St Finbarr’s Student Protection Contacts

Genny McNair & Prue Bodkin

St Finbarr’s Parish School

Jabiru Street, P.O. Box 34 Quilpie, QLD, 4480

Phone: (07) 46561412—Fax: (07) 4656 1306

Email: Quilpie@twb.catholic.edu.au

Newsletter Checklist

School Fees

Tuckshop envelope

Q&D Athletics timetable

Book Club

Important dates

17th July Bach to the

Bush Music workshop

18th July Tim Symons

workshop viewing

24th July Bishops In-

service Pupil Free Day

25th & 26th July Reading

Strategy PD for teach-

ers

27th July High Jump

Quilpie College Time

TBA

28th July Q&D Athletics

John Waugh Park

30th July Mass St Fin-

barr’s Church 6.00pm

1st August ICAS English

Testing

8th August Prayer

Assembly 11.30am St

Mary Mackillop Feast

Day

8th August Qld Music

Fest (Art Council) Dige-

ribone show

11th August District

Athletics Charleville

15th August ICAS maths

testing

20th August Confirma-

tion

9th September Quilpie

and district Show

11th-15th September

Thargomindah Sports

Camp

Volume: 7

Issue: 11

Date: 12th July 17

Dear Parents

Welcome to the beginning of another Term. I hope everyone has enjoyed the break from school and all students

and staff are refreshed and keen to learn.

There are a number of events occurring this term including Qld Music Fest Bach to the Bush workshops on Mon-

day 17th July at the hall for all students and Quilpie Cultural Society upholstery workshop viewing on Tuesday 18th

at the Cultural Society. Students will walk with teachers to these events.

Week 3 is Catholic Education Week. Catholic Education Week provides an opportunity for all Catholic schools

around Queensland to celebrate and promote the distinctive mission of Catholic schooling. The theme for the

week this year is ‘Sharing the Journey’. This theme has come from a number of quotes from Pope Francis includ-

ing ‘Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people’s side, of doing more than simply listening to them; a

Church which accompanies them on their journey. Monday, 24th July will be a pupil free day as all staff will be

attending the Bishops Inservice Day, held this year in Cunnamulla. This year’s keynote speaker will be Mr David

Hutton OAM, former Executive Director of Brisbane Catholic Education and now Chair of the Toowoomba Catho-

lic Schools Council.

During Catholic Education week our school will be participating in a School Review and Improvement survey

managed by Research Australia Development and Innovation Institute (RADII). As well as school staff and stu-

dents from Years 5 - 6, all parents are invited to participate in the survey. The survey provides valuable feedback

for the future directions of our school. On Monday the 23th July 2017, RADII will send all parents a personalized

invitation to complete the survey online. If both parents' email addresses are on file at the school, the invitation

will be sent to both parents. However, the survey will close once the first person has completed it. If you do not

wish to complete the survey simply delete it. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. You

can complete the survey from anywhere you have access to the internet. The survey will close on Sunday, 12

August 2017 for parents. We encourage you to be very honest in your responses to the surveys. All responses go

directly to RADII so they are confidential and anonymous. When the surveys are completed, and responses ag-

gregated by RADII, overall data is sent to us so that we can then share the findings with you. Information gath-

ered from this survey is shared with the school leadership and the School Board to direct future planning.

As mentioned in the last Newsletter, our teachers and I will attend two days training on 25th and 26th July as the

initial stage in the Reading Strategy rollout. Paul Murphy has kindly offered to lead the school and teach the 3-

6 class during our absence. Sue Keefer will be our reading coach and will work closely with our teachers and

school officers during her school visits and provide further support through video conferencing to ensure the

training is highly effective and sustainable. This training will follow with another two days on 30th and 31st August

in Charleville. All schools in the Toowoomba Diocese are involved in the Reading Strategy rollout this Term.

The Quilpie and District Athletics Carnival will be held on Friday 28th July with all students to gather at John

Waugh Park by 8.45 am. High jump will be held on Thursday 27th July at 1 pm for 8-12 year olds at the Quilpie

College. A canteen will be operating during the carnival on the Friday. A Program has been included in this

newsletter and all parents are welcome to attend.

Warm regards

Genny

The whole journey of life is a journey of preparation…to see, to feel, to understand the beauty of what lies

ahead… Pope Francis.

Project Compassion Boxes

For those who still have Project Compassion boxes at

home, we would appreciate if you could return them to

the school as soon as possible so we can pass these do-

nations on. Thank you to everyone who has donated

and collected donations.

Quilpie and District Carnival Dates

Athletics – Friday, 28th July

Swimming – Friday, 17th November

Q&D Athletics Carnival –

Friday 28th July

This years athletics carnival will be held on Friday 28th

July at John Waugh Park. All students should be at the

park ready to assemble into their houses by 8.45am.

Please wear house colours, broad brimmed hat and

sunscreen.

Please bring water, snacks and small amount of money

and/or lunch in a backpack.

High Jump will be held at Quilpie

State College on Thursday, 27th July

from 1pm. This is for 8-12 year olds

in primary school.

Athletics Training

Running training will be held for all students each

morning at 8.40 am. Students will be practising their

sprints and distance running.

Training for field events will be

held during morning tea and

lunch breaks for those students

who would like to practise.

Lost and Found

Towards the end of last term we found a number of un-

claimed items including two school jackets—size 4 and 14.

Please contact the office if your child is missing a jacket in

those sizes.

A quick reminder to parents to please label all

uniforms, lunchboxes and water bottles to

prevent items becoming lost or going home

with the wrong person.

BACH to BUSH 2017 Queensland Music Festival and Quilpie Shire Council are proud to present “Bach To Bush” concert which will take place at the Quilpie Shire Hall on Sunday 16 July 2017, commencing at 6.00pm.

This is a free event –

“Immerse yourself in a diverse collection of sounds from around the world, exploring baroque masters to fiery flamenco, tradition-al irish grooves and laid back blues”

As part of the package negotiated with Queensland Music Festi-val, there will also be a School Show being held at the Quilpie Shire Hall on Monday 17th July 2017, commencing at 9.30am.

They have advised that the show is suitable for all ages.

SCHOOL SHOW Key Information:

quick paced, interactive performance featuring Louise

& John (both artists are experienced in managing large groups of students)

topic - "CELEBRATING DIVERSITY" - exploring cultural

expression with stories and sounds of place, people, community and migration

a short presentation of music on tour containing

short listening excerpts and non-performance seg-ments i.e. music interspersed with stories, humour, skits, demonstrations and other activities to bring the educational value alive.

'Milly & Me' explores themes of bravery, mind travel, sense of place, language, communication and friend-

ship.

Music this Friday with Mr Sloan

A reminder to students in years 4, 5 and 6 to remember

to bring your instrument and your music book and

practise to prepare for the up-

coming Music Festival in Charle-

ville.

3-6 News

Hello Parents and Friends,

This term in the 3-6 class we have been off to a racing start, diving straight into our work and trying our best.

We will be exploring more about the world around us in Science and looking at earthquakes and how they effect us. In Geography we will be looking at our neighbouring countries and discovering more of our world.

The children are practising for the Athletics Carnival and have been using their lunch times to critique their skills.

The 3-6 class has been doing a great job with their reading groups and eve-ryone has shown how much they have improved since the start of the year. We look forward to updating all of our parents and friends about the ex-citing things that we will be learning this term.

Miss Jaeger

Students of the Week

Congratulations to our Students of the Week for

week 9 of Term 2. From the 3-6 class, these students

were Lace for her hard work in

her Recount and Hayden for be-

ing helpful. From the P-2 class, it

was Billy for working hard on his

positive attitude.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Russel, Kerri and Millie

on the safe arrival of the addition to their

family—Bailey Michelle McWaters born

Saturday 17th June in Shepparton. We

were lucky

enough to

meet Bailey

when Kerri

brought her

along to

tuckshop on

the first day

of school for

this Term.

We were happy to share the beginning of

Bailey’s journey with her.

Progressive Preppies

Our five Preps are becoming wonderful read-

ers and have all passed the 25 nights of read-

ing mark. They have been working hard on

their sight words as well and this is reflecting

well in their reading levels. In Maths the

Preps are working on addition with Miss Jen

using counters and addition cards.

Good Luck Finn

At the end of last Term we said a fond farewell to Finn who has begun Too-

woomba Prep this Semester in preparation for Secondary Boarding School

next year. Finn gave a lovely speech to his peers and the staff members and

we gave him a card signed by everyone in the school and a photo montage to

remember his time here at St Finbarr’s. Finn did a wonderful job as school

leader and was a pleasure to have as a part of our school. We will miss Finn’s

warm heart-

ed and care-

free attitude

and look

forward to

hearing all

about his

new adven-

tures of

which we

are sure

there will be

many.

Charleville Performing

Arts Festival

Charleville’s Annual Performing Arts

Festival is coming up in August. All of

our music students are invited to take

part so we encourage them to practise

at every available opportunity to show

off what they have learnt in music to

the best of their ability.

Visit from Director of Teaching

During the last week of last term Jim Midgley, Director of teaching

and learning, came to visit us from the head office in Toowoomba.

He spoke with the students about the importance of reading and

how reading can affect their future. Following this, Mr Midgley spent

some time in the classrooms listening to the children read and he

also read some engaging stories to the children. Mr Midgley was

quite im-

pressed with

the high

standard of

reading at

our school

and shared

much en-

couragement

to all stu-

dents.

Parish/Community News

During the holidays, we learned

of the death of KIM WHITTA, a

dancer, choreographer and en-

thusiastic teacher of dance for a

life time. Kim had several visits

to Quilpie over the years, the

most recent being last year.

We remember Kim as a dedicat-

ed teacher who loved to share his skills with stu-

dents in remote areas. May he rest in peace.

The Parish Sacramental Program picks up again

next Tuesday 18 July.

Our next Mass will be on Sunday 30 July, not Sun-

day 23 July as previously advertised.

The Mass on 30 July will be a Family Mass to cele-

brate Catholic Education Week. All students will be

involved in this celebration.

On Tuesday 8 August at 11.30am, there will be a

Prayer Assembly to celebrate the feast day of St Mary Mackillop.

Bishop Bill Morris will be in the Parish on Sunday 13 August to confer the Sac-

rament of Confirmation on Mia, Bella, Paige, Joachim, Lexie and Zoe. These

young members of the Parish will receive their First Communion on Sunday

27 August at the Parish Mass.

Best bits of the holidays

Marcus—Going fishing with my uncle

Liam—Riding my bike around

Mia—Going to Windorah and seeing family

Cody—Going to Longreach and walking on

the wing of a 747.

Ava—Going to the beach

Sammy—Visiting Ma and Pa

and seeing my cousins

Hunter—Getting back home!

Darcy—Going to Roma