30am

Quilpie Golf Weekend 19th & 20th August

Auction - Saturday Night 19th August

The Quilpie Golf Club is offering you the opportunity to make a bid for these 2 personalised jerseys.

The Wallabies 2023 World Cup Jersey will be signed by Wallabies Captain James Slipper with an inspirational message for your son, grandson, friend or foe.

Silent bids will be accepted prior to the Auction on Saturday 19th August by phoning Bruce on 0476166378. all bids will be CONFIDENTIAL!

Coach Eddie Jones has informed the Quilpie Golf Club that Australia will WIN the Rugby World Cup in France, starting on September 9. Get your bid in NOW!

The Qld Reds jersey will be signed by Reds & Wallaby stalwart James O’Connor.

James became the youngest ever Super Rugby debutant at the age of 17 and the second youngest Wallaby in Australian Rugby history at the age of 18.

He has generously offered to personalise a message for your nearest and dearest.
The Quilpie Golf Club would like to thank RACHEL ELIZABETH INTERIORS for their overwhelming support of our Club - you are an amazing help!

Term Dates 2023

St Finbarr's Student Protection Contacts

It is a legislative requirement that all non-state schools have at least two nominated staff members to whom a student can report the behaviour of another staff member that the student considers inappropriate.  We call these specially trained staff members School Student Protection Contacts, or SSPCs.  Each SSPC has been nominated by the principal in recognition of their integrity, approachability and knowledge in the area of student protection.  Whilst students are encouraged to speak up to any trusted adult in the school community, it is important that they know they can access these specific staff members at any time should they have worries, queries or concerns. You will have noticed posters throughout the school depicting our current SSPCs.  The SSPCs are also published on our school website along with information about our student protection processes.  In everything we do at St Finbarr's student safety is our highest priority, therefore the SSPCs at our school are key personnel in our overall safeguarding processes.  Please see the poster depicting our current SSPC team.