12 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Welcome to Week 3.

During last Friday’s opening school mass, we presented our school community with St Joseph’s school theme for 2020. Our theme is, ‘Happy Every Day. Learning Every Day.’ After mass, I focused on the words ‘Happy’ and ‘Learning’ by linking them to our school Gospel value of Personal Responsibility. I pointed out that the people who love us and surround us in our lives can have a great influence in our everyday happiness as well as our ability to learn positively, however I also mentioned that we as individuals have the most amount of control over our own happiness and how we approach our responsibilities in life. I challenged our school community to think positively, be patient, understanding and to take control of both their happiness and ability as a learner by being the best possible person they can in 2020.

As our opening school mass was physically uncomfortable due to ongoing capital works and humid weather, we chose not to present our 2020 Student Leaders to the school community on Friday morning, instead opting to do so on our Monday morning assembly this week.

Our 2020 School Leaders are;

Student Council - Rayna Anderson, Hugh Ballinger, Isabella Barber, Nicola Dobbs, Kiasharn Henaway & Angus Turner.

Daly House Captains – Denzel Dougan & Matilda Walker.

Leahy House Captains – Grace Lloyd-Jones & Callum Richardson.

MacKillop House Captains – Lilly Payne & Riley Roser.

I look forward to working with these student representatives in 2020.

A reminder that tonight we will be holding our first P&F meeting for the year. The meeting will be held in the temporary staffroom which is in the old Year 1 classroom closest to the carpark. To get to this room you must walk past the temporary 2020 Office building that is adjoined to the staffroom. The meeting will begin at 6:30pm and everyone is welcome to attend. A strong P&F association helps keep our school community strong and centered on our Catholic identity and family values.

Next week, Wednesday 19th February, we will be holding our annual School Board Annual General Meeting for the year. The meeting will be held in the staffroom at 5:30pm.

Inter-school sport begins this Friday for our 10-12 years students. All students have been made aware that representing our school is a privilege not to be taken lightly and much is expected of them in terms of their behavior, fair play and how they conduct themselves away from the school environment.

Please ensure all students have at least a frozen water bottle during these fixtures as the weather has been very hot and humid recently.

Finally, please note that our annual Bishop’s In-service Day for staff professional development will be held on Friday the 21st of February next week. Due to all staff attending this day it is a Pupil Free Day for all Catholic Schools in Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast however, Outside of School Hours Care will still be operating that day. Thank you in advance for your understanding in this matter.

Don’t Forget …

• P&F Meeting, Wed 12th Feb @ 6:30pm
• Season A Friday Sport commences, Fri 14th Feb
• Children’s Mass, Sat 15th Feb in OLHC @ 6:30pm
• School Board AGM, Wed 19th Feb @ 5:30pm
• Bishop’s In-service Day, Fri 21st Feb (Pupil Free Day)

Have a great week.

Regards

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

APRE REFLECTION

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
You are the light of the world
Matthew 5:13-16

In nature, light gives colour, radiance and life. Jesus calls his disciples 'the light of the world'. As his followers, it is also our role to enlighten the world – to inspire it with passion, joy and a sense of hope.

Bernadette Brennan
Assistant Principal Religious Education

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

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

Catholic Identity – We Need Your Input

One of the most important things about being a Catholic school in the 21st century is knowing who we are and what purpose we serve. We need to have a clear understanding of our role as a Catholic school. To assist with this and as an important part of our School Improvement process, St. Joseph’s Park Avenue will shortly participate in a Catholic Identity survey which is conducted by Leuven University in Belgium. The research project is aimed at assisting us with understanding how our Catholic identity is expressed in work and practice as well as supporting plans to further enhance our Catholic Identity for the future.

All staff and students from Years 5 and 6 will participate in the survey at school. We would also like to give parents a voice by inviting and encouraging you to take part in the survey, which will be conducted online and is not identifiable.

The survey period is open from Monday 17 February 2020 – Friday 03 April 2020.

Your responses are anonymous, and your personal data is treated confidentially in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.

Only you will be able to view your individual results, and this can be done once you’ve completed the questionnaires.

Everyone’s input is important.

Liturgical Celebrations for Term 1

*OLHC – Our Lady Help of Christians church – next to school
*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

Bernadette Brennan
Assistant Principal Religious Education

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.

*Forms must be returned to Mrs. Brennan, at least one day before the trial for processing*

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.

Friday Inter-school Sport

Inter-school Season A sport commences this Friday 14th February for all children aged 10, 11 and 12 (born 2010, 2009 and 2008,) The sports we are participating in this season are softball/teeball and soccer. Season A runs through until week 2 of term 2 when the finals are held.

Students playing in inter-school Soccer are required to have their own socks, boots & shin pads as safety equipment. Children cannot take the field if they are not wearing shin pads and football socks. The school has a supply of soccer socks for students who are new to Friday sport or haven’t played soccer or rugby league previously.

Please ensure children have sufficient sized water bottles to take with them.

If you are spectating and wish to take your child home after their game, it is imperative to let the teacher with the team know.

Friday Sport

Bernadette Brennan
Sports Coordinator

CURRICULUM NEWS

Important Curriculum Dates – 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 has been mandated by our Diocese to be actively taught in all of the Rockhampton Catholic schools each year. In 2020, classroom teachers will teach these lessons as part of the Health Curriculum.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this program please don’t hesitate to contact either Mrs Senini, Mr Fitzgerald or your child’s classroom teacher.

More information about the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum can be found at the link below:

Parent Teacher Interviews

Semester One Parent Teacher Interviews will occur in Week 9 of Term 1. More information about how to book an interview will be communicated closer to the date.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year. If you have any teaching and learning questions, please don’t hesitate to book a time to see me.

STRATEGY CORNER

There are many ways you can assist your child to progress with their literacy and numeracy skills. Over the year I will be providing ideas you can use to assist your child to progress in the areas of Reading, Spelling and Maths Facts.

Reading

Learning to read involves children learning skills in comprehension, fluency, accuracy and expanding their vocabulary.

Strategy - Practise Common High-Frequency Words

These are also known as sight words. Once children have a solid bank of high-frequency 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 important that children can recognise high frequency words in the books they read in preference to rote learning them from lists.

Spelling

At St Joseph’s we teach spelling using a word study approach. Students learn different strategies and rules associated with spelling. They also participate in various activities to help consolidate their learning. As an additional resource, your child will be learning chants and actions to assist them to master the many and varied ways to spell particular sounds.

Below is a strategy / activity you can do at home to assist your child/ren to master their current spelling pattern.

Strategy – Bubble Letters

Write and colour each of your spelling words in bubble letters or fancy shapes.

Mental Computation

Knowing strategies to assist students to recall number facts quickly is essential for success in mathematics. Each year level will be focussing on particular number facts strategies throughout 2020. Please contact your child’s teacher to find out the strategy your child should be practicing this week.

Game – Cards

• Using a pack of cards, turn over two cards and race your child/ren to mentally calculate the sum of both cards. This game can also be used for subtraction, multiplication and division. You could also extend the game by using more than 2 cards.

If there are any curriculum related concerns or questions you may have throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to book a time to discuss your concerns or questions with me.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and staff who will celebrate their birthday this week.

They are: Oliver Smith (Yr 5), Ruthie Perkins (Prep), Cooper Lee (3Mo), Braydon Smith (2F), Lilly Oliver (Prep), Gabriel Maker (Yr 4) and Mrs Donohoe (Inclusive Curriculum) for last Friday.

Have a great day.

FINANCE NEWS

Fee Accounts for Term 1 have now been emailed and posted on Parent Lounge.

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 instead of names (this is the 6-digit number on your Fee Statement)

OSHC NEWS

Dear Families,

OSHC is seeking your support to collect the following items to create a Loose Parts outdoor area.

Crates, Rope, Lengths of PVC Pipe, Lengths of Wood/Boards, Nets, Buckets/Baskets, Containers (Milk, Yoghurt etc), Metal Tins, Spools, Pots and Pans, Textiles (Sheets, Shower Curtains, Blankets, Tarps etc) and Laundry Baskets.

If you have any of these items and would like to donate them, please contact Chelsea on 0408703482.

P & F NEWS

Have you handed in your “Just One Thing” note yet? Send them in, as we’d love to see what the members of our Joeys community, especially our newest ones, can bring to our ever-growing table. If you’re looking to help in Tuckshop or Breaky Club, even better, so we can look at drawing up a roster system to provide both services. Without help, these will cease to exist.

Our first P&F meeting for the year is also this evening at 6:30pm, in the staffroom. Please come along as we set our calendar year, as there’s some exciting events coming up. If you have anything to add, or anything you’d like to see happen over the year, come and let us know.

Have a great week!

Reminder:

Wed Feb 12th: 6:30pm First P&F Meeting for 2020, location TBA
Mon Feb 17th: 9:00am P&F Coffee and Chat, after assembly

Thanks,

Joeys P&F

PARENT LOUNGE

Changes to your address, phone number or work phone number can be made in Parent Lounge. To do this, log in through the Skoolbag App, go to the Parent Details tab, make your changes, and then submit.

Changes to Parent Lounge are the submission of your child’s absentee days (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

PIANO

There are vacancies for Piano lessons (Keyboard to practice on will suffice). Please contact Lynette Anstey on 0419 358 485 or email – anstey.family@bigpond.com

TOUCH NEWS