Term 1 Week 9

Key Information

Term 1 Important Dates

• Week 10
  • Monday 25th March - Sacramental Program Meeting 6 (Final Meeting), 3:00pm; IEAC Meeting, 3:00-4:00pm 
  • Tuesday 26th March - QMEA Year 7 Water; Bull Sale Fundraiser, 11:00am-1:00pm, Queensland Parliament Visit Year 5/6 
  • Wednesday 27th March - Last Day of Term 1; Good Friday Litugy, 8:30am; World Greatest Shave/Crazy Hair Day

Tuckshop News

Our special for Week 9 is:  Potato Cakes & Cinnamon Sugar Easter Bunny Twists

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

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

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

Uniform Shop

Our Uniform Shop is now located in the office. 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:

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 

General News

Attendance

Just a reminder that any absences should be entered into Compass (instrustions below).

However, if you are unable to use this method please ensure that you email not only the students teacher but also the office staff via clncry@tsv.catholic.edu.au or call the office on (07) 4742 1633.

Principal's News

Welcome to Week 9 and our last newsletter for Term 1.
This week was certainly jam-packed with activity.  On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, we held our parent-teacher interviews. It's wonderful to see collaboration between teacher and parent. Staff from Ernest Henry Mining team traveled to our school on Tuesday to hand out Books in Homes Australia books to our students. Each student receives books to take home to foster a love of reading. We love seeing their excitement as they open their new books.   Staff then attended an on-line professional development session on The Resilience Project on Wednesday. We also celebrated Harmony Week, which included many activities that helped students acknowledge our rich diverse community. On Thursday, Mrs Toni Schneekloth led an information session on our Year 6-8 Camp scheduled for 2025. To finish off the week, staff and students participated in the National Ride to School Day on Friday and our senior students attended the race day clean-up on Sunday morning.  I am constantly in awe of our staff and their dedication to our school.  A big thank you to all!

The following information, sent by TCE, may be useful to some of our families in our community:
Families navigating difficulties around money, housing, health and racism
Many families struggle with financial difficulties, homelessness and navigating related support services. There may be other challenges they’re facing at the same time, such as physical illness, violence or racism. Experiencing these kinds of stressors can lead to feelings of shame, blame and powerlessness for both parents and children. They may pile up to create more difficulties – including social, emotional, physical and material challenges. This selection of resources from Emerging Minds Families is designed for you to access independently. They have been co-designed with families who’ve been through tough times to spark hope for others when navigating difficulties around money, housing, health and racism and include:
- talking to children about family money struggles
- tips for families experiencing homelessness
- families responding to racism
- skills for navigating services, and much more.

Staffing Update
We are very excited to welcome Miss Nina Rank to our School Officer team. Miss Rank works with us from Wednesday to Friday, assisting in our Prep class.

Mrs Rachel Lovett-Delaney will begin her maternity leave from Term 2 for the remainder of the year.  We wish her and her husband Mr James Delaney our best as they embark on their journey into parenthood.  Miss Naomi Liersch will be replacing Mrs Lovett-Delaney in the secondary school.

Mr Matt Timms will be completing his final professional practicum at Ingham State High for five weeks at the beginning of Term 2.

Mr Aiden Huff will join us for four weeks as he completes his professional practicum.  He will be working under the guidance of Mr Tarleton in Year 6.

The Feast of St Joseph
The 19th March was the first of two feast days when we remember Joseph the Husband of Mary. Pope Pius XII described Joseph as "The humble craftsman of Nazareth [who] not only personifies before God and the Holy Church the dignity of the worker of the arm but [he] is also always the provident guardian of you and your families." We remember Joseph for his faithfulness to God, and to his vocation as Custodian of Jesus.  Our school community will celebrate our patron saint in Term 2 on May 1, the second feast day of St Joseph, where we will honour him as the patron saint of the worker. 

In closing, I would like to wish all staff, students and families a wonderful time of peace and joy over the Easter holidays. As we celebrate with chocolate Easter eggs, let us remember the miracle of Jesus' resurrection and His endless love.

Mrs Karen Good 

Acting Principal 

Deputy's News

Parent-Teacher Interviews

Thank you to all the parents who attended our Parent-Teacher Interviews earlier this week. Our Teaching staff enjoyed sharing stories of success, reviewing student progress and looking toward each student's future education. If you missed the opportunity to meet with your child's classroom teacher this week, please reach out and arrange an alternate time. 

Summary of Term 1 

Our students have shown remarkable progress in their academic growth, with notable achievements in literacy — particularly in writing. Last week, I was chatting with each cohort who had completed NAPLAN and it became increasingly apparent how successful our learners have become. The excitement on their faces when I asked them "How did you go" and they could tell me how they had either smashed it, nailed it, referred to how easy the test was or just simply gave me a smile and a thumbs up. It was heart-warming to see how confident and invested our learners have become. 

Teachers have implemented innovative teaching strategies and tailored interventions to support student learning and growth, both in the classroom and through remote learning platforms. We commend our students for their hard work, determination, and commitment to academic excellence.

As this is our last newsletter for Term 1, I would like to sign off by thanking all members of our St Joseph community for creating such a positive and nurturing environment for all our students to grow and develop. 

Mr Dean Kelley

Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning

APRE

St Joseph’s Feast Day

This week we celebrated the Feast of St Joseph (19th March). In classes student’s prayer focus and RE lesson was centered on St Joseph. On Friday we celebrated this special occasion at our Assembly with a special Liturgy. However, you may notice that no BBQ was organised. This year we have decided to make the bigger celebration on St Joseph’s second feast day.  St Joseph actually has two feast days: March 19th for Joseph the Husband of Mary and May 1st for Joseph the Worker.  St Joseph's was an exceptional role model of how one should live a life of faith.  

Who was St Joseph?

Everything we know about the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus comes from Scripture.

Joseph was a carpenter, a working man, (Matthew 13:55). He wasn't rich, for when he took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and Mary to be purified he offered the sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons, allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb (Luke 2:24).

Despite his humble work and means, Joseph came from a royal lineage as he was descended from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38). 

Joseph was a compassionate, caring man. When he discovered Mary was pregnant after they had been betrothed, he knew the child was not his but was as yet unaware that she was carrying the Son of God. He knew women accused of adultery could be stoned to death, so he resolved to send her away quietly to not expose her to shame or cruelty. However, when an angel came to Joseph in a dream, he did as the angel told him, and took Mary as his wife. (Matthew 1:19-25).

Joseph loved Jesus and Mary and protected them without question (Matthew 2:13-23 and Luke 2:48). Joseph treated Jesus as his own son (Luke 4:22).

We know Joseph respected God. He followed God's commands in handling the situation with Mary and going to Jerusalem to have Jesus circumcised and Mary purified after Jesus' birth. We are told that he took his family to Jerusalem every year for Passover, something that could not have been easy for a working man.

Since Joseph does not appear in Jesus' public life, at his death, or resurrection, many historians believe Joseph probably had died before Jesus entered public ministry.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Apocryphal Date for Joseph's birth is 90 BC in Bethlehem and the Apocryphal Date of his death is July 20, AD 18 in Nazareth.

Joseph is the patron saint of the dying because, assuming he died before Jesus' public life, he died with Jesus and Mary close to him, the way we all would like to leave this earth.

Joseph is also patron saint of the Universal Church, families, fathers, expectant mothers , travelers, immigrants, house sellers and buyers, craftsmen, engineers, and working people in general.

Easter blessing for the holidays

I would like to thank all our students, families, staff and friends of St Joseph's for their support and engagement in our school gatherings over our first term. For those who are traveling away for the break may you travel safely.  May you enjoy this Easter to its true spirit and make every blessing count.

Easter blessing to all! 

Notices:

Sacramental meeting: Monday 25th March - MacKillop room

Easter Mass times

24th March - Palm Sunday    Mass at 8.30am                      Fr Col      

28th March - Holy Thursday   Mass from 7pm                Fr Mick

29th March - Good Friday      Lord’s Passion 3pm                 Fr Mick

30th March - Easter Vigil Vigil Mass from 6.30pm         Fr Mick

31st March - Easter Sunday    Mass 8.30am                        Fr Mick

Have blessed week,

Therese Curley

APRE

Pastoral Care

The Resilience Project

Throughout 2024, we will be working closely with The Resilience Project to support the wellbeing of our school community. The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs and provides evidence-based, practical strategies to build resilience. Our Partnership Program consists of online presentations and weekly lessons for students, professional development for staff, and Parent & Carer Hub (inc. digital presentations) for our parent and carer community. 

Over the coming newsletters, we’ll be sharing the Parent & Carer Hub with you. The videos are 5-10 minutes long and will walk through the key pillars of resilience: Gratitude, Empathy & Mindfulness. You’ll hear stories and be introduced to activities to show how these strategies can support our kids' learning and development, and also support you as parents and carers.

This program is an important part of our school’s effort to look after the mental health of our community. View the first presentation of the series here:

Part 1: Meet Hugh and learn about The Resilience Project - https://theresilienceproject.com.au/2023-parent-carer-hub-inspire-hugh/  In this presentation, Hugh shares a personal experience about his sister's battles with Mental Illness.

Note: This video contains a story about an Eating Disorder that may be triggering. Please consider this before watching. For mental health resources and support information, visit The Resilience Project’s Support Page.

URSTRONG

Growing up, were you taught friendship skills?

Educators and parents today have become more aware of how important it is to teach children friendship skills. With the onslaught of social media and technology, friendships have considerably evolved; but in other ways, they remain the same as when you were young: we all want to get along and belong.

In this heartfelt conversation, Meg speaks with friendship expert and founder of URSTRONG, Dana Kerford. With a global reach of over 1 million, URSTRONG teaches schools and educators how to empower kids with friendship and relationship skills that will benefit them for their entire lives. In this conversation, you’ll learn what is friendship and why learning friendship and relationship skills is essential at a young age. You’ll also walk away with actionable tips you can bring to the classroom to promote wellbeing for all.

In this conversation we discuss:

• The importance of friendship skills
• Why being friends with everyone is bad advice
• How to put a Friendship Fire out
• And so much more…

Celebrating Harmony Week

Harmony Week is celebration held annually in March across Australia. It’s aimed at promoting diversity, respect and inclusiveness. This event is an excellent opportunity for parents to teach their children about different cultures, traditions and customs. The goal is to encourage everyone to appreciate and celebrate differences and promote a sense of community and belonging for everyone.

During Harmony Week, there are a number of events and activities held to bring people from different cultures together. These activities include multicultural food festivals, cultural performances, art exhibitions and workshops. Participating in these events helps children to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the diverse communities that make up Australia.

As a parent, you can engage your children in discussions about multiculturalism and encouraging them to ask questions. Promoting a more harmonious and inclusive society, can help children grow up with a greater appreciation for the richness and diversity of Australia's cultural landscape.

This Special Report hopes to instil positive values and create an opportunity to start a conversation with your child about understanding diversity and multiculturalism.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to your special report:
https://sjctsv.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-celebrating-harmony-week-au

As we approach the Easter holidays, I would like to extend our warmest wishes to you and your families for a joyous and rejuvenating break. I encourage you to take this opportunity to spend quality time with your loved ones, engage in meaningful activities, and cherish the spirit of the season. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. Wishing you all a blessed Easter filled with peace and happiness.

Best regards,

Mrs Schneekloth

Pastoral Care Leader

Prep

Week 10 in Prep,

We have a few InitialLit lessons to finish off this week. The letter sound we will explore is “r”. The class has now learnt:  m, s, t, a, p, i, f, and r will be taught in Week 10. Please practice identifying these sounds in words over the holidays. The students who practice their letter sounds at home definitely find it easier to identify the sounds that are needed to make words.

The class will continue to be involved in Holy Week Easter activities with Year 6. These will be done in Weeks 9 and 10. There will not be literacy/numeracy groups in Week 10. Thank you to all our wonderful helpers this term! Literacy/numeracy groups will not begin again until Week 2 of next term.

Emmie, the visiting wildlife carer, was unable to come last week. Hopefully she will be here in Week 10.

In science next Term the Preps will explore, what living things need to stay alive and healthy. As part of this learning we will be hatching chickens in an incubator. We hope to incubate about 10 eggs. I would like to put these in the incubator in the first week after the holidays. Please let me know if you have any suitable eggs.

Reminders:

Tuesday - sport

Wednesday - Assembly and Crazy Hair Day Parade

Thursday - no school

Return library books any day!

Wishing you a great Easter Break,

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs McLauchlan and Miss Kylie

Year 1

Hello Parents and Carers

We have had a busy second last week of school!

The students have been busy retelling our focus book ‘Brother Moon’ through amazing pictures and presentations. If you have a chance, ask your child to retell you the story before bed or in the car on your way home from school. 

In Math, the students are continuing to consolidate their knowledge in skip counting. They have loved skip counting in 5s and 10s, as well as our recent skip counting in 2s. The students have been focusing on skipping counting in 2s to 30. 

We had another amazing buddy session where we focused on Harmony Week. The students had great discussions and coloured in a lovely picture with their buddy. 

Here are some pictures of our week:

Thank you all for your amazing support and enthusiasm you have brought to the start of Year 1. It is a big jump from prep! You should all be proud of a great first term.

Reminders

Can you please ensure that your child brings back all borrowed library books as well as their homework. It is important that all decodable readers that were sent out in homework are returned to the classroom before holidays. 

Wednesday- Crazy hair day for World’s Greatest Shave 

Have a wonderful week.

Miss Haley and the always fun Year 1s!

Year 2

Hi all

This week we have been completing assessments across all of our subjects. A highlight for the week was creating Rocky Road as part of our learning about mixtures and their effects in Science. The students loved eating their sweet treats at the end!

Please remember to bring in library books and home readers so they can be checked back in.

Thank you all for a wonderful Term 1. I wish you all a happy and safe Easter holiday.

Kind regards

Miss Ansel

Year 3

Hello all

Thank you for your time during Parent-Teacher Interviews this week. It was great to touch base and discuss your child’s learning and engagement in Year 3 so far!

We only have one more week to go in Term 1. Time is flying. I wish you all a very safe and happy holidays this Easter.

Mathematics
This week the students created sculptures and used their creation to identify shapes and angles. 

English
All the students presented their persuasive arguments to the class and myself in an attempt to convince us to choose one of the Toy Story characters as our class mascot! I know the Year 3s are waiting with bated breath to hear the results! 

Religion
This week the students completed an assessment task to show what they learnt about Jesus as the Messiah.

Science
Again, students completed an assessment to show what they knew about living and non-living things.

HASS
This week, the learners investigated a few new celebrations and commemorations, identifying the importance of each one. We explored Diwali (the Hindu festival of lights), Chinese New Year, and ANZAC Day. 

Reminders for next week:

• Three day week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)
• PE uniform Tuesday 
• Chaplain’s Breakfast - Tuesday 7:45am in MMS 

Thank you

Miss Laura Cook

Year 4

Dear families

Learning:

As this coming week is a short week, we will still continue to practise our Preposition Start sentence. This sentence gives writing more energy. It starts with a preposition such as: on, in, by, after, during, under, over, from, behind, at, before, against, next to, close to, through, etc. After the preposition bit, place a comma. Add the subject, then complete the sentence.  It's that easy!

Here are some more examples:

• Under Gran's sofa, Billy discovered his long-lost peanut butter sandwich.
• Above the treetops, three golden eagle birds searched for their next meal.
• At exactly seven o’clock, every light in the house went dark.
• Before the end of class, Freddy pressed the switch and the teacher Mr Brown vanished

Our spelling this coming week will focus on reviewing the sounds and rules we have learnt so far this term, and practising the rules we’ve found challenging. 

Homework:

I will still send homework home this week. Please get this completed and returned by Wednesday if possible. If homework books are at home over the holidays, please ensure they are bought back the first Monday of Term 2. 

Reminders:

• Please have homework back by Wednesday
• Chaplaincy breakfast will be on Tuesday.
• We will have a Liturgy on Wednesday, the last day of the term. Everyone is welcome to attend.
• Wednesday is also CRAZY HAIR DAY. This is to celebrate the World's Greatest Shave and support students from the Year 6 class who are participating. 

A final note:

Thank you for a fabulous term and your continued dedication to your child's learning. I can already see the amazing progress that the students are making and I can’t wait for this to continue next term. Have a happy and safe holiday!

Have a great week!

Mairin Borlase

Year 5

Welcome to Week 9

As we are edging closer to the end of the term, we have spent this week revising and finalising our assessments for English, Math and Religion.

English - Fractured FairyTales:

Our Year 5 learners have worked through the writing process to produce a narrative writing piece on a chosen fairytale. Over the last few weeks we have planned, drafted, edited, given feedback and re-edited to make our writing the best it could be. 

Mathematics - Perimeter 

This week we will also be completing our assessment task on perimeter. At the start of next term, we will continue our measurement unit by looking at the concept of area. Our Year 5/6 learners will complete a project on Designing a Room. Students will investigate simple rectangles and develop their understanding of area through contexts of carpet/tiling, astroturf etc. They will investigate land properties in the local area and calculate the cost of land per square metre. They will begin to consider composite shapes, measuring multiple rectangles and combining the area. They will use a digital measuring tool to measure lengths to support accuracy.

Religion - Shaping the Gospel

This term in Religion, we have been exploring the four Gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. For our assessment, the Year 5 learners have researched to collect information on each of the Gospel writers. The students then chose a Gospel writer and justified why the writer was the most influential Gospel writer.  The students also identifed how they strengthened the faith of their community and described why they were the most influential.

Week 10

In Week 10, Year 5 will be joining with their Year 1 buddies to complete several Holy Week activities. 

On Tuesday, in HASS/Civics & Citizenship, we have our visit from the Queensland Parliament Education Team. Our classroom will be set up like the Lower House and we will debate on topics of local interest. Then we have our Federal Parliament video conference session on Wednesday morning to end what has been an action-packed Term 1.

Have a lovely week. If I don’t see you before the holidays, please travel safely and enjoy your family time.

Kind regards

Mae-Louise Brock

Year 6

Dear Families

This week, it was a FREE DRESS DAY on Wednesday for Harmony Day - an opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity across Australia. We also have assembly on Friday morning in The Mary Mackillop Shed. It was lovely to see many of you at our Learning Conferences this week. Apologies to the families for Monday; sadly I wasn't feeling great so decided to keep my germs to myself. I look forward to catching up with everyone else next Monday.

In English, we continue to read a range of short age appropriate texts with learners responding to questions about word meaning, summaries, main idea, fact/opinion to name a few. The data collected will become the main focus for our reading work during Term 2. Current investigations of the data show that learners need to continue to develop their understanding of vocabulary within context and develop their awareness of the main idea of paragraphs within texts read.

How can you help at home? Even with young people at 10-12 years old, reading aloud opens up discussion about word meaning and also pronunciation - if children only ever 'read in their head' they will limit their understanding of unfamiliar vocabulary. I appreciate that this can take time, that we currently don't always have available, however I cannot stress enough the benefits will be significant.

In spelling, we are investigating the phoneme [f] which can be represented with [f, ff and ph], we look into definitions of unfamiliar words and synonyms and antonyms. We are studying the Latin origin of words with flex/flect (meaning bend), frag/fract (meaning break).

In our writing, we have completed our narrative assessment and editing phase. Writing in paragraphs and choosing a variety of sentence types are highlights for our class - focus for improvement are precision (including lots of details - names, numbers, places etc) and trying to limit the number of simple sentences used within our writing.

In Mathematics, we are finalising our work on fractions, decimals and percentages, although this will be an area which we will continue to develop throughout the remainder of this year. 

Our Prep Buddy Class will be gathering with us during the next few days to celebrate the events of Holy Week.

In HASS/Civics & Citizenship, we have our visit from the Queensland Parliament Education Team nex Tuesday. Our classroom will be set up like the Lower House and we will debate on topics of local interest. Then we have our Federal Parliament video conference session on Wednesday morning to end what has been an action-packed Term 1.

Please don't forget our World's Greatest Shave event on Wednesday after our Y6 Liturgy. For everyone not participating in the head shave, gold coin donations and the craziest hairstyles would be greatly appreciated. Please show Tanner, Louis and Tom your continued support.

Have a great week and if I don't catch you, a great holiday with lots of family time together.

Kindest regards,

Mike Tarleton

Subject Spotlight

Technologies with Miss Pucciarmati - Years P-6

Hello Parents and Carers!

I thought I’d quickly introduce myself - I’m Miss P or Miss Pucciarmati (whichever title the students can say) and I am their technology teacher for Prep - Year 6! 

This term, across all grades, we have been looking at digital technologies in our everyday lives. 

In Prep - 2, we have been identifying different digital technologies (ipads, smart watches, laptops, computers) and what we use them for. It’s been fun teaching the students how to log into the ipads and chromebooks, and how to use various apps. We have also spoken about keeping the students safe when going online. It’s been great to see their confidence grow as they’ve improved each week!

In Years 3 - 4, we’ve looked at various peripheral devices (mouse, keyboard, speakers etc) and their uses. We have also looked into different file types (.mp3, .jpeg etc) and what programs we use to open them.

Lastly, in Year 5 - 6, we’ve had a very creative project of creating touch sound board posters. The students have learnt how to download sound files, input this into their touchboards, and by using electric paint on their posters are able to create interactive posters.

I hope all of the students are enjoying their time in Tech. It’s been a very quick, busy term and I can’t believe we’re already at the end! I hope everyone has a very enjoyable Easter holiday break.

Primary Art with Mrs Smith 

It has been wonderful to return to St. Joseph’s as the Arts teacher this year. Over a two year period, we will be covering all five art subjects: Visual Arts, Media Arts, Music, Dance and Drama. This term we started with Drama.

In Prep, we have been exploring character, language and improvisation through nursery rhymes. We have hopped on our ‘Wheels on the Bus’ and visited Humpty Dumpty, Three Little Speckled Frogs and Old McDonald. The students have had the opportunity to create freeze frames, role on the wall and improvise with nursery rhyme characters.

Year 1 and 2 have been going on wild adventures in their imaginations based on the picture book Journey Home by Alison Lester. We have visited a pirate ship, the North Pole, the jungle and mer-school in the ocean. It has been wonderful to watch the growth in the students’ imaginations as we progressed in each adventure. The students explored improvisation, creating characters, mood, tension and working with space.

In Year 3 and 4, we have been exploring the characters from the picture books The Flood, by Jackie French and Two Summers, by John Heffernan. We have used the elements of Drama: character, movement, space, language and voice with the strategies of freeze frames, tapping in, role walk and improvisation to understand the main characters of these stories. To complete the unit, the students collaboratively wrote a script for the story ‘The Flood’ and performed it within the classroom.

Community Information

Bookings are essential - This can be done by contacting Jo Moore or Tarhynee Shepherd at your local Neighbourhood Centre on 1300 672 273.