19 June 2019

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Welcome to Week 9 of Term 2.

It is great to be back at school. Thank you to all the well-wishers over the last few weeks. The rest has been great, and I am well on the way to recovery, but I have missed being present at school during this very busy Term. Thanks to Mrs Senini, Mrs Brennan, Miss Black and the ladies in the office for picking up the slack in my absence.

However, on my return, what has been truly touching is all the kind words and well wishes I have received from the students over the last week. I continue to tell everybody, the greatest asset we have at Joeys is the wonderful student body.

Well done to the families that attended last week’s children’s mass, especially the students who sang and read beautifully. Also, a big thanks to Mrs Hannah and Mrs Fitzgerald who stepped in at the last moment to help organise the students on the night due to my ill health. It was also wonderful to see our students being able to witness another baptism in our lovely little church community.

A reminder that next Monday morning we will not have our usual Monday morning assembly as we will be holding our Semester One Academic Awards Assembly at this time. These awards are an opportunity to celebrate both the effort and achievement of our students within the classroom. All are welcome to attend.

Finally, just a reminder that there will be no tuck shop tomorrow due to Under 8’s Morning. There will be a whole school sausage sizzle being hosted by the school’s P&F Association.

Don’t Forget …

• Thursday, 20th June – Under 8’s Morning
• Monday, 24th June – Semester One Academic Awards Assembly
• Semester One Reports available on Parent Lounge at the end of Term 2
• Prep enrolments for 2020 due by the end of Term 2.

Have a great week.

Regards
Bernard Fitzgerald
Principal - St Joseph’s Park Avenue

APRE REFLECTION

The Most Holy Trinity

John 16:12-15

The Spirit will guide the Apostles to all truth.

Every time we make the sign of the cross we reaffirm our belief in a God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although some people have difficulties with the gender-specific language of ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ and look for other ways to express this reality, all Christian people profess a belief in the one God who is experienced in three distinct ways. We are baptised ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’ and we remind ourselves of this reality when we pray and when we bless ourselves or others.

@Liturgy Help

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
5.00pm Holy Family
6.30pm Our Lady Help of Christians

Sunday

7.00am St Mary’s
9.00am Holy Family

Bernadette Brennan
APRE

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

What’s Coming Up in Term 2

What’s Coming Up in Term 3

Prayer Assembly Time Change to 10:30am

You will notice the prayer assembly times above have changed. In the interests of less disruption to the curriculum and to maintain optimum productivity in classrooms, the decision has been made to bring the prayer assembly times forward to 10:30am. This change allows Friday lunch times to remain the same as the rest of the week and those students involved in interschool sport an opportunity to prepare for sport and board buses in a timely manner.

Bernadette Brennan
APRE

SPORTING MATTERS

Friday 21st June

Netball

Junior E @ 12:30pm
St Joey’s v St Paul’s on grass 13
Junior B @12:30pm
St Joey’s v St Mary’s on court 1
Senior E @ 1:10pm
St Joey’s v Depot Hill on court 7
Senior C @ 1:50pm
St Joey’s v St Paul’s on court 11
Senior B @ 12:30pm
St Joey’s v St Anthony’s on court 6
Senior A @ 1:10pm
St Joey’s v St Anthony’s on court 5

Hockey

1:00 – 1:15
St Joey’s Blue v St Anthony’s 3 on grass 8
St Joey’s White v St Mary’s 1 on turf 4
1:20 – 1:35
St Joey’s Gold v St Anthony’s 4 on grass 8
St Joey’s Maroon v St Mary’s 2 on turf 4
1:40 – 1:55
St Joey’s Blue v Heights 6 on turf 4
St Joey’s White v St Anthony’s 1 on turf 3
2:00 – 2:15
St Joey’s Gold v Heights 7 on turf 4
St Joey’s Maroon v St Anthony’s 2 on turf 3

Rugby League

Yr 5 C 12:45pm
St Joey’s v Gracemere Giants @ Victoria Park Bottom
Yr 5 A/B 1:45pm
St Joey’s v Gracemere Giants @ Victoria Park Bottom
Yr 6 A 1:45pm
St Joey’s v Gracemere Giants @ Rugby Park 2

Bernadette Brennan
APRE

CURRICULUM NEWS

Important Curriculum Dates – Term 2

P-3 Parent Reading Information Session

This Wednesday all parents with children in Years P-3 are invited to a workshop to help them understand the best ways to assist their children with their reading at home. A note about this session went home last Friday. The workshop will be held this Wednesday, 19th June in the Year 1H classroom starting at 5:30pm. I thank Mrs Michelle Hannah for the time she has put into this initiative.

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, and children attending early childhood centres. Over the past 14 years, more than 12 million books have been read, and in 2018 alone, 181,000 school, early childhood and individual readers participated in the challenge with more than 2.46 million books read 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 in the table below in English or additional languages. The requirement for Year 5 through to Year 9 students to read 15 books acknowledges that older students are likely to select longer, more complex books that may take them longer to read.

If they have time, students are welcome to read more books than the challenge requirements. They just need to record them on another reader record form. All books will go towards Queensland’s total PRC tally.

The following activities can be counted towards the challenge:

• reading independently
• shared reading
• being read to (Prep – Year 2 for books written in English; and all year levels for additional languages).

The following literature forms can be counted towards the challenge:

• printed books
• e-books, virtual books and digital publications
• graphic novels and comic books
• audio and braille books
• newspapers, magazines and recipe books
• books in additional languages (other than English).

Your child should have received a reader record form. This is not a compulsory school activity, however, if your child would like to participate, please complete this form as they finish each book and return it to the school office once completed. It would be appreciated if these forms can be returned by Friday, 23rd August.

WOOLWORTHS EARN AND LEARN

St Joseph’s has registered to participate in the 2019 Woolworths Earn and Learn program. This program runs from 1st May through to 25th June. In the past, thanks to this program, our school has been able to order a large variety of resources to support our students in their learning. If you are purchasing groceries from Woolworths, please start collecting the stickers. There is a collection box in the office as well as a box at the Parkhurst and Stockland Woolworths stores. Last week’s count had us with 24 780 points.

UNDER 8s MORNING

Our annual Under 8’s morning will take place at St Joey’s this term on Thursday 20th June. This is a day where we celebrate the learning and development of our younger students. The day will begin with a short liturgy in the multi-purpose area. Following the liturgy, the children will be free to investigate the various hands on activities prepared by our Prep – Year 3 teachers. Parents are most welcome to attend this part of the day. After first break students will head back to class where they will complete activities with their class for the rest of the day. Students in Prep to Year 3 are invited to come along to this day in free dress. It is essential that this free dress consists of clothing which is sun safe (no sleeveless shirts), a school hat and fully enclosed shoes. If you are able to assist your child’s teacher on the day, please let them know as soon as possible. If you have any questions about this day or know of any organisation who might like to set up an activity for the morning, please don’t hesitate to see me. Thanks to the generosity of the P&F, students will be provided with a sausage on bread for first break.

ICAS ASSESSMENTS

Students are invited to participate in ICAS assessments in 2019. This year the ICAS assessments have moved to an online format and are occurring later in the year. These assessments are designed to recognise and reward academic excellence. The assessments are based on the curriculum for each relevant year level. These assessments are designed to allow students to demonstrate a deeper, integrated and thorough level of learning.

If you’d like to participate in the 2019 ICAS Assessments, please complete and return the sheet which should have made it home with students, along with the payment to the school office. Orders for these assessments will close Friday, 2nd August.

BIG BOOK SWAP

Next term, during book week we will be holding our bi-annual big book swap. The way the big book swap works is that families go through their reading books and donate any books no longer needed. Students then get to choose a pre-loved book from the donations to take home. If you have any books which you’d like to donate to this year’s big book swap, please bring them to Mrs Michelle Roberts in the library.

Kind Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

FINANCE NEWS

Fee Accounts for Term 2 are now 5 Weeks overdue and need your Urgent Attention.

These were due on 14/5/19.

If you have an outstanding amount and are unable to make any payment, can you please make immediate contact with Bernard or Megan to advise your current situation?

If paying by Direct Deposit, please use your Account Number as the reference

(This is the 6 digit number on your Fee Statement).

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 5

Year 5 have had a very busy term two. In week 4 the students sat the NAPLAN test and demonstrated great application and determination when completing the test. The students’ presence within the schooling community has been quite high throughout this term.

In week six the students presented an inspirational prayer assembly, delivering the message of Reconciliation week to the St Joseph’s community. The week demonstrates significance within the Australian community. It focused on setting aside cultural differences and coming together to work toward building a bigger and brighter future. This gave the students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of their cultural heritage. Our presence in the school community has not stopped there.

Students thoroughly enjoyed the visit from the Arts Council, we had many class members take the stage to become part of the show.

This term in Digital Tech we have been building EV3 robots and upon their completion we will code them to do a variety of manoeuvres. Mr Rayner from head office has been visiting us each week for Design Tech lessons.

The students have been planning and designing a piece of furniture for a doll house and this week will start to construct their items of furniture.

In Science we have been looking at various Biomes, adaptations and features of animals. The students have designed their own super creatures and will start to build models of them this week.

ECO WARRIORS REPORT

What an amazing start to our new plan to bring Stewardship of the Earth to Joey’s.

After the Yr 4 Eco Warriors finished collecting all the different rubbish bins on Friday, we were amazed by the amount of re-useable rubbish we produce at Joey’s. We again had 2 large bags of Redcycle to take to Woolies plus 4 large bags of food scraps shared between Mrs Brennan’s and the Smith Family’s pigs.

Mrs McCutcheon took our Containers for Change collection to the collection point on Friday afternoon. What an adventure she had. Firstly, the Eco Warriors packed the back of her car with 4 massive bags full of containers (Oops a couple of leaks may have been noted). Then it was off to the new collection point with its new self-counting system. Mrs McCutcheon had to break open the smelly bags and then handle each and every container. Whew! Lots of hand sanitizer needed after the job was done. But what a successful venture. We collected 595 containers in 7 days.

Congratulations to the school community for helping to educate on how we can be better inhabitants of our Earth.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Adelaide Seierup (Yr 5), James Eyles (1C), Lily McDonald (3T), Lachlan Wedel (2F), Olivia Roberts (Yr 4), Jace Scott (Yr 4), Theo Pollack (PG) and Layla Wall (PM).

Have a great day.

SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

Importance of Play

Structured activities are important for building developmental skills in children. They teach children how to follow rules and routines, and provide growth opportunities for motor and social skills. However, between play dates, piano lessons, tennis, netball and soccer practice, we sometimes overbook our kids and skimp on providing children time for free play.

Creating a mix of free play and structured time helps kids build an array of skills and feel more balanced in their everyday lives.

Soccer, Tennis, Netball, piano, and play dates are important for development of gross motor skills, social emotional well-being, and peer play skills; however, unstructured, time when the play is freely chosen and directed by the child, is just as important for growth and development.

So take a break from running around from one activity to the next and give your kids free time to invent a game, pretend play, build a fort, or do whatever their imaginations create; you’ll be helping them to build critical life skills.

Here are six benefits of free play for children:

1. Builds creativity and ability to come up with unique ideas.
2. Develops motor planning skills, helping the child to create and carry out ideas, motor actions, and activities.
3. Fosters decision-making skills. Unstructured play provides many opportunities to make choices while playing alone or while playing in a group.
4. Fosters independence. Helps children learn to think independently and teaches them how to entertain themselves.
5. Develops social skills and collaborative play skills. Free play allows children to develop conflict resolution skills and learn to take turns. It also helps children develop their skills as leaders and as followers.
6. Provides opportunities for children to discover their interests and skills!

It is important to note that free play does not include time with electronics, such as the television, video games, or computer.

True free play is child initiated, spontaneous and guided by the child’s imagination without the direction of an adult.

What do your kids love to do most during their free play?

With the holidays fast approaching, this might a time to think about leaving some time in your family calendar for some free play?

Quick Link to some information about importance of play and your child’s development:

Meet yourself where you are with Kindness

Michelle Hoffman
School Counsellor
SJPA – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
4994 8205

P & F NEWS

Under 8’s day is tomorrow Thursday June 20th. These mornings are always full of fun, and here’s hoping our P-3 kids have a great day. There’s NO TUCKSHOP available as the P&F are providing a Sausage Sizzle lunch for the whole school. Help is still required to cook the BBQ, so please pop around to the tuckshop if you can assist.

Have you checked out the Parent Collection of books in the library? The P&F are supportive of the Parent Resources available and have donated a variety of books for parents to borrow. A selection of these will be on display outside the library near the tuckshop during the Coffee and Chat after the Academic Awards Assembly on Monday June 24th. Be sure to have a look.

Reminder:

Thanks,
Joeys P&F

VACATION CARE FOR JULY HOLIDAYS

Please find attached the Vacation Care Booking form and Program for the upcoming holidays. If you have not already booked your child/ren in and are wishing to do so, please fill out the Booking form and get it into Chelsea to secure a spot.

PARENT LOUNGE

Changes to your address, phone number or work phone number can be made in Parent Lounge. Simply log in, go to the Parent Details tab, make your changes, and then submit.

Changes to Parent Lounge are that you can submit your child’s absentee days through here (but only for the current term). It will be similar to the way you do this on the Skoolbag app. Once accepted our end (when we log into our computer), this will be entered straight onto our system, and saves the double handling

ABSENTEES

Absentees can be done through the Skoolbag App. Click on our School Logo, eforms and then Absentee Form.

All notifications from the school are done through this app. Our weekly Newsletters are also posted to this app.

Please make sure that you have downloaded it.

SCHOOL BANKING

School banking happens every Thursday.

If you wish to start school banking, you need to open a Youth Saver Account at the Commonwealth bank, make no deposit and they will provide you with your banking book and details.

Please send your child’s banking book in so they can place it in the grey classroom-banking bag.

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 do not 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 conduct induction sessions in the tuckshop, if you are helping 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 and Wednesday afternoon from 2:45 – 3:15.

Please feel free to drop any uniforms you no longer need so they can be 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 inside.

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 at 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