14 June 2023

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Parents & Guardians

It is aways great to see our Performance Arts assemblies go from strength to strength each year and to put time aside to celebrate the many and varied talents of our student body.  Well done to all of the students who performed and to their teachers who put the time in to prepare them.

Next week we will be holding our Semester One Academic Awards Assembly.

During this time, we will acknowledge our students who will be awarded Gold, Silver, Bronze and Maroon Academic Awards as well as our Navy Effort Awards.  To achieve these awards is a tremendous feat and definitely deserves acknowledgement of the consistent effort and commitment these students are putting into their educational journey.

Parents of students that will be receiving an award will receive communication from the school.  We ask that you please keep this communication ‘under wraps’ from your child so the awards still hold an element of surprise for them.

Reports will be posted in the last week of school and will look quite different to recent reports as report cards have been reviewed across all primary schools.

Hopefully, the new report format will be more accessible for parents and students to understand.  Some notable differences you will see will be the inclusion of our Learning Dispositions of Resilience, Persistence, Independence, Creativity and Collaboration being central to each student’s Overall Comment.

You will also notice that Religion, English and Mathematics all have individual comments all of which will mention specific student achievements but also will have ‘next steps’ suggestions for students to work on to improve their future habits as learners in each of these subjects.

The inclusion of these ‘next steps’ suggestions make our report cards even more relevant for our students to set future educational goals for themselves.

Mrs Senini and the staff have put a tremendous amount of work in preparation of reports and I hope you enjoy the new format.

CAR PARK SAFETY ISSUES

I would like to bring to your attention that we have been made aware of concerns raised within the community regarding the safety of our students in the carpark.  Those concerns will be detailed briefly in the following four dot points.

• Please ensure that your child be fully fastened into their car seat before pulling away from the pick-up zone. Several instances have been reported with students hanging our car windows waving and calling out while their car is pulling away.  This is very dangerous and quite illegal.
• Please be aware that children under 7 years of age should be restrained in a properly fastened and adjusted Australian Standard approved child restraint.
• By law, children under 7 years of age should be seated in the rear seats of the car. Children aged 7 years and over can travel in the front seat.  However, research shows that children under 12 years are much safer travelling in the back seat.
• Many students are crossing to the school entrance at the curve in front of the entrance to the office. This is the area where students are most hidden from oncoming cars.  Please ensure students either use the crossing or the area adjacent to the pick-up/drop-off zone where students and exit straight into a safe zone away from moving traffic.

Please help by paying attention to these requests/laws that all centre around keeping our students a safe as possible.

Finally, the Catholic Parishes of Rockhampton are collecting for the St Vincent DePaul Winter Appeal.  If you have spare blankets, warm clothes or non-perishable food that can be donated, please drop it into the school office and I will make sure it gets to the Parish office.  Thank you.

Don’t Forget….

• Rockhampton Show. 14^th – 16^th June
• Rockhampton Show Holiday. Thurs 15^th June
• Children’s Mass. Saturday 17^th June @ OLHC 6:30pm
• Semester 1 Academic Awards. Monday, 19^th June @ 8:35am in MPA
• State of Origin – Game 2. Wednesday 21^st June
• Semester 1 Report Cards posted to Parent Lounge. Wed 21^st June
• SJPA Under 8’s Day. Thursday 22^nd June
• Term 2 concludes. Friday 23^rd June
• Term 3/Semester 2 commences. Monday 10^th July
• Challenge Cup. Wed 12^th – Fri 14^th July @ St Brendan’s Yeppoon.

Kindest Regards
Bernard Fitzgerald
Principal - St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Park Avenue

St Joseph’s 2023 School Improvement Priorities:

• Prayer Life
• Learning Dispositions
• Increased Learning Gain & Achievement

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Whoever eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ will have eternal life.

John 6:51-58
Living the Gospel
Meals are very important events. Not only do we physically need food and drink to keep ourselves alive, but we use meals to mark occasions and celebrate events: birthdays; weddings; dates; achievements; disappointments; reunions. There is a sacredness about gathering with friends and family and sharing a meal together. Stories are told; memories shared; the food is appreciated and more often than not there’s a drink to accompany the meal. Treating such occasions with gratitude – as blessed moments of grace – is living out the Eucharistic reality of welcoming Jesus into our lives and seeking to be more like him.

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

How we teach Religious Education

A dialogue and inquiry approach to Religious Education is central in all classrooms at Joey's. We believe the human person can reflect on sacred scripture and the traditions of the Catholic faith in a way that helps them make meaning for their own life. In Religious Education and the Religious Life of our School, we allow our young people to discover the beauty of the Catholic faith and its traditions, and how they can apply them to their lives today. There is an openness of all, especially the young to God and to the teachings of Jesus. It is from these Gospel values that our faith has developed its social teachings. At Joey's, we hope our students will be guided by the Gospel Values in their lives, ultimately inspiring and serving others in the name of Christ.

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

*SJPA – St Joseph’s Park Avenue
*OLHC – Our Lady Help of Christians church (next to St Joseph’s, Park Avenue)
*HF – Holy Family Parish Centre (next to Anthony’s School)
*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

Elizabeth Carter
Assistant Principal Religious Education

CURRICULUM NEWS

Performing Arts Assembly

This week we held our Semester One Performing Arts Assembly.  This assembly is designed to provide an opportunity for our music students to perform pieces they have been learning.  It’s lovely to see the progress these students make from year to year.  Congratulations to the students who performed as well as their music teachers.

Report Card Changes

With an aim to provide more consistency across schools in the Rockhampton Diocese as well as to provide reports which are more meaningful to parents, a taskforce from the Catholic Education Office has been developing a set of Reporting Guidelines for all Catholic schools to start implementing this semester.

There will be a few changes to the way that our current report card is structured.

• Students in Years 1-6 will all use the 5-point rating of A-E for achievement levels across the curriculum subjects.  (Previously, Years 1 and 2 were using the scale of VH, H, S, D, SR, M.)

• The second change refers to the three-point scale that will be used to report on effort and attitude (diligence, behaviour and engagement) for each subject. We previously used Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory or Needs Improvement.  This semester, each student will be given a rating of Commendable, Satisfactory and Needs Improvement.  Definitions for each of these ratings is below.

Commendable: The student consistently demonstrates appropriate behaviour, effort and attitude for a child at this year level.
Satisfactory: The student demonstrates appropriate behaviour, effort and attitude for a child at this year level.
Needs Improvement: The student is working towards meeting the expectations of behaviour, effort and attitude for a child at this year level.

• Teacher comments will be much more personalised and separated into comments for Religious Education, English, Mathematics and Learning Dispositions. Each comment will identify a strength your child has, an area of progress they have demonstrated and suggestions for next steps in their learning. Previously, all comments were found in one comment box at the end of the report card whereas this year the comments will be directly beneath the achievement and attitude mark for each of the three mentioned subject areas.

• Health and Physical Education has been changed to one subject area whereas previously it had been separated into the Heath part of the subject and the Physical Education part of the subject which provided two separate marks. This year, it will be combined into one mark. 

It is important to note that a child receiving a C grade for a subject, is working at expected level, based on the Australian Curriculum.  A child receiving a Satisfactory rating for Effort and Attitude is demonstrating appropriate behaviour, effort and attitude for a child at their year level.

This reporting change won’t impact our Academic Awards too much apart from the need to slightly change some wording on the certificates.  This change will occur once we run out of our current supply of certificates. 

Our Academic Award ceremony will be held on Monday, 19^th June.  Parents will receive a message from the school if their child/ren will be receiving an award.

Semester One reports will be available on Parent Lounge by the end of the school day on Wednesday, 21^st June.

ICAS

St Joseph’s is offering ICAS assessments again this year.

What is ICAS? 

ICAS is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling and Digital Technologies. 

Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals. 

We encourage you to consider entering your child into ICAS this year.   

How to participate in ICAS: 

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please: 

1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here
2. Read the terms and conditions here
3. Go to Parent Portal to purchase tests here
4. Enter our school’s access code –  FPT347
5. Enter your child’s details, select the tests you would like to purchase, then proceed to payment. 

After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email, please keep this for your records. 

Table 1: ICAS sitting windows per subject.

Cut off dates to order tests are:

Digital Technologies and Writing – 1^st August
English – 7^th August
Science and Spelling Bee – 14^th August

If your child is away on the testing day, there is some flexibility for them to sit the assessment, but it must be in the same week as the scheduled date and fit in with the availability of staff trained in the implementation of ICAS assessments.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is an annual state-wide initiative for state and non-state schools and home-educated students up to Year 9, as well as children attending early childhood centres. Since the program’s inception in 2006, more than 20 million books have been read, and in 2021 alone, 168,000 school, early childhood and individual readers participated in the challenge reading more than 2.39 million books throughout the PRC reading period.

The challenge is not a competition but aims to improve literacy and encourage children to read widely for pleasure and learning. Students can participate in the challenge within their school or as individual readers (home-educated students or students whose schools are not participating in the program).

For a student to successfully complete the challenge they must read or experience the allocated number of books for their year level during the reading period. Students who complete the challenge have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier of Queensland.

Why read? Literacy skills are vital to ensuring children have the best chance to succeed in their schooling and life. The PRC is an opportunity for students to be enthusiastic about reading, writing, authors and illustrators. Reading a variety of books builds vocabulary and knowledge, improves spelling and comprehension, can improve confidence and is also a great way to relax.

To successfully complete the PRC, students must read or experience the number of books indicated on the reader record form.

Please see the link below for the reading record form if your child is interested in participating.  All forms need to be returned to the office by 25^th August to be eligible for a certificate.

Regards,
Mrs Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week.  They are: Lilliana L (Yr 4), Remee H (Yr5), Parker I (Prep), and Charlee D (Yr 5).

Have a great day.

DRAKES SUPA IGA

Drakes Fundraiser for St. Joseph's Cathedral

I thank you for your support of this project which has raised over $40,000, of which the school community has played an important role.  Please continue to support the Cathedral by shopping at DRAKES using your key tag and receiving the benefits.

If you have not been part of this fundraiser you are invited to get a key tag from your local School or Church and shop at your local Drakes, one cent in every dollar you spend will go to the Cathedral.  No Fuss, only benefits.

Hoping to see you at Drakes 

Stay Safe
Shirley Hopkins,
Co-ordinator, Drakes Fundraiser for St Joseph's Cathedral