St Clare's School Tully eNewsletter

Dear St. Clare’s Community,

Here we are already at the end of Term 3, and we now look ahead to the break next week and spending time with our families and friends. Of course the highlight of the term has to be the Fete! What a fantastic turnout. Well done to the P&F to putting on an amazing night. The Country theme was fantastic.

The fete cannot happen without the support of parents, staff, students, past families and our wider community, however you were involved, our sincerest thanks!

Thank you to those who:

Got the ball rolling, came up with the theme, and got a Fete Committee together
Contacted businesses in our area and got some fantastic donations rolling in
Sold tickets and of course bought tickets!
Convened stalls, ordered supplies for stalls, baked & baked and organised helpers on the night
Gave donations so very generously for the auctions, cent sale, raffles and prizes
Spent time sorting and organising prizes for the various stalls
Prepared students for their outstanding performances on the night - what a treat!
Encouraged students to give their best in the performances
Set up on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning - it looked amazing!
Organised floats, made sure everyone had change and counted money
Gave time to help out on a stall on the night
Attended the fete
Helped pack up and clean up on Sunday morning

All funds from our annual fete go directly to supporting students. In the past the P&F have used funds for:

Computers & ipads
Books & resources
Shade sails for playgrounds
The huge fans in the Montefalco
New playgrounds
Robotics equipment
Buses for camps and excursions
Roller door for the tuckshop
Waterslide at the end of the year

Again, thank you to our P&F community for their ongoing and passionate support - our school is so very fortunate to have such a strong and supportive parent community.

CHESS 2025

Well done to all in Year 4, 5 & 6 students that entered the St. Clare’s Chess Competition this year. We had a record 24 players and played a total of 509 games over the last 2 terms.

(Charlie, Tom, Louisa, Hope, Conor, Hanna, Jasten, Stanley, Isabel, Jasten, Shiloh, Rafa, Alice, Evie, Billy, Blake, Warrick, Nicolas, Ekam, Addisyn, Santo, Blaise, Madeline, Kade)

These students played during their lunch breaks and showed excellent sportsmanship and commitment. It was an absolute pleasure to watch students play and learn from each other.

Congratulations to everyone, a mammoth effort!

1st Place - Jasten Hutchesson
2nd Place - Kade Murphy
3rd Place - Jaxon Lizzio

As we move into the break, I ask that you be mindful of our uniform policy, particularly in regards to hair and haircuts.

All student’s hair needs to be off the eyes.
Long/shoulder length hair needs to be tied back.
Hair bands/elastics/ribbons etc will be black, brown, blue or gold ONLY and will be kept to a minimum.

No other hair accessories or adornments are permitted.

Extreme hair colours and/or extreme hairstyles (including tracks/shaved patterns) are not permitted.

Finally, to all staff, students, parents and our community, all the best for the break. I hope the weather shines for us and we all have the opportunity to enjoy the amazing backyard we are lucky to have in this part of the world.

Term Four commences on Tuesday 7th October.

Sincerest blessings for a happy and safe break.
Karran Burzacott

Faith Knowledge Community Respect

Nursing Home Visit

Last Monday, our Year 5 class visited the Tully Nursing Home to join the residents in their weekly game of Bingo. This is always an enjoyable experience for both the students and residents. Thank you to Sara Hughes who is always ready and willing to assist with transport, and Deb McPherson from Tully Nursing Home for her organisation of each social event and making our staff and students feel so welcomed. We look forward to visiting again in term 4.

Grandparent’s Day

St Clare’s will celebrate Grandparent’s Day on Friday October 24 with an assembly and classroom visits in the morning. Please let any grandparents in your family know this date.

St Gerard’s Mass

Our Parish will celebrate the Feast Day of St Gerard on Saturday October 18 at 2.30pm. We are currently organising a choir for the mass. If your child would like to be a part of this, please contact me before the end of term.

Assemblies

Week 10

Year 1

With Blessings,

Sharon Chappel

Over the past two years, our Uniform Committee has been working on a refreshed design for the St. Clare’s Sports Uniform. This initiative was prompted by feedback from our parent community, who raised a few concerns about the current sports shirt:

The lighter-coloured front panel tends to show stains easily
The fabric is relatively heavy and not ideal for our tropical climate

After a thorough and thoughtful design process, the final version of the updated sports shirt has been approved and sent to our supplier for production. We anticipate that stock will be available by mid-January 2026 and hope it will be ready for purchase from Iggulden’s before students return to school on Wednesday, January 28th.

2026 will be a transition year, meaning students may continue wearing the current sports uniform. There is no requirement for students to wear the new design in 2026. If you already have sports uniforms they may continue to be worn. We aim to complete the full transition to the new uniform by the start of the 2027 school year.

The sports shorts will also change to mirror the updated sports shirt, however the timeline for the shorts may be a little behind the shirts. The shorts will remain the same, with the front panel changing to match the shirt. Current shorts will be able to be worn with the updated shirt during the period of transition.

If you are experiencing difficulty purchasing sports uniforms, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email at principal.tully@cns.catholic.edu.au—we may be able to assist. Additionally, if you have sports uniforms in good or fair condition that are no longer needed, we kindly ask you to consider donating them. Donations can be dropped off at the school office.

One of the things that we love about The Resilience Project at St Clare’s are GEM Chats! GEM Chats are prompted around the idea of expressing examples of Gratitude, Empathy or Mindfulness in our daily life and encourage us to think about how our actions can make ourselves and others feel!

eSafety - Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is when someone is mean to a child or young person online so they feel bad or upset.

Online bullying can be devastating for young people, whose online activities are a key part of their identity and how they communicate. It can include online hate, trolling, harassment and threats.

Key points:

If your child is experiencing online hate or bullying, you might feel like you want to stop them using devices, but that can mean they miss out on important experiences.
Children and young people are better able to cope with cyberbullying when they have the support of at least one trusted adult.
Parents can help their child deal with the bullying by listening to them, collecting evidence like screenshots, helping them to report abuse to the game, app or social media service where it’s happening, and supporting them to get help from counselling services like Kids Helpline.
If the cyberbullying is severe and the platform doesn’t help, eSafety can help remove content shared online, and provide more support.

Please visit eSafety for more information on Cyberbullying.

This week will see many of our older students competing in a variety of sports across the region. Travelling to Innisfail on Thursday, will be our Rugby League team, who will play against other schools in the Cairns Diocese as a part of the Jim Graham Cup. The final sporting competition will be on Friday, where 2 St Clare’s netball teams will compete in the Mary Mills Netball Carnival against other Catholic schools in our area. Information has been sent via Seesaw to parents regarding their chosen sports. We wish these teams the very best of luck. Thank you to the staff and parents who make these days possible through coaching, scoring and transporting.

Water Safety Program

The Water Safety Program will be run for all year levels next term over Weeks 3 to 7. More information around this will be sent out to families in Term 4.

Term 3

Week 9 Awards

Back Row: Stanley, Eva, Shiloh, Quinn, Kade, Tarique, Hope

Front: Lucy, Darius, Zendaya, Brody, Johnny, Oscar, Adrian, Archie, Summer

Payment of outstanding fees would be appreciated as soon as possible.

Please contact the principal if you have any issues or concerns.

Thank you to those families who have made their payment for this term.

For those who make regular payments via direct debit or Bpay we appreciate if payments continue over the holidays to ensure there will be no outstanding fees starting next term.

Thankyou

What an amazing night our 2025 Country Fair Fete was.

Thank you to all the children for the wonderful dance performances and to the teachers and staff for all your hard work. A lot of time is spent in practising and preparing for the big performance, and it was an absolute hit and enjoyed by all.

To the parents and extended family members that helped on the night and leading up to the fete, we can’t thank you enough. To the parents that convened a stall on the night, this is such a huge job and we are grateful for your help. Thank you to all those who sold and returned tickets, as well and donated to the class hampers. We are unable to hold such a big event without your support.

To the P&F executive and Mrs Karran Burzacott, thank you for supporting the Fete Committee in this year’s Fete. It is awesome to be able to work together and have your full support.

To the community of Tully and the surrounding area, THANK YOU so much for the donations of prizes, cash, discounts on ingredients, etc. We are very blessed to live in such a generous community. Please remember to shop locally where and when you can, this is where we then can give back to those who have given so kindly to our school.

A few special THANK YOUS –

· Nancy Marsilio we thank you for all the time you gave to sell tickets at IGA

· Evelyn Clifford for the beautiful additions of food to the menu

· Chris Condon for calling our auction

· Penny Trickey for all the awesome advertising

· Dominic Clifford for being our photographer

· Jenny Sollitt for sponsoring the colouring competition

· Our new MC and Sherriff for the evening, Tim Murphy, you did an awesome job

· Cherie Jenkins for calling the Cent Sale

· And a special mention to Jess Kachel for doing the one job no one wanted to, going on air with 4KZ to promote the fete.

If you would like to be part of the 2026 Fete Committee please reach out, planning will commence in Term 2 next year.

Finally, to the 2025 Fete Committee (Alicia Johnston, Tammy Clifford, Rhiannon Bilic, Katrina Barratt, Emily Probitts, Tracy Dore, Tara Silvestro and Renee Jones) thank you so much for all your hard work and the time you have given to be able to co-ordinate this event. We truly hope everyone enjoyed the night as much as we did.

Attached to this week’s newsletter is some unclaimed Cent Sale prizes.

Thanks again

Please check your cent sale tickets.

3. - Pink 0444039
36. - Blue 0790764
66. - Green 0462225
100. - Yellow 0514224