14 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

I would like to begin this week’s newsletter by celebrating the behaviour of our whole school community at both our Year 6 Crazy Colour Disco last Thursday evening as well as at our St Mary MacKillop Feast Day Mass the following Friday morning. Fr Marcel commented on how well behaved and reverent the students were throughout the celebration. Truly, our students are the greatest asset at St Joseph’s. I have included some images of our courageous parents who got up to take part in the ‘Bird Dance’ with their children at the disco. It was a very enjoyable night.

I would also like to take the time to congratulate our Year 4 class on the tremendous effort they are making with their recycling project. Working from some of our Catholic Social Justice teachings, these students are making a real difference at school and are working hard to be awesome Planet Protectors.

Recent feedback has highlighted some frustrations in accessing the Parent Lounge link. Thanks to Mrs Brennan’s technical expertise, our Skoolbag app now has home tiles that provide quick links to both Parent Lounge and QuickCliq online tuck shop ordering. I hope this helps when accessing and utilizing these important school services.

This week, both Miss Brooke Black and I will be attending the Australian Catholic University, Safeguarding Young People intensive study from Thursday the 15th to Sunday the 18th August. If you have any concerns during my absence please contact either of the Assistant Principals or in the case of the Year 6 room, Miss Hannah Hamilton in Brooke’s absence.

I will also be accessing a short stint of Long Service Leave beginning Thursday the 22nd of August and I will be returning to school on Wednesday the 28th of August. As with my intensive study mentioned above, please see either of the school’s Assistant Principals in my absence if you have any pressing concerns.

Don’t Forget…

• Children’s Mass, Saturday 17th Aug @ 6:30pm in OLHC church
• National Science Week, 12th – 16th August
• Book Week, 19th – 23rd August
• Book Week Character Parade, Monday 19th Aug @ 10:30am
• Big Book Swap Day, Wednesday 21st Aug

Have a great week.

Regards
Bernard Fitzgerald
St. Joseph’s PA Principal

APRE REFLECTION

Be as servants, wide awake at the return of their Master

Luke 12:32-48

Gospel Focus – Answer the Question!

Peter asks Jesus very specifically, ‘Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?’ Frustratingly for Peter (and for the audience), Jesus doesn’t give the direct question a direct answer, he answers the question with another story. Throughout the gospels, this is a constant tactic used by Jesus. He almost never gives a question a straightforward answer. By doing this, he invites the questioner to reflect on their own question and their purpose in asking it in the first place. He also cleverly avoids being tied down to a yes/no answer when a matter is not that simple.

Have you thought? – Stewardship

Jesus responds to Peter’s questioning the gospel in a roundabout way by speaking about a steward acting either faithfully and with wisdom or alternatively irresponsibly and recklessly. A steward is one who stands in the place of the master during the master’s absence – taking on the duties, responsibilities and authority of the master. That’s exactly what Christian people are called to do: become stewards who act in the place of Jesus as we await his return. As the prayer of St Teresa of Avila says, Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Greg Sunter @ 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 Happening in Term 3

Prayer Assembly Time Change

Prayer assembly times have changed to 10:30 am before lunch instead of 11:30 am.

Children’s Mass and Sausage Sizzle

This Saturday, we will be celebrating a Children’s Mass led by the students from Joey’s. Everyone is welcome to join the parish community to partake in this Eucharist. Following mass, we will share a sausage sizzle. This weekend we ask families to make a donation to the Youth Group at the sausage sizzle. Many of our past students are members of this group and our support may ensure this service is available for our current students in to the future.

Bernadette Brennan
APRE

SPORTING MATTERS

Friday 16th August

Netball

Hockey

1:00 – 1:15
St Joey’s Blue v St Joey’s White on Grass 6

1:20 – 1:35
St Joey’s Gold v St Joey’s Maroon on Grass 6

1:40 – 1:55
St Joey’s Blue v St Mary’s 1 on Grass 1
St Joey’s White v St Mary’s 3 on Grass 4

2:00 – 2:15
St Joey’s Gold v St Mary’s 2 on Grass 1
St Joey’s Maroon v St Mary’s 4 on Grass 4

Rugby League

Yr 5 C - 1:45 pm
Minor Semi Final
St Joey’s v Berserker SS @ Rocky High Bottom Oval

Girls Cricket

Bernadette Brennan
Sports Co-ordinator

CLASSROOM MYTHBUSTERS

What sets a St. Joseph’s Park Avenue classroom apart from the rest?
How does teaching and learning at our school vary from the standard?

We are a creative school that is embracing the concept that all children love to learn, (it’s a natural thing) and we are trying to create ideal learning environments that cater to each individual student. Education is shaped by the needs of the industry the learners will encounter as workers. Our students will encounter industries that demand collaboration, organisation, self-discipline and many more learning dispositions.

When a class of students is given a new problem to solve, they may approach the task in many different ways. Some might ask for help, others may look for step by step instructions, one might just start testing theories and checking the results. This variation in problem solving skills and approaches suggests that our students are unique individuals that can’t be standardised. At SJPA we appreciate the individual learner and create learning environments that aren’t entirely standardised. Our learning spaces make allowances for personal learning styles, and the fact that not all students learn at the same level at the same age.

Our Classroom News for the rest of the year will highlight some of the creative ways our learning spaces are engaging students and creating capable, rigorous and self-directed individuals.

3T are learning to improve their potential by developing cooperation and collaboration skills as they willingly work with others and learn different points of view in their groups. Their independence is developing as they are becoming aware of the seating options that are available and need to make their own decisions about good learning partners and take action based on these. 3T are learning responsibility for personal improvement as they explore different methods that suit them to improve their thinking and learning.

3T are a creative group of thinkers and learners that stand apart from a standard classroom.

CURRICULUM NEWS

NED SHOW

Thank you to everyone who supported the NED show by purchasing yo-yos. The students have been having heaps of fun gaining yo-yo skills. Everyone seemed to enjoy the show and were reminded of three very important messages:

Never give up
Encourage others
Do your best.

A big thanks to Mrs Crosthwaite and Mrs Brosnan for selling the yo-yos last week. It was a massive job.

BOOK WEEK

As part of Book Week, we will be holding our annual character dress up parade. All staff and students are invited to dress up as a book character and participate in the parade. The parade will be held on Monday, 19th August at 10:30am. Parents and friends are welcome to attend the parade.

Please remember to send in books for our Bi-annual Big Book Swap. The idea of the book swap is for students to bring in a book (or multiple books) to donate to the book swap. Each child is then able to come and look through the collection and choose a book to take home to keep. Any leftover books are then donated to classrooms to top up the classroom reading resources. For this event to be successful I need your assistance. If you have any children’s reading books which you would like to donate to the book swap, please start bringing them in to Mrs Roberts in the library so that we can begin to organise this event. Please make sure all donated books are in good condition. The book swap is scheduled to occur on Wednesday, 21st August.

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.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

During week 9 we will be holding our second round of parent teacher interviews. These interviews will be available to book through parent lounge during Week 7.

Kind Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and staff who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Nicola Dobbs (Yr 5), Thomas Harth (1C), Rori Kipling (Yr 4), Jaiden Wust (Yr 5), Jimmy Farr (PM), & Daniel Tanner (Yr 4).

Have a great day.

P & F NEWS

Quickcliq is officially live! We hope that you’ve placed an order, if your child has ordered tuckshop, and seen how convenient it really is. If you have any issues, concerns or questions, please see Debbie in the Tuckshop, or speak to one of our P&F executives and we’ll be happy to help.

We are also in desperate need of Brekky Club and Tuckshop volunteers as our numbers are dwindling. With online ordering, the money handling aspect is taken out, so that should mean less time that helpers are required. Even if you can only spend 30 mins once a fortnight, it’s better than nothing and would be greatly appreciated. Same goes for Brekky Club. If you can only pop in for 5 minutes, we don’t mind. It all helps.

NAIDOC Day this year is on Thursday August 29, and the P&F will be needing helpers as we will be providing a sausage sizzle lunch for the school. Help is only required for a couple of hours in the morning from 9-11, so if you can spare anytime, please message Amanda Conway. We appreciate any help.

Our annual Trivia Night is also fast approaching. The theme for this year is “90’s” and will be held on Saturday September 7th in the MPA with doors opening at 7:00pm. Please see the attached flier for further info. The Trivia Nights are such a fun night for parents and friends to have a night out with lots of laughs. Fliers will be sent home, and there’ll be fliers in the office to share with family, friends and workmates. If you get your table booked early, you’ll go into the draw to win your entry money back. Dust off your 90’s memorabilia and have a great night with us.

Finally, our next P&F meeting is this evening in the staffroom at 6:30pm. Come share your experiences with Quickcliq, and see what other things are happening around the school.

Reminder:

Thanks,
Joeys P&F

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.

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