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Term 2 Week 5 2023

Key Information

Term 2 Important Dates

Friday 19th May - Under 8s Day and Athletics Carnival
Saturday 20th May - Open Day - 9 to 11am
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 5 is: Spaghetti Bolognaise, Lemmon Flummery Slice and a Popper

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 5,

What a busy week we have ahead of us with the Under 8’s Day and Athletics Carnival on Friday, as well as our first Open Day on Saturday.

Under 8s Excursion
I encourage all parents and carers to read the emails sent last week as they contain important information about the Prep to Year 3 Under 8’s day event. Students that are 8 years and under will be attending The Cloncurry State School’s Under 8’s Day event this coming Friday.

This is however on the same day as our athletics carnival. As explained in the information sent home please ensure your child is dropped off to The Cloncurry Recreation Grounds at approx 8-815am. Students will be signed in and have their number recorded on their hands. They will leave their belongings at The Rec Grounds and head across the road to the event.

Students will depart The Rec Grounds at approx. 8.20am and will return at approx. 11am. Once students return they will have a morning tea break and then jump straight into their athletics events.

Students need to wear their sports uniform (Kennedy and Flinders House Shirt) and take a water bottle with them.

Athletics Carnival
We are very excited for the Athletics Carnival on Friday. We hope to see all of our parents and family members on the day.

Students must arrive at the Recreation Grounds between 8 - 8.15am, not to school. Please note that there will be no staff at school while the students are at the Athletics Carnival. Please see information sent home by Mr Dom Purcell.

Go Flinders & Kennedy!

Prep Enrolments & Open Day:
You may have noticed that our enrolment campaign for 2023 has started. Enrolments for Prep are now OPEN! There will be an Open Day coming up this Saturday 20th May from 9 to 11am. Please spread the word. If parents / carers can’t attend the Open Day they are welcome to enrol at anytime by handing an enrolment pack into the office or emailing it to clncry@tsv.catholic.edu.au

God Bless.

Mrs Samantha Kelley
Principal

APRE News

Welcome to week 5! This week marks the half way point of the term. Before we know it we’ll be half way through the year!

Class Aged Care Visits:
This year St Joseph’s students are assisting the Recreational Program run at the Aged Care Facility though fortnightly visits to their residence. On our first visit we took the Year 7 students to the centre to engage the residence in; cards, chess, colouring, reading and conversation. This week we are taking the Year 8 students to the center to participate in an OT session and games. These visits give so much joy to the residence and is such a beautiful way to have our youth support and engage with the elderly of our community. Our aim is to have fortnightly visits with a different class each fortnight. Compass emails will be sent our to parents seeking permission. Please keep an eye out for these emails.

Ascension of The Lord:
This coming Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, that is Jesus’ departure from this earth after his Resurrection. It may sound odd that we celebrate his departure and see this as in fact a blessing. To help understand this I would like to share a reflection written by Sr Kym Harris from Casting the Net Blog:

“One way we can understand Jesus’ Ascension is to consider people who have influenced us profoundly for the good and who have since died. I had a wonderful grandfather and I frequently find myself consciously living by the values he imparted. In fact, I feel closer to him as I strive to be like him. When Jesus left this earth, he promised us his Holy Spirit and told us to be his witnesses. That is, the world is to continue to see and experience him in and through us. If he was still around, we simply would not step up to the mark. But as we live by his Spirit and by his words, he comes and lives within us and we become the revelation of the life and grace of God to those around us. That is, people are to experience God and Jesus because they have experienced us. This is a great dignity. This is a blessing. And we rejoice that we have this great calling.”

Notices:
No assembly this week - Athletics Carnival

Wednesday 24th (Week 6) Whole School Mass: 1:50 pm in St. Mary Mackillop Shed - Fr Emene will join us for this mass for Mary Help of Christians Feast Day. School and Parish community are welcome to join us.

Have a blessed week,

Mrs Therese Curley
APRE

Pastoral Care

In today’s digital environment, the internet can be viewed as a valuable tool for education, research and entertainment. Young people today tend to go from one screen to another, but how much is too much? Time spent in the ‘screen world’ has parents concerned that their kids may be missing out on real life experiences. Therefore, it is vitally important to a child’s wellbeing for parents to regulate a child’s internet use.

Internet addiction can cause significant psychological and social problems for children in years to come. The true effects on future generations is not yet known, but there are strategies that parents can implement now.

In this edition of SchoolTV, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg discusses what causes internet addiction, who is most at risk and what parents can do to regulate the amount of time their kids spend online each day.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact either our Guidance Counsellor, Miss Bec, or myself for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Internet Addiction edition of SchoolTV

https://sjctsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/internet-addiction

Upcoming Events

State of Origin Dress Up - Wednesday 31st August, Week 7
Cloncurry Show Holiday - Friday, 16th June, Week 9
SJC Ride to School - Thursday 22nd June, Week 10
Dress as your Teacher Dress Up - Friday, 23rd June, Week 10

Pastoral Care Leader

Mrs Toni Schneekloth

Prep

Welcome to Week 5!

Our chicken babies will be old enough to pat this week and we will have to give them names! How exciting! The class is exploring the properties of materials in science and will use this information as well as their knowledge of the needs of living things to plan a chicken enclosure.

Please remember to bring your home reader folder back Thursday so we can send another book home.

The class will explore location and direction in Math this week and the assessment of this will be our final Math assessment for this Semester.

Friday is going to be a huge day for the Preps with under 8's Morning and then the Sport Carnival. Please make sure that your child is prepared by being rested, sending enough food (which does not require refrigeration) and water. They can wear their house colours and school jumper if it is cold. They must have a school hat. Please apply sunscreen prior to coming to school. It is important that jumpers, lunch boxes, hats etc are named as sometimes these do not end up back in the student's bags. We still need helpers on the day. Please let us know if you are able to help.

Reminders:

Tuesday - sport

Thursday - tuckshop and library

Friday - Under 8's morning and Sport Carnival (Please drop and collect students from the athletics oval)

Yours in fun and learning,

Mrs Sharon McLauchlan, Miss Tamara Williams and Miss Brie Thew

Year 1

Welcome to week 5! We are here already, half way through the term.

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. Students have enjoyed making their own clocks and using them to tell the time to the o’clock. Students have also been looking at duration.

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. Students have been loving looking at different dinosaurs and describing what they looked like.

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)

This Friday the 19th is our Under 8s Day as well as the Sports Carnival. We would love some parent helpers, please email Miss Brock at mbrock3@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au if you are able to help.

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 begun writing our own Imaginative texts. This week, we are leading into the problem of our stories. We have just finished Addition and Subtraction in Maths and will now begin Multiplication and Division. 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:

Athletics Carnival - THIS FRIDAY
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 5!

It's hard to believe we are halfway through the term already!

This week in writing we will be continuing our work on how to make sensational settings in narrative texts. We will be looking at extracts from the BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to show the children examples. In Maths we will be continuing our work on fractions. We will be continuing on factions of amounts e.g 1/3 of 12 is 4. Please continue to help the children at home to have rapid recall of 2,3,5 and 10 multiplication facts as they will help immensely with fractions. In Religion we will continue our topic Welcome to the Church we will be looking at the Sacrament of Confirmation this week. We will also be continuing our Science topic on Night and Day. This week we will be looking at how the movement of the Earth around the Sun impacts on time zones around the world.

This week’s events

Monday: Homework will be set and will be sent home with Home Readers

Tuesday: Chaplain’s Breakfast in MMS at 7.45am

QLD cricket visit

PE the children can wear their sports shirt

As this is Week A the children have Resilience lesson

Board Meeting in Library at 6pm

Wednesday: Tuckshop orders must be in by 8.30am

Thursday: Homework and Home Readers to be return today

Tuckshop - if your child is having tuckshop please remember to send

a healthy snack for brain break and something for second lunch

Children have Technology with Miss Laffey

Friday: Athletics Carnival and Under 8s Day

All student to arrive at the Rec ground at 8am

Have a great week,

Thanks

Mrs Nicola Cullen

Year 4

Hi everyone,

We have our Athletics Carnival this Friday. Students are to come in their house shirts and sporting appropriate shoes. Please make sure your child's lunch has an ice brick in it or that it consists of food that won't go off in the heat. Students will need a hat, sunscreen and a jumper incase it gets cold.

We are having our school mass next week on Wednesday from 1:50pm. Parents are welcome to attend.

Reminders:

Tuckshop - Please make sure Tuckshop orders are placed by Wednesday morning.
Library - Students will be visiting this Library this Thursday.

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

Assembly - There is no assembly this week.

Have a great week,

Miss Mairin Borlase

Year 5

Dear Families,

On Wednesday last week, learners were fully engaged in an AFL workshop and had a great time! We're sharing the session with Year 6 so our next one will be in Week 6.

ENGLISH: Following our staff development last week about The Sentence Train, we will be continuing our investigation into the structure of the 'Explore the Subject' Sentence type.

Subject, who/which statement/fact, verb phrase:

Light reflected by the Moon, which is approximately 382,500 kilometres away from Earth, takes 1.3 seconds to reach us.

Our Sound Waves spelling focus is on words with [l and ll] and continued investigation into words with suffixes -ful, -less and -able.

MATHS: We continue our investigation into fractions - unit and multiples of unit fractions. Following work on visual representations, discussion about number lines and divisions, we now look at addition of fractions. The visuals continue to be a focus which help us to justify how we solve addition problems. The example of 1/2 add 1/2 makes a whole one. We initially investigate fraction addition with the same denominators before discussing similar denominators while developing our understanding of equivalence.

Multiplication practice: all learners are progressing and need to continue to practice multiplication facts at home. Try throwing a ball to them and firing random questions at your child. Also use UNO Cards to create two fractions that can be added.

SCIENCE: In our science, we focus on generating investigative questions about light and dark. Discussing how we feel in the dark, looking at light boxes to see the visible light spectrum using glass prisms to see how light bends to travel through (refracted) or is reflected.

RESILIENCE PROJECT: In our learning last week we discussed MINDFULNESS - taking time each day to be present in the moment and to fully participate in conversations without distractions and allowing our mind to wander to other thoughts or tasks we need to do. We discussed how even adults need to hit the pause button - making us great role models! Take time to discuss things at dinner or in the car on the way to work/school. Many young people struggle with the current pace of life and the fullness of activities in every waking moment, this often impacts on sleep. I have found the Headspace app really useful to switch off - others include Smiling Mind and the Resilience Project.

Have an awesome week, hope to see you all on Friday!

Mr Mike Tarleton

Year 6

Week 5 already!

It has been a busy week in Year 6. Students have started brainstorming for their short story assessment in English. There is lots of different ideas and some huge imaginations in Year 6.

In Maths, we have begun revising the different topics covered this term. This week there has been a focus on probability and chance. How to represent probability in fraction, decimal and percentage form.

Year 6 have also had the opportunity to have AFL and Queensland cricket academy sessions as a part of some weekly sporting visits which they have really enjoyed.

Friday is our School Athletics Carnival which we are all very excited about!

Mr Dom Purcell

UMY - Spotlight

Yr 7 Geography with Mr Delaney
This term, we are wrapping up our geography learning by exploring liveability. The students have been collecting and examining a range of data that can be categorised under the three main factors of liveability: social, economic and environmental. To do so, the students have created surveys using Google Forms (these will be sent out this week) to collect subjective data and accessed websites such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics to collect objective data. They will present their findings in a short report format and use the recommendations to inform a written response and the creation of a liveable utopia on Minecraft Education.

Yr 9 Maths with Mrs Laffey:
Students are now beginning their third mathematics unit for the year; Chance and Data. Now is the perfect time to start playing blackjack, yahtzee, GREED and other games of chance. Encourage your students with the questions “What is the probability of…” or “Which is more likely…”

Students will learn how to draw and use tree diagrams and arrays to determine the probability of events with and without replacement. For example, what is the chance I pull out 2 black socks from a drawer with 13 black socks and 4 white socks? What about drawing the same marble out of a hat with 25 marbles, if I replace the marble before the second draw?

We have already had some students groan at the prospect of stem and leaf plots for our data studies, though I cannot imagine why. Stem and leaf plots are the bees knees; they will be very helpful when we are trying to determine the centre and spread of data. Centre = mean/median/mode. Spread = symmetrical/skewed/bi-modal.

Yr 7 English with Mrs Delaney-Lovett

The great debate: Is Ned Kelly a hero, villain or victim? The perfect topic to develop our language, literacy and literature skills!

This term the students are developing their capacity to express or challenge a point of view - drawing upon textual analysis and their personal knowledge. They will explore a range of sources - images, videos, newspaper articles and beyond - and explain ideas and issues surrounding the infamous Ned Kelly + his gang of outlaws. The students have demonstrated their abilities looking at both evidence (facts) and implied meaning (opinion), which has led to some rich discussion about the man in question. We have started working on the first part of our assessment - a series of blog posts, focussing on a particular event. If you get a chance, ask your child about the incident at Stringybark Creek - self defence or killing in cold blood? It is always interesting to see the final point of view that students hold about Ned Kelly at the end of this unit - it may even surprise you!

Yr 7 Religion with Mrs Delaney-Lovett
Students have worked on 2 units this term; finalising the Belief and Believers topic, where we determined the influence sacred texts have in the lives of believers. The students ‘re-wrote’ a Creed, highlighting and elaborating on what they understand Christians to believe. They took this a little deeper and discussed what they believe and how this may have been influenced by elements of sacred texts, and how these beliefs develop over time. We have recently started our third topic - Belief, Life & Faith. Through this topic, we explore the principles of Christian Morality and the ways in which believers live this out both personally and communally. This is a really interesting unit of work as it challenges us to consider our actions and decisions: that sometimes, the easy way (or thing) isn’t always the right way (or thing). We consider the way that moral individuals make up a moral community and the benefits this has across the globe; linking Church teachings (from scripture) to our contemporary world.

Athletics Carnival - Friday 19th May

This Friday is our Athletics Carnival! Looking forward to seeing the students compete and cheer.
It's also a great time to put the feelers out to any parents or carers who may wish to volunteer to help on the day. If this is something that you would be happy to do, please email me and let me know. There will be different events throughout the day that we would really appreciate support with.
Please contact me at: dpurcell6@sjctsv.catholic.edu.au

Student Wellbeing

How to Make School Mornings with Kids Less Stressful this Winter

It’s 6 am on a cold winter morning and the alarm on your smartphone is ringing louder than a schoolyard lunch bell. It’s still dark outside and the temperature has dipped. While rubbing sleep from your eyes, you slowly make your way to the kids’ bedrooms. It’s time to wake them up for school. You sigh heavily, already knowing what comes next.

From groans for “just 10 minutes more mum, please ” beneath the snug bed covers to finding misplaced school shoes, packing school bags and getting your tight-lipped child to eat unwanted breakfasts, wintertime is just as bad for children as it is for the rest of us. No one wants to be forced out of bed on winter mornings, especially children who don’t share the same day-to-day responsibilities to take care of as adults.

Fortunately, there are ways to end the morning madness and stay on schedule. By following these simple 5 parenting hacks, parents and carers can survive the early morning stress, avoid pouting faces and get kids out the door with the least amount of conflict.

Get a Head Start the Night Before

Just like a stitch in time saves nine, preparing for school the night before saves time. Have your child pack their school bag the night before while you lay out their school uniform. This will allow you to see what books and other school supplies must be packed into bags, and which school clothes need washing or ironing so that you and your little ones are not rushing the next day. Where possible, try to prepare and pack lunches for the following day the night before, or check that you have enough tuckshop money on hand to give to your kids for the following day.

Evening Showers and Baths

The only thing more difficult than getting out of bed when it’s icy cold is getting undressed when it’s icy cold. Try to have your children take hot showers or baths at night before bed as this saves between 15-20 minutes per child the following morning. When this strategy is used in conjunction with a night-before routine of packing school bags and preparing uniforms, it presents more time to get ready, and leaves extra time for sleep in the morning – for you and the kids. Getting 8 hours of sleep at night is incredibly important for kids to be energetic, productive and focused, leading to improved grades.

Turn Off Smartphones or Electronics

How often do things you say to your kids go in one ear and out the other because they are in a social media or technology trance? The 21st-century technology boom means that children are becoming tech-savvy much younger, but addicted to electronic screens much faster than generations before. Set a no-device rule for Monday to Friday mornings and turn off all TVs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles. This will free up your child’s attention to focus on their morning tasks and help to avoid unnecessary time delays that usually lead to rushing, panic and frustration.

Create a Time Management Calendar

If all your efforts to avoid the morning rush aren’t bearing fruit and stressing you even more, create a time management calendar. Use a large sheet of paper and plot out a weekly morning timetable with designated times for certain tasks to get done.

For example:

Monday: 6:30 am: Brush teeth and wash face
Monday: 6:45 am: Everyone gets dressed
Monday: 7:15 am: Sit down for breakfast

When kids have a good time management calendar they can do a better job of keeping track of their time. Getting organised and being able to be focused on what needs to be done and when is important to learn while young as it benefits you for your entire life. Children who learn to be good time managers can get more done and in faster times than youngsters who don’t learn how to manage their time.

Divide and Conquer

Many hands make light work, especially when raising children. If you have the benefit of raising kids with a partner, split morning responsibilities between each of you as this will allow more to get done a lot quicker. For instance, while you prepare breakfast, your partner wakes the kids and gets them into the bathroom. Similarly, if you leave home an hour earlier than your partner and the kids, you can prepare lunches before heading out, saving time for your partner when they wake up. If you don’t have a partner, get your children on board and give them some responsibilities. Usually children love being ‘in charge’ of something and feeling like they are helping the ones they love.

Some families will have to be more creative than others to beat the stress and get to school on time, but it can be done. Starting each day with a plan is a plan for success that turns an already-hectic and busy school morning into a pleasant day-to-day experience.

https://medshieldmom.co.za/how-to-make-school-mornings-with-kids-less-stressful-this-winter/

Mrs Bec Greaves
Guidance Counsellor