3 November 2021

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL – Bernadette Brennan

Welcome to Week 5.

Thank you, Parents and Friends, for showing your gratitude for the staff at St Joseph’s last Friday on World Teacher’s Day. We greatly appreciated the lunch provided and have proudly added our print to the staffroom. As school staff, each day we are called to the service of education and find a multitude of ways to serve our students and the families in this school community.

Next Wednesday, 10th November the P&F will be holding the Annual General Meeting followed by a general meeting. All parents are invited to come to these meetings. The P&F is not just a fundraising group, it strives to assist the school in a variety of areas including classroom activities, social functions, pastoral activities for community members, resourcing and involvement in the teaching and learning at the school. This is quite a list that you might be able to contribute to. If you see a need in the school or have an idea for how we can build community, please come along and join in.

We are halfway through Term 4. Let’s work in partnership to ensure our children keep attending, learning and enjoying school for the duration of the term.

Regards
Bernadette Brennan
Acting Principal - St. Joseph’s Catholic School Park Avenue

Calendar Dates – as listed in Events on Skoolbag

Term 4 2021

Week 5

• Saturday 6th NOV OLHC @ 6:30pm Children’s Mass & BBQ

Week 6

• Wednesday 10th NOV P&F AGM in the Library @ 6:00pm

Week 7

• Monday 15th NOV TCC Year 7 Orientation Evening. 5:00pm – 6:30pm
• Tuesday 16th NOV Mike Kelso, AD Schools Rockhampton Term 4 Visit

Week 8

• Monday 22nd NOV in MPA @ 8:35am Semester 2 Cultural Assembly.
• Thursday 25th NOV Emmaus Year 6 Orientation Day
• Thursday 25th NOV Presentation Night in MPA @ 6:00pm

Week 9

• Monday 29th NOV Semester 2 Academic Awards in MPA @ 9:00am
• Wednesday 1st Dec Semester 2 Reports posted to Parent Lounge
• Wednesday 1st DEC Year 6 Graduation Mass in OLHC @ 6:00pm
• Wednesday 1st DEC Year 6 Graduation Meal @ RLC
• Thursday 2nd DEC Year 6 Fun Day
• Friday 3rd DEC @ 9:00am End of Year Mass & Leadership Change Over.
• Friday 3rd DEC 2021 Office Closes @ 3:15

Term 1 2022

• Monday, 10th January 2022 Office Reopens
• Thursday afternoon, 20th January 2022 (1:30 – 3:30) Resource Drop-off Day
• Monday, 24th January 2022 Term 1 Commences

Sporting Matters

Congratulations Sophie on your success at the recent Interschool Gymkhana. Sophie placed in numerous events and came 2nd in the Year 1 students class.

St Joseph’s 2021 School Improvement Priorities:

• Writing
• Parent Engagement
• Social Emotional Learning

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

The wise scribe asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment.

Mark 12:28-34

Living the Gospel – Love

Jesus reminds us ‘You must love your neighbour as yourself.’ There’s an unspoken, underlying idea here that is absolutely crucial. Before you can love your neighbour, you must first love yourself. To say that you love yourself today can imply a level of boastfulness or ego. However, what is required is a genuine love of self – an acceptance; a respect; a true valuing of self. Only then can we know how to treat others. When we ask ourselves how we would want to be treated it points us towards how we should treat others. What is summed up so simply by Jesus is a very tough ask!

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

Children’s Mass is coming up again; this Saturday, 6 November we will gather in Our Lady Help of Christians church for this celebration. Our Children’s Mass is followed by a BBQ. It's not too late to join us. We’d love to see you there.

Vinnie’s Christmas Appeal begins this week. We hope to continue the tradition of Joey’s generosity by helping less fortunate families through this appeal again.

Each week, the students will be asked to donate a specific item type.

WEEK 5 – Snacks (no chocolate please)
WEEK 6 – Drinks
WEEK 7 – Tins
WEEK 8 – Christmas

When you donate, consider what your family likes to enjoy at Christmas, this is usually what other families would like too!

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

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

PARISH BULLETIN

North Rockhampton Parish Bulletin

Elizabeth Carter
Acting Assistant Principal Religious Education

CURRICULUM NEWS

Report Cards

Teachers are busily finalising assessments and completing the Semester Two Report Cards. Report Cards will be able to be accessed through Parent Lounge from Wednesday, 1st December. Please ensure you can access Parent Lounge before that date. If you have misplaced your log in details, please contact Tracey in the office.

Booklists

Booklists will be sent home with students in the next couple of weeks. They will also be put on the Skoolbag App and School Website for parents to access. We have made the decision to move away from our previous online supplier due to several issues we have had over the last two years. This will mean that parents will need to source the equipment themselves. Capricorn Educational Resources is once again our preferred supplier. CER have agreed to supply all our booklist requirements, especially the textbooks. There is a box in the office where you can drop your list. It will then be collected by CER and filled. Otherwise, you can drop it to CER yourself or source the equipment elsewhere. I would like to thank our P&F who have once again generously purchased several items for our classrooms. This has significantly reduced the cost of booklists for parents.

Darumbal Awards

I was fortunate enough to attend the 2021 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards night hosted by the Darumbal Community Youth Service on Friday evening. During this event, 6 of our students were presented with an award. Congratulations to Diesel Gorringe and Kiara Carpenter who received an academic award, Romen Conway and Logan Kane who received a sportsmanship award and Amarli Batchelor and Preston Clancy who received a citizenship award. We are very proud of all of you.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 4

What Year 4 are learning this term

In Writing this term we have been learning about poetry and on Thursdays we do my favourite part of writing which is the quick write with Ms Bidenko. For poetry we have been learning about the different types of poems and more importantly the devices used for it, we have also been learning how to write a good poem. In the quick writes with Ms Bidenko we have been learning how to write a good story and she has been giving us something to write about in our story which gives you a lot of creative freedom that is why it is my favourite part of writing. (Nate Barber)

In Reading we have been working in different groups to learn different skills to improve our DRAs. These skills are Summarising, Making Connections, Monitoring and Clarifying and Predicting and Inferring. When we finish each skill, we feel more confident to do much better in year 5. (Lilly Beal)

In Math we have been learning about equivalent fractions, proper fractions, improper fractions and mixed fractions. Times table challenge is my favourite thing to do in math. Times table challenge is a series of times tables that you have to complete in 3 minutes. It goes level A-JJ it progressively gets harder as you go. Once you complete level JJ you go back to level A but you have 2 and a half minutes. Also, we are learning about decimal numbers. Some decimals can be hard, but others can be easy. (Finn Wyatt)

In Religion we have been learning about parables. Jesus told parables to teach people right from wrong. A parable is a simple story that tells a message that teaches people important truths about himself, the world and our spiritual lives. (Caitlin Thompson)

In Science we have been learning about friction. We did an experiment on friction. In the experiment we used somebody’s shoe and put a weight inside. Then tied a rubber band around one end of the shoe. We walked around the school and found some surfaces and put the shoe on it. Then we pulled the rubber band until the shoe started to move. Once the shoe moved, we measured the distance in centimetres. After the experiment we looked to see which had the most and least friction. (Maycie Zanette)

This term in HASS we have been learning about Africa. In week 4 we were assigned the task of choosing a country and we had to find things like famous dishes, languages, the flag and much more. Last week we were learning about a specific country called Kenya. (Tyler Ivers)

This term in Design & Technology we have been continuing on the design of our new school garden. We are currently looking for materials for the garden on our iPads or we would be finishing the final copy of what our image of our garden will look like. Once we are finished everything in our book Mr Tennyson will choose one design to be the new School Garden. (Thomas Compagnoni)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Jack Rea (Yr 2), Paige Toby (Yr 3), Ned Wade (Yr 2), Gabriell Brosnan (Yr 5), Olive O’Keeffe (Prep), Kaeli Kirkman (Yr 2), Wyatt Pedersen (Yr 1), Zanden Hallett (Yr 1) and Mrs Tennyson (Yr 2).

Have a great day.

INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM NEWS

Emmaus Transition Program

A group of our Year 6 students have taken part in two transition sessions at Emmaus College. The students were taken on a tour of the Yaamba Road Campus and met some of the teachers they will be working with in Year 7. During their visits they were also lucky enough to have a lesson in Textiles and Food Technologies with Mrs Smith and Industrial Technology and Design with Mr Spreadborough. In both sessions the students made takeaway goodies to show their teachers and families. These sessions are such a great way for our students to build their confidence and develop connections with new teachers and other students from local schools. The students had a great time and look forward to Orientation Day on 25 November.

KEYBOARD LESSONS

Leanne Voss will continue to offer Keyboard lessons in 2022 for interested students in grades 1 – 6.

Lessons are of 30-minute duration and will be conducted weekly at school on a rotating timetable so that students do not miss the same lesson each week.

Students will be required to have access to a keyboard for practice, and purchase a music tutor book and theory book. Lessons will generally be given to groups of 2 or 3 students with some individual lessons available when it is not possible to match students of similar musical ability. The lessons will focus on using a chord bass with an emphasis on utilising keyboard features such as different tones and rhythms.

Playing keyboard is an excellent extra curriculum activity to develop not only musical skills, but creative thinking, hand-eye coordination, concentration and commitment to task.

Enrolment forms are available from the office and in the newsletter for both new and continuing students.

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