Term 1 Week 8

Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

The P&F Meeting last night was full of energy as we discussed many plans for the year.

Firstly, the new constitution was tabled! The P&F President asks you to read it and give your opinion, ready to accept its endorsement at the next P&F meeting which will be in week 3 of Term 2.  Please find a link for the constitution below.                                                          

I would also ask that you come with suggestions for our refurbishment. I am seeing the architect in the near future and would love your input.

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

Assistant Principal - Anne Forwell

Clarity - continuously improving teaching and learning 

Through the support of the Catholic Schools Office we are about to embark on an exciting Journey with Dr. Lyn Sharratt. Lyn is a highly accomplished practitioner, researcher, author, and presenter based in Ontario. She has a track-record of substantially increasing school performance. Staff members have participated in a zoom with Lyn and she will be working alongside us as we focus our efforts on increasing each student’s growth and achievement. In the coming weeks we will be working on the creation of school wide data walls which will ensure a focus on the learning needs of every student.

REMINDER: Staff Development Days - Pupil free

There will be a pupil free day in Week 9 of this term on Monday 22 March. 

There will also be a pupil free on day at the start of Term 2 on Monday 19 April. The first day of school for all students will be Tuesday 20 April. Again we appreciate your support for allowing our staff to upskill so that we can provide the best possible education for your children.  Thank you to our wonderful families.

Leader of Evangelisation- Donna Bancroft

St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church 

Joseph had the courage to become the legal father of Jesus, to whom he gave the name revealed by the angel: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). As we know, for ancient peoples, to give a name to a person or to a thing, as Adam did in the account in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:19-20), was to establish a relationship.

In the Temple, forty days after Jesus’ birth, Joseph and Mary offered their child to the Lord and listened with amazement to Simeon’s prophecy concerning Jesus and his Mother (cf. Lk 2:22-35). To protect Jesus from Herod, Joseph dwelt as a foreigner in Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-18). After returning to his own country, he led a hidden life in the tiny and obscure village of Nazareth in Galilee, far from Bethlehem, his ancestral town, and from Jerusalem and the Temple. Of Nazareth it was said, “No prophet is to rise” (cf. Jn 7:52) and indeed, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (cf. Jn 1:46). When, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Joseph and Mary lost track of the twelve-year-old Jesus, they anxiously sought him out and they found him in the Temple, in discussion with the doctors of the Law (cf. Lk 2:41-50).

After Mary, the Mother of God, no saint is mentioned more frequently in the papal magisterium than Joseph, her spouse. My Predecessors reflected on the message contained in the limited information handed down by the Gospels in order to appreciate more fully his central role in the history of salvation. Blessed Pius IX declared him “Patron of the Catholic Church”,[2] Venerable Pius XII proposed him as “Patron of Workers”[3] and Saint John Paul II as “Guardian of the Redeemer”.[4] Saint Joseph is universally invoked as the “patron of a happy death”.[5]

(Excerpt from the Apostolic Letter ‘Patris corde’, Pope Francis, 2020, para.

K-2 Instructional Leader - Larissa Deleiuen

Succeeding Together As Readers (STAR)

STAR is a small group reading intervention for students in Year 1 to support them to further develop their literacy skills and encourage a love of reading. Our STAR lessons are delivered to a small group of students and are facilitated by a trained STAR teacher. This year the program is being run by Diana Westgate one of our wonderful Educational Assistants, with my support. The learning activities in STAR are literacy activities that would be familiar to Stage 1 teachers and students. Diana and the Stage 1 teachers are in constant contact with each other to share progress and ideas in regards to reading. We have 2 intakes for this program per year.

Leader of Curriculum - Hannah Gorman

NAPLAN Year 3 and Year 5 2021

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy- important skills that each child needs to succeed in school and life. The NAPLAN tests are designed to help make sure students are on track with their literacy and numeracy development. Students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in NAPLAN tests for Reading, Writing, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. 

Between Tuesday 12th and Friday 21st of May, our school will participate in NAPLAN Online. The schedule for NAPLAN for Years 3 and 5 2021 is below;

For more information:

Sport Coordinator-Emma Davis

School Cross Country Carnival 

The School Cross Country Carnival that was to be held at McAuley on Wednesday March 17, 2021 has been postponed to Friday 26 March. The Carnival will now be held on our school grounds. Due to recent wet weather the McAuley Cross Country course is inaccessible. The purpose of this event is to select students to attend the Clarence Zone Cross Country Carnival on Wednesday 28 April. Those who finish in the top 5 in each age group from 8/9 years to 12/13 years will qualify to represent our school at this event. 

Students are to wear their school sports uniform on the day. 

Age groups will compete during the following time slots:

9:30 - 10:30                                                                                                                                                                                  8/9 Years Girls and Boys                                                                                                                                                            10 Years Girls and Boys

10:50 - 11:40 Lunch

12:00 - 1:00                                                                                                                                                                                    11 Years Girls and Boys                                                                                                                                                            12/13 Years Girls and Boys 

1:40 - 2:10 Recess

2:15 - 3:00                                                                                                                                                                                        5, 6, 7 Years Girls and Boys

The current Covid 19 regulations state that parents are only to be on school ground for a maximum of one hour. We ask that if you are attending the carnival you stay for the time slot that your children are competing in. We ask that parents leave the grounds during the students lunch and recess breaks. Please enter the school through the front gate and follow the current procedures:

• Registration via a QR code at the school entrance (this will suffice as signing in at the school office)
• Hand sanitising on arrival and departure
• 1.5m social distancing at all times on while on school grounds
• Time is restricted for visiting the school site to 1 hour only.
• Standing in the allocated spectators area

We also require parent volunteers to assist around the Cross Country course during the event. If you are able to volunteer on the day during your child's timeslot please make contact with myself via email, emma.davis@lism.catholic.edu.au

Library/Book Club Coordinator - Anna Smidt

Premier's Reading Challenge

Since the beginning of the challenge on 1 March many students have been adding books to their reading log. Stage 3 in particular have been very clever in navigating their way around the website adding books to their reading list and reading log. Fortunately Mrs Hughes is a bit of a bookworm and has been able to recommend some excellent books to her students. Keep up the great reading Stage 3 and Mrs Hughes.

Parents, this challenge is a great way to help your child discover a love of reading as a leisure time activity. It also helps them to develop essential learning habits such as: being organised, meeting deadlines, being accountable, taking responsibility for their reading and valuing regular reading. So get behind the challenge and encourage your child to get lost in a good book.

Book Club

Issue 2 orders are due back at school by this Thursday 18 March.

Gumbaynggirr Language-Liz Hegedus

Giinagay Ngujawiny (Hello You Mob),

Kindergarten are learning about the 'Importantance of Family and Place' in Indigenous HSIE lessons. 'Place' is such an important thing to Indigenous people. We have such a spiritual connection to the land, as all of our laws and spirituality are intertwined within the heart of the land.  These connections help to form our Aboriginal culture. This leads into the health of the land and water, which is of absolute importance to Aboriginal culture. 

Kindergarten viewed a video called 'Who We Are' Country Place.

This video shares the views of 5 different Indigenous people talking and sharing about their homes and country. They shared information about themselves including where in Australia they were  born and how they grew up in that area. They also spoke about their hopes for the future inregards to their culture, families and home towns.

This is the link to the video: www://www.youtube.com/watch?.V=scPvu7BASeA 

Kindergarten then had to think about their special, favourite, important place.

They had to decide 'Why was it important to them?'   'How did that place make them feel?'                'Who goes with you to that special place?'  'What activities can you do there?' 'Do you feel special, safe and comfortable?' 

After a lot of thinking Kindergarten drew themselves, families and friends performing different activities at their favourite place. It was lovely to see Kindergarten children drawing a variety of areas where they felt happy, safe and comfortable with their beautiful families and friends.

Darrundang -Thankyou                                                                                                                                                  Miss Liz Hegedus

Art

Some of the fabulous art created by our students.

Kindergarten created Dick Bruna inspired family portraits.                                                                                Foil fish by Stage 1.                                                                                                                                                                    Bumble bees and Sandra Silberzweig inspired portraits by Stage 2. 

Weekly Merit Awards

Congratulations to the following students who received                            Merit Awards this week.                                                                                               

Kindergarten                                                                                                                       Skyla  Coelli for finding patterns in numbers when counting.                      Mason Montford for  using his knowledge of ten frames to count on. 

Stage 1                                                                                                                                                                                               Elsie-Maree Harris for always contributing to class discussions.                                                                          Billy Campbell for actively choosing to use resources in the classroom to assist with the task.              Maddison Hayes for  her amazing ideas in writing and editing skills.                                                                Mitchell McCann for always being a helpful and kind friend to others.

Stage 2                                                                                                                                                                                               Myla Richards for great problem solving during our unit on fractions.                                                               Baxter Buchanan for his imaginative story writing of 'The Perfect Present'.                                                   Pippa Fennessy for her very artistic representation of a bee.                                                                                   Phillippa Guest for her very artistic representation of a bee.                                                                                   Sheen Thrupp for his outstanding effort during our unit on fractions.                                                        

Stage 3                                                                                                                                                                                           Emily Hyde for her enthusiasm and complete participation in the year 6 Incitare retreat.                      Rachel Surawski for developing a community and world perspective by researching for our Stage 3 class meeting.                                                                                                                                                                                Annabella Fordham for a great example of showing her understanding when multiplying large numbers by single digits.                                                                                                                                                          Isabelle Pye  for her sense of urgency when working towards her mathematical learning good.            Noah Brockwell for his compassion and selflessness when helping his brother at school.                        Jason Burling for his demonstration of leadership when volunteering to read the prayers of intercession at our Stage 3 Mass.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

School Events & Dates

TERM 1

WEEK 9

• Monday 22 March - Staff Development Day (Pupil Free)

WEEK 10

• Thursday 1 April - Last day of Term 1
• Friday 2 April - Good Friday

TERM 2

WEEK 1

• Monday 19 April - Staff Development Day (Pupil Free)
• Tuesday 20 April - Students return Term 2
• Sunday 25 April - ANZAC Day

WEEK 2

• Monday 26 April-Friday 30 April - Catholic Schools Week

WEEK 3

• Wednesday 5 May - Staff Development Day (Pupil Free)
• Sunday 9 May - Mother's Day

Drama and Voice Tuition

If your child would like tuition in drama or vioce                                              please contact Maree Hickson on 0421 656 019

Notes Sent Home

Please find below links to the following School Notes:

                             PARENTS & FRIENDS COMMITTEE                                                                                                           of                                                                                                                    ST JOSEPH'S PRIMARY SCHOOL                                                                                             SOUTH GRAFTON                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The P&F are having an Easter Raffle and would love if each family could please donate a suitable Easter item for our upcoming Easter Raffle. Suggestions being: Easter Eggs, Chocolates, Colouring in                                                                          books, gifts, novelty items, story books 

Donations will be accepted up until Monday 29  March 2021 

Raffle tickets will be issued shortly, Thank you!

Canteen Roster