Term 3 Week 9

What's on at St Joey's in September

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

We start our week reflecting on the news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the declaration of King Charles III. No matter our political persuasion it is easy to admire the values that the Queen has stood for in service of her country for 70 years. She was steadfast, loyal, stoic, resilient and committed to her role, to her people and to her family.

Vale Queen Elizabeth II.

We also received the news that Australia will participate in a Day of National Mourning with a Public Holiday on Thursday 22^nd September. Please note this in your diaries. Due to this we will need to change our first Kinder 2023 Play and Learn session. This will now be held on Wednesday 21^st September, 9:30-10:30am. 

As we come to the end of the term, I take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our wonderful staff for all their hard work and for all the extra events they have organised for our students. The last two weeks are filled with more special activities with the Lakes Region Soccer Gala Day, Diocesan finals with SJC representatives at Public Speaking and the Spelling and Maths Bee. Congratulations and good luck to our finalists, DIO SPELLING BEE – Zivah Grosvenor & Will Foxon, DIO MATHS BEE – Jack Bennis, DIO PUBLIC SPEAKING – Lily Merrell. We have had notification that due to the public holiday the DIOCESAN Bees will be rescheduled to a new date THURSDAY 3rd November at Southern Cross Hall, Hamilton.

I also take this opportunity to thank all our amazing parent and grandparent volunteers who have assisted with the many events, sports days, excursions and fundraisers this term. Thank you too, to our canteen, uniform shop and P & F volunteers. Please know that your assistance with all these activities is vital and greatly appreciated.

We have a P&F meeting tonight at 6:30pm in the staffroom. All are welcome to attend and to become involved in this active and positive parent group. We know that positive home - school partnerships help to create happy and supportive school communities where all can thrive.

Please also take the time to respond to the Tell Them from Me Survey by clicking here. We welcome positive feedback as well as constructive comments for improvement. The survey closes on Friday 7th October.

Congratulations to our amazing athletes who competed at the POLDING Athletics last Friday. We are extremely proud of Liam Barr, Hamish Kirkman, Harrison Searle, Sophie Abbott, Olive Wade and Lochlan O'Brien. Our Diocese of Maitland Newcastle hosted the event with athletes attending from Armidale, Bathurst, Broken Bay, Lismore and Wilcannia Forbes Dioceses. It is an outstanding achievement to make it to this level in any event. Well done! Huge congratulations to Hamish who placed first in the 1500m and 2^nd in the 8oom, advancing him to the NSW State Primary School Championships to be held on 19^th October at Homebush. We are very proud of you Hamish! Thank you to Mrs Davis and intern, Ms Issy Peacock who assisted on the day.

Congratulations to Ms. Brydie Houlahan who recently got engaged to her partner James.

We also congratulate Mr Mark Faith and his fiancé Ruby who will get married on Saturday 25^th September and our band teacher Mr Bryn Wilson Kellaway who also celebrates his wedding this weekend.

We wish all these couples much love and joy in their futures together.

We wish Mrs Emma McGlynn all the very best as she pursues a new career path as a paramedic. Emma is taking leave to participate in an 8-week training program, then take up a university degree in paramedicine next year. At this stage Emma will be replaced by Mrs Lisa Law and then next term by Ms Issy Peacock.

We have also had the news of Mrs Lisa Ridgewell’s resignation. Lisa has been on leave the past 18 months to pursue a career path in counselling and social work, which she studied while teaching. Lisa has been teaching since 1992 and has been a valued and dedicated staff member at St Joseph’s for 24 years. Lisa is an exceptionally caring and talented teacher who has formed positive relationships with her students, families and our staff.  We are very sad to see Lisa leave us but know that she is following a personal area of passion and continuing commitment to nurture and support children in a different capacity. We will organise a farewell for Lisa at the end of the year where you can join in thanking her and wishing her best wishes.

We will honour and celebrate the retirement of our wonderful Mrs Carolyn Trimble next Wednesday at 2:30pm. Carolyn has worked at St Joseph’s for over 25 years and has been a dedicated, hardworking, supportive and loyal staff member. Her commitment, positive attitude and wealth of knowledge will be greatly missed. So too will her kindness, sense of fun and cheeky sense of humour, making her a joy to work with. Please join us under the COLA as we thank Carolyn for her service to SJC and as we wish her good health, relaxation, and much enjoyment into her retirement years.

UNIFORM

The students should still be wearing their winter uniform, however if the weather warms up over the next 2 weeks, they may begin to transition into summer uniform. All students are to return to school after the holidays in summer uniform with correct black polishable shoes on non-sports days. Boys or girls’ hair longer than the collar needs to be tied up neatly as per our school uniform policy. I spoke to the students last week reminding them of taking pride in their appearance and respecting our school uniform. When wearing it they are representing our school and showing the values that we uphold, such as care for ourselves and pride in belonging to our St Joey’s community.

FEES

Thank you to those families who have paid their fees in full or are making regular payments to finalise them by the end of the year. Reminder letters have been sent out for outstanding fees. Please contact the office to organise payments or if you are having financial difficulty, please call me to discuss an acceptable payment plan.

BUILDING PROGRESS

This week Year 1 will be moved back into their classroom which has been reroofed and fully refurbished internally. Kinder will be moved on Wednesday into the end classroom, already refurbished while their classroom is fully renovated with new bathrooms, total internal fit out and outdoor early leaning play area created. The teachers and students are very excited about these renovations, and it has been delightful to hear the gratitude from the students for their new classrooms and furnishings. These have been made possible from the commitment of parents in paying their fees and contributing to the Diocesan Building Levy over the past many years.

The Catholic Schools Office has committed to re-roofing all the classroom units by the end of the year. Then the current year 3/4 unit will have an internal fit out and refurbishment before the start of 2023.

Our playground building is well underway now with near completion of the retaining wall which will be followed by the shade sail and new softfall. A new playground structure and slide are on order and planned to be installed late Term 4. This has all been made possible due to $25 000 support from the P&F, $30 000 school funds and $80 000 from the NSW Government Community Partnerships Grant. Our school is being transformed and we are grateful!

NAPLAN RESULTS

We are very pleased with our NAPLAN results with the following to be proud of:

In Year 5 - our school average is above the national average in reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, and numeracy. Our results in spelling have shown growth but are just below the national average. Spelling is a targeted area of improvement in our Strategic Plan, hence the work with have been doing with Dr Tessa Daffern.

In Year 3 - our school average is well above the national average in reading and above in writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy.

Our school strategic plan of the past few years has had an intense focus on writing, and we are now seeing the growth we want in this area. We continue to build skills in this area with a shift into the area of spelling with the work we have done with Dr Tessa Daffern and developing a whole school spelling block. We have also shifted into our professional learning goals in mathematics and are developing a schoolwide numeracy block with agreed teaching and learning practices and a focus on explicit teaching of skills so that our students become confident mathematicians.

Friday 23rd September will be the last day of term. Wishing all our students, families and staff a wonderful Spring break.

School returns on Monday 10^th October.

God Bless,

Kate Drake

News from the Assistant Principal

Our NAPLAN results have come back and from parent feedback we have received, the results are being well received. Parents have acknowledged our fantastic achievements in the 2022 NAPLAN results, and that as a learning community we should be very proud of these results taking into consideration COVID interruptions. By Learning Community, I mean and include teachers, students and parents as a team. Together we have worked hard and not made excuses for our learning to stop, and the results are in! So, congratulations everyone on being active participants in a vibrant and enthusiastic community where learning is truly valued and visible.

This week you will have also received a compass notification and a link  to a survey called “Tell Them From Me”. The data from this survey assists us as we plan for the following year. Your thoughtful and insightful comments are truly valued and listened to. I encourage you to please take the time to complete this survey as it is another way to engage with your child’s education and again be part of this amazing learning community. 

Congratulations to our students for proudly representing St Joseph’s at the Regional Public Speaking Competition which was held at St Joseph’s Primary School at Kilaben Bay last Wednesday. Well done Owen, Adie, Summer, Alice, Lily M and Urban.

Extra special Congratulations to Lily who placed 1st for Stage 3. We wish her the very best for the upcoming diocesan finals in November.

Congratulations to Jack, Orlando, Nash, Ayrton, Venice and Ellie who represented our school in the Lakes Regional Maths Bee and Will, Sonny, Isabella B, Luca, Zivah and Isabel W who represented our school in the Lakes Regional Spelling Bee at Kilaben Bay. A special congratulations to Jack (Stage 3) who won the Maths competition and Will (Stage 3) and Zivah (Stage 1) who won the Spelling competition. These three will now represent our school in the Diocesan competition at the end of the term.

It is truly wonderful to see the students at St Joey's shine amongst a broader audience.

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

Regional Public Speaking Finalists

Pick up and Drop off Procedures

Last week our Safety and Wellness Team visited our school to review our procedures.  After reviewing our traffic management plan and following on from discussions and observations we have been provided with a number of recommendations. We will also be working with the police and LMLC to finalise this plan.

The most notable change to our current procedures is that parents/caregivers must remain in their vehicle.  For safety reasons we have been advised staff and students can enter the vehicle from the footpath side only. Students are to take their bags into the car with them i.e no parent, staff member or student is to walk to the back of the car and place bags in the boot or enter the car road-side. Teachers can assist a student into the vehicle from the footpath side only and students must be able to put their seatbelt on themselves. 

If your situation does not lend itself to the above requirements we ask that you park and collect your child from the walkers line on the corner of Camrose and Shelton Street.

Thank you for your cooperation to ensure the safety of all members of our school community.

From the Office of Safeguarding

In recognition of National Child Protection Week 2022, Diocesan Catholic schools decorated a space in their school in line with the theme, ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’. Each student at St Joseph's cut out photo face and glued it on a cartoon body which was drawn by our very talented Ivy M. Students completed their speech bubble which said, 'I feel safe when..' for the younger years and 'I thrive when..' for the older years. Thank you to our extremely talented artists, Ivy Mi and Sybella W for collaboratively drawing and creating our final masterpiece!. A big thank you to Miss Houlahan for her promotion and organisation of this worthwhile event.

Decorate the Gate

News from the Religious Coordinator

Back to Mass

This term SJC students have been returning to parish Masses. In week 7 it was stage 1’s turn and in week 8 kindergarten and stage 3. The student’s responded and participated well and enjoyed being part of our Catholic tradition again and for some for the very first time.

Catholic Care Fundraiser

In week 7 we held an out of uniform fundraiser to support Catholic Care. This organisation supports the vulnerable in our community through initiatives such as soup kitchens which are reported to never have been as busy as they have in recent times. St. Joseph’s raised $795. Thank you for your support.

St Joey’s Cares- New Members

1. Joey’s Cares program has recommenced. It aims to help those in need in our community by making a family meal. If you would like to join and help from time to time, please email clare.paff@mn.catholic.edu.au

Prayer for Creation

During this Season of creation, we pray for the health and wellbeing of all living things.

Religious Literacy

Next Tuesday year 6 will complete a Diocesan wide assessment to determine their knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith.  The data produced from the RE literacy assessment is designed to give RE teacher’s meaningful feedback about the students’ learning and to assist in developing the classroom teaching of Religion.

God Bless  Clare Paff.

News from the Primary Coordinator

Kindergarten  2023

Next week we welcome our new Kinder 2023 students for our first Play and Learn session.  We are really looking forward to getting to know them as the year progresses. It is not too late for enrolment for 2023. If you know of any interested families, please encourage them to ring the office for further information.  



PBL

For the next 2 weeks of Term 3 we are focusing on the Care for our Surroundings value of our SJC matrix.

We are truly blessed at SJC to have such a wonderful natural space for learning and play. Our grounds person, Craig Davies, does an amazing job at maintaining such a large site and we are very thankful for his efforts in continuing to help us create such a wonderful environment.

In class we will be talking about this focus value, and teachers will be reinforcing this with positive feedback and regular prompts for our students to assist them to demonstrate this behavior in all settings.

Have a wonderful fortnight and a great holiday break!

Karen Nolan

Sports News- Netball Gala Day

A fun day was had by the SJC students who represented our school at the recent Netball Gala Day! Thanks to our fantastic parent helpers and to everyone for their sportsmanship and cooperation on the day.  

More images on our school Facebook page. 

.

News from the Classroom

Term 3 has been a great term of learning and fun in Kinder. We really enjoyed our excursion to the Australian Reptile Park to see some amazing animals. In English, we continued to learn new sounds and digraphs to use when we are reading and writing. We embraced our role as geographers to explore our school space, and showed creativity and persistence as we made our marble runs. And of course, our Book Week dress up day was so much fun. Thanks for working so hard during the term Kinder, and for striving high, living like Jesus and caring for our environment every day. We are very proud of you! 

Kinder Excursion to the Reptile Park

Gifted Education News

On Wednesday the 7^th of September St Patrick’s Swansea, St Joseph’s Charlestown and St Francis Xavier Belmont participated in Stage based online sharing sessions to showcase the winning marble run at each school. It was an opportunity for the winning team from each Stage at each school to share their winning design and discuss how they designed their marble run and why, the materials they chose to use, the challenges they had, how they worked as a team and what they learnt form the challenge. The rest of the Stage got to watch the 3 presentations. Thank you to all teachers from across these three wonderful schools for their support in making these sharing sessions happen. It was a great way to connect our three East Lakes schools.

This week Danny Griffin and Will Foxon who attend the Virtual Academy, participated in an online digital tools workshop. Danny chose to complete the workshop on photo manipulation using Photoshop. Photoshop is a program that allows users to combine, retouch and remix pictures. Danny explored the tools within Photoshop that allowed him to add colour to photos, make unwanted stuff disappear or completely change the background. He spent the day learning how to use the tools in this program and applying his new skills to his own photo design. Have a look at Danny’s design of a movie poster.

Will chose to complete the workshop on Tinkercad. Tinkercad is a web app that equips the next generation of designers and engineers with the foundational skills for innovation: 3D design, electronics, and coding! Will spent the day learning how to use the tools in this app and applying his new skills to construct a 3D image of the Taj Mahal. Have a look at Will’s design.

News from the Garden

Harvest time in the school garden is always a special day. Well done to our green thumbs and Mrs McAlister for their enthusiasm and efforts in this space.  

Happy Birthday to the following students

We wish the following students are very happy birthday for the month of September.

P&F News

Thank you for requesting to volunteer at St Joseph’s Charlestown.

However, before we can accept these generous offers, volunteers new to the role of volunteering or who have perhaps not been an active volunteer for a while due to COVID, will need to go to the diocesan website and complete the Volunteer registration form. There is a  link here to register your interest in becoming a volunteer at St Joseph’s. This is a Diocesan mandate, and all volunteers are required to complete this registration form online (unless you are already registered and cleared to volunteer by the Diocese). It has a Police check section that is mandatory. Once this registration form is completed and a police check is completed, then we will be notified by the Diocese that you are clear to volunteer here at school. This whole process can take a few weeks.

We ask that you follow the link to the website and complete the registration form ASAP so you can all come on site and be part of this amazing school community in many varied ways! 

REMINDER - P&F MTG is tonight 12th Sept @6:30- EVERYONE WELCOME!

Canteen News

If you are able to assist in the school canteen please email Natalie Evans nattthebatevans@gmail.com or 0400413448

Aboriginal Education News

To local Awabakal country.

Our day was led by Kentan Proctor from the Buttabah Aboriginal Land Council at Blacksmiths. Kentan shared so much knowledge with us about traditional Aboriginal practices of using and making tools and weapons and we explored the amazing bushtucker garden within the grounds of Buttabah Land Council.

Kentan then took us for a tour around local sacred and significant Aboriginal sites. Staff learnt so much about traditional cultural practices that took place on Awabakal Country as well as the profound impact the arrival of Europeans had on the Awabakal nation.

We are privileged to have experienced this day with Kentan and thankful we now have a plethora of knowledge about our local Awabakal Country, peoples, and histories which we can pass on to our students at St Joseph’s.

Danielle Shaw

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teacher

Uniform Shop

All enquiries to email:

chl.uniformshop@mn.catholic.edu.au

ORDER via the QKR App

Healthy Eating Snippets

OOSH

The before and after school care at St Joseph’s is provided by St Nicholas OOSH, Diocese of Maitland Newcastle.  Open form 7am-8:30am and 3:00pm-6:00pm. 

Please contact Taylor for further information.  

TAYLOR CEFAI  
NOMINATED SUPERVISOR | ST NICHOLAS OOSH    
P 0429 435 571     M  0429 435 571   
Email taylor.cefai@stnicholasoosh.org.au Visit us online www.stnicholasoosh.org.au  

Hockey Fun Day