St Clare's School Tully eNewsletter

Dear St Clare's Community,

Welcome to the final week of Term 1. Thank you to all our students and parents for making Term 1 at St. Clare’s so very enjoyable. I would sincerely like to express my gratitude to all staff for the amazing effort that they put into each and everyday. I am constantly humbled and deeply grateful for the passion with which the staff of St. Clare’s take on challenges, and wish all staff and families some time over the break to take a moment to recharge the batteries.

We are about to enter into the holiest time of the year, with April 6 marking Holy Thursday and the beginning of the Triduum. These days, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday are our way of remembering and reflecting on Jesus’ final days on earth and His glorious resurrection.
Holy Week for Christians is a very special time. It is a week during which we do things that we don’t usually do and hear things we usually don’t hear. Holy Week is definitely a week with a difference and spiritually rewarding for Christians who, willingly, are part of its unfolding.

Building update - this Friday I will be meeting with the successful tenderer, Allan Sultana Constructions, and members of the Cairns Catholic Education Planning & Building Team. I anticipate work to begin on the student amenities block and new multi-purpose classroom during the upcoming break. Temporary student toilets are being delivered and installed on Wednesday 5th April. We hope that the demolition work needed on the current student amenities block will be carried out during the break to minimise noise during term time. Our access around the school will need to change to accommodate these works, in particular moving between the upstairs classrooms, offices and library. It is likely that the stairs leading off the Prep & Year 1 classrooms will not be in use during Term 2. A huge thank you to all the parents who helped clear out the storage rooms and underneath the school in preparations.

We also look forward to the new data projector and screen being installed in the Hall on Tuesday 4th April.

Attendance - currently 84.7% of St. Clare’s students have attended school 90% of
the time. 16.8% of absences are unexplained, please remember to contact the office to notify of student absences. If you are experiencing difficulties with attendance/ lateness for reasons not related to illness, please make contact as we may be able to offer support to assist reluctant or anxious students.

A bright future for your child starts with good school attendance every day - all day. While good attendance doesn’t automatically guarantee positive outcomes for students, positive outcomes in academics, personal growth and wellbeing and social emotional health can be impacted by low attendance.

Ten minutes late, or ten minutes leaving early every day soon adds to 50 minutes per week. This equates to almost 1.5 weeks in a year. If the pattern continues, over the course of the student’s 13 years of schooling, this equates to about half a year of school that is missed. A day here or there, or a missed afternoon on several occasions each term may not seem like much, but 15 days of school missed across the year (the equivalent of 4 days per term) will add to an entire year of school missed by the time your child completes Year 12.

Attendance matters - every day counts!

Prep 2024 is very nearly full, with just a few spaces left. If you have a child born between 1/7/2018 and 30/6/2019, your child is eligible to start Prep in 2024. Please go to our website to complete an online enrolment - https://www.stclares.qld.edu.au/enrolling/enrolment-application/. Interviews for 2024 will commence in Term 2.

Blessing to you all for the week ahead and the Season of Easter.

Take care,
Karran Burzacott
Principal

Welcome Community Hospitality

First of all, I would like to thank the families of St Clare’s for the generosity shown during our collections for Project Compassion. Through our pancakes, jelly cups, free dress and class donations, we have raised almost $700 over the past 4 weeks. We will still be collecting donations through class money boxes up until the last day of this term.

Another important event that our school is involved in is ANZAC Day. We are very proud of the strong attendance by our St Clare’s children each year and invite ourstudents to once again join us for the march. Students attending will wear their formal uniform and assemble at the front of Mitre 10 at 9.30am on Tuesday April 25. We will be led along Butler Street and to Mitchell Park by our school captains. Students will then settle under our school marquee for the ceremony and can be collected by parents at the completion of formalities.

I would like to wish all of our families a safe and holy Easter break and I look forward to seeing smiling faces back in Term 2!

With Blessings
Sharon Chappel

NAPLAN

NAPLAN testing is now complete. Congratulations to all of our Year 3 and 5 students and teachers for their hard work during the testing period. Results will be made available to schools later in the year.

Individual student performance is shown on a national achievement scale for each assessment. This scale indicates whether the student is meeting expectations for the literacy and numeracy skills needed to participate fully in that year level. A NAPLAN individual student report will be provided to parents later in the year.

It is important to remember that NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program. NAPLAN tests do not replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance. Your child’s teachers will have the best insight into your child’s educational progress,

As a school, we use the NAPLAN results in a variety of ways including:

Teachers use the results to help identify students who need greater challenges or extra support and plan units of work accordingly.
Identifying strengths and areas of need to improve our teaching programs, and to set goals in literacy and numeracy.

Clarity

All schools in the Cairns Diocese are working in conjunction with Lyn Sharratt, a world renowned educator and author, to become clearer about learning, teaching and assessment in their school. Last year, St. Clare’s embarked on this Clarity project.

Clarity is about being explicit about what really matters in learning and teaching. It’s about working collaboratively to improve the outcomes for all students. Clarity is work that is being done everyday, in every classroom, for every student in our school.

Teachers are involved in PLTs (Professional Learning Teams) where student data is closely and regularly monitored; and teaching plans are targeted to promote student growth. This allows for rich discussions, where teachers can share their knowledge to support their colleagues and promotes a shared ownership of each and every student in our school.

The Leadership Team go on regular Learning Walks and Talks in classrooms, where students are asked about their learning. This enables teachers to fully understand what the students need to focus on next to continue their learning. The questions students are asked are:

What are you learning?
Why are you learning it?
How are you going?
How do you know how you are going?
How can you improve?
Where can you go for help?

Teachers are working on developing the Third Teacher for student learning. After parents and teachers, the classroom environment is the Third Teacher. Research

shows that a literacy rich classroom with co-constructed work is vital for student growth. The classroom walls become interactive learning spaces in which students can take some control of their own learning. Teachers are beginning to display:

Co-created anchor charts
Deconstructed learning intentions
Co-constructed success criteria
Learning walls
Bump it up walls
Annotated student work with strong and weak examples

By focusing on these areas we can improve learning outcomes for all of our students.

Safe holidays
Chris Edwards

In 2023, we will begin our journey with Tier 1 of the MTSS-E Framework. This framework provides schools with the systems and processes to support students and improve student engagement outcomes.

What is engagement?

Student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism and positive connections that students have when they are learning. Student engagement is achieved when students are provided with the environment and support to become fully invested, have a desire to learn, display a willingness to do the work, and want to gain a round understanding of the topic.

The dimensions of engagement are linked- when students have a good relationship with their teachers and classmates and feel a sense of belonging towards their school (emotional engagement), they may be more likely to participate in class discussions and activities (behaviour engagement). Over time this can lead to a stronger commitment and investment in their learning (cognitive engagement)

An important component of MTSS-E is the adoption of a continuum of supports that acknowledges that students will need differing levels of interventions and supports to be successful at school. Within the continuum there are three levels of support (Universal, Targeted and Personalised).

So what are the outcomes of MTSS-E?

Improved student attendance
Improved student academic outcomes
Improved wellbeing of students
Improved wellbeing of staff
Increased parent satisfaction.

Over the course of the next 3 years, under the direction of the MTSS-E team from Catholic Education Services, our School Team will engage in training, learning, dialogue, consultation, resourcing and implementation. We are very excited to be on this journey, moving forward with engaging our learners!

Just a reminder for our existing parents who received a confirmation pack. Could you please return by Thursday (30th) this week.

Thankyou

A reminder that the JCU Cairns Literary Eisteddfod entries need to be handed in by the 31^st March. For further information go to https://www.cairnseisteddfod.org/literary/

The APSMO Maths challenges for Years 3-6 start next term, if you child is interested in exploring mathematic problem-solving strategies and skills, please contact their teacher.

We have enrolled St Clare’s in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) for 2023! If you have a child in Years 3-6 and wish for them to compete in the Writing, Spelling Bee, or Mathematics categories, you can access the Parent Portal via the link https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps and enter the school access code: FBM955. Assessments will be facilitated at school under competition guidelines on set dates during Term 3.

Have a wonderful Easter break.

Jessica Lang

TUCKSHOP ROSTER - Term 1

Friday 31/03/2023

Touch Football Carnival

Due to St Clare's running the canteen for the Touch Football Gala Day at Tully High, there is NO TUCKSHOP THIS FRIDAY.

Tuckshop will commence in Week 1 Term 2.

We are also seeking donations of cupcakes/slices to sell at the carnival, these can be dropped in to the school office any day this week, to our school tuckshop this Thursday or if you are coming to the carnival you can drop them straight to the canteen. Items do not need to be individually wrapped, please label your containers so I know who to give them back to.

If there are any questions, please contact me on 0418 158 872.

Marie

Cassowary Coast District Rugby League Representatives

On Friday the 17th of March a number of our students played in the Southern Zone District Rugby League U11 and U12 teams at the Cassowary Coast District Rugby League trials in Innisfail. Congratulations to all of these boys who competed at this event - Blake Blennerhassett, Laine Spencer, Nollie Uitenweerde, Kelly Clifford, Logan Jesse, Chase Frumento, Saxon Solien, Seb Di Mauro, Nate Silvestro and Kade Murphy. A huge congratulations to Blake, Kelly, Logan, Chase, Saxon and Nate who were all selected in the Cassowary Coast District Rugby League teams. This is a wonderful achievement and we wish you all the best at the Regional Championships early next term.

Regional Touch Football

Last Friday a number of our students travelled to Atherton as part of the Cassowary Coast District touch football teams to compete at the Regional Championships. Congratulations to Laine Spencer, Logan Jesse, Saxon Solien, Eden Emmi, Leah Johnston, Maisy Chappel and Emily Quabba who competed and displayed exceptional skill and sportsmanship throughout the day. The Cassowary Coast boys team were the overall winners in the boys competition and the Cassowary Coast girls were runners up in the girls competition.

A huge congratulations to Laine Spencer who was selected in the Peninsula Team and Emily Quabba who was selected as a shadow. This is an exceptional achievement and we wish you all the best at the State Championships in May.

Kind Regards
Kate Mason

Term 1, 2023
Week 8

St. Clare’s Way Award

Front: Eddie, Evie, Beau, Mila
Back: Sophie, Alley, Emily, Vanora, Shiloh

Academic Award

Front: Rohan, Kingston, Lucy, Mac, Rylee M
Back: Rylee W, Logan

Term 1, 2023
Week 9

St. Clare’s Way Award

Theo, Nollie, Julian

Academic Award

Front: Spencer, Lucas, Sienna
Back: Evie, Layla, Zor, Aghi

Social & Emotional Award

Matt, Santo, Blake

From Term 2 we will no longer being using Skoolbag.

Please see info in this newsletter regarding new app SZapp

We are transitioning from Skoolbag app to SZapp (Schoolzine). SZapp is more user friendly than Skoolbag.

From Term 2 there will be no more Skoolbag.

Newsletter and absentee notification will now be accessed via SZapp.

The SZapp is ready to download and use.

Instructions below to download app. Any queries please contact office.

In order to access your SZapp, you will be required to enter the following four-digit passcode:

3648