Term 1 Week 3

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

This is officially Week 3 and is our first full week with our wonderful students. We welcomed our Kinder students last Thursday and what a delightful group they are! I hope that your morning routines are becoming easier to ensure smooth transitions to school each morning.

Please see our previous first week memo for many start of the year reminders and our welcome to our new families. This week we also welcome the Bettridge family, with William joining 4 Red. It has been lovely to see our students welcoming new friends to our community and our Year 6 Buddies caring for their Kinder friends and helping them settle into our school.

This year our 2023 Strategic Improvement Plan will focus on 3 main areas. In the Learning Domain, staff will be continuing their development and embedding of the new K-2 NSW syllabus in Maths and English. We have all participated in professional learning to become familiar with the new requirements and will continue with the 3-6 Syllabus later this year. We will be working on agreed practices in the teaching of Mathematics across the school and working with staff from Holy Family Merewether later in the term. In the Domain of Catholic Identity and Catholic Curriculum we will be focussing on ensuring our Catholic identity is strong and that our students are familiar and confident in our practices such as prayer. We will also be reviewing our Co-teaching strategies to ensure we make the most of our collaborative classrooms and create engaging learning environments for our students.

Our work with the Leading Learning Collaborative (LLC) Diocesan wide initiative with Dr. Lyn Sharrett will be continuing with our focus on the Case Management approach to student learning, using data and quality assessment to inform teaching and shared beliefs to enhance teacher capacity and improve student outcomes. Please read your class fortnightly learning plans to keep informed as to what our students are learning and how you can support your children at home.

Home – School partnerships play an important part in our daily work. The use of the class SEESAW app is to help parents feel connected to the classroom and confident in talking to their children about their learning. We will host a Welcome BBQ on Wednesday 1^st March 5:30pm-7:30pm and Parent Teacher meetings in Week 8 where we will have an opportunity to meet face to face. As the term progresses if you have any concerns, please contact your child’s teacher and book in a time to meet or call.

Each newsletter we will share our Meet the Teacher profiles. This week’s team is our Stage 3 teaching team, Year 5 and 6. Read the teacher profiles below and get to know our wonderful staff.

We have successfully recruited a Canteen Officer and we welcome Ms Kelly Brands to our staff and community. Kelly comes to us with many years of experience running school and sports canteens. We will post opening times asap. Orders will still be taken through our QKR app. Kelly will still love to see our parent and grandparent volunteers so make sure you are registered to volunteer by following this link: https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/

Congratulations to the Hanson family with the safe arrival last week of a baby brother for Eviee and Flynn.

Congratulations to Bowie in Kinder, on the birth of his new baby brother during the holidays.

We also congratulate our teachers, Mrs Linklater who is expecting her 3^rd child and Mrs Shaw who is expecting her 2^nd child later this year. Such happy news to start the year!

We regularly get visited by the LMCC traffic patrol in Shelton St. Please follow our before and after school routines and avoid blocking driveways, getting out of your car in the pickup/drop off zones and parking or blocking the bus stop.

Afternoon Pickup Options  

Final Bell is at 2:55pm  

Buses: There are a number of buses that St Joseph’s children catch. See below for information on Newcastle Buses. 

OOSH  

Tar: Parents Park cars and walk into school to wait on seats near sport shed roller door (at the bottom of the steps leading from the office to the Tar)  

Walkers: Parents Park and wait for children on the footpath on the corner of Camrose St and Shelton St. Children are walked up at 3:00 and then crossed over the road to waiting parents. See map below. 

Kiss and Drop: Children line up on TAR in surname lines. At their time (see table below) children are walked up and wait with teacher supervision until parents pick them up in cars from the Kiss and Drop zone in Camrose St. Parents remain in cars and teachers supervise boarding.  

Kiss and Drop Times (times are staggered) 

BUS INFORMATION - NEWCASTLE TRANSPORT

For parents and/or students that have questions about school services or need help planning their trip, they will need to contact our Customer Service Team on 131 500, or using our customer portal on our website at newcastletransport.info, so we can follow up immediately.

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind schools and parents to encourage school students tap on and tap off when using school bus services. This data is important in determining the school bus services provided to schools and low patronage could prompt a review of the service.  

Students and parents can follow these three easy steps to check their timetable:
 

1. Visit http://newcastletransport.info/plan-your-trip/school-services
2. Type your school name into the search field
3. Select your school bus route to download the PDF timetable  

For school bus safety tips, head to:
https://newcastletransport.info/primaryschools/

Deepest sympathy to the Grogan family on the passing of Luke’s Pa. We keep you all in our prayers and thoughts at this sad time.

We also keep Kim Biddleston in our prayers as she prepares for further surgery. We wish her a speedy recovery!

We are so excited to be on this journey of learning, faith and fun for 2023 and look forward to seeing you at upcoming events.

God bless,

Kate Drake

Principal

News from the Assistant Principal

Welcome to the 2023 school year. All students and staff are settling in to the routines of school life following the Christmas vacation.

During my time in classrooms this week, students have been able to articulate what they are learning and why. They have also begun to identify their learning goals or pathways to success to ensure they achieve high standards in their schoolwork. This reflects an ownership on the student’s behalf, where they too, are responsible for their learning. It is one of our school values “Strive High!”

On that note our school Values are:

1. Strive High
2. Live Like Jesus
3. Care for the Environment

If the students follow all 3 values then learning will be an outstanding success, friendships will blossom, and community spirit will flourish.

So may 2023 be a year of outstanding achievements for our students, guided and supported by families and teachers. Assistant Principal

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

From the Office of Safeguarding

 Safer Internet Day

Safer Internet Day is a global event that brings together communities, families, schools and organisations from more than 200 countries to help create safer online spaces.

This worldwide initiative is celebrating 20 years in 2023, making it a great time to reflect as well as look forward. 

Technology has evolved dramatically in the past two decades and the benefits have been huge. These developments have also exposed us to many risks with real-world impacts, making online safety awareness even more important.  
 
That's why we are calling on Australians to Connect. Reflect. Protect. 
 
Connect safely and with purpose – by keeping apps and devices secure and using social media in positive ways. 

Reflect before we act – by taking a moment to consider how what we do and say online may affect others. 

Protect ourselves and others by taking action – by telling family, friends or colleagues about eSafety and how we can help.  
 
By doing these simple things, we can work towards making every day a Safer Internet Day.

News from the Religious Coordinator

Beginning of the Year Mass

In week 4, 15^th February  the whole school  will celebrate our beginning of the year Mass  and leaders will be  formally inducted. Family members and carers are welcome to join us for this important occasion which will be held at St. Mary’s Immaculate Church, Charlestown at 9:30am.

St. Joey’s Caring Group

From time to time, we all need some help. The St. Joey’s caring group has been established to provide a meal for families to lighten the load when needed. We appreciate the assistance current members have made, but we would also like to extend an invitation to new members who may feel they can fulfill this role . For further details email clare.paff@mn.catholic.edu.au.

Sacramental Program 2023

Each year students in year 4 or above who have been baptised Catholic are invited to join the Sacramental program to prepare for reconciliation, confirmation and communion. Please see the attached invitation from the Parish and registration form which must be completed and returned to the Parish office by the 24^{th of} February.

God Bless Clare Paff.

News from the Primary Coordinator

Welcome Back! I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all our students and families, especially the kindergarten children and those that have joined our school family this year.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

This fortnight our schoolwide PBL focus is to Include Others.

On the playground and in the classroom, staff are keeping an eye out on how students are including others as they play and learn. In the classroom students are learning about the definition of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ and having discussions about the associated feelings connected with each of these. It is reinforced for students that including others is important because we:

• celebrate everyone’s differences (their individuality)
• display kindness as we are empowered when we care for others
• want to be ‘shepherds not sheep’ (idea of not following the crowd)
• if we notice exclusion, it is each of our responsibility to do something about it.

Please take the opportunity at home this fortnight to discuss how we can all be inclusive with your child.

I look forward to sharing about our school curriculum goals in the coming newsletters.

Have a wonderful fortnight!  

Kind regards

 Mrs Kathryn Hill

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

News from the Classroom

WELCOME KINDER 2023 

It was fantastic to welcome our new Kinder students to SJC last week.   

Families were able to celebrate this special day with their child, and the students were so excited and joyful as they engaged with the many play experiences in the brand-new Kinder classroom.   Time on our new slide and playground was also a big hit! Our Year 6 buddies were amazing and such beautiful role models for our youngest students. Well done Kinder and welcome to our wonderful school!   

Sport News

LAKES REGION SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Good Luck to our representative swimmers competing at the Lakes Region Swimming carnival next Monday 13th Feb, at Lambton Pool. Please check the notes for details. We are super proud of you all!

Abigail C, Alice D, Aria L, Audrey H, Billie E, Charlotte D, Daniel B, Eli S, Flynn L, Frankie G, Georgia C, Harrison S, Harry S, Houn C, Imogen H, Jack N, Jake S, Jeremy H, Lachlan C, Leo M, Matilda R, Mia C, Miliana D, Neva K, Olive W, Reid T, Sam G, Sofia DE, Sophie A, Sophie W, Tanner T, Urban B, Billie UN.

REGIONAL SPORTS TRIALS - Yr 5 & 6 STUDENTS ONLY

A reminder that applications for trials in regional winter sports are due back to Mrs Davis this Friday 10th Feb.

Meet our Staff

P&F News

We have an active and positive P & F committee at St Joseph's. We support the school in many ways including providing the Uniform shop, Canteen and help fundraise for school goals. We would love to see new members and we meet twice per term. Our first meeting this year is Mon 13/2 6:30pm in the staffroom. All welcome!

Hub News

Stephanie Tranter,
Teacher Librarian

Canteen

To volunteer in our canteen plesae register through our Diocesan processes by following this link: https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/

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  

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAMS