Week 8 - Term 2 Newsletter 2021

Principals Message

Thank you to everyone that helped support our 'Pyjama & Soup' Day yesterday. It was wonderful to come together as a school community and raise awareness of the difficulties some families face over winter. All proceeds raised from the day will support our SVDP Winter Appeal. This appeal is lead by our SRC leaders and is aligned to one of our school Mercy Values - COMPASSION.

New Staff Member - Family Connect Worker

I would like to welcome a new member of staff to our school - our new Family Connect worker, Skye Pullen. Skye is a new member of our St Joseph’s community who is here to support families to access any of the services they might need to help their family thrive. Skye can assist families to connect with a wide range of services including NDIS, housing, counselling, parenting programs, family violence and addiction services and many other services that families may need from time to time.

 She has a background in social work and primary school teaching with a strong focus on learning support for children. She has worked extensively in health and community projects and is a qualified practitioner in many parenting programs including 1,2.3 Magic and Tuning into Kids.

Skye is passionate about promoting family wellbeing and can help families access a wide range of support services including assistance with NDIS, housing, parenting assistance and counselling services.  We are thrilled to have Skye as part of our St Joseph’s family and encourage any of our parents/carers to make contact with Skye if they would like more information about the help and support she can provide. Skye will be working every Thursday at school, with her other days shared between McAuley Catholic College & St Mary's Grafton. Please see her contact details below:

Skye Pullen 0417004779 or skye.pullen@socialfutures.org.au

NAIDOC Day Celebrations

Please be aware that in the final week of the term, we will be celebrating NAIDOC Week as a school community, with our Celebration Day occurring Wednesday 23rd June (please note that due to NAIDOC Week being celebrated during the holiday break, we felt it was important to do before the holidays). This day will focus on acknowledging and celebrating our local Indigenous culture, history and achievements. The day will begin with a Welcome to Country, smoking ceremony, with students partaking in a number of activities that will allow them to gain a greater sense of understanding of Indigenous Culture, including Dreamtime story-telling, dot painting, indigenous games, dancing as well as a Bus Tour of some important cultural landmarks within our local community.
 Parents and family members are more than welcome to attend and join us in this wonderful school event!

Semester 1 Reporting

Please note that today Semester 1 reports were sent home. The purpose of these reports is to provide you with a snapshot of your child's achievements and how well your child has learned what was expected the past semester. The grade allocated for each learning area will provide you with this information. As mandated by the Board of Studies, a grade scale of A-E is used. This scale is probably different to the one you will remember from your own school years. A to E grades don't rank your child but rather indicate whether your child is learning what is expected, doing better than expected or needs more help. The grade of C indicates that your child is 'on track' and has achieved what was expected at grade level. Other grades will indicate whether your child is doing better than expected or needs some extra support and consolidation. 

I thank all staff for their commitment to ensuring that students' reports are a true and accurate reflection of their progress and encourage you to make a time to meet and discuss your child's report with their classroom teachers if you have any questions or concerns.

Term 3 Leave & School Leadership

I also just wanted to let our School community know that I will be taking 'leave' for the duration of Term 3. Whilst I was hesitant to take some time off, I have decided to take this upcoming term off to complete some further study and work on some much-needed house renovations. I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 5 year fulfilling the role of School Principal; however, I felt the need to have a break and some renewal & look forward to coming back in Term 4.

During my absence, Mrs Bailey will be stepping into the role of Acting Principal, and Mrs Mullins will take on the Leader of Learning in both our Infants and Primary classrooms.

I trust everyone enjoys a wonderful long weekend and will catch you in Week 10, as I will be away next week with Stage 3 and their classroom teachers enjoying our Brisbane excursion.

Kind regards

Dale

Leaders of Learning

Learning in Infants 

This term in English, both Stage 1 and Kindergarten have been working on a particular text type (or type of writing). Kindy have been learning how to give their opinion about different types of texts including some short films. They have been practising how to state whether they liked the story but back that opinion up with some reasons. They then use the success criteria to make sure they have succeeded in the task.                                                                                             Kyah: "I like using the success criteria cause it helps me remember what to do and what I forgot."

Stage 1 have been learning about Information Reports and are working hard to edit and publish their work to a high standard. They have been practising giving and receiving peer feedback on their work. Students view a partner's work and check whether they have met the success criteria for that task. To conclude, they give them a star (something they did well) and a wish (something they need to improve or add). I am constantly amazed at how reflective our learners are and how receptive and responsive to feedback from themselves, their peers and their teachers!                              Oliver: "I like conferencing because it is fun to talk about my work with my friends. They give me good ideas to make my work better and fix it."

Mrs Bailey

Learning in Primary 

Stage 2 

As the term is coming to an end, the students in Stage 2 are working on their final task in English, publishing a persuasive text about an ethical issue in which the student has selected.  The students will also be experimenting with green screens to record their texts in a digital format where they will support their arguments with visual content together with their speaking skills to try and convince their audience to support their issue and call them to some kind of action.  Students will also have opportunities to support their texts by composing other texts such as jingles, poems, songs, advertisements or infographics.  This type of task allows students to present their message using a wide variety of texts and caters for their personal strengths and preferences by allowing them to choose their text type.  In the gallery below, we have;

• Meesha - working on her 'background' for her green screen. She wants to help the homeless, and her call to action for her audience is to make a donation to help. 
  
• Hudson - composing a jingle about Poverty using Song Maker, which is part of the online platform Chrome Music Lab.
• Alexander - making a poster using an online publishing website called Canva.
• Bronx, Huon and Thomas - composing a skit called Protecting Endangered Species, which they will perform and make a digital video recording.
• Harry - composed a poem called Protecting Endangered Species

Animals are our friends,  to the end of age. 
Please protect them, otherwise there’ll be rage!

Save yourself from disaster, or there’ll be something sad!
Animals are not trophies, or you’ll be feeling bad!

Bad things are happening. Animals are going extinct.

Squids are going mad. Watch out, you’ll get inked!
Save God's creation! Stop building towers!

Save our forever gift, or you’ll be crying for hours!
Good luck to you guys, to bring peace all around.

Try to keep the world, all safe and sound.

Stage 2 are flourishing learners who are transferring their literacy and digital skills in a meaningful and authentic context.

Stage 3

Stage 3 are in the final stages of their Religious Education Unit - Jesus Through the Seasons.  The assessment task involves planning a liturgy for another class based on one of our six Mercy Values. This task gives students the opportunity to present their liturgies while developing an understanding of our Mercy Values. The students will be conducting their liturgies with their fellow students in Term 3. 

Throughout the unit, much of the learning has focussed on developing surface knowledge about the content, that is, the liturgical year and how the liturgical calendar is a reflection of the actual events in Jesus' life.  The students engaged in learning tasks through 'protocols.' A protocol is a guideline for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensures equal participation and accountability. When everyone understands the procedures of the protocol, participants can work more effectively both independently and collaboratively, often in ways, they are not in the habit of doing. Protocols hold each student accountable and responsible for learning. They teach students how to lead their own learning.    This week, the students used a protocol called Carousel Brainstorming to build and share knowledge about each liturgical season.  The feedback from the students around using this protocol ranged from challenging to engaging.   It was challenging to add to other teams initial ideas and come up with new ones, but it was engaging because everyone had a voice, everyone participated and had an opportunity to be an expert.

We also asked the students to rate their level of learning from 0-10 on their fingers regarding how much they felt they had learned or clarified in this task.    Most students gave a rating of 5 or more. The gallery below shows the students participating in this protocol.

Mrs Mullins

Mission & Values

Sacramental Program - Reconciliation and First Holy Communion

This week I am introducing our First Holy Communicants, who will be completing the Sacrament of Reconciliation next Thursday, 17th June, with Fr. Nicolas at St Mary's Church;

Harry Cook, Kavanna Corcoran, Reef Crofton, Alexander Frame, Thomas Hourigan, Huon Mclennan, Billy Opalniuk and Ziggy Venn.

A sacrament is a sign given by Jesus to the Church to show us that he loves us. Reconciliation is also known as the Sacrament of Penance, and in the past, it was also called Confession. These titles are all aspects of the meaning of the Sacrament.

During this sacrament, a Catholic confesses his or her sins to a priest in the spirit of true repentance and receives forgiveness. The priest acts as a visible representative of Christ, who forgives sins through Him when he says the words of absolution: "I absolve you of your sins in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is made up of four steps:

• Contrition: We tell Jesus that we are sorry for our sins and that we will try to do better.
• Confession: We talk to the priest about our sins.
• Satisfaction: The priest gives us a penance to do (prayers) to help us make amends.
• Absolution: We receive forgiveness of our sins in the name of Jesus

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a sacrament of healing where we celebrate Jesus' gift of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which helps us make good and kind choices.

Mrs Mullins

Class News - Kindy

In Kindergarten, we have been having lots of fun with Mr Jurd at tennis, writing book reviews and representing and ordering numbers.

Mr Jurd has been working on movement and hand-eye coordination skills with our students. They have been having loads of fun, and I think Big Ball is the biggest hit. We have been using concrete materials to assist in getting a visual image of how big a number is so that we can order them from smallest to biggest. In English, we also wrote a book report on Wombat Stew. The kids loved that the dingo got tricked.

Mr Hitchings

Class Awards

Congratulations to the following students recognised at this fortnight's Awards Assembly:

Principal Awards:  Lawson Bell, Lila Salter, Georgia Salter, Tasmyn Norris

Class Awards:

Pastoral Care - School Counsellor

What is Gratitude?

Gratitude means we are aware of all that we have in our life and of the good things that happen to us. We let our friends, teachers, and family know we are thankful for them.  

What does it look like in practice? 

• We start a gratitude jar or have a gratitude journal. Every day we spend a moment writing down something or someone we are thankful for. At the end of the day, we could write about three things that went well or that we are grateful for.
• When things don’t go our way, we have an awareness of the fact that a lot of other things do go our way, so we don’t get  too upset. 
• If it rains and we can’t play outside, instead of thinking it is unfair,  we are able to shift our focus onto the wonderful  things rain does for our planet. 
• If we get out in handball or don’t get to play the game we had hoped for, instead of complaining, we have a sense that  we are lucky to be playing at all.  

How can we encourage gratitude in our children? 

To help children develop gratitude, this is a great resource.

Kate Naylor – School Counsellor & Art Therapist

Pastoral Care - School Chaplain

Fundraiser-Vinnies Winter Appeal

Dressing gowns and slippers were welcomed at school as they made the morning chill of 13 degrees a little more bearable. Our Winter Appeal for St Vincent de Paul has launched thanks to our incredible SRC by making and serving our school community warm soup accompanied by a dinner roll. Lunch officially started after our captains, and Deb M led a heartfelt grace. What a memorable moment this was. 

Playtime presented students an opportunity to create cardboard shelters that our homeless may experience and are challenged by. Thank you to our special guests, Renee Arringer- Schools and Youth Engagement Officer Lismore St Vincent de Paul Society, as well as our local Maclean St Vincent De Paul representatives. It was such an honour to have you join our school for this event.                                                 

Well done to all our students and staff who participated and demonstrated the Sister of Mercy value of compassion. We have raised awareness and needed funds to help those that may be experiencing homelessness this winter. Thank you to all our families who were able to support our appeal. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. 

A special thanks to Bobbie, Deb, Deb, Kylie and Teliesha for all your help towards the day's organisation and IGA Maclean for the yummy diced chicken. 

Ms Juana Mead

Soup and PJ Day

School Sport

School Athletics Carnival

We were blessed with a glorious day for this year's athletics carnival, held at Wherrett Park last week. I would like to thank all of the parents for helping out and coming to support their children. The students really love having you there, and the support you gave the staff was a major reason for the event's success. A special thanks to Kevin Crofton for marking out the track events. Most importantly, thank you to all of the students for your wonderful performance on the day. It was inspiring to see the effort you all put in. Thanks again, and I hope everyone enjoyed the day. Please see below a document containing a detailed list of final place getters in each event.

Age Champions in their respective divisions on the day:

• Junior Boys - Sam Carroll
• Junior Girls - Amelia Green
• Senior Boys - Reuben Lewis
• Senior Girls - Tasmyn Norris

Mr Hitchings

Notes Sent Home

Community News