St Joseph's Primary School South Grafton eNewsletter

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

Great news!!!!!!

It is my pleasure to announce that Covid restrictions have lifted considerably as of this week!!

This information means that we can significantly change how we operate the school.

Parents and carers are now free to:-

Enter the school grounds as long as they stay 1.5 m apart and sign in and out via the office.
Attend sporting events.
Attend assemblies and Masses as long as they are no longer than an hour in length.
Encourage children to sing at any event.
Have events of more than 50 people as long as there is a Covid-safe plan in place.

Parent pick up procedure will continue unchanged as the logistics of signing in every parent and keeping everyone 1.5m apart is very difficult at that time of the day.

With every good wish, Lee Denton Principal Masters of Education (Leadership)

Assistant Principal - Anne Forwell

Growth Mindset

Previously you would have heard myself or a teacher in our school speak about a growth mindset. In general, a growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and ‘smartness’ can be learned and that the brain grows from experience and effort. The opposite, a fixed mindset, is the idea that you are smart, or you are not. We also speak about this with the students at school and our approach to teaching and learning aligns with strategies that promote a growth mindset. For example, we praise effort rather than intelligence or results as this can impact a child’s ability to persevere in challenges. EFFORT is also one of our 4 school rules that we promote daily. Our goal is to have children thrive on challenges and see failures, not as a sign of low intelligence, but as a learning opportunity. Brain research tells us that making mistakes actually wires more connections into the brain! When a person has a growth mindset, they accept challenges, see their efforts as worthwhile, and are open to learning from mistakes. Students with a growth mindset achieve at higher levels than those with fixed mindsets.

How can you help? Some simple ways:

Adding “yet” when your child claims they are “not good at this." Respond: “You are not good at this yet.”
Ask questions that focus on effort. What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?
Model this yourself as you share about your day.

EFFORT

Leader of Evangelisation- Donna Bancroft

Stage 3 Class Mass

Last Wednesday, Stage 3 celebrated their first class Mass at school for 2021 with Fr Emmanuel. The students and their teachers are looking forward to when it is their turn. Stage 2 will be celebrating their first Mass for the new year in week 10, during Holy Week, Wednesday 31st March. Thank you Fr Joe for making these Masses available to us at school for our students.

Parents are now welcome to attend. Please come and support your child. Just sign in at the school office and keep 1.5m apart as per covid guidelines.

Project Compassion 2021

Every year, countless people turn Lent into a demonstration of faith, love and generosity. You can be a part of this incredible community, who believe that there are simple actions we can all take to “be more” for our world.

As we enter into the third week of Lent, join millions of Australians who want to end poverty and injustice in our world.

Make a donation to Project Compassion, give something up for Lent… there are many ways to put your compassion into action. Whatever you choose to do, you’ll be contributing towards a more just and compassionate world.

Each classroom at St Joseph's has a Project Compassion box on their prayer table. Please give generously to those who are less fortunate than ourselves this Lenton Season.

“Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” – Saint Oscar Romero

Leader of Catechesis-Joe Stewart

Incitare

Last Friday, Year 6 attended this Leadership and Faith Formation program. The children came back to school on Monday very excited about the day and full of hope for an even better future for our school.

I asked them to write a summary of their day:

"Incitare has many benefits like participating in activities with other year six students and connecting with other schools all across the diocese."

"It is a day where you pray and celebrate the fire in us."

"Incitare is an opportunity to have fun doing religious tasks at McAuley Catholic College."

"Celebrating our faith and our religious families."

"Incitare is a catholic retreat experience for year six, full of activities."

"There is power here in us burning in our souls. Incitare sparks a flame in our soul."

"Incitare inspires us all to give hope and to connect closer to God."

"Incitare celebrates faith and we also have an opportunity to make new friends."

"Incitare was amazing!"

"I love how it went because when it started all the schools that were there were all in their school groups. Then at the end, all the schools were all mixed together."

"We did lots of fun stuff so we really had a fun time."

Thank you Year 6 for all you do!

K-2 Instructional Leader - Larissa Deleiuen

Extending Mathematical Understanding - EMU

EMU is an evidence based, whole school approach for the teaching and learning of Mathematics. The program assists teachers to continually improve mathematical outcomes for students through the development of conceptual understanding of Mathematics.

The whole school approach emphasises quality classroom teaching and learning of Mathematics. The Mathematics Assessment Interview (MAI), undertaken by every student in our school at the beginning of each year, provides valuable information for classroom teachers that allows them to plan learning experiences to the needs of their learners. This assessment also gives teachers information about students that may benefit from a more targeted support with their Mathematics learning. These students are carefully selected to work in a small group with one of our qualified EMU Specialist Teachers. This highly effective intervention accelerates growth in conceptual understanding for the most mathematically vulnerable students and enables them to better access the classroom curriculum.

Sport Coordinator-Emma Davis

Dioeasan Lismore Winter Sports Trials

Congratulations to Nicholas Beard and Archie Steel who have been selected to represent the Clarence Zone at the Diocesan Lismore Winter Sports Trials in Grafton on Friday, 12 March. Archie will be trialling for Rugby League and Nicholas will be trialling for soccer. We wish both boys good luck at the trials.

Miniroos School Gala Day

Students from Stage 2 and 3 attended the Miniroos School Gala Day on Tuesday 16 March. This gala event is run by Northern NSW Football to encourage student participation in soccer. Congratulations to all students who attended. All students represented the school with pride and displayed excellent sportsmanship. Students also enjoyed the wet weather conditions as you can see from Stage 3's before and after photos.

Library/Book Club Coordinator - Anna Smidt

Premier's Reading Challenge

As you know, the Premier's Reading Challenge is now up and running. Most students now have their own passwords so that they can log on to the PRC website to search books, create book lists and mark off books that they have read.

The challenge is for students in K-2 to read 30 books on the PRC list by the August 29, 2021. The rules of the challenge say that this may include someone else reading the book to them so teachers will be recording books read in class to add to students' reading logs.

Years 3-6 students are challenged to read 20 books before the challenge deadline however unlike K-2, students must read these books themselves. There is a wide variety of books on the PRC lists which cater for a range of reading abilities.

The library is open each lunch time and a computer will be available exclusively for PRC use. Students will be able to log in to update their lists or search for books to read.

Parents and carers may go to the Premier's Reading Challenge website for more information.

Book Club

The Book Club Issue 2 catalogue was recently sent home. If you would like to place an order please make sure it’s in by Thursday 18 March.

Gumbaynggirr Language-Liz Hegedus

Giinagay Ngujawiny -Hello You Mob,

Indigenous HSIE lessons in stage 1, are about 'Indigenous Women' and the roles they perform.

Indigenous women are wonderful story tellers. They share their stories three different ways, orally, dancing and through drawings. The grandmothers, mothers and aunties share lots of stories, songs and dances to the younger generation. The stories, songs and dances were told and performed to help protect them from dangers – both inside and outside the boundaries of the camp – and to enforce the taboos and traditions of the clan. The women also taught the younger girls about "Secret Women's Business" preparing them for their roles as wives and mothers to the next generation. Many secret women’s stories were passed on at this time – stories that men could not be told.

Stage 1 have learnt a dance called 'Buribanma'. The dance 'Buribanma' is a woman's gathering and hunting dance. Women did at least 80% of the hunting and gathering. The dance shows how the women wake up in the morning and go out to hunt and gather small animals, fruit, berries, nuts and seeds. Then at night time when they go to sleep good spirits come out and dance over you to protect you for a good rest and good dreams.

This is the link to watch the 'Buribanma' dance.

https://youtu.be/Hu9c84ZvtaA

Darrundang -Thankyou

Miss Liz Hegedus

Weekly Merit Awards

Congratulations to the following students who received Merit Awards this week. Stage 1 Jimi Smith-for using the sound chart to assist his writing about 'The magic hat'. Heather Lloyd-for her focus and attention to set tasks. Alexander Hylton-Cummins-for creating an excellent imaginative story based on "The magic hat'. Kamren Singh-for locking eyes in and creating a fabulous imaginative story based on 'The Magic Hat'.

Stage 2 Bradley Esterhuizen-for his creative ideas during modelled writing. Rachael Savins-for her attentiveness and positive attitude towards learning. Aleah Jeffery-for her positive attitude during the English block. Kruze Colby-for his positive attitude towards learning. Stage 3 Kyra Barrett-for her consistent approach to learning and for using strategies to prove her multiplication solution. Rachel Surawski-for beginning to take risks when working mathematically to extend her learning. brendan Rielly-for tuning into our English lessons and sharing his thoughtful responses about our learning intention.