St Joseph's Catholic School - Cloncurry eNewsletter

Key Information

Term 4 Important Dates

Friday 1st December - Last Day of School for Primary Students, finishes at 12pm.

Tuckshop News

Please email Jamie-Lea at jmcconachy@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au or call the office to let us know if you're available to volunteer!

Our special for Week 9 is: Aussie Dogs and Christmas Slice

Please have your orders in by WEDNESDAY 8:30 am.

To order: https://myschoolconnect.com.au/

Uniform Shop

Our Uniform Shop is now located in the new office space (old library). We are open to orders being placed via the app, https://myschoolconnect.com.au/

Please give us 24 hours to organise collection for your order, we generally contact you when your order is ready to collect.

As this is a new system for us, please be kind and considerate while we find our feet in the new office space.

Miss Heather

Seniors Christmas Concert

Literacy at St Joseph's

Awards night

Congratulations to all students who performed or received awards at our awards night. It has been a great year and you should all be proud of your achievements!

Welcome to Week 9 - the final week of school for the 2023 School Year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the support that you have given to St Joseph’s in 2023. The staff and students are incredibly thankful for the ongoing work that you do for our wonderful schooling community.

In reflecting on the year I wish to express the immense pride that I have in our students who overcame many obstacles to strive for success in all areas. At our End of Year Mass our two School Leaders, Jack McIntyre and Nika Sala addressed our community for the last time and they both made reference to the challenging but incredibly successful year that we have had. What a privilege it is to be able to witness the joy that comes from students progressing in their learning. I am thankful that we could come together last week at our Awards Ceremony and End of Year Mass to celebrate the success and hard work of our students.

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish our departing families, students and staff all the very best as they embark on the next stage of their schooling journeys. I strongly believe that you will achieve what you put your heart and mind to and we look forward to hearing of your stories throughout the year. You will always be a big part of our St Joseph’s Community.

As I approach the end of the term my heart is filled with gratitude, but also sadness that I will be departing the Joey's community in Terms 1, 2 and 4 in 2024. Please rest assured that I have left a detailed handover for Mrs Karen Good and am very excited to return in Term 4 to celebrate the wonderful year that you have had. I look forward to sharing with you the safe arrival of my little boy in the coming weeks.

Advent
The holiday season is a time for celebration for many of us, especially as we begin to decorate our homes for Christmas and enjoy all of the festivities that come along with this magical time of the year.

The beginning of this holiday season is also the beginning of an important event in the Catholic Liturgical Calendar, being Advent. Advent is a time to help us remember what Christmas is all about. I challenge you to have conversations at home over the coming weeks about the season of Advent and the significance of Christmas to our faith.

Our prayer tables at school changed to the colour of purple this week to reflect the beginning of the Advent Season. In ancient times purple was the colour of royalty as it was costly and rare. The liturgical colour of Advent is a symbolism to welcome the coming of a King.

In the Catholic Church the beginning of the Advent Season is a period of waiting and preparation which extends over the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent is the time of preparation and waiting for the birth of Jesus. It is important to take the time to reflect and be grateful for the many blessings that we have, remembering the real meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Hampers
As a school we teach our students to 'never see a need without doing something about it' and that is exactly what we intend to do. We have prepared baskets of food and gifts for families in need this Christmas Season.

Although the holiday's are an exciting time for us all, it can bring financial pressure to families which can become overwhelming. The baskets that we have prepared consist of food donated by a number of our families and toys from St Vincent de Pauls. The food and gifts are brand new products that haven't been used or opened.

If you are in need of assistance this holiday season and would like a basket of food and or gifts please reach out by calling the office on (07) 4742 1633 or by emailing skelley2@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au

This will be kept confidential and the baskets will be distributed by myself, Mrs Toni Schneekloth (Pastoral Leader) and Mrs Curley (Assistant Principal).

If members of our schooling community don't need the baskets of food or gifts we will reach out to members of our Cloncurry Community to help anyone that may be in need this Christmas Season. If you know of anyone please let us know.

End of School on Friday:

In Period 1 on Friday our students will join together in the MMS for our Annual Joey's Got Talent Competition. This will be at 8.40am. Parents and carers are welcome to join us.

We will also come back together for a short Christmas Concert, Prayer and Final Dismissal on Friday at 11.10am in the MMS. Students have had several sessions with Miss Jill this week to prepare their dance for the concert. We love being able to provide extra-curricular opportunities like this at St Joseph's and feel so privlidged that Miss Jill was available to do this. Thank you Miss Jill!

School will conclude after this concert at 12.00pm.

2024 School Dates:
A reminder that school will resume on Monday the 22nd of January 2023 for all Prep to Year 9 students.

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

May God Bless you and your families for the week ahead,

Mrs Samantha Kelley
Principal

APRE News

Welcome to our final week of 2023! It has been a busy term and this week is no exception. Mrs Jill Smith from Performing Arts of Cloncurry is working with our student over this week to learn a christmas dance. These dances will be showcased at our final End of Year Assembly at 11:10am on Friday morning.

The whole school will also walk to the Shire Hall on Wednsday to re-preform their christmas act at a Seniors Chrismas Concert. The students will also spend the week participating in Advent activies in the hope to encourage the students not to forget about the true meaning of Christmas - it’s not all about the presents.

Advent -A time to get ready
Advent is a special time when we get ready for Jesus. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. During this time, we get ready to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is a time of waiting. We wait with hope. We know that someone very special is coming.

Please join us for our End of year assembly at 11:10 am, Friday. Prep to Year 6 will perform Christmas dances.

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to welcoming our community back in 2024. I will be taking some long service leave for the first 3 weeks of term. In my absence Ms Connie Lamari will be acting in my position. Connie has a great deal of experience and I’m sure she will feel very welcomed into our community. For those students, staff and families who are leaving, we send with you a heartfelt blessing and wish you all the best in your new endeavours.

May God bless all our students, staff and families.

May we be filled with love, joy, and peace this Christmas and throughout the New Year.

Loving God, may we find joy in giving and receiving gifts this Christmas. As we celebrate the gift of your Son, Jesus, may we become present to each other as we give and receive. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.

Amen

Mrs Therese Curley
APRE

Pastoral Care

See You in 2024!!

As the 2023 school year ends, I couldn’t be any prouder of the St. Joseph’s Catholic School students and staff. In another year that has thrown us so many curveballs, I have seen all the students mature, develop independence and improve their skills across various contexts. I wish to thank all the SJC staff, our parents and carers, and the extended support networks that continue to enable our students in becoming the best they can be.

Thank you to our hard working Student Representative Council (SRC) - they have given up their own time to serve their school community. Well done!

To the families who will leave us this year, please remember you are still part of the St. Joseph’s family and call in or email us anytime to say hello. We thank you all for the great contribution you have made to our school.

I wish all of you a Spirit-filled Christmas. Enjoy the time with family and friends, take a moment to rest and relax and I look forward to seeing you all as we begin another school year together in 2024!

Mrs Toni Schneekloth
Pastoral Leader

Teaching and Learning - Reports

What a wonderful year we have had.

A reminder that reports have been published for Semester 2 and these can be accessed on the Compass Application. Our front office will close at 12pm on Friday after all students have departed the school grounds, so please phone or pop into the office this week if you cannot access your child's report.

If you are a departing family please be sure to download or print your reports as once your child has been unenrolled from St Joseph's you will lose access to these reports.

I would like to wish our staff, students and families a safe holiday period and I look forward to joining you in my new position of Deputy Principal in 2024.

Kind Regards,

Mr Dean Kelley
Head of Teaching and Learning

Prep

It is with a heavy heart that I write my last newsletter item for 2023.

We will be sad to hand this year's class over to Miss Haley!

I would like to say a huge thank you to Narissa O’Brien, Lauren Green and Laura Gresham for their constant help with literacy groups this year. Please pop in at some stage this week so that the students can say thank you and give you a little gift.

Each student has a Xmas gift for their family and I also have something small to give to them. We will hand these out on Wednesday or Thursday. If your child is not going to be here, please let us know so that we can give these out earlier.

We will also be emptying the tidy tray lockers and sending any work home. We will keep the coloured folders that worksheets have been put in, for the 2024 class to reuse.

This is a fun but busy week. The class will be involved in learning a dance performance with Miss Jill. This will happen each day. They will also combine with Year 3 to undertake some fun advent activities which include craft and cooking.

Books in homes also visited this week, we are thankful for the books our students received. On the topic of books, we still have quite a few outstanding home readers and library books. Please check for these at home and return if possible. Thank you for the privilege of teaching your child this year. Wishing you a christmas filled with love, happiness and family.

Reminders:

Tuesday - NO SWIMMING and Books in Homes books given out.
Wednesday - order tuckshop and Cloncurry Shire Hall excursion for the Seniors Christmas Concert.
Thursday - Tuckshop.
Friday - 8.40am Joeys Got Talent, 11.10am dance performance by each class, followed by End of Year Prayer and dismissal at 12.00pm.

Yours in fun and learning Miss Tamara Williams, Miss Brie Thew and Mrs Sharon McLauchlan

Year 1

Welcome to Week 9!

It’s the final week, woo hoo!

Our week this week is filled with Christmas cheer and spirit. The Year 1’s have an action packed week including; pool parties, christmas activities and dancing lessons, as well as a special visit from the cowboys.

Please ensure that all readers are brought back before your departure.

Tuesday - Books in Homes books given out.
Wednesday - order tuckshop and Cloncurry Shire Hall excursion for the Seniors Christmas Concert.
Thursday - Tuckshop.
Friday - 8.40am Joeys Got Talent, 11.10am dance performance by each class, followed by End of Year Prayer and dismissal at 12.00pm.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Miss Brock, Miss Haley and the always fun Year 1’s!

Year 2

Hi all,

Tomorrow we will be heading down to the Shire Hall to put on a Christmas Concert for the seniors of our community.

Finally, I just wanted to thank you all for such a wonderful year. I am blessed to have had the most beautiful bunch of children with such awesome parents! I wish you all a safe and restful holiday and I look forward to another wonderful year at St Joseph’s next year.

Tuesday - Books in Homes books given out.
Wednesday - order tuckshop and Cloncurry Shire Hall excursion for the Seniors Christmas Concert.
Thursday - Tuckshop.
Friday - 8.40am Joeys Got Talent, 11.10am dance performance by each class, followed by End of Year Prayer and dismissal at 12.00pm.

Merry Christmas!

Miss Leonie Ansell

Year 3

Welcome to Week 9!

Can you believe this is the last week of Year 3?! The year has flown by and I hope you all have an exciting Christmas break to look forward to.

I would love to extend my pride and gratitude here for the outstanding effort every Year 3 student made in our Christmas concert performance. It filled me with joy to be apart of the experience and see the students so excited to learn, recite, and perform our Christmas Poem! All their hard work and practice paid off because it was awesome!! Well done Year 3.

Here’s what we are learning and doing this week:

Dance with Miss Jill

English: Students will continue to practise their handwriting, as well as our comprehension and writing skills with a focus on Christmas fun!

Spelling: Students will focus on the ‘er’ sound as in leader, which is represented by the graphemes er, ar, or, a, e, i, o, and u.

Maths: Students will revise our unit on money to practise counting change from financial transactions.

Religion: Students will be participating in various prayer experiences including mindful meditation to consider the meaning of Christmas.

Science: Students will participate in STEM activities in the classroom to build their teamwork skills and their abilities to apply and use scientific thinking.

Plus:

Books in Homes - Tuesday 10am
NQ Cowboys Visit - Tuesday
Chaplaincy Breakfast - Tuesday & Thursday at 7:45am in MMS
Tuckshop - Must be ordered before 8:30am Wednesday
Senior Christmas Concert - Wednesday 9:30am Shire Hall
Swimming - Pool Party with Year 4 - Thursday 10am
Joey’s Got Talent - Friday 8:40am
Dance Concert, End of Year Prayer & Dismissal - Friday 11:10am
School Concludes Friday 12pm

Thank you. Have a great week!

Miss Laura Cook

Year 4

Hi all,

Much to the students' pleasure, there is no homework this week. Instead of normal curriculum learning we will be reviewing the content we have covered through the year, practising some NAPLAN style questions in preparation for these assessments next year, completing some advent activities, and having a massive tidy up!

Reminders:

Tuckshop - Please make sure Tuckshop orders are placed by Wednesday morning.
Library - Students will visit the library for the last time this Tuesday. All books will be returned for stocktake over the holiday period.
PE - Students won’t have PE this Wednesday, however they will be visiting the pool on Thursday for a class swim and BBQ. Please make sure your child brings their togs on this day.
Tuesday - Books in Homes books given out.
Wednesday - order tuckshop and Cloncurry Shire Hall excursion for the Seniors Christmas Concert.
Thursday - Tuckshop.
Friday - 8.40am Joeys Got Talent, 11.10am dance performance by each class, followed by End of Year Prayer and dismissal at 12.00pm.

Have a great week,

Miss Mairin Borlase

Year 5

Dear families,

The final week of 2023!

MONDAY: Advent activities with Y2/Y6 in lesson 1. We have organised a Pool Fun session 11:00-1:20pm - we will have sausage sizzle and will share this experience with our Year 2 buddies who will join us at the pool. We have our PAC Dance session in the afternoon.

TUESDAY: Advent activities (cooking) with Y2/Y6 in lesson 1. Please have your Secret Santa gifts in school today ready for Thursday. We have our PAC Dance session in the afternoon. We are lucky enough to have a visit from the NQ Cowboys before the end of the day.

WEDNESDAY: Seniors Concert at Shire Hall in lesson 1. We have our PAC Dance session in the afternoon.

THURSDAY: Advent activities with Y2/Y6 in lesson 1. Secret Santa gift sharing 9:40-10:40 am. We have our PAC Dance session in the afternoon.

FRIDAY: Joey’s Got Talent in the morning. Dance performance at 11:30 am in the MMS. Prayer and Dismissal at 12pm.

Wishing all our families a lovely peaceful, fun-filled time.

See you all in 2024!

Mr Mike Tarleton

Year 6

Welcome to Week 9,

As mentioned last week I have taken leave this week as I have had to travel back to Townsville early. I would like to thank our parents and carers for their involvement in the Year 6 Graduation last Monday, Christmas Concert and Awards night on Wednesday and The End of Year Mass on Friday. Your attendance at these events was gratefully appreciated.

This week I have left detailed covers for the students supervising teacher.

The students will be engaging in some advent activites such as cooking and completing Christmas workbooks. These activities are designed to educate students on the meaning of Christmas for Catholics, whilst also providing some fun and engagement for them in their last week of school.

The students will also join with Miss Jill each day to practice a Christmas Dance. It is great to see the students getting involved in this and I am sure the performance on Friday morning at 11.10am in the Mary MacKillop Shed will be great!

The students will go to The Cloncurry Shire Hall tomorrow, Wednesday 29th November, to perform our Christmas Concert Dance to some Seniors of our community. They will be departing the school at approx. 9.30am.

I am wishing you all a safe and happy holiday period and I thank you for your support whilst I have been teaching at St Joseph's Catholic School, Cloncurry.

Mr Dom Purcell

Subject Spotlight

Prep to Year 6 Technology with Miss Humes
It has been my absolute pleasure to take technologies across the primary classes this term. Collectively, every class has dived into exploring and developing their competence with the design processes. Specifically we have achieved this through the lens of Christmas, the upcoming holiday of which I’m sure excitement is building within your homes.

Prep-2 classes have had a great and messy time as we planned for creating some Christmas decorations. We talked about the steps we need to take when crafting, drew some plans of what our final product might look like, and discussed why or why not we liked our final designs. The Christmas trees out of recycled materials was fun, but from what I heard the real highlight has been the paper-mache experience as we created our very own ornaments.

In 3-4 we also looked at how to go about designing a Christmas decoration, however we took it one step further as we planned for it to be a gift for someone. To do this students had to consider what the person they intended it for would like before sculpting their design out of clay. While this had some mixed results, the paper we made and embedded with seeds was far more successful. If you happen to be someone receiving a christmas message on one, make sure to water and plant it for an extra little gift.

Our 5-6 classes decided to step up and take on a challenge for this term by diving straight into a large-scale design project. Working together, students were tasked to create a Christmas village out of cardboard boxes that the younger years could walk through and enjoy. There were some very different ideas brought to the table during the designing and planning stages, however it ended up turning into a cohesive Christmas display and was a resounding success.

Miss Shara Humes

Prep to Year 6 PE with Mrs Ellis:
This term, our P.E. unit was focused on water safety and swimming. Some of the skills covered in the unit included safe entry to and exit from the pool, stroke skills, diving, survival and rescue drills, relays, water volleyball, and water polo. Ultimately, the students were assessed on their demonstration of fundamental movement skills, safe and healthy behaviours towards themselves and their peers, and problem-solving in the pool environment.

The increase in confidence has been wonderful to see across the range of abilities. This was demonstrated at the swimming carnival, with all the students putting in a fantastic effort and many stepping far outside their comfort zones. The Year 5 and Year 6 classes finished off the unit with an epic water polo match, which was amazing to watch. Well done to everyone!

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Nerissa at the Cloncurry pool, and to all the parents and grandparents who generously gave their time to help us each week during our lessons. It has been greatly appreciated.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas break!

Mrs Evelyn Ellis

Library

As this is the final week of the school year for the high school students, I yet again ask pleeeeease that ALL school texts are returned by Thursday, 23 November. Many books are still outstanding from last year, but it is never too late to return them! Thank you in anticipation of your cooperation in this regard.

Thanks,

Ms Gillian Gardiner
Teacher Librarian