4 May 2022

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Parents & Guardians

Welcome to Week 3.

Our National School Improvement Tool (NSIT) review that was conducted last week was a huge success. The team very briefly presented the affirmations, commendations & recommendations to the staff on Friday afternoon. The reviewers and the process were fantastic and reaffirms all the good things that are happening at our school as well as providing future directions for improvement. All of the reviewers commented on how lovely the community was and commended the great work that is currently happening. The official report is still in draft form. When the official report arrives in a couple of weeks, we will begin unpacking the information and sharing it with the community. Thank-you to all the students, staff and parents who took part in interviews over the three days. A special thank-you to Mrs Senini and Mrs Carter who gathered the immense amount of evidence needed and organised the review while I was away last Term.

Josh Arnold from Small Town Culture is in the middle of his visit to Joeys. The community were treated to an impromptu performance from Josh on assembly yesterday where you could have heard a pin drop. Josh is creating a contemporary school song for us and recording it with our students this week. When we have our new song and film clip completed, we will communicate with the Joey’s community about how we will unveil and celebrate our new song. I cannot wait to hear it.

As per our usual Term processes, we highlighted our Student Protection Contacts at yesterday’s Whole School Assembly. For those who were not able to be there, the following list is provided for your information. Remember, keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility.

Student Protection Contacts for 2022:

Bernard Fitzgerald – Principal
Deanne Senini – Assistant Principal, Curriculum
Elizabeth Carter – Assistant Principal, Religious Education
Michelle Hoffman – School Counsellor
Brooke Black – Inclusive Curriculum/Staff & Student Wellbeing Teacher
Jessie Ivers – Indigenous Liaison Officer
Chelsea Holden – OSHC Coordinator

Well done to our Year 5 and 6 staff and students who took part in the Inter-school Primary Mathematics Challenge held last week at Glenmore school. Mrs Farr said the students competed well and represented Joeys with pride with a good time being had by all. A huge thank you to Emmaus College who provided our teams with free transport via a college bus to and from the event.

Don’t Forget….

• Small Town Culture visit. 3 – 5 May
• CAPRAS Challenge 11-12 years Rugby League Gala Day. Fri, 6th May
• Mother’s Day. Sun 8th May
• P&F Meeting in Library @ 6:00pm. Wed 11th May
• Season B Inter-school Sport commences. Fri 13th May
• School Board Meeting in Library @ 5:30pm. Wed 18th May
• Our Lady Help of Christians Feast Day. 24th May
• SJPA Athletics Day @ Joeys. Mon 6th of June
• SJPA Track Day @ Emmaus. Tues 7th of June
• Under 8’s Day. Morning of the 23rd of June
• Potential Colour Run Date. Afternoon of the 23rd of June
• Emmaus Musical, Beauty and the Beast. 22nd – 24th July

Kindest Regards

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

St Joseph’s 2022 School Improvement Priorities:

• Prayer
• Family Partnerships
• Increased Learning Gain & Achievement

Positive COVID Case Notification

St Joseph’s Catholic School Park Avenue wishes to advise you that, during the past week, we have been notified of positive cases of COVID-19 in our school community.

St Joseph’s regularly consults with the Catholic Education Office and relevant authorities, and continues to follow the advice of Queensland Health regarding cleaning requirements.

Queensland Health has advised that no quarantine of students or staff is required.

As COVID-19 remains active in our community we ask you to continue to monitor your child’s/children’s health and if they develop any flu-like symptoms:

• Keep your child/children at home
• Seek a PCR or Rapid Antigen test where it is recommended and notify the school of positive results. Please be aware, a negative COVID test does not change the requirement to be symptom free to attend school.
• Follow the advice of Queensland Health

As we continue to navigate the pandemic, please remind your child/ren to:

• maintain good hand hygiene at all times
• cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the inside of their elbow and dispose of tissues in the bin immediately.
• practice social distancing from others where possible
• wear masks when required

We will continue to work closely with health authorities to keep our school community informed of any developments and advice. Thank you once again for your ongoing support.

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

3rd Sunday of Easter

Jesus forgives Peter.

John 21: 1-19

Historical Context – Feed my sheep

When Jesus asks Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ and Peter repeatedly assures Jesus that he does, Jesus instructs Peter to ‘Feed my sheep’. This image of feeding sheep is used to describe the caring leadership Peter is to take over the other disciples and the other followers of Jesus. The image of a shepherd has carried through the years and finds expression in the stylised shepherd’s crook (crosier) that is carried as a symbol of office by bishops. The people of the church are often referred to as the bishop’s flock – further carrying on the image of a shepherd and his sheep.

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

This week some of our Sacramental candidates will make their First Reconciliation. This is a very important step in becoming a Catholic who can witness their faith and I thank their parents and the Northside Sacramental Team who have prepared the children so well. Next Friday, the second group will have the opportunity to make their First Reconciliation. Each group will celebrate the Eucharist with our parish on Friday morning and then stay for a special reconciliation ritual after 9am Mass.

The link to the important dates for families and other information about the program can be accessed using the link below:

PRAYER CELEBRATIONS

We will now refer to our Friday Prayer Assemblies as Prayer Celebrations. This small change to the name has been made to better reflect the reason we gather at this time. A reminder that our Prayer Celebrations are now held in the Church. We are excited to be able to use this sacred space again and welcome all our community to join us. They will continue to be celebrated at 10:30 each Friday. We begin these again this week with a special Mother’s Day Celebration led by Year One.

A list of the Prayer Celebrations and other events planned for the coming weeks is outlined in the important dates table below.

PEER SUPPORT

Year Six spent Thursday and Friday of Week One working with teachers and Ms Honeyball from Rockhampton Catholic Education to prepare for Peer Support. We have begun this program with the whole school and last Thursday Joeys was abuzz with excited students moving into small groups to work with Year Six leaders and teachers. These sessions allow for our seniors to further develop their communication and leadership skills as well as allowing younger students to develop important relationships not just with our Year Six students but, right across the school.

This year’s focus for Peer Support is Keeping Friends and we will be led through a module which focuses on relationships. It will allow us to explore the concept of friendships, how to build relationships and to develop skills in empathy and critical thinking.

Our first session, last week enabled the children to get to know everyone in their group, agreeing on how they will work together and interact cooperatively. We encourage you to talk to your children about Peer Support every week as it will help to reinforce the concepts learned in each session.

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

*SJPA – St Joseph’s Park Avenue
*OLHC – Our Lady Help of Christians church (next to St Joseph’s, Park Avenue)
*HF – Holy Family Parish Centre (next to Anthony’s School)
*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

PARISH NEWSLETTER

Elizabeth Carter
Assistant Principal Religious Education

CURRICULUM NEWS

Parent Teacher Interviews

Interviews started last week and continue this week for our Semester One Parent Teacher Interviews. If you haven’t booked a time to meet with your child’s teachers, please contact them to do so. This is a wonderful opportunity to discuss your child’s progress. Thank you for the teachers who are giving up many hours of their personal time to make this opportunity available. With this in mind, if you suddenly can’t make your appointment, please let the teachers know so that they are not waiting around for you.

NSIT Visit

Last week we welcomed Mr Mike Kelso, Mr David Paul and Mr Ron Bamford to our school to conduct a review of our teaching and learning practices. It was a very uplifting and positive experience which has left us with many commendations and affirmations as well as some recommendations to further improve in our processes. It was wonderful to see that the team was impressed with the way we run our classrooms and the many processes we have worked hard to implement since the last NSIT audit.

Under 8s Day

Our annual Under 8s Day will be celebrated on Thursday, 23rd June. If you know of anyone who might be interested in setting up a display with some activities on that day please let me know. More information about the day will come out closer to the date.

NAPLAN

Next week our Year 3 and 5 students will participate in NAPLAN. These assessments provide us with valuable knowledge regarding which subject areas we are performing well in and where we need to improve. Best wishes to all the Year 3 and 5 students and staff for a smooth NAPLAN week.

Maths Teams Challenge

Congratulations to the following Year 5 and 6 students who participated in the Maths Teams Challenge at Glenmore High School last week. These students have been working hard during lunch breaks with Mrs Catherine Farr to prepare for this event and will continue to train for the next competition later in the year. These students represented St Joseph’s very well and from all reports, enjoyed the experience. Well done to:

Matilda Ballinger, Connor Fulwood, Maycie Zanette, Tom Compagnoni, Finn Wyatt, Samson Burgess, Nate Barber, Cruz Nolan, Lani Duncan, William Farr, Lucas Barber, Brittney O’Leary, Max Harris, Connor Johnson and Slater Malone.

These students will be presented with a certificate on next Monday’s assembly. Thank you to Mrs Farr, Mrs Wayman and Mrs Duncan for preparing these students for this event and for supervising them on the day.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

CLASSROOM NEWS

Year 1

STORY:

Lately there has been so much enthusiasm and excitement in our room. We are super excited to be spending an hour pampering our Mums on Friday morning for our Early Year’s Precinct Mother’s Day Pamper Party and presenting our first Prayer Assembly that morning too. Lots of preparation has been going into practising our song and reading our words.

Other things we have been doing in Year 1 which we’ve been enjoying are:

• Learning all about time (Melody)
• Fine motor Friday workshops (Tallon and Emelia)
• Minilit with Mrs Paap (Ailey-Ahna)
• Borrowing library books (Marlowe)
• Handwriting (Sophie and Ahri)
• Using Seesaw on the ipad (Archie)

From the Year 1 Team:

FINANCE NEWS

TERM 2 FEE ACCOUNTS

School Fees for Term 2 were emailed out & posted to Parent Lounge on 26/4/22. These are due for payment on 10/4/22.

Please ensure that you check your email or log into Parent Lounge to check your School Fees on a regular basis. If you now have another child at the school you may need to increase what you are currently paying so as to not get behind with Fees.

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).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and staff who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Matilda Ballinger (Yr 5), Jackson Lynam (Yr 1), Monica Bartsch (Yr 5), Addison Millar (Yr 2), Isabella Austin (Yr 4), Ailey-Ahna Black (Yr 1), Gabriella Halil (Yr 6) and Mrs Paap (ESO).

Have a great day.

WONDER RECYCLING REWARDS

Calling all students, parents, grandparents, neighbours, and friends!! St Joey’s will be participating in the Wonder Recycling Rewards program! By collecting your BREAD BAGS for school, we can earn points for new sporting equipment.

What kind of bread bags are we collecting?

The rule of thumb is that if it has contained bread of some sort and

is a soft plastic, then it's a bread bag that we can collect (all brands). lf it hasn't contained bread, then it's not a bread bag we can use.

How clean do the bags have to be?

Bread bags should be free from crumbs to ensure no contamination during the recycling process but they do not need to be washed.

Are we collecting bread TAGS too?

No, at this stage we are not collecting bread tags, but you can still recycle them!

When do we start collecting?

NOW!! We can start collecting our bread bags while we wait for our official collection boxes to arrive.

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