Dear Parents and Carers of Good Samaritan,

As the children have come back to face-to-face learning we have concentrated on their social emotional learning and readjustment to school routines.  The children had a really good week last week with obvious signs of enjoying being back and learning  together with their friends. The  comments we have heard from the children about school have been really insightful. One comment that has stayed with me was from one of our older students who said: 

‘I thought  I didn’t like school … until I couldn’t go!’

This reinforces the idea that we can tend to take things for granted until we can’t do them. The same could be said for people - until they’re not  around or we  can’t see them we don’t really know how much they mean to us.

Mark’s Gospel reminds us of the greatest commandment - to love the Lord our  God with all of our heart and soul, the second is that we must love our neighbour as ourselves. There are no greater commandments than these. 

In our Catholic school, we view the social and emotional learning of the children through a Gospel lens. We are called to teach the  children to  understand themselves, to love themselves and to understand and love others. 

This graphic outlines the  skills that are focused on during social and emotional learning sessions.

Research tells us that when children have the skills and awareness needed to function well socially, then learning becomes so much easier. Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus knew we cannot do it  alone - we need our neighbour there to support and understand us as well.

As we journey together through the week, with Jesus, let us also think about how we can love our neighbour in our adult hearts and minds,

Toni Sillis

Principal

As they retire from teaching, we celebrate the careers of:

    Mrs Narelle Nuttall:

Narelle’s career has touched countless children and her commitment to ensuring that they feel a part of the school community has been admirable. Narelle has brought creativity to her teaching resulting in engaging children in learning. Narelle’s commitment to Good Samaritan has been remarkable. Narelle is a treasured colleague who has held leadership roles throughout her time at Good Samaritan.

Narelle brings a sense of joy to all that she does. Many parents across our community have also been taught by Mrs Nuttall. Narelle’s career stretches across many years and has touched the school communities of St Joseph’s Bulli, St Columbkille's Corrimal, Stella Maris Shellharbour, St Pius X Unanderra and St John Vianney’s Fairy Meadow.

Mrs Meika Tubaro:

After many years of welcoming new families and students into Kindergarten, Mrs Meika Tubaro will be relinquishing her position at Good Samaritan and taking some well earned long service leave before retiring. Mrs Tubaro has had a wonderful career and a profound effect on the early years of schooling for many students in our Diocese. She began her career in 1979 teaching at St Columbkille's Corrimal before moving onto St Francis Xavier’s Primary School in Wollongong. In 2012 she moved across to Good Samaritan as a foundation teacher for our new school. Mrs Tubaro has always had a passion for teaching our youngest students with time spent teaching from Kinder to Year 3 including Reading Recovery,but her real love is teaching Kinder students as they begin their formal education.

Meika has mentored many teachers throughout her career and was a Middle Leader for a number of years before returning full time to the classroom where her expertise has been valued and appreciated by so many families and staff.

We wish Meika a wonderful future and hope to see her back on a casual basis in 2022.

     Mrs Sharon Smithers:

Sharon has spent her 39-year education career in Catholic Education in the Diocese Wollongong, with her first teaching position as a Kindergarten teacher at St Paul’s Catholic Parish Primary School, Camden.  She taught in several schools before obtaining the leadership position of Religious Education Coordinator at St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School, Wollongong, and in 2012, moved to Good Samaritan as the REC before obtaining the substantive Assistant Principal position in 2015. 

Sharon is a faith-filled educator, committed to Catholic Education, and is especially recognised for her dedication to students with additional needs.  She has been an integral leader of our school and has taught generations of students over her career.

Mrs Christine Nunes who has been successful in her application as Assistant Principal of St Pius X, Unanderra. Chris has worked at Good Samaritan and previously St John Vianney’s for many years building a career based on a strong work ethic and commitment to quality teaching and learning. An appointment such as this is always bittersweet as we farewell a teacher who has been a blessing to our school community and will now be a blessing to another.

Tomorrow afternoon at 1pm we have the Kindergarten 2022 Parent Orientation Zoom Session. Due to COVID restrictions we are unable to have a face-to-face orientation. The Zoom session tomorrow is  the beginning of a suite of resources we are making available so that the important connection between school and home begins to be built for our new and youngest learners who begin school next year.

This prayerful meditation is a short way to re-centre and ground yourself.

Due to the disruption caused by COVID-19, adjustments to curriculum have been made throughout Terms 3 and 4. Focus for Semester 2 has been on student wellbeing and learning, and priority has been given to Religious Education, English and Mathematics. As a result of this extended period of Remote Learning and the lack of opportunities for teachers to provide quality assessment tasks to determine student learning attainment and/or growth, student reporting in Semester 2, 2021 will look a little different to the one you received earlier this year.

This report will provide information about your child’s participation in learning during this time of extended Remote Learning. The reports will be available through Compass on Wednesday 8 December.

Year 6 Parents are reminded to print the school report when they are distributed on Wednesday 8  December. This is particularly important if your child is not attending a Wollongong Diocesan systemic high school, such as Holy Spirit College, as your access to your child’s Compass profile will cease upon completion of primary school.

As this term progresses the children will become excited about the approaching Christmas season. It is very important that the children remain focused and settled throughout Term 4. When the children begin to bring Christmas cards, candy canes and the like to school too early they tend to ‘tune out’. It is for this reason, and the fact that waiting is a part of our Catholic Christian tradition with the season of Advent, that the children may begin to bring Christmas cards, candy canes etc for their classmates from the end of Week 9 – Friday 3 December. 

On Friday 3 December the children are able to wear Christmas mufti in recognition of the annual St Vincent de Paul Christmas Hamper Appeal.

Please begin to speak to your children about appreciating the card,  gift or candy cane that they receive no matter who it is from and that when they give something they shouldn’t always expect something in return.

P&F News

Jamberoo Tickets

Hello Families & Friends,

After the challenges of 2020 we were certainly not expecting to repeat these challenges in 2021, but how amazing to be coming out the other side and have all our kids back at school together!  As our school community responded to the global health pandemic, GSFM P&F have met regularly throughout the year and quietly focused on ensuring that our school and community remained safe and supported. Fundraising has not been a priority and we did not wish to place any additional financial pressure on our school community during these times.

As the end of the year approaches and with the easing of restrictions, your P&F is very excited to once again offer our Good Samaritan School Community discounted single entry tickets to Jamberoo Action Park!  At this stage, Jamberoo will not be offering Season Passes for the 2021/2022 Season, so these individual tickets are the perfect gift for your family, friends and loved ones.  At a flat rate of $49.00 per ticket, and no limit on the number of tickets you can purchase, this is an offer too good to miss.

This offer is available for a short time only. Tickets can be purchased by filling out the attached order form, which is also being sent home, and transferring payment into the P&F account. Order forms and payment must be made by Friday 26 November 2021, with tickets being available the week commencing Monday 6 December 2021.

Account Name: Good Samaritan P&F, BSB No: 066-711, Account No: 007 045, Ref: ‘JAP – Your Name’

Car Park Safety

Safety within the Parish car park is everyone’s business. Students, parents and staff can only be kept safe if everyone is vigilant about their actions when using this space. It is every parent/carer’s responsibility to exercise safe actions within the carpark. This includes using the car park as indicated below:

• Parents are not to park on school or Parish grounds during drop off (8:20am-8:50am) or pick up (2:30pm-3:20pm) times
• When arriving prior to dismissal at Car Line Pick Up parents are asked to turn engines off once the car is stationary
• A safe speed of 10km/h when driving into the car park
• Do not exit your vehicle when dropping off or picking up students
• Ensure that children are well within the school gate when dropping off before moving off
• Children only exit vehicles when the vehicle is at the front of the queue
• Ensure students have safely entered the car and closed the door when picking up
• There is no pedestrian access to the carpark when car lines have begun in both the morning and afternoon
• Gates into the school are closed and locked from the Parish car park following the morning bell at 8:50am.

Thank you to those parents who continually exercise the utmost care when accessing the school via the Parish car park. Every child’s safety is everyone’s concern.

Look at what the learning has been in Amaroo Blue this week!

 Amaroo Gold!

This term we have been very busy in Amaroo Gold. We have been learning how to write different types of procedural texts. So far we have written the procedures for making fairy bread, brushing our teeth, making pizza and a pirate hat! Each Friday we have followed our procedures. It has been so much fun (and yummy)!

We have also been looking at shapes and lines in creative art, using them to create beautiful artworks. Our real life ‘Pears’ were amazing. We used paint and pastels to create an almost photo-like effect.

We are learning so much!

Learning Support Centre!

In the Learning Support Centre we are enjoying all being back together for the first time in many months.

Last week we spent most of the time in our classrooms reconnecting with our teachers and friends,

This week we resume our regular routine of spending the morning in the Learning Support Centre and the afternoon in our classrooms. 

This term we are looking at what it means to have a Growth Mindset. The students have each identified a goal they would like to achieve and what small steps they might do to work towards this. This requires trying new things; listening to others; being okay with making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

What’s been happening this week in our playground!

Over the last week our new playground area has really taken shape. Our students were very interested in the cement truck in the playground last week with Mitch, one of our Year 6 students supporting the safety of all by leading the truck out of the playground at the end of the day. Many of the students enjoyed watching the cement being poured to form the surrounds of part of the area. 

Today there was more activity as another area was laid and coloured with many of the students again taking time to watch the action. We are getting so excited to see the final product and be able to play on, in and around our new playground area.

The Cement Truck 

The South Coast Writers Centre is now taking applications to be our Young Reviewer in Residence for 2022! This is a new role which we’ve opened up to any student aged 10-15 to cater to our passionate young readers on the South Coast.

The SCWC Young Book Reviewer in Residence will work with the SCWC office during 2022 to select six new release middle-grade or young adult books by established or emerging Australian writers. These books will be supplied to the reviewer for free by the SCWC. The reviews will be credited and posted on the SCWC website blog, newsletter and social media (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) throughout the year. Please note this is not a paid position and the Young Reviewer in Residence will need to be a SCWC Member.

To apply, students will need to send a sample review on any book of their choosing as well as a short bio about themselves to media@southcoastwriters.org. The reviews are encouraged to discuss how the story made the student feel and what they loved or didn’t love about it. For inspiration, have a look at Alphabet Soup which is an Australian website for book reviews by kids. 

Applications close December 1st and the selected reviewer will be announced by December 15th.

Canteen will reopen on Friday 5 November

TERM 4 DATES:

November:

• Thursday 11 November - Remembrance Day 

• Friday 19 November - Colour Run (Subject to COVID restrictions)

December:

• Wednesday 1 December - Red and Yellow Day-Surf Lifesaving MUFTI DAY

• Friday 3 December - St Vincent De Paul Christmas -MUFTI DAY

• Monday 13 December - Year 6 Farewell