Term 1 Week 2

Key Information

Term 1 Important Dates

• Week 3
  • Tuesday 6th February Welcome Back BBQ - Meet & Greet Parent/Teacher, 4pm-5pm 
  • Tuesday to Thursday 6-9th February - Life Ed Visit (Prep to Year 6)
  • Thursday 8th February - Beginning of Year Mass, 8:30am
• Week 4
  • Tuesday 13th February - Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Breakfast
  • Wednesday  14th February - Ash Wednesday Liturgy, 2:30pm
• Week 6
  • Monday 26th February - School Photos
• Week 9
  • Monday & Tuesday 18-19th March - Parent Teacher Interviews
• Week 10
  • Wednesday 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 3 is:  Crunchy Chicken Salad Wrap & Caramilk Custard 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.

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

Come Back Competition

Principal's News

Welcome to our second edition of our newsletter for 2024
 
I hope your child/children had an enjoyable first two weeks back at school.  It has been lovely to see the place very green after our rainfall, however, that meant the oval was out of bounds for our students.  Special thanks to the teachers for keeping the students occupied during the lunch breaks.  The Lego Club was very popular with Year 2! 
 
Unfortunately, we had to postpone our Meet and Greet BBQ due to the wet weather.  Please keep Tuesday 6th February free and join us at 4pm to meet your child/s teacher and have something to eat.  I encourage all to attend to meet the teacher (if you have not already done so) and to gather further information about your child/ren’s class and our school as a whole.
 
Next week is Cyber Safety Week, with Tuesday being Safer Internet Day. We use the internet in almost every aspect of our lives, so it’s important for everyone to know about online safety. 
What is Safer Internet Day?
Safer Internet Day is a global initiative to raise awareness of online safety issues. Its aim is to educate people about online safety risks, like online abuse, how to be safe online and where to go for help.
This Safer Internet Day we're encouraging you to take three simple actions when approaching online safety: Connect. Reflect. Protect.  
Connect safely by keeping apps and devices secure and reviewing your privacy settings regularly. 
Reflect on how your actions online may affect others or your safety. 
Protect yourself and others by visiting eSafety.gov.au to find out how to stay safe online and report online abuse.
By doing these things and sharing the Connect. Reflect. Protect message, we can work towards making every day a Safer Internet Day.

Have a great week!

 Mrs Karen Good 

Acting Principal 

Deputy's News

Mr Dean Kelley

Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning

APRE

As a ‘retired’ teacher, I am excited to be acting as the Assistant Principal Religious Education for the next few weeks. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to meet more teachers, colleagues around the Diocese.  

Beginning of Year School Mass will be held on Thursday 8th February at 8:30.  There will be light refreshments served after mass.  Could children please be dressed in full academic uniform?  

On Monday 12th February, students will be preparing to make their sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist by attending the retreat. Both candidate and one parent will need to be present at the retreats.  If your child is interested in making these please email me so that I can put you on the enrolment list.  I will be at Mass on Sunday morning if you require more information. My email is clamari5@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au to enrol.

Life Education classes will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for students from Prep to Year 6.  Data consent forms were sent home for parents and caregivers to sign and return to your children’s classroom teacher.

Week 3

• Ash Wednesday
• Sacraments

Connie Lamari

Acting APRE

Pastoral Care

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 be tonight (2nd Feb) 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 ($2) and drinks (juice, soft drink & water for $2ea) available for purchase - cash only. Hope to see you there!

House Shirts

With most of our formal events that require students to wear academic uniform occurring on Fridays, we are changing the day students can wear house shirts from Friday to Wednesday each week.  This change will take effect from Week 3.

SchoolTV

Because parenting doesn't come with instructions, SchoolTV is a wellbeing resource implemented at our school to help support you in the challenges of modern-day parenting relating to youth mental health and wellbeing. Parenting is a learning journey and SchoolTV supports families by providing credible information from trusted sources with practical strategies to help alleviate some of the challenges being faced by young people today.

Watch video interviews with leading wellbeing specialists and browse a library of resources. Each topic is accompanied by factsheets, podcasts, books, articles, apps and other videos.

This award-winning resource helps families build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers to navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. It will assist you in starting those conversations on topics that can sometimes be awkward or difficult to tackle.

Parents and caregivers are the greatest influence on a young person's life and SchoolTV focuses on empowering confident parenting. Explore SchoolTV today!

Mrs Toni Schneekloth
Pastoral Leader

Safer Internet Day - Tuesday 6th February

Safer Internet Day is a global initiative to raise awareness of online safety issues. This Safer Internet Day we're encouraging you to take three simple actions when approaching online safety: Connect. Reflect. Protect.  

1. Connect safely by keeping apps and devices secure and reviewing your privacy settings regularly. 
2. Reflect on how your actions online may affect others or your safety. 
3. Protect yourself and others by visiting eSafety.gov.au to find out how to stay safe online and report online abuse.

By doing these things and sharing the Connect. Reflect. Protect message, we can work towards making every day a Safer Internet Day.

For parents, go to this link, for information on parental controls on devices, advice for various situations, grooming, and cyberbullying.

Toni Schneekloth

Pastoral Leader

Prep

In week 3 Prep will move on from rhyming words to identifying the syllables in words during our Initial Lit lessons. During math, the class will continue to identify and write numerals and show these amounts on a tens frame. In religion next week the class will participate in Christian mediation and learn about Jesus in preparation for Lenten activities in the lead up to Easter. 

Reminders:

Tuesday - sport (wear sport uniform)

Wednesday - tuckshop to be ordered online BEFORE 8.30am. Healthy Harold visiting school.

Thursday - Beginning of Year Mass at 8.30am. 

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

 Library books will be changed.

Please remember to bring a large water bottle that your child can independently manage the lid on. Unfortunately, we do not have the time or staff to be constantly refilling water bottles. If we are unable to refill we will send students to the water bubblers for a drink.

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs McLauchlan, Miss Tamara and Miss Kylie.

Year 1

Hello parents and carers,

We have had a wonderful 2nd week of school!

In Math, for the past two weeks, we have been looking at numbers up to 120. More specifically looking at our teen numbers. The students have had fun creating a big hundreds board and labelling their own. 

In English, the students have been practicing writing correctly in the red and blue lines. The students have written a wonderful recount of their weekend and drawn a lovely corresponding picture. 

In Science, the students have been identifying what things make sound in and out of the classroom. They have been filling in their light and sound booklet with some amazing pictures of things that make sound. 

Here are some pictures of the students completing some math activities and retelling the Rainbow Fish story. 

Reminders

Literacy groups will start next Monday at 9:10am! Please email me if you would like to come and help. ehaley@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au

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 all,

During week 2, we have begun to engage in our InitiaLit lessons. Year 2 InitiaLit covers both spelling and reading comprehension. We will be revising digraphs learned in Year 1, learning new spelling rules and tricky words and learning comprehension strategies to help us understand what we are reading. In Writing this week, we read a text called ‘The Lizard Gang’ and have begun creating character preferences based on this text. 

During Maths, we have been looking at how to represent, read and write 3 digit numbers to prepare us for ordering 3 digit numbers. We have engaged in a number of activities using tens frames and our maths mat to help with this.

We also covered our other subject areas which include:

Religion - This term we are looking at God’s Nature and his relationship with his people

Science - This term we are looking at mixtures and their different purposes

HASS - This term we are looking at Past and Present

Next Week

• Homework is due on Mondays
• Healthy Harold is coming to visit! Please return forms for this
• We will begin literacy rotations

Kind regards,

Miss Ansell

Year 3

Hello all,

Week 2 was wet but wonderful! 

We learnt so much this week, check it out:

Mathematics
We learnt to read, write, and say numbers up to millions! 

We also learnt to order large numbers from smallest to biggest. 

English
We learnt about FANBOYS (words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and how they can be used to connect two clauses/ideas to make a compound sentence. We also learnt about connectives for paragraph writing in persuasive texts such as ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’, and ‘in conclusion’.

We used Adverb Start Sentences in our Daily Challenge for Writer’s Toolbox. For example: Quickly, the man ran down the street so he could catch the bus.

We learnt how to use prediction as a comprehension strategy and engage with the texts we read. 

We also learnt the ‘b’ sound as in ‘boat’ which is represented by the letters b and bb.

Religion
We learnt about how God is present in nature and all of creation (like the sun and the moon, the rain, the wind, the lightning, the thunder!). We also explored how First Nations peoples have spiritual connections to the land.

Science
We learnt about the 7 Characteristics of Living Things using the acronym: MRS GREN (movement, respiration, sensitivity, growing, reproduction, excretion, nutrition).

HASS
We learnt about fair rules, democracy and ballot voting (from which we all concluded that Taylor Swift is our favourite singer!).

Health
We learnt about cultural diversity and respecting others.  

Reminders for next week:

• Homework - Homework will be handed out Monday and is due Friday. 
• Drama will be on Tuesday instead of Monday this week
• PE uniform Tuesday 
• Chaplain’s Breakfast - Tuesday & Thursday at 7:45am in MMS 
• Tuckshop order due before Wednesday 8:30am
• Life Education (Friends & Feelings) - Wednesday 1:50pm

• Beginning of Year Mass Thursday 8:30am

• Library on Thursday 

Thank you,

Laura Cook

Year 4

Hi all,

This week we’ve been working on our Adverb Start sentences and understanding different types of nouns. When practising this, we made collages using magazines. Here is one we created:

Coming Up:

Next week we will continue practising our Adverb-Start sentences and will learn a new spelling sound: The ‘a’ in apple. This sound is almost always represented by the grapheme a with very few exceptions (e.g. salmon, plait, meringue). The ‘a’ sound in apple is used at the start and in the middle of words, but never at the end of words (e.g. apple, black).

Reminders:

• Chaplaincy breakfast is on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning at 7:45am.
• Our Meet and Greet BBQ is on Tuesday afternoon from 4-5pm.
• Library is on Friday
• PE is on Thursday
• Life Ed will be visiting us on Tuesday next week.
• Our Beginning of the Year Mass will be held on Thursday morning - all are welcome to attend.

Have a great week,

Mairin Borlase

Year 5

This week in Yr 5 we have been really focussing on setting up our everyday classroom routines. We have spent time logging into our online platforms (Writer’s Toolbox and Think Mentals) to complete our daily tasks. 

In English, this Term, Year 5 will be diving into all things Narrative writing. We have spent time over the last two weeks discussing  Fractured Fairy Tales. This week students have paired up to plan out a Fractured Fairy Tale with a classmate. We will move through the writing process over the following 2 weeks planning, drafting, revising, publishing and presenting their collaborative Fractured Fairy Tales to the class. 

Our Math focus at the moment is addition and multiplication strategies and place value. Year 5 have started using our Think Mentals program as a warm up activity to introduce addition strategies.

This week we have a continued focus on the Elements of Success to further develop our leadership qualities 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.

Connecting with the Year 6 class, Yr 5 have participated in prayer. We have discussed the importance of communication, serving others, loving one another and having faith. During two of our prayer sessions, Each student was given a You Matter card to write one reason that person matters in our class. Over the Year we will continue this activity weekly. 

Reminders:

• Assembly: Friday 2nd February at 8:30
• Tropical Disco: Friday 2nd February at 5:30-7:00pm

Specialist Subjects:

Monday: Japanese, Science

Tuesday: Drama

Wednesday: Health and Science, students may also wear their House Shirts to school

Thursday: Technology

Friday: Sport, Students may wear their Sports Uniform

What’s on in Week Three

• Life Education visit on Wednesday the 7th of February
• Beginning Year MassBeginning Year Mass: Thursday the 8th of February
• I will be away Friday the 9th of February  as I will be attending the training for the much anticipated Term 4 camp

This year Year 5 will also have access to a Website that will include general classroom information and a 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! This will be and running Very Soon!

Kind regards,

Mae-Louise Brock

Year 6

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Week 2, here is what will be learned during Term 1 - for information about other subjects, please check our class website. You should have received a QR Code magnet for your fridge.

RELIGION: Learners will analyse information from a variety of texts, including New Testament texts. They will explain how Scriptural texts describe Jesus' relationship with God the Father and with humanity by selecting and using evidence from Scriptural texts including the proclamation of Jesus as fulfilling God's promises in the Old Testament. They will explain the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

In our READING unit, we will discuss NARRATIVE text structure and investigate the characters that authors have developed. Our initial shared text is Black Cockatoo by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler. In this text, the main character Mia (a First Nations girl) feels powerless to change things she sees around her until she explores connections of family and culture and discovers her own inner strength. In our comprehension texts, we will learn about word meaning in context and how the main idea of a text or chapter can be used to create a simple summary.

In WRITING, we will investigate the HAMMER Paragraph structure from Writer's Toolbox as a structure to generate our opening WHERE paragraph for Narrative. Precision and Expansion will be encouraged to ensure the audience have enough details about the setting and character. Generating ideas is often what holds learners back so focus will be given to sharing ideas for narrative writing throughout the term. In our SPELLING will again focus on the Sound Waves Programme - discussing phonemes and their related graphemes. We will discuss prefixes and suffixes that alter the base word and will continue to investigate Greek and Latin origins of words.

MATHEMATICS: In Term 1, learners will focus on fractions, decimals and percentages. They will order common fractions, giving reasons, and add and subtract fractions with related denominators. They will learn strategies for working with decimals when problem solving with the 4 operations and Length/Mass/Capacity. They will develop their understanding of the connections with percentages and how to calculate percentage discounts on prices of everyday items in the shopping trolley.

Important Dates:

• 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

Have a great week!

Kindest regards,

Mike Tarleton

Subject Spotlight

Year 8 English with Mrs Delaney-Lovett

This term, the students will engage in a novel-based unit, with close study of S.E Hinton’s The Outsiders. Through this, we will develop our understanding of specific literary techniques and explore the author’s use of theme to convey deeper meaning. The students will analyse character and structure, as well as poetic devices with the inclusion of the poem Nothing Gold can Stay’.  It is important that we are keeping up with our reading - most of this will be done at school, however, there will be times where students are required to independently engage with the text in their own time. I will provide an audio copy of the book to support our learners too. 

If you haven’t read the story, I 100% recommend it! It’s a classic for a reason. This may also open an opportunity for you to read with your child too! 

We have so far built our knowledge and understanding of the context the story is set - we will begin our whole class reading in the coming lessons.

If you have any questions, please reach out at any time. 

Happy reading!

Year 7/8 Digital Technologies with Miss Humes

This term our students are delving straight into the realms of digital technologies. Students will be looking at what a network is, how data is gathered and stored securely, and how computers communicate with one another using binary. We will also move into looking at some early programming skills later on as we generate our own code to create a quiz for others to complete. This will help create a shared understanding of how computers read instructions as we delve into other topics later this year. 

Should there be time towards the end of term, the goal is to give students a chance to explore some 3D modelling and design with the intent of creating a small project for printing. While the process of this may take some time, it is my hope that each student will be able to take home a model they have created and printed by the end of the year.

Year 8/9 Arts with Miss Humes

To begin this year in the artistic space, the 8/9 class are delving back into Media Arts. We will be building upon last year’s knowledge by switching our focus from filming to photography. Students will be learning about different compositional techniques they can use to capture a moment, and how these can affect the mood of an artwork. Of course, there’s no better way to do this than to go out and take some photographs for ourselves.

Later in the term, we will move into how photography is used in the media - think magazines, catalogues and other advertising material. Discussions will focus on how different industries edit and portray photos to create their own narrative, and how this can influence audiences one way or the other. Additionally, students will get the chance to develop their own editing skills as we look at applying these same techniques to our own work.

Please, should you have any questions, feel welcome to reach out to me!

Community Information