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Dear Parents and Carers of Good Samaritan,
Term One is nearly over and what a terrific start to the school year we have had. Our students have demonstrated a Love of Learning through a strong commitment to improving their thinking in the academic opportunities offered to them.
This isn’t done easily. There are many processes and procedures that support the learning within a school. Our school staff have worked very hard to establish positive and proactive learning environments for our students.
The partnership between school and home only continues to enhance the learning. As parents, you have also demonstrated a commitment to our school routines and expectations which has allowed the children to come to understand that school can be a place of positive opportunities whether they be academic, social or spiritual. As a school we are very appreciative and grateful for your continued support each day.
Today was the Easter Raffle draw. This is a highlight of our school year with so many baskets ready to be won! This is another opportunity that isn’t possible without parental support. Thank you for your donation of Easter eggs and purchase of the tickets. Many thanks to our P&F for coordinating the raffle which included the wrapping of the baskets and the organisation of tickets. It is always a delight to watch the students’ faces as the tickets are drawn.
As we approach the Easter break, make sure that you take some time for yourselves. Often we become so busy with our children that we tend to leave ourselves until last. Remember how much you are appreciated and, along with the rest of our Good Samaritan school staff, I wish you every Easter blessing.
As we journey together, with Jesus, into Easter,
Toni Sillis
Principal
Balancing Online & Offline Time During the Holidays:
The holiday break is a time to be vigilant about the amount of online and offline time your child is having. It is easy for the children to use the holiday break as screen time for gaming, watching Youtube clips and not engaging in face to face activities.
The eSafety Commissioner has informative information about managing your child’s screen time. You can follow this link to read more. Also, below is an eSafety parent information sheet that may support you to reestablish the expectations of screens at home.
Returning to School Following a Hospital Visit:
When students visit the hospital for any reason it is important that parents inform the school. A return to work plan is often needed to support the student’s return particularly when adjustments need to be made to facilitate learning or the recovery process. Below is further information for parents and carers.
Staffing Update for Term 2:
Happy Retirement Mrs Glossop
Today we farewell and thank Mrs Susan Glossop for the commitment and professionalism that she has brought to her role as School Support Officer. Mrs Glossop has specialised in the Early Stage One and Stage One classrooms over many years where she has had a huge impact on the lives of many of the students in our school. We will still see Mrs Glossop throughout the year when she comes to work on a more casual basis. We wish Mrs Glossop a wonderful retirement as she spends more time with family, especially her grandchildren.
Amaroo:
Mrs Tessa Robertson will return from maternity leave for one day each week. Tessa will be teaching each Tuesday with Mrs Grace McKay.
Mrs Fiona Sampson will be working Tuesday to Friday from Term 2. Mrs Grace McKay will be teaching with Mrs Nadia Huska each Monday. Mrs Sharon Smithers will continue to work collaboratively with the Amaroo staff as leadership support.
Year 6:
Mr Tim Condon will take extended sick leave for Term 2 following knee replacement surgery. Mrs Christie Gray will be teaching Year 6 replacing Mr Condon for Term 2.
We wish Mr Condon well for the surgery and subsequent recovery.
Year 5:
Mrs Meg Brannon will be taking extended leave for the remainder of the year as she takes time to enjoy some well earned family and leisure time. Mrs Brannon has been a member of staff since the opening of Good Samaritan School in 2012 and will continue to be a very valued member of staff. We will continue to see Mrs Brannon at times on a casual basis at school. We wish Mrs Brannon good health and a well earned sabbatical from the role of classroom teacher.
Michael Gore will teach 5 Gold for the remainder of the year, working closely with Mrs Brannon initially and other staff to ensure a smooth transition for all students.
Claim The Date!
Good Samaritan staff will be participating in a Staff Development Day on Friday 21 May. This will be a Pupil Free Day so students do not attend school on this day. Teachers will be working with the newly released Personal Development Health & Physical Education (PDHPE) Syllabus.
Naplan 2021
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests in writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.
Our school will be participating in NAPLAN Online between 11 and 21 May 2021.
Excessive preparation for NAPLAN Online is not recommended. Students can use the public demonstration site (https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site) to familiarise themselves with the types of questions and tools available in the NAPLAN Online tests.
Holy Week
Easter Sunday -4 April 2021- Holy Day of Obligation
Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It is celebrated on Sunday, and marks the end of Holy Week, the end of Lent, the last day of the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and is the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgical year. As we know from the Gospels, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day following his crucifixion, which would be Sunday. His resurrection marks the triumph of good over evil, sin and death. It is the singular event which proves that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead. Since Easter represents the fulfillment of God's promises to mankind, it is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar.
In the Gospels, the precise details of the Easter narrative vary slightly, but none of these variances are critical to the main story. In fact, it is argued that the variances are simply matters of style and not substance. Despite the variances, the key aspects of the Easter story all match. Above all, they agree that the tomb of Christ was indeed empty, which is the most essential fact.
Based on direct evidence from the mid-second century, it is believed that Easter was regularly celebrated from the earliest days of the Church. Following Easter Sunday, the season of Easter begins and lasts for seven weeks, ending with Pentecost.
Wishing you and all your loved ones a very Happy Easter. May the risen Christ bring you and your family abundant happiness.
Mrs Natalie Shelley
Religious Education Coordinator
Father,
Help us to be like Jesus. Change our selfishness into self-giving and bring us to eternal life.
Amen.
Celebrating Holy Week and Easter
Today 31 March and Thursday, 1 April we will gather as a community to remember Jesus’ journey through Holy week and the joyous celebration of his rising at Easter. Some of the activities will be for Kindergarten or staff and students only. For some activities the whole school community is invited. Any limitations on parent participation are due to COVID-19 restrictions and while we love having our parents gather with us we are still bound by the square metre rule in how many people we can have indoors.
Please look below to see what is planned for our children and which activities some or all of our parent body are able to attend
Thursday 1 April
9:15 Kinder Craft Morning
Participants - Students and 1 parent from each family
Location - Kinder rooms
The day begins for Kindergarten and their parents with a Kinder craft morning commencing at 9:15am in the Kinder classrooms with one parent per child allowed to attend due to COVID 19 restrictions.
Thursday 1 April
11:40 Holy Week Liturgy
Participants: Students and staff only
Location: St John Vianney’s Church
The focus of the liturgy will be on Jesus' actions at the Last Supper when He demonstrated to the disciples how He wanted us all to live as people of service. He demonstrated this by washing the feet of his disciples. Jesus asked them,
“Do you understand what I have done?”
Go and do the same
Thursday 1 April
12:30 Easter Hat Parade
Participants: Students, parents and staff (weather permitting)
Location: Under the shade cloth on the primary playground
Get your creative ideas flowing. We had such a lovely time with our drive through hat parade in 2020 that we wanted to share in the fun again. All parents are invited to celebrate with us. Please don’t go to too much expense. This is just for fun. Each class will have the opportunity to parade their hats in front of the school.
Sunday 28 March - Sunday 4 april
Holy Week In Our Parish and Pastoral Region
Holy Week began last Sunday with Palm Sunday. You are welcome to join your parish or any Church in your Pastoral Region to remember and pray the journey of Jesus during this week.
Please see the times below.
|
Celebration |
St John Vianney’s Co-Cathedral Fairy Meadow |
St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral Wollongong |
St Brigid’s Gwynneville |
Mater Dolorosa Balgownie |
Palm Sunday |
Mass: 8:30am Mass: 10:00am (Italian Mass) Mass: 4:30pm (Vietnamese) |
Mass: 7:00am Mass: 10:30am MAss: 5:00pm |
Mass: 9:00am |
Mass: 10am Mass: 11.30am (Syro-Malabar) |
|
1 April Holy Thursday Mass of The Lord’s supper |
Mass: 6:00pm |
Mass: 7:00pm |
Mass: 5:00pm |
|
|
2nd April Good Friday Stations of the Cross |
Liturgy: 9:30am |
Liturgy: 10:00am |
Liturgy: 9:00am |
|
|
2 April Good Friday Passion of the Lord |
Liturgy: 3:00pm |
Liturgy: 3:00pm |
Liturgy: 3:00pm |
|
|
3 April Easter Vigil |
Mass: 6:00pm |
Mass: 7:00pm |
Mass: 5:30pm |
|
|
4 April Easter Sunday |
Mass: 8:30am |
Mass: 7:00am Mass: 10:30am Mass: 5:00pm |
Mass: 9:00am |
Mass: 10am |
Our Good Samaritan School Community was introduced to our School Captains and Vice Captains last Friday at assembly. Our Year 6 Leaders have impressed us greatly this year and after a lengthy process working with Mrs Sillis our Year Six Captains addressed the school assembly with their acceptance speeches. Throughout this process the written applications, speeches from nominees and the final acceptance speeches have been outstanding and we are very proud of every Year 6 student.
The following were the acceptance speeches of our school captains Matisse Schettino & Christian Lopresti.
Da Vinci Decathlon
The Illawarra Christian school hosted 40 teams for the Da Vinci Decathlon, involving schools from the Illawarra, Campbelltown and South Sydney Regions. Ten subjects were competed throughout the day, English, Maths, Science, Cartography, Engineering, Creative producers, Code Breaking, Legacy, Ideation and Art and Poetry. The day was split up into three sessions with the overall theme - Icons.
In English, we had to write a variety of sentences to summarise the story of Alice in Wonderland that had to include symbols as well. In cartography we had to figure out different points around the world using coordinate points longitude and latitude. In Maths we had some complex problems one of which involved using different scenarios of the starting and stopping speeds of a car. In Science we had to look into the experimentation using symbols in chemistry. In Creative Producers, Amelia, Fin and Evie had to create a one minute drama act, about Neil and Buzz’s landing on the moon, and the race to Space. In Engineering, we designed a way to get to and from the moon, with paper straws, pipe cleaners and tape. In Ideation we had to solve real world problems of the decaying of Pompeii and its impact on the world. In Art and Poetry we had to draw a person we would see in our everyday life, that you get inspiration from and write a poem about their personality and actions that connected to the art piece. In code breaking we had to find the code in letters and numbers to get a clue to finding out the hidden message.
Both Year 5 and 6 did exceptionally well with the team work and the challenges they were given. We are proud to say Good Samaritan Year 6 came 1st place in the code breaking out of 40 schools. A huge thank you to Mrs Mewett for giving up her time to help prepare the Year 5 and Year 6 teams and the opportunity to participate in this engaging and fun day of learning.
Finley Cole, Evie Norris and Amelia Page
What's Happening in our Classrooms
There have been many interesting learning activities that show how our students love investigating using hands on activities in Science
Our Science Syllabus states that:
“through the study of Science students learn about our biological, chemical, geological, physical and technological world. They actively develop skills in planning and conducting investigations, recording and analysing data, and problem-solving. Students explore real-world phenomena and develop solutions to authentic problems.”
Our teachers have planned highly engaging learning experiences for our students this term that have involved hands on, engaging investigative experiences that are definitely in line with the aims of the NSW syllabus. See what ideas we have been exploring.
Year 1 had the support of their buddies to make string telephones to explore how sound is made of vibrations and they discovered for a message to get through the string, the string had to be tight.
Year 1 also made their own musical instruments to experiment with how they could create sound. You can tell by the smiles how much they enjoyed playing their creations.
In Year 2 the students have been learning about the changes that occur to food products when they are heated and cooled. They looked at various types of corn to observe these changes.
In Amaroo we have also been enjoying exploring sound and have completed several experiments over the last few weeks. They have been very noisy, engaging lessons which have enabled the students to make accurate statements about what they have seen, heard and inferred.
Kindergarten has had a wonderful term settling into school life and making new friends in our school community.
In Religious Education, Kindergarten have been learning about the Good Shepherd and the Lenten Season. They have enjoyed listening to the Scripture stories and responding to these stories through art and drama.
During our English time we have been reading and writing simple sentences. We have also been learning ‘high frequency words’ and how to segment words into their phonemes. We have been studying the author Pamela Allen and have used her picture books as a focus for speaking and listening and construction of simple sentences.
In Maths, we have been learning about Two Dimensional shapes and using the geoboards to construct these shapes. There has been lots of counting and exploring the properties of numbers.
We have engaged in the exploration of Science concepts during play based afternoons.
The students have enjoyed the extracurricular activities this term, including activities with their Year Six buddies, Clean Up Australia Day, the school Cross Country carnival and especially our special St Joseph’s PB4L day.
As demonstrated above our students have demonstrated a Love of Learning through a strong commitment to improving their thinking in the academic opportunities offered to them.
This isn’t done easily. There are many processes and procedures that support the learning within a school. Our school staff have worked very hard to establish positive and proactive learning environments for our students.
Mrs Sharon Smithers
Acting Principal
School Photos:
School photos will be taken on Thursday 22 April 2021. Students will wear their full Summer school uniform for the photos this year.
Please note that if you have not given photo permission consent, your child will not participate in the class photo.
When does my child start to wear Winter School Uniform?
Students are expected to wear their full Winter school uniform from Monday 10 May. Prior to this date in Term 2, if we experience cold weather, it is parents’ discretion as to which uniform is worn.
Easter Hat Parade:
On Holy Thursday, 1 April, students will participate in an Easter Hat Parade. All students are invited to participate. The Easter Hat Parade has its historical roots as a fancy head covering that people wore in readiness for the Easter celebration. During the Great Depression the Easter Hat was a simple luxury. It represents the harmony associated with having something new and the new life that we, as a Catholic community, celebrate at Easter.
Canteen News:
The Uniform Shop is now open on
Tuesday mornings 8.30am to 9.30am
Thursday afternoons 2pm to 3.15pm
Appointments Only
Winter Uniforms are now available
In order to manage the physical distancing requirements, parents will continue to make appointments at the uniform shop to purchase uniforms.
This can be done through the Compass Portal.
If you would like to place an order with the uniform shop an order form has been added to the school website under parents/uniform.
Please complete the form and return with payment to the school office.
These orders will be filled on uniform shop days.
Wollongong Diocesan AFL Trials
Hamish Grant, Ben Garbutt, Kobi Timmins, Oliver Sheridan
Well done boys !
PB4L Day
On Friday we had our first PB4L day celebrating all the great things that are happening at GSFM and explicitly reteaching PB4L routines & expectations. Each grade had the opportunity to unpack their understanding of respect and consent, then explored 5 Social Norms that help support respectful interactions on our playground. After this, the whole school had an opportunity to model these behaviours while playing respectfully on the playground.
These are our GSFM Social Norms for our Playground
Social Norm #1: Meet and greet politely.
- Say greetings, introductions, and goodbyes.
- Politely offer and receive compliments.
- Be able to start and finish conversations.
Social Norm #2: Take turns talking.
- Listen when others are speaking and look them in the eye.
- Wait if adults are talking.
- Respond appropriately and at the right time.
Social Norm #3: Pay attention to others.
- Stop what you’re doing so you can listen.
- Read people’s emotions through their body language and facial expressions.
- Change your behaviour to match what other people are doing, such as quieting down with the rest of the room.
Social Norm #4: Think about others before acting.
- Ask for consent.
- Respect personal space.
- Wait your turn.
- Stand a comfortable distance away when talking.
Social Norm #5: Cooperate with others.
- Follow directions when you’re asked to.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Apologise when necessary.
- Be flexible and open to new ideas.
Parents Supporting Student Learning:
Replenishing Equipment for the New School Term
As we approach the upcoming holidays parents are asked to ensure that their child’s pencil case and school supplies are replenished. Having everything at their fingertips each day aids in the learning process allowing children to focus on the task at hand rather than worrying about not having the equipment to complete the task.
Uniform Check:
Throughout the holidays please check your child’s uniform is clearly labelled with their name. Also, if your child needs new school shoes or joggers they must be within the uniform requirements i.e: black school shoes and predominately white joggers similar to the images below.
Looking for something for the children to do during the holidays?
The NSW government is offering Creative Kids Vouchers. There is a huge range of activities available for school aged children. The activities have an art and literature focus and would be a great introduction to an ongoing hobby or pastime. Follow this link to apply.
P&F News
April
- Holy Thursday 1 April - Last Day Term 1 - Easter Hat Parade -12.30pm
- Friday 2 April - Good Friday
- Sunday 4 April - Easter Sunday
- Monday 5 April - Easter Monday
- Monday 19 April - First Day Term 2
- Tuesday 20 April - Easter Liturgy in the Co-Cathedral (Students & Staff)
- Thursday 22 April - School Photos
- Friday 23 April - ANZAC Day Prayer
- Tuesday 27 April -Diocesan Cross Country
May
- Monday-Tuesday 3-4 May Principals’ Overnight Retreat
- Thursday 6 May Mother’s Day Liturgy
- Friday 7 May Mother’s Day Stall
- Monday 10 May P&F Meeting 7pm School Hall
- Monday 17 May Athletics Carnival
- Tuesday- 1-20 May NAPLAN testing
- Friday 21 May PUPIL FREE DAY Students do not attend school on this day
- Saturday 22-Sunday 23 May Confirmation Weekend
- Sunday 23 May Pentecost
- Monday-Friday 24- 28May Screens Down Week
- Wednesday 26 May -National Sorry Day
CEDoW School Director Peter Hill visit to GSFM
- Monday 31 May Reconciliation Week
June
- Thurday 3 June MABO Day
- Monday 7 June GSFM Athletics Carnival
- Tuesday 11 June Term 2 PB4L Day (Mufti Day)
- Monday 14 June Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend
- Tuesday 15 June Sth Coast Netball Gala Day
- Friday 18 June Semester One Reports distributed to Parents
- Monday-Friday 21-25 June Parent Teacher Interview Week
- Friday 25 June Term 2 concludes
TERM 3 DATES:
JULY:
- Wednesday 12 July Feast of St Benedict
- Thursday 16 July Grandparent’s Day
AUGUST:
- Tuesday 3 August Sth Coast Region Athletics
- Thursday -Friday 5-6 August Year 6 Camp
- Monday 8 August Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop
SEPTEMBER:
- Friday 3 september - Father’s Day Breakfast & Prayer
Father’s Day Stall
- Monday 6 September Students return to wearing Summer Uniforms
- Wednesday-Thursday 8-9 September Assistant Principal Overnight Retreat
- Thursday-Friday 9-10 September Basketball Gala Days (Junior & Senior)
- Monday 13 September MacKillop Athletics Carnival
- Friday 17 September Term 3 Concludes
GSFM OSHC
The AFL is working on becoming a more inclusive environment and this includes our Auskick program for people with disabilities – Kickability. This year we are working on getting a kickability program up and running in Wollongong. To help promote this, we are running a free Kickability program during the school holidays at North Dalton Park (potential to move due to cricket final – this will be communicated as soon as possible). The program will be run on Wednesday 14th April from 10am – 12pm.
To register follow the link below!
https://aflnswact.com.au/holidayprograms/
If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 0487 890 360.
Kind regards,
Peter Frith
Development Coordinator Officer