18 August 2021

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Welcome to Week 6.

It was wonderful to see our children show off their science knowledge yesterday with several students demonstrating their expertise in scientific knowledge on a variety of topics. It is great to see our students have the confidence to hop in front of an audience and present on a science related topic that they are passionate about and sharing their enthusiasm for learning with others. Thanks to Mrs Senini for organising this learning opportunity for our students.

If all goes to plan, we will be taking part in an Astrology Night at the Emmaus College Main Street campus tomorrow evening. Emmaus have been very generous with their facilities and providing our students with a rare opportunity to see the moon and stars like never before. Hopefully we have a clear night and great weather for the event unlike the last time we did this a few years ago at Joeys when Mr Fitz forgot to shut off the night-time sprinklers at school and everyone got wet.

Congratulations to William, Patrick, Finn, Mackenzie, Maycie, Nate and their families as these students celebrated the Sacrament of First Holy Communion at Holy Family church over the weekend. Well done to all who were involved as our Sacraments celebrations have now spanned weekend masses over five weeks.

Adventure+ began the installation of our upper playground on Monday afternoon. Hopefully by the time you read this it will nearly be ready to use. It has been a long time coming and I thank you for your patience with this process. This playground will be specifically for our Year 3-6 students and be a well-used resource for years to come. Plans to cover the equipment will be implemented at a later date.

Congratulations to Stacey Hogan who has accepted the role as Director of the St Joseph’s Kindy from 2022. I would also like to pass on my thanks to Jessica Cann for her work at our Kindy. We wish Jess the best in her future endeavours.

Have a great week.

Don’t Forget …

• National Science Week. 15th – 21st August
• School Board meeting. Wednesday 18th Aug @ 5:30pm in Library
• Prep 2022 offers emailed out 20th August.
• Joeys in Jamas. Tuesday 24th Aug
• Book Week Dress Up Day. Thursday 26th Aug
• Season B Sport Grand Final Day. Friday 27th August.
• Father’s Day. Sunday 5th September.
• Primary Inter-school Touch Challenge. Wednesday 15th September
• Prep 2022 Orientation Day. Thursday 21st October in term 4.

Regards

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

St Joseph’s 2021 School Improvement Priorities:

• Writing
• Parent Engagement
• Social Emotional Learning

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Magnificat

Luke 1:39-56

On the surface, this week’s gospel passage has little to do with the feast of the Assumption. There is no scriptural account of the Assumption and so we draw on a different significant gospel passage that features Mary. However, the account of Mary rushing to her cousin and exuberantly proclaiming the Magnificat is an example of Mary’s joyful ‘Yes’ to life and to God that tradition tells us was rewarded in her bodily assumption into heaven.

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

What is the Magnificat?

The Magnificat is a canticle (song of praise) also known as the Song of Mary. The words of the canticle are taken from the gospel of Luke where it is spoken by Mary when she visited her cousin Elizabeth. In the narrative, after Mary greets Elizabeth, who is also pregnant, the unborn child moves within Elizabeth's womb. Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith, and Mary responds with what is now known as the Magnificat.

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

*OLHC – Our Lady Help of Christians church – next to school

*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

Virtues

This year we introduced Virtues Awards at St Joseph’s. Each year level has a specific Virtue to work at improving. The Prep focus virtue is KINDNESS.

What is Kindness?

Kindness is being concerned about the welfare of others. Kindness is showing you care about anyone or anything that crosses your path, knowing that everything is a part of God’s creation. We can be kind to people, animals and the environment.

We practice kindness when someone or something needs care. We are sensitive to the world around us. When we reach out to others in acts of kindness it helps both of us. Everything in the world God created is connected, so being kind allows connectedness and makes things better for all of us.

Mother Teresa said,

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.
Be the living expression of God’s kindness;
kindness in your face,
kindness in your eyes,
kindness in your smile,
kindness in your warm greeting.”

Peer Support

We introduce a 3-step model to encourage resilient responses: Pause, Plan, Proceed. The children take part in an activity to identify their feelings and the immediate effect on their bodies i.e. butterflies in their stomachs. The children learn that pausing when they are emotional is helpful. They can do this by being still, taking a deep breath or counting to ten. Pausing gives children space to see a situation more accurately before planning a response.

Ask your child to describe the 3 steps of the model and what is involved in each one.

You Can Do It!

The next Social Emotional Skill we focus on is Persistent Behaviour.

Persistent Behaviour: staying on task and not being distracted by others when working independently; when you come across a word that is difficult to read, rather than making a wild guess, you try a few different strategies to help you work it out; continuing to try even when schoolwork is hard; checking work when it’s finished to make sure it’s correct.

Positive Attitudes that Help Develop a Young Person’s Persistence

• I Can Do It means if I try very hard, I will probably be successful.
• Giving Effort means thinking that the harder I try, the more skilled I will become and the greater my success will be.
• Working Tough means preferring but not demanding that things be exciting and never boring and thinking that to be successful, I sometimes have to do things that are not easy or fun.
• Growth Mindset means knowing that my talents and abilities can be developed through my continuous learning, effort and persistence.

Bernadette Brennan
Assistant Principal Religious Education

CURRICULUM NEWS

SCIENCE WEEK

Happy Science Week. I hope all our students enjoyed the Science expo yesterday.

A reminder that Emmaus is inviting Joey’s families to come along to their special Science Week astronomy night. This will be held this Thursday evening from 6pm – 7:30pm in the Emmaus Main Street carpark. Students will have the opportunity to look through telescopes and view the moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. If your child is interested in astronomy, please consider taking them along and supporting this event.

BOOK WEEK

Our annual book week celebrations will be held in Week 7. We will have two events happening during that week.

On Tuesday, 24th August we will have our Joey’s in Jamas night where everyone is invited to come to the library with their parents in their pyjamas and enjoy some board games, lego building and reading of books together. The library will be open from 5:30pm – 7:30pm for this event. All Joey’s families are welcome. It will also be a great way to see our new library.

On Thursday, 26th August we will hold our annual book week dress up day. We will have a parade of all the costumes at 10:30 that morning in the MPA. The theme for the 2021 Book Week is ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Semester Two parent teacher interviews will be held in Week 9 of this term. Parents will be able to book for these interviews through parent lounge during Week 7. More information will be in next week’s newsletter and will come out via the school app.

Regards,

Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 6

Ava Tranberg: In Science for Natural Disasters, one of the hands-on science experiments that we completed was called Chocolate Tectonics. We were each given a Mars Bar and instructed to squeeze the Mars Bar in different ways to see if it would move like the earth in an earthquake.

Henry Burgess: In HASS, we are writing a factual story about an Asian country. We have so much interesting information we can include, such as the size of the place, the population and the amazing food eaten.

Sam Conway: In Maths this term, we have been learning about all sorts of fun things such as coordinates on a Cartesian Plane and positive and negative numbers. The teachers always set up fun activities to help us learn new things and always help us in any way possible with feedback and extra work if we aren’t getting the topic. All the students are having a lot of fun with maths this term from times tables games to online maths tests.

A message from our Student Counsellors

Keep an eye out for our upcoming Get Active Raffle that will be drawn on the 17th of September (the last day of school). There are many prizes, including: basketballs, netballs, soccer balls, Fitbits and much more. The tickets will cost $1 and they'll be sold outside the office and at the multipurpose area. Watch this space! We will announce when tickets go on sale soon.

FINANCE NEWS

Fee Accounts for Term 3 are now Overdue

Term 3, 2021 Fee Statements were emailed and posted to Parent Lounge on Thursday 15th July. These are now overdue for payment.

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 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).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM OUR ADOPT-A-COP

Dear Families,

Road Safety Week is occurring this week across Queensland.

While the emphasis this year is on education, and as the St Joseph's Adopt a Cop, I would like to highlight a very specific piece of legislation related to the carpark at the school.

Under s.91(2) of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management - Road Rules) Regulation 2009, it is prohibited to make a right turn from the carpark driveway onto Haynes Street adjacent to the Kindergarten. The sign indicating this is located at the exit of the driveway and clearly states that there is to be no right turns between set hours of 8:30am and 3:30pm on weekdays.

Failure to adhere to this will result in the issuing of a traffic infringement notice to the cost of $110 and 3 points.

I will be enforcing this over the coming weeks with the emphasis being on informing road users about the rule. This has been brought about because of several close calls where traffic has attempted to turn across both lanes of traffic almost resulting in a traffic crash.

As always, the fatal five are at the forefront of road user awareness and Police will be out in force to ensure the safety of all drivers this week.

Please feel free to contact the school with any questions or queries regarding this and they will forward them on to me.

Thanks

A/Sergeant Prestin MOONEY
St Joseph’s Adopt-a-Cop

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday last week and this week. They are: Jimmy Farr (Yr 2), Daniel tanner (Yr 6), Gracie Simpson (Yr 1), Kelsey Kinlyside (Yr 3), Mason McLean (Yr 3), Kyiah Tobin (Yr 5), Preston Clancy (Yr 6) and Miss Hamilton (Yr 6).

Have a great day.

DRAKES SUPA IGA

Drakes Fundraiser for St. Joseph's Cathedral

I thank you for your support of this project which has raised over $40,000, of which the school community has played an important role. Please continue to support the Cathedral by shopping at DRAKES using your key tag and receiving the benefits.

If you have not been part of this fundraiser you are invited to get a key tag from your local School or Church and shop at your local Drakes, one cent in every dollar you spend will go to the Cathedral. No Fuss, only benefits.

Hoping to see you at Drakes

Stay Safe

Shirley Hopkins,
Co-ordinator, Drakes Fundraiser for St Joseph's Cathedral