24 July 2024

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Welcome to Week 3.

Dear Parents & Guardians

Happy Catholic Education Week.

Can I start by saying how impressed I was in seeing the Emmaus students in ‘Mary Poppins’ over the weekend.  I am always amazed to see the level of talent on display from our students with several past Joey’s students in key parts of the performances.

Well done to all involved, it was fantastic.

This week I have included some simple info graphics and graphs to show the Key Area Scores as summarised results for both the parent and student surveys.

As you can see, the school has scored in both the ‘Excellent’ and the very high end of the ‘Good Score’ categories in all areas.

Over the next Term, Leadership will be collating the open responses from these surveys and sharing them with the staff, School Board, P&F and students to look at ways in which we can further improve our little, community school.

SATIFACTION SURVEY RESULTS 2024

Survey Colour Key

Parents Results Bar Graph

Parent Key Area Scores

Student Results Bar Graph

Survey Colour Key

Tomorrow we will be celebrating NAIDOC day at Joeys following on from our Catholic Education Week mass yesterday.  Students will have taken part in a number of unique activities celebrating the importance of Catholic Education in our region.

The week will culminate in our monthly Children’s Mass in OLHC this Saturday evening.  Please be aware that as of last week, the Saturday vigil mass has now been permanently moved back to the 6:00pm time rather than the 6:30pm time it has recently been.

Last Friday, the school community would have seen, ‘Advice 4 – Presentation of School Fees from 2025 onwards’ both emailed out and posted on the Audiri app.

If by any chance you were unable to see this information, the email contained the following content.

Please find attached Advice #4, developed to inform our Catholic Education families of the school fee
structure, from 2025 onwards. Previous Advice pieces outlined the new Federal Government Funding
model (Gonski model), the impact on School Fees for Catholic Schools, and the need to align with the
Federal Government’s means-tested Capacity to Contribute assessment of the school community.
As outlined in Advice #4, CEDR School Fees will be presented as an “All-Inclusive Fee”, rather than the
previous school fees model of Tuition Fees, plus several school-based levies and charges.

Congratulations to Mrs Deanne Senini who had her appraisal last week.  During the day, surveys were reflected on as well as community interviews conducted by Mrs Carmel Kriz, Assistant Director: Teaching and Learning and myself.

The day culminated in Mrs Senini receiving many commendations as well as reaffirming what an important role she plays in the life and culture of St Joseph’s.

Well done Mrs Senini.

Don’t Forget …

• Prep Interviews for 2025 continue
• Catholic Education Week. 21^st – 27^th July
• Children’s Mass. Sat 27^th July @ 6:00pm in OLHC
• Catholic Education Week Mass. Wed 24^th
• St Joseph’s NAIDOC Day. Thurs 25^th
• Rockhampton (students born 2014 & 2015) Capras Cup. Sat 27^th
• St Mary MacKillop Feast Day Mass. Fri 9^th August
• New Diocesan Director, Mr Michael McCusker School Visit. Wed 14^th August
• 2025 Prep Offers Sent Out. Friday 16^th
• Children’s Mass. Sat 17^th August @ 6:00pm in OLHC
• Week 7. National Book Week & Book Fair. 19^th – 23^rd
• Joey’s in Jamas. Tues 20^th Aug
• Book Week Parade. Thurs 22^nd
• Season B Sport Grand Final Day. Fri 23^rd August
• Pupil Free Day. Friday 30^th
• Parent/Teacher Interviews. 2^nd – 6^th September
• RU OK Day. Thurs 12^th

Term 3 Concludes. Fri 13^th September.

Have a great week.

Regards
Bernard Fitzgerald
Principal
St Joseph’s Catholic School, Park Avenue

St Joseph’s 2024 School Improvement Priorities:

• Christian Virtue – Dignity
• Increased Learning Gain & Achievement
• Learning Dispositions

CURRICULUM NEWS

Book Week and Science Week 2024

The theme of Science Week 2024 is ‘Species survival: more than just sustainability’.  This year we have decided to celebrate this theme a little bit differently and instead of having a day in the official week of Science Week, we will spend most of the term learning about endangered animals on assembly and then as part of our Laudato Si Learning Day at the end of the term, the learning will culminate with a variety of activities on that day.

The theme for Book Week this year is ‘Reading is Magic’.  Our annual Joeys in Jamas night will be held on Tuesday, 20^th August and our annual dress up day will be held on Thursday, 22^nd August.  More information to come about these two events.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

I am delighted to invite all students to join in the 2024 Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC).

The PRC is not a competition but a way to encourage students to develop a love of reading for life. Students are encouraged to select a range of fiction and non-fiction books suited to their reading ability and record books read during the reading period, from 7 May to 23 August. Attached to the newsletter is a reader record form to tally books read throughout the challenge.

To complete the challenge:

• Prep to Year 2 must read or experience at least 20 books
• Years 3 and 4 must read at least 20 books
• Years 5 to 9 must read at least 15 books.

Experiencing books can include shared reading, listening to stories, or reading picture books. The aim for the 2024 challenge is to encourage students to make time to read. Last year saw more than 110,000 children from around the state participate.

Book suggestions are available on the PRC website: 

Every student who completes the challenge, and returns the completed record reader form, will receive a Certificate of Achievement. I look forward to seeing as many of our students as possible take part in the 2024 Premier’s Reading Challenge.

ICAS

Once again, St Joseph’s will be offering ICAS assessments for students who wish to participate.  ICAS continues to lead the way in international academic competitions. Over 10 million school students from 16,000 schools across 41 countries have been inspired, celebrated and challenged since the annual event began over 40 years ago.

ICAS recognises academic performance in a way others celebrate achievements in sport or the arts. Students can sit up to six literacy and STEM papers including English, Mathematics, Science, Digital Technologies, Writing and Spelling Bee. The questions are engaging and fun and have been designed by psychometricians, education measurement experts and experienced teachers to push students to their academic limits, as well as test higher-order thinking and problem-solving abilities.

More information on these assessments can be found at icasassessments.com

Purchases must be made before Monday, 29^th July

To sign your child up for any of these assessments and to pay for the assessment please log onto the following link and use the below school access code:

Your school access code is: WSO834
Your parent page link is:

Regards
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

RELIGIOUS NEWS

The 16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus feels for the people who are sheep without a shepherd.
Mark 6:30-34

Have you thought? Prayer and reflection.

Jesus demonstrated how important it is to engage in times of quiet prayer and reflection. When you expend a lot of time and energy in the service of others it is essential to reflect on those experiences, to learn from them and consider what you’d do differently next time. It is also important that any ministry that seeks to be based in the message of Jesus can only remain so if it is fuelled by prayer. Only through prayerful dialogue with God can we learn what God desires for us.

@Liturgy Help – by Greg Sunter

Children’s Mass this Saturday 6pm Vigil Mass at OLHC

Our first Children’s Mass will be this Saturday 27 July at 6pm. We will share some warming soup and casseroles after Mass. The new time of Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians is 6pm. This is earlier and will hopefully be easier for families. Please add this Eucharistic celebration to your family calendars, it will be great to see lots of families support this.

Friday Mass and Prayer Celebrations

We began our new way of celebrating on Fridays. It was beautiful to see the Year 6 and Prep students be a part of the parish Mass Friday morning. The Year 6 students proclaimed the readings beautifully and the Prayer of the Faithful they had prepared were reflective and meaningful.

Please be sure to keep an eye on when your child’s class is celebrating Mass on Friday mornings, parents are most welcome to join us. We’d love to see you!

Catholic Education Week

Celebrated annually in Week 3 of Term 3, Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all 312 Catholic schools in Queensland to celebrate and promote their distinctive mission and ethos. This week allows us to acknowledge what is so special about Catholic schools and what we offer our students, families, and staff.

Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

*SJPA – St Joseph’s Park Avenue
*OLHC – Our Lady Help of Christians church (next to St Joseph’s, Park Avenue)
*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

Elizabeth Carter
Assistant Principal Religious Education

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 3

We're off to a great start this term here in Year 3, and our students have been busy learning many interesting things. Click the link below to hear from the students about what they’ve been up to!

NCCD

NCCD  Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability.

Every year, in August, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about the support provided to students with disability.  

It is a legislative requirement for the school to inform you if your child will be included in the NCCD.  Your child’s teacher would have discussed this with you during your Semester One parent/teacher interview. 

Here is a link to the NCCD Portal https://www.nccd.edu.au , where you can access other information about the NCCD.

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact Inclusive Curriculum.

TOUCH FOOTBALL

Registration for Junior Touch is now open.  Nominations are due via the google doc form by 6pm, Friday 2nd of August.    The season starts SATURDAY 31st AUGUST.

The cost is $75 per Junior and payable directly to Rockhampton Touch, once you have been advised of your child’s team.  You must submit a form for each child’s nomination. 

The TFA have increased their component to a yearly fee of $52 per person. This will be paid on Mysideline before you register with your team. You can play in as many teams/events as permitted with no extra charge from TFA till after 30th June 2025.

Fair Play Voucher

If you are wanting to register using a fairplay voucher, please select Fair Play Voucher on the below form.  Once your child has been placed into a team, you will be asked to email the signed voucher to admin@rockytouch.com.  Please do not complete this step until you receive a team confirmation email.

Parents, carers or guardians can apply for a voucher valued up to $200 for their child, which can be used towards sport and active recreation membership, registration or participation fees. There is a limit of 1 voucher per child per financial year.  All Queensland residents with a current Medicare card are eligible for a Fair Play Voucher.  To apply or to find out more information please see - note that the Option is Medicare Fair Play Voucher Applying for and using FairPlay vouchers | Recreation, sport and arts | Queensland Government (www.qld.gov.au)

3rd Child Free in Fri/Sat

If you have three or more children from the same family registering for our junior competition, the third child will be free. 

In the junior comp, players can play in more than one team (not in the same division and as long as they meet the age requirement) with one registration fee – eg 10 girls/ 10 mixed / 12 girls.  This is only for age 8 and above.

Please Note:  The competition is run by the Rockhampton Touch Association, and no money is to be paid to the school.  While we have allowed the school name and logo to be used for these teams, this is not a school organised sport.  There is no school supervision for students at the venue before or after the games and parents are responsible for the supervision of students at competitions and training days. If a child’s behaviour while wearing the uniform at such an event is not appropriate, then permission for that child to wear the uniform on weekends may be reviewed. 

If you have any questions regarding touch registration please contact Leah Benson on 0409633154 or via email leahmaybenson@gmail.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following staff and students who will celebrate their birthday this week.  They are: Ella C (Yr 6), James M (Prep), Ryan T (Yr 3), Rhalf D (Yr 6), Pippa K (Yr 6), Kiara C (Yr 4), Sophia C (Yr 4),Eli Mc (Yr 4), Miss Guest (Yr 4), Mrs O’Brien (Prep – On leave) and Ms McLeod (Prep).

Have a great day.

GIANT BOOKSALE

 That time of year again!
Make your way to the Rocky SWAP
Rockhampton Showgrounds
SATURDAY  3rd AUGUST
WALTER PIERCE PAVILLION 
All proceeds to WOORABINDA Ministry

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