Dear Parents and Carers of Good Samaritan,

As we work our way through the last week of term I cannot help but reflect on all we have to be grateful for at Good Samaritan. One of these is the way in which our students are developing their self management and social awareness. This has come through explicit teaching and also from the support that you offer them as parents.

To illustrate this, last Friday I was able to attend the Opening and Blessing of some new buildings at Holy Spirit College. As I walked across the quadrangle, I heard some girls call ‘Mrs Sillis.’ I turned to see 4 of our Good Samaritan girls who are now in Year 7. They were really keen to say hello and to ask about the school. I was just as keen to hear about their experiences in Year 7. As I left the college that morning, the same experience happened with a group of now Year 7 boys. This was a really proud moment for me as principal because not all ex-students want to openly greet, or even recognise you, once they have left the school.

As this week progresses, I am observing that our students are developing great self discipline, they are confident and resilient and they are working really hard to understand the relationships that they are building.

Last weekend, many of our Year 4 students celebrated their First Holy Communion and there will be more who celebrate this sacrament this coming weekend. The communion masses were beautiful celebrations as the children met Our Lord in the Eucharist for the first time. 

Journeying towards Easter at the end of a busy term allows us to be thankful for so many things including:

• the continued support of our parent community, particularly through the P&F 
• the committed and hard working staff of Good Samaritan who have travelled through the term navigating COVID in the classrooms and their own families
• our hard working students who show that they love learning each day in their classrooms and on the playground
• the wider school community, including our Parish, who prepare and partner with the school and parents in the preparation of the sacraments.

The upcoming holidays will be an opportunity for well-deserved rest and rejuvenation in preparation for a new school term. I wish you every Easter blessing as you celebrate with your family and friends next week.

As we journey together, with Jesus, into the Easter season,

Toni Sillis

Principal

GSFM Pupil Free Day 

Monday 9 May 2022

Students do not attend school on this day.

This day is a day of Professional Learning for staff.

The office of Sport offers a variety of programs that you can become involved in with your children. Each of the programs has a link where you can find out more information.

Daughters and Dads Active and Empowered

In Term 2, there are FREE Daughters and Dads programs taking place in Cooma and Tamworth. These programs run one evening per week over nine weeks and feature educational and practical sessions involving rough and tumble play, sport, and fundamental movement skills.

There’s also a range of paid Weekender programs on offer throughout NSW in our various Sport and Recreation Centres, for a condensed but just as fun program that run for a single weekend and include great activities and all food and accommodation.

The Daughters and Dads Active and Empowered program educates and empowers primary school-aged girls alongside their fathers or father figures to improve physical activity, sport skill proficiency as well as their social and emotional wellbeing.

First Lap Vouchers for Kindy Kids

The First Lap program has been expanded for the 2021/22 financial year to include children starting kindergarten in 2022, who missed out on vital water safety education during their pre-school years due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Water safety education is key to ensuring children learn vital safety and survival skills from a young age – a skill they will keep with them for life. The NSW Government aims to make water safety education more accessible for NSW families, through the First Lap voucher program providing $100 vouchers for parents, guardians and carers of children aged 3-6 years.

A $500 voucher to help with the cost of living

Families with children aged 4 to 13 years that attend a primary school in NSW can now receive a $500 voucher per child to reduce the out-of-pocket costs of before and after school care.

You can apply for a voucher until 30 September.

Find out more here.

Afternoon carlines does not begin before 3pm each afternoon. This allows for maximum daily learning time for students. Please ensure that:

• the carline does not extend out into Cabbage Tree Lane
• turn left only into the carline from Cabbage Tree Lane (Parish carpark)
• turn left only when exiting the carline into Cabbage Tree Lane

Recently the carline has extended out onto the highway creating a hazard for traffic. Police Highway Patrol regularly monitor the school’s surrounding streets. Thank you for following these guidelines for the safety of everyone in our community.

Across Kindergarten to Year 4 Seesaw is used as a communication platform to showcase student learning. As a school, it is important that we gain consistency with the use of Seesaw so that communication between home and school remains as efficient and transparent as possible.

Therefore from Term 2, the following Seesaw policy and procedures will come into effect. Thank you for your support in the effective use of this communication platform.

Some parents may remember Good Sources - a video compilation of news and events from our student leaders. Our 2020 Student Leaders founded Good Sources and our 2022 leaders are putting this news source out to our community.

This week Good Sources wraps up a great term of learning!

The parade will begin at 1pm and all parents are invited to come along. The Easter Raffle will be drawn following the parade.

This term a number of GSFM clubs were started to allow students to participate in a range of activities, meet new people and learn new skills.  These clubs were created to promote a sense of belonging and connection to our school.

Year 3 students in the Technology Club would like to share some of their learning. 

Chris Richards from the Catholic Education Office came to Good Samaritan to set up the green screen for our Tech Club. He taught us lots of interesting things about how and why a green screen is used, such as for creating incredible backdrops for blockbuster movies, filming music videos, photography shoots, advertising, news and weather reporting. We learnt about how important lighting is in making the subject in the foreground look realistic and that it’s important for the subject not to wear green … or they’ll disappear! 

For the last couple of weeks we have worked with Mrs Jenny Jancetic to learn more about creating movies. We have played around with combining our amazing acting skills with still and video backgrounds. This week Maddi, Ivy, Emily, Jayden and Marcus filmed and edited their own sections of this clip Underwater Magic. 

Stay tuned for more creative projects from the Tech Club!

Next term we will have more opportunities for students to engage in a club and try something new.

NAPLAN

Students in Year 3 and 5 have been participating in practice tests over the last few weeks to allow them to become familiar with the test format, functions and tools of The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) online tests.

Students can continue to use the public demonstration site to familiarise themselves with the types of questions and tools available in the NAPLAN Online tests.

Our school will be participating in NAPLAN Online between 10 and 20 May 2022.

Students in Year 3 & 5 will need to have the following items with them for the tests:

• Fully charged iPad (Compulsory) with the Locked down browser app most current version installed.
• Headphones (Compulsory) - Students have access to audio for all tests (NOT bluetooth)
• Reading book for fast finishers
• Pencil for planning and working out

Mrs Catherine Hailstone

Assistant Principal

Congratulations to all those students who made their First Holy Communion last weekend. We send our prayers and best wishes to those students who will make their First Communion this weekend. 

Lord Jesus Christ, 

Bless the  children of our community who have come forward to receive Holy Communion for the first time. May this day be the step toward a life-long love of the Eucharist and their faith. 

May the Eucharist continue to give the comfort that they turn to you for, guidance and wisdom as they grow in their faith. Thank you for their innocence and goodness. May they inspire all of us to cherish this sacred Sacrament.  

Amen.

Congratulations to INGHAM House ... Winners of this Term's House Cup.

House Colour Mufti & Reward tomorrow Thursday 7 April 

News from Amaroo Gold 

Brain breaks are an important part of our day! After working so hard Amaroo Gold love to have a brain break and move around, this helps us to be ready for our next learning experience.

Amaroo Gold had lots of fun cleaning up our school gardens and playground for “Clean Up Australia Day” this year.

One of our highlights this term has been returning to the library to borrow books. We love reading in Amaroo Gold and we really enjoy choosing new and different books from the library to take home to read with our families.

We have had a great term in Amaroo Gold!

The Learning Support Centre

Lately in the Learning support Centre, we have looked at the structure of a narrative and identified the features in lots of stories.

We have been speaking about expected and unexpected behaviours in the classroom. Expected behaviours make the people around us, as well as ourselves, feel comfortable. Unexpected behaviours make people feel uncomfortable. Expected behaviours help us to be more ready to learn.

We have also had fun cooking on Friday's and participating in Sports Ready with the Amaroo classes.

If you have a sibling that will be ready to begin school in 2023 contact the office for an enrolment pack.

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE (PRC) 2022

PRC is back again.  From Monday 21 March, students will be able to borrow any books from their respective challenge group (3-4 or 5-6).

Those students doing the PRC can check in SORA and find one of the Premier's Reading Challenge categories matching the right challenge level.  If students are having trouble, they can download the reading log from the PRC website (https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html) to keep a track of what has been read.  We will assist them to enter their data.

Students from Yrs 3-4 need to log 20 titles in which 5 of them are free choices.  Yrs 5-6 need to log 20 titles of which 5 are free choices. Students from K-2 will do the Challenge (K-2) as a classroom.

The last day to log PRC titles is 19 August 2022 for students.

Mrs Medina

PRC Co-ordinator

Library Borrowing has started!

This week students have been heading to the Library with their class teacher in order to reorientate themselves to the Library space and borrowing. Below is the Library borrowing timetable so your child will need to bring along a Library bag on their rostered day.

Band:

Parents who would like their child/ren to be involved in the band or singing with the Academy Music Dance Drama in Term 2 are invited to an online information session. Details are below.

2022 

April

Wednesday 6 April 

Confirmation Parent Meeting 6.30pm SJV Co- Cathedral Fairy Meadow 

Thursday 7 April 

Yr 2 Easter Craft and Picnic 9-11am 

Thursday 7 April

Confirmation Parent Meeting 6.30pm SJV Co- Cathedral Fairy Meadow 

Friday 8 April 

Holy Week Liturgy and Easter Hat Parade /Last Day of Term 1

Thursday 14 April 

Holy Thursday 

Friday 15 April 

Good Friday 

Saturday 16 April 

Easter Saturday 

Sunday 17 April 

Easter Sunday 

Monday 18 April 

Easter Monday 

May

 Thursday 5 May

Mother's Day Liturgy & Morning Tea (COVID restrictions may apply)

Friday 6 May 

Mother's Day Stall 

Monday 9 May 2022

Pupil free Day 

June

June 29/30

2022 Sacramental Programme Parent Meeting & enrolment evening 6.30pm SJV 

July

 Friday 22 July

Grandparents & Great People Day 

September 

Friday 2 September

Father's Day BBQ Breakfast & Stall

Wednesday 14 September

Feast of the Holy Cross - Feast Day 10 Years of Good Samaritan 

18-25 September

UCI 2022 Road World Championships- Wollongong