14 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE ACTING PRINCIPAL

During last week’s parent information nights, I made mention of the exciting capital works projects that will upgrade many of our school facilities in 2018. With a new lower school playground, a Prep refurbishment and new and upgraded buildings, Joeys will have approximately three million dollars of work funded by the Catholic Education Office of Rockhampton and to a lesser extent, our school and P&F Association. This is a clear message of support for our wonderful community and a further strengthening of the partnership between both school and home that supports the educational journey of our students.

With this commitment in mind, I urge you to continue to show your commitment to this partnership by means of the P&F Levy and the School Building Fund that are present on school fees statements. There is no way that our lovely little community would be able to fund the proposed works alone and it is with great gratitude that I thank both our Regional Office and our Joey’s families for your ongoing support and commitment to our students.

Today being Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent for 2018. During the next 40 days, we as Catholics commit to ‘Turn Back To God’ by living our lives more like Jesus. Bishop Michael’s Lenten Pastoral Letter presented during mass on the weekend, reminded us that during Lent, the church invites us to fast regularly, pray regularly and to engage in good works. At Joey’s I believe that we truly embrace these challenges and empower our students to be more like Jesus in the lead up to Easter.

Project Compassion is of course a major part of our Joeys Yearly Giving Plan in Term 1 and each class will have a large moneybox for collections this year as a way of engaging in good works. One of the defining characteristics of Joey’s has always been the level of generosity in our school community and how we answer our baptismal call to help those in need. Thank-you in advance for your support in this worthy cause.

Our annual Bishop’s In-service Day for all staff will take place this week. This means that Friday the 16th will be a pupil free day for Catholic schools only. Our Outside of School Hours Care service will still be operating that day.

This weekend we will celebrate our first Children’s Mass for the year. It is always wonderful to have a great representation of staff, students and parents celebrating with our parishioners as a combined faith community.

Please bring along a plate of food to share for a light supper after mass.

Hope to see you there

Don’t Forget …

• Bishop’s In-service Day, Fri 16th Feb (Pupil Free Day)
• First Children’s Mass for the year, Sat 17th Feb @ 6:00pm
• Student African Drumming in class lessons, Tues 20th Feb
• P&F Fete meeting, Wed 21st Feb @ 3:30pm

Have a great week.

Regards
Bernard Fitzgerald
St. Joseph’s PA Acting Principal

APRE REFLECTION

Lent begins today with the marking of ashes, a sign to remind us to live the way Jesus wants. It is the beginning of our preparation for Easter when Jesus rises from the dead. Lent is a special time when we stop and think about how we can play our part in God’s hope for a world that is fair, just and peaceful. We think about our relationship with God, and how through serving others we can grow closer to him. We also think about the changes we can make in our lives, to be God’s love and mercy in our world, ensuring all people have a just future.

Bernadette Brennan
Acting APRE

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

Pupil Free Day

A reminder that this Friday, is our Bishop’s In-service Day. This is a faith development day for all school staff members in the Rockhampton area and so is a Pupil Free Day for students. This will be hosted at Emmaus College and as such the office will be closed on Friday, 16th.

This Saturday, 17th February we will be celebrating our first Children’s Mass for the year. These are always special celebrations in which the children participate in the ministries and we lead the singing with children’s hymns. The Joey’s tradition includes staying on for a cuppa and a catch up after mass. If you are able to join us, please bring a plate to share.

LENT

Today marks the start of the Lenten season. The students attended Ash Wednesday Mass, receiving ashes on their foreheads with the phrase ‘Turn back to God’. Lent is a time of preparation for Easter, and during this season all classes will be involved in Project Compassion, through Caritas. Across the next seven weeks each class will have a Project Compassion box in their room and students are asked to make donations into the class box, where possible.

Many thanks to all the parents for their donations yesterday for the Shrove Tuesday Breakfast. Additionally, students were asked to bring a gold coin donation to contribute to the breakfast and we raised $307.80 to commence our Lenten project. A great effort!

Bernadette Brennan
Acting APRE

Mass times

Weekday

Tuesday 9.00am Holy Family
Wednesday 12.00 Noon St Mary’s

Thursday 8.00am Emmaus College (Yaamba Rd)
Friday 9.00am Our Lady Help of Christians

Weekend

Saturday – Vigil
6.00pm Holy Family
6.00pm Our Lady Help of Christians

Sunday
7.00am St Mary’s
9.00am Holy Family

SPORTING MATTERS

Rockhampton District Selection Trials

Term 1

Below are the Rockhampton and District Trials (RDS) for the following Primary School sports happening in Term 1. If your child has the prerequisite skills and you wish for them to trial in the following sports, you can contact me through the school office to obtain the appropriate trial forms. Alternatively, the forms can be downloaded in the Parents Notes section of the Skoolbag App.

• Basketball – Girls (10-12yrs) - Feb 12 St. Mary’s 4pm-5pm
• Basketball – Boys - Feb 12 St. Mary’s 5pm-6pm
• AFL – Boys (10-12yrs) - Feb 21 RSHS 4pm
• Netball – Girls (10-11yrs &10-12yrs) - Feb 22 Emmaus 4pm
• Rugby League – Boys (10,11&12yrs) - Mar 4 RSHS muster 9am – 11am
• Hockey – Boys & Girls (10-12 yrs) - Mar 5 Kalka Shades 4pm – 6pm
• Rugby League –Girls (11-12yrs) - Mar 7 Frenchville 4pm – 5:30pm
• Rugby Union – Boys (10-12yrs) - Mar 19 Frenchville SS 4pm
• Tennis – Boys & Girls (10-12yrs) - Mar 19 Rocky Tennis 9am – 3pm
• Touch F/ball –Boys & Girls (10-12 yrs) - Mar 22 Touch Fields 4pm – 6pm

Please be aware that for your child to attend these trials as a 10-year-old student that they would need to be exceptional as they will be competing against students up to 12 years of age.

Have a great week

Bernadette Brennan

CURRICULUM NEWS

Important Curriculum Dates – Term 1

Start Smart Sessions

During week 4 all students from Year 1 – 6 will be involved in a session on being money smart hosted by the Commonwealth Bank. These sessions were presented last year and the students really enjoyed the experience.

It’s never too early to teach children the value of money. Research indicates that it is crucial to develop financial literacy skills from an early age. The Start Smart Primary program teaches these skills in a way that students can understand and enjoy. It was developed with a panel of leading specialists in primary education, cognitive development, instructional design and financial literacy.

More information about this program can be found at:

ICAS

The University of New South Wales will, once again, be running the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) in 2018. These competitions are open to any children in Years 3 to 6, and some of the competitions allow the year 2 children to participate. Those children wishing to be involved can participate in the areas of Digital Technologies, Science, Spelling, Writing, English and Mathematics.

Dates and costs associated with the competitions are as follows:

These competitions are a great way for students in our school to compare their academic achievements against students in other schools around Australia. If you would like more information please visit the UNSW website:

It would be appreciated if anyone wishing to enter any of the competitions could return the permission slip (sent home this week) to the office, along with entry fees by Monday 5th March (beginning of Week 7 - Term 1).

Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum

Throughout Semester One, our school will be implementing the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum with students in all year levels. The curriculum is based on principles of best practice in child safety education and centres around three key messages: Recognise, React and Report. Through a series of lessons, students will learn how to recognise, react and report when they are unsafe or find themselves in situations that can have a significant detrimental effect on their physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing. The Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum links very closely with the Australian Health Curriculum. Therefore, these lessons will be delivered by Miss Tennille Kerrisk as part of our Health Curriculum on a Tuesday and Wednesday. The Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum has been mandated by our Diocese to be actively taught in all of the Rockhampton Catholic schools each year.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this program please don’t hesitate to contact either Miss Kerrisk, Mrs Senini or Mr Fitzgerald.

Information about the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum can be found at:

Literacy corner

This year as a regular part of the newsletter I will be discussing one reading and one spelling strategy parents can use with their children at home to consolidate what is taught in class.

Reading:

Learning to read involves children learning skills in comprehension, fluency, accuracy and expanding on their known vocabulary. This week’s skill comes under the heading of Fluency.

Strategy

Practise Common Sight Words and High-Frequency Words.

Once children have a solid bank of sight words which they can recognise quickly their fluency will improve because they won’t be stopping at every word to try to decode it. It is essential for fluency that your child knows their sight words.

Spelling:

Strategy – Bubble Letters: Write and colour each of your spelling words in bubble letters or fancy shapes.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

FINANCE NEWS

TERM 1 FEES were due on Tuesday 13th February

Fee Accounts for Term 1 were due for payment yesterday, Tuesday 13th February.

If paying by Direct Deposit, please use your Account Number (6-digit number on your Fee Statement) as the reference.

If your account still remains unpaid please contact Bernard or Megan to advise when it will be settled.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 6

We have had a busy start to the year and look forward to all that 2018 brings.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Cooper Lee (1F), Abby Richardson (6), Braydon Smith (PG), Jacinta Dives (6), Gabriel Maker (2J), Benn Martin (PG) and Kathleen Phillips (6).

Have a great day.

FESTIVAL OF COLOUR – 29TH APRIL 2018

Our $25 Unlimited Rides passes have arrived!

The Festival of Colour will be showcasing various rides. These include a Merry-Go-Round, Spinning Cannibal Pots, The Sizzler, a Rock Climbing Wall and 2 Jumping Castles. For $25, you can buy a wrist-band which will give you unlimited rides on the day.

Passes are available for purchase from the office, and the wristbands will be available to pick up at the ride counter on the day. They will available right up until the fete, but be sure to get in early as if it’s left until the day, unlimited ride passes will cost $30 instead. Happy riding!

Sponsors of the week

This week’s featured Major Sponsor is another business run by a family from our Joey’s community, Battery World.

Again, we are lucky enough to have the Wren Family and their business Battery World, as a Gold Sponsor of the Festival of Colour. Stocking everything from batteries for your car, boat, caravan, motorbike, phone, electronic and health devices; right down to deep cycle batteries and good ol’ double AA’s.

They also provide a 24 hour call out service, a battery recycling program and a battery testing service.

How they also find time to help out and about in our local community is beyond me? Check them out for all of your battery needs on 13 17 60, or at:

Thanks again Battery World.

JOEYS COSTUME BANK

St Joeys is looking for unwanted costumes and dress-ups from Prep age to small adult size.

If you have any sitting in storage, we would LOVE to make use of them.

These costumes will be made available to all teachers for use in class related activities, as well as in circumstances where students may not be able to access costumes for school related events (at teacher discretion).

Our aim is to make such events and occasions stress-free and inclusive of all students.

All costume donations can be handed to the Office or Library (please no props such as guns and swords).

Thank you again to our wonderful Joeys community for your generosity!

Michelle Roberts
Library

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Are you wanting your child to learn a musical instrument in 2018? Enrolments are still open and there are places available!

Instruments still available to learn include Flute, Percussion, Violin, Viola and Cello.

Further information (and online enrolment) is via the following link:

Alexia Lally
Director of Instrumental Music
Phone: 4923 5782

SCHOOL BANKING

Don’t forget School Banking every Thursday. This is for all students from Prep to Yr 6

VOLUNTEERS INDUCTION SESSIONS

WPH&S Volunteers Inductions are necessary for the safety of your children. Therefore, we ask that all parents who generously volunteer their time to the school, either in a classroom or in the tuckshop, attend a very brief induction regarding maintaining a safe environment for the children of St. Joseph’s.

These sessions don’t take long and are available after assembly on a Monday morning with Deanne Senini, and on Wednesday afternoons from 2:30pm - 3:00pm. Debbie Rooney will also be conducting induction sessions in the tuckshop, if you are helping out in there.

Thanks

UNIFORM SHOP

Our uniform shop is run by VOLUNTEERS of the school and is open

Monday morning from 8:15 - 8:45
Tuesday afternoon from 2:45 - 3:15
Friday morning 8:15 – 8:45

Please feel free to drop any uniforms you no longer need so they can put out to sell. Proceeds can go back to you or you can donate it back to the P & F.

The Uniform Shop has quite a lot of good second hand uniforms. Please feel free to pop in (at the opening times above), and have a look.

There are second hand Emmaus uniforms also.

FRIDAY PIZZA

Meatlovers and Hawaiian Pizza are available every Friday for $1.50/slice. Please have your order in a Brown Paper Bag with your name, class and order on it, with the money in side.

Please use a brown paper bag with child’s name and class written on the front.

TUCKSHOP IS UNAVAILABLE ON FRIDAYS

DRAKES SUPA IGA

Simply scan your Drakes Supa IGA key tag and the checkout with your groceries, and automatically 1 cent of every dollar you spend goes to the Cathedral Conservation Fund.

Key tags are available from the office; local church or Drakes stores. Put it on your car keys so you remember to use it.

Key tags can be used at any Drakes Supa IGA supermarket in Queensland. Currently in our Diocese Drakes stores are located at

• Glenmore (North Rockhampton)
• Emu Park

SURFING – FOR GIRLS

The extremely popular Girls Go Surfing Day is back! It would be great if you could please put something in your school newsletter.

Lessons will be held on Saturday March 3rd. This is a great initiative to help get Girls of all ages active whilst at the same time learning a new skill. It is Fantastic value at $75 with each surfer receiving a Surf Dive 'n Ski Pack valued at $100 with $5 of the fee going to the Surf For Life Charity Project. Capricorn Coast Learn 2 Surf will be running the event and bookings can be made at:

Bookings close on Monday the 19th of February.

Please see attached poster.

Cheers,

Pat Eastwood
Capricorn Coast Learn 2 Surf
0488076595