Term 4 Week 7 2022

Principal's Message

Dear families and friends,

‘We do whatever it takes to lead the way in Love, Learning, Faith, School Spirit, Sport & Community’

2023 Staffing

Teachers

Staff

• School Counsellor - Jacqui Rojo 
• Speech Therapist - Karla Carey (2 days per week)
• Learning Support Teachers- Paula McIntyre (Years 3-6) & Marianne Bullpitt (Years K-2)
• Student Support Educators - Michelle Kent, Kristy Smith, Danny Parsons, Janet O’Brien, Sue Reynolds, Gail Burley, Samantha Olive, Patrice Ramsay, Rebecca Transton,  Alison Llewellyn, Michelle O’Brien, Vicki Gardner, Piper Byrnes, Helen Sjostedt
• Specialist Teachers - Paul Dwyer, Sally Simpson, Lena Llewellyn
• Office - Fran Gilmour, Louise Gallagher, Rachel Gillespie
• Cleaners & Maintenance - Mick Condon & Lucy Shephard
• IT - Mitchell Scutt
• Library - Betty Schuhmacher
• Assistant Principal  Mission - Sam Irvine
• Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning - Felicity Wilde
• Love & Community - Kristie Irvine
• Faith -Karen McDonald
• Learning - Curriculum - Karen Faber
• Learning  - Intervention - Paula McIntyre
• Learning - Yr K-2 Literacy & Numeracy Instructional Leader - Laura Hughes
• Learning  -Yr 3-6  Literacy & Numeracy Instructional Leader - Michelle Bratti
• Learning - Yr 5-6 Literacy & Numeracy Instructional Leader  - Stacey Forrester
• Principal - John O’Brien

Our Student Support Educator hours have increased again in 2023 for our kids. Each class will have at least one teacher and one Student Support Educator available for English and Mathematics (basically 2 teachers in each class for the most important learning each day).

Our Staff hours have been raised each year over the last 8 years. This will ensure we continue to support all our students in all facets in order to achieve ‘Fullness of Life’. Teachers make the biggest difference at school to your children.

Our next job is to place kids into classes. Like I outlined previously, this is quite a big job. Going up day will be Monday 12 December where your child will spend a couple of hours with their next year's teacher.  Some students need extra transition support and time. This will start happening now.  Please be aware that there are always last minute changes each year so there may be a couple of changes before the 2023 school year. 

Start to 2023
We will conduct our Maths assessments on Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 January.  First day of school for Years 1-6 will be on Wednesday 1st February.  Kinder will commence on Friday 3rd February after completing their Best Start Assessments.

Take care,
John O’Brien
Principal

Assistant Principal's News - Mission

'Accendere' (Y4) & 'Exuro' (Y5) Student Retreat Day
Thursday 17 November and Friday 18 November we had all of our students in Years 4 & 5 participate in their student retreat days.

Year 4 participated in the 'Accendere' retreat which had a focus on participating in games and activities to build friendship skills and enhance their own personal relationship with Jesus.

The Year 5 students' 'Exuro' retreat day is a discipleship formation program that helps to strengthen the Catholic lives of the students involved through a number of reflective and teamwork activities. 

Thank you to the Years 4 & 5 teachers for putting these days together for our students!

School Uniform Expectations
We understand that this time of year students start to outgrow their current school shoes and may be using back ups to get through the rest of the year. It is a fine line for us to balance this situation empathetically, while also not allowing the students to 'pull the wool over our eyes' and tell us some tall stories on why they are wearing their expensive, non-uniform shoes! We may make some phone calls home in the next few weeks just to check-in regarding these.  As a school we want our students to wear their full school uniform with pride and be proud of being a member of SMP.  A reminder on uniform expectations as you start to plan for your children for next year:

Uniform Requirements

Our House Volunteer Cooking
On Tuesday 22 November, a number of our staff volunteered their time to cook a meal for the Our House Charity in Lismore.  Our House is a purpose built facility that helps to accommodate patients undergoing treatment at the Lismore Base Hospital.  Our staff have an active role on witnessing to their faith and this is just one small area that we can do this by supporting those less fortunate than ourselves.

Parent Help Needed!
We have a couple of portable basketball hoops that we have purchased for our students as we have noticed that this is hugely popular at the moment. Are there any 'handy' parents or family members out there who could volunteer some time to help put these together for us? If so, please contact me on sam.irvine@lism.catholic.edu.au

Nativity Scene
Thank you to Mrs Schuhmacher who has once again outdone herself with her creativity and vision in creating a 3D Nativity scene telling the story of the Birth of Jesus.  It is amazing that she does not plan anything down on paper, all of her ideas and creativity come from inside her head!

Sam Irvine
Assistant Principal - Mission

Assistant Principal's News Teaching & Learning

Teaching Writing at SMP
To become successful writers, students need to understand the differences between spoken and written text, and when composing a text it is important they understand the purpose, and who their audience is. 

The teaching of writing, at SMP, is a collaborative process that takes a lot of careful, targeted planning and a systematic approach in the classroom. 

The first step in the teaching of writing begins well before the students step foot in the classroom. Our teachers meet regularly and analyse the students' writing and use current writing samples to identify where the children need to go next. Teachers then look at the syllabus expectations and develop a unit of work that addresses student learning at their point of need. 

Writing begins at the sound level, then the word level, moving to sentence level, paragraph level, and finally, whole text writing. Teachers work together to develop a clear success criteria that is shared, and co-constructed, with the students. This success criteria is used throughout the teaching unit for students to refer to, to plot their own success, set goals, and is eventually used as a grading device.

Teachers will always model a new skill for the students and give them the opportunity to work with peers in the areas of sentence structure, text structure, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation.  All students will be given regular opportunities to write independently. 

Writing will continue to be a focus for SMP in 2023, with the introduction of a new English syllabus for K-2 next year, and a new 3-6 syllabus arriving in 2024. We look forward to sharing some of our students' work in the coming weeks.

This week I am sharing some work that Year 5 has been doing around developing a strong setting in a narrative.  Congratulations to Zoe Connolly and Archie Ind on their engaging texts. 

Setting Description- Little Red Riding Hood

Suddenly, the leaves crackled underneath Little Red’s well-polished shoe. The forest felt like nowhere she’d ever been before and it sounded as if there was cackling in the distance. 

It was almost like the withered old cottage stood still like it was almost calling her. The blood-red flowers glistened as she walked past, feeling as though they were talking to her. 

Suddenly Little Red's soggy cape got caught on a sharp, crooked tree. The rocks were so slimy that she tripped on them, almost like a warning. The hatred filled her with anger for nature. 

The bright fireflies were dancing in the wind. There was a menacing smell as she crept closer to the cottage, unsure of what she was about to experience. 

Zoe Connolly-5HD

Setting Description- Little Red Riding Hood

Crackle, crackle, Little Red’s feet were crackling in the decomposing, soggy leaves.

Suddenly the forest stood still and Little Red felt a shiver down her back. The buzz of the glowing mosquitoes filled the air, as though something was coming. The pathways were mossy and slippery as the animals howled from the bush. The blood-red flowers were bent to the ground as the wind was whistling through the dead, creepy trees. The thatched straw roof shone by the eerie green light. Little Red could feel large, stony pebbles digging into her feet as the bright green shrubs smacked against the mossy, green cobblestone house.

Archie Ind-5HD

Felicity Wilde
AP Teaching & Learning

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Chloe Ewart Jonah Vakararawa  Mackenzie Parker Oliver Benn Clancy Rippon Archer Chelman  Maggie Llewellyn  Shiloh Dennis  Holly Transton  Lillian-Grace Armfield Stella Henderson Zac Willows Xander Hill Arlia Bultitude Paige Whitney Chloe Yates Pippa Randall Josie Hoare Kai Larsson Grace McMillan Oliver Urquhart Vincent Handran Joseph Handran Lilly-Anne Marks and Indy Stubbin who have recently celebrated their birthday.

Student of the Month & Learner Achievement Awards ~ 11 November 2022

CLASS	Student of the Month	Learner Achievement
KRG	Marli Smith	Elijah Aylward
KEY	Dakoda Slater	Mason Cross
KCS	Luca Cadman	Paige Holmes
1MB	Wallace Gray	Ledger Gould
1CP	Savannah Whitney	Harpah Baker
1JS	Chloe Marshall	Audrey Cameron
2KH	Olive Chelman	Bonnie Pearce
2KF	Harrison Myers	Lucy Hancock
2SS	Sara Cole	Charlotte Wells
3RO	Adrian Campbell	Joel Dean
3HB	Ruby Benn	Alice Bruggy
3TL	Aurora Silver	Billy Stavenow
4JF	Bianca Hodges	Eboni Gibson
4BF	Zoey Churchill	Edward Shields
4KM	Kylah Sabino	Hudson Scully
5HD	Oliver Formaggin	Abigail Hannah
5SA	Braith Transton	Shiloh Dennis
5KF	Ella Rippon	Lewis Bunney
6LI	Laura Lockwood	Jed Handford
6JG	Josie Hoare	Toby Hancock
6BM	Joshua Borello	Olivia Bunker

Parent Information

Lost Property
After the Year 6 Brisbane excursion, a student has misplaced his blue sleeping bag stored in a blue pillow case.  If you know the whereabouts of the item could you pop it into the school office.

For Sale
We have brand new school polo shirts and sport shorts for sale.  They are left over from the uniform shop closure.  Call in at the school office if interested.  They are on sale for $10.00 per item.

Polo Shirt sizes available:  Size 12 - 24

Sport knit Shorts sizes available:  10 - 18