Week 6 - Term 4 Newsletter 2023

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

It is hard to believe we are already at the end of Week 6. With only four short weeks to go, the events at St Joey's are ramping up.

Please make sure you have a look at the Upcoming Dates below and add them to your calendar - it's getting busy!

Illness at school

We are seeing a rise in cases of both COVID and flu in our community. Students and staff should stay home if they are unwell. I appreciate your support with this.

School Uniform

We have had a few issues with uniforms over the past few weeks, and I would appreciate your support in ensuring that students wear the correct uniform.

For safety, it is important that long hair should be tied back (preferably with a plain band or maroon or gold scrunchies) and simple studs or sleepers, and a watch are the only jewellery to be worn. 

End-of-Year Activity Days

We will celebrate the end of 2023 with "Activity Days" on Wednesday 13th - Friday 15th (Week 10). These days are a wonderful way to celebrate our school year and foster community. An Event will be published in Compass requesting permission for Maclean Pool. We are conscious of placing unwanted financial pressure on families at this time of the year, and as such, there will be no cost involved, with all costs covered by the school.

• Wednesday 13th -  Christmas Activities & Christmas Carnival 
• Thursday 14th - LaserTag @ School
• Friday 15th - "Big Day Out " @ Maclean Pool

Deb

Upcoming School Dates

• Tuesday 28th November  - Kindy Orientation Night & Dinner with Year 5 Families (Week 8)
• Tuesday 28th November - Year 5 Leadership Speeches (Week 8)
• Thursday 30th November - Step-Up Afternoon (Week 8)
• Friday 1st December - Last Day of Little Joeys (Week 8)
• Tuesday 5th December - School Christmas Concert (Week 9)
• Tuesday 12th December - Year 6 Graduation & End of Year Awards (Week 10)
• Wednesday 13th - Friday 15th December - End of Year Fun Days (Week 10)

Leaders of Learning

Learning in K - 6: A Snapshot of Spelling

Our school aims for consistency in practice and has 'Whole-school approaches' to learning within specific Key Learning Areas. We use the Soundwaves and InitiaLit programs throughout the school. Both programs are written specifically for Australian classrooms. They follow a logical and thorough scope and sequence organised around Australian English's 43 phonemes (sounds). The graphemes (a letter or letter combination) represent them in written language. Instruction builds from Kindergarten to Year 6, starting with simple phoneme-grapheme relationships before exploring more complex relationships, morphology and etymology.

They are informed by research on the best practices for teaching spelling and grammar, and the program incorporates four key areas of teaching: 

1. Phonemic awareness: the ability to work with phonemes.
2. Synthetic phonics: phonics instruction that involves teaching phoneme-grapheme relationships.
3. Morphology: knowledge of the meaningful parts of words: prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots.
4. Etymology: understanding of word origins and history.

Students then work with their teachers to produce pieces of writing that adhere to the co-constructed success criteria. From Kindy, students are learning about clauses, subordinate conjunctions, exclamatory sentences and adverbial phrases!

 Mrs Bailey

Mission & Values

Remembrance Day

Last Friday, we paused as a school to remember those who have served and those who have died in all wars and peacekeeping operations.  Remembrance Day marks the date in 1918 when the First World War ended. 

During our service, students laid poppies and observed one minute's silence as a mark of respect and thanks to all who have served our beautiful country.

On Thursday, our school leaders and SRC representatives also paid their respect on behalf of St Joseph’s in a very special and personal way. These students visited the Lawn Cemetery in Townsend and located the resting places of our local returned soldiers. They then laid some rosemary and a paper poppy on the headstone, pausing to take a moment for that particular individual by reciting The Ode. All the students who attended represented our school beautifully by being respectful and reverent. They all commented on how they enjoyed the experience, showing their appreciation to servicemen and their families by showing that their sacrifice and family members have not been forgotten.

Thank you to our leaders for leading our school service and cemetery visit and to all our students for displaying our Mercy Values of RESPECT and SERVICE by observing this important day. 

Year 4 Accendere Retreat

‘And now I give you a new commandment: LOVE ONE ANOTHER. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES.’                                                                                                                                                                                                 - John 13: 34-35

This Monday, Year 4 students participated in the Accendere retreat based on the scripture above from John 13. The theme of the day was Friendship, and through games, activities and stories, students explored what makes a good friend, how Jesus treated his friends, who is our neighbour, and how to be a good friend.

Jesus’ disciples were his friends as well as his followers. They were the ones that continued his work after he left. Jesus respected them and took them with him everywhere. He shared meals with them, laughed, and even cried when they needed a friend. Through the Good Samaritan parable, students learned how to follow His example and show love to others, even if we don’t know them that well. How we treat people, especially our friends and the other students in our class and school, is a way to show love and kindness, as Jesus asked us to. They learned that any act of kindness makes the world a better place for everyone, no matter how big or small. Kindness is doing what you can, where you are, with what you have. 

Thank you to Mrs. Mclennan for leading the retreat. The kids all had a wonderful day and really enjoyed spending the day together as friends and classmates.

Mercy In Action Award

Congratulations to this fortnight's Mercy in Action Award winner, Alexander Frame. Xander receives the award in recognition of displaying the Mercy Value of Service, demonstrated by the way he is always ready and willing to help and support those around him. Alexander consistently gives up his time during STEM Club to assist others, even though he would prefer to finish his own challenge. He is always ready to help others, particularly our younger students, without expecting anything in return for his efforts. Through his caring attitude and actions, Alexander makes our school a peaceful and happy place to be. Congratulations Alexander!

Mrs Louise Senz

Class Awards

Our Principal Award winners are:

• Kindy - Harper Hyland
• Year 1-  Rose Mclennan
• Year 2 - Kal-El Randall
• Year 3 - Byron Ellis
• Year 4 - Hugo Simpson
• Year 5 - Grace Bell
• Year 6 - Kavanna Corcoran

Our Class Award winners are: 

Class News - Stage 2

In Stage Two this term, we have been investigating how our local community has changed and stayed the same over time. We visited the Maclean Stone Cottage and Bicentennial Museum to enrich our understanding of this topic. The students had an absolute ball, gaining real-world insights into how Maclean has transformed over the years. 

“I learnt that they used to cart and deliver everything on water”. Sophia

“I loved the farming artefacts and learning that tractors used to have metal spikes and were called Spiky. It was so cool how they planted crops and ploughed.” Cooper

“I learnt that the teachers whack you with a cane if you were naughty.” Jesse

“I learnt that to get to Grafton, you would use a boat/passenger liner/passenger ship to get there.” Brock

“My favourite artefact was the washing machine because it didn't use electricity and had to be spun by hand” Oskar

Our class was so impressed with the Museum and the Mercy Values shown to us by the Maclean District Historical Society volunteers, who gave up their time and expertise to be our guides, that the students wanted to send a letter of thanks. We wanted to show our Respect for the Service and Hospitality shown to us. We brainstormed everything we were thankful for and co-constructed this letter together. 

Thank you for showing us around the Stone Cottage and Bicentennial Museum last Tuesday. We thank you and the amazing volunteers for showing us kindness by giving up your time and sharing your knowledge with us. 

Our class believes you have created a historian's paradise, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with you. We appreciate you sharing your stories, showing us around and bringing the artefacts to life. It helped our brains to grow as we learned so much about our town's past. 

We had so much fun that we couldn't stop talking about our experience with our family and friends. We hope to see you again soon.

What a wonderful experience it was all around! We hope you enjoy reading all the student's comments about what they learnt! And if you’re looking for something to do in the school holidays, why not check out our local Museum? Stage Two will tell you it is definitely worth a visit. 

Mrs Mclennan

School Sport

I'm thrilled to share the latest sports highlights from our talented students. Our teams showcased remarkable resilience and courage at the recent Rugby 7's Skills Clinic and Gala Day at Evans Head. Stage 3 girls Avah Anderson and Zoe Brett led their team to a podium finish. All teams played enthusiastically, reluctant to sub out as they enjoyed every moment. Meanwhile, at Maclean Pool, students are mastering water skills, and our surfing enthusiasts, guided by Shayno at Turners, are gracefully navigating the waves. A big thank you to students, parents, and coaches for making these sporting endeavours so enjoyable and successful.

Mr Gilchrist

Pastoral Care - School Counsellor

Counselling Corner

How to manage end of year craziness without getting overwhelmed!!

Term 4 has arrived along with what seems to be a MILLION events to add to the already full calendar. So how can we support ourselves and our families to end the year well??
Below are a few tips to help create a smooth, calm and hopefully stress-free (or at least a bit less stressful) term 4:
BE KIND TO YOURSELF!!! I cannot stress this enough. You are doing an amazing job just getting those kids out the door. If you forget crazy sock day, if you can't make it to that 'thing' at school, if you pack library books on swimming day and swimming stuff on library day, practice saying these words:

"Oh well, no big deal."

"I've contributed plenty this year already"

"I give myself permission to drop the ball"

GUESS WHAT? When you role model being kind to yourself, quickly forgiving yourself and staying cool calm and collected when things go south, kids will catch that vibe and most likely follow suit. 
“Imperfections are not inadequacies. They are a reminder that we are all in this together.” Brene Brown

Bel Chapman

School Counsellor

Pastoral Care - School Chaplain

St Vinnie's Christmas Appeal            

Last Thursday, our SRC captains launched our St Vinnie's Christmas Appeal. This appeal continues to rebuild strength in the men and women experiencing disadvantage this Christmas. 

Thank you for your generous donations so far. Already, the hampers in our classrooms are overflowing with your donations, and we invite families to continue to donate non-perishable food, new toys or money. 

Hampers are located in classrooms for students to place items. These hampers are given to families within the Clarence to help make their Christmas a bit more special.

Mrs Juana Mead 

Community Notices

Angourie Dance Youth Project Summer Program 2024 – CALL OUT

 Angourie Dance Youth Project is a new initiative of world class dance artists Janessa Dufty and Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal. Having needed to travel nationally and internationally for most of their dance training and careers, Janessa and Jade aspire to support Clarence Valley youth dance by sharing their extensive experience and knowledge with the next generation of local young dancers and contribute to the dynamic arts and cultural landscape in NSW.

An official announcement was made by the Minister for the Arts that Angourie Dance has been successful in receiving a Holiday Break grant to deliver free creative workshops for young people in regional NSW. All applications were carefully assessed by a panel of external experts, including NSW Government Create NSW and the Office for Regional Youth.

Taking place at Raymond Laurie Sports Centre, Yamba and Green Point Reserve, Angourie this 4-day program, from 22 - 25 January 2024 during 9.30am - 3.30pm for Ages 8 -18 years

Young dancers will be guided by Jade and Janessa to explore their own creativity through contemporary dance techniques, experiential anatomy, creative movement, composition tasks, choreographic process and dancing for the camera. The program will culminate with an informal ‘outdoors in nature’ performance outcome on the Thursday for family, friends and broader community.

Inviting a diversity of young dancers with inclusion of First Nations, CALD and people with disability or who are d/Deaf.  Dedicated participation is FREE but completing an Expression of Interest Form is required. Identifying some learning goals and their reasons/expectations for attending.

This is the link

https://forms.gle/SbVdDSZ6z4K8G3g86

Closing date for EOI - 1 December 2023

Young dancers will gain skills to develop their confidence and artistry in a supportive and collaborative environment. Dancing is a great way to express emotions, communicating physically, allowing those feelings to move through our bodies, out of our bodies, and in doing so, to move others.