18 May 2022

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Parents & Guardians

Well done to the Year 3 and 5 students and their teachers who took part in NAPLAN last week. I am sure that they are all relieved it is over for another year. In saying that, nearly every student had a smile on their face and spoke positively of the experience over the three days. Thank you to Mrs Senini and the classroom teachers for their preparation and commitment to making it a smooth and calm experience.

Josh Arnold from Small Town Culture has offered to attend a launch event for our new school song to be unveiled. The school song launch party will be held on Thursday the 26th of May in the Multi Purpose Area. During this time the school will be supplying sausages on bread and the P&F will be selling drinks from the tuck-shop. Classrooms will be open for parents to have a look in with the evening culminating with everybody assembling in the MPA at 5:45pm for our song debut at 6:00pm. Josh has kindly offered to bring his guitar and sing a live version of the song with the community. More information will be sent out as well as reminders closer to the event.

Year 6 student counsel are looking into hosting our first school disco in nearly 3 years. Due to COVID and building works we have not been able to host our regular discos as we have in the past. The Year 6’s are working with myself to formulate a plan to use the MPA space as well as have it a safe place with designated areas for parents and students. As you would have noticed, the MPA is a very open space compared to what it was like before our Master Plan build. When this plan is finalised, the Year 6 group will be informing the school community of a date and theme.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our Laudato Si expo tomorrow.

I have also included a couple of notices after our Term dates below.

Don’t Forget….

• School Board Meeting in Library @ 5:30pm. Wed 18th May
• Laudato Si Expo. Thurs 19th May
• Season B Inter-school Sport delayed start. Fri 20th May
• Federal Election. Sat 21st May
• Our Lady Help of Christians Feast Day. 24th May
• New School Song Launch Party. Thurs 26th May in MPA.
• New School Video Filming. Wed 1st June
• SJPA Athletics Day @ Joeys. Mon 6th of June
• SJPA Track Day @ Emmaus. Tues 7th of June
• State of Origin Free Dress Day - Gold Coin Donation. Wed 8th June
• Rockhampton Show Holiday. Thurs 9th June
• Under 8’s Day. Morning 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

Teacher Assistants - Career Assistance Program (CAP)

Catholic Education Diocese of Rockhampton (CEDR) has partnered with Central Queensland University (CQU) to develop an innovative Career Assistance Program (CAP) to mentor pre-service teachers in high quality education settings. The long-term vision of the CAP is to build the capacity and capability of classroom ready teachers through tailored, high calibre training.

We are now calling for applications for the pilot of the CAP, due to commence at the beginning of Term 3, 2022. Successful applicants will be employed as Teacher Assistants (Level 3) in Catholic primary schools in the Rockhampton region, in a 0.6FTE capacity. This will enable successful applicants to maintain a full commitment to their Education studies while engaging in relevant, supportive employment focused on training and development.

To check eligibility, inclusions and for further information enquire today at www.rok.catholic.edu.au or phone us now on 4994 8000. Applications close 30 May 2022.

Here is the link below

Catholic Education Election Report Card on Major Parties

Catholic education has released a federal election report card assessing the responses from the major political parties on education priorities.

The report card assess the Coalition, Labor and Green’s responses to the priorities of:

• Genuine school choice through fair funding and ensuring affordable contributions from families
• Enabling faith-based education through religious protections
• Improving capital funding
• Support for delivering national priorities such as quality teaching, early childhood education, mental health and wellbeing programs and Closing the gap initiatives for Aboriginal and Torres Islander students

National Catholic Education executive director Jacinta Collins said the report card shows the Liberal National Coalition and Labor are on par in addressing Catholic education’s priorities, particularly on school choice.

“We are fortunate that both major parties continue to support genuine school choice in Australian education and are committed to families who choose a Catholic education for their children,” Ms Collins said.

Responses sought from key independent candidates are also being evaluated.

The full report card and major party responses is available via the link below

Authorised by J Collins, National Catholic Education Commission, Level 3, 156 Gloucester Street, Sydney.

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

5th Sunday of Easter

A New Commandment.

John 13:31-35

Gospel Focus – God’s Love

What does it mean to love as Jesus loved? The love Jesus poured out to all was an expression of God’s love that has been poured out to all creation since the very beginning and continues to be poured out today. God’s love doesn’t keep score. When humankind turned its back on God, God’s love continued to call them back to faithful relationship. God’s love is not conditional – whatever we do, God continues to love us. There is no barrier that we can construct that God’s love cannot get around. It is this sort of love that the new commandment demands of us.

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

Last Friday, the last of our Sacramental candidates made their First Reconciliation. Reconciliation allows us to reflect on our mistakes, admit to them and to try to do better next time. It is an important part of the Sacramental journey and allows children to examine how they can live as Jesus showed us.

This week, we have our next stage of the program begin. Families and the Sacramental team will begin preparing their children for Confirmation.

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

A big congratulations to Monica Bartsch in Year Five at Joeys. Last weekend, Monica was accepted into the Catholic faith. After expressing a desire to become a Catholic last year, Monica’s decision was supported by her mother, Jessica. Monica has been part of our Sacramental program and in the coming months will complete her Sacraments of Initiation with other candidates in the program. May God continue to bless Monica and her family.

PRAYER

Prayer has been chosen as a School Priority for this year. In particular, we are learning to recontextualise prayer and to offer opportunities for different forms of prayer. Often, Catholics focus on vocal prayer. We are very good at praying traditional prayers such as the Our Father but we don’t allow time for reflection. Staff are allowing for different expressions of prayer in their classrooms; creative, vocal, meditative and contemplative. Each of these plays an important role in the prayer life of a Catholic school and it is important we continue to offer each to our students.

PEER SUPPORT

Types of friends is the focus in Peer Support this week. Children will explore what encourages them to form friendships with different people (common interests, admirable qualities etc). Through various activities children will identify that their friends can fall into the categories of ‘best friends’, ‘friends’ and ‘people we know’. Children will also discuss the fact that friendships can change over time for various reasons.

Discuss with your child the different friends they have in their lives and how friendships may change. Some friends may be more important at different times in their lives.

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

ICAS

St Joseph’s is offering ICAS assessments again this year.

ICAS Assessments are online assessments, designed to recognise and reward academic excellence. Students are assessed on their ability to apply classroom learning to new contexts, using higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.

The assessments are based on the curricula for the relevant year. Students are asked to demonstrate a deeper, integrated, and thorough level of knowledge. A team of expert academics develops new ICAS Assessments annually for each subject in every year level to ensure an engaging and beneficial experience for all students.

Benefits of ICAS:

Provide objective ranking of performance
Encourage students to attain greater academic success
Require students to think beyond the classroom
Recognise student success through medals and certificates

If you would like your child to participate in ICAS this year, please see the table below for prices and the year levels eligible for each assessment. You will then need to log into the ICAS Parent Portal through the link below to make your order. The school will receive notification when an assessment is ordered by a Joey’s parent. Orders close on 1st August.

Your school access code is:     ZOV299

If your child is away on the testing day, there is some flexibility for them to sit the assessment, but it must be in the same week as the scheduled date and fit in with the availability of staff trained in the implementation of ICAS assessments.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is an annual state-wide initiative for state and non-state schools and home-educated students up to Year 9, as well as children attending early childhood centres. Since the program’s inception in 2006, more than 20 million books have been read, and in 2021 alone, 168,000 school, early childhood and individual readers participated in the challenge reading more than 2.39 million books throughout the PRC reading period.

The challenge is not a competition but aims to improve literacy and encourage children to read widely for pleasure and learning. Students can participate in the challenge within their school or as individual readers (home-educated students or students whose schools are not participating in the program).

For a student to successfully complete the challenge they must read or experience the allocated number of books for their year level during the reading period. Students who complete the challenge have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier of Queensland.

Why read? Literacy skills are vital to ensuring children have the best chance to succeed in their schooling and life. The PRC is an opportunity for students to be enthusiastic about reading, writing, authors and illustrators. Reading a variety of books builds vocabulary and knowledge, improves spelling and comprehension, can improve confidence and is also a great way to relax.

To successfully complete the PRC, students must read or experience the number of books indicated in the table below in English or additional languages.

The requirement for Year 5 through to Year 6 students to read 15 books acknowledges that older students are likely to select longer, more complex books that may take them longer to read.

Please see the link attached to this newsletter for the reading record form if your child is interested in participating. All forms need to be returned to the office by 26th August to be eligible for a certificate.

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.

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

CLASSROOM NEWS

Hello from Joey’s Prep Students

One of our school improvement priorities this year is Prayer. At school we are working on recontextualising prayer for students in today’s world. In Prep, we are learning about how Jesus prayed regularly and taught others how to pray. We have spent time brainstorming our thoughts on Prayer and have had some insightful responses. We will continue to learn and participate in prayer throughout the year and are very excited to begin to take our Prayer Bears home and share our learning with our families.

One of our focus stories this term is Mrs Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley, a rich text filled with many learning opportunities. So far, the students have participated in a book walk, identified the characters and are beginning to sequence the story. They are using their developing literacy skills to begin to read and record words using their letter and sound knowledge.

Students also participated in the construction of a picture graph. Students were asked to pick their favourite animal and discuss why they chose that animal. They then compared the number of students who picked the same animal and determined strategies for counting large numbers. From the graph students were guided to investigate the data by answering questions such as- Which animal was the most popular? Which animal was the least popular? How many people participated in the graph?

LAUDATO SI’ EXPO 2022

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School Park Avenue is pleased to invite you to our Laudato Si’ Expo 2022. This year’s expo will be held TOMORROW 19 May, from 12 noon and follows the success of our inaugural expo last year.

The SJPA Laudato Si’ Expo will combine environmental education, sustainability and excitement with various stalls, games, raffles and giveaways revolving around the teachings from Pope Francis’ Encyclical.

Laudato Si’ is Pope Francis’ Encyclical about the environment, or more formally – “On Care for Our Common Home”. Within the Encyclical, Pope Francis identifies many modern issues including pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, breakdown of society, the decline in the quality of human life and global inequality. He further appeals to all persons, no matter what religion “for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet”. Our expo is an answer to the call of Pope Francis to care for our common home. We invite you to answer this call with us.

FINANCE NEWS

TERM 2 FEE ACCOUNTS NOW DUE
School Fees for Term 2 were due for payment on 10/5/22.

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 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: Sonny Kirkman (Prep), Bentley McClintock (Yr 3), Izabella Lukic (Yr 1), Kalani Ivers (Yr 3), James Lill (Prep), Hamish Taylor (Yr 2) and Mrs McCutcheon (Yr 5)

Have a great day.

NCCD

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability

Every year, in August, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about the support provided to students with disability.

It is now a legislative requirement for the school to inform you if your child will be included in the NCCD. Your child’s teacher would have discussed this with you during your Semester One Parent/Teacher Interview.

If you would like to access other information about the NCCD, this is a link to the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact Inclusive Curriculum.

GALA CONCERT

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