Issue 7, Term 2, 31st May 2024

Principals Report

Dear parents, friends, and community. 

Staff Acknowledgements 
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our staff and teachers, they have been working hard to implement new curriculum and introducing a new phonics curriculum into their classrooms. I have had the opportunity to visit the classrooms and have been delighted to see the progress the students are making in their UFLI Phonics Program lessons. Teachers are preparing and finalising report card comments and assessments over the next few weeks in the lead up to the end of semester one report cards. 

Toowoomba Catholic School Visitors 
Last week we had our Education Officer: Learning Support Ms Christine Le’Strange visit our school. Christine a classroom teacher worked with myself and the Y1-2 class. She thoroughly enjoyed her time with us. This week we welcomed Mrs Julie Henderson our Education Officer: Curriculum to our school. Julie modelled expert writing sessions in the Lower Primary classrooms, modelled a UFLI lesson in the Prep room and met with teachers to discuss ways to enrich and enhance their already effective lessons. Julie, an expert in curriculum is excited to continue to work alongside our teachers and is happy with the progress we have made with the implementation of our new curriculum and programs so far. As previously mentioned, we are always striving for greatness, and this is an example of how our school continues to grow in Teaching and Learning. Finally, we had Senior Education Leader Mr Marty Savage visit our school on Thursday. Marty would like to pass on that he loves to visit Quilpie and was impressed with the collegiality and progress our school is making in all areas. 

First Nations perspective
At St Finbarr’s we uphold Toowoomba Catholic Schools (TCS), position to acknowledge First Nations people as the first people of Australia and support the commitment to sustain the cultures, languages, and deep connections to Country of First Nations.
To achieve this, we will employ the principles of TCS to:
•    promote equity
•    improve learning targets of our First Nations students
•    embed inclusive curriculum practices including First Nations perspectives
•    engage with community to use culturally appropriate and authentic knowledges and practices
•    integrate First Nations perspectives into our planning in purposeful and meaningful ways
•    demonstrate value of and respect for First Nations cultures, histories, and languages
The Catholic social justice principles of common good and human dignity support the commitment to closing the gap initiatives in education and work towards improving outcomes for the disadvantaged. 
At St Finbarr’s we strongly support social justice and the wellbeing of all of God’s creatures and the natural world. We encourage our school community, staff, students and families to also commit to the Catholic Social Teachings and Toowoomba Catholic Schools position and show dignity to all. We expect our school community to take seriously the principles of our Catholic diocese and support social justice. 

Farewell Mrs Rutledge
It is with sadness but excitement for this lady that I acknowledge that Mrs Mary Rutledge  has made the decision to retire from teaching. Mary has had a long-standing career as an educator and has upheld the values of being a teacher in our system with the accolades of all who have been lucky enough to work alongside her. We will be forever thankful for the beyond thoughtful acceptance of being our relief deputiser for when I am away from the school. Mary always was respectful, fair, selfless, used common sense and carried an awesome sense of humour. We will miss having her at St Finbarr’s and will cherish the memories of her time here with us. We wish her and Mary a happy retirement and look forward to seeing them when they visit Quilpie in the future.

Quilpie & District Athletics Carnival 2024 
Mrs Harris and Ms Wells have been teaching Physical Education to the students this semester, with the focus being athletics in preparation for the athletics carnival in term 3. I would like to let new families know that the Quilpie State College host and run the athletics carnival at their school. There will be more information closer to the date.

Working Bee
A massive thank you to Kelly, Sam, Aaron, Kathryn, Laura, Tahlia, James, Amy, Chloe, and Ed for their help at the Working Bee. There was a lot done. There is still a job left to turn over the sand in the sandpits and if you can do this job, please let us know as we are able to provide a rotary hoe machine for you to use. Our next plan will be to tackle the Mary Mackillop Garden, I know we have a lot of avid and green thumb gardeners in our Finnie’s Family, and I would love to work with you all to create a beautiful Mary Mackillop Garden for our school and the community to enjoy. Reach out if you would like to help lead and be apart of this project. 

Until next time
Mrs Kara Marsh

Student of the Week & Gotcha Winners Term 2

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'.                                                                                                                                                                                                            All the Gotcha  tickets a placed in the 'Gotcha box' and two names are drawn out each week, the remaining names stay in the box and are added to each week.

Prep Classroom

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The Prep students have been busy! last week they decided to make some beautiful roses and robots, this week they worked on writing sentences  about "Pig the pug" while Mrs Hendreson was at school this week, but they just worked hard in general. 

P-2 Classroom

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P-2 were very excited to begin experimenting in our science unit ‘All mixed up’. Students used cooking items to experiment what happens when we mix different ingredients together.

3-6 Classroom

Term 2 has been a busy one for the G4-6 class. In English we have been developing our vocabulary and our understanding of figurative language; similes and metaphors, to assist us with writing free-verse poetry about a chosen animal. Math lessons have involved hands-on sessions focusing on whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. We have been using manipulatives to assist students with the concept of how decimals, fractions, and whole numbers are connected and how they can be manipulated. Within science class students have become investigators to understand the three types of matter and how matter can be changed. Physical education has seen the children begin training to jump higher and longer, run faster, throw further, and be each other’s biggest supporters.  

Ms Wells

Mini Finnies

St Finbarr’s School warmly invites all children eligible to attend Prep in 2025 to “Be a Mini Finnie For A Day”

We are so excited to see you at our Come & Try day, grab a Mini Finnie’s enrolment pack and enjoy a morning that is designed for your children, to familiarise themselves with the routine of being a Mini Finnie!

It will be a great opportunity to be prepared for when our program kicks off in Term 3 & 4!!!

Mini Finnies is a play based education program, aimed at developing essential skills for a successful transition into prep.

The program will run each Friday morning during Term 3 & 4 from 8.45 - 11am.

All children starting prep in 2025 are welcome to attend with their parent or guardian.

Our Principal Kara Marsh and Miss Jen Anderson are looking forward to welcoming you!

Please fill in this form to RSVP https://forms.office.com/r/26CQf7rRFy  (right Click to open link)

TERM 2 SCHOOL FEE'S

Book Club Issue 4 Closing 7th June

Thank you to the students  that have placed their order on this Issue of Book Club! There is still time to order if you haven't already. Log on via your loop account below  or send form and payment back to school.

Book Club Loop - Parents | Scholastic Australia

Pirate Day 21st June

Ahoy there, start planning now,our Pirate day will be held on the last day of Term 2.

Catholic Education Week

Things are gearing up for Catholic Education Week from 21-27 July 2024.
The overarching theme of CEW this year is Communities of Faith, Hope and Love. In our Toowoomba Catholic Schools, we will be highlighting the theme of ‘love’.

This theme, referencing 1 Corinthians 13, provides schools with an easily adaptable theme, clearly linked to their Catholic ethos. To learn more about the connection of love to our Catholic

13And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

Good bye Mrs Rutledge

Last week , we said our final goodbyes to Mrs. Rutledge, who selected St. Finbarr's School as the last school of her teaching career. We are grateful to have had Mary come and fill in the blanks here when she was called up to duty. A beautiful , witty, funny, sensible human being, a great teacher also and so much more.Thank you Mary we wish you well.

Tuckshop

Thank you to our families each week who run a Tuck shop- the kids love having Mum or Dad there and all our other Mums & Dads love not having to make a lunchbox on a Monday.

Tuck-Shop 2024

Please make sure you read the  Operating Procedures in the Tuck shop to familiarize  yourself with how it runs, always ask Office questions if your not sure.                                                                                                                    

10am Council providing Snack Attack   T2                                                                                                                11am  1st Break -Fruit/veg option and  homebake                                                                                               1pm  2nd Break- Lunch and dessert   

Parents on Tuck shop will not be sent home an envelope for their student. Please see the office if you have any issue's or need some money to pay for items (please bring receipt)

Please note : Please dont send PEANUT related snacks to school. Peanuts only are not permitted, other nuts are fine.                                                                                                                                                                                              A link to the Operating Procedures can be found below.                                                        

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School Absences

School Grounds Working Bee

A big thankyou to those parents and staff who were able to attend last weeks School working bee, lots of jobs were ticked off the list, in  preparation for the Fete we will have another day in the future 

Volunteer Declaration

Can parents who haven't returned their form please do so. Please speak to the office if you need another form . These forms are  a conformation of you having understood what behaviour is required from parents in regards to dealing and interacting with students when on Tuckshop.

Assembly

Dont forget each Friday we have assembly in the Mary Mackillop room, where student awards are presented and School notices are shared with students and families present , at 8.45am when the bell rings please head on into the Mary Mackillop room 

PPF 2024

The next scheduled meeting is 

 this Thursday 20th of June 5pm 

All are welcome to come and have some input into your school.

President -Mr. Sam Bartlett
Vice president-Mr. Dan Hoch
Treasurer - Mrs. Amy Kuhn
Secretary – Ms. Kerri Thompson
Fundraising C0-Ordinator - Mrs. Lousie Hoch

School Website & Calendar

Please make youself familiar with our School Website, below is the Website link and a direct link to the school online calendar which has future dates on it that may not have been included in the Term planner, such as AGM and Fete dates.

Below shows you in 4 steps on how to subscribe the school online  calendar onto your phone's calendar, when reading school newsletter via your phone 

 St Finbarr's School, Quilpie, Calendar 

 St Finbarr's School, Quilpie Website

Quilpie,District & Regional Sport

2024 Term Planner

Please find the Term Planner for T1 and T2, please also keep a look out on our website for other dates or subscribe to school calander as shown above.

School Yard access

School Bell Times

Term Dates 2024

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.