Term 3 | Week 2 Newsletter

Key Information

• Thursday 29th July - Columba Catholic College visit (see below for details)
• Friday 6th August - Pupil Free Day, 2022 Prep Enrolments Due 12pm
• 21st-27th August - Book Week
• Friday 27th August - St Colman's Parish & St Joseph's Fete
• Friday 3rd September - Pupil Free Day

Tuckshop Menu:

Uniform Shop

• Wednesday 21st July - CLOSED due to staffing arrangements

Principal News

Welcome to Week 2, 

We have had 5 new families join us this term. I pray that you settle in quickly to our St Joseph’s Community as we are very excited to have you join us. 

Athletics Carnival:
I would like to acknowledge The Sports & Extra Curricula Coordinator at St Joseph's, Mr Scott Murray, for his work on organising and running The Athletics Carnival last Friday. It was a great day that ran very smoothly. Events like this take a considerable amount of work behind the scenes and we are very grateful to have been able to come together as a schooling community to celebrate this. Due to the spiking COVID cases in Australia and restrictions that were implemented the carnival was implemented in a way that we could ensure COVID distancing was maintained for our students. In future we look forward to lifting the restrictions and inviting parents and carers to be situated closer to the events, for now we thank you for your understanding. I also wanted to thank our P&F for the coffee and snacks that were available on the day. The P&F also provided staff lunches which we are very grateful for. 

P&F Meeting Overview: 
The P&F met on Monday afternoon in the Primary Staffroom. An agenda item that we discussed was the work that the school is currently doing on the process of Validation. This is a process of renewal to ensure that the school is reflecting on what is being implemented, but also continuously ‘moving and improving’. We discussed the three domains being mission and purpose, climate conducive to learning and emphasis on learning. It was great to hear the feedback from our P&F on behalf of our parents and community members as to what the school are currently doing well in these areas, as well as areas for improvement. We always invite constructive feedback as it is through the process of reflection that we best meet the needs of our students. 

Professional Development:
Our teaching staff will come together this week for an inservice PD on Learning Intentions (LI) and Success Criteria (SC). The LI and SC are delivered at the beginning of each lesson, ensuring all students know what they are going to learn and how they will achieve it. LI are descriptors that state what a learner should know, understand and be able to do by the end of the sequence of lessons. They also provide teachers with the tools to track the progress of students by providing feedback and assessing student’s achievement. SC are the measures that are used to determine whether and how well learners have met the LI.

Our teachers at St Joseph’s have been implementing LI & SC at the beginning of their lessons for quite some time, however, this PD will ensure we remain ‘up to date’ and well informed with elements of the teaching and learning cycle. We encourage you to spend time each night asking your children what they learnt at school each day and then following this with how they learnt it. I encourage our Upper Middle Year Parents to also ask how students knew if they were successful in achieving the LI - what strategies did they use to assess their own work to detemine this. 

Assembly - Friday
Adopt-a-cop, Grandparents Morning Tea, Age Champions & 100 Days of Prep celebrations:
We have a busy assembly agenda this Friday, so please pop along to join us. We will be introducing our new adopt-a-cop Constable Lauchlan to the schooling community. Celebrating the achievements of our students at the Athletics Carnival last Friday, welcoming our grandparents to celebrate grandparents day and seeing our Prep students dressed up for their 100th day of Prep. 

Our P&F are also calling for volunteers to run the coffee store at assembly. If volunteers are unavailable this service won't be operating this week but will be back to normal in Week 3. If you are available to do this please email me at skelley2@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au 

Mulkadee:
7 students at St Joseph’s Catholic School have joined Miss Lovett at Mulkadee this week. The Mulkadee festival allows students from Year 4 to 12 to participate in workshops ran by professional instructors in the areas of choir, dance, drama, brand, guitar and strings. These are then performed in a concert on Friday evening. 

We are very excited to hear about the students week of creativity and look forward to sharing some photos with you on our facebook page. Pop on over and like our page to follow their journey.

Enjoy your week and god bless, 

Samantha Kelley 
Principal

APRE News

Gospel Reading - John 6:1-15

Jesus feeds the crowd of more than five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish.

Parents may sympathise with the disciples’ protests when Jesus asks Philip where food might be found for the crowd. In the responses of both Philip and Andrew, we hear feelings of inadequacy as they survey their limited resources in the face of such great need. We may sometimes share these feelings about our own material possessions or our emotional and spiritual resources in the face of our family’s needs. This is a Gospel of hope for these times, which are all too frequent in parenting and family life. As Jesus made the five barley loaves and two fish sufficient to more than meet the needs of over five thousand people, Jesus will also work with what we have to provide for our family’s needs. When we offer our efforts to God, we ask him to transform them so that they will be more than adequate to the tasks and needs before us. As you gather as a family, talk together about the things that your family needs, starting with the basics—food, shelter, safety, and so on. Continue by naming other things that a family needs to be happy and healthy—time together, cooperation, patience. Observe that sometimes we can feel like we don’t have enough of the things that we need or want. Read together today’s Gospel, John 6:1-15. Talk about how Jesus provided plenty of food for the crowd with just five barley loaves and two fish. We have faith that Jesus will also take what we have and make it enough to satisfy and fill all our needs. We ask for this blessing when we offer to God the work of each day in prayer in the Morning Offering. Pray together the Morning Offering, asking God to bless and make fruitful the work of each of our days.

Morning Offering
O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 
I offer You my prayers, works, 
joys and sufferings
of this day for all the intentions
of Your Sacred Heart, 
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world, 
in reparation for my sins, 
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, 
and in particular
for the intentions of the Holy Father.
Amen.

Grandparents Morning Tea
Pope Francis has proclaimed the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly will be celebrated on the fourth Sunday in July each year – July 25 this year. It is marked near the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus. 

We will be hosting a morning tea for our grandparents on Friday the 23rd of July after the Week 2 Assembly. Grandparents are also welcome to visit the classroom of their grandchildren that morning.

Plenary Council Prayer Campaign
Fan the Flame Prayer Campaign towards Plenary Assembly One October 2021.
‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’ 

Mark 6:30-34

Our Aboriginal culture has taught us to be still and to wait… We wait for the rain to fill our rivers and water the thirsty earth… We wait on God, too. We don’t worry. We know that in time and in the spirit of dadirri (that deep listening and quiet stillness) his way will be clear. (Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr, “Dadirri: Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness”, Miriam-Roes Foundation, accessed 23 April 2021, https://www.miriamrosefoundation.org.au/about-dadirri.)

www.plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/fantheflame/

Gideons International
Gideons International, an International Organization of Christian Business and Professional men, who place Bibles in Hotels, Motels, Accommodation, Hospital rooms as well as Waiting Rooms, and Schools, Police, Ambulance, Armed Forces in over 200 Countries. Gideons came to visit our Years 7 - 9 homeroom session on Tuesday.  Their desire is to present a New Testament, part of the Bibles to the Grade 7-8 Students or a higher grades if they haven’t already received one in the past. 

Gideons, are not a Church but are all members of different Churches.They did not preach, pray or ask the students to be involved in any particular Church or their activities. Students were told it is not compulsory to take one if they don’t want to.

40th Birthday Celebrations
The House of Prayer and Spirituality in Townsville is turning 40 and you're invited!
Friday 17th September Drinks and Nibbles followed by the launch of the Commemorative Journal from 5:30 pm.
Saturday 18th September Community Eucharist 9:00 am
Sunday 19th September Celebration Liturgy followed by lunch from 10.30am
To find out more or to RSVP, contact us by email: houseofprayer@tsv.catholic.org.au or phone: 4728 9661

Casual Staff for MMCNQ Centres - Mount Isa
We are currently recruiting for casual staff to work in either our early learning centre, Kindergarten or out of school hours care services. Be supported by experienced early childhood teachers and educators, gain practical work experience and work in a fun and active work environment. 

Interested in finding out more about our casual work opportunities in Mt Isa?
Contact our Area Coordinator, Nadia Russo on 0429 918 722

Holy Family Playgroup - Mount Isa
Playgroup for Grandparents and their Grandchildren is held every Wednesday morning (during Term Time) at the Holy Family Centre between 9.30am to 11.30am (during school term)

Join in for lots of fun and play activities for children and grandparents including: Arts and Crafts, Singing, Dancing, Stories.

Children aged 0 – 5ears welcome with their Grandparent.

For more information phone Tina on 0407 028 130 or the parish Office 4747 3145

St Vincent Pallotti Scholarship Trust
The St Vincent Pallotti Scholarship Trust offers scholarships to enable lay people to further their understanding and skills in leadership/ministry or a specialised activity, such as promoting faith enhancement, social justice and pastoral care.

More information and Applications Forms are available on our website https://pallottine.org.au/scholarships/st-vincent-pallotti-scholar-shipfor-lay-ministry.html Closing Date 30 July 2021

May God bless you and your family this week

Shadley Davids
Assistant Principal Religious Education

Pastoral Care

Smiling Mind - Feeling It Program
Feeling It is a 6-part series to support high school students to adopt strategies including good study habits, self-care and resilience, which could help them remain positive and engaged in their education now and into their future. The short videos and associated activities cover essential wellbeing topics:

1. From Me to Me: Self-care Essentials
2. Respect Your Vibe: What Your Feelings are Telling You
3. Lion Minded: The Power of Presence
4. Create Your Oasis: Stress, Study and Sleep
5. Find Your Inner Mentor: How to be Good to Yourself
6. VCE = Very Complex Emotions: Navigating Uncertainty & Preparing for Change

This term, our Upper Middle Years students (Years 7-9) will run through the series in Home Room sessions.  This will also be complimented with the introduction of our mindfulness program by Smiling Mind.

Positive Behaviour for Learning
Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is defined as a framework for enhancing the adoption and implementation of a continuum of evidence-based interventions to achieve academically and behaviourally important outcomes for all students (Sugai, Simonsen, & Horner, 2008; Tobin, Sugai, & Colvin, 2000).

For our school within the Townsville Catholic Diocese, the PBIS framework will be  implemented as PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) which is a 3-5 year process designed to help each school progress towards effective behaviour support systems.  The process is supported by data collection and evaluation at each stage. The triangle above illustrates that for academics, we support students at each level; traditionally we might punish students who do not conform. The process seeks to support students who do not yet grasp how to behave at school; or perhaps they have individual needs that require an individual intervention. 

The school undertakes three levels or ‘Tiers’ of training.  At each stage a survey is conducted across the school community which sets the action plan for the work to be achieved before the next Tier. At St. Joseph’s, we are currently working through Tier l which involves formation of a representative team (including parents/caregivers and students),  school-wide set of 3-5 positive rules or expectations, teaching of the expectations formally and in the context, a system for rewarding appropriate behaviour, a referral system for inappropriate behaviours with a range of consistent consequences and a data collection system that records inappropriate behaviour and commends outstanding behaviour.

If you would like to be involved in this process, please lodge your interest with Mrs Kelley or through the P & F committee.

Prep

Week 2 News!

Return Home Readers Fridays and Library books Wednesdays.

Please use the instructions in the front of the Home Reading diary to guide your reading sessions with your child. It is important to read a few times a week. Reading the same book is fine! Let us know in the Reading Diary or by email if the book is too hard/easy for your child. Please practice the "tricky words". We are up to set 5 and it appears that many Preps have forgotten these over the holiday break.

100 days of Prep celebrations will be Friday, due to the athletics carnival being on our 100th day! The Preps are to dress up as if they are 100 on Friday. We will parade our outfits at assembly and the students will receive a 100 days of Prep award. We are encouraging each child to bring a SMALL OR MEDIUM sized zip lock bag with 100 "things" in it ( lollies, beans, grains of rice - be creative). These will be taped to our whiteboard to make a "What 100 looks like" display. The Preps will do a variety of activities including celebrating with a "100 days" cake.

A Geography worksheet has been sent home with the readers. If you have not received one please check your child’s locker. It would be great if you could help your child to create a story map of their trip to school. This task is about recognising and discussing features that are familiar to them and their families. It is optional whether you return it to school.

I will be in a curriculum meeting on Thursday morning. Miss V will be taking the class.

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs McLauchlan

Year 1

Hello parents and caregivers, welcome to week 2! Here is a little peek at our week ahead;

Literacy: 
Our literacy groups and whole class InitiaLit sessions will be focussed on the bossy 'e' digraphs. We have been working hard to read and write words containing these new digraphs. We have also listened to and practised singing our bossy 'e' rap that your child might want to rap for you.

Mathematics: 
This week we are finishing up our unit on place value. We have been learning to partition numbers using place value and this week especially we have been focussing on all the ways to create one number (e.g. 64, 60 + 4, sixty-four, 6 tens and 4 ones). 

Religion:
Our religion unit this term is focused on Jesus' mission and ministry during his time on Earth. We are also delving into his life particularly where he grew up.

Reminders:
Please see email sent on Monday night regarding the Show and Share roster for Term 3. Our topic this week is; What is your favourite book and why?

Sport: Tuesday with Mr Murray
Library: Thursday with Mrs Chaplain

Have an amazing week,

 Miss Brock and the always fun Year 1's.

Year 2

Hi all,

This week is an exciting one! We are putting our chicken and duck eggs in the incubator to assist us in our learning about life cycles. We are also going to begin growing some sugar snap peas for technologies.

We are also learning about:
Tricky words: build
English: Procedural texts
Maths: Flips, slides and turns

Reminder:
Wednesday is PE day
Thursday is Library day

Have an awesome week,

Miss Ansell

Year 3

Hi everyone!  

The learning highlights for Year 3 this week are:

• In Maths we continue with our unit on numbers to 10 000. Students will convert 4-digit numbers from numerals into words and vice versa, as well as write 4-digit numbers in expanded form. We have been using lots of hands-on materials for this unit and will continue to use the resources in our ‘math packs’ to help us solve problems.
• In Science we will learn the 7 characteristics of living things - movement, growth, sensitivity, waste, respiration, reproduction, and nutrition.
• In Digital Technology we will learn the difference between hardware and software and the role of both in information systems. 

Homework and home readers were sent out on Monday. Please let me know if you haven’t received these. 

Reminders 

• Library: Wednesday 
• PE: Thursday 

Have a great week ahead. 

Miss Coombs

Year 4

Science: What a great start to the week with beautiful weather for our excursion to the Cloncurry River. We spent the time collecting soil samples, but also had time to visit the Chinese Cemetery and walk up the riverbed to see what we could find. The students enjoyed sliding down the bank to get to the riverbed but luckily I found a less steep part to get down!

We will now be analysing our soil samples to see the layers that are formed when we add water to them and comparing the contents from different locations.

Maths: This week we are beginning our unit on measurement. Students will be measuring length, mass and temperature in a variety of situations. We will conclude our unit with a Mini-Olympics which will include a number of novelty events which, although not included in the real Olympics, will be lots of fun and require a variety of skills to complete.

A big thanks to Mr Delaney for teaching our class about the Olympic mascots and how to cheer in Japanese. We are Olympic ready!!

Have a great week,

Lesley Wall

Year 5

Greetings all,

Here is a snapshot into Year 5 this week!

ENGLISH: The students will begin looking at the tone and mood of poems this week. We will analyse how language features and the elements of poetry influence our interpretation of the author’s tone and the message being conveyed.

MATHS: This week we will be ordering fractions along number lines and working on our times tables as always!

SCIENCE: This week students will be working to create a presentation about Earth and how it was formed.

HASS: This week we look at the ways Indigenous Australians managed the land and how their connection to Country impacted the way they managed the environment.

JAPANESE: Last week we were introduced to the A, I, U, E, O hiragana characters and began writing those. This week we will be doing a lesson involving the Tokyo Olympics with Year 6.  

Another great learning experience we shared this week occurred when we made our very own Acknowledgement of Country. This will be on display in our classroom later in the week if you would like to come check it out!

Have a fantastic week!

Miss Campbell. 

Year 6

Welcome to Week 2!

This term’s learning focuses are:
Religion: Students have begun learning about High Holy days in the Jewish faith. 

English: We will continue practising our Sizzling Start writing for informative texts. 

Maths: We have been revising everything decimals and also how to add and subtract them from each other.

HaSS: Students have begun learning about some events that led to federation. This week, we will be exploring some reasons for and against federation

Science: We will be testing some conditions that affect the growth of yeast in relation to food. 

Health: Students will explore the meaning of identity by investigating the stories and backgrounds of Olympic athletes. 

Have a great week ahead!

Mr. Delaney and the Year 6 legends

Subject Spotlight

Subject Spotlight Update
After receiving feedback from parents and caregivers, we have decided to change up the weekly Subject Spotlight for our Upper Middle Years students. Previously we have provided a term overview from a curriculum perspective, however, we will change the subject spotlight to focus on in class activities and learning experiences. The curriculum overview will continue in a separate newsletter due out next week.  This will also be sent with the Assessment Calendar for the term.  

Subject Spotlight - Civics and Citizenship
Civics and citizenship education builds students' knowledge and understanding of the ways in which citizens can actively participate in Australia's diverse and inclusive society. 

It focuses on three main areas of knowledge: government and democracy, laws and citizens and diversity, citizenship and identity.

At St. Joseph’s, this subject falls under the Humanities portfolio, along with History, Geography and Business and Economics. The subjects of Civics and Citizenship and Business and Economics are delivered as intensive subjects - delivered over the course of a few weeks, for the allocated four lessons of Humanities per week.

Currently, our Year 7 students are studying Civics and Citizenship and will complete a few small assessment pieces based on the three areas of knowledge utilising the skills that will be taught.  This week to consolidate our knowledge of the Australian constitution, students completed an online quiz using questions devised in class.  Check out Kahoot with your student - it is a great interactive way to deliver content and get feedback on student understanding!

2020 Annual Report

Each year, every Queensland school is required to publish a school annual report for the previous calendar year which outline's key policies and data about student outcomes for all persons enrolled at the school in the previous year. Jump onto our report today to view the 2020 data for St Joseph's Catholic School. 

Library News

A reminder that Book Week is this Term from the 21st-27th August. We will communicate with parents which day is dress up day.

The theme for 2021 is "Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds"

Rock Pop

Rockpop practices will begin this week, running from 3-3:45pm under the Mary Mackillop shed.

The junior group (students in years 3-5) will take place each Tuesday of the term.
The Senior group (students in years 6-9) will take place each Thursday of the term.

Please bring some afternoon tea, a drink bottle & appropriate clothing/footwear to dance in.

Keep an eye out in the Newsletter/School FB Page for any RockPop updates.

Fete News

Tickets are still on sale for our $5000 cash prize drawn the night of the fete.

Tickets can be bought over the phone or in person at our office. Get in quick, there's not many left!!

Columba Catholic College - Western Tour

Staff from Columba Catholic College will be visiting St Joseph's on Thursday 29th July between 9-10am to meet with current and prospective families & students.

All are welcome to come along, please come to the office to sign in first.

Casual Employment Opportunties

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

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