Southern Schools

St Mary’s Catholic School has a very close relationship with their Parish and this year, they have combined to create a community garden.

The School Chaplain and one of the very dedicated parishioners work together each week and invite students to tend to the needs of the community garden, which is located within the Church site. The students listen and learn how to best tend to the needs of growing a variety of plants from the wisdom of the keen gardeners. This term, students were overjoyed as they harvested their first crop of corn. Some of the corn was presented at Mass as an offering to the praying community, while the children were also offered to take some home to eat for dinner.

St Mary’s Catholic School thanks their Parish for working in collaboration with the school to educate the students to care for our common home and to learn the act of giving of their time to benefit others.

St Catherine’s Catholic College, The Whitsundays

During Week 4, St Catherine’s Catholic College hosted the launch of Project Compassion which has the theme of ‘Be More’ in 2021.

Distinguished guests included Bishop Tim, Fr Jose Koyickal, Neil Helmore (Townsville Diocesan Caritas Director), St Mary’s Catholic School, Bowen and local parishioners.

During Bishop Tim’s address, he explored the concept of Lent and reminded everyone that we need to ‘die a little’ to make room for something beautiful to grow in its place. He also explained that to be more generous, compassionate and Jesus like, we need to put the interests of others ahead of our own.

St Catherine’s Assistant Principal of Religious Education Sue McIntosh said that Pope Francis has called Lent 2021 a season of hope and happiness.

“We were honoured to host the launch of Project Compassion this year,” said Sue.

“Thank you to the TCEO staff and our parishioners who joined us to celebrate this liturgy.”

St Francis School, Ayr

At St Francis School, the newly constructed Early Years Hub is buzzing with the excitement of students and teachers.

As Prep students are establishing their routines, Years 1 and 2 have been working collaboratively across their classrooms. As a Professional Learning Community, the Year 1 and 2 teachers have been analysing their student needs as the students rotate through modelled, guided, collaborative and independent learning activities for English and Mathematics.

The students join learning groups and participate in activities tailored to their diverse learning styles and needs. Flexible seating, hands-on resources, technology based learning and working with support staff are all common features in the learning areas. The students are fully engaging in learning experiences in an adaptive, comfortable and fun environment.

St John Bosco Catholic School, Collinsville

St John Bosco Catholic School launched their Project Compassion Appeal this year with a liturgy on Ash Wednesday and have started Chickitas! Chickitas encourages people to bring in chickens.

The students have been enjoying raising funds for Project Compassion and have been focusing on how many chickens the fundraising could buy for people in the Solomon Islands as mentioned on the "What your donations can do" poster. For each $5.00 raised, the school has been putting up a chicken in the office foyer to symbolise the difference they are making. At this stage, they have collected 80 chickens!

St Colman’s School, Home Hill

The Prep and Year 1 students at St Colman’s School kicked off the year with a fancy hat parade.

To develop their skills in the process and application of design technology, the students read the story Hat Parade by Donna Dyson which explores different designs of hats for different situations.

The students were then asked to design a hat of their own by drawing a template in their book. This design process was followed with a craft activity where the students could create their hats based on their design. When designing their hats, the students had to keep in mind the resources and materials available, along with the purpose for their design. Once the students worked through the creation stage, they were able to proudly perform their own hat parade for all to see.

Burdekin Catholic High School, Ayr

In 2020, Burdekin Catholic High School revamped its Year 6 Transition into High School plan to incorporate transition days across the school year.

Year 6 students visited Burdekin Catholic High School in Terms 3 and 4 for part days and for their final transition day in Week 8 of Term 4 before commencing Year 7 in 2021. They took part in a number of classes over their three transition days in preparation for their journey from primary to high school. Students had the opportunity to make pizzas, design and build boxes, create keyrings with the school crest lasered into them, play sports, try out the computer rooms and perform on stage in the Drama room. The success of the transition days was evident when on the first day of school in 2021, students were settled, knew the school and already felt part of the Burdekin Catholic High School community.