In this time of heightened community worry about the implications of COVID-19, it is refreshing to hear politicians speak of showing kindness and compassion for the more vulnerable people around us. In this Lenten period, we can all follow the example of the Good Samaritan by taking the time to think about how we can do more for others. This could be adding to the family Project Compassion box, dropping in some tins of food to the Parish for Jangawala or checking in on the elderly people in your street. 

In terms of the possibility of school closures or other social distancing policies, we will always be guided by the Townsville Catholic Education Office, the Queensland Catholic Education Office and of course Queensland Health. Over the coming few days, we will be taking extra precautionary methods to reduce the gathering of large groups of students and staff and ensuring that we have stringent hygienic practices in the College. We will continue to send out advice through email and via the school Facebook page. The Townsville Catholic Education Office have a dedicated page on their website which provides the latest information for families and schools. https://www.tsv.catholic.edu.au/about-tceo/about/coronavirus-update/

Congratulations to our Confraternity Team who performed admirably at the recent Columba Rugby League Carnival. We went down 24-6 in the final to Abergowrie (after beating them in an earlier round), but it was a great weekend with many standout performances. Thank you to Mr Harries and the staff who supported our students to be able to attend.

Plans are well underway for a finish date of mid-May for our Trade Training Centre. This first-class facility will be wonderful for our students. Thank you to all of the staff who are busy preparing to move into our new centre.

Each week we will profile a section of our Annual School Improvement Plan for 2020. This is the document that guides our plans and priorities for the year. We prepare this document based on initiatives set by the Townsville Catholic Education Office and through consultation with our school stakeholders: parents, staff and students.

Report Preparation is underway for Week 10

The reporting of students results is well underway at the College, as students start to finalise their upcoming assessment items. In Term one there will be two different types of report cards that will be generated. All students in Years 7 to 11 will receive a Progress Report Card to give you more up-to-date information about how your son or daughter are going in their subjects. The focus of these reports is not solely on Academic Achievement, but also a focus on behaviour, attitude and readiness to learn in the classroom indicated through the PLEs. Students in Year 12 will receive an End of Unit Report Card as they will have finalised assessments for Unit Three. This report card will not only have an indication of how your son or daughter has progressed academically and with their behaviour, but will also have a written comment. 

Further information about Academic results can be discussed with your child's teacher at the Parent-Student-Teacher interviews which occur on the 28th of April for Year 7-12 students. However, parents are always welcome to make contact with your son/daughter's teacher.

Naplan Online – Information for Year 7 & 9 Parents

This year, students in Year 7 and 9 will sit the NAPLAN tests using the online platform.  NAPLAN tests assess students’ literacy and numeracy skills and are a good way of teachers identifying strengths and gaps in students’ learning. In Year 10, a student’s Year 9 NAPLAN results along with other data is utilised in the SET Planning process to ascertain whether or not students will cope with particular subjects in Year 11 and 12 due to their Literacy and Numeracy requirements.

NAPLAN online testing will occur for students on Monday the 23rd of March to prepare students for May. This test will not record students details or their results, but is solely used to familiarise them with the platform and ensure that their device is compatible. 

Information was sent to parents via email this week. If you are not receiving this communication please contact the College. Should parents wish to find out more about NAPLAN online, they are encouraged to click here for a parent fact sheet.

Year 12 Exam Block - Important Considerations

All Essential English and Essential Mathematics students will sit an examination next week in the exam block. This examination is called a ‘Common Internal Assessment’, which is created and implemented by QCAA. Students must be in attendance for this examination. If students are absent or do not sit the CIA it will impact their QCE greatly. The below extract has been retrieved from QCAA’s quality assurance handbook which explains why:

“In order to receive an overall subject result for Units 3 and 4, students must complete Units 3 and 4 as a pair, providing responses to each summative internal assessment and the common internal assessment (CIA) for Applied (Essential) subjects. Where there is no evidence of a response to each summative assessment on or before the due date set by the school, a subject result cannot be allocated”.

If a student will be absent for circumstances out of their control the school must be contacted as soon as possible and documentation is required. 

A Guide for Parents regarding Coronavirus

The Coronavirus epidemic is having an adverse effect on many aspects of our life – everything from travel restrictions to shopping habits, even the closure of schools!

As the situation grows seemingly worse, the hysteria surrounding this outbreak is causing great anxiety and angst to people everywhere.  I know that in my classes, there have been many questions from students about Coronavirus and how it may affect them. Although children are considered to be in a lower risk category, this does not protect them from being exposed to news reports on television, radio or social media. Parents can reassure their children by dispelling any myths or untruths, and helping them feel informed, allowing them to focus more on positive messages.  Provided is a link from School TV by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg which provides a guide for parents on discussing the Coronavirus with their children. https://schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-coronavirus

Winter Uniform

As the cool weather is approaching us it is important that all students have the appropriate winter uniform.  Last week Mrs Webb had a reminder in her newsletter article about families purchasing winter uniforms now to ensure that we have the stock that you require in store.

The winter uniform requirements for students are as follows:

Next week, Year 12 Exam Block commences (Tuesday - Thursday). We wish all students sitting exams well; make sure you all study hard and try your best! Below, is a copy of the Exam Block Timetable. 

In preparation for Exam Block, it is important students familiarise themselves with the College expectations regarding this time. 

Exam Block expectations are:

• Students should be studying/completing assessment at home; studying quietly in the Study Room, or completing an exam during exam block. Exam block is not free time.
• Upon arrival and departure at the College students MUST sign in and out of the office.
• Students must be on time and prepared for exams (please see times/exam timetable below). Students must also sign into the exam room.
• Students have been asked to  arrive at the exam room 10 minutes prior to the exam commencing.
• Students must wear the full formal uniform when at the College. Students may be sent home to get the correct uniform before sitting your examination.
• Take away food, coffee or energy drinks are not permitted at any time while on the College grounds.
• Students who have overdue assessment will be required to attend school each day during exam block.

Exam Block - Absences

If students become unwell, and are unable to attend an exam you must:

1. Contact the College office ASAP
2. Have a medical certificate to explain your absence.

These requirements are in accordance with the GSCC Assessment Policy “If a student is absent from a Senior Exam Block exam, the student will complete an alternate paper in the next available session and a medical certificate provided upon their return. If a medical certificate is not provided the student may not be allocated a result for that internal assessment piece, resulting in no credit for the piece / unit studied."

As you would all be too aware, the implications of CoronaVirus are being felt around the globe. As a College, it is important that we do all that we can to ensure our students are safe at school. Below is a copy of the Queensland Health ‘Time Out’ Poster. If your child is unwell, please use this as a reference when deciding whether or not to send them to school.

We want to take care of all staff, students and families; so if your child is unwell, please take note of the conditions that require exclusion from school.

Timeout_Poster.pdf

Timeout_Poster _pdf 702.03 KB

During the season of Lent Catholics often fast, abstain from eating red meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during the Lenten season, as well as pledge to ‘give something up’. Some of things people might give up during this time are chocolates and sweets, a store bought coffee, giving up using social media or watching tv. However, there is also a big movement to ‘take something up’ during Lent. From volunteering your time to help those in need, praying, going to mass, a kind deed each day or doing something to help others. All of these things aim to ‘do good’ and will also make you feel good. See the image below for some suggestions of what you might like to ‘take up’ this Lenten season.

Year Level Masses/Liturgies cancelled for remainder of Term.

We have had a great week in sports here at Good Shepherd with a large number of our students representing the College in trials and also our boys Open Rugby League team travelling away to Charters Towers to compete in a Catholic Schools Tournament. Our young men did very well here, taking second place and showing good signs of what's to come with the Confraternity Cup just around the corner.  

Some of our girls travelled to Hughenden over the weekend to trial for the North West region 16-19 years Netball Team - which saw Amy Haddon, Charlotte Fahey make the team and also Charlotte Coghlan making the team as a shadow player. The North West region 13-15 years Netball Team also held trials this weekend which involved Amy Bailey, Trinity Ottaviano, and Sienna Te Wani all making this team. Tuesday morning Darcy Ryder was successful in making the 16-19 years Northern Region Basketball side at a trial in Townsville. 

Congratulations to all students involved in these trials and sporting events, we are all very proud of your accomplishments, representing yourselves and GSCC. 

Due to the issues surrounding the Coronavirus, Queensland representative school sports has been cancelled until further notice, please see the directive from Queensland Education below: 

As our response to COVID-19 is all about containment, a decision has been made to cancel:

• the representative school sport program which includes district, regional, state, national, interstate and international competitions.
• Queensland School Sport team participation in any national, interstate or international events organised across Australia or internationally.

For further information around representative sports and your child's involvement do not hesitate to contact me at the College. 

Over the weekend of the 13th and 14th of March the Good Shepherd Catholic College Opens Rugby League team travelled to Charters Towers to attend the Columba Catholic Schools Carnival. This Carnival gives our young men the opportunity to play against other schools within the Townsville Catholic Diocese in the build up to the upcoming Confraternity Tournament in Brisbane in the June/July holidays.

This year we played a Round robin tournament with Columba Catholic College, St Teresa’s Abergowrie, and Southern Cross Catholic College Townsville. In our first game on Friday night the GSCC team started winning our first game comfortably 24-8  over Southern Cross Catholic College, with Te Arawa Tapu, Bryce Aplin, Dan Moes and Bill Naituku all scoring tries in this win - Outstanding team performance. 

On Saturday we were geared up and ready for our first game at 8:30am against Abergowrie. This was a tough challenge for our boys, but with the confidence they took from Friday night we started the game very well, going up 12-6 at half time with tries from Bryce Aplin and Dan Moes. Abergowrie came out firing in the second half, out scoring GSCC 10-6. We managed to hold on to a close margin with Bryce Aplin scoring a double  and Darcy Ryders' sharp goal kicking securing the win 18-16 GSCC. 

Our second game Saturday was a true test, seeing Columba Catholic College in a game that would inevitably be the final of the carnival. GSCC fought really hard to stay in this game with some stellar defense but ended up falling short 14-0 to a structured Columba team. 

Next up was our grand final, once again playing Columba Catholic College. Our boys were  confident heading into this game and played well in the first half holding Columba to one try, with GSCC going into half time 6-0 down. In the second half Darcy Ryder crossed the line for the first try, but as fatigue set in we fell short and lost the game 24-6. We are very proud of what our boys were able to achieve in such a short period of time, coming together as a unit and testing their ability, going one better than last year with 2nd place and plenty of confidence leading towards the Confraternity Cup. 

A big thank you to the Good Shepherd Catholic College Parents and Friends Association who helped our boys fund their trip away on this occasion. Also massive appreciation goes out to our staff members who helped out making this trip possible for our boys. 

Congratulations to the following Year 11 students who have recently commenced School Based Traineeships:

Rhys will undertake a Certificate III in Hospitality with Dominos.