12 June 2020

Newsletter Articles

Essential Emails

Transition Day Information for YR 6 families

Take a walk with us:

Link to enrolment information:

Around the School

Certificate II Engineering Pathways

English Writing Competition

Link for all details: Jacaranda Writing Competition

Got a story to share? You’re invited to put your writing skills to the test! Jacaranda’s writing competition is now open to current English teachers and their Years 7-12 students until June 26th, 2020.

For the first time, Jacaranda will be publishing winning stories in our new English titles, making this a truly once in a lifetime opportunity to have your work published while helping teach future students the art of writing. We have a broad range of categories to suit all writers (short story, essay, poetry, flash fiction or micro-fiction) and plenty of prizes to be won.

What are you waiting for? Submit your entry today!

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE JUNE 26 2020

Principal

Dear Gilroy Santa Maria College Community,

As we enjoy the third week back with all students, it is great to hear that most students are engaging and working hard. I am pleased to report that attendance has returned to the same levels that we enjoyed before the COVID school closures. Even though things are slowly returning to normal, there are still some activities and events that we have had to modify, postpone and in some cases cancel.

We still cannot have whole school assemblies now and therefore we are only having year level assemblies each Wednesday morning. We will spread out the starting areas and keep year levels separated as much as possible. It was a great event last year and the students loved the new course around the surrounding properties.

Activities that we have decided to cancel this year is our camp and retreat programs. The only exception to this is our Yr 12 Retreat that we plan to reschedule for later in the year. The other year level retreats and camps have either already been missed during the closure or were planned for early Term 3. With all the restrictions and uncertainty around such activities it was in our best interest to make this decision. At Gilroy, each year level usually has a retreat or camp, so over the time students are here, we believe that they do get ample opportunities to experience these activities.

This week we commence our enrolment interviews for 2021. Already we have many applications from throughout the district. This year we had 80 Yr 7 students begin schooling at Gilroy, our largest intake for many years, and we are expecting strong enrolment numbers for next year as well. Our first Yr 6 Transition Day will be conducted on Thursday 16 July and we look forward to welcoming new students and showing to them our great facilities and giving them a taste of what life at Gilroy is like.

If you have any family and friends who have Yr 6 students, please spread and tell them that enrolment for next year has commenced.

God Bless,
John Nuttall
Principal

From the Assistant Principal (Administration & Curriculum)

Hello Parents and Caregivers,

As we approach the end of Term 2, everyone can say it has been a different Term than we are used to, however, we are becoming accustomed to our new normal. Students are getting back into their routines and underway with assessments.

Year 12 students and parents/caregivers will soon receive a letter with some key information about events that have occurred and are coming up so please keep an eye out for this.

This week we had our Parent/Teacher/Student interviews which went very well. It is always an invaluable opportunity for everyone to be able to sit down and discuss key learning experiences and areas for improvements with students and their parents/caregivers.

Yr 12 Confirmation

All schools in Queensland have now completed their first Confirmation event for year 12 assessment results undertaken in Term 1. Confirmation is a quality assurance process that ensures the comparability of results for summative internal assessment in General and General (Extension) subjects. I am very pleased to say that all feedback has been very positive. No students’ results were negatively affected and there were very few students who incurred a small, positive variation between their school-awarded provisional marks and the confirmed result. This is evidence of the great work that our dedicated and competent teaching staff are doing in our new QCE system. I would like to congratulate the teachers on their professionalism and dedication to their profession and our students. I would also like to congratulate our students on their efforts in Term 1. For some students who perhaps haven’t performed as well as they would have hoped, they will need to ensure they are attending academic support at lunchtimes and after school as well as improving their time management and organisation. Given that QCAA has reduced the total number of assessments from 4 to 3 (still including the external assessments in Term 4), it is paramount that our students do not lose momentum with their studies as their external assessment will still be covering all content from Units 3 and 4.

As QCAA confirmation decisions had been communicated to schools, subject teachers were informating their students’ confirmed results so that all students are now aware of either their IA1 or IA2 result. These results have now also been published in their learning accounts in the Student Portal, accessible via the myQCE website.

The second confirmation event will occur from August to October where we will again submit our IA2 or IA3 result (for English this will be their IA1) to QCAA.

Term 2 Exams

As we look towards the end of term, all students should be preparing for their upcoming assessments and exams. It is very important that all students are using their assessment planners to know of key due dates. If you need another copy, please contact the College office.

Careers

Year 10 Students:

On Wednesday of Week 10 of this term, year 10 students will be involved in a careers program where we continue discussions regarding senior subjects, SET planning and career pathways. It will be a very important morning for students to learn about senior subjects and invest time into their future pathways as we look towards subject selections in Terms 3 and 4.

Semester 1 Reports

Semester One Report Cards will be available on the Compass portal from Wednesday 22 July. These reports will also be mailed home to families.

Year 6 Transition Program

We are excited and looking forward to meeting Yr 6 students in Week 1 of next term on our first transition morning. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we have had to cancel our first two mornings but still have three transitions mornings where our 2021 Yr 7 students can begin to experience life at Gilroy. Students will be involved in various activities throughout the school.

God Bless
Melissa Carr
Assistant Principal
(Administration & Curriculum)

Assistant Principal Religious Education

Dear Gilroy Santa Maria College Community,

It is that time of the term again, all year levels will now be working on their assessment tasks for Term 2. Just as a reminder, all tasks are given class time to alleviate the pressure on other subjects. Certainly, students may work on assignments at home if they wish. It is also important to add that teachers are happy to work with students outside of class time if help is needed.

On Tuesday morning this week, Father Damian celebrated a parish mass in the chapel for staff. It was wonderful to hold mass there, it has been such a long time since we have even opened the doors. Father explained that more restrictions have been lifted for the celebration of masses. I do not understand most of them, but he assured everyone that everything is in place for these developments. Please keep an eye on the parish website or Facebook page for further information.

This term, Yr 7 have been looking at Good and Evil in class. They have been looking where these two entities occur in the world, the different types of sin, the Ten Commandments and translating them into words and actions that they understand. The last part of their unit is trying to put the Ten Commandments into rules that they can use as Gilroy Santa Maria College students. It is important that the focus of units be on emulating the values present in the bible to give us a guide to how we can transfer them into our everyday lives. I cannot wait to see how our wonderful students transform the commandments into working rules for our College.

Last Sunday we celebrated The Most Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Today’s prayer is dedicated to the Trinity.

God bless
Christine Timms
Assistant Principal
(Religious Education)

From the Business Manager

Dear Parents and Carers,

Term 2 School Fees are due 24 June 2020

Discounts if paid by the due date are as follows:

1 child - $26.35
2 children - $46.05
3 Children - $60.95

I have recently had a number of payments paid to the school bank account without a name attached so I am unable to allocate them to anything. If you have paid an amount towards school fees but they are not reflected on your statement can you please contact the office.

In accordance with the mission, values and ethos of our school, we remain committed to providing an education to all of students regardless of their financial circumstances. If you are having any difficulties, paying school fees please contact the school as soon as possible.

If you have any outstanding fees please contact the school. Please do not let them go into arrears. As always, if for any reason you are finding it difficult to pay school fees. Please contact the Principal or myself to discuss the matter

BANK DETAILS are as follows:

WESTPAC Ingham
BSB - 034-187
Account Number – 145 925
Name – Gilroy Santa Maria College
Detail – (Family code from statement)

God Bless
Ros Giuliano
(Business Manager)

Careers

Work Placement for the Holidays is available for those wishing to apply. Please complete and return this form to Student reception:

Please note, due to COVID-19 guidelines, Wilmar is not taking any Work Placements Term 2 holidays.

Counsellor’s Corner

POSITIVE PARENTING PROGRAM

FREE ONLINE MAGAZINE HELPS PARENTS DEAL WITH COVID-19 PRESSURES

Family life may be returning to semi-normal in some ways, but COVID-19’s effects are going to be with us for some time. The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program® have created a free online magazine to help Queensland parents stay calm and positive, even in challenging times. There are articles covering things like:

• Helping children develop optimism and emotional resilience
• How to make sure you’re looking after yourself
• Accepting that nobody’s perfect and parenting is not a competition
• Other families sharing their experiences

Triple P is free thanks to Queensland Government funding. You can read the magazine and start doing free Triple P Online, which now includes a special

COVID-19 module at the link below.

Food Technology

From the Food Technology Department

Although it is a very exciting time ahead for our college with our new building near completion, students are making the most of creating wonderful cooking memories in our old building which has seen many students go through their cooking education. It has seen many events being catered for and cooked thousands of dishes for Gilroy students and families.

Although new beginnings are ahead, students will still be taking with them the wonderful recipes that have been provided and are looking forward to new cooking techniques and recipes that will allow us to explore, due to the addition of some wonderful industrial cookery equipment.

Below are some fantastic cooking our students have been apart since the return of our regular timetable.

Year 10 students, Kelsey Lavarini & Callum Romano with their, “Orange Tarts” as they explore a Pastry unit.

Year 9 Students- Jessie Galippo & Bailey Morse making Chicken Ravioli with Creamy Mushroom sauce as part of their Pasta Cookery unit.

Our year 11 & 12 Independent Living skills students this week, made from scratch, Potato Gnocchi with homemade Pesto Sauce for their vegetarian study unit. Above, Jalanda Bright, Shayna Scott, Amaya Fortini, Kaila Cosentino, Lexi Tesseri, Skye Simpson, Taylor Grittner & Kylie Strik.

Sports News

Cross Country @ Home results:

Thank you to the students whole supported and nominated for the Cross Country @ Home event, it was a huge success with 320 nominations from 52 different schools, across the region. All participating students will be receiving a certificate and will be notified when they arrive at the school. The top 3 times will be uploaded to the Northern School Sport website, if you would like to have a read. The purpose of this activity was to engage our students in a physical activity, that could be done in isolation. It also served to unite our students under the Northern School Sport banner. It is great to see students ‘having a go’ and competing to the best of their ability and subsequently experiencing the satisfaction of completing a challenging task. The following students should be congratulated for their results:

Interhouse Athletics:

The inter-house Athletics Carnival will be held on Wednesday and Friday the 27th & 29th of July (Week 3, Term 3) our students should start training for pre carnival events.

Pre-carnival events such as the 800m, 1500m and High Jump are held during HPE subject time and lunch breaks to allow enough time for all other athletic events to run on the days set aside for our Inter-house Athletics Carnival. Students will need to pay attention to student notices and the sports notice board for more details.

More details about the Athletics carnival will be in the newsletter in the coming weeks.

SURF LIFE SAVING

The Surf Life Saving Queensland Secondary School Surf League is currently GOING AHEAD AS SCHEDULED!

This program has been designed to introduce students to Surf Life Saving skills and competition and will encompass activities relating to surf swimming, beach sprints and flags, board paddling and rescue disciplines.

The format of the league will challenge and enable students to test their abilities against themselves, the environment and students from other schools.

Townsville’s event will be held Tuesday 11th August 2020 at The Strand.

Academic Support

PLEASE NOTE: All students welcome for Homework, Assignments, Academic Tutoring and Organisation.

Indigenous Homework Support

Tuckshop News

VOLUNTEERS ARE ALWAYS NEEDED!!

Tuckshop Volunteers are only needed to work from 8:30am to 12:00pm.

Please note: The NEW lunch times are as follows:

1st Lunch – 10:55am – 11:20am
2nd Lunch – 12:50pm - 1:30pm

Start time is preferably 8:30am – 12:00pm or 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 [0427 765 321] - Jodie Lino [0407 904 918]

What’s Happening in the Parish

Ingham Region Catholic Parishes Newsletter can be found here:

Father Damian McGrath
Parish Priest
Ingham Region Catholic Parishes

Advertising with Schoolzine

Would you like to advertise in our new Schoolzine eNewsletter? Currently, Schoolzine is working diligently to source family friendly advertising sponsors and 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 Schoolzine any questions, suggestions or advertising enquiries.

Email: advertising@schoolzine.com.au
Phone: 07 5414 2361