LINKS: Term Four Week Three
From the Principal
Market Day
I would like to thank our wonderful P&F Association and our amazing students for the tremendous event that was our first Market Day. The P&F Association worked beautifully to help students prepare Business Plans and carry out their stalls on Friday 4th October. I was blown away with the talent, enthusiasm, professionalism and hard work displayed by so many of our students. Thanks also to the parents and grandparents for helping their child produce such a great night. I am sure many of you spent quite a bit on the night, so thank you also for your support of this amazing event!
Eyes Open Social Media Safety
Last Tuesday/Wednesday, Trish Munn from Eyes Open Social Media Safety spoke with our Years 5-10, Staff and Parents about the importance of being safe online. This topic is ever changing and is of paramount importance to our students. Thanks to Karra Suhr and Nicki Wyllie for their work in making this possible for our community.
Prep Transition Days and 2025 Prep Teachers
I would like to thank our wonderful staff lead by Tenille White, Allison Marsh, Anna Woods and our Prep Teachers and School Officers, along with our other Junior teachers for the hard work put into our Prep Transition Days. These were very successful and will hold our new Preps (and older students) in good stead leading into 2025. I am very pleased to announce that Miss Jane Edwards and Mrs Michelle Walker will be our Prep Teachers for 2025.
Crazy Hair and Sock Day
Thanks to all who supported our Crazy Hair and Sock Day on Friday and the contribution towards Catholic Missions. Thanks also to Mrs Karra Suhr for her leadership of this event.
Year 1 Sleepover
Friday night also saw our Year 1s gather for their sleepover. This is quite the task for our teachers and I would like to thank Mrs Leadbetter, Mrs Capp and Mrs White for all their hard work with this.
Year 5 Camp
Currently, our Year 5s are at their Leadership Camp at Emu Gully. I am sure they are having a great time and I’d like to thank Mr John Shaw, Mrs Kristina Griffiths, Mrs Philippa Sly, Mrs Sophie Bowman and Mr Brian Carey for their hard work and time throughout the camp.
Year 4 Retreat
A huge thank you to Mrs Karra Suhr, Mrs Robyn Lindores and Mrs Sarah Morrissy for their work in leading the Year 4 Retreat on Tuesday 15th October. Retreats offer students a chance to step away from the everyday and reflect on who they are as a person and how they can become a better version of themselves. This was our first Year 4 Retreat and I know the students loved the experience.
Angela Collins
Principal
From the Deputy Principal
Hello St Mary's Community,
I am writing this from the Year 5 Emu Gully camp. Each activity is designed to challenge the students and are designed around wartime events which highlight the courage and character of soldiers, particularly Australian soldiers, against all odds.
The day is sprinkled with appropriate and expertly-told true stories of such events. We just listened to one such story, that of John Metson on the Kokoda trail. A truly inspiring story of courage, bravery and persistence. John was shot in the ankles and refused to be carried away to safety on a stretcher. Instead, wrapping his arms and legs in banana leaves, John crawled his way along the Kokoda trail through the extreme tropical conditions, leaving each day well before the other soldiers, and arriving that night long after them, and all the while smiling and encouraging his mates and refusing to give up. Please take the time to look up John Metson's incredible story on the internet. If you are a Year 5 parent, you may wish to talk with your child about it.
As I write, they are currently in trenches slurping and sliding through sticky mud, which is designed to simulate some of the conditions on the Kokoda trail (minus the dysentery and trench foot!), working as a team, encouraging and helping one another over the obstacles.
It is a privilege to be able to join our students on camps such as this. It is our prayer that they will be inspired, challenged and transformed by these experiences.
God bless,
John Shaw
Deputy Principal
Religious Life
Welcome to Week 3! I’m not sure where the weeks are going, but time is certainly passing us by very quickly. This morning as I write this, I am getting ready to host our first Year 4 retreat day. The students all seem excited, and I hope they have come home sharing elements of their day and what they enjoyed. It was a joy spending the day with our Grade 4s and I loved learning more about each of them. Our Year 10 retreat day is currently in the planning stages, and I look forward to adding more retreat opportunities for some more year levels next year.
Crazy Sock Day
Thank you to all our students and their families for supporting ‘Crazy Hair and Sock Day’ and in turn Catholic Missions. There were so many great ideas and it was evident that much time and effort went into preparing your child/ren – thank you! We raised $424.10 for Catholic Missions which will go a long way supporting the those in need.
First Communion
For the students who are involved in our 2024 Sacramental Program, our last formation class is next Wednesday 23rd October. The sacrament of First Communion will be celebrated Sunday 27th October, at the 9am Mass. Everyone is warmly invited to attend and support the students in this special celebration. I would like to thank the students and their families for their preparation in all three of the sacraments completed this year. Congratulations!
Family Mass
Our next Family Mass is scheduled for Sunday 20th October at 9am. Please mark this date on your calendar. We would love to see you there!
Year 12 Graduation Mass
Our Year 12 students from Goondiwindi State High School will join us to celebrate their Graduation Mass on Tuesday 12th November at 9am in the Church. All parents, friends and members of our Parish are more than welcome to join.
Other upcoming end of year events:
Tuesday 19th November | Year 10 Retreat Day Year 10 Graduation Dinner |
Monday 25th November | Awards Night |
Monday 2nd December | Prep Christmas Play and End of Year Mass 9:30am |
Wednesday 4th December | Year 6 Graduation Mass 9:30am followed by Pool Party |
Wishing you all an exciting term of learning and fun,
Karra Suhr
Assistant Principal Mission & Identity
Secondary News
As we swiftly move through the fourth and final term, it’s crucial to remember that this academic period is just as significant as Terms One to Three. The material we cover is equally important, and we must all strive to maintain our best efforts until the end of the year. This commitment will pave the way for a well-deserved Christmas break. This is where the concept of grit plays a vital role.
Grit is defined as the passion and sustained persistence applied toward long-term achievement, regardless of rewards or recognition along the way. It includes resilience, ambition, and self-control, driving us toward goals that may take months, years, or even decades to achieve. It is through maintaining our efforts over time that we can reach larger objectives.
Having wrapped up our cooking unit, we are now diving into sewing this term. I am continually impressed by the maturity, respect, and resilience demonstrated by our textile students as they become accustomed to working with sewing machines. As always, I enjoy sharing quotes, and one that resonates with the challenge of learning to sew is:
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a narrow field.” — Niels Bohr
We are excited to provide another update on the upcoming introduction of ‘The Resilience Project’ (TRP) for students in Years 7-10, beginning in 2025. During our Professional Learning Community meetings, we will explore the rationale behind implementing this program, familiarise ourselves with the TRP hub, complete a lesson together as staff, and discover additional activities available. Details on the implementation structure and data collection will be shared in the next links (Week 5).
Next year, we will trial a vertical Pastoral Care system, which will consist of three Pastoral Care classes made up of students from years 7 to 10. This structure aims to provide numerous benefits, including the natural mixing of grades and ages, and allowing our older, more experienced students to share their wisdom with younger peers. The TRP lessons will still be conducted once a week as year-specific cohorts to facilitate effective information sharing.
Mr Bevin Goodes
Assistant Principal Secondary
Pastoral
Eyes Open Social Media Safety
Last week we were fortunate to have Trish Munn from Eyes Open Social Media Safety deliver student workshops to our Year 5-10 students. She also presented to our teachers and delivered a parent workshop. Thank you to all those parents who were able to attend this night.
Trish was a wealth of knowledge and we have had a lot of positive feedback from students, staff and parents. We hope to have an ongoing delivery of this cybersafe content, as we can all appreciate, it is so relevant and imperative in this digital world that we now live in. These lessons were designed to empower our students and prepare them to have a safer future when online.
I will attempt to summarise a few ‘take aways’ from Trish’s visit so that you can then have follow up discussions with your child/children at home. Trish strongly encouraged students to talk with their parents/carers about her sessions. The most crucial message she conveyed was the importance of telling a trusted adult about any inappropriate images/content or messages that they may come across when using social media platforms.
Inappropriate content and legal sanctions against inappropriate / predatory online behaviour
Trish discussed the laws affecting social media and ratings associated with online games such as Fortnight (M) Call of Duty (R18+) Grand Theft Auto (R18+). She discussed the inappropriate content, violence and language that these games can expose students to and informed us that most children see something inappropriate by the age of 8 years old.
When she asked the children who would tell their parents about inappropriate comments/images, over three quarters of the students said they would not. Reasons being that they were:
a) either too embarrassed; or
b) concerned that their parents would take their device away.
Trish assured students that “It is not your job to not see it. Your job is to deal with it responsibly and report it.”
Trish explained to students that parents/carers would prefer to know that their child/children have seen something inappropriate and that seeing inappropriate images would not automatically mean that parents/carers would take their devices away. Instead, she explained that we as parents and carers create a family contract (see attachment to this newsletter 'Family Screen time plan' to assist us in navigating the discussions around setting boundaries for social media usage in your household. She is also a firm believer in no digital devices in bedrooms and no screen time 2 hours before bedtime.
The reasons reporting to a trusted adult is so important, is that a predator on the Internet has a plan. The first steps to a predator’s plan is to make children feel like they can’t go to their parents. We looked at the laws around sending nude photos, be it creation/distribution/procuring and/or possession. Taking a photo of anyone under the age of 18 without clothes on, partially clothed or doing something inappropriate is illegal and a person can be charged for this from 10 years old.
She assured students that if they did find themselves in a disconcerting situation, there are legal protections available to them and it is important to tell a trusted adult about their concerns.
Your child’s digital footprint, “fishing” by predators and identity theft
We explored a person’s digital footprint and how putting your name, age, school, address, gender, birth year and location on the Internet is not a good idea.
Trish says, “If you put little pieces of information on the Internet here and there it’s like a puzzle where a predator can ‘fish’ for information to put a profile of the child together.”
‘Fishing’ is when a predator attempts to find out more information about the child (parents’ names, child’s interests.) They can then use this information to manipulate the child e.g. I will send these photos to your mum whose name is…… and works at…… if you do not…….. At the Parent night, she used the example of parents posting pictures of students with their school awards, with their first and last names plus their school’s name. Once a last name is revealed predators can then search family members and get a lot more information to then trick a student into thinking they have the same likes and interests after the initial contact has been made.
Identity theft is when someone pretends to be you, or someone pretends to be someone you would want to talk to. With the increased use in AI technology, this is becoming increasingly hard to control. Anyone can go onto the Internet and find pictures of a child and pretend to be them or after making contact, create fake accounts and fake videos to lure children in.
Cyberbullying and reporting of
If students have been sent an inappropriate image or cyberbullying has occurred, Trish said the first thing to do is tell a trusted adult, take a screen shot (not of intimate images) and report to the online service first. Secondary students explored blocking people and setting up privacy setting controls on their devices. If you are not satisfied with the time taken by the service and you are wanting a post removed (they have 48 hours to remove the post) go to the eSafety commission website safety.gov.au. to report the online harm.
Be live to risk of over-exposure to social media and other platforms with inappropriate/harmful content
We don’t want to hold back our students from exploring the digital world, as it has so much and opens up our minds to an array of knowledge. I believe we do need to educate our students to be as safe as possible online both from predators and to the damage caused to the brain from too much screen time and gaming-type social media platforms.
Trish likened our brains to a bucket. We have thoughts, dreams, creative ideas. She referred to social media and games as mud – violence, bad language, inappropriate content and images. If you put mud in your bucket, all you are going to get out is mud. These are the people we see in the playground who often swear, use violence, yell and discuss inappropriate images.
Focus on well-being and positive sense of self and purpose
Instead, we should be filling our brains with all things that promote a healthy wellbeing. These include positively contributing to our society, healthy social interactions, playing outside, exercise, eating and sleeping well. Social media has a place and that’s for every individual family to decide. I would like to strongly encourage you to have a family discussion around the use of social media and technology in your households and most importantly encourage your child/children to speak to you about any inappropriate comments/ images that they view online.
Day for Daniel
On Friday 25th October we are encouraging our students to wear red accessories for ‘Day for Daniel.’ This day is a National Day of Action hosted by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation to raise awareness of child safety, protection and harm prevention. Wearing red links Daniel's very real story to the importance of safety education.
During Health lessons, Primary students have been learning about the importance of recognising body clues when they feel unsafe, reacting in ways to keep them safe and how to report unsafe situations to a trusted adult. Students have watched videos and participated in activities developed by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.
Child Safety is everybody’s business, and we all have a part to play in keeping our community safe.
Nicki Wyllie
Middle Leader: Pastoral
Nicola.wyllie@twb.catholic.edu.au
Sports Report
Darling Downs Aquathlon
Best wishes to our aquathlon athletes travelling to Dalby on Friday 25th October. One more training session this coming Friday for final preparations.
Legends of league
Legends of league are visiting our school on Thursday, 7th November to talk to our year 5 and 6 students and our Secondary School students. There is also a proposal for a game against the State School on the Saturday so if your child is born 2014, 2015 can they please sign up outside the library.
Congratulations to Hudson Derbidge on his recent performance at the state athletics championships. He participated in the high jump and was placed in the top 30 athletes in the state.
Yours in Sport,
Kathy Spicer
Cultural Report
Lion King Jr Musical:
Congratulations to all students, staff and parents involved in our production of The Lion King Jr musical at the end of last term. The cast and crew raised the barre with their energetic and well-polished performances across the 4-show run. A special mention to our Show photographer, Mrs Philipa Sly, for the spectacular photos taken of our students that saw them take out a full page spread in the Goondiwindi Argus. In week 1 of Term 4, the cast and crew gathered once more at the Cinema to celebrate their success, spending the afternoon together watching back the recording of the closing show and taking the time to enjoy the outcomes of their 3 terms of rehearsal dedication.
Choirs of Angels:
Seraphim, Cherubim and Angel choirs are busily preparing for their end of year Choral Concert, which will be held in the Church on Tuesday November 5, from 6-7:30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend this wonderful evening of music.
Seraphim and Cherubim choirs are also preparing to attend the Remembrance day ceremony at the town park on Monday November 11, where they will sing a rendition of ‘A Soldier’s Hallelujah’.
Instrumental Music Concert:
Mr Jessen and the instrumental students are busily preparing for the end of year Instrumental Concert, which will be held in the Centenary Centre on Friday November 22, from 6-8pm. Everyone is welcome to attend this event to support and enjoy the performances of our dedicated instrumental students.
Queensland Ballet Workshop:
Our 2024 Prep students participated in an engaging workshop with Queensland Ballet on Tuesday October 15. They explored the 'Kombumerri Dreaming Story - Morro Garrara,' learning about resilience, tolerance, and acceptance through dance. Students explored storytelling, movement phrases and a choreographic task.
Benita Klowss
Middle Leader: Culture
Library News
Library News
Inappropriate Language in Books
From time to time we come across words used in books that are not acceptable to use for most of our families. This may be a character being called an ‘idiot’ or a swear word in Young Adult books. These are learning opportunities for us in the library when reading together. Does it make it ok to use a word we know is not acceptable to our family and friends because it is in a book? The value of these converstaions is never lost on us in the library and the way our students respond always makes me proud of them.
We are currently reading ‘Rabbit and Bear’ with a number of classes and ‘Cop and Robber’ with the year 6 cohort and have had fantastic conversations around these books.
Book Fair – Week 5, October 28 – 31st October
Book Fairs provide children with the opportunity to look at books before purchase whilst also raising funds for books for our library. This year, we will be running a Book Fair in the library from October 28 (week 5) with the option to also purchase items online during this time.
The fair will be operated by ‘The Book Warehouse’. We have made this move after a lot of feedback regarding novelty items and the fact that we can still purchase scholastic items through Book Club twice a term.
We look forward to seeing you at the Book Fair in Term 4.
If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail the library staff at:
Book Club
Book club
BOOK CLUB ISSUE 7 is due Friday 18th October at 8pm
This issue contains:
Please order online through ‘the loop’ as we no longer accept cash orders at school.
All purchases contribute to funds for our school library with all popular fiction titles in our library purchased due to the funds raised through orders – we are most grateful for this – THANK YOU!
Guidance Counsellor
Let’s Not Forget! Mental Health
Almost half of Australians are likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime, leaving half of us knowing someone living with or having experienced a mental health issue. However, mental health is something every person has – and it’s important to know that everyone’s mental health varies during their life and can move back and forth along their own personal range. Queensland Mental Health Week (QMHW) was last week and provided an opportunity to promote positive mental health and wellbeing to our communities and aimed to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.
The 2024 theme ‘Connect for mental health’ emphasises the proactive measures we can adopt to nurture and support positive mental health and wellbeing for ourselves and our communities. It focuses on four areas:
- Connect with self: Take care of yourself, do something you enjoy, make healthy choices, and seek help when needed.
- Connect with community: Create supportive and inclusive environments, look after one another, and connect with culture. Show kindness and initiate connection with those who are struggling.
- Connect with others: Foster relationships with loved ones, friends, family, and mob. Spend time with others and make meaningful connections.
- Connect with nature: Take a break from technology, spend time outdoors, embrace mindfulness, and take care of the world around you.
Let’s give our mental health a tune up!
Paul Fomiatti,
Guidance Counsellor
Student Support
Hearing Health Date of Visit: Tuesday, 05th of November
If you would like to have your child/ren to have a hearing screener by Carbal Hearing Health Nurses, they will be visiting our school on Tuesday of Week 6. Please complete the attached consent form, or visit the school administration for a printed form. The service is free for indigenous students, and $25 will be added to the school fees of non-indigenous students.
Allison Marsh
Middle Leader - Student Support
Extension & Enrichment
Lunchtime Activities Term 4
This term our lunchtime activities will run from Weeks 2 to 9
Day | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday |
Activity | DRAMA | SCIENCE | BOARDGAMES & CARDS |
Location | Secondary 1 | Science Lab | Secondary 1 |
Time | 2nd Break Play | 2nd Break 1:15pm | 2nd Break Play |
Lou Cowley
Extension & Enrichment
P&F
The P&F would like to extend a huge congratulations to all the vendors who participated in Market Day. We have been overwhelmed with positive feedback.
You should all be proud of the outcome of your hard work and professionalism. Chatting with various stallholders allowed us to hear what you have learned from the process, from planning to running your businesses.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the families and friends who supported and guided our young entrepreneurs and for coming along on Market Day.
Thank you very much to Proterra Group for donating a $100 Grow Gundy Gift Card, and to Michelle Eulenstein for your support, encouragement and energy for this project and for donating copies of the Barefoot Investor Kids book.
We are very grateful to our mystery shoppers, Councillors Julia Spicer and Susie Kelly, who so enthusiastically visited stallholders and selected a few participants to receive a congratulatory gift. However, we emphasise that every single stallholder did an outstanding job, and you all deserve a big congratulations.
The evening raised $128 from site fees, which was donated to Macintyre Animal and Pet Rescue.
Denise Ellis
P&F President
COMMUNITY NEWS
