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

Tuckshop envelope

Book Club

Volunteer Form

Eromanga Lunch Enve-

lope

Important dates

25th & 26th August Charleville Performing Arts Festival

27th August First Com-munion

29th August Rick Mi-losevic Anniversary Service

29th August Kan-garangado Street Party

7th September Book Week Dress Up

8th September Palaeo in the Outback excur-sion P-6

9th September Quilpie and District Show

11th-15th September Thargomindah Sports Camp

2nd October Queens Birthday Holiday

3rd October First Day Term 4

9th October School Photos

13th October Com-bined Schools Art Show opening

13th October School Fete

16th October Pupil Free Day

17th November Quilpie and District Swimming Carnival

23rd November Awards Evening

30th November Last day of school

1st December Travel Day for teachers.

Volume: 7

Issue: 13

Date: 23rd August 17

Dear Parents and Friends

NAPLAN results have been released for 2017. As I have mentioned in the past as our numbers of children are so

small it is very difficult to read the data to see general performance of the school as the overall results can fluctu-

ate. We do have the advantage of knowing our students well and being able to track their progress from year 3 to

year 5 to see growth here. All of our students have performed well on the test with majority of the results being in

the above average range across all areas. Some students have achieved very high results this year. I am pleased

with the results in Reading and Maths as these have been our two areas of focus in the last couple of years with

almost all results being in the above average range. Teachers are constantly monitoring student progress and our

whole school testing provides further information for school strategic curriculum planning. NAPLAN is important as

it provides us with a measure against student Literacy and Numeracy nationally. Our teachers and all staff are very

focused on improving student achievement, not just to improve our NAPLAN data, but to enable them to feel suc-

cess and enjoyment in all learning.

Congratulations to the students who attended the Charleville and District Regional Athletics Carnival in Charleville.

Marcus received 3rd place in discus and Millie 3rd place in long jump and shotput. They all commented on the skill of

the other athletes and enjoyed the stiff competition. More training next year St Finbarr’s!

Maria Booth will be coming to Quilpie next week as I will be attending a Residential school for my studies. Maria

has been teaching in our schools for many years and she and her husband are now in semi-retirement. They enjoy

travelling with their caravan, visiting small communities and helping out schools in this manner. Please make them

feel welcome as is the way here at St Finbarr’s.

Sue Keefer, our AVT Curriculum and reading coach, will be visiting the school on Monday and Tuesday of next week

and will be working with teachers in class on the Reading Strategy Improvement plan. Following this Miss Jaeger

and Mrs Moran will attend the final two days of the Reading Strategy rollout in Charleville on Wednesday 30th and

Thursday. Mrs Haylock and Mrs Booth will be taking classes on these days.

The next event on the Quilpie social calendar is Kangarangado. This year the St Finbarr’s P&F will be running the

BBQ. Can I please urge any parents who are available to help prepare the burgers during the day or are able to

lend a hand with the BBQ and serving at night to please contact Jean or call the school. Any help will be greatly

appreciated.

The Quilpie and District Show will be held on Saturday 9th September. Students will be completing school art and

writing work at school but can I please encourage parents to get their children involved at home as there are many

other sections to enter. Information on the sections is included in the program which has been mailed to all house-

holds. The Parish will be holding the BBQ dinner on Saturday evening. This is usually a very busy night so can I

please ask for any volunteers to lend a hand with preparation and serving. This is the main fundraiser of the year

for the Parish.

The School Fete is also coming up quickly and plans are well underway. Anyone who is interested in holding a stall

is more than welcome. Please spread the word. Please begin dropping your trash and treasure at the school. Con-

tainers are being sent home to fill with goodies for the lucky ticket stall. We would also appreciate donations of

home made, cakes, confectionary, produce and plants for the school stall. The P&F will also be seeking helpers for

the dinner and bar. So please make yourselves available. Tickets for the mystery holiday will be on sale very soon.

Warm regards

Genny

‘Excellence is not an act but a habit.’ Aristotle

Quilpie and District Carnival Date

Swimming – Friday 17th November

St Finbarr’s Fete

Friday 13th October 2017

Thargomindah Sports Camp 2017 Update

Please return the lunch order forms and medi-

cal forms to the school before 25th August as

this is the due date they must be sent to Thar-

gomindah! If you need more forms, please

contact the school.

Thank you to those who have already paid the $80. If

you have not, payments need to be finalised by 30th

August. Payments can be made by cash, cheque or di-

rect debit using your surname and Thargo as reference:

National Australia Bank

BSB: 084 829

Acct Number: 508 867 529

Kangarangado BBQ – held by P&F

Helpers needed during day to prepare—(Tuesday)

Helpers at night with BBQ and serving.

Please see enclosed form and return to the school .

Good luck to our Music students in the Charleville Performing Arts Festival this Friday!

Fathers Day Stall

Following the success of our Mothers Day gift stall, this year we

will be holding a Fathers Day gift stall to give the students the op-

portunity to buy something special for Dad.

The stall will be set up in the Mary

MacKillop room opening on Monday

28th August until Friday 1st September

and will be open each morning from

8.30—8.45am. All gifts are below

$10.00.

Riley—Trombone

Cody—Trombone

Lace & Mia—Clarinet Duo

Darcy—Trumpet

Marcus— Trumpet

Hunter—Electric Guitar

Joachim—Saxaphone

Millie—Clarinet

EROMANGA DINOSAUR EXCURSION NOTICES

Please send Snack Attack and morning tea with your child to take

with them to Eromanga.

For lunch you have the option of send-

ing lunch with your child or CWA will

be cooking a BBQ on the day. Please

see enclosed envelope and return to

the school by 1st September.

Science Day

Last Monday 14 August, the 3-

6 Class spent the day enjoying

Science week activities at the

College. They learned about

solar power, different types of

insulation, how energy cre-

ates light and how hy-

dro power works,

different types of insu-

lation and light. They

enjoyed carrying out a

variety of experiments

and seeing the results.

Confirmation

On Sunday 20 August Bishop Bill

Morris confirmed Paige, Mia, Bella &

Joachim. This coming weekend, they

will make their First Communion.

These Sacraments bring the children

into the life and practice of the Cath-

olic Christian Community, so that

they are able to receive the Eucha-

rist at each Mass they attend.

Lexi & Zoe McNall will be confirmed by Fr. Peter at Sunday’s Mass too.

A big thank you to the parents who prepared the celebratory meal after Confirmation on

Sunday.

After Mass on Sunday everyone is invited for a cuppa and cake on the Church verandah.

Come along and welcome these young people to the St. Finbarr’s Parish Community.

Sr. Margaret

Kite Flying with Bishop Bill

Following Confirmation on Sunday night,

Bishop Bill visited the school on Monday and

brought along his kites as is his tradition

each time he visits us. The children had a

wonderful time flying kites with the Bishop

and Fr. Peter. It was a perfect day for kite

flying and the children showed their pa-

tience and determination in getting their

kites airborne. It was a lovely display of shar-

ing and looking out for one another as the

children each made sure that everyone had a

fair turn and working as teams to get the

kites going. We even had Bishop Bill working

at what we called “the repair pit stop” with

some tape and scissors to repair minor dam-

ages as they happened.

Staff & Parents Attending

Thargomindah Sports Camp

Genny McNair (Mon—Wed)

Melissa Moran (Mon-Wed)

Samantha Jaeger (Mon-Fri)

Janell Jarzembski (Mon–

Wed)

Belinda Hodge (Mon-Fri)

Prue Bodkin (Mon-Wed)

Robyn McMahon (Mon-Fri)

P-2 News

Hello and welcome to week seven!

In English this week all the students are finishing writing their Information Reports. All the students thoroughly enjoyed researching and

finding interesting facts about their animals features, habitat and diet. For the remaining weeks of the term, we will now start to look at

different types of Procedures and their purpose, structure and the language used. The Preps have been working extremely hard learning

to identify and use the red sight word ‘have’ and write and sound the letter ‘x ’.

This week in Mathematics for years 1 and 2 we are representing, ordering and counting Australian coins and notes. The students have

also identified the features of each coin and note with understanding various ways that we can represent different values. The Preps this

week are participating in learning activities to collect, compare and interpret data, model equal groups to represent sharing and sort,

describe and name familiar two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects in the environment

In Geography this week we are exploring pictures of Quilpie from the past to identify changes and categorise these changes into either

natural, managed or constructed. The students will also discuss why they have changed and whether the changes have improved the

area. In Science this week we are conducting an investigation to explore what different black inks are made of and how they can be sepa-

rated.

Have a fantastic week! Mrs Moran

Students of the Week

Congratulations to our Students of the Week for week 5

and 6 of Term 3. In week 5, the student from the 3-6

class was Riley for his hard work and from the P-2 class

the students were Delany and Sammy for finding fantas-

tic facts about their animals for their information report.

In week 6 the two students were Millie for always giving

a helping hand and Elroy for giving 100%. Well done to

these students for their positive efforts.

Show and Share

On Monday we had a surprise addition

to the Show and Share session before

the end of school. Miss Janell brought in

her beautiful owl quilt that she had just

completed to show the P-2 class. They

were all suitably impressed and were

busy choosing their favourite owl and

looking at the different colours and

patterns. We all agreed that Miss Janell

is even more talented than we thought!

Rick Milosevic

Anniversary Service

St Finbarr’s School’s Anniversary

Service for Rick Milosevic will be

held in the shed at 9.00am Tues-

day 29 August. All welcome.