Term 2 Week 8
Key Information
Term 2 Important Dates
- Week 9
- Wednesday 12th June - School Officer Day
- Friday 14th June - Cloncurry Show Public Holiday
- Week 10
- Tuesday 18th June - Board Meeting
- Wednesday 19th June - SRC Meeting, first lunch
- Thursday 20th June - Walk to School Day; Middle Leadership Meeting, 3pm
- Friday 21st June - Assembly (Year 1), 8:30am; Dress Like Your Teacher Day
Term 3 Important Dates
- Week 1 – NAIDOC Week
- Monday 8th July - First Day of Term 3
- Tuesday 9th July – Elders Luncheon (Emerging Leaders), 10am-2pm
- Wednesday 10th July – Careers Expo (UMY)
- Thursday 11th July – Deadly Day Out; Assembly, 8:30am; 100 Days of Prep
- Friday 12th July – NAIDOC March
Tuckshop News
Our special for Week 9 is: Cheeseburger Burrito and Biscoff Apple Crumble
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, aunties, 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/
Uniform Shop
Our Uniform Shop is 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.
Miss Heather
General News
We would love your help with our Fete this year. To find out how you can support, come along to our next FACE meeting. Please RSVP via email, phone, facebook messenger or in the office by 12th July so we can cater accordingly.
Principal's News
Another week has passed, leaving only a couple of weeks before the end of Term 2. As the Cloncurry Show gets closer, our staff have been busy finalising our students’ submissions. I am looking forward to seeing their work displayed at my first ever visit to the Cloncurry Show. Thank you to the people who have volunteered their time on the Show Gate, but we still have some vacant time slots on both Friday and Saturday. Please register your support by filling in the google form emailed by Therese Curley earlier this week.
School Uniforms
Winter has definitely arrived with this week being no exception. Most students are wearing the correct school clothing, but there are some students who are wearing non-approved clothing. Please see Miss Heather in our office to sort out any requests for warmer school approved clothing.
National Reconciliation Week 2024: Now More Than Ever
As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, National Reconciliation Week (NRW) was last week. Held annually from 27 May to 3 June, NRW provides an opportunity for each of us to explore how we contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
The Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) at St Joseph’s Catholic School is a significant step toward fostering reconciliation. Launched at Friday’s assembly, our RAP is a formal commitment that outlines specific actions and strategies to promote understanding, respect and collaboration between First Nations and non-First Nations members of the college community.
Students on Courthouse Grounds afterhours
I have been contacted by a representative from the Magistrates Court who have CCTV footage of young people (wearing St Joseph’s uniforms) accessing the courthouse grounds after hours to play tag. From the footage it is evident that the activity is not malicious. However, due to safety reasons, I encourage parents to have a chat with your children about their whereabouts after school.
Have a fantastic week!
God bless
Mrs Karen Good
Acting Principal
Deputy's News
Why are school reports important? For many, school reports signify the end of a semester/school year, they are examined as a family and then filed away. John Hattie — an educational research expert — tells us that "the most single powerful modification that enhances achievement is feedback.
According to John Hattie's research, providing effective and constructive feedback to students significantly improves their learning outcomes and academic performance. Students receiving effective feedback regularly and from multiple sources can considerably accelerate student achievement (Visible Learning).
How can you make the most of the upcoming school reports and give effective feedback to your child/children?
Discuss the Feedback
- Ask Questions: Engage your child in a conversation about their report. Ask them what they think about the feedback they have received and how they feel about their performance.
- Identify Strengths: Highlight areas where your child has done well. Positive reinforcement boosts confidence and encourages continued effort in these areas.
- Address Areas for Improvement: Discuss any areas where improvement is needed. Help your child understand that this feedback is an opportunity for growth.
Set Realistic Goals
- Specific Goals: Work with your child to set specific, achievable goals based on the feedback. For example, if the report suggests improving in math, set a goal for daily math practice.
- Action Plan: Create an action plan with steps your child can take to reach their goals. This might include extra study sessions, seeking help from teachers, or using online resources.
Monitor Progress and Provide Encouragement
- Regular Check-ins: Schedule regular check-ins with your child to discuss their progress towards their goals. Offer encouragement and adjust the action plan as needed.
- Celebrate Successes: Celebrate milestones and achievements, no matter how small. Recognition of effort and progress motivates continued improvement.
Utilising the insights from student reports can significantly enhance your child’s academic progress and personal development. By actively engaging with the feedback provided, setting realistic goals, and creating a supportive environment, you can help your child achieve their best.
If you are unsure of anything in the reporting cycle, please contact the classroom teacher for clarification. Thank you for your continued support and partnership in your child's education.
Mr Dean Kelley
Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning
APRE
Catholic Identity Advisory Committee
St Joseph’s has a team of staff and parents who work to support our school's Catholic identity. Our aim is to ensure our faith remains recognisable, credible, and meaningful for today. The Committee reflects, perceives, imagines, and expresses the distinctiveness of how St Joseph’s identifies as catholic.
On recommendations from our 2019 ECSI (Enhancing Catholic School Identity) report our goal was to revitalise our mission, vision and values and create a new school prayer. Last year we finalised our new Mission, Vision and Values. From here we have commissioned a School Anthem (to be released next term) and sought ways we can make our new values at the heart of our school.
This week the committee met and worked on the expectations of our values and how students showing these values can be recognised. This is where we came up with new awards to be presented at our assemblies with the hope that these awards will encourage our students to proudly live out our values in their school life. In Week 10 I will share with the school these expectations and the new awards. Next term our committee will focus on a new school prayer.
Please contact me if any community members would like to join this committee. Your input would be very much welcomed!
Have a blessed week,
Therese Curley
APRE
Pastoral Care
URSTRONG - Parents, Has Your Protective Instinct Kicked In?
“I Knew I Was Giving My Child Bad Advice, But I Didn’t Know What Else to Say!”
This is one of the most common things that parents have said to us over the years when it comes to friendship issues. And, we’ve heard from numerous children and educators who have shared some of the unhelpful or inappropriate advice well-meaning parents have given children.
When parents are activated by their child’s friendship issues (especially if someone has been cruel or malicious – what we call in our Friendology curriculum, “Mean-on-Purpose”), it is common for a parent’s protective instinct to kick in. This can trigger their FIGHT/FLIGHT/FREEZE/FAWN response, thanks to the autonomic nervous system. These default settings might sound like:
- FIGHT: “Just punch them back!”
- FLIGHT: “Go play with someone else!”
- FREEZE: “Ignore them!”
- FAWN: “Be friends with everyone!”
As we aim to support our children in fostering healthy relationships throughout their lives, it’s critical that parents understand how unhelpful and, in some cases, dangerous these stress responses can be for children.
A parent whose default setting is to FIGHT, teaches their child to respond to conflict with aggression and violence. Encouraging a child to get physical as a defence-mechanism immediately escalates the situation, activating anxiety in the child. Most children are not naturally aggressive and they know punching/pushing/pinching is wrong and will get them in trouble. When a parent tells a child to do something that is socially-unacceptable, it feels deeply confusing for them. Children are less likely to seek help from parents who promote fighting, often withholding information to avoid triggering anger in them. This is scary for children. Encouraging physical aggression is easily the most dangerous, trauma-inducing advice that can have serious long-term impacts.
A parent whose default setting is to FLIGHT, teaches their child to avoid conflict. This inevitably results in unhealthy friendships (and relationships) that lack trust and respect. When conflicts and frustrations are ignored, resentment builds and connections are fractured. A conflict-avoidant mindset prevents authenticity, transparency, and honesty in relationships. It limits the depth of a friendship and, for children, the friendship feels persistently in the Red-Zone on The Friend-o-Meter.
A parent whose default setting is to FREEZE, teaches their child to bottle their emotions. While ‘fight’ is exploding, ‘freeze’ is imploding. This approach teaches children to shut down, preventing them from processing their feelings. Research shows that repressing emotions amplifies them and can lead to feelings of anxiety. Children who keep their big feelings in often experience physical symptoms like stomach aches and trouble sleeping. Similar to avoiding conflict, healthy relationships are impossible when one person is unresponsive – relationships are a two-way street.
A parent whose default setting is to FAWN, teaches their child to be a people-pleaser. Fawning is when a child absorbs all the blame, overlooking their own feelings and doing whatever it takes to make the other person happy. According to Dr Rebecca Ray, “Fawning behaviours are common for people who experience significant levels of anxiety, and who identify as highly sensitive.” Children who fawn feel disempowered and often end up as the “door mat” in their friendships.
So, what can parents do instead to have a more helpful, socially-acceptable response?
CHECK-IN WITH YOURSELF
First, notice how you feel when your child shares their pain with you. Do you feel yourself reacting? Are you getting angry? Is it triggering something inside of you? Which of the 4 F’s can you feel yourself wanting to default to? The key is to remain calm and objective.
In the field of Positive Psychology, we love the famous Viktor Frankl quote: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” This space that Dr Frankl describes is where empathy, compassion, and understanding can keep relationships in the Green-Zone on the Friend-o-Meter!
Just by being aware of how you’re feeling will allow you to be more mindful in how you respond to your child’s friendship issue.
FOCUS ON YOUR OWN CHILD
Second, focus on how YOUR child is feeling. Too often parents will focus on the other child (“I can’t believe they did that to you! What’s their problem? Why would they be like that?”), instead of their own.
Help your child name their emotions. Dr Dan Siegal coined the term “name it to tame it” – a very simple, effective technique that helps reduce the intensity of big feelings by labelling them.
Ask them, “How did that make you feel?” Give your child time and space to get their feelings out. Let them cry or be angry and JUST LISTEN. Offer a hug, go for a walk, play catch… Allow them a chance to get it out.
BE A FRIENDSHIP COACH
When you’re both in a calm state, it’s time to be a Friendship Coach and empower your child with evidence-based strategies.
If it was a Friendship Fire, encourage them to find a good time to talk to their friend. If it was Mean-on-Purpose, ask them: “Did you say your Quick Comeback?”
Check out this interactive tool (be sure to activate your FREE parent membership first!) where you can see the questions our URSTRONG Schools ask children when they experience conflict in friendship to coach them along.
Here are a few more resources that might help:
- Think of Yourself as a “Friendship Coach”
- When to Step-In and When to Step-Back
- High-Conflict Friendships
- 10 Reasons to NOT Call The Other Child’s Parents
- Boundaries: How to Use an Exit Strategy
Friendship skills are relationship skills! Teaching your child to manage conflict in a healthy way will help ensure they have positive relationships throughout their lives.
Written by: Dana Kerford
Founder & Friendship Expert
The Resilience Project
Working on gratitude helps us to be thankful and appreciate what we have in our lives, rather than focusing on what we don’t have or what we want. When we practise being grateful, we start to scan the world to look for positives – this only takes 21 days! Practising gratitude every day increases our levels of energy, and helps us to feel happier and more focused, determined and optimistic. It even helps us have better sleep, lowers levels of anxiety and depression and we are less likely to get sick. So many benefits – let’s all try to be grateful for the things and people in our lives every day!
Whole Family Activity: Gratitude Scavenger Hunt
As a family create a scavenger hunt list of things that make you happy or you are grateful for, you can make your own list or use the examples below:
- Something that makes you happy
- Something you love to smell
- Something you enjoy looking at
- Something that is your favourite colour
- Something you like in nature
- Something that is useful for you
Each member of the family uses the list and has to find as many things as they can. You can hunt for things inside or outside, or both. You can hunt for real things, or you can also do this using magazines or pictures from the internet. After a set amount of time hunting, come back together, have a look at what each person collected and let them explain why they are grateful for each item.
Family Habit Builder: Every night at dinner, have each person talk about their favourite thing about that day.
Feed and Succeed
I encourage all senior students to attend weekly tutoring available on Thursdays from 3-4pm!
Upcoming Events
Best regards,
Mrs Schneekloth
Pastoral Care Leader
Prep
Welcome to Week Eight!
This week in literacy we learnt the new letter and sound of /k/ (Kelly Kitten). We also learnt the new 'Tricky Words' has and one.
In Science, we have continued our learning on Materials and their Properties. We have begun our assessment task designing a new enclosure that would ensure our chickens at the shed are secured, comfortable and dry.
In Health this term, Mrs McLauchlan has been exploring the URStrong Program on Thursdays. This program helps children establish and maintain healthy relationships, manage conflict with kindness and increase their overall resilience. This week, our Little Leaders have also had two visits from our School Guidance Counselor, Miss Bec. During her visits, we have explored the Zones of Regulation and corresponding body clues as well as created a class Catastrophe Scale, identifying when Miss Brock needs to know about things and when it is something that the students can work out independently.
Keep up to date with what is happening in Prep by checking out our Little Leaders Website. I have also added an additional page called Home Learning with different activities and resources that may be useful to consolidate learning at home. Please access this via 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 busy week!
This week:
In Maths, the students are continuing to look at place value. They have been putting one and two digit numbers into a place value house. We have been looking at how to place numbers on a number line after putting them into the tens and ones house.
In English, the students have been using their knowledge of adjectives, simple and adverb start sentences to create some awesome recounts on their weekend. They have been working hard this week to write adverb start sentences independently.
Here are some awesome photos from the sports carnival:
Reminders:
Tuesday: Art
Thursday: Sport, Library and homework due (this will be the last week of homework for the term)
Friday: Technology
Have a wonderful week.
Miss Haley and the always fun Year 1s!
Year 2
Hi Year 2 Parents and Carers,
During InitiaLit this week, we have focused on the spelling combinations oi and oy. We are also looking at the comprehension strategy of Asking Questions.
This term in writing, students have created an imaginative text based on Wombat Stew. We have all finished these and they will be up for you to see at the Cloncurry Show next weekend!
During Maths, we are looking at addition and subtraction strategies.
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.
- Library is on Mondays of Week B
Have a fantastic remainder of your week!
Miss Ansell
Year 3
Hi all,
There’s always lots of learning in Year 3. Check out what we’ve been up to.
Mathematics
This week, students practiced all things money. They investigated realistic costs, used column addition strategies to add cost of various items they wanted to purchase from our “Fete Stalls”, and calculated the change they’d receive from different transactions at each “Fete Stall”.
English
This week, students have been completing various Literacy activities including handwriting, spelling, story writing and reading. The students also started to learn about some poetry styles for our next mini unit of work!
Religion
This week, the students created a set of three posters about the three Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist) which welcome followers to the Church. They practiced great research skills to learn about each Sacrament, engaged in whole class discussions, and read various scriptures from the bible to learn more.
Week 9 Reminders:
- Homework - Homework will be given to students every Monday and is due Friday.
- PE uniform Tuesday
- Chaplain’s Breakfast - Tuesday & Thursday at 7:45am in MMS
- Library Thursday - This will be our last Library visit for the Term. Please ensure any overdue books are returned.
Thank you
Laura Cook
Year 4
Hi everyone,
We’ve been working on our understanding of decimals numbers. We created these cool flowers with different numbers that we can put on our walls. Look how happy we are with our work!
This coming week we are going to review the Adverb Start Sentence. These types of sentences start with an adverb. Adverbs are (nearly) all the words ending 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.
We have two spelling sounds this week: the ‘n’ sound in net (graphemes: n, nn, kn) and the ‘ng’ sound in ring (graphemes: ng, n).
- The ‘n’ sound in net is most frequently represented by the grapheme n (e.g. neck, front, tin).
- The grapheme nn for the ‘n’ sound in net is usually seen in the middle of words, after short vowel sounds (e.g. tunnel, banner).
- The grapheme kn for the ‘n’ sound in net is usually used at the start of words (e.g. knit, knife, knuckle). Words containing kn for net usually originate from Old English.
- The ‘ng’ sound in ring is most commonly represented by the grapheme ng (e.g. thing, strong).
- The grapheme n usually represents the ‘ng’ sound in ring before the ‘k’ sound in kite (e.g. think, ankle).
- The grapheme ngue in the word tongue is an unusual way to represent the ‘ng’ sound in ring.
Reminders:
- Homework is going to be due on the Monday of the following week to allow students time over the weekend to complete this. Please make sure homework is returned on the Monday so it can be reissued the same day for the following week.
- Chaplaincy breakfast is on Tuesday and Thursdays at 7:45am.
- We have this coming Friday off for our Show day.
Have a great week!
Mairin Borlase
Year 5
Welcome to Week 7
I hope you are having a good week. It was really great to see so many of you at the Athletics Carnival on Friday. The Year 5 children had a great time and were thankful the rain held off long enough for them to have a wonderful day.
English
This week we have continued our work on ‘Renewable Energy. We are finding out all about renewable energy. We are using note taking and skim & scan reading techniques. We have also used comprehension texts to answer a range of questions.
The children have also continued their weekly Soundwaves lessons. This week we are working on the sound ’M’. This sound is most frequently represented by the grapheme m (e.g. money, humble, camp). The grapheme mm for M is seen in the middle of words, after short vowel sounds (e.g. mammal, summer).
The grapheme mb is an unusual way to represent (e.g. thumb, lamb).
The grapheme mn is an unusual way to represent (e.g. autumn, column)
Maths
This week we have been working on factors and multiples. Factors are numbers which when multiplied together produce a given number. For example, factors of 12 are : 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12. Multiplies of a number are any whole number that can be divided by the given number with no remainder. For example multiples of 12 are 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, etc.
Homework
Homework is due on the Friday each week to allow time to go over the work in class with the children. Please make sure homework is returned on Friday so the new homework can be reissued on Monday for the following week.
Specialist Subjects:
Monday: Japanese and Science
Tuesday: Drama
Wednesday: Health and Technology - students may wear their House Shirts to school
Thursday: Science and HASS
Friday: Sport and HASS: Students may wear their Sports Uniform
Reminders:
- Tuesdays and Thursdays: Chaplaincy breakfast begins at 7:45am.
- Wednesday : Tuck shop orders due by 8.30am
- Friday 14th June no school Cloncurry Show
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,
During the last week we have completed our Show writing and arts, while last Friday was our Athletics Carnival. Miss Bianca Besly began her teaching placement in our classroom and has settled in well. She will be with us for the rest of Term 2, with some of her time spent in Year 5.
In English, our time has been spent finalising narrative writing for the show and continuing with our persuasive texts about the environment. Several of the children have already completed exceptional pieces of work so these will also be entered into the Show. Please make sure you visit the Pavilion to check out our arts and writing. In our spelling, we have investigated words with the common graphemes for the [i] phoneme like [igh, ie, i-e, y]. We have discussed what happens with words when the suffix -ify is added (word meaning is ‘to make’) and also revisited homophones. In our reading, we have continued to read a range of texts and discuss these as a class before completing comprehension questions. Our focus is on word meaning and discussing new vocabulary.
In Maths, we have completed our work on prime and composite numbers, investigating square numbers and discussing factors and multiples which have helped us create factor trees. In our Think Mentals, we are investigating multiplication of decimals - using a great strategy to support efficient calculations. We use a known fact and then adjust the place value. E.g. 0.03 x 0.4 → 3 x 4 = 12 → so the answer would be 0.012 (because three decimal digits are in the question). This week we have started to discuss grid references in preparation for our work about the 4 quadrants of the Cartesian Plane.
HOMEWORK: This week children need to continue practising their multiplication facts - multiple wars with a deck of cards. Reading should be completed every evening (or as often as possible). It is important to read with your child and discuss new vocabulary and pronunciation of these words. If children always read ‘in their heads’ they won’t develop this important part of reading. Completing research about the environment in homework time will add to the quality of their persuasive writing. The Premier's Reading Challenge has also been distributed and must be completed and returned to Mr T before 23rd August to be entered into the Challenge.
Have a great week,
Mike
Subject Spotlight
Year 7 Art with Miss Humes
In the earlier weeks of this term, Year 7 began exploring how the human body expresses different emotions through movement. We discussed how being happy or excited can lead to a sense of lightness in how we walk and hold ourselves, while being sad might drag us down with slumped shoulders and a downcast face. As part of this, students explored how two different sculptors – Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore - capture movement and expression through sculpture. Taking inspiration from one of these two artists, students have since begun creating their own sculpture piece. Right now they’re adding the final touches to them before taking them home at the end of term.
Year 9 RE with Mr Delaney
The Year 9 unit for this term is aptly titled, Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words… The students learned about the priestly, prophetic and kingly work of Jesus Christ, and ways in which believers live their Christian vocation by participation in this work. We spent time exploring the scriptural foundations for this roles within Jesus’ life and relating this threefold office to Catholic organisations around the world. Students considered sources of inspiration, strength and guidance for believers today, including Catholic social teaching, the three forms of penance (prayer, fasting and almsgiving), Scripture, celebration of the Sacraments of Healing (Penance and Anointing of the Sick), and personal and communal prayer experiences.
Year 9 English with Miss Liersch
This term in Year 9 English we are reading the novel Once by Morris Gleitzman, a historical fiction text. This text focuses on the time of the Holocaust. The students have been actively involved in this unit working independently and in group settings to solve problems. At times the text is confronting, however, through class discussions we were able to critically discuss the writing choices and actions made by the characters. The students have developed their own writing around this text by looking at differing point of views and how other characters may have responded to struggles that arose. I look forward to reading the final copies of these pieces of writing.
Guidance Counsellor
Growing up, my dad warned me, "Too much TV will give you 'square eyes!'"
Fortunately, my eyes stayed round, despite many hours watching reruns. Even still, seeing my own kids sprawled on the couch and zoned out in front of a movie sometimes gets to me.
My perspective shifted when I encountered research on 'passive' versus 'active' screen use and its impact on developing brains. This information is a game-changer for parents and could transform how you manage screen time at home.
In our newest Raising Tech-Healthy Humans video, I’ll cover everything you need to know about:
- Screen time, content, and context
- The difference between 'leaning in' and 'leaning out' technologies
- The connection between near work and near-sightedness
- How screen tokens can empower your children
Mrs Bec Greaves
Guidance Counsellor
Community Information
