21 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Bernard Fitzgerald is currently preparing to enjoy some long service leave from tomorrow until Wednesday, 28th August. We wish him well for this well-deserved break. If you have any concerns during Bernard’s absence, please come and see either Mrs Deanne Senini or Mrs Bernadette Brennan.

Late last week we received notification from the Rockhampton Regional Council that our Year 4 class had been appointed the 2019 Sustainability Champions. The Year 4 class will be publicly recognised at the formal awards presentation at Tropicana 2019, have won $200 to go towards supporting their future sustainability projects and have won a raised garden bed for the school. Congratulations to Year 4, Mrs McCutcheon, Mrs Mooney and Mr Tennyson. What a wonderful achievement.

It was lovely to see our staff, students and families attend our Children’s Mass at OLHC last Saturday evening. After mass we shared in a sausage sizzle and helped to support the Rocky Northside Catholic Youth Group. Thanks to Mrs Brennan for organising both the mass and sausage sizzle. The Youth Group is aimed at high school students. More information regarding the Youth Group is available by contacting the team at northrockyyouth@gmail.com.

This Thursday our Student Protection contacts will be attending the annual regional Student Protection training where we will be briefed about important updates and information regarding legislation and Diocesan requirements and policies. This is an important day which assists us to keep the students in our care safe. Our official Student Protection Contacts are Mr Bernard Fitzgerald, Mrs Deanne Senini, Mrs Bernadette Brennan, Miss Brooke Black and Mrs Michelle Hoffman.

Tuesday afternoon of last week we celebrated National Science Week with a science expo. This was well attended by our school community. Please see the curriculum section below for more details.

This week is Book Week and we have celebrated our love of books with a character parade on Monday and our bi-annual Big Book Swap today. Please look out for next week’s curriculum section for an update on these two events.

Don’t forget:

• Friday, 23/8 – Prep 2020 offers sent out
• Thursday, 29/8 – St Joseph’s annual NAIDOC Day celebrations
• Sunday, 1/9 – Father’s Day
• Monday, 9/9 – Friday, 13/9 – Parent Teacher interviews
• Friday, 20/9 – Last day of Term 3

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

APRE REFLECTION

Volunteering

Strong and caring families can be a wonderful avenue for building communities where each person is valued and respected for themselves.

In thinking about ‘volunteering’ there was a wonderful address that Pope Francis gave to students and teachers of Jesuit schools in Italy and Albania in early June 2013. The Pope said on that occasion:

‘The principal element of education is to learn to be generous. Saint Ignatius taught us that magnanimity is the virtue of the great and of the small . . . Magnanimity enables us to look to the horizon. It is to have a big heart, to have a great spirit, and to have great ideals. It is the desire to do great things to respond to that which God asks of us. However, generosity is truly shown in doing well the simple things – the daily chores and responsibilities, and the ordinary encounters with people. It is doing the small things every day with a big heart open to God and to others . . . School not only expands your intellectual dimension, but also the human heart. In a particular way, our schools are attentive to developing human virtues such as loyalty, respect, faithfulness, commitment.’

Volunteering in thoughtfully planned and carefully executed community service programs enables us to understand the fundamental importance of building community to achieve a just society. Indeed, the touchstone for establishing justice has always been the capacity to care for those least able to assert their rights: the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.

“May your Spirit strengthen us;
so that we will be:
strong in faith,
discerning in proclamation,
courageous in witness,
persistent in good deeds.”

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

Last Saturday was a wonderful celebration of the Eucharist with many of our school and parish families. The children participated beautifully as readers, singers, altar servers and welcomers at the mass. Many thanks to the families for bringing your children along and to the cooks who prepared the sausage sizzle for us all to enjoy afterwards. This truly was a great example of Joeys and community spirit.

Bernadette Brennan
APRE

SPORTING MATTERS

Friday 23rd August

Netball

Senior A
St Joey’s v RGS @ 12:30 pm on Court 4

Senior B
St Joey’s v Mt Archer @ 12:30 pm on Court 10

Senior C
St Joey’s v Mt Morgan @ 12:30 pm on Court 12

Senior E
St Joey’s v Gracemere @ 1:10 pm on Court 9

Junior E
St Joey’s v St Peter’s @ 12:30 pm on Grass 14

Junior B
St Joey’s v Berserker @ 1:50 pm on Court 7

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 -
St Joey’s v Frenchville SS @ 12:45 pm at Frenchville SS

Interschool Gymkhana

The annual interschool gymkhana is fast approaching. Please see the attached flyer. For nomination forms please see Mrs Brennan in the office.

Bernadette Brennan
Sports Co-ordinator

CURRICULUM NEWS

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.

FREE WRITING AND ART COMPETITIONS

The 2019 Schools Writing Competition is now open. Write4fun encourages students to read and write through a fun competition which is easy to enter. School students across Australia will battle it out for the great cash and prizes on offer.

You can choose to either write a poem of 16 lines or less OR a short story of 500 words or less. You can write on any topic you like. More information can be found on the write4fun website and the poster displayed on the drama room windows.

If art is more your thing, you can now also enter an art competition through the write4fun website. Students are invited to enter an original art piece to be in the running for fabulous cash and prizes. There is no theme for this competition. Entrants are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and get their creative juices flowing to come up with a masterpiece: painting, drawing, photography, collage, charcoal art, computer designed original art etc. Please no 3 dimensional pieces. For more information please see the write4fun website or the poster displayed on the art room door.

You can enter either or both competitions online at the link below with entries closing at 5pm on Friday, 30th 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.

ICAS ASSESSMENTS

If your child has enrolled to complete any of the ICAS online assessments, you can download practice questions from the following website to help them prepare for tests:

SCIENCE WEEK EXPO

Tuesday of last week we celebrated our love of Science with an expo showcasing the work our students have been doing in Science this term. The displays consisted of a range of activities and topics including:

• Prep showing off their green screen skills with photos of some very cool looking astronauts

• Year 1 with their beautiful shoebox dioramas showing their knowledge of different environments

• Year 2 with their awesome water displays

• Year 3 with their Earth, Moon and Sun displays

• Year 4 with their ant display, sustainability bins and catapult competition

• Year 5 with their very popular Sphero moon rovers

• Year 6 with their Space Lander creations

• Mrs Brennan with her interactive STEM challenges

Thanks to all the staff who put in a huge effort to pull their displays together and a special thanks to the P&F for suppling tea, coffee and food for people to enjoy whilst roaming around the displays.

Kind Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

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.

2F

2F are curious learners who are eager to ask questions and explored beyond what is required of the Year 2 Australian Curriculum when learning about 3D shapes and data collection. They are developing their skills of precision whilst building 3D shapes from patterns which requires accuracy, care and attention to detail. Working in groups builds patience while cooperating and collaborating. Learners are given the opportunity to pool their talents and form new ideas when they are willing to work with others.

2F are a creative group of thinkers and learners that stand apart from a standard classroom.

FINANCE NEWS

TERM 3 FEE ACCOUNTS NOW OVERDUE

Fee Accounts for Term 3 are now two weeks overdue. These were due on 5/8/19.

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?

All new families would by now have received your Parent Lounge Login details.

If you have not received these, please contact Tracey or Megan in the office.

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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and staff who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Oliver Grieves-Jahnke (Yr 5), Kelsey Kinlyside (1H), Mason McLean (1C), Kyiah Tobin (3M) Preston Clancy (Yr 4), Nate Bolck (PG), Abigail Farr (PM), William Littleboy (Yr 5), Jacob Murphy (Yr 5), Caitlin Thompson (2M), Miss Black (Yr 6) and Miss Hamilton (Yr 6) for earlier this week.

Have a great day.

P & F NEWS

We trust that if your child has tuckshop, that you’ve submitted an order through Quickcliq. The numbers using the service are increasing day by day, and now’s the perfect time to have a trial run.

It was disappointing to not offer Brekky Club on Thursday last week, but unfortunately if we don’t have the volunteer help, the service will cease to run. Coming in every so often for 5 mins is all we need. Please let Debbie or a P&F rep know if you can help. We really don’t want to have to close the doors again, as this is a service that’s widely utilised by our children.

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.

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