Term 2 Week 2 2023

Key Information

Term 2 Important Dates

• Tuesday 25th April - ANZAC Day Public Holiday
• Friday 28th April - ANZAC Day Liturgy and Tropical Disco 
• Monday 1st May - Labour Day Public Holiday
• Tuesday 2nd May - FACE Meeting - Library - 5pm
• Wednesday 3rd May - UPP Leadership Workshop - Year 7 to 9 students 
• Friday 5th May - QMEA Tradies for a Day workshop - Year 9 
• Tuesday 9th May - Writers Toolbox Professional Development for staff
• Thursday 11th May - QMEA STEM Unearted workshop - Year 8 and 9 students 
• Thursday 11th May - Mothers Day Breakfast 
• Friday 19th May - Under 8s Day and Athletics Carnival 
  
• Saturday 20th May - Open Day
  
• Tuesday 23rd May - Indigenous Education Advisory Committee Meeting - 3 to 4pm
• Monday 29th May - Reconciliation Week 
• Friday 16th June - Show Holiday Public Holiday
• Friday 23rd June - Last Day of Term 2

Tuckshop News

Miss Jamie-Lea is searching for some more volunteers if there are some available!  Please email Jamie-Lea on jmcconachy@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au or call the office to let us know you are keen.

Our Special for Week 2 is: Nachos (GF) with Caramel Anzac Slice & a popper for $8.50

Please have your orders in by WEDNESDAY 8:30am

To order: myschoolconnect.com.au 

Uniform Shop

Open Days:

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

Any requests for uniforms outside of these days MUST be done via the link below. Please click the link to access the Uniform shop! https://myschoolconnect.com.au/

Principal's News

Welcome to Week 2, 

Thank you to the students, staff and families that joined us yesterday at the Dawn Service and Anzac Day March. The weather was much nicer than what we experienced last year. The attendance of our community at both service’s was so pleasing to see. The behaviour of our students, as always, was exceptional. Nika Sala, one of our School Captains led us on the day by reading at the ceremony and Jack McIntyre, our other School Captain was a part of the flag party. Well done Nika and Jack. 

We also joined together as a whole school on Monday in our Call to Action assembly to talk about the significance of ANZAC Day. Students worked in small groups to write a prayer, messages of gratitude and tributes on poppies. These are displayed in our Mary McKillop Garden. 

On Friday our school will conclude the week with an Anzac Day Liturgy. Our year 5 students will be leading us in this at 8.30am in the Mary MacKillop Shed. 

Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Meeting:
Our first FACE Meeting for the term has been scheduled for next Tuesday 2nd of May from 5 to 6pm. This time has been selected based on feedback in either our last FACE meeting or the google survey I sent in my recent newsletters. Thank you to our family and friends that completed this. 

The following agenda items will be discussed:

• Upcoming fundraising opportunities - showgate 
• St Joseph’s Fete Update 
• Spirit of Catholic Education Nomination 
• Child Safety / Student Protection Presentation 

If you have agenda items to add to this please contact the P&F on the following email: pandf@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au

SRC Meeting 
Our first SRC meeting for the term occurred at morning tea today. It was great to meet with our student leaders to hear their voice. Some of the key topics discussed today where improvements or challenges their peers would like to see in the school, like Funtastic Friday returning, a Ride to School Day each term, SRC Disco’s with our first this Friday, Vinnies Sleep Out, and PE Challenges. The SRC will take these ideas back to their classes and will meet again in a fortnight. 

Writers Toolbox:
This morning our Learning and Teaching Team which consists of myself, Mrs Curley, Mr Kelley, Mr Delaney and Mrs Martin met with Julie from Writers Toolbox. Julie is the Head of the Australian Branch for Writers Toolbox and joined us to analyse our data. It was really pleasing to see the growth of our students in this platform. Julie reported that a strength of our students is their eagerness to check the feedback on the platform and enact changes based on this. Our school is currently sitting at an average of 80% for value adding when school’s usually sit at approx. 15 - 30%. This is an amazing achievement. Feedback is such an influential part of education. It is important for students to know how they are progressing and how small changes to their work can improve their knowledge and understanding. We look forward to sending you another summary as we progress through the term. 

Our teachers are due to participate in a 2 hour workshop in the coming weeks on sentences. We are committed to improving our practices to meet the changing needs of education today. 

A reminder if students are absent from school and have access to a computer/chromebook they can log onto the platform and complete the daily challenge from home. 

Unleashing Personal Potential - Student Leadership Workshop: 
St Joseph’s Catholic School have organised for the team at Unleashing Personal Potential to come to school next Wednesday to run a workshop with our year 7 to 9 students. This workshop has been amazing each year, so we continue to make this investment. The sessions are engaging and interactive. It includes team building sessions with all students to strengthen leadership and wellbeing. The sessions are based on research in psychology, neuroscience and education. The sessions usually focus on some of the following topics:

• Growth Mindset
• GRIT
• Wellbeing 
• Leadership is influence
• Different leadership strengths 
• The power of a team 

I look forward to hearing the feedback from our students on this workshop. 

Staffing Update:
It is with great sadness that I inform our schooling community that Mrs Laffey will be departing at the end of the term. Tania, Craig and Gideon will be relocating to Orange in NSW for an exciting job opportunity. We are very sad to see Tania leave our teaching team, but also to see Gideon and Craig leave our schooling community. We wish The Laffey family all the very best in their future endeavours. 

May God Bless you and your families for the week ahead, 

Mrs Samantha Kelley
Principal

APRE News

Welcome to week 2! Thank you to the students and families who attended the Dawn Service and marched with the school yesterday.

Confirmation:
May god bless the students, staff and community members who celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation at St Colmans Parish last Wednesday.

They received the gifts of the Holy Spirit and First Holy Communion. We were blessed to have Bishop Tim Harris, Father Mick, Father Emene and Frather Sylvester all presiding over this special Mass.

Please join us in congratulating Wyatt Mara-Skellern, Cole Daley, Clancy Saunders, Oliver O’Brien, Scarlett Campbell, Caroline Curley, Charlotte Curley, Brydee Gresham Angela Murray and Tamara Williams.

Global Pay it Forward Day:
This Friday 28th April is Pay it Forward Day.  This day is about people, giving to someone else and making a positive difference.

There is tremendous power and positive energy in giving – and what a wonderful world we would live in if all people experienced this to the fullest. 

So why Pay it Forward?

• To encourage all of us to embrace the incredible power of giving.
• To show each other that we care and that there is love and hope all around us.
• To know that we may be only one person in this world, but to one person, at one time, we are the world.
• To make a difference and experience the true power of giving. 

At St Joseph’s we are encouraging our students to do acts of kindness and “Pay it Forward”.  This term we will focus our Call to Action Assemblies on “Acts of Kindness”. 

We should all be looking for ways to help others every day.   I encourage families to discuss this at home, highlighting the power of giving and how we can all contribute towards making our world that little bit brighter.  

“Together we can change the world – one good deed at a time!”

Have a blessed week!

Mrs Therese Curley
APRE

Pastoral Care

Positive Behaviour for Learning

PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) 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 2 - we have formed our representative team (including parents/caregivers and students),  are revising our school-wide set of 3-5 positive rules or expectations, and will commence teaching of the expectations formally and in the context. After these steps, we will develop 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 have any questions or would like to know more, please contact Mrs Schneekloth or Mrs Kelley.

Pastoral Care Leader

Mrs Toni Schneekloth

Prep

Good afternoon,

As some of you have probably noticed, we have an extra adult in our class. Mr Huff (who teaches at the State school with a permission to teach while studying) is completing his prac hours with us.

All about Week 2.

This week we will be adding the sounds/letters "c" and "d" to the sounds we have already learnt. Our new Tricky words will be "as" and "is". Please practice these words and the words before these on the sheet that has been sent home. This link has some fun ideas for practicing our Tricky Words   Fun tricky word activities to do at home. Literacy groups will start again this week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at about 9.10am.

I will be doing literacy testing to check which sounds and letters have been remembered. The students will also be asked to read and sound and write simple words which are made up of the sounds taught. 

Our chicken eggs were put in the incubator last Wednesday and all going to plan should hatch 21 days after that. How exciting! We are following what is happening to the developing chicken each day. We will continue to focus on what living things need to survive this week with a focus on habitat.

During Math lots of shape activities and games will be played, while the class also continues to explore number.

The students will learn about ANZAC day and have made poppies which have been put on a wreath which will be used at our assembly on Friday. 

Reminders:

• Tuesday - ANZAC day
• Wednesday - order tuckshop
• Thursday - Library and tuckshop
• Friday - ANZAC assembly at 8.30am  

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs Sharon McLauchlan, Miss Tamara Williams and Miss Bree Thew 

Year 1

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to week 2! 

Here is a snapshot of what we will be learning this term;:

English: This term we will be identifying both the short and long vowel sound that our vowel letters make. (a, e, i,o and u). We will also be writing an informative text on a chosen dinosaur.

Math: Identifying representations of halves and telling the time to the half hour.

HASS: identify and describe important dates and changes in their own lives.

Science: Describe how different places meet the needs of living and non-living things.

Religion: Identifying words, actions and symbols used in the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist to communicate God’s presence and action. 

Art: Revising our Primary and Secondary colours and exploring the element of line.

Reminders

• Library: Monday (week 1,3,5,7,9)
• Resilience Project: Monday (week 2,4,6,8,10)
• Sport: Wednesday (every week)
• Technology: Thursday (every week)
• Homework will be sent out on Friday and is expected back on the next Thursday so readers can be scanned in. 
• Literacy groups will start Tuesday of week 3. 

Have a wonderful week,

Miss Mae-Louise Brock, Miss Erin Haley and the always fun Year 1’s!

Year 2

Hi Year 2 Parents,

During Writing this week, we have been exploring the structure of Imaginitive texts. During Maths we have been doing a bit of revision with our place value before starting Addition and Subtraction later this week. We are also looking at changes to living things in Science, Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Religion and our world at different scales, how we are connected to different places in HASS and Stop Motion animation in Media.

There will be some changes to our Homework day this term. Homework will now be due in and going back out on Wednesdays.

A few reminders:

• Technologies is on Tuesday each week.
• Sport is on Friday each week. Students are to wear house shirts for this and we will wear our Sport shirt on Wednesday so we get to use all of our uniforms.
• Library and Resilience Project will be on a fortnightly rotation on Mondays. Monday Week A (week 1, 3, 5, 7, 9) will be Resilience Project. Monday Week B (week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10) will be Library.

• Homework due and back out on Wednesday

Have a fantastic week,

Miss Leonie Ansell

Year 3

Welcome to week 2!

The children had an amazing week 1! They all produced fabulous writing imagining they were writing a Doggy Diary in Writer’s Tool box. It was great to see their collective enthusiasm and excitement undertaking this task. The children will edit their writing this week, I will then print it out so they can bring it home to show you all their hard work.

This week the children will begin work on their 2 and 5 times tables. Please encourage their rapid recall of these at home as well as their number facts to 20.

This week’s events:

Monday: Homework will be sent this week with Home Readers

Tuesday: NO SCHOOL ANZAC DAY

Wednesday: Tuckshop orders must be in by 8.30am

                       RSC meeting at morning tea 10,40am

Dinner orders for Tropical Disco closed at 8.30am         

Thursday: Chaplain’s Breakfast in MMS at  7.45am

Tuckshop - if your child is having tuckshop please remember to send healthy snack for brain break and something for second lunch

             Children have Technology with Miss Laffey  

Friday:  Homework to be returned with Home Readers   

ANZAC Liturgy at 8.30am MMS

Tropical Disco at 5.30pm in Library  

Have a great week,

Thanks

Mrs Nicola Cullen

Year 4

Hi all,

I hope you have all settled back into the school routine after our first week back. This week we have school off for ANZAC day on Tuesday and next week we will be off on Monday for Labour day. I can’t wait to hear what everyone gets up to during this time. There is a Tropical Disco this Friday in the school library for a gold coin donation. You can also pre-order dinner by Wednesday on the My School Connect App.

Homework: You may have noticed homework is a little different this term. I wanted to create homework tasks that would be interesting for the students to complete; to encourage them to engage with this as much as possible. The main tasks for homework will now be completed online at our class website which you can access here: https://qrco.de/bdtAsq

If you have any concerns about accessing the homework please get in touch with me and I can arrange another option to ensure your child doesn’t miss out.

Reminders:

• Tuckshop - Please make sure Tuckshop orders are placed by Wednesday morning.

• Resilience - Students will have the Resilience Project this week instead of the Library. 

• PE - We have PE this Thursday. Please make sure your child is wearing their PE uniform.

• Assembly - We will be having an ANZAC day liturgy this Friday at 8:30am.

Have a great week,

Miss Mairin Borlase

Year 5

Dear Families,

ENGLISH:
This week, we continue our comprehension activities - focus will be on being a Word Detective (identifying and discussing unfamiliar vocabulary), being a Question Maker/Clarifier (asking questions about the text) and being a Summariser (discussing the most important events from the chapter). We begin our new text Skulduggery Pleasant written by renowned children's author Derek Landy. There are 15 books in this series and the age range is 10-15 (please be aware that some of his later books are the ones written for a more mature age).

MATHEMATICS:
In Week 2, our Maths focus is on completing Term 1 assessments about addition/subtraction, multiplication, multiples and factors. Our Think Mentals focus is on multiplication and division strategies - using halving and doubling to speed up our mental strategies. We will begin to investigate 3, 6 and 12 multiplication facts and how they are connected this term and will also start to investigate simple fractions to discover what the children already know.

SCIENCE:
We enjoyed checking out the Solar Eclipse last Thursday (although looking at a small light through a pinhole camera isn't as impressive as seeing the full eclipse at Exmouth in WA). Next one is in 2028 - only 5 years to wait! This was a perfect event to kick start discussions about light, dark and shadows - we invited several other classes out during the afternoon. Check out the photos on the Year 5 News Website.

ARTS:
The children are completing their Mosaic Images this week - there are several photos of finished and unfinished work on our News Website, pretty impressive! These will be on display in the Office hopefully by the end of Week 2 - feel free to pop in to appreciate the time and effort taken to create these masterpieces!

• 25th April - Tuesday (Week 2) - ANZAC DAY - PUBLIC HOLIDAY
• 26th April - Wednesday - Baking Anzac Biscuits (please check out the ingredients).
• 28th April - Friday - Y5 lead Assembly (Anzac Day Liturgy)
• 1st May - Monday (Week 3) - PUBLIC HOLIDAY
• 16th June - Friday (Week 9) - PUBLIC HOLIDAY

Please join us on Friday for our Anzac Day Liturgy, hosted by Year 5.

Enjoy your week,

Mr Mike Tarleton

Year 6

Week 2 has been busy!

In English we started to look at Language features for our short story writing. Students also started working in Literacy rotations groups, focusing on comprehension, Typing effectively and the segmenting of sounds within their spelling words

In Maths, our focus turned to Volume and Capacity in week 2. We looked at a number of different examples where volume and capacity might be measured and what units of measurement are required.

In Science, we continued to look at Changes in the state of matter: We looked at Chocolate as an example, and the fact that chocolate can change between a liquid and a solid when heat and cold temperatures are applied.

In Hass, Year 6 students created a list of their own needs and wants. They then compared it to the needs and wants of a person working in a Trade. They have started to recognise the differences between what people need and want, based on what they do- or the businesses they are involved in. 

It has been an extremely busy week 2, with the ANZAC Day march also a significant part of the week.

Mr Dom Purcell

UMY - Spotlight

Year 8 Religion with Mr Delaney
To begin the term, we are learning about the different covenants throughout the Old Testament and the unique relationship present between God and His chosen people. The students will consider and organise the covenant narratives to identify key themes that inform these relationships. From this learning (and our Term 1 learning of the Trinity), later in the term, we will be exploring God’s saving plan. Specifically, evidence from scriptural texts that highlight Jesus as the Messiah and how He fulfills God’s saving plan through His life, death and ressurection. 

Year 8 - English with Mrs Delaney-Lovett
Welcome to Term 2! This term is arguably one of my favourite units to teach, largely due to the set text–The Outsiders– that is explored across the next 10 weeks. In our first week of the Term, the students engaged in some predicting activities about the text: what an ‘outsider’ could be. They explored what life was like during the 1960s (especially in America) to form connections with the setting and the terminology of the story. We will be pairing our chapters as we read, discuss, analyse and respond throughout the term and after reading chapters 1-2, the students are hooked! If you haven’t read this story, or watched the movie, I encourage you to do this with your children across Term 2–I am certain you will get as much from the story as I know they will. 

Our focus from this text is exploring Identity: we look at this in both a literary (theme within the novel) and literal (within our own lives) sense. The students will construct a personal response with regard to the theme of identity and then construct an imaginative response to the story, in the form of online journal entries. Both of these tasks will require students to consider specific literary techniques, such as emotive language, foreshadowing, hyperbole (to name a few); vocabulary choices and structural elements. 

I can’t wait to see how this term unfolds and will be sure you keep you all updated along the way! 

(Please note, it is really important that we keep up with our reading, and I will email home if I have any concerns about your child's progress!)

Year 9 Drama with Miss Humes

This term we have left visual arts behind to begin delving into the dramatic arts. This unit is always a little daunting as it requires students being willing to put themselves out there in front of their peers, and that is not always an easy thing to do. However, it can also be a lot of fun as we get to, for lack of a better description, make believe for a time. 

Have you ever watched a play, a movie, maybe even a musical and felt no connection to what the performers are doing on stage? I sure have, and I usually walk away feeling dissatisfied with my experience. A key part of drama is engaging your audience in what is happening on stage, whether it is through the story being told, or more importantly, the characters telling the tale themselves. We will be exploring the concept of role and characterisation through different types of drama this term: improvisation and masked drama. Improvisation, which I’m sure many are familiar with, is going along with what happens without a script or plan in place, while masked drama is where you put on different masks to depict wildly different characters – sometimes at a moments notice!

Regardless, I can’t wait to see what students do, and watch as they grow in confidence across the coming weeks. I’m positive they’ll surprise us.

Year 7 Design with Mr Kelley

Last term, students spent time building their proficiency in the workshop and started work on their semester project– a pencil case. This term they will measure, cut, glue, chisel, paint, bend acrylic and make adjustments– when nessassay– to complete their project. 

This is the students second term in the workshop and it is pleasing to see the enthusiasm that they have developed. The ability of problem solving and resilience is key in the workshop as students skills develop. The students showed an increasing level of resilience as we progressed through term 1. They showed persistence when a skill was challenging and helped their mates when needed. These are excellent qualities for our students to show not only whilst they are at school but will be needed in the workforce one day. 

I am sure the students will be excited to share their pencil case with you at the end of the term once they have finished it. 

SRC Fundraiser Tropical Disco

Cross Country Training

Every Tuesday and Thursday  at 7.15am, we would love to have students participate in training for Cross Country. Students aged 10 years and above are eligible for attending Mid West & North West trials annually, here is your time to train here at school!

Our Cross Country competition will be held on Friday 8th September.

Spark Club

When the weather is cooler, I prefer to be outside and enjoying what nature provides for us all the time! The pictures attached are from our grounds between the Church and the presbytry. 

This term I am endeavouring to achieve to make this space a bit tidier and to use it for our Spark Clubbers! My vision is for us to play games here, retreat here, read here and enjoy it as much as we can, together.

Giving back to our school community is a really kind thing to share. If you, as Parents, have ideas or contributions, feel free to share with me on pmcintyre@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au 

Donations: I am searching for some outdoor mats if anyone has anything of interest to donate? Something we can sit on when doing group activities. You are welcome to contact me via email or at the office.

Have a lovely short week, and the next also! Enjoy,

Miss Pete McIntyre, School Chaplain

Mothers Day Stall

Getting to that time of the year again! Celebrating your mum with a little gift from our personal store here at school. We look forward to helping your child choose something special for you.

Scholatic Book Fair

It is all happening in Week 4! Come and visit our Library to purchase a book or 2! We love seeing our students be so interested in reading whether fiction or non fictional books.

Students will bring home information relating to Book Fair from Ms Gardiner. So keep an eye out!

Anzac Day

Eye Care

Poetry Competition

From Sister Lyn

Cloncurry PCYC Netball