As we come to the end of another eventful and action packed year, it is a tremendous time to be thankful for the many opportunities we have had during 'different' times. It is hard to believe that we have come to the final week already.

To all the families at Holy Spirit Catholic School, may your time away from the school routine be filled with joy and celebration. Enjoy the break with family and we look forward to a new beginning in 2022.

Get in the Spirit!

Paul Martin

As we busily prepare for Christmas:  planning, cleaning, spending, giving, attending breakups and various events, it is important we take a moment and reflect on what it all means for us and our families.  The first Sunday of Advent marked the beginning of a period of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ, our Saviour, at Christmas.  We are advised to make ourselves ready, to be on the alert, to turn aside from our errant ways, and give more time to God in our lives.  The season of Advent encourages us to reflect and prepare for the coming of Jesus who came to show us a new way of being with God, ourselves and each other. 

This week at Holy Spirit we value excellence.  Excellence often refers to greatness, the very best.  Achieving excellence is a very difficult thing to do at times.  It is a quality that people really appreciate, because it is so hard to find.  Striving for excellence is trying to do our best at whatever task we set our minds to do.  At Holy Spirit, staff are always looking for ways to help students achieve excellence.  This week, as we end the school year and enter the season of Advent, we pray our students and families show excellence across many areas, especially towards others and be on the lookout to help those in need.

ST VINCENT DE PAUL HAMPER:  A BIG THANK YOU to all who generously donated  items for our annual Christmas Hamper that was given to St Vincent de Paul on Tuesday morning during our liturgy.  What a wonderful way to start the Christmas season by showing care and mercy for those less fortunate in our community. 

THE ADVENT WREATH:  The Advent wreath is a traditional centrepiece of the Christmas season.  A candle is lit on each of the four Sundays preceding Christmas.  The first candle (violet) represents hope, the second (violet) peace, the third (rose) joy and the fourth (violet) love.  The central white candle is lit on Christmas Day and represents Christ.  The word ‘advent’ means ‘coming’; lighting the candles on the Advent wreath symbolises the coming of Light (Jesus) into the world.  The Advent Wreath teaches us about Christian preparation for celebrating Jesus’ birth and making our hearts truly ready to receive Him.  Making an advent wreath and praying a blessing each week with your children is a wonderful way to countdown to Christmas. 

This week I end the year again with one of my favourite reflections.  I often use this reflection as a starting point to think of all the good things that have happened both in our school and lives.  I am sure that many of you have heard it before, but it is always good to hear it again.  At times there are a number of situations/circumstances that can impact everyday life at school but with a positive attitude, anything is possible.

One of the greatest Christian figures of the 20th Century, Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta, herself no stranger to "mobbing" in her prayer the Final Analysis, gives us courage in the tribulations that we face in our various social contexts, when we become the victims of lies, deceit, scheming and innuendo: "People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centred; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you; be honest and

sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others may destroy overnight; create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today will often be forgotten; do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it may never be enough; give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway".(Mobbing is an emotional assault)

I hope you all an enjoyable holiday and I look forward to seeing you all next year in 2022 to start the year again.  Best of luck to our Grade 6 senior students moving into High School and future endeavours.  Your contribution to Holy Spirit Catholic School will be remembered.

Have a safe and happy holiday. 

God bless.

Caroline Fuller

STAFF

Farewell to Mrs Cathy Noye, Mrs Kath Fox, Ms Patricia Elechko,

Ms Brianna Herlihy, Ms Sarah Pugh, Mrs Suzie Hogue, Ms Sonia Moran 

and lastly our Principal, Ms Geraldine Egelton.  

We are grateful for their work with our students and the school community. 

We wish them all the best for 2022.

Jessica Casey and Jenna Allen are both going on maternity leave and 

we wish them well.  

STUDENTS

We wish all our Year 6 students all the best for high school,

thank you to their families for their support of our school community.

School finishes at 12.00pm this Friday!

Coloured Clothes Day!

The school office will be open Monday 06 December to Thursday 09 December - 8am to 3pm.

January 2022 -
The office will be open from 10^th January 2021 – 8am to 3pm.
Normal office hours resume from 24th January 2021 – 8am to 3.30pm.

Any enquiries can be emailed to crnbrk@tsv.catholic.edu.au

Dear friends and students,

As we are coming to the close of another blessed and eventful school year I thought of scribbling a few lines to you as usual. First of all, I want to thank God Almighty for all the blessings we enjoyed this year. I think only when we compare them with what the students and staff of other States in Australia and other countries experienced this year, will we understand and appreciate them better. Suffice to say that when others were reeling under the Covid restrictions we had none! How blessed are we! Let us be ever grateful to God! Let us also be thankful to all our teachers and staff at Holy Spirit School for helping us to become better and Spirit-filled persons, especially to Geraldine Egelton for her exceptional leadership as the School Principal. We will definitely miss her next year! God bless her! I am also glad that I was able to assist you in your journey a bit with my term class visits and liturgical helps.

As we are getting ready for Christmas, I wish you all a very Happy and Blessed Christmas. This year our Christmas Masses (6.00 and 9.00 pm on 24th and 8.30 am on 25th) will be in our Lynch Family Hall and I cordially invite you all please to come and join our celebrations. This year our parish is also presenting a Nativity Musical, “Christmas, A Love Story” at Riverway on Saturday 18th December 7-8.30 pm. (Free Entry). A number of your friends are involved in this musical and I encourage you please to come with your family and enjoy this musical.

Once again, wish you all A Happy Christmas and safe holidays. See you next year!

Lovingly, Fr. John Kunnathu Madappallil ocd

We would like to thank everyone who answered the call for donations of

breakfast spreads this year.  

Our breakfast program finishes this Thursday 2nd December.

In the event of a cyclone or severe weather impacting on our Catholic schools, regularly updated information will be available on the following:

* Townsville Catholic Education website www.tsv.catholic.edu.au LATEST NEWS    section on homepage.

* Twitter - you can follow us on www.twitter.com/tceo

* Facebook - you can follow us on www.facebook.com/TownsvilleCEO

* Listen to local readio stations (ABC in all regions) plus various local commercial      stations for updates.

* Instagram - townsville_catholic_education

Please make sure your compass details are up to date as this is the avenue the school will use to contact parents directly.

If a decision is made overnight to close schools, this message will be broadcast from 7am, earlier if possible.

Parents should be advised that on occasion it is difficult to call through to radio stations, so patience is appreciated if message broadcasts are delayed in any way.

Please refrain from calling schools before 7am as this causes disruption to vital communication networks.

Please refer to the above methods of communication as your first source of information.  Please use your best discretion in the interests of safety at all times.

The Tuckshop will continue trading until tomorrow Thursday 2 December and will be closed for Friday 3 December, the last day of the school year.

A special thank you to all of our volunteers who have supported the tuckshop all year - and for all the donations,  your help is very much appreciated.

Merry Christmas from Gayle and Linda   

As part of our uniform policy, black shoes are required for all days including sports days. Black joggers are the way to go as they can be worn every day. Some examples of acceptable shoes are pictured below.

Some of the shoes that will not be acceptable are the following.

Please consider this when purchasing for 2022.

All uniform supplies are available at The School Locker, Domain Central (close to Bunnings).

Lost Property will be cleared out over the holidays so please come in to check for anything you have lost.

To all the families leaving us this year,

thank you for your contribution to life at

Holy Spirit Catholic School!

Haylie Stanhope and Zita Whiteside wishes all defence families a happy Christmas and a safe New Year.

See you in 2022!!

Parents want their kids to behave well, yet despite their best efforts to raise well-behaved, respectful kids, children and young people will make mistakes and mess up.

By viewing indiscretions as mistakes rather than misbehaviour parents open the door to meaningful communication that helps children take responsibility for the way they behave.

Young Leaders Program

The Young Leaders Program helps teachers to create leadership skills in young people. It incorporates ideas, tools and activities to help train students in the final two years of primary school and those who are given specific leadership roles.

There are three parts to the program: personal leadership, public leadership, and induction and mentoring. The program is based on five building blocks of presentation skills, responsibility, organisation, teamwork and emotional intelligence. It is provided as a kit containing easy to follow teachers manuals, student workbooks, classroom posters and activity cards. It is easy to run, fits easily into the existing curriculum, and caters for the whole class.

Online Courses

Our online courses have been designed to help parents to expand their skills and increase their confidence in raising children. Delivered in easy to navigate sessions with videos, reading materials and activities, our courses can be completed at any pace.

Developed by author and award-winning parenting speaker Michael Grose, with contributions from world-leading child development and parenting experts, our courses all feature highly credible and reliable information.

MULTI-CULTURAL NATIVITY PRODUCTION:

Holy Spirit parishioners are embarking on a new initiative through our recently established Children’s program called Fun Time with Jesus Cre8iv Club, to portray the Christmas Nativity story through the different cultures in our Parish. This production is not only an educational journey for our children to understand the story of Christmas, but also a showcase to the Townsville public on the cultural enrichment we have in our Catholic community. Nearly 85 children from primary, secondary school and tertiary sectors have registered to be part of this wonderful experience. Our Musical will be the opening act on Dec 18th at this year’s Stable at Riverway. Shorter performances will also be in local shopping centres. 

FUN TIME WITH JESUS CRE8IV CLUB runs every 2nd and 4th Sunday at 8.30 am at Holy Spirit parish, Cranbrook. All children welcome.

We seek volunteers help on various aspects, both behind and beyond the scenes. For further information on how you can help or be involved, please contact either Reshma Pilson on 0435 351 658 ( email: reshmatresa155@gmail.com) or Blanche Crisp on 0428 736 726 (email: blanchecrisp@gmail.com)

Battery World have informed us that effective immediately they have had to remove the current purple and yellow wheelie bins in schools.

With a major focus on customer and community health and safety, these bins have been deemed potentially unsafe to reside in the community due to the introduction of various battery compositions over the years (namely the increase in Lithium.) Whilst the risk is still extremely low, we simply don’t want to take the risk.

All uniform supplies are available at The School Locker, Domain Central (close to Bunnings).

Phone 1800 826 155

The School Locker

Uniform days for students:

Monday and Wednesday - Formal uniform
Tuesday and Thursday - Sports uniform
Friday - own choice
Senior shirts may be worn on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

If your child is going to be absent, please enter the details through Compass, as this is the most efficient way to inform the school.