FROM THE PRINCIPAL No. 30 13th September, 2012

Dear Parents and Caregivers It is good to be back at Queen of Apostles. It is a special week with the lead up to our 50th Jubilee Birthday Party on Sunday 16th September. Over the last nine weeks, I had the opportunity to experience a range of new challenges and experiences and the opportunity to work with the Principals of 12 of our Catholic schools on the Northside of Brisbane. It was the perfect opportunity to pick up some new ideas and to experience what other schools are doing to live out their school’s vision and mission. Each of the 12 schools was different and met the challenge of teaching and learning in a variety of ways. One aspect that I was conscious of throughout the nine weeks was the strength and importance of the community that made up each school. It was evident that the success of each school was found in the vitality, cohesiveness and energy of the school community. Where there was a strong partnership of parents, teachers and others all working together, much was able to be achieved. Over the last few months and on Sunday, we have the opportunity to celebrate the strength of our community as we gather for the 50th Jubilee. There will be many parents, teachers, parishioners over the last fifty years who will return to Q of A and have fond memories of the part they have had in building the Q of A community. It is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and I look forward to witnessing the strength of our community on Sunday. I wanted to thank Mr Peter Surawski for the wonderful job he did over the nine weeks and to Mrs Melissa Spiteri and Mr Michael Bruynesteyn for their leadership and support. Much was completed and achieved during the term through their hard work and the hard work of the staff at both campuses. As I had mentioned above, our 50th Jubilee Birthday Party is now only three more sleeps away. The children and teachers have been working hard on their Year level performances and preparation for all of the stalls is nearly completed. Thank you to everyone who has donated items, supported the bring days, volunteered their time to convene or work on a stall. This is one indicator of the strength of our school community to see the willingness of so many people to give their finances and time to provide for their children and the school. It is planned to set up all of the stalls and other items on Saturday 15th September commencing at 8:30am. I would also like to complete a quick tidy up of the grounds to ensure everything is in order commencing at 7:30am. It will just be sweeping and blowing the main areas on display before the setting up commences. If you are able to assist and have a leaf blower, you would be most welcome. If you can assist with setting up, please come along to the Thuruna Street Campus from 8:30am. There are a number of other reminders and information below concerning the 50th Jubilee Birthday Party and I would ask you to please read it.

In this Issue…..

From the Principal From the APA From the APRE Parish News QACORS Student Birthdays Tuckshop Helpers Sports News Congratulations Library News Community Forum Crossing News Ignite Invitation

Sick Line Disabled. All student absences to be

reported to 3356 7755.

TERM DATES SEPTEMBER

14 6F Class Mass 16 Birthday Party

21 5F Class Mass LAST DAY OF TERM 3

Returning to Q of A in 2013: I would appreciate if you could please let me know in writing if your child will not be returning to Q of A for 2013. This greatly assists in planning for next year and the allocation of staffing across the school. You can notify me by sending an email to pstafford@bne.catholic.edu.au as soon as you have confirmed your decision for next year. Pick up in the Quadrangle Area: I would appreciate if you arrive from the Early Years Campus or come to the Thuruna Street Campus before the end of the school day bell that you wait in the breezeway or the Year 5 and 6 eating area. Small children should not be running around playing games while classes are still in progress in the quadrangle area. This will ensure that those classes being completed at the end of the day are not disturbed. Thank you for your assistance with this matter. Congratulations: Our sincere congratulations to Callie Latham (our HPE Teacher) and Daveinder Dhillon who will be married on Saturday 22nd September in Ballina NSW at Callie’s family home.

We also offer our congratulations to Stephanie Redshaw and Dan Hodge who will be married on Saturday 29th September at Our Lady, Queen of Apostles Church.

We wish Callie, Daveinder, Stephanie and Dan every blessing, happiness and joy on their special day and for the future.

Yours sincerely

Peter Stower

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50th Jubilee Birthday Party

Some important reminders for Sunday 16th September:

∗ The event commences at 10:00am until 3:00pm.

∗ The children will need to bring along their ride bands.

∗ The children will need to bring along their costume for their

performance and will need to gather at the designated spot at

the agreed time.

∗ Safety is paramount and there will be a first aid officer on site

throughout the day.

∗ Be conscious of looking after your belongings and keep

money out of sight when visiting the stalls and rides.

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FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL ADMINISTRATION

ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL NEWS We have won the Golden Boot Award again! This award goes to the school with the highest percentage of carpooling. Queen of Apostles has achieved the highest percentage for the month (a dead heat with another school ) at 12%.This prestigious award will be presented to our school at next week’s Monday assembly at Thuruna St by Lea Gamble from the Active School Travel group from the Brisbane City Council. We have also achieved a great 78% achievement rate of children walking, car pooling, bike riding or using the bus to travel to school. In August the class with the highest participation rate was 4C at Thuruna St and a tie between 2F, 2C and 2M at Chuter St. Well done to all those students. With the weather warmer these mornings, please consider continuing to be involved in Active School travel, or if you have not yet done so, give it a go. Staff will walk the children up from Turner Park each Friday morning at 8.05 am and from the Detling St park at the same time. THINKING SKILLS and BELONGING RULES This week we have continued to revisit our Act Safe, Be Safe rules. These are important belonging rules which foster a safe and happy environment for our students. To support thinking around these rules, this week’s focus was Yellow Hat thinking. This type of thinking helps us examine the benefits of moving with care and being in the right place at the right time. Next week we move to our Value Self, Others and the Environment rule - Be responsible and Speak to please. Using our Green Hat thinking we consider the question “What could you do differently to show others that you are responsible?”

Q of A BIRTHDAY PARTY As you are aware, we are holding our 50th Birthday celebrations on Sunday 16th September. Each of our year levels have been preparing wonderful entertainment items for the day. The children are very excited and working very hard. I would ask that you support us by preparing the very simple costumes or props that your class teacher has or may request and bring your child along to perform on the day.

The school choir, band and string ensemble will also perform on Sunday. We ask that the students change into their formal school uniform for their performance. This is a wonderful occasion for us all and we hope to see you there. BRISBANE ROAR PROGRAM This week representatives from Brisbane Roar Soccer Program visited both campuses to encourage participation in clinics they are running at both campuses next week. Pamphlets were provided to the students by the representatives. Prep –Year 2 clinic Monday 17th September 3:15pm at Early Years Campus Year 3-7 clinic Wednesday 19th September 3:15pm at Keong Park INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC EXCURSION On Wednesday 19th September, our instrumental music students will attend a performance by the Hillbrook Anglican College band. They will leave around 9:15am and return by approximately 12:30pm. Enjoy the weekend,

Melissa Spiteri

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FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

For the last term we have been re visiting our school rules and expectations for behaviour and learning so that everyone is happy and safe and learns well at Queen of Apostles. Sometimes this reminding could go in one ear and out the other so the challenge is to present the same information in a more creative, ‘out of the box’ way. We are using De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats to achieve this.

The 6 hats are: White= Information, Blue = thinking about thinking, Black = Finding the problems, Red = What we feel about it , Green = New ideas and Yellow = Finding the benefits.

So this week the school rule we are focussing on is “ Act safe, play safe in the classroom and the playground.” Mr Stower put his yellow hat on at assembly on Monday and asked the children what the benefits were by following this rule. This allows the children to look at this rule in a creative, different way. Some of the answers were: “We don’t fall over and hurt ourselves, we all get to have fun in the playground and no one misses out.”

This year all the classes have been implementing Christian Meditation on a daily basis in their classrooms. This is now part of the daily routine and culture of Queen of Apostles school. To keep the momentum and energy going, the staff will be looking at the whole concept and practice of Christian Meditation through De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats; What’s working well, what are some of the problems, how do we feel about it and how could we do it better. See you all at the Birthday party on Sunday. Michael

PARISH NEWS “The Gift of Family in Difficult Times” – Summary of 2012 Aust Catholic Social Justice Statement: The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Social Justice Statement for 2012—13 celebrates the role of families in our society and urges all Australians to consider the pressures and challenges that families face today. The Statement’s title is The Gift of Family in Difficult Times: The social and economic challenges facing families today. In it, the Bishops remind us that families, the basis of our community of faith and the very foundation of society, can be beacons for a more compassionate and just society. But Australian families are under pressure. When more and more parents are obliged to work outside traditional working hours, including on weekends, they are robbed of time to nurture children and family relationships. Up to a quarter of Australian workers are in casual employment, many forced to find two or more jobs or accept fly-in-fly-out work that can take them away from home for weeks. Families face increasing financial pressure, including the spiraling cost of housing: house prices grew by 147 per cent in the last decade and 690,000 households now spend more than 30 per cent of their weekly income on rent or mortgage payments.

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QACORS Congratulations to this week’s QACOR recipients: Annabelle Creighton,

William Turnbull, Liam Jackson, Levi Hanna, Natalie Kieckofel, Samuel

Buckland, Thomas Peut, Bronte Schmid, Lachlan, O’Brien, Fletcher Dunn,

Monykuc Monykuc, Olivia O’Shea, James Reid, Isabella Howie, Sam Blizzard, Caitlin

Smith, Genevieve Partington, Lachland White, Ellen Ahrens Charlie Goldsmith, Maddie

Waite, Matthew Pyman, Claire Blumke, Sonia Rizzo, Gabriella Cortes, Charlotte Nixon,

Ben Jansen, NaJah Webster, Zara McEwen, Izzy Gardiner, Jeffrey Scalia, Nicholas

Jones, Hayden Barnes, Novalee Woodward, Tyler Cortes, Billy Ellison, Gabriel

Bragagnolo, Zoe Alessios, Tilly Morrow, Hannah Tunney, Aengus Madden, Jessica Readdy,

Xavier Phillipos, Matthew Martin, Liam Dillon, Eden Jones, Sofia Bordignon, Ella parsons,

Ethan Kasper, Louie Mulders, Nicholas Tornabene, Sophie Neighbour, Cordelia Gibson and

Nicolas Falzon. CONGRATULATIONS!

STUDENT BIRTHDAYS Queen of Apostles would like to wish the following children a very Happy

Birthday: Ruby Lestani, Kyle Winks, Kayli Clarke, Laketa Meagher and Alex

Pattison. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

TUCKSHOP HELPERS Wednesday, 19thSeptember

Michelle Tornabene, Libby O’Sullivan, Annette Impellizzeri, Rose Mitchell,

Marija Wright, Louise Wells and Kim Maree Jones.

Friday, 21st September Daniela Mercurio, Christine Wong, Mary Prokuda, Lisa Boyle and Caroline Clancy.

SPORT NEWS Zone 6

Well done and Congratulations to the 2012 Zone 6 Athletics Carnival Squad for having great sportsmanship on the day. Well done for putting in a big effort with PE Lessons, athletics training, our athletics carnival and school athletic rotations in preparation for Zones. This carnival had some very tough competition and the children showed resilience, humour and just good old fashion kids having fun. Miss Morschel, Miss Dwyer, Mrs Greentree and I were very proud of the children's behaviour throughout the day. The teachers had very important jobs throughout the day where they had to supervise many children from different schools and they commended Q of A on their willingness to help out, sportsmanship & good attitude. Well done kids and thank you to all the parents who came out and supported your children. They had a blast!

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CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK Queen of Apostles would like to congratulate CONOR FITZGERALD from Year 6 who has recently been selected to trial for the Met North U11 Cricket Team. Well done Conor and the very best of luck for today. We also congratulate ELLA RICHARDSON who recently made it through to the Primary State Track and Field championships in High Jump to be held in Cairns from 19 - 20 October. Well done and keep up the good work.

LIBRARY NEWS The Premier’s Reading Challenge has now finished. The children’s reading lists need to be returned to the library by Friday 14th September. Years three and four were required to read twenty books and years five to seven needed to read fifteen books. I am encouraging students to return their reading list even if they did not make the targeted number of books. All participating children will receive a certificate. Library borrowing has now finished at EYC for Prep, Year One and Year Two. If you could please ensure all books are returned on Friday this week for Prep and next Tuesday for Yr 1-2. Students at Thuruna St are given the option of borrowing over the September holidays. Students are aware that they are responsible for the book over the break. Library Volunteers Chuter St Jen Davissen Wednesday 18th September Thuruna St Christa Falzon Monday 17th September Margaret Poncini and Elaine Varley Teacher Librarian Library School Officer

COMMUNITY NEWS Performing Arts Holiday Programmes Looking for something fun to do these holidays? Join a3 – australian arts alive as we present two exciting school holiday programmes for girls and boys in Prep to Year 8. Sessions focus on building performing arts skills and activities include singing, drama, dance, craft and circus. Wednesday October 3 and Thursday October 4 Brigidine College, Indooroopilly Contact a3 – australian arts alive for more information www.aspagroup.com.au or 3256 0207 Grasshopper Soccer Enrolment Forms for Term 4 are now available. Children 2-3 years - Mite E Soccer; 4 - 5 years - Pint Size Soccer; 5 - 6 years - Intro to Micro; 6 - 8 years - Micro Soccer and 8 - 12 years - Micro Plus Soccer. If interested in participating and signing up, registration forms are available from the school office. Sports Clinics Boys and Girls aged 5 - 14 years for these school holidays interested in Soccer, Rugby, Cricket, Netball, AFL, Dodgeball, Softball, Touch and other activities are being offered full day or 1/2 day clinics at The Grange. For more information contact the school office for a flyer. Taekwondo Lessons are being conducted at Stafford State School and are starting now. Open to children, teens and adults. If interested, flyer available at the office. BTC - School Holiday - Street Smart Kids Workshop - Taekwondo Flyer available at the office for more information.

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PARENTS

PLEASE ASSIST

Queen of Apostles School has a supervised school

crossing on Thuruna St Stafford. Unfortunately supervision cannot be guaranteed during

the period 7 September – 21 September 2012. Parents are asked to discuss safe crossing behaviours

with their children. Motorists are reminded to be cautious around the school

environment. The safety of the students at our school is extremely important and we would appreciate your co-operation with this matter

until this crossing is fully operational. Please help us to provide a safe environment for our students.

For any further information please contact the Road Safety Office on 3863 9875.

1.

Ignite Conference 2012: “Awaken”

Full conference – Thurs 27th to Sun 30th September Ignite Kids Stream – Friday-Sunday mornings

Venue: Mueller Performing Arts Centre, Rothwell (Redcliffe, Brisbane)

The Ignite Conference is the largest Catholic event in Australia for young people - adults, teenagers and chil-dren. For primary aged children, the Ignite Kids stream runs on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, with craft, sport, small groups, prayer and other activities. The group is split into Prep to Gr 3, and Grade 4-7. Friday 28th: 9:00am-11:50am (followed by 12:00pm Mass celebrated by Archbishop Mark Coleridge) Saturday 29th: 9:00am-12:30pm Sunday 30th: 9:00am-12:30pm (also welcome to Closing Mass at 1:45pm) For adults and high schoolers, the full conference (full days) includes bands, speakers and workshops in are-as such leadership, worship, creative arts, mission, culture and prayer. Keynote speakers include Archbish-op Coleridge, Fr Dan Benedetti mgl, Sam Clear, Shayne Bennett, Patrick Keady, Robert Falzon, Scott McDonald, NET Ministries and more, plus music led by emmanuelworship! A Parent Rate (half day) is available for parents who wish to participate in the adult sessions while the Ignite Kids is running.

For information visit the event website at www.igniteconference.com.au or contact the Ignite Office on 07 3217 5199, email info@igniteconference.com.au.

2.

Ignite Kids – part of the Ignite Conference 2012: “Awaken”

Friday 28th to Sunday 30th September 2012, 9:00am-12:30pm Mueller Performing Arts Centre, Rothwell (Redcliffe)

Sport – Craft – Prayer – Small Groups – Heaps of fun

Ignite Kids is part of the Ignite Conference, Australia’s largest Catholic conference for young people – adults, teenagers and kids. Parent Rate available to adult sessions during Ignite Kids mornings.

For information visit the event website at www.igniteconference.com.au or contact the Ignite Office on 07 3217 5199, email info@igniteconference.com.au.