24 August 2022

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE ACTING PRINCIPAL – MRS DEANNE SENINI

Science Week

Last Thursday we held our Science Week expo and ‘Dress like a scientist’ day. It was wonderful to see and hear the buzz of excitement in the air as the students presented their experiments to the other students in the school. Thanks to all the staff who assisted the students to prepare for the day. I hope you all enjoy some photos below of the event and some of the costumes.

Book Week

This year, Book Week will be celebrated a week later than normal due to a clash with Year 6 camp. Joey’s in Jamas will be held on Wednesday, 31st August in the library. Our annual dress up day will be held on Thursday, 1st September. Both these events are generally very well supported by our community so I look forward to seeing everyone at Joey’s in Jamas and seeing the wonderful creative costumes at the dress up parade. The theme for Book Week 2022 is ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open’.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Our semester two parent teacher interviews will take place in Week 9 of this term. Bookings will be open to parents through parent lounge from 8am on 22nd August through till 5pm on 28th August. Please consider booking an appointment with your child’s teachers as it is a great way to continue to build a working relationship and seeing the progress your child is making in their learning. I would also encourage the child to attend the interview so that they are part of the discussions about their learning.

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.

All reading record forms need to be returned to the office by 26th August to be eligible for a certificate.

Attachment/

Don’t Forget….

• Rescheduled Year 6 Camp @ Chaverim: 22nd – 24th Aug
• Season B Sport Concludes: Friday 26th Aug
• 2023 Prep Offers Emailed Out: Fri 26th Aug
• P&F Trivia Night: Sat 27th Aug
• Mr Fitzgerald’s Principal Performance Appraisal: Tues 30th Aug
• SJPA Book Week: 29th Aug – 2nd September
• Book Fair: 29th Aug – 1st Sept
• Joey’s in Jamas: Wed 31st Aug
• Book Week Dress-up Day: Thurs 1st Sept
• Pupil Free Day: Fri 2nd Sept
• Semester 2 Parent/Teacher Interviews: Week 9, 5th – 9th Sept
• National Child Protection Week (NAPCAN): 4th – 9th Sept
• R U OK? Day: Thurs 8th Sept
• Colour Run Day: Fri 16th Sept
• Last Day of Term 3: Fri 16th Sept

Regards,
Deanne Senini
Assistant Principal Curriculum/Acting Principal

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
21st Sunday Ordinary Time

It is difficult to enter the Kingdom of God
Luke 13:22-30

Living the Gospel – Consequences

To be Christian is more than a name; more than a title. If we put our hand up and claim the title of Christian, then there are consequences that flow from that. Those who are disillusioned by religion frequently name hypocrisy as the major reason for their disillusionment. Sometimes, that’s an easy out. We can’t all live like Jesus all the time. However, we are called to take Jesus as our model of the Christian life and to use his example as a guiding beacon. To call ourselves Christian is to try to be Christ-like in all our actions.

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

CHILDREN’S MASS

It was so lovely to be able to celebrate Mass with so many of our families last Saturday night. The monthly children’s masses offer such life to our parish, and I know the parishioners delight in seeing our young people. I would like to especially thank the children who took on a ministry at this mass. We had children who read amazingly well as well as children who were part of the choir and brought forward the gifts during the offertory. Thank you so much to the parents who brought these children to be part of this occasion and for the delicious food you brought along to share with one another and the wider parish community.

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

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 3

This term in Year 3 we have been developing our skills in digital and design technology. Mrs Walton comes to visit us on a Friday, we have been learning a lot from her.

Jack – We have been doing coding on our dashes. A Dash is a robot that you can connect to a computer.

Lachlan – We make sounds on Blocky that come through our dash. To make the sounds happen we have to use our coding skills.

Sebastian – I really enjoy making designs of our own types of hats and bags. We get to be creative and choose how we design things.

Imani – We also use Tynker for coding. On Tynker we can make our own games by using coding.

We have also been gathering materials to make Solar Ovens and we are very excited to get that project started.

QAMT MATHS QUIZ

During week 6 of this term students from Year’s 5 and 6 participated in a Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers (QAMT) Quiz. These student’s have been preparing all term giving up two lunch play a week to practice the content and skills required. Teams of 3 consisting of a combination of Year 5 and 6 students competed in a series of Mathematics questions. The questions asked depend largely on student being quick thinking, having a general knowledge of mathematics, an ability to concentrate and work individually or as a team, plus skills in calculation, estimation and interpretation.

The quiz consisted of 5 sessions; Estimation, Speed, Written Problems, Short Answers, History and General Knowledge.

Congratulations to all our participating students, especially on the winning team;

Slater Malone, Max Harris and Tom Compagnoni

And the runners up;

Brittney O’Leary, Maycie Zanette and Nate Barber.

Our winning team moves forward to round 2 at Heights College on Tuesday the 30th of August.

RU OK? DAY

Thursday 8 September
You’re Invited!!!

Community Breakfast Sausage Sizzle

In building awareness and growth as a mentally healthy community, we will be promoting RU OK? Day at Joey’s. We will join together from 8 am as you enter the school to enjoy a sausage sizzle (provided by the school) and the great company of those in our community.

Free Dress Day (we are raising awareness, not money)

Students are encouraged to show their support during the day by wearing a RU OK? Day, kindness or yellow shirt. Hats and enclosed shoes are expected.

Student and Staff Wellbeing
Brooke Black

SJPA SUSTAINABILITY

Last week, students repotted 20 of the school’s native trees we received from the Rockhampton Regional Council. These native trees were offered to schools to enhance food and shelter for wildlife. Students will now be caring for these plants until we can find a permanent spot to plant them here at school. Well done to these students, you all did a fantastic job!

Mr Tennyson

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students and staff who will celebrate their birthday this week. They are: Nate Bolck (Yr 3), Abigail Farr (Yr 3), Caitlin Thompson (Yr 5), Meilah Downie (Yr 2), Miss Black (IC), Mrs Jones (Yr 6), Mrs Walton (Yr 4) and Mrs Roati (Yr 1).

Have a great day.

UNIFORM SHOP

Our Uniform Shop is open Friday Mornings from 8:00 – 8:45am. The Joeys and Friends Facebook page will still have what is available for sale.

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