Term 2 Week 2
Key Information
Term 1 Important Dates
- Week 3
- Monday 29th April - 2024 Cross Country; St Joseph the Worker Feast Day and Sausage Sizzle
- Tuesday 30th April - Board Meeting, 5:30pm; IEAC (Indigenous Education Advisory Committee) Meeting, 3-4pm
- Wednesday 1st & Thursday 2nd May - Songwriting Session with Paul Jarman
- Friday 3rd May - Assembly, 8:30am; Adminstrative Professional Day
- Week 4
- Monday 6th May - Labour Day Public Holiday
- Tuesday 7th - Friday 10th May - Mother's Day Stall; Scholastics Book Fair
- Thursday 9th May - Mother's Day Chaplaincy Breakfast, 7:45-8:20am; QMEA STEM Unearthed Year 9; Opera Queensland workshop with Choir students
- Friday 10th May - Under 8's Day (Connecting Culture through play), 9-11am
- Week 5
- Friday 17th May - Term 2 Ride to School Day; Assembly, 8:30am
- Saturday 18th May - Open Day, 9-11am
- Week 6
- Friday 24th May - Shake and Stir Performance & Workshop (The Twits), 9am
Tuckshop News
Our special for Week 3 is: Chicken Parmi burger and Froot Loop Treats
Please have your orders in by WEDNESDAY 8:30 am.
To order: https://myschoolconnect.com.au/
OUR TUCKSHOP CREW NEEDS YOU
Miss Jamie-Lea is looking for some wonderful volunteers to help her in Tuckshop on Thursdays! You do not have to be a parent to volunteer. We have had grandparents, Auntys, uncles, friends and cousins as well as mums and dads. If you are interested in volunteering please join Miss Jamie-Lea's tuckshop volunteer group 
https://m.facebook.com/groups/
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
Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers
Thank you to all those families who joined us for the ANZAC Day March on Thursday. It was a very moving ceremony and our students did a wonderful job of paying their respects. We received positive feedback regarding the respectful way our students conducted themselves, especially our school leaders with their role in the ceremony. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend as I was in Townsville meeting my first grandchild who had recently arrived on Tuesday morning.
Enrolments 2025
Our Enrolment campaign for 2025 for Prep - Year 9 has been launched. Information can be found on our school website and Facebook page. If you have a child beginning school next year or know someone whose child is due to begin Prep, please get your enrolment forms in ASAP. These forms can be found on our school website. Please follow this link to access our current enrolment form. We also have our Open Day on Saturday 18th May from 9 - 11am. More information about this event will be distributed shortly.
Cross Country Carnival
This coming Monday, we will hold our annual Cross Country Carnival. All students from Prep-Year 9 will be participating. In preparation, the students have completed the course in their PE lessons. The event will begin at 9am and we invite parents/carers to watch the children participate. Please remember to ensure children have hats and water bottles. A sausage sizzle will be held afterwards.
Mothers' Day
On Thursday, 9 May, we will be providing a light breakfast for mothers and mother figures from 7.45am in the Mary McKillop Shed. The breakfast will be a chance to enjoy time with your child and our school choir will perform songs. During the week, there will be stalls selling gifts which the students are able to purchase. Profits from the stalls will be put towards the Upper Middle Years Camp fund. We invite all mothers, grandmothers and carers to join us for this special morning.
Have a wonderful week.
Take care and God Bless
Mrs Karen Good
Acting Principal
Deputy's News
And just like that Week 3 is right around the corner; it will be Mothers Day before we know it.
I’ve been lucky enough to get around to most if not all, classes this week to see the exciting work happening across our school. Seeing the excitement and engagement across all classes brings me great joy. On Tuesday, we had some visitors from the Townsville Catholic Education Office. On several occasions they mentioned the school's lovely feeling and how impressed they were with our student's behaviour and dedication to learning.
I would like to take this opportunity to share some important information/insight with parents and caregivers about the safe use of technology and ways you can help your child/children navigate the online world.
Online Safety
It will come as no surprise that technology and the use of technology in both the school and workplace is becoming increasingly prevalent in today's society. Below, I have added some tips and tricks for creating safe 21st-century learners.
- Start Early: Emphasise the importance of teaching children about digital citizenship and online safety from a young age. Instilling good habits early can help them navigate the digital world responsibly as they grow older.
- Open Communication: Encourage open and ongoing communication with your child about their online activities, experiences, and any concerns they may have. Create a safe space for them to ask questions and share their online experiences with you.
- Set Clear Boundaries: Establish clear rules and guidelines for your child's online behaviour, including screen time limits, appropriate content guidelines, and rules for interacting with others online.
- Educate Yourself: Stay informed about the latest online trends, apps, and platforms popular among children and teens. Familiarise yourself with privacy settings, parental controls, and online safety tools available on devices and platforms your child uses. For our parents with older students, consider conversations around social media use. Did you know Snapchat can track your child's exact location for anyone to find if they haven’t changed their setting to ghost mode?
- Establish Trust: Build a trusting relationship with your child by respecting their privacy while also emphasising the importance of safety and accountability online. Let them know they can come to you with any concerns or questions about their online experiences.
If you would like to know more about a certain social media app, game, TV show, or anything your child is interacting with online, I would recommend common sense media as a starting point. It’s free and will give you a parent guide to the apps, games, movies, TV shows, and YouTube channels your child is interacting with.
Mr Dean Kelley
Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning
APRE
School Anthem
Next week we have the pleasure of welcoming Paul Jarmen to our school. Paul will be working with our staff and students to write our school anthem. Paul Jarman is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and choirmaster. He is known for his work with school children, assisting them to develop their compositions.
Jarman works with other composers and choir leaders and promotes the inclusion of traditional music forms in compositions. His compositions for choir and orchestra have been performed around the world in venues such as the White House and at the opening of the World Rugby and at the London Olympics.
From 1996 Paul Jarman has been part of the Australian world music group, Sirocco. He produced their album 'Falling Leaf' as well as playing on all the tracks. He has performed for audiences in over 35 countries. His instruments include the piano, saxophone, clarinet, bombard, tin whistle, synthesizer, taragoto.
Our school community is excited to work with such an accomplished composer and we look forward to the creation of our school anthem.
Paul Jamen
Notices:
Next Monday 29th April we will celebrate St Joseph the Worker Feast Day in conjunction with Cross Country. Students will share in a sausages sizzle, icy poles and activities with their buddy groups in the middle session.
Assembly Prayer Week 3: Year 5 will present our assembly prayer next week along with our Prep class who will assist in the actions to the final song. This Liturgy will be dedicated to St Joseph’s the Worker, please join us!
Have blessed week
Therese Curley
APRE
Pastoral Care
URSTRONG - Friendship Fires
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…
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 weeks, 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.
We will be in touch weekly to share the remainder of the program, including research and wellbeing activities to integrate into day-to-day life.
Best regards,
Mrs Schneekloth
Pastoral Care Leader
Prep
This week in Prep we started our literacy rotations. Thank you to the people who were able to help out. If you are able to help out in the coming weeks please let me know what day works best for you.
In Math, we will continue to learn about 2D shapes and their properties.
In English, we will revise our new ‘Tricky Words’ I, the and my and continue to practice our letter formation of known letters.
In Science this week, we will continue to discuss what living things need to survive. We will also start to explore the the life cycle of a chicken and identify facts about chickens.
What’s on in the next week
- Cross Country and St Joseph the Worker Feast Day celebrations Monday the 29th of April
- Stay up to date by checking out our class website. Please find the website link in your emails to access the Little Leaders Website.
Yours in fun and learning,
Miss Brock, Mrs McLauchlan, Miss Rachel, Miss Kylie and Miss Nina
Year 1
Hello Parents and Carers
We have had a great week!
This week:
In Mathematics, students have started to identify different 3D objects and their properties. The students have been busy using the 3D objects in class to build different creations.
In English, we have continued looking at our new focus book ‘A Journey Home by Alison Lester’. This week we looked at the journey in the sea with the mermaid.
In HaSS, the students will continue to look at the past and present. This week we have looked at farming in the past and the present. The students have loved dressing up and becoming different people in the jobs.
Here are some photos from this week:
Reminders:
Please bring in any boxes or 3D objects you may have at home for the students to use in craft.
Tuesday: Art
Thursday: Sport, Library and homework due
Friday: Technology
Have a wonderful week.
Miss Haley and the always fun Year 1s!
Year 2
Hi Year 2 Parents and Carers,
I hope you all had a wonderful week.
During InitiaLit this week, we have focused on doubling the final consonant to add 'ing' to words that have a short vowel in spelling, and have looked at the comprehension strategy of connecting. In writing this week, we reintroduced (reintroduced!) the text Wombat Stew. This term students will be creating an imaginative text based off of Wombat Stew. During Maths, we have been learning how to skip count from any number. In our other subjects this term we are looking at:
Religion: Jesus and Community
Science: Life Cycles
HASS: Connections to different places
Health: Keeping ourselves healthy and safe
Reminders:
- Homework is due on Monday. This week it is just a homework sheet. Readers will be sent home with homework next week.
- Library is on Mondays of Week B - Our next library lesson is in Week 4
- Monday: 2024 Cross Country & St Joseph the Worker Feast Day celebration and Sausage Sizzle
Have a fantastic rest of your week!
Miss Ansell
Year 3
While Week 2 was a short one, we still we did lots of learning!
Mathematics
We have been practicing how to read the time on analogue clocks!
English
This week, the students learnt about how technical words are used by authors to be very specific in nonfiction texts. They learnt that technical words are words relevant to the overall theme or content they are reading about. The students also practiced using a dictionary to find the meaning of unfamiliar words they come across in texts.
Religion
The students learnt about the various people involved in our church. Last week, we were even lucky enough to have Bishop Tim come into our learning space and answer some of our questions about priests, bishops, and the clergy.
HASS
The students practiced labeling the Australian map and using grid positions and map legends to find landmarks on maps.
Week 2 Reminder:
Week 2 Homework due Monday Week 3 (Due to pupil free day on Friday Week 2)
Week 3 Reminders:
- Cross Country - Monday
- St Joseph’s Feast Day - Monday
- Homework - Homework will be given to students every Monday and is due Friday.
- PE uniform Tuesday
- Library every second Thursday (odd weeks - W1,3,5,7,9)
- Chaplain’s Breakfast - Tuesday & Thursday at 7:45am in MMS
Thank you
Laura Cook
Year 4
Hi All
Wow, Week 2 has gone quickly! This week, we’ve been starting to build our understanding of decimals numbers and their connection to fractions (tenths and hundredths). This is the first year that students get introduced to decimals so it’s important we spend the time getting a solid foundation. We’ve been using lots of hands-on materials, like a giant math’s math, to help us visualise these numbers. Although we have no photos this week, the work hasn’t stopped and we can’t wait to share some pictures of what we get up to next week!
This coming week we will be reviewing the 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, a comma is placed. Add the subject, then finish the rest of 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
This week we will have two spelling sounds, the ‘h’ sound in house and the ‘j’ sound in jellyfish. While the ‘h’ sound is always represented by the grapheme h, the ‘j’ sound can be represented by a range of graphemes including: j, g, ge, and dge.
- The ‘h’ sound in house is used at the start and in the middle of words, but never at the end of words (e.g. happy, ahead).
- The grapheme wh represents the ‘h’ sound in house in a small set of words (e.g. who, whole, whose).
- The grapheme g often represents the ‘j’ sound in jellyfish before e, i or y (e.g. gentle, ginger, gym).
- We usually use dge for the ‘j’ sound in jellyfish after short vowel sounds at the end of single-syllable words (e.g. badge, edge, bridge, dodge, judge).
- We usually use ge for the ‘j’ sound in jellyfish after all other sounds at the end of words (e.g. large, change, merge, orange, urge).
- The grapheme j for jellyfish is used at the start and in the middle of words, but never at the end of words (e.g. jeans, enjoy).
Reminders:
- Chaplaincy breakfast is on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning at 7:45am.
- Tuckshop is on Thursday
- Cross Country is on THIS MONDAY! Come along wearing your house colours!
- We are also celebrating St Joseph the Worker Feast Day on Monday!
Have a great week!
Mairin Borlase
Year 5
I would like to begin this week’s notice with the good news that Year 5 had a great week last week and have settled in with myself as their new teacher extremely well. I am very sure they will continue to go from strength to strength as the term progresses,
English
We will continue our work on persuasive texts. The children are working on a piece in which they have to put forward their point of view on ‘Which holiday is the best, Beach or Bush?’ I was extremely impressed with the thoughtful and structured way they have worked on this piece.
Maths
We will be working on calculating the area of both regular and irregular shapes this week. Our focus in the Think Mentals program will be multiplication strategies.
Religion
This week we will begin work on our ‘Faith and Prayer’. We will Identify and explain practices associated with the observance of Sabbath
Reminders:
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
I hope you have a great week. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.
Nicola Cullen
Year 6
Dear Families
Just a reminder, please visit the office to pay the $39.00 for your child's Y6 Leaders Shirt as soon as possible. This week is Anzac Day. I am encouraging our Y6 class to meet at the Post Office for the Dawn Service (5:45am) but fully appreciate it if you'd prefer the 9:00 service (meeting at the Leichhardt). Congratulations to our Y6 SRC representatives Chelsea and Grace - their first meeting will be next week.
In our English learning, we are continuing with persuasive texts - talking about the features and structure of the texts. We are investigating POWER Sentences (6-12 words and straight to the point). Some of you may like to limit your child to 12 words! In our spelling we have investigated [u/o] as in umbrella or honey. We are looking at the suffixes of -er and -ist, which when added to the end of the base word would change the meaning to 'one who'. The Latin Roots investigated are struct (build) and rupt (break/burst), words with these Latin Roots will have that meaning and have originated from Latin.
In Mathematics, we are coming to the end of our work on percentages. Learners have developed their understanding that percent means out of 100. The connections with calculating price discounts in money has been successful - calculating 10% by dividing by 10, which has helped us with multiples like 20%, 30% etc. 50% was half and 25% was half again. The capacity work was more challenging - if the container was 100mL or 1000mL it was a straightforward calculation, however 250mL and 500mL challenged some of us. In Think Mentals, we are continuing to investigate multiplication strategies which will support our area calculations in a few weeks.
In Religion, we have begun to examine the book of Samuel. Samuel was a prophet who worked in the temple with Eli from a young age. We have discussed how Samuel was called by the Lord to serve and how he was able to influence Eli to turn back to God.
In Science, we are coming to the end of our electricity work - discovering the symbols used in electrical circuits. We are investigating electrical components and the processes used to make them along with discussion about electrical safety - especially with a variety of different batteries.
Have a great week,
Mike
Subject Spotlight
Year 8 English with Miss Liersch
This term we are throwing ourselves into the wonderful world of documentaries. We are looking particularly at the documentary A Life on our Planet by Sir David Attenborough. This documentary was released in 2020 and Sir David Attenborough refers to this work as his “witness statement for the environment.” This is a thought provoking documentary, aimed at looking at the direct impact of human life on planet earth. During this unit students will look deeper into sustainability choices alongside looking into how we can raise awareness of human impact on the environment. So far we have had some really engaging conversations in this unit and I look forward to this eagerness continuing. Any questions please email me.
Miss Liersch
nliersch@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au
Year 7 and 8 Technologies with Miss Shara Humes
This term our students are continuing their explorations of digital technologies by creating their own website. As part of this unit we will be exploring some of the design elements that help create a positive user experience, including thinking about our colour choices, typography and the ease of navigation. Think back to some of the earlier websites when the internet was much newer - I remember busy, tiled backgrounds that made it difficult to discern the text, or worse, the pastel yellow text that was such a strain to read! By looking at and considering the design of our website in these early stages, it is my sincere hope that we avoid the mistakes of others, and instead create websites that are enjoyable to view. And not just enjoyable, but interactive.
Students are also considering what features to include in their websites, from animated images - gifs - to make the page more appealing, to an image carousel or slideshow that you can click through, to dropdown boxes that can hide information away until it is needed. Some might even look at adding buttons that lead elsewhere, videos, and maybe even a quiz! Regardless, the engagement so far has been wonderful to see, and I look forward to it continuing over the coming weeks as we start making our websites fully.
Year 8 and 9 Arts with Miss Humes
We tend to switch focus each term in the Arts space, and this time we’re looking at Visual Arts through the exploration of figurative sculpture. Sculpture, as you might expect, is a three-dimensional art form, and the figurative nature of it means that our sculptures will be derived from the real world, more specifically, the human form. As part of this unit students are looking at the work of two artists, Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti, to both explore this art form and experiment with their own unique styles. While we have begun this process through practicing some sketching skills - particularly tonal shading - students will have, by the end of this unit, planned and created a sculpture of their own inspired by one of these artists. While it will surely get chaotic in the later stages, I look forward to seeing the results of their hard work, and I’m sure you will too when they get to take them home!
Guidance Counsellor
As a result of the devastating events that recently unfolded at Westfield in Bondi Junction, and the Church in Wakeley, many families are still in a state of disbelief trying to comprehend how and why these incidents occurred. All of us have been affected in some way, with some being left more traumatised than others.
Although such incidents are rare, they can still be scarring. It's in these situations that it is vitally important for parents and carers to check in with their children. Being aware of what information they've been exposed to will hopefully minimise their emotional fallout in coming weeks.
SPECIAL REPORT: Trauma Recovery
Trauma in children significantly disturbs their sense of safety and normalcy, leading to substantial emotional and behavioural changes. Such disturbances often result from exposure to traumatic events, which may be exacerbated by continuous media coverage. This exposure can trigger stress, anxiety, and trauma, with varying recovery timelines due to the unpredictable nature of trauma's impact. Observing young people grappling with these effects can be highly distressing for parents and caregivers.
It's important to establish a nurturing environment to help restore a child's sense of security to help promote resilience. Active involvement in their recovery is essential, as is recognising the unique, personalised needs of each child in responding to trauma. Depending on their age, children may present with different symptoms, such as regressive behaviours in younger ones or withdrawal and agitation in older children and teens. It is important to monitor and manage the type of information children may access to reduce their emotional distress.
The brain stores traumatic events as powerful emotional memories, influencing behaviour through mechanisms beyond a child's conscious awareness. By providing young people with support and equipping them with coping mechanisms to handle uncertainty, parents and carers can greatly enhance a child's capacity to recover and build long-term emotional resilience.
This Special Report will help you identify a child experiencing trauma and how you can support them to overcome it.
Mrs Bec Greaves
Guidance Counsellor
Community Information
