“Find

happiness in making others

happy.” Mary

Mackillop -1867

St Stephen’s Catholic School

Newsletter T E R M 3 , W E E K 3 2 7 T H J U L Y 2 0 1 6

Student Protection

Resources for Parents

Legal Aid:

For free legal advice –

1300 651 188

Child Safety Services:

You can make a re-

port or voice your

concerns -

1300 683 390

Principal’s Message

Reminder:

School Banking -

Thursdays.

This week is Catholic Education Week. Time to reflect on the impact Catholic Education

has had on the lives of many Australians. It was tremendous to see so many children

and staff dressed in period costume yesterday and participating in the scavenger hunt

organized by Mr Blaikie. There were many nuns, priests and altar boys wandering

around the school grounds. Fortunately, my mother had kept my brother’s altar boy

clothes from his days of service and I was able to borrow these on Tuesday. Prepara-

tions for the centenary are in full swing. If you are able to help out in anyway, please

complete the roster and return it to school by the end of this week.

The Sisters of Saint Joseph, founded by St Mary of Cross MacKillop have certainly had a

profound influence on our school community over the past one hundred years. The

values that they taught the children are the same values that we teach the children to-

day. Values of compassion, forgiveness, faith, joy and social justice are as strong today

as they were in 1916. I look forward to seeing many of our past and present members

of the St Stephen’s Community next week end and sharing our stories.

Finally, some words of wisdom from Dolly Parton, ‘If you don’t like the path you’re on,

start paving another one’. Mary Mackillop decided as a young girl that there was a

need to build a new pathway and she never gave up on her vision of educating young

rural boys and girls about Jesus. Thank goodness she ‘never saw a need without doing

something about it’. Hopefully when we come to a difficult fork in the road we will take

inspiration from Mary Mackillop and start paving a new road with strong gospel foun-

dations.

God Bless,

Janine

Bookclub Orders

due 29/7/2016

P A G E 2

From the APRE’s Desk Catholic Education Week

If you followed the red brick road from the gate on Weale Street could you answer this question? Who kicked a goal in

Year 4? You guessed correctly, it was Cameron Moffat. That was just a sample question from the Year 3 to 6 Scaven-

ger Hunt that students completed on Tuesday. Apart from exposing students to the many historical aspects of St Ste-

phen’s during Catholic Education Week, it also highlighted to us all of the many student, staff, parents and religious

who have contributed to the success of St Stephen’s over the last 100 years. And what a history has been created.

Tuesday also witnessed the transformation of the school population back to the year of 1916. It was wonderful to see

the costumes of both staff and students. Our thanks must go to all of our parents who took the time to put a lot of

thought and care into their child’s costumes. The learning environment of the students at St Stephen’s truly came

alive on Tuesday. The many happy and smiling faces were testament to this fact. Thank you one and all.

St Stephen’s Centenary

It is hard to believe that the Centenary Celebrations are nearly upon us. The weekend of August 6 and 7 has a jam

packed agenda. From an Art Show, old time dancing, school tours and Centenary Mass are just a few of the events

taking place. I am particularly looking forward to the students of St Stephen’s performing their “Dance through the

Ages’ on the afternoon of Saturday 6 August. This will provide a superb opportunity to show case the talent of our

students to the many visitors who will attend the Centenary Celebrations at the school. I hope to see many of you

there to support our wonderful school community.

Liturgical Celebrations

Please find a summary of our Liturgical Celebrations for the next 4 weeks.

Please keep the family of Mrs Follington in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate a family bereavement. I would

also like to take this opportunity to wish Amanda Feddema and her family all the best for their future move to Dalby.

Amanda has been a wonderful asset to the school. We wish Amanda and her family every success on their future jour-

ney together.

Have a wonderful fortnight.

God’s Blessings

Date Day Liturgical Celebration Year

Level 27 July 9am Wednesday Catholic Education Mass - Church Year 2

7 August 9am Sunday St Stephen’s Centenary Mass Year 6

10 August 2.15pm Wednesday Saint Mary of the Cross Prayer Celebration Year 1

12 August 10.30am Friday Beauaraba Lodge Mass Year 5/6

17 August 9am Wednesday Church Mass Year 2

Happenings in the Library – our new Makerspace!

At lunchtime, students were busy learning how to make Loom bracelets and also creating bracelets threading macaroni and beads. What wonderful creations! Other students have been busy creating with Lego, using laptops, drawing, reading and playing board games. Our library certainly buzzes at lunchtime!

Kids Connect is only 32 school days away and we are in the depths of planning and organising our big event at Wellcamp Airport. Last Monday we travelled to the airport to interview our 9 facilitators and survey the airport for all things includ-ing risk assessments, powerpoints, breakout zones, furniture and catering. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing planes take off and land. A big highlight was going through security and learning the do’s and don’ts of personal belong-ings at the airport. A major talking point was the sensors in the very clean bathrooms!

We have 6 committees all playing a very big part in our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Confer-ence. They are:

Public Relations: We are responsible for promoting Kids Connect 2016. We’re also in charge of proofreading articles from other committees and making sure all students, teachers and facilitators are attending. We have done a lot of promoting to Catholic Education Principals through phone calls, emails and a IMovie presentations.

Creative Affairs: We’re responsible for all name tags, correspondence, posters, committee profiles and our Kids Con-nect advertising wall. We are designing and creating an Information Help Desk for the conference. We work to-gether to get all tasks complete.

Finance: We’re responsible for the budget, paying invoices and seeking sponsorship from local businesses. We are learning to use Excel Spreadsheet to track our income and expenditure.

ICT: We’re in charge of all technology including: our website, emails and mapping of powerpoint and technology needs in the airport. We have developed protocols to access all the information we require safely and securely.

Delegate Support: We are organising the breakouts (workshops) and communicate with the Facilitators. We take care of the breakout areas and are very helpful and caring to all delegates involved in the Kids Connect Confer-ence.

Hospitality: We are in charge of accommodation, transport and catering on the days of our Kids Connect confer-ence. We have a focus on dietary requirements and special needs for over 100 students and delegates at our Conference in September.

As you can read on our School Sign, we are seeking Spon-sorship to reduce costs during our Event. If you can help us at all, please let us know.

Year 5/6 Kids

Yr 5/6 News

Welcome back to a super busy Term 3. The year 4 students are excited about the upcoming centenary celebrations, and

have been busy creating works of art for the centenary art show.

This term in History we are learning about the First Fleet, how and why they came to Australia and the impact of their

settlement. In Religion we are looking at the Sacraments of Healing and how, with faith, we can make a difference to oth-

ers and the world. In Science we are investigating the Earth, moon and sun and how these effect Earth.

Our English unit sees us reporting on an historical event using our knowledge of information reports, and we continue to

focus on spelling strategies in our writing. This week, the year 4 students will also be attending the Catholic schools Touch

and Netball carnivals and later in September, will be representing our school at the Bishop’s Mass.

Keep up the reading and we will see you all at the Centenary Celebrations!

Yr 4 News

P A G E 5

Student of the Week Awards

Week 1 Term 3

Congratulations to: Esme, Sarah, Riley, Cooper, Dominic and Madison

Week 2 Term 3

Congratulations to: Mackenzie, Sophie, Macy, Chloe, Sophie and Henry

Congratulations to all students who represented St. Stephen’s at the annual Gore High-

way Athletics Carnival. Everyone had a great day and the students displayed excellent

sportsmanship during the event. We have 8 students who were selected in the Inner

Downs carnival in August. Congratulations! We also have all year 4, 5 and 6 students com-

peting in the Catholic School Touch Football and Netball Carnivals on Thursday 28th July.

Many schools from across our diocese come together to celebrate Catholic Education

week with a day of fun sports. Best of luck to the teams on this day!

SPORTS NEWS

If you would like to purchase tickets to the Twilight Art Show, you can do so by contacting the

School Office by phone or email for Direct Deposit details, or alternatively please complete

attached slip and return with cash/ cheque in an envelope to the school office, and your tickets

will be sent to you.

Twilight Art Show.

Name:

Number of tickets: @ $5 each.

Total enclosed: $

St Stephen’s School

Parents & Friends Association

Monthly Meeting

Thursday, 28th

July 2016 at 7.00 pm

To be held at the Library

AGENDA

Opening of meeting

Reflection

Welcome, Attendance and Apologies

Minutes of Previous Meeting

Business Arising from Previous Minutes

Correspondence

Treasurer's Report and accounts for payment

President’s Report

Principal’s Report

Other Reports

Grants

Parish

Business

Centenary items (Leah):Bar

Morning Tea

Selling Stall

Set up & clean up

Father's Day Stall (Leah)

Family Mass 28th August, 2016 (Leah)

Sprints clean up 3rd

and 4th September, 2016 (Leah)

Possibly cancel P & F Meeting on 11th August, 2016 (Leah)

Next Meeting: 7.00pm on 11th August 2016 at School Library

Prayer

Meeting Closure

Children’s Yoga Classes

Dates for Term 3: Thursday 1 4th July—18th August (6 weeks)

Where: Pittsworth Function Centre (Hume St)

Time: Prep-Grade 2 8-8.30am Thursday

Grade 3-Grade 6 3.45-4.30pm Thursday

Cost: $4 per child ($1 goes to sponsoring a child in Nepal)

$10 per family

Enquiries Phone : 0427 931 963

DATE CLAIMER

Triple P 8 week Parenting Program.

Pittsworth Function Centre.

Commencing 2nd August at 6.30pm.

Please phone Child Health Nurse:

Mary Grebenshikoff : 4695 3123 or

0407 370928

Centenary Display

If you have any old preschool uniforms from 2003-2006, it would be much appreciated if they could be

dropped to the office for the Centenary Display at our Centenary Celebrations.

Notices

Free playgroup membership for Queensland

families

All Queensland families who register with Play-

group Queensland before their child’s first birthday

can now receive a free 12-month family member-

ship as part of the Queensland Government’s Play

Stars initiative. With more than 60,000 babies born

in Queensland each year, Play Stars will benefit

many new families by creating more opportunities

for children to learn through play, while supporting

parents and carers in their role as first teachers.

The Play Stars initiative is an action from the Ad-

vancing education: An action plan for education in

Queensland and will be delivered in partnership

with Playgroup Queensland over the next five

years. Register online or visit the Playgroup

Queensland website for more information.

Help required for the Centenary on 6th/7th August 2016

We are seeking volunteers to offer part of their time on Saturday to help sell the centenary books, stubby coolers and raffle tickets as well as take orders for the School group photos. We also require baked donations for Morning Tea on Sunday 7th August 2016.

Could you please complete the below slip and return to the office, and a roster will be made.

Many Thanks,

Centenary Committee.

I ____________________________can help for the Centenary Celebrations.

Baked Goods donation for Morning Tea.

Centenary book and

Stubby Cooler sales.

Assisting photographer by taking

Group photo orders.

Raffle Ticket sales.

Friday, 5th August

Assist

putting up

tents.

(4.00pm)

Saturday, 6th August

Assist morning chair set-up

(8.00am)

Sunday, 7th August

Centenary book and

Stubby Cooler sales.

Raffle Ticket sales.

Assist pulling down tents. (2.00pm)

PO Box 285,

Pittsworth

QLD

4356

Tel: 0746931627

Fax: 07 46932156

Email:pittsworth@twb.catholic.edu.au St Stephen’s Catholic School

Date Activity

JULY

28 Catholic Schools Netball and Touch Football Carnival –Yr 4,5 and 6.

28 P & F Meeting, 7.00pm in the Library

AUGUST

3 Sausage Sizzle Day –NO Tuckshop.

6-7 Centenary Celebrations

11 P & F Meeting

19 Bishop’s Inservice Day –Pupil Free Day

28 School Family Mass

31 Fathers Day Prayer Celebration

31 Father’s Day Stall

SEPTEMBER

6-7 Kids Connect Conference –Wellcamp Airport

14 Parent Teacher Interviews 3.30pm MacKillop Hall

14 Pizza Day

16 End of Term 3—Mass 9am in MacKillop Hall

Last day of Term 3

What’s On.

Father’s Day Stall to be held on Wednesday 31 August 9am

Raffle tickets will be sold at school the week prior to the stall and on the day of the Father’s Day Assem-bly and the raffles will be drawn after the assembly.

We will be looking for donations for the raffles and some helpers for the day of the stall. If anyone can help out please contact Miranda Stirling 0407 900 493 or Amanda Polzin 0412 980 777