Term 1 | Week 5 Newsletter

Key Information

• Virtual School TV Information Session - Wednesday 23rd February at 4pm
• Shrove Tuesday - Tuesday 1st March 
  
• Ash Wednesday Liturgy - Wednesday 2nd March
• Indigenous Education Advisory Meeting - Thurday 3rd March at 3pm
• School Photo Day - Friday 4th March 
  
• P&F AGM Meeting - Monday 7th March at 3pm
• Catholic Identity Committee Meeting - Monday 14th March at 3pm (please note date change)
• Opening Mass & St Joseph's Feast Day - Friday 18th March at 8.40am

Tuckshop Menu:

Thank you to all volunteers who help each week! If you wish to volunteer or contribute to Tuckshop in any way, please contact the office or see Miss Jamie-Lea. All volunteers must complete a volunteer induction package. 

Uniform Shop

As advertised, all uniform items with the old logo are being sold at 50% off normal price. There are limited sizes as shown. If ordering online your discount will be applied when you collect your order from the Uniform Shop or office.

Uniform Shop Days:

• Monday 2.30-3pm
• Thursday: 8:10am-8:30am

Any requests for uniforms outside these days MUST be done via the link below. 

Principal News

Welcome to Week 5, 

Although we have only officially been back at school for 2 weeks (3 including this week), we are officially half way through Term 1. At the assembly last week I thanked our community for their support in such a trying time and I feel it is important that I restate this in my newsletter. Although disappointing that our families are restricted from entering the school, your support in keeping our community safe has been amazing. We are very excited to welcome you back onsite once restrictions are lifted on Monday 7th March. 

Arriving at School:
A friendly reminder that the school grounds will not be supervised until 8.10am each morning. Over the last 2 weeks we have noticed an increase in students arriving well before this time each morning, we kindly ask that students arrive after 8.10am each morning. There is an exception for Tuesday and Thursday when the Chaplaincy Breakfast is running. This means that for Monday, Wednesday and Friday students should not be onsite before 8.10am. 

Writing challenge for Week 5:
Thank you to the parents and family members that joined our assembly last week. We had year 9 lead us in prayer and year 1 on the subject spotlight. I spoke to the community joining us about our current writing focus across all year levels at St Joseph’s Catholic School and gave all students a challenge for the weekend / week ahead. 

Students have been given the opportunity to enter a persuasive competition outlining why St Joseph’s Catholic School is the best school in the world. The students will be split for this competition, being P-4 and 5-9. Their work will be showcased at assembly next week and a prize will be awarded. There are no rules for students to follow, just for them to write persuasively. 

I spent some time with year 2 last Friday and we discussed a persuasive text. The students explained to me that they need to convince me to believe what they are saying to be persuasive. I asked them what they would write in their persuasive text and they said that St Joseph’s is the best school because it has a colourful and fun playground with lots of people on it. They also think the school is great because the courtyard outside their classroom is beautiful and green. Students can often find it easier to write their thoughts down once they have been able to say them outloud - this may be a technique you would like to use at home with your child/children.

Although the students' entries will not be marked, this challenge will provide them with the opportunity to write. Last week I took some time to meet with a Data Analyst, Judy Smeed, about areas we can improve our teaching and learning for our students. Writing was the skill that we predominantly focused on. Judy showcased two schools to me in Brisbane who implemented the ‘Pedagogy of Writing’, which simply provides students with the time and opportunity to write. Students are given the opportunity to write in class in both English and Religion, but I hope that this challenge assists students in developing the skills associated with writing. 

Please note this is not compulsory. There will be a new challenge each week (except weeks with big events). 

North West Swimming:
I would like to congratulate the following students that were nominated to compete at the North West Swimming Carnival in Richmond on the weekend, being Chelsea Saunders, Tom Schneekloth, Grace Swalling, Zaine Morris, Mac Schneekloth, Knox Swalling, Gemma Douglas, Zach Campbell, Bronzon Mara-Skellern, Jack McIntyre, and Faith Douglas. 

What a fantastic achievement. Although not all students could travel to compete, you should be so proud of your nomination. 

LoveBites:
The student protection team from Townsville Catholic Education Office will be visiting our school on Wednesday and Thursday to deliver a program titled ‘LoveBites’ to students in year 7 - 9. Love Bites Junior is a respectful relationships education program that focuses on the development of respectful relationships for 11-14 year olds.

The Love Bites Junior Program consists of 3 programs:

• Friends (Year 7) which covers themes such as communicating mindfully, warning signs of abusive behaviour, power in relationships, responding to concerns as bystanders, seeking help and rights and responsibilities in relation to sharing sexualised images.

• Respectful Relationships, Bullying and Gender (Year 8) which covers themes such as respect in relationships, gender roles and stereotypes, gender and relationships, jealousy, sexual harassment, challenging harassment, discrimination and gender stereotypes and seeking help.
• Relationships, Love and Control (Year 9) which covers themes such as gender expectations and relationships, responding to jealous feelings, love and control, warning signs of a controlling/abusive relationship, supporting friends, seeking help and breaking up with respect.

I am thankful that we have the opportunity to invite specialists into our school to deliver this program with our students. Students in year 7 and 8 will complete the program together on Wednesday and students in year 9 will complete the program on Thursday. 

Exciting News:
We have been blessed with some VERY exciting news this week, which includes a baby and a ring! 

Miss Maggie has given birth to a healthy and very cute little boy, Theo James Doody. Theo entered the world earlier than expected at 37 weeks. Both mum and bub are healthy and doing well. Theo is very loved by his two older brothers. Congratulations to Maggie, John, Callum and Alex on the new addition to your family. 

Mr James Delaney and Miss Rachel Lovett also had some very exciting news for us on Monday morning as they announced their engagement. What a fantastic way for us to begin our week. The staffroom was filled with lots of love and laughter as the news was shared. We are so excited for the both of you and wish you all the best on a loving, happy and healthy future together. 

Please join me in congratulating The Doody Family, Mr Delaney and Miss Lovett when you see them next. 

Enjoy your week. 

God Bless, 

Samantha Kelley

Principal

APRE News

Welcome to week 5!

This weekend our parish is starting the Alpha program. This program will run weekly after Sunday Mass during the term. The program is for all members of our community who wish to further understand and develop their Christian faith. Sessions will be hosted by Fr Mick or Fr Emene in our Library with light refreshments available. Everyone is welcome!

Notices:

Pancakes At School
For: Shrove Tuesday 
When: Tuesday March 1st, 7:30 am- 8:30 am
Where: Outside Home Ec.

What is Shrove Tuesday: Also known as Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the fasting Lenten season. This religious holiday is where Christians participate in confession, absolution and fasting. Pancakes are traditionally eaten on this day because eggs, sugar, and butter, were commonly forbidden during the Lenten fast. So these ingredients were used up the day before Lent started; hence making pancakes! The whole school is invited to share with us a pancake to remind us to prepare for Lent.

Ash Wednesday (March 2nd): Community Mass at 7:30 am in the church. Classes will participate in a virtual Ash Wednesday Liturgy in their class.

Project Compassion:
Spanning across the six weeks of Lent each year, Project Compassion brings thousands of Australian schools, parishes and supporters together to raise funds for people living in some of the most vulnerable communities across the world. Here at St Joseph’s we will be sharing the stories of Project Compassion, and encouraging students and families to help us fundraise. Did you know that $25 can provide the funds needed for a family to build their own vegetable garden? 

Our fundraising initiatives include:

• Selling Icy Poles each Friday afternoon for $1 
• Hosting a Dance party during 2nd Lunch on Fridays $1 entry (week 7-10)
• Gold Coin Free Dress Day on the last day of term.   

Project compassion boxes will also be available in the classrooms. Our support can help change lives today - and For All Future Generations. 

Option: Students can pay an upfront fee at the office to cover the fundraising initiatives for the remainder of the term (and save parents having to find a gold coin in the morning rush). 

$5 = Dance Parties and Free Dress Day

$10 = Dance Parties, Free Dress Day, and an icy pole on

Friday afternoon (Thursday of Week 10).

May God bless you and your family this week

Therese Curley
APRE

Pastoral Care

The Resilience Project - Part 2: Gratitude

This week’s presentation from The Resilience Project focuses on Gratitude. Gratitude is being thankful and expressing appreciation for what one has – as opposed to focusing on the lack of something.

Research shows that practicing gratitude rewires our brains to overcome the negativity bias (which can lead to anxiety and depression) and see the world what we are thankful for. It is also shown to broaden thinking, and increase physical health through improved sleep and attitude to exercise.

View Part 2: Gratitude of the series here: https://theresilienceproject.com.au/parent-and-carer-hub-hugh/

There are many ways in which you can practise gratitude, including starting a Wellbeing Journal. In the image below are a few ideas to get started.

For mental health resources and support information, visit The Resilience Project’s Support Page.

Mrs Toni Shneekloth
Pastoral Leader

Prep

Welcome to Week 5,

The Years Prep to 2 students participate in Early Years Testing each year. This testing is done early in Term 1 and then again in Term 3. This shows the growth of each student in the areas of literacy and numeracy. The data from the initial test is also used to direct my planning for the whole class and for individual children.

We will begin Early Years Testing this week (depending on relief staff availability). Each child is individually asked to answer questions based on images on an IPAD and their responses are recorded. I will be doing this at different stages of the week and the Prep class will have Miss V as their teacher during those times. Please let your child know that they may have Miss V as their classroom teacher for some of the week so that they are prepared for the change.

Thank you to our literacy group helpers last week. The students participated well, especially as this was their first week of literacy and math group work. Some groups worked independently, without an adult, and did a great job of staying on task.

Just a reminder to check that your Prep has their hat each day as they are not allowed to play at lunchtime without their own hat. Also touch base with your child about whether they ate their tuckshop if they had tuckshop this week. We are finding that quite a few of the Preps are not liking what is ordered for them and not eating it.

A - Week Timetable

• Tuesday: Sports uniform can be worn if you want weekly consistency, as sport is on Tuesday in a B week, but not this week.
• Wednesday: Tuckshop orders
• Thursday: LIBRARY
• Friday: SPORT. House colours, uniform and sneakers can be worn.

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs McLauchlan and Miss Tamara

Year 2

Hi all,

This week we are learning:

English: Character comparisons. Our tricky words are February, were, friend.

Maths: Skip counting

Religion: God’s nature

Science: Mixtures

HASS: Then and Now

Health: Keeping ourselves healthy and safe

Reminders:

Week A

• Monday: Sport
• Thursday: Library
• Homework due Friday

Week B

• Tuesday: Sport
• Wednesday: Library
• Homework due Friday

Have a great week!

Miss Leonie Ansell

Year 3

Hi everyone,

The learning highlights for Year 3 this week are:

• English: in our reading and writing lessons we are exploring the book ‘Tiddler’ by Julia Donaldson and looking at how the author has used action and speaking verbs to make sentences more interesting. We will also learn about what a topic sentence is and how it can help us plan out paragraphs before writing stories or persuasive texts. In spelling, we are looking at the sound a (as in apple) and revising the role of the suffix -ed and -ing (e.g. -ed makes verbs past tense and -ing makes verbs present tense)

• Math: we are starting our new unit on addition and subtraction by revising our doubling, near-doubling and halving strategies 

• Science: we will go to the science lab to practice using thermometers to measure heat

• HASS: we will look at the different types of groups in our local community and discuss how and why people participate in their communities

• Religion: we will continue to read the story of Jacob in Genesis 25-28 and explore the meaning within the text 

PE Uniform 
To assist families with the different Week A/Week B PE times, students are welcome to wear their PE uniform every Monday (regardless of whether PE is on that week) and their house shirts every Friday. Hopefully this will help with the confusion!

Lenten Promise
Students have spent some time making a promise to either give something up or do something extra during the holy season of Lent. These Lenten promises will be burnt on Ash Wednesday as our community begins to prepare our hearts and minds for remembering Jesus' death and resurrection at Easter time. I have made a copy of these promises and will send them home with students today (Tuesday). 

Have a great week ahead!

Miss Suzannah Coombs

Year 4

Hi Everyone,

Maths: As we enter Week 5 The Year 4 class has started a new Maths unit. Over the next 2 weeks, we will be learning about fractions including common fractions, fractions of a group, equivalent fractions and fractions on a number line. Today we started by making pizza and calculating the fraction of the whole that contained each topping. In Maths I always like to provide the students with games to consolidate the concept and in this unit the students will be involved in playing lots of games and looking at practical situations where fractions are involved.

Science: In Science this term we are looking at different forces and how they act upon objects. You may have noticed some discussion questions in your child’s homework. These are optional but are great conversation starters that the whole family could discuss.

Religion: Continuing with our unit on the Old Testament and the writings in the book of Proverbs we have been looking at a proverb that the students proved to have a good understanding of (see below). They chose a wise person and completed a consequence chart, then wrote a letter to that person thanking them for guiding them and letting them know how they had enhanced their life. There were some beautiful letters written to family members and friends.

Have a lovely week,

Mrs Lesley Wall

Year 5

Welcome to week 5!

This term is already flying by 

Math: Students have displayed a sound knowledge with perimeter and a keen interest with our weekly focus on the area of rectangles and squares.

Science: Exploring solids, liquids and gasses this term has been fun! This week students will construct their own personal flip books and begin preparation for another class experiment.

Health: We are looking at all the dimensions of health: Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Environmental, Spiritual, School-Based and social.

HASS: Students will begin preparing for their History research task on the Australian Gold Rush. 

Have a fantastic week and feel free to send an email if you have any questions.

Mr. Alastair Fraser

Year 6

Welcome to Week 5!

The students are busily getting through Term 1 content and are trying their absolute best to display some positive behaviours for learning!

Our learning focuses for this week:

Religion: We are continuing our learning about different images and titles of Jesus, and hoping to make connections between his relationship with God and humanity.

English: The students will be learning about the features of creative/imaginative diary entry writing. 

Mathematics: We will be revising all the concepts learnt so far and assessing prime and composite numbers, square and triangular numbers. 

HaSS: Students have been answering research questions for some Asian countries facing poverty of their choice and representing data in Google Sheets. This week, we will be learning about the Global Goals.  

A reminder that Physical Education is Week A Tuesday & Week B Monday. Library is Week A Wednesday & Week B Thursday. 

Keep checking in with students to see if they have homework and to sign their diaries - great practice for high school!

Have a blessed week ahead!

Mr. James Delaney & The Year 6 Legends

Year 7 Design

This term, students will be creating a Carry All from various size meranti pieces.

Before starting work on the Carry All students must first complete online training in safety. All students have been given time in class to complete their onguard training (online workshop training) and the majority have completed the training modules. Students will not be allowed in the workshop without completing their onguard competencies. 

In order to create this project, students will be required to cut a dovetail joint. A dovetail is quite a complex join and will come with it’s challenges. Students' resilience will be tested along with their accuracy in measuring and cutting. 

Mr Dean Kelley

Year 8 - English

This term the year 8 class have been reading S.E Hinton’s classic novel, ‘The Outsiders’ which our unit of work centres around. Through the text, we have explored literary themes - what these are, why authors use them and how to identify them in a text you read. Students have analysed the way a narrative text is structured and we will begin to focus on the individual components in more detail in the coming weeks. Year 8 will be working towards creating a narrative-based text of their own, drawing on a key event in The Outsiders but told from another character’s perspective. It has been so wonderful to see the engagement each student has with this story and the discussions about the text have been so detailed!

Miss Rachel Lovett

Year 8 Religion

This term the students have started a unit that explores the mystery of the Trinity. We are working towards understanding that God is one being that takes 3 individual forms: The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit. Students have examined images that represent the Trinity and are beginning to describe how the symbolism is present in these works. This unit has really pushed the learners to think abstractly, which is an excellent skill to possess! The questions and conversations in each lesson have really helped us, as a cohort, deepen our understanding of this mystery!

Miss Rachel Lovett

Year 9 Art

This term, students will be exploring Indigenous art in a contextualized world. Students will be using traditional skills with 21st-century methods. 

Students will research different types of Indigenous art and use symbols to represent their own interpretation of both a drawing and a painting. Students will be assessed both formatively and summatively through the unit.

Mr Scott Murray

Library

We are delighted to let you know about an education resource that is available to your child at home as part of our school subscription – Story Box Library.  

Your child can watch favourite stories, read aloud by fabulous storytellers, at home as well as in the classroom.  

Reading aloud to children, in particular by diverse and engaging storytellers, greatly improves language and literacy skills, especially in the early years of a child’s development. Story Box Library is committed to supporting and engaging the practice of storytelling. It is  intended for use as a complementary form of delivering the precious experience of being  read aloud to, in order to improve children’s lives. Connecting children with literature  through the complementary medium of film, providing a vibrant, interactive experience via  a diverse range of storytellers sharing the best of our local children’s picture books.  

To access Story Box Library at home:  

1) Visit www.storyboxlibrary.com.au 

2) Choose Log In from the top right corner of the screen 

3) Log in using the username and password provided below 

4) Enjoy the library of stories on any device with internet connection 

USERNAME: cloncurry

PASSWORD: stjosephs

Please note the following features:  

• Story Box Library regularly adds new stories, so is an ever-growing library.
• Content is aimed at Prep/Foundation through to Year 6 students.
• Includes a range of short films to inspired by our stories, creators and storytellers.
• Resources are provided for each story, including Classroom Ideas, Activity Time and Student Task Sheets – all designed to assist at-home learning.
• Captions can be turned on or off for each story.
• Story Box Library is a safe online space free from advertising.

Mrs Chris Chaplain 

Teacher Librarian 

Supporting back to school emotions

HELP FOR PARENTS TO SUPPORT KIDS’ BACK-TO-SCHOOL EMOTIONS IN 2022

Ongoing upheaval from the pandemic continues to impact families, and going back to school adds another layer of stress during a time when there’s already a lot of change. Children and young people may have mixed emotions but being able to cope with uncertainty is a key life skill, and with the right support and strategies, parents can help their children develop ways to tackle change more confidently, manage their emotions, and build resilience in the long term.

Practical Triple P – Positive Parenting Program tips and ideas are FREE, thanks to Queensland Government funding! Do Fear-Less Triple P Online, Triple P Online, or Teen Triple P Online.  For more on free Triple P programs, go to: www.triplep-parenting.net. 

With thanks,

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program team

Sacramental Program

Project Compassion Fundraiser

Alpha Program

Shrove Tuesday - Pancakes

Webinar - Communication

From Vision to Inclusion: Advocating for your child at school

Chaplaincy Breakfast Club

Employment Opportunties - Teachers & School Officers

We are recruiting for a Middle Leader of Sport and Extra Curricular, as well as a HPE Teacher. Please apply by clicking the following link: https://applynow.net.au/jobs/ni/TCE1562-middle-leader-sport-extra-curricular-and-hpe-teacher

We are currently recruiting a teacher to join our team in Term 2 - teaching The Arts, 3 days a week. Please apply by clicking the following link: https://applynow.net.au/jobs/ni/TCE1549-teacher

We are seeking two school officers to join our team in Term 2. For more information please contact our office, alternatively please apply by clicking the following link: https://applynow.net.au/jobs/ni/TCE1561

We are seeking casual School Officers and qualified Teachers to cover sick and leave days.  For more information please contact our office.
Teaching staff will need to apply here > https://tceo-portal.applynow.net.au/jobs/TCE679-supply-teacher-registration-2021

Community Notices - Guitar Lessons

Jill Fisher will be holding guitar lessons for any children interested! These will be occuring at St Joseph's Catholic School. Please contact Jill directly if you would like more information.