Week 4 - Term 4 Newsletter 2022

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

Thank you for the wonderful attendance by all grandparents earlier in the week. I must say I, & the staff, were completely overwhelmed with the turn out for our Grandparents Day on Monday. It was such an uplifting afternoon, with many smiles & beautiful moments, none more so than the many grandparents willing to adopt a child for the afternoon. It was so wonderful to see so many Nans, Pops, Pa's & Ma's and even a few Great Grandparents. Both the students and our grandparents had a beautiful afternoon engaging in some organised classroom activities and was a wonderful way to building the 'sense of belonging' in our school community. It was also a timely reminder of the important role our Grandparents play in our students lives & the nuturing, wise and compassionate presence they play. 

Cyber Safety Parent Learning Night  - STILL TIME TO RSVP!

Just another reminder that next Tuesday, 8th November, we are holding our Parent Learning Night focused on Cyber Safety.

Through the assistance of Parent Assembly, we have been able to organise Simon Richardson, who works for 'Stay Safe on Social', a company that has presented to more than 300,000 students, their parents, and teachers about cyber safety issues (and to our school in 2019). You will learn vital information around: Social Media Awareness, Online Grooming, Digital Footprint, Cyber-bulling & harassment and much more. We look forward to seeing as many parents & caregivers at this event as possible.

Simon will present to our Parent Community on Tuesday, 8th November, from 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm. We will provide pizza and babysitting to allow as many parents as possible to attend. Please RSVP by using the following LINK. 

World Teachers' Day

Last week we took time to stop & celebrate our wonderful teaching staff here at St Joseph's, whilst we celebrated last Thursday as a school community, last Friday Friday 28th October marked "World Teacher's Day". We are very blessed to have such a wonderful, talented and passionate group of teachers here at St Joey's. Our teachers are amazing individuals who work day in and day out to provide our students with a safe and nurturing learning environment in which all students may 'achieve the fullness of life'. I have no doubt you will join me in thanking our teachers for all that they do, to ensure our school community has a 'sense of pride and a sense of belonging'.  As part of acknowledging all their hard efforts and feel valued, our teachers were able to have lunch off-site together, which was a wonderful opporuntity for them as a team. Additionally thank you to our Parent Forum & Parent Community who contributed to some wonderful messages for our teaching staff and the very practical 'hat stands' that cooincided with this year's theme of "Hat's Off to our teachers"!

2023 Starting Dates

Please note our starting date for students (Year 1-6) next year will be Monday 30th January, 2023.

The preferred and suggested model from Catholic Schools Office is for schools to have a staggered start for 2023 School Year, with students to come in for a scheduled Assessment Interview, and for students not to begin back until Wednesday 1st February. However we are conscious of the stress & complications this model places on our families (particularly after a lengthy summer holiday). Similar to previous years, during this first week back, students will be withdrawn from classroom learning to participate in an Assessment Interview. Teaching staff will schedule these interviews during normal school hours. Please note that for this to occur, students may not have their regular classroom teacher for the full day.

The starting date for all Kindergarten students will be Monday 6th February to accommodate the requirements of the Kindergarten 'Best Start' Assessment.

Have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you all next week.
Thanking you,

Dale

Leaders of Learning

Becoming better learners

As part of our ongoing Professional Learning, this term, our staff will be given the opportunity to engage in Learning Walks as a reflective tool to improve outcomes for all our students.

What is a Learning Walk?

A Learning Walk is a brief visit to the classroom using a researched-based tool that allows the principal and teachers to reflect on what students are learning, whole-school agreed practices, student engagement and interaction with the content.  Staff follow particular protocols and ask students five set questions about their learning.

Learning walks are used by teachers to give affirmative feedback and share ideas about the best practices of teaching and classroom environments. The purpose of these visits is to focus on the act of learning and what the student is doing in order to reflect and ultimately improve the quality of the learner's school experience, hence, the name…Learning Walks. At St Joseph's, we acknowledge that staff and students are all learners and through collaboration and support, we can all improve.

Mrs Mullins

Learning Walks

Mission & Values

Mercy Value: Respect

Matthew 13:31-35  The smallest of all seeds grows into the biggest shrub of all.

Jesus put a parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches.’

Reflection

The gardens of our grandparents

Grandparents are often the ones who plant and lovingly tend, mustard seeds. Knowing that they will not see the fullness of this growth; a grandparent’s tender care is an act of great hope. Many of us know the feeling of a grandparent willing to be blotted out in service and protection of a grandchild. Our grandparents so often convey wisdom and a mellowed, but savvy, awareness of the ways of the world. Usually, savvier than we recognise. It’s a gift then, to contemplate Jesus’s grandparents, known to us as Joachim and Anne, and to honour and respect our grandparents this week as we celebrate Grandparents Day.

Pope Francis' instituted World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly as a liturgical memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus and because ‘grandparents are often forgotten, and we forget this wealth of preserving roots and passing on what the elderly have received. Pope Francis places great importance upon grandparents and grandchildren getting to know one another, because ‘as the prophet Joel says, grandparents, seeing their grandchildren dream’, while ‘young people, drawing strength from their grandparents, will go forward and prophesy’.

Liturgical Calendar - All Saint and All Souls Day

The first two days of November are All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Originally, in the 8th century, Pope Gregory III established All Hallows Day in England (hallow is another word for holy) to honour all the saints who died with or without Church recognition. The night before was called All Hallow’s Eve, which was eventually shortened to Halloween.   All Souls day follows on November 2nd and is a time in which we pray for those who have died, including our own special friends and family.

Let us take a moment to pray for all those who have died. 

On All Souls Day, we remember those who have died; friends, colleagues, relatives... Other people whom we have known …worked with …laughed with …walked with... 

Many of them are not famous. 

Their statues are not in churches but their pictures are in our homes and their stories alive in our community, and in our hearts. 

We know of their goodness and their struggles. 

We now pray for them and remember them with love, celebrating in faith their journey to God, now within the great communion of saints. 

We give thanks for the sharing of their gifts, their talents and their love. 

May the Lord bless and keep them.

Mrs Mullins

Class Awards

Our Principal's Award winners are:

• Kindy - Rose McLennan
• Stage 1 -  Dotti Kemp
• Stage 2 - Penny Chapman
• Year 5 - Bronx Hickling
• Year 6 - Makayla Elms

Our Class Award winners are: 

Class News - Stage 1

We cannot believe how this year has flown by and that it is already Term 4!

In English this term, we are scrubbing up on nour persuasive skills. We have been convincing each other of our favourite pets, convincing Mr. Layland whether we should have cookies or mini pizzas for lunch, and we will be convincing Santa to employ us to work alongside the elves!

In Maths, we have been working hard learning about volume and capacity. In Year 1 we learnt sand is a better material than marbles to measure the capacity of containers. In Year 2 we learnt to compare the volume of objects by marking the change in water level when they are submerged.

We also have a lovely Monday this week celebrating our Grandparents for Grandparent’s Day! We learnt how to play marbles, mastered our origami skills and made Tiny Teddy race cars. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long enough to race…

We hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and New Year.

Mrs McMahon & Mrs Kinsella

School Sport

Stage 3 Basketball Gala Day

On Monday, 24th October, Stage 3  travelled to the Raymond Laurie Sports Complex to participate in a Basketball Gala Day. It was a great day with St Joseph's students displaying excellent basketball skills, and more importantly, it was a chance for our students to interact and have fun with students from schools in the local area. Everyone had a great day, and I would like to thank all the staff and students for representing our school in this community event that helps develop relationships between schools and students from the area.

School Surfing

Our school surfing program kicked off at Turners beach on Friday the 21st of October. Shayne Sutherland and his team from Surf Camp Down Under made sure all of the children walked off the beach with a big smile on their face after a fun-filled day. All of the students had a blast with everyone catching plenty of waves and a majority of them standing up, even if it was their first time surfing. Unfortunately the program needed to be postponed last week but the students were back in the water today ripping it up and cheering each other on. The program will now continue until week 8 to make up for the missed session.

School Swimming

School swimming also started on the 21st of October down at the Maclean Swimming Pool. The focus of the program is to educate students so they have a better understanding of how to be safer in, on and around water. The students have had 3 weeks of swimming and it has been great to see the students becoming more comfortable and familiar in the water. Being relaxed around water allows students to be more efficient when moving through water as well as improving their decision making in aquatic environments. The students have really been enjoying the program and hopefully the weather stays nice and warm so the students can enjoy the remaining weeks of the program.

Mr Hitchings

Pastoral Care - School Chaplain

Catholic Mission Week - Crazy Socktober Day

There were some crazy socks worn to raise awareness and funds for Ethiopian families.Together we raised $104.25! This will help Catholic Mission provide essential items to families in Ethiopia in need.

Thank you everyone for your generous donations and getting crazy with your socks.

St Vincent De Paul's Christmas Appeal

The generosity of our wonderful families was incredible! Thank you for giving so generously to help make Christmas extra special for our local families in need. 

Our students' Christmas spirit was felt all the way from the North pole bringing Santa to St Joeys to thank them for their giving spirit. 

World Teachers Day

World Teachers’ Day was celebrated at St Joeys on Thursday 27th of October 2022. 

It was a chance to celebrate teaching and for communities to thank teachers. 

St Joseph’s showed appreciation to our teachers by presenting them with hand written cards, beautiful Macrame Hat Hanger from The Parent forum, class cards from students and a generous lunch from Dale at Botero. I'm sure our Teachers felt very loved.

Mrs Juana Mead 

Library News

Students who completed this year's Premiers Reading Challenge will be celebrating in the library next Wednesday afternoon, with pizza and the movie ‘Super Pets’. Congratulations to the following students who finished the challenge:

Kindergarten: Roxy Bailey, Gemma Buckley, Paxton Capp, William Ceissman, Tamika Cleary-Walker, Max Cook, Xavier Forcarini, Claire George, Rose McLennan, Erin Murtha-Clugh, Marco Quarello, Phoebe Senz, Kingston Thoms, Alexander Trethowan, Elyse Upston 

Stage 1: Max Anderson, Lawson Bell, Isabella Camilleri, Noa Chapman, Kyah Horan, Dotti Kemp, Kal-El Randall, Oliver Want, Jai Agic, Isaak Bailey, Jesse Bennet, Zion Coulson, Alice Davis, Alexia Dawes, Byron Ellis, Sophie Green, Blake Hausler, William King, Sam Kirkland, Lila Salter, Alexia Steyn, Zacery Turner, Cooper Want, Oliver Ward, Sophia Wright 

Stage 2: Oscar Bailey, Marlie Cook, Emily Dahlenburg, Hugo Simpson, Avah Anderson, Grace Bell, Reece Bennet, Meesha Ellis, Georgia Salter, Alexandra Wardleworth

Stage 3: Olive Ardrey, Harrison Cook, Reef Crofton, Alexander Frame, Sonny Bennett, Sam Carroll, Josie Chapman, Nathaniel Frame, Olivia McIntyre, Matais Ward

Mrs Waghorn

Parent Forum

The Term 4 Parent Forum Meeting was held last week in the library.

Parent Assembly
Chrissie Morrison, the Parent Assembly Cluster Coordinator from the Catholic Schools Office, attended the meeting and presented information on the Parent Assembly and why having a few Parent Assembly Representatives would be beneficial for our school including access to Parent Education evenings. Chrissie also shared the Family and School Community Partnership Statement which can be accessed here.

SAFE ON SOCIAL 8 th Nov
Don’t forget to RSVP for the Safe on Social Night which will be held on Tuesday the 8th of November. This is such a great opportunity to learn more about how to navigate the digital world with our children. There will be babysitting, pizza available for the evening and there will also be an educational component for children in years 3-6 during the school day.

Canteen
We’d like to extend a big thankyou to those who came forward to offer some of their time to help in the Canteen on a Friday after the call for help was put out. Did you know that our Canteen is pretty special?? All the meals are nutritious and are prepared fresh on site. Our chocolate milk is made on site. Our gelato is made from frozen fruit on site! The popcorn is popped fresh made to order. Thanks to Melissa for her ongoing hard work in our school Canteen
and of course to the volunteers who help Mel. Unfortunately the trivia fundraiser for the Canteen was unable to go ahead due to lack of numbers. The parent forum hope to run further fundraising activities in the future to help with the refurbishment costs of the Canteen.

Lawrence Rodeo
The Lawrence Rodeo is being held on the 30th December and our school has been given the opportunity to run the drinks stall. This is a great fundraiser for our school and families will be required to help man the stall. Volunteering to man the stall for an hour or so will get you and your family into the Rodeo for free. If you are interested in helping out on the drinks stall please register with the front office.

World Teachers Day
Thankyou to all parents and students for collaborating and sending in lovely messages to our teachers for World Teachers Day. It was a privilege to be able to present all those messages to our wonderful teachers.

Year Level Messenger Groups
Most of our year level parent representatives have established a messenger chat group to provide a platform to share information and communications across year levels. If you are not part of a year level messenger group and would like to be included, please get in contact with either your year level rep, the front office or the Parent Forum Chairperson Lauren Kirkland (e: lozzacdk@gmail.com).

Lauren Kirkland

Chairperson of the Parent Forum

Community Notices