24 March 2021

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINICPAL

Diocesan Director, Miss Leesa Jeffcoat visited our school last Thursday. Leesa’s visit was overwhelmingly supportive of what is happening at Joey’s as she had some beautiful interactions with our Year 1 & 3 students in their new classrooms. The students presented Miss Jeffcoat with some handmade gifts that expressed our gratitude for the gift of our new school facilities.

Leesa was very impressed by our new buildings and excited for the educational opportunities they will open up for both our current and future students. I would like to thank Leesa for her continued support of Catholic Education in the Park Avenue area.

Thank you to Fr Marcel for presiding over our St Joseph’s Feast Day Mass that was celebrated in the school’s Multi-Purpose Area last Friday. It was a lovely celebration of St Joseph – The Righteous Man as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of his Universal Patronage. The students were very well behaved and sang beautifully.

Last Friday, our staff and students all wore their ‘Be Kind’ shirts for National Day Against Bullying & Violence. The strong message was the emphasis on being like St Joseph, the Righteous Man, being kind to each other and choosing kindness, rather than acts of violence. Joseph guided Jesus, and Jesus taught us to love and respect ourselves and each other. Thanks to the students who helped print the shirts last week. Also, well done to Mrs Brennan and her St Joseph’s Well Being Action Team on the lovely initiative. It was wonderful to see our community interacting with each other, promoting this important message.

Over the last couple of weeks, the Leadership Team and school staff have been working on updated ‘Wet Weather Procedures’ in regard to our new facilities. I have put both of the new procedures here with the most important one for parents and grandparents being the new wet weather pick-up procedure. Please ensure anyone who may be picking up students has the Skoolbag app loaded onto their device to be able to receive notifications and is also using the name visors in order to aid the process.

WET WEATHER PICK-UP PROCEDURES SJPA

In the event of significantly wet weather, the following procedure will be put in place to temporarily replace our normal procedures.

Eldest child in Years 2, 1 and Prep and their siblings will be escorted to the Multi-Purpose Area by a class teacher. Parents of these children are required to park and walk in to the MPA to collect their children from their class teachers.

Eldest in Years 6, 5, 4 and 3 and their siblings will be escorted to the car park pick-up zone to be collected as normal.

This is an effort to keep the students as safe and dry as possible.

One third of the MPA court will be reallocated from OSHC for the first 30 minutes after the school bell to facilitate these processes. OSHC will maintain use of the Upper toilets while students waiting to be collected will have access to the toilets off the Media/Drama room.

Parents & Guardians will be made aware via a Skoolbag app post at 2:30pm when these procedures will be put into place.

Procedures will be reviewed after each event.

WET WEATHER/EXCESSIVE HEAT EATING PROCEDURES SJPA

Excessive Heat/Wet Weather – 2 levels

Level 1 Moderate Weather – Eat outside, play inside
Level 2 Extreme Weather – Eat and play inside

In the event of significantly wet weather or excessive heat, the following procedure will be put in place to temporarily replace our normal procedures.

Students will remain in their precincts to eat and play.

If possible, students will be allowed to eat outside in the covered areas where drink and toilet facilities can be accessed without exposure to the elements.

In the case of Level 1, play may be held both inside and outside the room and be supervised by the three staff members on a rotation basis. A ratio of approximately 1:40 staff to student ratio is required for each precinct.

In the case of Level 2, two staff members must be present for eating and playing inside.

During Level 2, movement around the school should be reduced to a minimum.

If you are unable to meet these ratios, contact the office to access more staff.

Procedures will be reviewed after each event.

With my attendance at the Diocesan Principal’s Gathering this week and Year 6 school camp in Week 10, Mrs Bernadette Brennan will be Acting Principal in my absence. If you need to see Bernadette, please do not hesitate to contact the school office to book a time.

Thank you and have a great Week 9

Don’t Forget …

• Principal Diocesan Gathering 24 – 25th March
• Palm Sunday Vigil Mass, 6:30pm @ OLHC 27th March
• Palm Sunday, 28th March
• Year 6 Camp. Chaverim Bundaberg. 29th March – 1st April
• Holy Thursday Mass. 6:30pm @ OLHC 1st April
• Term 1 concludes, Thursday 1st April
• Good Friday. 3:00pm Mass @ St Mary’s & Holy Family 2nd April
• Easter Sunday Vigil Mass. 6:30pm @ OLHC Saturday 3rd March
• Easter Sunday Mass. 7:00am @ St Mary’s 4th April
• Easter Sunday Mass. 9:00am @ Holy Family 4th April

Term 2 commences, Monday 19th of April

Have a great week.

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

St Joseph’s 2021 School Improvement Priorities:

• Parent Engagement
• Writing
• Social Emotional Learning

APRE REFLECTION

Fifth Week of Lent

Halima is raising her two children in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, while caring for her mother who has a disability. Widowed at 21, Halima fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, arriving at the camp with nothing.

Caritas Australia, through Caritas Bangladesh, helped Halima with shelter, cooking equipment, hygiene and sanitation training. She took on the role of community trainer herself, organising the cleaning of washrooms, wells and toilets.

Halima aspired to “Be More” and is proud that she is able to earn a small income, while maintaining the health of her family and the cleanliness of the camp community.

Watch a short film about Halima’s story here.

“Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” Please support Project Compassion by contributing to the classroom fundraising money boxes.

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

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

Bernadette Brennan
Assistant Principal Religious Education

CURRICULUM NEWS

ST JOSEPH’S TEACHING AND LEARNING FRAMEWORK

Throughout 2019, the staff assisted me to develop a teaching and learning framework for our school. It has since been endorsed by the Rockhampton Catholic Education Office and is currently being implemented across our school. Each week in this newsletter I would like to share a section of this framework with the school community so that everyone is aware of what teaching and learning looks like at our school.

This week we will begin looking at Part 2 of the Teaching and Learning Framework – The School Curriculum Guide. This section is broken up into 5 sub sections: Curriculum Vision, Learning Culture, Curriculum Organisation, Data for Learning and Teacher Expertise.

This week’s focus is on the Learning Culture of St Joseph’s. This section is quite large so it will be broken up into smaller sections for the next couple of weeks

Positive Learning Relationships

At St Joseph’s, we believe positive, healthy relationships are essential for successful teaching and learning. There are a number of ways in which we aim to develop positive relationships amongst our school community members.

• We strive to make our learning spaces areas where students are comfortable to take risks with their learning.
• Positive Mindsets and Learning Dispositions are aspects of our school which we are currently exploring.
• Students are aware that teachers attend regular professional development sessions to help the teachers improve upon their craft. This is a way of modelling to the students that we are all learners and that learning is life-long.
• Collaborative teaching and learning is a major focus of our pedagogical model. In order for this model to occur successfully, positive and supportive relationships need to be established and maintained between students, staff and parents.
• Teachers ensure they are transparent in their teaching. This is done in the upper school through all learning activities being uploaded onto the class Google Site each week. In the lower school, learning activities are regularly uploaded onto the Seesaw app and shared with parents. These two approaches aim to provide a positive interaction between the school and home.
• St Joseph’s regularly (when allowed under current COVID restrictions) host events which encourage the attendance and participation of parents as well as encouraging different student relationships to develop. Examples of such events are the bi-annual Joey’s in Jamas night, annual book week dress up parade, annual science nights, monthly Children’s masses, weekly assemblies and prayer assemblies, annual Under 8s morning, peer support program, Year 5 / Kindy buddies and discos.

Safe, Supportive and Trusting Learning Environments

At St Joseph’s, we value and strive for collective teacher efficacy as we understand how this can have a tremendous positive impact on student achievement. We aim to build a culture of collaboration and trust to ensure the safety, wellbeing and positive outcomes for the students in our care. We promote and encourage the development of positive trusting relationships amongst all members of our school community. Our community regularly witnesses positive staff interactions, collaborative planning and teaching as well as supportive and open conversations between staff, parents and students.

At St Joseph’s, we believe that in order for students to be successful learners, they first need to feel safe, valued and supported. In order to provide our students with a safe and supportive learning space there are a number of considerations and practices put in place.

• Prayer is a very important part of our school day. Prayer is a way of bringing everyone together and reminding our school community that we are a family who strives to work together in a respectful, positive manner with Jesus as our model.
• St Joseph’s has very clear expectations for positive student behaviour. These expectations are consistent across the school and a clear behaviour management policy exists and is communicated to all staff, students and parents.
• St Joseph’s has an Inclusive Curriculum team who ensures students with additional needs are catered for in a safe, dignified and supportive manner. Our school has a large number of teacher assistants (Educational Support Officers) who work within our learning spaces to assist in providing support needed for a safe, supportive learning environment for all of our students.
• Each learner is valued as an individual learner with unique gifts and talents and is both challenged and supported when required.
• St Joseph’s has dedicated Student Protection contacts who constantly work together to provide the safest environment possible for our school community. These contacts are communicated regularly to parents and students through posters displayed across the school, school assemblies and newsletter articles.
• Teaching staff implement the Child Safety Curriculum and the You Can Do It program each year to all students from Prep - Year 6.
• Our school Gospel Values of Self Worth, Mutual Acceptance and Personal Responsibility are displayed in every classroom as well as in all Leadership Team Member’s offices and are referred to often with students.
• The positive staff/student relationships which are required in our community allow for staff to be aware of every student’s needs and enable individualised attention and support to be offered to students when required.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN will be occurring this year for our Year 3 and 5 students.

Attached to this newsletter is a brochure about NAPLAN for your information.

We will be participating in planned NAPLAN practice tests this term with the official NAPLAN tests occurring next term. The practice tests allow for us to test our devices as well as our internet to ensure we don’t have any technical issues. It also gives the students a chance to practise the tests in the same format that they will appear on the day.

The practice tests will occur as follows:

• Year 3 omnibus test (a mixture of questions from numeracy, reading and conventions of language) – Thursday, 25th March
• Year 5 omnibus test (a mixture of questions from numeracy, reading and conventions of language) – Wednesday, 24th March
• Year 5 writing – Thursday, 25th March

Please see below for our school’s official NAPLAN testing schedule:

There will also be opportunities to compete catch up tests during the week of 17th – 21st May.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s participation in NAPLAN, please contact me through the office or via email: Deanne_senini@rok.catholic.edu.au.

ART COMPETITION

Students are invited to enter the 2021 Independent Education Union’s Awards for Excellence in Art Design competition. All students from Prep – Year 6 are eligible to enter.

Design Task:

• Your task is to produce a piece of artwork that best reflects the theme: Our World.
• You may include a statement or caption to reinforce your visual image.
• You may use a variety of media (paint, crayon, pencil, ink etc). It must also be suitable for exhibition purposes.

Entries close: Friday, 23rd July. Cash prizes of $100 - $350.

Please note: All entries must be posted to the appropriate address in time for it to be received by Friday, 23rd July. Parents are responsible for posting their child’s entry.

Please see Mrs Senini for an official entry form if you are interested in entering this competition.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

FINANCE NEWS

School Fees for Term 1 were due for payment on Tuesday 16/2/21. These are now overdue for payment.

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

If you currently have a direct debit set up with us, you do not need to do anything further.

If you have a means tested Concession Card and have not yet given a copy to the Finance Secretary, please do so as soon as possible.

All new families should have received their 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).

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 5

Year 5 have been actively engaged in using Maths Pathway. We have been working hard to accomplish good classroom practices which involve an online learning environment to support our individualised learning needs. This includes developing problem solving, independent learning, and group work skills. This helps us to develop a growth mindset towards our mathematics learning.

In class, we have been working together in regular learning cycles.  Each cycle is two weeks long and we complete 4-6 Modules. Each cycle ends with a short test and reflection which gives us feedback, so we can set our learning goals.  It also provides us with information regarding what we are ready to learn next.

We also participate in ‘Mini-Lessons’, where our teachers engage in targeted, explicit instruction with a small group of students. Once we master our Modules, we can assemble our gems, it’s a great way to show us our effort, accuracy and growth towards our learning.

What is your favourite thing about Maths Pathway?

Zaeleigh – We get to play Rich Learning Games and Energisers – Hexagon Game.
Abbielee – I like the different Modules and you learn something different each time.
Max H – All different types of Maths to choose from and it challenges you.
Romen – Maths Pathway is sometimes challenging, but sometimes it’s not.
Cairon – It is fun to learn all the strategies that it has.
Peppa – How you have Modules that are different, and you can choose which one to do next. The concept gems are different colours and they let you know what you have mastered, what you have done and what you can do next.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Hanna Haigh (Yr 6), Charlotte Hopkins (Yr 3), Skylah McLean (Yr 2), Cooper Wedel (Yr 6), Jack Burnham (Yr 5) and Zaeleigh Hannah (Yr 5).

Have a great day.

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