24 November 2021

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Welcome to Week 8.
A huge congratulations to the P&F who hosted our postponed movie night last Friday evening. It was a huge turnout to our first community event in quite some time. As I said on the night, we will learn from this event and look to host multiple community based, family events in 2022.

As the end of the school year draws near, we still have a few significant events to celebrate on the Joey’s calendar. The first of these being our school Presentation Night this Thursday, 25th November. The evening will be held in the school Multi-Purpose Area beginning promptly at 6:00pm. Each grade level, including the Kindy, have been working hard to prepare a Christmas song to perform on the night, which will also include the presentation of our annual awards that recognise the efforts of students throughout the entire year.

I would ask that during the evening we keep general conversation to a minimum as a form of respect for those performing or presenting and receiving awards on the night.

The night is anticipated to conclude at approximately 7:30pm and it would be lovely to see as many of our students and their families come along and attend.

Monday 29th November at 8:35am we will be holding our Semester 2 Academic Awards. All are welcome to attend as long as spectators follow COVID processes of booking into the school via the Check In QLD app on arrival, being socially distant from those not in your own household and not attending if you are showing flu like symptoms. At this assembly we will be celebrating our Gold, Silver, Bronze and Maroon Academic Awards recipients as well as our Navy Effort Awards for Semester 2. As per our normal procedures, and the length of the event, our Prep students will not attend this assembly.

Next Wednesday evening, 1st December we will be celebrating our Graduation Mass for the Year 6 students, which will mark the culmination of their primary schooling. The evening will commence with mass in OLHC Church at 6:00pm followed by a presentation & dinner for the students and their parents at the Rockhampton Leagues Club. Year 6 Parents, please ensure you are up to date on all the information by remaining in contact with the Year 6 teachers and reading all the communications sent home. I am sure it will be a memorable night for all those who are involved.

Thursday 2nd December, our Year 6 class will be holding their ‘Fun Day’ celebration and traveling to Keppel Island for the day. Information about this event was sent home in the form of a note with each student.

Drawing our school year to a close will be our End of Year Mass next week on Friday, 3rd December. We will be celebrating with a whole school Mass commencing at 9:00am in OLHC church. The Mass not only provides us the opportunity to say farewell to our Year 6 students for the final time, it will also incorporate the induction of our student leaders for the 2022 school year.

As you will all be aware of Joey’s educational philosophy and how our new open learning spaces support the delivery of the curriculum to our students, every child in the school will be a part of a Year Level cohort and will all have two teachers and an Educational Support Officer within their double sized learning spaces.

The Joey’s teaching staff for 2022 will be as follows:

Prep – Rebecca Gabriel, Kirsty McLeod, Beth O’Brien and Kristie Sloan
Year 1 – Michelle Hannah, Paula Roati and Kylie Schoneveld
Year 2 – Louise Chapman, Kerrie Tennyson/Aimee Watson and Lyn Lavender
Year 3 – Erin Tranberg, Leah Ward and Jacinta Beak
Year 4 – Daena Walton, Tina Thorsen and Kelson Tennyson
Year 5 – Ann McCutcheon, Catherine Farr and Rachael Duncan
Year 6 – Hannah Hamilton, Alana Jones and Kaitlyn Brosnan
Inclusive Curriculum – Lesley Donohoe and Brooke Black
PE Specialist – TBD
Arts Specialist – Kira Tickner
MiniLit – Leonie Mooney and Madelein Paap
Indigenous Support – Jess Ivers and Ashley Gray
Special Project Numeracy Extension – Alice Wayman
Special Project Writing Extension – Tarina Hancock
Special Project Support – Rebecca Whiting & Jacinta Thackeray

School reports for the Second Semester will be posted on Parent Lounge on Wednesday, 1st December. Please ensure you have your appropriate login details in order to access your child’s information.

Don’t Forget….

• All the dates listed above
• Semester 2 Academic Awards. Monday, 29th Nov in MPA @ 9:00am
• Semester 2 Reports posted to Parent Lounge. Wednesday 1st Dec
• Year 6 Graduation Mass. Wednesday 1st December in OLHC @ 6:00pm
• Year 6 Graduation Meal. Wednesday 1st December @ RLC
• Year 6 Fun Day. Thursday 2nd December
• End of Year Mass & Leadership Change Over. Friday 3rd December @ 9:00am
• Office Closes. Friday, 3rd December 2021
• Office Reopens. Monday, 10th January 2022
• Resource Drop-off Day. Tuesday afternoon, 18th January 2022 1:30pm – 3:30pm

2022 School Year Commences. Monday, 24th January 2022

St Joseph’s 2021 School Improvement Priorities:

• Writing
• Parent Engagement
• Social Emotional Learning

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Pilate questions Jesus about his identity
John 18:33-37

Gospel Reflection

This week marks the end of the liturgical year. Next week, with the first week of Advent, we begin the new liturgical cycle. It is fitting that the Church concludes the liturgical year with the celebration of Christ the King. The conversation between Jesus and Pilate displays quite a lot of confusion on the part of Pilate. The confusion stems from different perceptions of what it means to be a king. For Pilate, part of the most powerful political and military rule in the ancient world, the idea of a king was a threat. Jesus, of course, had a completely different idea about ushering in a kingdom. However, his intention is not to claim a position of power and authority. It is the poor, the sick, the outcast, the children and the widows who will hold the highest places in the kingdom of God. In a kingdom like that, what does it mean to declare oneself king?

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

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

Sporting Matters

Congratulations to the Year 5 Boys Blue OzTag team that won their final against Frenchville State School last Friday. Joeys defeated FSS 4 -3. Well done boys on a very short season.

Bernadette Brennan
Assistant Principal Religious Education

CURRICULUM NEWS

Report Cards

Semester Two 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 have been sent home and are also available on the school website. 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. Alternately, 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.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM NEWS

Thank you to the Allied Health service providers who support our students all year.

Alisha and Dani- Speech Pathologists

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 5

In year 5 this term, we have been reading the book Wonder for Novel Study. This book delivers a simple message by asking children and adults to #ChooseKind.

The main character is August Pullman, and he was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep School, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid, but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.

The class designed their own unique ‘Wonder’ images to reflect their qualities and values.

Student personal connections to the book.

Mia B

What I learnt from the Wonder book was that beauty is not on the outside, but it is on the inside. That you should never judge looks and not let what you look like get in your way of being how you want to be.

Slater

Wonder is about a real-life condition and teaches people that it doesn't matter what's on the outside but only what's on the inside. In Wonder there's a little kid that gets bullied because he has a deformity on his face. Wonder is a really good book and it's very interesting. My favourite part in wonder is when August and his school go on camp and on the second day they watch a movie, I like that part because I can connect to it when I watch movies. When I watch movies, I find them always interesting and don't want to stop watching them. Overall Wonder is one of my favourite books and teaches an important lesson about life.

Lucas

Something that I have learnt from the book Wonder is that even if someone doesn't look normal that doesn't mean that they aren't cool and fun to play with. Auggie is a kid who loves to play but, at the start of the book no one would play with Auggie because he didn't look normal. They would stay away from him, tease him, write mean notes to him so that they could make him sad and they did. Around chapter two, Summer recognised that August was lonely and sad so she went over to him and asked him if she could sit with him at lunch and then at lunch when Summer went to sit with August, Summer's friends were looking at her as if they were saying "does she want the plague?" What this taught me is that if you see someone that doesn't look normal you don't be mean to them because it makes them feel sad. We must ‘Choose Kind’. Making someone feel sad is harder than making someone feel happy, so make people feel happy because making people happy feels good. This book reminds me of a famous saying, never judge a book by its cover. This means don't judge people by how they look. August is a really, really cool kid to me and I would love to meet him in real life to just have fun with.

“You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Indiie Lawton (Yr 4), Marshall Bell (Prep)Callum Jamieson (Yr 3), Millie Watson (Prep), Koby Savage (Yr 2), Chloe Crosthwaite (Yr 5), Taylor Dive (Yr 5) and Preston Livermore (Yr 4).

Have a great day.

KEYBOARD LESSONS

Image Music Symbol 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.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC in 2022

Enrolments are now being accepted for new and continuing students to learn the following instruments at St. Joseph’s Park Avenue.

FLUTE, CLARINET, SAXOPHONE, TRUMPET, TROMBONE, PERCUSSION, VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO, GUITAR & VOICE.

Instrumental Music provides so many benefits to a child – please watch the attached link to a fantastic video about Music and the Brain: Instrumental Music Learning and Brain Fireworks

Please see the attached information letter for details on required year levels for each instrument, and a downloaded version of the enrolment form.

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