Informer Term 2 Week 4

From Our Principal...

Prep Enrolments 2022

If you have a child eligible to start Prep in 2022 it is extremely important that you complete an online enrolment as soon as possible as places are filling fast. Please call into our School Office (8:30am - 3:30pm) to collect an Enrolment Package or telephone us on 49781799 for further information.

APRE NEWS...

New Guinea Appeal

New Guinea is in dire circumstances with COVID-19. People are isolated in the highlands without access to food.  Elderly or disabled have no-one to bring food to them and large families are struggling to find enough food to feed their children.  We are collecting for an appeal through the Mercy Sisters to send to those sisters working in New Guinea to help those in need.

Friday 21 May is our Gold Coin donation Day and monies collected will go towards this appeal, but we are encouraging your child(ren)  to do jobs at home to earn more to donate to this appeal.  This is truly enacting our call by Jesus to love our neighbour. Thank you in advance for your support of this appeal.

Love in Action

Our children truly know how to open their hearts to help others.  In our call last term, during Lent, to ‘Be More’ and to think of giving to help others less fortunate, little Ivy Land, a Year 1 Possum’s student, took it upon herself to set up her own ‘business’ to raise funds in a very easy and practical way.  She picked lemons from their home tree and began ‘’selling’’ them to family and friends for a gold coin donation.  Ivy raised $11.00 for her efforts and donated all this to Caritas.

You are a star Ivy and should be very proud of your efforts!  You have been a great model to all of us on how we can all do something to help others.

APC News...

Learning About Fractions

Learning about fractions begins well before students come to school. How many of us have asked our ‘pre-schoolers’ to share ‘half’ of their chocolate bar with their brother or sister?

The reasons why students struggle with fractions are varied. In the early years, it is due to the difficulty that students experience when making the transition from the concept of whole numbers to the concept of parts of numbers where they can no longer rely on their fingers to compute and because they have difficulty understanding the written notation used to represent fractions. Although students are introduced to fractions early in primary school, the use of this knowledge transcends into the classroom. In everyday life there are many situations that require fractional understanding and representation (multiplicative and proportional thinking). In school, because of the conceptual continuities between the two areas, fractional knowledge forms the foundation for learning of algebra — a fundamental part of secondary mathematics. Providing your children with many different hands-on and real life examples of working with fractions can provide a huge amount of assistance with what they are learning at school.

Have you ever wondered….what are pattern blocks?
Pattern blocks are versatile manipulatives for the mathematics classroom. They include the following shapes: green equilateral triangle, blue rhombus, tan rhombus, orange square, red trapezium and yellow regular hexagon. Activities using these blocks can not only assist students understanding of fractions but also assist with geometric concepts, spatial relationships and pattern awareness. Teachers use patterns blocks, along with many other different concrete materials such as paper, straws, images and real life objects, to teach about fractions.

Have a wonderful week!

Fractions

Gladstone Independent School Music Association (GISMA)

Dear Parents, 
The Gladstone Independent School Music Association is proud to announce we will be returning this year with our annual workshop
The 23rd Annual GISMA Music Workshop will be from 26th-30th July 2021. Details regarding registrations are to follow.

What happens at the GISMA Music Workshop?
The workshops provide an opportunity for all students who play, to mix with students from other schools and work with experienced tutors and conductors. The students receive intensive music tuition from local and visiting tutors, coming together to work with our visiting conductor.

Who can attend?
Students that learn woodwind, brass or percussion instruments are eligible to register. Students can be from our school’s music programs or learn privately. 

Why are the GISMA Music Workshops important?
Music has been proven to be extremely beneficial to those who take up an instrument. Workshopping with students provides them with a unique performing experience where intensive focus on playing can:

• Accelerate the students’ progress on their instrument
• Instil confidence in the students’ playing ability and self-worth
• Motivate and affirm the reason they play music.
• Long lasting positive effects are seen every year by Instrumental Music teachers, and most importantly the students have fun learning and playing music. 

Our next committee meeting will be 13 May 2021, 7:30pm at Kirkwood McDonalds. Everyone including teachers and parents are invited to attend. 

Kind Regards,

Chelsea Elvery 
GISMA Secretary

Parent Volunteer Induction - Term 2

We will be holding another Parent Volunteer Induction for parent's who were unable to attend the Inductions held last Term.  

This induction will be held next Friday 14 May at 9am and will be held in our school Library.  We invite all parents who are yet to do the Parent Volunteer Induction this year, to please come along to this session.

Athletics Carnival - General Information

• Friday 28 May (Week 6) starting at 8.40am sharp.

• Prep – Year 1 to meet teachers in their classroom from 8.20am.

• Year 2- 6 students to meet at their House Tents on oval from 8.20am.

• No Assembly.

• The tuckshop menu will be limited on the Athletics Carnival Day. Ordering can be made via online or over the counter (cash or Eftpos).

• Students to wear a sun safe shirt in their house colour, sports shorts, runners (no spikes), sunscreen, school hat and a large water bottle.

• Students are to be seated in their House Tents except if marshalling or competing. Parents are not to be seated in House Tents but are welcome to ‘set-up’ near the track, but away from marshalling and finish line.

• Spectators are to adhere at all times to COVID social distancing requirements.

• Students born 2013 – 2009 race in their date of birth and Prep-Yr 2 students race in their year level.

• Students born 2013 – 2009 have been pre-timed/measured to ensure they are placed in the correct heats.

• Students finishing 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd in races and field events receive ribbons. Students finishing 4th-8th receive points for their house. Student’s who finish 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd in Championship events earn points for their house and individually (1^st = 6 points, 2^nd = 4 points and 3^rd = 2 points).

• Students born in 2012 – 2009 are eligible for Age Champion.

• Students born in 2011 – 2009 who place 1^st and 2^nd in Championship race/events are eligible for Athletics Team selection.

• Presentation of Age Champions & House Champion to be presented on Monday at full school Assembly, not at the end of the carnival.

• Any students leaving prior to 3.00pm, MUST see their class teacher first and then go to the office to have their name marked off the electronic roll with their parent.

Fitness Training

Library News...

Athletics

At our Athletics Carnival on Friday 28 May we will have a coffee van onsite from 9.00am – 11.00am. The van will be set up on the J Hickey side of the oval near pick-up area.

Please note under WHS, all hot drink purchases must have a lid on them at all times and only adults will be served or are to consume hot drinks from the van.

St John's Way Awards

Our St John’s App Is Live!

We are very excited to announce that the St John’s is live and ready for parents to download to their devices.

Please follow the instructions step-by-step for downloading the St John’s App. The one-off St John’s set-up passcode is 8892.

Additionally, to download the St John’s App to your iPad, laptop or PC, please follow the following link - https://stjohnclinton.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Once you have downloaded the App you will see we now have a one-stop-shop for all information you need to stay informed at St John’s.

In the top banner you will see Home, Feed and Manage.

Home will take you to the tiles and Feed will take you to alerts/messages (as Dojo did).

The latest ‘feed’ will be displayed on the home screen above the tiles.

The ‘’tiles’’ we have used are as follows:

• Parent Lounge – takes you straight to the Parent Lounge sign-in page
• Latest Newsletter – each week the newsletter will be uploaded to this tile
• Website – takes you straight to our website
• Forms and Documents – in this tile the following documents have been uploaded – simply tap on the link:
  

Parent Handbook
School Uniform
Behaviour Management
Fees and Levies Schedule
ICT Code of Practice
Tuckshop Menu

• School Calendar – all key dates for the upcoming term (continually updated)
• Tuckshop – takes you straight to the online tuckshop log-in page
• OSHC – links to required forms
• School Contact – takes you straight to our phone contact
• Facebook - takes you straight to our Facebook page
• Seesaw – Our new ‘Dojo’’ – please note that this is still a work in progress
• Newsletter Archive – each weekly newsletter will be archived to this tile for referral where required
• Subscribe to Newsletter – please note that all existing families will be automatically uploaded to this new platform. This tile is for new families in the future

While we feel we have covered all bases, things can be overlooked so we look forward to your feedback or suggestions on information that would be a benefit to be included. As always your feedback is valued; please email Jakki Graham at Jakki_graham@rok.catholic.edu.au

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Volunteers Needed

Our tuckshop urgently needs volunteers to help on Wednesdays, Thursdays and especially Fridays. If you can help out could you please let us know so that we can arrange an induction with Mrs Graham.

As per guidelines, all volunteers need to sign in at the office, follow COVID hygiene and distancing practices and have completed the 2022 Volunteer Induction.

Please also note that our tuckshop ordering is ALL via the online system at https://www.quickcliq.com.au 

Tuckshop Menu

OSHC News...

Jack Comber and Billy Stephenson have been busy in the new investigation table this week.

My New Gallery