22 June 2022

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE ACTING PRINCIPAL – DEANNE SENINI

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. Our 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:

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

Your parent page link is: https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps

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. Prep – Year 3 students are invited to wear free dress that day. Please ensure the clothes they wear are sun safe with fully enclosed shoes. Please also send a shopping bag with them to keep the things they make on that day. Students will be provided with a sausage on bread for first lunch. They will still require their own food for second break.

Self Defence Lessons

Next term as part of PE, students in years 4-6 have the opportunity to participate in a 4 week self defence program where they will learn basic skills to assist them to escape from various holds. These students should have received a note regarding this which included a double sided permission note. This double sided sheet needs to be completed and returned to school by the end of this term please. Without this permission, the students won’t be able to participate in the course.

Academic Awards

Congratulations to all the students who received academic awards for Semester One. Keep working hard.

Report Cards

Reports can be accessed through parent lounge from today.

I’d like to wish all our school community a safe and happy holiday break.

Don’t forget:

• Semester 1 Report Cards. Posted to Parent Lounge – Wednesday, 22nd June
• Rockhampton Catholic Schools Gala Concert. Wednesday, 22nd June @ 6:30pm - Pilbeam Theatre
• Under 8’s Day. Morning of the 23rd of June
• Emmaus Musical, Beauty and the Beast. 22nd – 24th July
• Term 3 Commences - Monday, 11th July

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum

St Joseph’s 2022 School Improvement Priorities:

• Prayer
• Family Partnerships
• Increased Learning Gain & Achievement

Survey of Bicycle and Scooter use in Schools

Dear Parents, Guardians and staff

In partnership with Arup and Zwart Transport Planning, the Department of Transport and Main Roads is gathering insights from parents/ carers and staff about bicycle and scooter parking at schools across Queensland. The Queensland Department of Education and Catholic Education Diocese of Rockhampton has granted permission for schools to be involved in the research.

If you would like to contribute your experiences and assist in improving bicycle/scooter parking at schools, we invite you to complete the following online survey by Friday, 24 June 2022. Click on the link below to take part in the survey.

Bicycle and scooter parking at schools survey

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

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Jesus feeds the five thousand.

Luke 9:11-17

Have you thought – Twelve baskets?

The gospel passage tells us that after the five thousand people had eaten as much as they wanted, the remaining scraps filled twelve baskets. What is significant about twelve baskets of left-overs? Twelve was an important number – it represented the twelve tribes of Israel.

Whenever the gospels mention twelve things they are symbolically talking about the nation of Israel.

In this case, the message is that no matter how many people feast on the message of Jesus and accept the reign of God, there will still be enough to ‘feed’ the twelve tribes of Israel. No one need be left out!

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

Last Thursday, our Confirmation Candidates were confirmed by Bishop Michael at Holy Family Church. This was a wonderful occasion and lots of our families were a very proud part of it. A big thank you to Mrs Mills and the other members of the Northside Sacramental Team for their huge efforts with our sacramental program. This week we begin our preparations for Eucharist.

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

CHILDREN’S MASS LAST SATURDAY NIGHT

Last Saturday, 18th June we celebrated our final Children’s Mass for the Term. The community at Our Lady Help of Christians Church are so welcoming and love our school being able to lead them in their usual weekend Mass. It was great to see some of our families make an effort to come along to this occasion. Everyone enjoyed the snacks and get together after Mass.

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)
*STM – St Mary’s Church (next to St Mary’s School)
*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

PARISH NEWSLETTER

Elizabeth Carter
Assistant Principal Religious Education

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and staff who will celebrate their birthday this week and over the holidays. They are: Finn Jarrett (Prep), James Coleman (Yr 2), Theo Pollack (Yr 3), Abigail Thistlethwaite (Yr 5), Slater Robertson (Yr 5), Orlando Wyatt (Yr 2), Tyler Ivers (Yr 5), Slade Carey (Yr 6), Nathaniel Pettett (Yr 5), Harpah Schukking (Yr 2), Alexis Cann (Prep), Emelia Evans (Yr 1), Baylee Horstman (Prep) and Mrs Whiting

Have a great day.

DANIEL MORCOMBE

The Daniel Morcombe Foundation has released a new digital resource supporting families to navigate online safety.

The Boomer Challenge is a free interactive, online game where the children are the experts, and the adults are the learners. This is an excellent way for children to feel empowered and demonstrate their digital knowhow while being informed and reinforcing these vital safety messages:

1. Always be sceptical
2. Be kind
3. Think before you post
4. Be alert for clues that something isn’t right
5. If you are worried or unsure, check with a safety helper (a trusted adult)

This may be a fun way for all members to engage in family time over the upcoming holiday break—a positive way to remind us how to be safe on the internet.

Brooke Black
Student Protection contact

INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM

Are speech and language the same thing?

Image sourced-

Language is understanding and using words and sentences to receive and send information. We can do this by speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

It consists of-

• content: our knowledge of words (vocabulary) and meanings (semantics);
• form: our understanding of speech sounds (phonology), word forms – e.g. saying “cups” to tell people there is more than one cup, or “climbed” to say to people that the climbing happened in the past (morphology); and how to put sentences together correctly (syntax); and
• social use: how to use language appropriately in a given situation, e.g. when having a conversation, giving a speech or telling a story.

Speech means using our voices to make words and sentences. The noises that come out of the mouth and nose.

If the school has recommended a language assessment for your child, their teacher has identified difficulties in their learning that need to be investigated further. The language assessment looks at receptive language (ability to understand information in various ways) and expressive language (effectively communicating what they are thinking). Assessing your child’s lamguage will provide more details of their difficulties and effective intervention strategies that can assist and support them in the learning environment.

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

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

YEAR 6 FUNDRAISING

Disco - Week 2 Term 3

In Term 3, Week 2 on Thursday 21st July, Year 6 will be organising a school disco. It has been a long time since our last disco so it would be great to see you all there.

Entry will be $2, and the theme is Pyjama Party.

There will be pizza for dinner on the night, orders need to be in on QuickCliq by 8:45am Wednesday 20th July. You can also purchase your additional treats through QuickCliq; chips, lollies, chocolates, and drinks. There will be limited numbers of treats available for sale on the night.

There will be plenty of fun and dancing, and prizes to be won so make sure you come along dressed in your costume and dancing shoes.

Cookie Dough Fundraiser

Reminder that orders for our Year Six cookie dough camp fundraiser close this Friday 24th June. Cookie Tubs will be distributed Week 1, Term 3. Go to the following link to place your orders.

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