No 14 – 23 August 2017

I’m feeling really thrilled to have been appointed as Principal here at St Peter’s for the long

term. The interview process really allowed me to look at the community – it’s strengths

and areas of growth and to reflect on what strengths I bring to the community and where I

can make a difference. I’d like to thank the community and Brisbane Catholic Education for

their faith in me to take up this important position and I look forward to what that

challenge will bring both in terms of my growth and development as a principal and

person and to the school. Please feel free to come and talk to me about your journey here

at St Peter’s – what you love about the school and areas you feel we could continue to

work on. All constructive feedback is welcome. Continuing to build a happy, inclusive,

active and welcoming community is important to me as is really living out our St Peter’s

vision of being a community of faith, peace and learning, inspired by Christ. With staff,

parents and local community and most importantly our students we can continue to work

together.

THIS WEEK AT ST PETER’S

This week’s focus is on BOOKS and READING! With book week activities in the library

(including author visits, library displays, book swaps and Friday’s book parade) we

celebrate the magic of reading and the power of imagination that gets inspired through

stories. Well done to Mrs Wright and Mrs Fraser and their team of helpers for bringing

Book Week alive at St Peter’s. If you’d like to know more about Book Week and the book

of the year information, go the Children’s Book Council of Australia Website.

Aug 21-28 Book Week Sept 1 Father’s Day Breakfast & Disco Sept 4-6 Year 5 Camp – Mapleton Sept 7 Zones Athletics Sept 11 Prep Excursion – Lone Pine Sept 14 Interschool Sports Carnival Year 4-6 Gala Day Sept 15 End of Term

PARENTS AND FRIENDS UPDATE

Thanks to the parents that could help on Sunday at the P&F working bee. The new retaining wall near the senior

playground was started and the P&F shed has begun a major clean out! This weekend a fence is going around the

“Pine Tree Grove” area and we are looking to finalise “our labyrinth design”. Next week we join to gather together to

celebrate 2 social events – Father’s Day breakfast and school disco (Friday September 1st)

At this month’s PARENTS AND FRIENDS MEETING I delivered the following report:

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT – AUGUST 2017 P&F MEETING

Around the school:

• Week 5 Social Justice Week focus. Children were involved in a variety of experiences to raise their

understanding of what social justice is and to make a difference in the education of others. We celebrated a

St Mary MacKillop Feast Mass with the whole community, linking in Nano Nage and St Mary’s focus on

meeting the needs of others. (education)

• Confirmation – We had about 30 students recently receive the scarament of Confirmation. We congratulate

them and their families.

• Athletics – Both the Junior and Senior carnivals were superb days, well organised and the students were

great. Thanks to the Yr 2 and 6 parents and Ainsley for organising and running the BBQs for the event.

• Testing (ICAS) Over the last term Jo Cridland has been holding various subject voluntary testing. (Science

Maths and English) Our students are doing well with 2 students in the top 7% in Australia as well as

numerous credits and merit achievements (Science).

Learning Update:

Naplan – 2017 results

• Yr 3s performed above the national average in Writing, Grammar and Punctuation and above the state average

in Reading, Spelling and Numeracy. Girls performed strongly in Reading, Writing and Grammar whilst boys

performed strongly in Writing, Grammar and Numeracy.

• Yr 5s performed above the national average in Writing, Spelling and Punctuation with Numeracy and Reading

being above the state average. Yr 5 girls performed particularly strongly as a cohort across all areas except

Numeracy. Yr 5 boys performed well in Maths.

• As a school our trends over the last few years show that Writing is a strength of our students and further focus

should be on extending their skills in this area.

• Reading and comprehension skills of our boys needs further analysis to determine better ways to engage them

in the process.

• Numeracy trends show an area for our school to look further into the data and how we target our teaching to

meet the needs of our students.

• Learning Behaviours Update – We are in the design phase of publishing our school behaviours.

• Our staff have been involved in Review and Response cycles where teachers bring individual students to the

group collective to share information and ideas to support with learning improvement particularly in reading.

These sessions are proving to be a valuable way to focus on individual students needs.

STAFF NEWS

• Nicole Day joined the front office administration team.

• Peter Guows joined the ground staff.

• We ask that we keep Fr Baiyi and his family in your prayers as he has gone home following the death of his

mother.

OTHER NEWS

Week 9 – We will have a focus on Wellbeing with the theme being around Child Protection and its key messages of

Recognise, React and Report. More information about this focus will be in next week’s

newsletter.

New staff: We welcome Brittany Harris to our staff. Brittany is working as a school officer

in a variety of classrooms!

Happy Book Week everyone!

Bronwyn

DATE CLAIMERS TERM 3

• 23 Aug Indonesian Day

• 23 Aug Book Week visitor - Dr Cameron Saltzer (author)

• 24 Aug Aust. Girls’ Choir Workshop (Working with school choir)

• 25 Aug Book Week Parade

• 28 Aug Book Week visitor - Dr Cameron Saltzer (author)

• 1 Sept Father’s Day Breakfast and disco

• 4-6 Sept Yr. 5 Camp

• 7 Sept Zones Athletics

• 11 Sept Prep Excursion (Lone Pine)

• 14 September Interschool Sports Carnival, Year 4-6 Gala Day – European handball Touch

• 15 Septemeber End of Term

DATE CLAIMERS FOR TERM 4

• 13 Oct Trivia Night

• 20 Oct Cultural Night

• 26 Oct Proposed Gala Day (Yrs. 4-6)

• 6 Nov Prep 2018 Information Night

• 7/8 Nov Prep 2018 Open Morning

• 17 Nov Volunteers Thank you assembly

• 24 Nov Christmas Concert

• 27 Nov Principal’s Awards

• 28 Nov Graduation Mass

• 1 Dec Last day of school (12pm finish)

News from the Assistant Principal – Religious Education Student Faith Mission Group Pack Resources for “Action for Africa”

Our St Peter’s Student Faith Mission Group have been overwhelmed by the

response to the Social Justice Week 2017 “Action for Africa”. One of the actions

was to share friendship and solidarity with the students from City of Joy School –

Zambia. All students in Years 3-6 wrote a friendship letter to a student at the City

of Joy and these will be sent shortly.

City of Joy was identified as a focus because it is currently supported by our Parish

Social Justice Group. There is a clear link between the actions of our school

students, our parish and the work of the church.

School Parish Family Mass - Postponed

Due to Fr Baiyi’s absence, we will postpone the School Parish Family Mass planned for this Sunday. We keep Fr Baiyi and

his family in our prayers and ask them to be strengthened by our support at this time of grief and loss. Normal Sunday

Mass will occur in the Parish at 9:00am each Sunday with a supply priest filling for Fr Baiyi.

Father’s Day Assembly Next Friday

Next Friday the school will celebrate and acknowledge the gifts of Father’s. We will be led at our Friday Prayer assembly

by Prep B.

Prayer for Fathers

God our Father,

In your wisdom and love You made all things.

Bless these men, that they may be strengthened as Christian fathers.

Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.

Grant that we, their sons and daughters, may honour them always with

a spirit of profound respect.

Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Paul Rees

ASSISTANT Principal - RE

News from Primary Learning Leader Curriculum Capers Number Two

As part of effective learning and teaching strategies at St. Peter’s all classroom teachers were released over the last

two weeks to engage in planning for the remainder of the term. Teachers spent time during planning identifying

students learning needs and specifically aligning these needs to targeted learning experiences, particularly in English.

Curriculum Capers number two will be available on the parent portal at the end of this week. Don’t forget to ask

your child “What are you Learning” (WALT) when they talk about their day at school.

Parent’s guide to helping children with reading and writing at home.

One of the most common questions I am asked by parents in my role as Primary Learning Leader is “how can I assist

my child with their reading progress?” As we celebrate reading through Book Week 2017, it is a timely reminder to

all of us that the gift of reading is the key to success in all areas of your child’s academic development. Your role as

an advocate for your children’s reading success cannot be overestimated. In partnership with your child’s teacher

you have a direct impact on the confidence with which they pursue their reading. It is the love of sharing a good

book on a regular basis that sets the foundation for their reading success, and ensure that reading is given the

priority it deserves. As parents and carers, you create the home context for reading and set the tone for how

reading is valued.

Some tips for home reading

❖ Establish a home reading routine. Read aloud with your children every day. Ten minutes for each child

around a book of his/her choice. Share your excitement for reading and this will be the model your child will

adopt.

❖ During home reading time, turn off electronic devices and give each child ten minutes of your undivided

attention. Before you read a book, set your child up for success. Reading is not a test! Reading time is only

ten minutes so do some of the following: Keep the introduction short – one minute is enough. Talk about the

illustrations and the title. Read the blurb and talk about the author, talk about any unusual words, read a

page here and there as your child flicks through the book, discuss the characters.

❖ Find a reading time that works for your family. Limit the time and set the timer if reading in the past has

always been difficult. It is better to have an enjoyable 10 minutes than a laborious 30 minutes where

everyone is left feeling frustrated.

❖ Remember reading is more than knowing the words. At the end of the 10 minutes, ask questions that

encourage discussion, for example: What was your favourite part? Tell me about the characters. What do

you think will happen next? What did you think about that setting? What do they like/ dislike about this

book?

❖ Encourage your child to read independently. After the 10 minutes of reading with you, the child can elect to

continue reading independently.

❖ Avoid judging your child’s reading with words such as: ‘good’, ‘excellent’ or ‘getting better’. Instead say

things about the strategies your child uses when reading such as: ‘I like how you read on when you came to

that difficult word.’ ‘I like how you changed your voice to be the voice of the character in the story’. ‘I

noticed that you reread the bit that did not make sense.’

❖ If you child is reading independently and has reached the level of chapter books, it is not necessary for you

to read aloud together every night. That is not to say, you cannot continue to share reading time because it

is what you love to do as a family or that you sit and read silently together or that you talk about the books

your child is reading because you are interested in his reading choices. Readers read differently in their

heads as compared to reading aloud.

❖ Visit the local library — make it a family ritual on a set day every week. Let your children select their books

while you select books you are interested in reading. Not every book has to be read cover to cover. Your

child might select books based on illustrations or factual information about a topic of interest.

❖ Independent readers pick and choose what they read. They are entitled to read some and reject others. They

are entitled to not complete books because they are boring. Readers make choices.

❖ Model what it means to be an enthusiastic reader. Create a home of readers where everyone reads – It is

just what we do in this house! Talk about what you have read. Read aloud what makes you laugh and share

it with your child .

Source: Primary English Teachers Association

Have a good week.

Kind Regards

Jo Cridland

SPORTS NEWS Sporting Schools Tennis Coaching

St Peter’s has yet again been successful in receiving Sporting Schools Funding from the Australian Government and

we are using this to give our Year 3- 6 students the opportunity to engage in Tennis Coaching with the Remar Tennis

Academy. This will take place in school time on a Wednesday during Specialist lessons for the remaining four weeks

of Term 3. Please refer to the email sent home last week with the information and to find out if your son/daughter

will be involved in this program. Who knows, we may even be witnessing the first shots from a new Australian Tennis

Champion!

Year 3 – 6 Athletics Carnival – Friday 11th August

What a fantastic & super-hot day we had at our Year 3 – 6 Athletics Carnival. Well done to each and every student

on their “give it a go” attitude and their team spirit and camaraderie.

Congratulations to the following students who have been awarded age champion for 2017 and will receive their

medals at assembly next Friday (1st September).

12 Yrs - Charlotte Ryan & Cooper Mees

11Yrs - Helen Tuba & Simeon Bampton

10Yrs - Brianna Swinton & Tom Krawczyk

9Yrs - Ella Beecham & Cohen Boyer

House Placings

1st Nagle

2nd Enright

3rd Murray

4th Parry

Zone II Athletics Carnival – Thursday 7th September

Congratulations to those students who have been selected for the Zone Athletics Team to participate in the Zone

Carnival at QEII Stadium on 7th September. Please ensure you have returned all forms and shirt order money to the

school office or Mrs Dinnen asap so this can all be processed. Training for Shot Put is Mon, Wed & Fri at first break

and all other events are Thursday from 3-4pm on the Oval both this week 24th and next week 31st. Any questions,

please see Mrs Dinnen asap.

Logan District Athletics Trials

Congratulations to Helen Tuba, Ben Heenan, Taylar Hulbert & Simeon Bampton who have qualified to represent

Logan District at the Regional Athletics Trails on 31 August / 1st September at QEII Stadium. A fantastic achievement

from these students and we wish them luck at the forthcoming trial. Please ensure all paperwork/shirt order forms

have been returned to Mrs Dinnen/Office asap.

Catholic Schools Gala Day – Thursday 14th September

St Peter’s (Year 4 – 6) will compete in the Catholic Schools Gala Sports Day on Thursday 14th September at Wembley

Park, Coorparoo (Handball) and Brisbane State High School Fields, Fursden Road, Carina (Touch). This will be an all-

day event and further information will come home to students in the next week or so.

Training will be held on each Friday afternoon at school in the lead up to the event and students should ensure they

have the correct clothing (sneakers/boots, hat, water bottle) with them for this.

Any questions regarding the above event, please see Mrs Dinnen or Mr Campbell.

Have a great week, Mrs Dinnen

Piano News

Congratulations to the 43 students from St Peter’s who performed at The Yamaha Keyboard Festival on Sunday held at The Australian Piano Warehouse in Milton. Each student received a medal and a certificate and some students were fortunate to be awarded a small trophy for Best Costume on the day. Rundong (3C) and Elaine (2A) were chosen by our adjudicator, Mr Bradley Eustace, to perform on the 15th of October in the Yamaha State Gala Keyboard Festival being held in the Queen St Mall in the city. Thank you to all parents, grandparents and family members for coming along to support the children and helping them gain confidence and self-esteem through their performance. Congratulations to Rundong also for achieving High Distinction (100%) for his Grade One theory exam held with the AMEB. We raised $280 on the day from raffles and lolly bags. All monies will go to the Australian Salesian Missions Overseas Aid Fund for the Young Women of the City of Joy, Zambia who are connected with our Parish. The winners of the baskets of toys were: Nicole Thomas 1A and Mackenzie Guows 1B. Carmel Northey

COMING THIS TERM: Parent Portal Upgrade

St Peter’s is excited to announce the upgrade of our Parent Portal. Our Parent Portal is the main channel of

communication with our parent community. Stay up to date with important school information!

New features

• New look and feel

• Better Report Absence feature makes it easier for parents to use

• Easier access to information about your child

• Give permission for excursions and other events online – no more paper forms!

• Image slide show on home page

• Translate feature lets you see information (excluding the content of documents) in your choice of language.

Of course, all our previous features are still there including calendar and announcements, school documents, staff

contacts, enrolment and fee information as well as your child’s timetable, teacher names, classes, attendance

reports, NAPLAN and even report cards.

As always, you’ll need your email address and password to login. Forgotten your password? You can reset it here.

Watch this space!

School Fee Reminder:

School fees payments were due on Monday 7th August 2018. Unfortunately, we still have a large number of families fees still outstanding.

The school aims to provide quality education to all students and to enable this to be done effectively, we require school fees and levies to be paid promptly.

As stated in our school fee policy school fees and levies need to be settled by the due date unless alternative arrangements have been made with the School. If you experience difficulty paying school fees, please contact the office.

Lost Wallet

If any student has misplaced a wallet from the Athletics Carnival, please come to the office to describe it.

Mini Ekka by Caitlin Mayo

This term in HASS Year 5 have been learning about Business and Economics. For a part of our assessment we had a mini Ekka. The task was to create a stall like in the real Ekka.

First, we were put into groups of 3 and I was teamed with Kyna and Luna. We went and visited the Year 2s, 3s and 4s. The reason was to survey them to help us decide on we would do for the mini Ekka. We could ask 6 questions that we recorded in our HASS books.

After we had counted the votes we started to think about what a good stall would be. My group decided we would do skipping and a disco so we mixed it together to make SKIPPO! We used the votes to help us figure out what a popular choice would be.

When everyone had decided what they were going to do, we put all our information into a Powerpoint. We used our Powerpoints to present all our information to the 'Sharks' (Miss Wall, Mrs. Lomas and Mrs. Walker) in a mini Shark Tank. My group got $400 and the help of Mrs. Dunleavy. We were very lucky that the 'Sharks' were good value.

Next, we worked on our HASS books to create budgets for our businesses. We included incomes, expenses and resources in our budgets.

We used teamwork to create posters and signs to advertise our stalls. We visited some classes to advertise and tell what our stall was about.

Making sure the activity was reasonably priced, we next thought about the prices. We thought about what the customers would go for since they only got $100 to spend.

When the day of the mini Ekka arrived, each business set up their stalls. My group was very organized and we set up in the hall. My group dressed up in yellow shirts. We were a huge success and ended up making $1440! It was excellent!

Year 5 Excursion by Dean De Marco

On Monday 14th August, Year 5 went on an excursion to Carindale. We were going to Coles and to the Apple Store.

When we went to Coles, we had to complete a worksheet involving different things to do with Maths, like unit pricing, value for money, health rating and we even had to purchase something at the self-serve to get a receipt. When we walked in, Miss Wall, Brodie, Karlos and I started at the front of the booklet and worked our way through and we kept our eyes peeled for 2 reasons: to find health star ratings and the % of ingredients made in Australia. After we had done most of the booklet, we found some ingredients to make pizzas and we each picked something to buy.

After we had visited Coles, Year 5 had morning tea and we headed into the Apple Store. There, we got to play with a Sphero and we also got an Apple shirt to wear. My group had a maze and we programmed the Sphero to go through it. When we left, we got a USB, a certificate and we got clapped out. Then Year 5 had lunch and we went to the Carindale Library where we had a tour. The librarian showed us around and explained that it was Science Week. She showed us where the Junior and Young Adult books are. I also got a picture at the library with some books. The librarian said that you could reserve books and collect them at a later time. When we left the library, we went on the bus and came back to school.