St Finbarr’s Student Protection

Contacts are as follows.

Genny McNair

Kara Costello

St Finbarr’s Parish School

Jabiru Street, P.O. Box 34 Quilpie, QLD, 4480

Phone: (07) 46561412—Fax: (07) 4656 1306

Email: Quilpie@twb.catholic.edu.au

Principal: Mrs Genny McNair

Newsletter Checklist

Tuckshop Envelope

Camp forms

Important dates

8th May—Mother’s

Day High Tea

12—14 May—

NAPLAN

15 May—Biggest

Morning Tea Yr 5

and 6

22nd May—

Pentecost Assembly

24th May—Mass at

Quilpie St Finbarr’s

6pm

25th May—Girls

District Softball Trials

in Quilpie

29 May Regional

Cross Country

1—5 June—

Gymnastics Week

8th June—Queens

Birthday holiday

14—19 June—Whole

School Camp Bris-

bane

25th June—Last Day

Term 2

Dear Parents and Friends

The Twilight Service at the Quilpie Cemetery is unique to our community. It is a Community celebration to

honour all those who have served in conflicts in all wars. This short ceremony was the inspiration of Sr Marg,

and with the support of Janet Foley and the Quilpie Shire Council, could well become a tradition in our commu-

nity. I have heard many compliments from new residents and visitors about its uniqueness and its ability to

engage those of the present with the past. The Dawn Service and Day Service were well attended. The work

produced by all students in the ANZAC display was of a very high standard. The projects completed by the year

3-6 students were of a particular significance as most of the projects featured family or community members

who have served in conflicts. Thank you to Miss Taylor and the families who have provided assistance with

these. These projects will be compiled and kept as a valuable addition to our school library.

During Week 7 a gymnastics coach will be conducting a series of workshops. All primary school aged children

in the Shire are invited to attend. Children will participate in 2 workshops each day. In addition to this other

arts, crafts and sports activities will be available. Rachael McWaters and I have been working together to or-

ganise the week with funding being made available to us courtesy of the Quilpie Shire with Community

Drought Support Funding provided by the Queensland State Government.

Final Preparations are currently being made for the Brisbane Camp. A current Itinerary, permission and medi-

cal forms and information pack has been sent home today. The itinerary may vary slightly. Please complete

the forms with payment before 29th May.

Congratulations to all students who represented Quilpie and District at the District Cross Country in Augathella.

Our students commented that the hills weren’t steep but they certainly were long. Dylan, Claire and Euan

have been selected to compete at the Regional Carnival in Mitchell on 29th May.

Sr Marg will be leaving this weekend in preparation for her knee surgery in a couple of weeks. We wish you

all the best with the surgery, Sr Marg, and hope your recovery is swift. Sr Marg will most likely be away until

next term. I am certain she is looking forward to tackling the school steps with greater ease.

Georgia Callachor will be coming to us to complete a 3 week Practicum from 18th May until 5th June. Georgia

is currently studying a Bachelor of Education Degree at the USQ and will be working predominantly in the Prep

to 2 class under the guidance of Mrs Marsh.

Students from year 5 and 6 have been invited to the Quilpie Hospital to join with the senior Citizens for Aus-

tralia’s Biggest Morning Tea at 10.00 am on Friday 15th May. Students will be assisting with the morning tea

and joining with the residents for a game of Trivial Pursuit. Thank you to Toni Murray and Robyn McMahon_

for organising this event.

Alison Cuskelly, newly appointed School Guidance Counsellor will be visiting on Thursday 14th May. Also on

this day we will be enjoying the company and expertise of Robyn Sharpe (Senior Education Officer) and Eileen

Moyle (AVT-Learning Support). Please feel free to speak to me if you have items you wish me to raise with our

visitors.

Warm regards

Genny

“Effort and Courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” - John F. Kennedy

Volume: 6

Issue: 7

Date: 6th May 2015

Mother’s Day

Our Mother’s Day gift stall was a HUGE success. Almost all

items were sold with a steady flow of customers every

morning. Thank you to all families who supported the stall.

We raised about $120 for our Brisbane Camp.

Sister Marg, Mrs McNair, Miss Jennie and Mrs Marsh all

attended the Kindy Mother’s Day High Tea on Saturday at

the Pub. They sold cakes and sweets and raised just under

$200.

We have received many raffle tickets back so thank you to

those families who have already purchased tickets. More

books are available if anyone would like them. We will also

sell tickets at the Mother’s Day High Tea. There are some

lovely prizes to be won.

We are looking forward to our Mother’s Day High Tea on

Friday. Please let us know if you are coming or anyone you

know of who would like to come.

District Softball

We had our first practice last week with a great number of

students staying back after school to have a try. Students

from all grades are welcome; however we may not have

equipment for everyone and will give preference to the girls

wishing to try out.

A huge thank you to Kathryn Horgan and Chris Paulsen

who helped out and provided some much needed assistant

coaching. We had our first game and there was some great

promise shown.

We will start straight after school on Wednesdays so

please send along an extra afternoon tea snack if your

child wishes to come along.

Anyone wanting to order from the latest

Book Club catalogues can still do so.

Orders are due back at School by Friday 22nd

May.

CATERING

The school has been asked to cater for next week’s

Council Meeting Morning Tea and also another After-

noon Tea for the Town Meeting which is being held in

the Council Boardroom, Tuesday 12th May.

We usually provide items such as cake, slice, toasted

sandwiches, sausage rolls, mini quiches, fruit and

cheese and crackers.

If anyone could bake, make or donate something to

include with the catering, please let the office know.

All money raised from this goes towards the Brisbane

Camp.

Expressions of Interest

Position Available

School officer (Teacher Aide)

4 hours per week remainder of the year.

Hours to be worked during morning sessions over 3 or 4 days.

Prep to Year 2

Please see Genny or phone 4656 1412 by Friday 8th May if you

are interested. This position has not been formally advertised

due to the small amount of hours being offered.

The Quilpie Race Club are holding Hob-

by Horse races for children at the Race

Meeting on Saturday.

They are asking for children to create their

own hobby horse to bring along for the

races.

You could cut out a horse’s head and deco-

rate it then attach it to a stick or use your

own hobby horse dressed up to the nines.

NAPLAN testing is on next week on Tuesday,

Wednesday and Thursday for students in

Years 3 and 5. Years 4 and 6 will sit a practice

NAPLAN test at the same time. Please make

sure your child is at school on time and well

rested with a healthy breakfast for great brain

function!!

P—2 Prattle Here we are back again for another newsletter snippet and we are already in week 3!

We have been learning about procedures in English and this week we looked at how to make a pirate hat. The Jolly Roger was men-

tioned in the task and we had a lot of fun working out what the Jolly Roger could be! We had lots of answers like “Bones”, “Skull and

Bones”, “A Pirate Ship” and my favourite answer was “The Pirates Logo”. We learnt about sub-headings and why it is important to have

steps or instructions.

Reading groups are in full swing and everyone is enjoying reading to their partners. We also have sent home Preppies first real reading

books this week and I have seen some great comments coming back from prep parents, my favourite so far was “Very Proud”. I totally

agree and I am sure all parents also agree with this statement! Keep up the great work everyone!

For History we are looking at how we are all unique. As I have just been to Thailand I thought it was appropriate to mention their catch

phrase “Same, same but different”. The kids are still trying to work this one out! We traced around our hands and coloured them in.

This showed the children that we all have hands but each of

them are different in their own special way, just like each of us.

Last Friday we had a huge prep class, consisting of 7 Preppies!

We are always happy to have Sammy on a Friday and the Prep

room was packed full of fun and activities. The preps had a

great time playing sight word bingo with Miss Janell!

We are getting very good at our “verse speaking” and I apolo-

gise if you have to hear this 100 times a night. The kids abso-

lutely love it! We will show case our performance later on in

the year.

Until next time…

Mrs Marsh

APRE News

Mother’s Day this weekend is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what our Mothers mean to us

and pray in thanks for their role in our lives.

Our Mother’s Day celebration is an opportunity for our school community to thank the Mothers,

Grandmothers and caring women in our Quilpie community. We look forward to seeing you there.

Your presence at our celebration is a source of great delight and pride to you children/grandchildren.

Our next Parish Mass will be on Sunday 24th May at 6.00pm in St Finbarr’s Church. As this will be Pen-

tecost Sunday, the students will have an involvement in the Liturgy.

There will be a service in St Matthew’s on Friday 8th May at 6.00pm.

As I will be away for the next few weeks, please remember a prayer for me!

Hopefully I will see you in Term 3.

SR MARG

Millie, Anna and Dylan from St Finbarr’s along with Bodie,

Euan, Mackenzie, Carli and Claire from QSC travelled to Au-

gathella to compete in the District Cross Country on Monday.

The students behaviour and sportsmanship was commenda-

ble and all competitors enjoyed the day.

Dylan came fourth in the 11 year old boys race with Euan not

far behind in fifth. Both boys have qualified to go onto Mitch-

ell Regional Trials.

Claire was streets ahead to take out the 12 year old girls age

group championship and also qualify for Mitchell.

Congratulations to all students for participating and repre-

senting Quilpie District.

ANZAC Day saw our St Finbarr’s students marching with pride down the Main Street. The School students marched with Hayden and

Anna carrying the school banner while Cody, Dylan and Finn rode their horses as part of the Quilpie Polocrosse Club. Congratulations

to Maria for winning the Trier of the Year for St Finbarr’s and also Anna who came second in the Dawn Service Cover competition and

Maria who came third.

Michelle Donohue is the Health Promotions Officer for the Quilpie Shire Council and we have had the pleasure of enjoying Snack Attack

fruit for the last two weeks. Michelle is promoting Healthy Eating in the community and judging by the response, our students definitely

know how to eat their fruit. Michelle will be providing snack attack every Monday for the remainder of the Term.

ANZAC Day 2015

From the News desk……….

In the 3—6 classroom, students were talking about learning new skills.

Cody says he has learnt how to do a hand stand on his horse.

Catherine is excited to be learning a new skill. She will be learning sewing

with Miss Janell which will be put to use to create some exciting gifts for

Mother’s Day.

We caught up with Hayden Vagg and asked him about his baby brother Ru-

pert.

Hayden says Rupert is doing well and he is very cute.

He is up to smiling and Hayden says he was the first one that Rupert smiled

at. He also says Rupert is starting to move his mouth around like he is

starting to talk.

Hayden likes to hold Rupert and play with him but says he is very wriggly

and he has to be careful that he doesn’t slip out. He also has to hold his

head very carefully so it doesn’t go back.

Rupert cries a fair bit and wakes up in the night for his feed. He sleeps in his

cot beside Mum’s and Dad’s room and he has a dummy to help him sleep.

Congratulations to Mrs Marsh and Aaron on their marriage on the

4th of April 2015. Kara and Marshy were married on the HMAS Bris-

bane Memorial Lookout at Alexandra Headlands, Sunshine Coast.