Week 2 - Term 3 Newsletter 2021

Principals Message

Dear Parents and Families, 

Welcome back! It has been lovely to see all the children after the break and hear what they have been up to. This term we welcome Blake (Year 1), Marina (Year 2), Jessika (Year 2), Seth (Year 4) and their families into our school community. It is heartwarming to see how welcoming all our students are and how quickly new students feel at home.

Thank you to everyone for helping us as we once again navigate Covid Restrictions in our community. I have included these below for your information:

Visitors

Parents are unable to visit the school unless it is an urgent or serious event. Our process for Pick Up has returned to parents waiting either at the front of the school or the parent car park, and staff bringing your child/ children to you.

Mask requirements

NSW Health and Catholic Schools NSW, although not mandatory, have recommended that all staff wear masks indoors. 

Feeling unwell 

If your child is unwell and has cold or flu symptoms, please follow the health advice, get tested and stay at home while unwell. Students who are unwell and attend school will be sent home with the request to get tested. 

Family Connect Worker

Skye Pullen is our new Family Support Worker. Skye is able to assist with connecting families to available supports in the community. These could include accessing:

• NDIS
• counselling
• financial support
• transport
• housing
• parenting programs
• general welfare services

If you would like to contact Skye you can do so directly by phoning on 0417 004 779 or emailing her on skye.pullen@socialfutures.org.au or through me.

School Safety  Zones  - Protecting our  children 

School zone flashing lights provide an important warning to motorists that they are entering a 40km/h school zone. This lower speed limit reduces the risk and potential severity of a crash. The NSW Government has ensured that every school in NSW has at least one set of school zone flashing lights. 

The school zone flashing lights program is one of the vital road safety programs funded through speed and red light camera fines by the Community Road Safety Fund. 

The 40km/h school speed zones operate across NSW at all school sites on gazetted school days (including school development days). Motorists should drive no faster than 40 km/h through school zones. Most school zones operate from  8:00 am to 9.30 am and from 2.30 pm to 4:00 pm on gazetted school days. 

Little Joeys

Our Little Joeys Orientation and Transition Program begins next Friday 30th July. Parents are carers are invited to enjoy a cuppa in the Cranney Room once they have dropped their children at Little Joeys. If you know someone whose child would benefit from this program, please ask them to contact the Front Office.

SZApp

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded the SZApp. This will be our main form of communication so if you have not already accessed this app, use the QR codes below to make sure you stay up to date. Once you have registered, our school code is 1578.

Kind regards,

Deb

Leaders of Learning

Learning across the school

As we live in the uncertain times created by COVID, this week, we have been planning and preparing our staff and students to be equipped for a Lockdown IF NEEDED, as is already happening in parts of NSW.  In order to make the transition to Learning At Home IF REQUIRED as easy as possible for our students, we are ensuring that Kindergarten through to Year 6 are ready to access Google Classroom.  Our Stage 2 and Stage 3 students are already familiar and comfortable with this online platform, but our littlies in Kindy and Stage 1 had some initial experiences this week on how to navigate online learning.  I just wish to reiterate; we are upskilling our staff and students for Home Learning - we are not in a lockdown.

What is Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is a class-organization platform that incorporates Google's core products (Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Drive) so students can access everything they need for a class, including homework assignments, group projects, and files. Classroom is part of Google's Workspace for Education. Google Classroom isn't a learning tool like an online website; it is designed for organization and collaboration.

This week I have included some FAQs for your information.

Can you use Google Classroom at home?
Students can access Google Classroom from anywhere on any device, including smartphones, when you download the Google Classroom app. 

How does my child find out about new work posted in Google Classroom?
Your child will receive an email when the teacher posts an announcement. These emails come through your child's email account, not in Classroom. 

Is my child in a  Classroom?
Each child has been allocated into their own Classroom with their teacher/s.  Students log in to their Classroom using their name and school login.  K-2 classes have been practising this week to ensure they all know what to do. 

If we do have the unfortunate experience of a future lockdown, please know that we are well prepared to support students and families with the aim to reduce the impact on your child's education.  

Mrs Mullins

Mission & Values

Confirmation

This week I am very pleased to introduce our newly confirmed students, Reece Bennett, Sahara Cook and Ash Hitchings. Last night, these students were confirmed by Bishop Gregory Homeming in a very special Mass, celebrated with their close family and friends.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is a sacrament of initiation. It is a continuation of Baptism where we are gifted with The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are then strengthened in Confirmation so that we can grow to recognise and even use these gifts in our lives.

The Holy Spirit also helps us make decisions when our actions need to be like Jesus. We can pray and ask for the Spirit to give us the strength to love and help others. 

 The Sacrament of Confirmation can be divided into four parts:

Presentation of the candidate - The people being confirmed are asked to stand.

Renewal of baptismal vows - The candidates renew the promises made at their baptism.

Laying on of hands - The candidate being confirmed kneels before the bishop, who reads out the candidate’s chosen confirmation name. A sponsor places their right hand on the candidate's shoulder, and the bishop lays his hands on the candidate’s head. This is to call down the blessing of God.

Anointing with chrism - The bishop then anoints the candidate with chrism, which is holy oil. The bishop then makes a sign of the cross on the candidate’s forehead, saying the words “Be sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit”. The bishop then says, “Peace be with you", which the candidate repeats back to the bishop.

Mrs Senz

Class News - Stage 2

English - Informative Texts:

Stage 2 has begun Term 3 exploring informative texts, focusing on information reports on various animals, including turtles, T-Rex’s and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We are focusing on embedding factual information and a clear structure to inform our readers of these fascinating creatures and man-made landforms. 

Below are some wonderful writing excerpts…

“What hatches on land but spends its life in the sea?

Sea turtles travel the world in warm ocean waters, even though they are cold-blooded! They are one of the few reptiles that live in the sea. Sea turtles are graceful swimmers. Their flippers move like wings.”      Co-created by Stage 2

“What is one of the largest dinosaurs in the world? What has razor-sharp teeth that can rip? What is one of the largest reptiles that is a carnivore?

A T-Rex!  A Tyrannosaurus Rex lived over 66 million years ago.”     Georgia Salter

“Did you know that T-Rex’s are a long relative of a chicken? Tyrannosaurus means ‘Tyrant Lizard King’.

A T-Rex was the largest land carnivore that walked the Earth 66 million years ago. Their teeth are sharp as steak knives!”    Alexander Frame

“Did you know the Sydney Harbour Bridge, also known as the coathanger, is the largest bridge in the world?

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is located in Sydney, Australia and connects the North Shore with Sydney Central. It is an iconic landmark that is very popular!”    Dayla Chapman

In the coming weeks, we will learn how to research and find quality information and begin our informative writing with hook sentences to excite our audience. Looking forward to our Term 3 writing assessment, students will compose an informative text on a topic of their choosing using digital technologies, which will be shared with the school community.

Ms Zietsch & Miss Pooley

Class Awards

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

Principal Awards:   Bella Camilleri, Sophie Green, Hudson Ardrey, Jason Maitz

Class Awards:

Pastoral Care - School Counsellor

What is KINDNESS?

Kindness is showing you care about the well-being of others, including animals. Kindness is  doing good things for others even if we do not know them well. If we are  growing kindness we might make it our mission every day to do one kind  thing for someone else. When you are kind you can be generous. You can  do small things that brighten people’s lives.  

What does it look like in practice? 

• We notice when someone is sad and look after them  
• We do things for others without expecting anything  in return. For example, we offer to help our teacher carry something  without expecting a reward. Or we wait for our classmates  to finish their work without distracting them
• We include someone in our game who looks lonely  
• We think of ways to make others happy e.g. we play a game  they love, we complement each other  
• Before speaking we let our words pass through three gates:  “Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?”  

How can we encourage kindness in our children? 

To help children develop kindness this is a great resource.

And some more ways to model kind behaviour and teach our kids can be found here.

Kate Naylor – School Counsellor & Art Therapist

Pastoral Care - School Chaplain

LAP:  Lap has been placed on hold until further notice due to our current climate. Thank you to our LAP volunteers so far for your time and effort you have given each week to our wonderful students. We hope in the very near future we will see you back reading on a Thursday. Stay safe!

Community: National School Tree Day is Friday 31st July. It started in 1996 and has grown into Australia's largest community tree-planting and nature care event. It's a call to action for all Australians to get their hands dirty and give back to their community. It also reflects our Sisters Of Mercy Value: Respect. We reverence the dignity of all persons and all life as gifts of God and strive to promote community in our world.

Thank you to the Clarence Valley Council and Planet Ark for contributing $100 towards some native plants for our school. The plants will be selected by Deb Mullins at Absolutely Fabulous Garden Center followed by our students planting them. 

Over the next couple of weeks, students are invited to participate in National Tree Day lunch/recess activities such as;  Nature Explorer’s logbook, treasure hunts, colouring-in and word search.  This will give our students an opportunity to connect with nature and further their knowledge about National Tree Day.

September 9th St Josephs will be participating in R U OK? Day. More information will be provided over the coming weeks.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Go Australia in this year's Tokyo Olympics. Good luck to all our Athletes that are over in Japan trying to bring home the Gold!

Seasons for Growth: Seasons for Growth commenced for Stage 2 on Thursday. This program offers children and young people a safe space to come together, and share their experiences of change and loss. The program will run for 8 weeks, 40 mins each session at 1:00 pm each Thursday. 

Juana Mead -  School Chaplain

School Sport

 Rugby League

Thanks to the Sporting Schools Funding, we were able to book Warrick Brown and the team from the NRL to come into the school to teach our students. The program started last Friday, and the students really enjoyed the modified games designed to be inclusive, action-packed and targeted to develop the students' rugby league skills, general coordination and agility. The program was really aligned to the abilities of each group, and it was impressive to see how quickly the students, particularly the younger ones, were picking up the skills of the game. It is also a good sign when the students have a huge smile on their faces throughout the session and walk off the field asking when Warrick was coming back.

Mr Luke Hitchings 

Notes Sent Home

Community News