Week 8 - Term 1 Newsletter 2025

Principal's Message

2025 School Goals

Each year, as part of our School Improvement Process, we set School Goals to ensure continuous growth and development within our school community. As in previous years, our 2025 School Goals are shaped around three key domains:

• Catholic Identity & Mission

• Learning & Teaching

• Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

Our approach is both strategic and intentional, ensuring that everything we do at St Joey’s is purposeful and aligned with our mission to help students ‘achieve the fullness of life’ while ensuring they are ‘known and valued’. By focusing our goals within these three domains, we strengthen our Head, Heart & Hands framework, which is reflected in Learning, Values & Behaviour.

Below, you’ll find our three key goals for 2025, along with the intended outcomes.

MISSION 

• STRENGTHEN PARISH CONNECTION - To build meaningful connections between parish and school by fostering & strengthening shared values to create a unified faith community.
• STUDENT AGENCY & PARTICIPATION - To provide authentic opportunities that empower students to actively seek, participate and lead aspects of mission within the school, parish & wider community.

LEARNING

• WHOLE SCHOOL AGREED PRACTICES - Collaboratively renew and align Whole-School agreed teaching practices with consideration to curriculum design, fostering a unified approach that enhances student learning and engagement.
• INCLUSION & INTERVENTION PROCESSES - To refine & strengthen our inclusion and intervention frameworks, enabling timely identification of students needs and providing targeted support to student learning.

PASTORAL CARE 

• WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACH TO PASTORAL CARE - To develop and embed school-wide protocols that foster a safe, nurturing environment, allowing staff to respond in a consistent & timely manner which places students at the centre.
• STAFF COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION - To strengthen communication & collaboration amongst staff, cultivating a team approach that enhances our support for student wellbeing.

Pupil Free Days

Throughout the year, our school will hold several Professional Learning Days, which will be designated Pupil-Free Days. These days are essential for staff development, allowing our educators to grow professionally while supporting the school’s overall direction.

Each of these days is carefully planned to align with our Vision and the three key domains:

• Teaching & Learning

• Catholic Identity & Mission

• Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

We understand that Pupil-Free Days may present challenges for families, and we sincerely appreciate your support in ensuring our staff have these valuable opportunities for growth.

• Term 2 - Staff PL Day (Monday 28th April)
• Term 2 -  Staff PL Day (Friday 4th July)
  
• Term 3 - Staff Parish Retreat   (Monday 21st July)
• Term 3 - Staff PL Day (Friday 26th September)
• Term 4 - Staff PL Day (Monday 13th October)

Additionally this year, all staff will be attending twilight PD later in the year which will not impact school days.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

Just a reminder that our Term 1 Parent-Teacher interviews will be held in Week 10 (Monday 7th - Thursday 10th April) whilst there are still timeslots available for all classes, online bookings are filling up. Please note that bookings will close next Friday 4th, however, all parents/caregivers are encouraged to attend these meetings so we can discuss your child’s transition into the new school year and together set important learning goals for Term 2 and identify ways we can each best support your child.

If you would still like to attend one of these meetings and having trouble booking please call the Front Office on Monday and they will be able to let you know any available timeslots (please note due to teacher preparation, 'on the day' booking requests may not be available).

Kind regards

Dale

Upcoming School Dates

• Wednesday 2nd April - St Joey's Art Night (Week 9)
• Thursday 3rd April - School Cross Country (Wherrett Park or School Grounds TBC)
• Monday 7th April - St Joey's Celebration Day @ Brooms Head (Week 10)
• Mon 7th - Thur 10th April - Parent Teacher Interviews (Week 10)
• Tuesday 8th April - McAuley Catholic College Open Night (Week 10)
• Friday 11th April - Easter Liturgy (Week 10)
• Friday 11th April - Last Day Term 1 (Week 10)
• Saturday 12th April - Sugar Cane Festival

Leader of Learning

Using Data to Drive Learning

At St. Joseph’s, we believe great teaching starts with understanding our learners. In our weekly Professional Learning Team meetings, our teachers collaboratively analyse student data to inform our practice and ensure every child gets the support they need.

We recently reviewed our Maths data, which highlighted the need to deepen students' understanding of place value across the school. Research shows that a strong grasp of place value is essential for developing number sense and mathematical reasoning. To support this, we identified number lines as a powerful tool to help students visualise number relationships, magnitude, and structure in our base-10 system.

We explored where number lines appear in the syllabus and planned targeted activities to strengthen student learning. Now, across the school, you’ll see students using number lines in exciting ways, such as representing improper fractions and mixed numerals, solving addition and subtraction problems, skip counting in multiples, understanding fractional time, and working with numbers from single to multi-digits. These hands-on experiences are helping students build confidence and a deeper understanding of numbers in a meaningful way.

Take a look at the photos to see number lines in action across our classrooms.

Bringing Science to Life

Next Wednesday, our students will have a wild encounter with The Wildlife Twins. This engaging show will bring real animals into our school, providing a fantastic hands-on learning experience that connects directly to our Science Living World units. From exploring life cycles to understanding habitats and survival strategies, students across all stages are developing their knowledge of the natural world, and what better way to deepen their learning than meeting these amazing creatures up close?

We look forward to sharing more learning highlights in our next newsletter.

Mrs Mclennan

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Leader of Mission

Solemnity of St. Joseph Mass - 19th March

Last week, we came together as a school and parish community to celebrate the Solemnity of our patron saint, St. Joseph. It was a truly special occasion, marked by a beautiful Mass where we gathered with members of our parish to pray for the intercession of St. Joseph and reflect on his qualities as a guide and protector.

During the Mass, we were blessed with a heartwarming gift: a magnificent statue of St. Joseph, generously donated by St. Vincent de Paul. The statue, which will now have a prominent place in our school, serves as a reminder of St. Joseph’s steadfast faith and devotion to God and family. It will be used in our whole-school celebrations and will be a cherished symbol of his presence and protection over our school community.

We extend our thanks to Fr. Roland for leading us in our Mass. A special thank you also goes to our Stage 3 leaders, who played an important role in guiding us through the Mass. And, of course, we are deeply grateful to St. Vincent de Paul for their generous donation, which will help inspire and remind us of the values St. Joseph represents.

May this statue be a source of inspiration and a constant reminder of St. Joseph's care for us as we continue to grow together as a school community.

What’s on in the RE Classroom?.... Stage 3.

In a hands-on learning experience, our Stage 3 students recently took on the challenge of creating their own liturgies in Religious Education (RE) lessons. The task was to choose a mercy value that would serve as the focus of their liturgy and, working in teams, incorporate all four key parts of a liturgy.

The students dove into the project with enthusiasm! They carefully selected songs, Gospel or Scripture readings, and wrote their own Prayers of the Faithful. They also crafted opening and closing prayers, designed their own prayer spaces, and created meaningful artwork—all centred on their chosen mercy value.

This task allowed students to engage deeply with our Mercy Values, as well as connect with the liturgical calendar and how it reflects Jesus’ life. It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to not only learn about the structure of liturgy but also to experience the power of prayer and reflection. 

Well done, Stage 3! Your creativity and faith shine through in every aspect of your work!

Easter Masses

The liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil will all be celebrated this year at St. Mary's Church, Maclean. The Easter Mass times in the parish on Easter Sunday are;

Yamba - 8:00am

Maclean - 9:30am

Iluka - 11:30am

Mercy In Action Award

This week, we are proud to present our esteemed Mercy in Action award to Talia Tasi. Talia receives this honour in recognition of displaying our Mercy Value of Hospitality. She truly embodies the essence of hospitality by always making those around her feel welcomed and valued. Whether it's inviting others to join in her games, or offering a kind word or helping hand to someone in need, Talia's actions reflect her beautiful caring nature. Congratulations, Talia, and thank you for always showing Hospitality to those around you! 

Mrs Senz

Class Awards

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

Principal Awards

Class Awards

Class News - Stage 2

Year 4 have moved on from their first unit focus book of ‘The Thing About Oliver’ and have shot straight into ‘Deadly Science: The Solar System’. 

Wowweeee the facts we are learning about our Solar System and outer space! #futureastronauts 

Here are some excerpts from Year 4’s most recent paragraphs about Jupiter; we hope you get to learn a thing or two!

• Jupiter’s size is massive! You can fit 1300 Earths inside it AND it takes 11.9 years to orbit.
  • Lawson
• Jupiter is the biggest planet and it’s the fifth furthest away from the Sun.
  • Oli
• Jupiter is 799 million kms away from the Sun and has no land, just liquid Hydrogen.
  • Ted
• Jupiter is surrounded with white clouds which are made of ammonia crystals, the other clouds that are wavy and colourful are made by dust particles.
  • Issy
• Jupiter got its name as the King of all Roman Gods.
  • Kal
• Jupiters clouds are colourful and wavy because Jupiter spins so fast, turning once every 10 Earth hours.
  • Noa
• The Great Red Spot is a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years on Jupiter. It’s actually like a hurricane.
  • Dotti
• If Earth was the size of a grape, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball.
  • Daisy

To add to the English bonanza of fun, The Premier’s Reading Challenge is alive and thriving in Stage 2.

This fantastic initiative encourages students to develop a love for reading by setting a goal to read a set number of books within the challenge period (20 books; 10 Red Star and 10 Own Choice - logged by August). With a wide selection of books to choose from, students can explore new worlds, expand their vocabulary, and boost their literacy skills.

Teachers, parents, and caregivers can support students by tracking their progress and celebrating their achievements. Let’s make reading fun and rewarding!

We got an opportunity to read this VERY funny book as a whole class the other day called ‘Bush Turkey’ written by Kate and Joe Temple. It now gets to go on everyone's PRC list!

Ms Zietsch & Mr P

Pastoral Care - School Counsellor

Building Positive Friendships

Friendships are an important part of childhood, helping children develop social skills, confidence, and emotional well-being. As parents, we play a key role in guiding our children toward forming healthy, meaningful friendships. Here are some ways you can support them.

1. Teach Kindness and Empathy

Ages 5-7: Young children are still learning to recognize others' feelings. Encourage simple acts of kindness, like sharing toys or comforting a friend who is upset.
Ages 8-12: Older children can understand empathy on a deeper level. Teach them to notice their friends' emotions, offer support, and practice kindness in daily interactions.

2. Encourage Good Communication

Ages 5-7: Help your child practice basic conversation skills, like saying "hello," asking questions, and taking turns while speaking.
Ages 8-12: Teach them how to express their feelings clearly and work through conflicts by talking things out rather than reacting impulsively.

3. Model Healthy Friendships

All Ages: Children learn by watching their parents. We  can show them how to be a good friend by maintaining respectful, supportive relationships in our own lives. If they see us handle conflicts calmly and kindly, they are more likely to do the same.

4. Support Social Opportunities

Ages 5-7: Arrange playdates and structured activities where your child can interact with peers in a comfortable environment.
Ages 8-12: Encourage participation in extracurricular activities, such as sports, clubs, or community groups, to help them meet new friends with shared interests.

5. Help Them Recognize Healthy vs. Unhealthy Friendships

Ages 5-7: Teach children that good friends are kind and take turns. If someone consistently makes them feel bad, it’s okay to look for new friendships.
Ages 8-12: Discuss peer pressure and how to stand up for themselves if a friendship feels one-sided or negative. Encourage them to seek out friends who support and respect them.

6. Encourage Inclusion and Open-Mindedness

Ages 5-7: Encourage your child to include others in play and be open to making new friends, even if they seem different from them.
Ages 8-12: Help them understand the value of diversity in friendships and how different perspectives make relationships richer.

By providing guidance and support, you can help your child develop strong, positive friendships that will benefit them for years to come.

Jess Jones - School Counsellor

Pastoral Care - School Chaplain

Project Compassion 

This week, as part of our ongoing support for Project Compassion, we are learning about Irene, a remarkable woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Irene is a 25-year-old single mother of two boys who has faced many challenges, including extreme poverty. Despite these hardships, Irene has become a skilled seamstress and is now able to support her children's education through her income.

Through the generous support of Caritas Australia's partners, including Caritas Kongolo, Irene was able to participate in the Youth Capacity Strengthening Program. This program has provided her with the tools and resources needed to transform her life and give her children the chance to build a brighter future.

We continue to encourage and appreciate your support of Project Compassion, which helps individuals like Irene and countless others around the world.

SRC Funday - Week 10

We’re excited to announce that our SRC Funday will be taking place in Week 10, and we’ll be celebrating with an Easter Egg Hunt! The SRC (Student Representative Council) will be helping to hide the eggs for students to find, preparing Easter crafts, and assisting with organising the day. It’s sure to be a fun and festive occasion, and we hope all students participate.

SRC Meeting Highlights

At the latest SRC meeting, we discussed the importance of keeping our eating areas clean. We ask that students wait for the SRC members to check the areas before they head out to play. This ensures that our school remains tidy and welcoming for all.

Ms Juana Mead - School Chaplain

School Sport

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Unfortunately, due to persistent wet weather, we have no Cross Country or Winter Sport trials updates to share this week. However, we were able to squeeze in Friday sport over the past fortnight. Students have transitioned into gameplay, applying their learned skills in communication, accountability, resilience, teamwork, and both fine and gross motor development. The progress of our older students looks promising as we prepare for our gala days in soccer and beyond!

Looking ahead, we have Winter Sport Trials next Friday and Cross Country on Thursday. We’re hoping for good weather and a fantastic day! We also want to acknowledge the dedication of many students who have been actively training for their respective events—your hard work is inspiring, and we applaud your commitment to achieving your goals.

This Week’s Resources:
Included in this week's newsletter is a Water Safety Resource from Royal Life Saving Australia, featuring digital tools to help students learn essential water safety skills. It provides guidance on treading water, along with activities students can complete independently at home.

Additionally, we’ve linked  Raising Children's Physical Activity: Getting Children Involved

• Physical activity is about having the time, space, and opportunities to be active.

• One of the best ways to encourage children to be active is to participate together.

• Focus on the joy and benefits of movement rather than outcomes.

• Walking is a simple yet effective way to increase physical activity with children.

We look forward to an exciting week ahead and, hopefully, some sunshine!

Anthony Gilchrist - Sports Coordinator

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