21 April 2016

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

2016

Gilroy on the Go

School Based Traineeship

Congratulations to Kiara La Rosa for having completed her traineeship at iLove and gained a Certificate III in Business. We would like to thank iLove for supporting her throughout this traineeship.

Holiday Work Experience

During the school holidays Kyle Scovazzi and Jayden Torrisi attended work experience in the Electrical Department of Wilmar. Work placement has recommenced again on Tuesdays this term for Vocational Students in Years 11 & 12.

Student of the Month Awards

Congratulations to the following students who received Student of the Month Awards:

Shantelle Teichmann - Working very hard and engaging well with class content
Lachlan Napier - Being considerate and caring towards other students and staff
Jayden Torrisi - Outstanding improvement to work ethic and academic results

Shantelle Teichmann, Lachlan Napier, Jayden Torrisi

Trivia Awards

Congratulations to the following homerooms: 11A, 10B and 8B on winning the Trivia Competition for Term 1.

Awards received by Andrew Pallanza, Lisa Stokes and Bailey Barbi

2017 Transition Days

Gilroy on Show

Gruelling Games

SAVE THE DATE:

Get your teams ready.
Register on line now!!!

From the Principal

Dear Gilroy Santa Maria College Community

This week we welcome visitors to our school that will assess our Capital Grant Application. This year we have applied to have a new Performing Arts Block and Tuckshop constructed. Our plan is to have these two facilities built on the extremities of our MPH which will result in the MPH being fully enclosed. The completed hall will also include a stage and a gym area as well as the performing arts rooms and tuckshop. It’s an exciting project and when completed will significantly add to the quality of the programs we can offer as well as being much used facility for whole school community. We will know the result of our application in September and if successful construction will take place in 2017.

Next Thursday we begin our Yr 6 Transition Days in preparation for secondary schooling in 2017. All children throughout the Ingham district have been invited to attend these days and I’m confident they will enjoy the experience. Students will experience lessons in our great facilities, meet our teachers and generally become familiar with our school. We received great reviews to last year’s program with many parents sharing that it made the transition to secondary school this year very smooth. If you know of any families with current Yr 6 students encourage them to attend or contact the school for more details.

Last week I attended our first Student Representative Council Meeting for the year. The SRC consists of one student from all homerooms plus our school captains. It was a really positive experience with great discussion. The SRC gives the students an opportunity to voice their concerns and suggestions to improve our school and I was really impressed with ideas they presented.

I would really encourage families to support the various Anzac ceremonies this Monday. A note went home last week with details. We have an Anzac Assembly this Friday morning at 10:15am in the MPH where all parents and friends are welcome to attend.

Finally, I’m looking forward to attending the Yr 12 Retreat at the end of the week on the Tablelands. They are great group of students and I’m sure they will enjoy spending the time together, reflecting upon their time at Gilroy, their friendships and their hopes for the rest of year.

God Bless

John Nuttall

From the Assistant Principal (Religious Education)

I hope you all had a relaxing break and time with your family over the Easter holidays. This is a big term and of course it is full to the brim with calendar events already.

As you are reading this our Year 12’s will be on retreat at Genazzano’s on the Atherton Tablelands. I always look forward to, as do the staff and Fr Damian, spending time with our senior students and getting to know them outside of school without the pressures of study. Please pray for our students as they take this time to look back at the journey of life so far, strengthen their friendships now and look forward to the future and what lies ahead.

In the last week of the Easter holidays Townsville Catholic Education invited over 1600 teachers and staff from across the diocese to a Year of Mercy Gathering at the Townsville Entertainment Centre. Across the two days we were encouraged to question what mercy means to us as individuals and as a school community and challenged to respond to the call of God’s mercy. We immersed ourselves in prayer, pilgrimage as well as listening to very inspirational guest speakers and came away from the experience energised and ready to take on the challenges of showing mercy to all in our lives.

At the end of the gathering we celebrated mass and each school was given a miniature statue of ‘Homeless Jesus’, sculptured by Timothy P. Schmalz. He was inspired by Matthew: 25, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’, suggesting that Christ is with the most marginalized in our society. It is then our responsibility to be called into action and be the people of change for those less fortunate.

Thank you to all the students who openhandedly donated to the Project Compassion boxes during Lent and donated clothes to St Vincent de Paul. We raised over $1500 that will be used to help promote justice and dignity for the poorest of people around the world by providing them with the means to meet their everyday needs. Thank you to Sam Cosentino who accepted our donations on behalf of St Vinnies Ingham at our assembly. A big thank you, to our students and staff, for your generous contributions towards these worthwhile causes!

Britney Romano, Kacey Lynch, Lauren Watt, Sam Cosentino, Paige Girgenti, Samuel Di Bartolo

In the September/October school holidays, St Patrick’s Parish will again be sponsoring a Mission Trip for Year 11 and 12 students to the Philippines to work with the Missionaries of the Poor amongst the poorest of the poor in Naga City. There will be a meeting for those interested in participating on Wednesday April 27 at 7:30pm in Mercy Hall. If you have any queries beforehand feel free to contact either myself or Father Damian. It will be a great experience, one where we can put our thoughts into action.

God bless,
Christine Timms.

Lord,
the resurrection of Your Son has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as new people in pursuit of the Christian ideal.
Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
the will to want to do it,
the courage to undertake it,
the perseverance to continue to do it,
and the strength to complete it. Amen

From the Acting Assistant Principal (Administration & Curriculum)

Welcome back to everyone for Term 2. I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable break and are well rested for the very busy term ahead.

I would like to congratulate students on their examination efforts and results. As always, those students who are putting in the effort both in class and at home are reaping their just rewards and achieving great results. Along with some commendable results there were also some who need to reflect on their commitment to their academic studies. Students who are not achieving satisfactory results should be considering their options and reassessing their approach. Please take advantage of the extensive afterschool and lunchtime Academic Support offered by the college. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s progress, then please do not hesitate to contact myself or their subject teacher.

Students are already well underway with course work and assessment tasks for Term 2. The assessment planner for this term is included in this newsletter. Students will need to use these planners to carefully design their study and homework time as the planners indicate a very busy term ahead. Students will receive hard copies of their assessment planner and they will also be posted on the student intranet.

Years 11 OP- eligible students are currently undergoing interviews with the Mrs Douglas and myself. These interviews are aimed at tracking students and solving any issues or concerns with their studies now that they have experienced one term of senior schooling.

Years 7 and 9 students completed practice NAPLAN tests on Wednesday 20 April in preparation for the formal testing which will be in Week 5 from Tuesday 10 May – Thursday 13 May.

Next Thursday, Gilroy Santa Maria College will host Year 6 students for their first of six transition days for secondary schooling at the college. This is exciting times and an excellent experience for life as a student at Gilroy.

God Bless
Joan Devietti

From the Assistant Principal (Pastoral Care)

The end of Term 1 saw the staging of the annual Inter house Cross Country and Wet Day. It certainly was a wet day for everyone with rain miraculously falling only during the running of the Cross Country. Despite the rain, everyone appeared to be in great spirits with many worthy efforts by some fantastic Athletes. Congratulations must go to the McCauley house who broke their championship drought with a long overdue win as the overall champion.

While the day was once again a great event, it is disappointing from a school perspective that a large number of students failed to turn up for this day. As I reminded all students in the previous assembly, the Cross Country is not run for the benefit of teachers; it is solely for the students. Yes, I acknowledge that long distance running is not for everyone (myself included), but in saying this, not everyone runs the cross country and those that did or didn’t, will all contest to the fact that this was an excellent day and well worth the effort to attend. When I think back to my own time at school, I am definitely not one of those people who goes by the adage of “the more I remember, the better I get”. Indeed, my sporting abilities were far from that of a great sportsperson. Yet for all of the lessons I attended and all of the time I spent studying, I don’t remember anything about a fantastic lesson or a light bulb moment within the classroom. The things I do remember with fondness from school were the sporting carnivals, the camps, the excursions and all of those other things that I often begrudgingly attended.

What we all need to acknowledge is that school is not just about learning in the classroom. What a terrible life we would live if that was all we came to school for. It is about much more than just being educated in the classroom and our interactions with friends, old and new, are at the top of the list in terms of what we stand to gain from putting ourselves out of our comfort zones for just one day a term. In an age where gaming and addiction to electronic devices is slowly eroding away our abilities to effectively interact in social situations, can your child really afford to spend another day at home opting out of life’s future memories. Please think about this the next time your child requests to stay home. Instead of giving them an easy out, please challenge them instead to make the effort and look for the positives in everything they do and to cherish the simple but memorable events that their time at school has to offer.

GSM HOUSE CUP 2016

God Bless
Peter Groundwater

ACADEMIC SUPPORT

Academic Support will be offered for students after school MONDAY, TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY from 3:00pm-4:00pm.

Monday: Support will be available in the Library, senior Sciences in L1 and at the Trade Training Centre.
Tuesday: Support will be available in the Art Room for the Arts (Art, Creative Art, Drama etc).
Wednesday: Support will be available in the Library and the Indigenous Tutoring program will also continue.

Lunch time support is still available Monday – Friday in the Library.

Students can use this time to:

• Complete homework
• Work on assessment
• Gain subject specific tutoring

with up to 3 teachers from various faculties present for student support.

Students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this very generous donation of precious teacher time.

Cross Country 2016

The last Thursday afternoon of Term 1 saw the red, yellow and blue of Rice, McAuley and O’Meara take to the grounds of Gilroy Santa Maria College to contest the annual inter-house cross country championship. The majority of students did themselves and their houses proud, running (or walking) with great enthusiasm and spirit. Congratulations must go to McAuley house, which just edged out O’Meara and then Rice house.

The first 6 placegetters in each age group will progress to the HR cross country trials to be held in Abergowrie on Friday May 13th.

Congratulations to the following students who were announced Age Champions:

13 Years: Trinity Reinaudo (R) and Kaleb Bridges (O)
14 Years: Amaya Fortini (R) and Ethan Costabeber(R)
15 Years: Akema Greenaway (M) and Jared Erkkila (O)
16 Years: Rosie Galletly (O) and Harrison Reinaudo (R)
17 Years and over: Mikaela Stokes (O) and Jack Paton (O)

Gilroy Santa Maria Interschool Cross Country Team

Friday 13th May 2016

Each student on the bottom of the list is a reserve for the interschool cross country team.

Upcoming events

Any boys and girls interested in trialling for the Northern Region Under 15 Soccer and Northern Region under 15 Touch Football teams held on the 31 May need to see Mr Schifilliti at the Year Level Co-ordinators room during break times. If enough students are interested in trialling for these Northern Region teams, Gilroy will nominate a team for each sport in the Herbert River Secondary trials to be held on the 4th of May in order to choose a Herbert River Secondary Schools team to participate at the Northern Region Trials.

Confraternity Rugby League

A reminder that all players involved in the Open Boys Rugby League need to attend training each Monday from 3:15pm - 4:15pm. Training is important in preparation for our upcoming game next Wednesday afternoon against St Anthony’s. Following this game, games against Ryan Catholic College, Abergowrie and Ingham State High have been organised to ensure plenty of rugby league is played before heading to Rockhampton for the Confraternity

Tuckshop Roster

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED FOR 2016!!

Please note: The lunch times this year are as follows:

1st Lunch – 11:15am
2nd Lunch – 1:20pm finish 2:05pm

Start time is preferably 9:00am until when you are available.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all again this year.
If there is any query in regards to this roster or you are unavailable please contact
Sandra Benedetto Home [4776 5321] Jodie Lino Home [4776 5718]

What’s Happening in the Parish

High School Mission Trip 2016

In the September/October school holidays, St Patrick’s Parish will again be sponsoring a Mission Trip for Year 11 and 12 students to the Philippines to work with the Missionaries of the Poor amongst the poorest of the poor in Naga City. There will be a meeting for those interested in participating on Wednesday Evening April 27 at 7.30pm in Mercy Hall.

Ingham Picture Theatre (Ingham Disability Support Services)

“Risen” - Wednesday 1st June 7.00pm & Sunday 5th June 4.00pm

See posters at all Mass centres.

Upcoming Events

• Catholic Debutante Ball—Saturday 23 April
• Mission Trip Inquiry Night—Wednesday 27 April
• Relay for Life - Saturday 28 – Sunday 29 May
• Corpus Christi Procession, St Patrick’s — Sunday 29 May
• St Anthony’s Feast Day Celebrations — Sunday 12 June

Father Damian McGrath
Parish Priest
Ingham Region Catholic Parishes

District News

Lourdes Fete

Date: Saturday 7 May
Follow link for further information

St Mary MacKillop

Accepting expressions of interest
Follow link below for further details

Ingham Kindergarten Community Centre

Accepting Enrolments
Follow link for further information

Cricket Coaching Clinic

Date: Friday 29 April
Follow link for further details

Cleveland Bay Aviation

Think you’d like to learn to fly or maybe you are interested in a Career in Aviation. Come along to Ingham Airport – Weekend of 30 April.
Follow link for further details.

Cardwell UFO off Road Triathlon

Date: 7 May 2016
Start Time: 8am at Cardwell Pool
Follow link for further information

Advertising with Schoolzine

Would you like to advertise in our new Schoolzine eNewsletter? Currently, Dion Guthrie the Advertising and Sales Manager is working diligently to source family friendly advertising sponsors. Schoolzine will then rebate quarterly 20% of revenue back to the school.

If you are interested in advertising either contact the school office or feel free to email Dion any questions, suggestions or advertising enquiries.

Dion Guthrie email: dion.guthrie@schoolzine.com.au
P 07 5450 2710 / MB 0416 890 824