Term 1 Week 1 2024

Key Information

Term 1 Important Dates

• Friday Week 1 (26th January) Australia Day Public Holiday 
• Wednesday Week 2 (31st January) Welcome Back BBQ - Meet & Greet Parent/Teacher, 4pm-5pm
• Friday Week 2 (2nd February) Tropical Disco, 5:30pm-7pm
• Tuesday & Thursday Week 3 (6-9th February) Life Ed Visit - Prep to Year 6
• Tuseday Week 4 (13th February) Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Breakfast
• Wednesday  Week 4 (14th February)  Ash Wednesday Liturgy, 2:30pm
• Monday Week 6 (26th Feburary) School Photos
  
• Monday & Tuesday Week 9 (18-19th March) - Parent Teacher Interviews
  
• Wednesday Week 10 (27th March) Last Day of Term 1

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 2 is:  Chicken Tetrazzini & Funfetti Cookie Bars

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.

If you are needing students to try on sizes we are available on Monday from 2:30-3pm and Wednesday from 8:10-8:30am.

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 

Begining of Year Mass Invitation

Principal's News

Welcome back to a new school year! As the Acting Principal of St Joseph’s for 2024, I am excited to embark on the journey of learning, growth, and discovery with our school community.   To all our returning students, it's wonderful to have you back, and to our new additions, a heartfelt welcome to our school family.  It was inspiring to see all the happy faces of our students (and their parents!) on Monday – it certainly showed that the spirit is strong and vibrant in our school.

Building Progress:

Our school building project is beginning next week and it is anticipated that all work will be completed sometime in Term 4. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience with the increased traffic with the arrival of the construction crew.

School Drop Off & Pick Up:

To help avoid congestion and ensure the safety of the children, could parents avoid parking in the loading zones in front on the school on Ham Street.  The zones are to be used as stop, drop and go areas only and we will have signage erected shortly.  If you are walking your child into the school, please park in designated parking areas across the road and utilise the crossing.  Also, a reminder that our grounds are not supervised by staff until 8.10am. 

Upcoming events:

Week 2 brings a variety of events, kicking off with the Welcome BBQ on Wednesday at 4pm and Tropical Disco on Friday from 5.30pm – 7pm.  On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, the Chaplaincy Breakfast will run.  Unfortunately, I will be absent Wednesday to Friday and will miss both events as I am attending a conference in Townsville.  Please do not hesitate to drop into the office and make an appointment if you wish to talk or say hello each school morning.

Expression of Interest:

Our biggest fundraising and from what I have heard, a highly anticipated school event is the fete.  The success of this event relies on volunteers, both from within the school and the wider community.  If you can spare some time help with the organisation of the fete, please register your interest with the school office.

Finally, don’t forget to check our Facebook page for daily updates.

May the peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you today and always.

 Mrs Karen Good 

Acting Principal 

Deputy's News

Mr Dean Kelley

Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning

Pastoral Care

Welcome back to 2024! 

Whether it is starting school for the first time, moving up to a higher grade or embarking on a journey through secondary school, there is no doubt that any school transition is a very exciting time for children and parents. It means your children are growing up! However, transitioning is an ongoing process. It can continue long after students have entered their new environment and may encounter difficulties at a number of different stages. These stressors may appear as anxiety and frustration and result in negative or disruptive behaviours. Such behaviours can become problematic making the transitioning process even more difficult for children and parents. During the early stages of the school year, staff spend considerable time on establishing or reestablishing relationships with new and returning students. From the time invested in this early part of the year comes trust whereby students get to know teacher expectations and classroom rules, and when teachers develop an understanding of personality type and the particular learning styles of each student.  Research tells us that to make significant improvements academically learners need to feel safe, secure and included in the classroom which makes this perhaps, the most crucial time of the school year.

Check out the link to the School Transitions edition of SchoolTV for further information. https://sjctsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/school-transitions

Upper Middle Years

School Stationery

Some students are missing items from the stationery list provided to parents and caregivers. Critical items such as glue, pens, whiteboard markers and calculators appear to be those missing from pencil cases. Please ensure your child is equipped to start the school year with sufficient supplies (the full list is available on our website). Thank you for your assistance in this.

To add to this, due to the current building project, students will not require an apron for the first semester of 2024; we will let you know with time in advance when needed.

Uniform

It was most impressive to see our Years 7-9 students arrive on Day 1 in correct academic uniform. Parents and caregivers are reminded that all students require fully black shoes with leather uppers to wear with the academic uniform.

School Camp 2025

The Upper Middle Years will be fundraising for the next 18 months for their school camp in Term 3, 2025. The first fundraising event will occur next Friday with our Tropical Disco! Food can be ordered through the My School Connect Tuckshop app with orders closing Wednesday 31st January at 8.30am. On the night we will have lolly bags and drinks available for purchase - cash only. Hope to see you there!

Mrs Toni Schneekloth
Pastoral Leader

Prep

We have just about made it through Week 1! I am sure that there are many tired kids.

Our focus this week has been on getting to know the students and also helping them settle into the routine of school. We explored the “Where is the green sheep” story book and also created our own version of this book.

 In Week 2 we will begin our Initial Lit Literacy lessons. The focus next week is understanding that language is made up of individual words and also on rhyming words. In Math, the students will be exploring numbers 1 - 10. This includes recognising amounts and identifying numerals. The class will also “have a go” at writing the those numbers. Our Science unit this term is about the weather. As part of this, the students will identify the weather each day and how we stay safe and healthy during this type of weather. During Religion, the Prep’s will be learning about God and participating in some prayer. The class will also practice centred breathing, leading onto Christian meditation.

Reminders:

Tuesday - sport (wear sport uniform)

Wednesday - tuckshop to be ordered online BEFORE 8.30am.

Thursday - tuckshop. Please remember that your child still needs food for Brain Snack and first and second lunch on these days.

Friday - assembly at 8.30am. 

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs McLauchlan, Miss Tamara and Miss Kylie.

Year 1

Hello parents and carers,

What an amazing first week we have had in Year 1. 

In week one we discussed what it means to be a bucket filler. We collaboratively discussed and explained different ways to fill others and our own buckets.The students came up with many ways that they can be kind to their friends.

As a class, we read the book ‘The Rainbow Fish’ and discussed how the Rainbow Fish was and was not showing kindness. Together, we retold the story using the hex tray with the Rainbow Fish characters.  The students also had lots of fun painting their own rainbow fish and telling me one way they can show kindness.

Reminders

There is a Welcome Back BBQ on Wednesday the 31st of January from 4-5pm, where you can visit our classroom.  All are welcome!

Art: Tuesday 

Library: Thursday 

Sport: Thursday (sport uniform) 

Technology: Friday 

Have a wonderful week,

Miss Haley and the always fun Year 1’s!

Year 2

Hi Year 2 Parents and Carers,

My name is Leonie Ansell and I will be your child's teacher this year. This will be my fourth year teaching Year 2 at St Joseph's. Thank you for entrusting me with the care of your children; I am looking forward to a great year of learning!

This year, we will also be joined during Lessons 1 and 2 by Miss Naomi Liersch. Miss Liersch will help with the delivery of Literacy and Numeracy. She is very excited to be spending time with us in Year 2.

Specialist Lessons

The Arts - The Arts will be taught by Mrs Jill Smith. Year 2 will have their lesson on a Monday each week.

Sports - Sport will be taught by Mr Matthew Timms. Year 2 will have their lesson on a Tuesday each week. Students are to wear their sport uniform for this.

Technologies - Technologies will be taught by Miss Lisa Pucciarmati. Year 2 will have their lesson on a Friday each week.

Library - This year, students will engage in Library time with their classroom teacher. I have scheduled our Library time for Monday Week B. Students will use this time to borrow books which will be used as part of their reading for homework.

Week 1 Recap

This week, we have spent time getting to know each other through a variety of activities. We have completed InitiaLit screener tests which will help to identify where each student's reading level is and how to best support their learning. During Maths, we have been quantifying the number 1000! The Year 2s have recognised how big the number 1000 is and have discussed smart ways we can count to 1000. Some images of this have been attached below. We have also engaged in some Writing, Science, HASS and Religion.

Week 2

• Students will have Library on Monday. Please make sure library bags are brought in
• We will be beginning or InitiaLit lessons and continuing our work on place value and numbers in Maths

If you have any additional information about your child that you would like me to know or any other questions or concerns, please email (lansell5@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au) me at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

Miss Ansell

Year 3

Hello and welcome to Year 3,

What a great first week we had in Year 3! It has been so enjoyable to get to know the new Year 3 learners and work together to set up our new learning space! All the learners have been busy and working hard to settle into the new expectations and routines for Year 3 and have demonstrated an incredible work ethic so far… it’s going to be a fantastic year! It is always a joy to see and experience students’ excitement for learning and I am looking forward to continuing to foster that throughout the year. 

In Year 3 we are ready, learning, and respectful at all times.

Below is an outline of our learning goals for the term.

Mathematics
We will be covering units on place value and addition and subtraction where we will order and represent numbers beyond 10 000 (!) and use a range of strategies to add and subtract numbers. We will also be identifying and exploring shapes and angles in real world settings.

English
We will be learning a range of reading comprehension strategies, developing our handwriting skills, learning new sounds each week to enhance our spelling skills, and learning to write and speak persuasively! 

Religion
We will be learning about God's presence and His relationships with people while reading a range of scriptures from the Bible. 

Science
We will be learning about living and nonliving things in our biological sciences unit. 

HASS
We will be learning about rules and democracy in our Civics and Citizenship unit and diverse celebrations and commemorations in our History unit. 

Health
We will be learning about how to value diversity (including our own diverse identities) and interact respectfully and appropriately with others to promote inclusion in our community.

Other Reminders:

• Welcome Back BBQ Wednesday 31st January in Week 2

This is a great opportunity for you to come into the Year 3 classroom to check out your child’s new learning space. I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know you all there!

• Homework - Homework will be given to students every Monday and is due every Friday. This will begin Monday 29th January Week 2.
• PE uniform Tuesday 
• Chaplain’s Breakfast - Tuesday & Thursday at 7:45am in MMS 

Thank you,

Laura Cook

Year 4

Hi all,

Welcome to Year 4 for 2024! I hope all of the learners in Year 4 have had an enjoyable week and are feeling more settled in the classroom. We have been having a lot of fun learning about Character Traits, creating Acrostic poems and reviewing mathematics content from last year. Have a look at some of our work we have completed!!!

Our English learning this term will include practising our reading fluency, comprehension, and expanding our vocabulary. We have already begun working on identifying internal and external character traits and will continue to investigate what we can infer about a character based on their actions. From here we will examine the setting and structure of texts, ultimately preparing us for our Term 1 Book review assessment. For writing, we are currently maintaining our writing fluency using daily narrative stimulus and beginning to refine our understanding and ability to write different sentence types. As the term progresses we will examine different types of book reports/reviews so we can develop our skills enough to review a book of our choice for our Term 1 assessment.

For Mathematics, we will be working on:

• Practising adding and subtracting numbers using the written algorithm (with regrouping)
• Using bar modelling to solve word problems that involve addition and subtraction
• Learning our 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables
• Using different objects to measure length
• Collecting data to display using many-to-one picture graphs and answer questions about the data, and
• Sketching 3D shapes

Coming up next week, our writing sentence focus will be The Adverb Start. The Adverb Start Sentence is a sentence that starts with an adverb.  Adverbs are (nearly) all the words beginning with -ly in English. Words like: cleverly, usefully, firstly, brilliantly, sneakily, importantly, cheerfully, silently, curiously, and finally.

Check these out:

• Sadly, the pirate captain Greenbeard Hawkins never learned to swim.
• Carefully, Sophie snuck the spider into her brother’s cornflakes.
• Fortunately, Henry’s grandmother was quite good at ducking flying apples.

Spelling: Our sound for this week is ‘b’ as in balloon. This sound can be represented by the following graphemes (letter combinations): b and bb.

The b (balloon) sound is most commonly represented by the grapheme b (e.g. ball, table, web).

The grapheme bb (balloon) is seen in the middle of words, after short vowel sounds (e.g. rabbit, cabbage).

The grapheme pb is an unusual way to represent the balloon sound (e.g. cupboard, raspberry).

Reminders:

• Chaplaincy Breakfast - Is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7:45am.
• Library - Our Library times have been booked - YAY! We will be visiting the Library every week on Fridays, just before the end of day. 
• PE - Students have PE on Thursday.
• Homework - Students will receive homework next week. This needs to be returned by Friday.

Have a great week,

Mairin Borlase

Year 5

Welcome to 2024! 

In Year 5 we have had an exciting start to our term. This week has mainly focussed on getting ourselves organised for the year ahead, team building activities with Year 6 and discussing how we will use the Elements of Success to further develop our leadership qualities.

There will be a huge focus on the development of leadership skills throughout the year as good preparation for the Secondary phase of your child's education, as well as beyond the school as citizens of a local and global community. We are in the process of developing 7 Leadership Legends GOALS for our Year 5/6 learners and these will be heavily connected to the Elements of Success.

This year Year 5 will also have access to a website that will include general classroom information and  termly overviews for learning. This will be developed in the coming days. Our HOME LEARNING page will be a work in progress for several weeks, in the meantime reading every night is essential!

Our first week in Year 5!

We began the week with an open door, welcoming in many parents and families - it was great to see so many of you. We then had a Welcome Back assembly and a Y5-9 Liturgy in our church.

The Snowball activity with Year 6 was to share one thing they enjoyed in the holidays and one thing that they are looking forward to in 2024. You'll all be happy to hear that the main highlight was time spent with family.

Connecting with the Year 6 class, we participated in a Marble Run challenge. Teams needed to work collaboratively in teams to get the marble 5 metres and land in the cup. Even with the outside temperature on Monday, all learners fully engaged in the task and there were marvellous discussions and attempts. Following the team building task, learners had the opportunity to reflect on their success in the task, but also how well their team communicated and collaborated, while being supportive and respectful of all ideas.

The Year 5 learners also participated in a Paper Chain challenge. Students worked in teams to create the longest paper chain using only 2 pieces of paper, 1  glue stick and 1 pair of scissors. After the class completed the challenge, we reflected on what skills we needed to be successful. 

We have started some of our Spelling and Mental Maths learning to get our heads back in the game! 

Our class  have also enjoyed creating their Zentangle Artworks for their OWOW folders.

Reminders:

This year, the Year 5 class is fortunate enough to have different teachers joining them for the specialist subjects: Japanese, Science, Health, PE, Technologies and the Arts. Mr Matthew Timms will be teaching the class for PE, Miss Lisa Pucciarmati will be teaching Science, Health and Technologies, Mr James Delaney will be teaching Japanese and Mrs Jill Smith will be teaching the Arts (Term 1 Drama). Although Year 5 will have a range of specialist teachers, I am the main classroom teacher and will be the point of call for any concerns.

What’s on in Week Two

• Welcome Back BBQ: 31st January at 4:00-5:00pm
• Assembly: Friday 2nd February at 8:30
• Tropical Disco: Friday 2nd February at 5:30-7:00pm

Kind regards,

Mae-Louise Brock

Year 6

Welcome back to 2024!

Having already worked with all of you and your children, no introductions are needed. Needless to say, I had a lovely time away with family and friends and hope that those of you that I haven't caught up with enjoyed some family time during the holidays. It has been wonderful to hear their many, many stories this week and having the photographs for our Guess Who game. Thank you so much for promptly emailing those images - great to spark conversation with peers.

This week has mainly been getting ourselves organised for the year ahead, team building activities with Year 5 and discussing how we will develop our leadership skills throughout 2024 as Leaders of our Primary Phase.

There will be a huge focus on the development of leadership skills throughout the year as good preparation for the High School Phase of your child's education and beyond as citizens of a local and global community. We are in the process of developing 7 Leadership Legends GOALS for our Year 5/6 learners and these will be heavily connected to the Elements of Success.

Below, you'll find some general classroom information and a termly overview for learning will develop in the coming days. Our HOME LEARNING page will be a work in progress for several weeks, in the meantime reading every night is essential!

A shorter week but no less action packed!

We began the week with an open door, welcoming in many parents and families - it was great to see so many of you. We then had a welcome back assembly and a Y5-9 Liturgy in our church.

The Snowball activity with Year 5 was to share one thing they enjoyed in the holidays and one thing that they are looking forward to in 2024. You'll all be happy to hear that the main highlight was time spent with family.

Connecting with the Year 5 class, we participated in a Marble Run challenge. Teams needed to work collaboratively in teams to get the marble 5 metres and land in the cup. Even with the outside temperature on Monday, all learners fully engaged in the task and there were marvellous discussions and attempts. Following the team building task, learners had the opportunity to reflect on their success in the task, but also how well their team communicated and collaborated, while being supportive and respectful of all ideas.

The Year 6 learners have obviously had huge leadership growth during the last 12 months because their attempt at the Chain Reaction Challenge was amazing. Teams were originally 3-4 learners, however when success was becoming apparent with one team, two teams merged and we had an excellent Chain Reaction!

We have started some of our Spelling and Mental Maths learning to get our heads back in the game! The learners have also enjoyed creating their Zentangle Artworks for their Journal Cover. Our Class Website page link will be shared with you all next week.

Important Dates:

• Welcome Back BBQ: 31st January @4:00-5:00pm

• Assembly: Friday 2nd February @8:30
• Tropical Disco: Friday 2nd February @5:30-7:00pm
• Life Education Visit: Tuesday 6th February
• Start of Year Mass: Thursday 8th February @8:30
• Cyber Safety Week: WEEK 3

Kindest regards,

Mike Tarleton

Subject Spotlight

Year 7 Maths with Mr Delaney 

This term, to kick off their high school Maths learning, the Year 7 students will be using fractions, decimals and percentages to deepen their knowledge from Year 6. We will be finding equivalent fractions, including on a number line, multiplying; dividing; and rounding decimals, and solving problems using percentages, including unit prices to determine “best buys”. 

Later in the term, the students will explore the world of index notation and the relationship between perfect squares and square roots. 

We have had discussions around expectations this week and the students seem ready and eager to take their maths to the next level. 

Homework tasks will be generally set through Maths Online. This means that there will be less occasions requiring them to lug their text books to and from school. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I will be in contact with any & all updates throughout the year!

Year 9 Languages with Mr Delaney 

This term, we are learning about Yuru Chara. This refers to Japanese mascots. In Japan, nearly everything you can think of has its own mascot. Students will be learning about the pop-cultural significance of this practice before creating a mascot of their very own. This mascot will represent something in/to do with Cloncurry…

To go with their creative mascot drawings, the students will be constructing a handmade booklet that introduces and outlines their mascots. They will then create an animated voiceover that pitches their idea and further introduces their mascot. On presentation day, these animations will be showcased to the teachers and their fellow peers for judging to decide the winner of the 2022 Cloncurry Yuru Chara Grand Prix.

Year 8 Geography with Mrs Delaney Lovett

The Year 8 class will kick off the 2024 school year with History as their focus area for Humanities. We will cover three topics - Medieval Europe (and the Renaissance), The Black Plague & Japan and the Shoguns.  After our first week, it was amazing to see such high interest from the class! Students will explore the importance of the Church, Feudalism, farming practices, impacts of the Black Death, daily life and living conditions; with a particular focus on the difference between rich and poor during this historical period. They will also examine aspects of fashion, entertainment and hygiene practices (or perhaps, lack thereof!) I will be sure to share any updates of their progress or in-class activities with you (via email) as the unit progresses, but I look forward to an interesting term with our junior Historians! 

Please contact me via email at any stage of the term if you have any questions, queries or simply want to touch base! 

Miss Lovett 

Updated - Parent Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct for Parents at Townsville Catholic Education Schools has been updated. Please take the time to read this. 

Community Information