19 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

This week I want to take the opportunity to remind the school community of two very important Student Protection documents that are on the Skoolbag app. These documents being CEO’s current Student Protection Policy and the Student Protection Processes and Guidelines. If you have not already done so, please take the time to familiarise yourself with these documents.

On a similar topic, during my address before the Parent Information evening sessions, I mentioned our current toilet arrangements with the Capital Works now being in full swing. Please be aware that no adult is allowed to access the student toilets at any time. If you need to use a toilet while at school, the disabled toilet near the stage is the only toilet available at this point in time. This toilet is also the male staff toilet on a temporary basis. I am sure that you can understand the complexity of the situation and I thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.

I also took the time to address appropriate student behaviour in the toilets as well as introducing our five Student Protection Contacts for the school in 2020. Those contacts being myself as Principal, my Assistant Principal’s, Deanne Senini and Bernadette Brennan, Inclusive Curriculum teacher Brooke Black, our School Student Counsellor, Michelle Hoffman and our OSHC Co-ordinator Chelsea Holden.

St Joseph’s Student Protection Contacts

You may wish to speak with your own children, reinforcing appropriate behaviour in the toilets and asking them if they know who our school Student Protection Contacts are.

This week the Leadership Team began our classroom walkthroughs. This is an opportunity for the team to touch base with the student body and hear from them about what they are currently learning. During these times each week we will have a brief discussion with a few students based around these five questions.

1. What am I learning?
2. Why am I learning this?
3. How will I know that I have learned it?
4. What has your teacher suggested for you to improve your learning?
5. Where can you go for help?

The Leadership Team look forward to not only collecting some useful data to inform future initiatives but also to fostering and even greater relationship with our students by sitting with them and getting to know them a little more.

You may wish to use these questions when chatting to your children about their school day.

Our annual Bishop’s In-service Day for all staff will take place this week. This means that this Friday the 21st of February will be a pupil free day for all Catholic Primary Schools and Colleges. Our Outside School Hours Care service will be operating that day, and bookings are essential. Please contact Chelsea on 0408 703 482 or sjpa_oshc@rok.catholic.edu.au

Last Saturday we celebrated our first Children’s Mass for the year. It is always wonderful to see our families come together in Eucharist. It was wonderful to see so many people in our lovely little church even if it was one of the most humid masses I have ever attended. Father said it was as hot and humid as when he presided masses in East Timor. Congratulations to Bernadette Brennan, Catherine Farr on a wonderful liturgy as well as Brooke Black and the choir on their memorable singing. Thanks also to the staff and students who took the time to celebrate with us.

Remember our theme for the year; Happy Every Day, Learning Every Day.

Don’t Forget …

• Enhancing Catholic School Identity Parent Surveys Open, Mon 17th Feb
• School Board AGM, Wed 19th Feb @ 5:30pm
• Bishop’s In-service Day, Fri 21st Feb (Pupil Free Day)
• Shrove Tuesday, Tues 25th Feb
• Ash Wednesday, Wed 26th Feb
• Year 12 Indigenous Commencement Mass, Fri 28th Feb – 10:00am @ St Joseph’s Cathedral

Have a great week.

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

APRE REFLECTION

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jesus comes to fulfil the law
Matthew 5:17-37

Jesus advises his disciples to be authentic: let what you are on the inside dictate how you act on the outside. If we take this to heart, our celebrations of eucharist will be true expressions of the peaceful relationships within our community.

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

Children’s Mass

We celebrated our first Children’s Mass on Saturday night with the local parish community. Thank you to all the families who joined us for this celebration of the Eucharist. Our children participated beautifully and were clearly engaged by Father Lyall. Check out the photo. You will spot those students who attended and some past ones too.

Catholic Identity Surveys

Surveys are open and we need your help

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 constantly plan to further enhance our Catholic Identity for the future.

We would also like to give parents a voice by inviting and encouraging you to take part in the survey. Your responses are anonymous, and your personal data is treated confidentially in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.

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

It’s best to finish the survey in one shot, without having to come back later.

As an added incentive, when you have completed the survey, please return your pink form to claim a thank you gift and for your ticket in the survey raffle.

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.

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.

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: Tune into interesting words and use new vocabulary in speaking and writing

A good way to increase a child’s vocabulary is to ask them to point out some interesting words from the passage or book they are reading. Have a discussion with them about what the words mean and different sentences/contexts they can be used in and encourage them to try to use those new words in their everyday speaking and writing.

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: Colour the vowels.

This strategy involves students writing out their words. They then choose their favourite colour and write over the vowels in that colour. This strategy is worthwhile because it helps younger children learn their vowels and it reinforces to the older students that each syllable has at least one vowel which is a very important spelling rule.

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 2019. Please contact your child’s teacher to find out the strategy your child should be practicing this week.

Game – Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a great game to practice maths skills as it involves adding multiple numbers. Helping your child find ways of adding these numbers quickly is a worthwhile activity.

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 these concerns or questions with me.

Regards,

Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 6

In Year Six this term… We go to the Science Hub to learn about microbes and how there are millions on us. Our Science Hub is one of our smaller hubs, so we use portable desks sometimes, so we have more space. In maths we have just finished our personal profile but before we could do that we had to learn about angles, pie charts and dot plots. We learn all this in the Maths Hub. The breakout room has many uses including Mentals/50s Club, Novel Study, Reading Groups and independent work. In Mentals we have ten minutes to finish the day we are on in the book. After that we do 50s Club where you have to finish fifty timetables in three minutes and if you get them all right you move up a level. In Novel Study we are reading the book Once, the book is about a boy named Felix who was in an orphanage but then escaped to try to find his parents. We also fill out worksheets about the book. In Reading last week, we read a paragraph called “Think Positive” we inferred things about the book. We go on camp this term; we are very excited, and we have to fundraise for it. One of our fundraisers is selling pizza on a Friday at first break, and our big Term One fundraiser is our Easter Raffle.

From Rayna Andersen & the Year Six Class

In Year Six we have written an autobiography about our lives. We go to the English Hub for our workshops. We have just handed in our draft and are starting on our final copies. In writing, we do a “quick write’ in the Writing Hub and every week we get a new stimulus to write about. For HASS we are learning about Federation and right now we are working on an information report about people from the Federation. For Religion, we are learning about the Liturgical Calendar, we are also learning about Scriptures. We are looking forward to Friday Sport and icy cups in Year Six this term.

From Flynn Assay & the Year Six Cohort.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

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

They are: Benn Martin (2F), Noah Wale (Prep), Mace Downie (3MC), Jax Maas (2TW), Jack Wooler (Yr 5), Katie Hayward (Yr 1), Siarra Robertson (Yr 1), Avah Pope (Yr 1) and Laylah Thomas (Prep)

Have a great day.

FINANCE NEWS

Fee Accounts for Term 1 have now been emailed and posted on Parent Lounge. These were due for payment on Tuesday 18/2/20.

All new families should 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

Keep the morning of Wednesday March 25th free in your calendars, as this year for our Cross Country, Joeys are looking to do something a little different by holding a Colour Run. You may have seen them around as a local council event, or at other schools, but this time it’s our turn. Notes will be going home this week explaining all the details from the time and place, to how you and your family can take part and raise funds to support the P&F and our school. It should be a fantastic morning.

How is everyone finding the tea towels? If you missed out, forgot to order, or would like another one, we still have about 20 left in the office, and they’re for sale for $10 each, just see Tracey or Megan and they’ll help you out.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our “Library Lovers Day” Breaky Club, from those who donated food items, to those parents who came along with their children. Keep an eye on Breaky Club as we’ll continue to have special themed days throughout the year.

Also, a big thank you to those who came to our first P&F meeting for the year. If you have an idea, or see something you think might benefit the school, come along and share it with our members. If you can’t make our meetings, which are the second Wednesday of every month, come and find, or message an executive to get your idea out there.

Have a great week!

Reminder:

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