Term 1 Week 5

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Newsletter Term 1 Week 5

Dear Parents and Carers.

Last week we celebrated our Beginning of the School Year mass, in our church, St Mary Immaculate, Charlestown. This was the first time we have been able to celebrate a whole school mass with our parish in a number of years. The students participated with reverence and enthusiasm, ensuring a prayerful and joyful experience for all. Father Tony and new assistant priest, Father Anil were very happy to celebrate with us. We also commissioned our 2023 Student Leadership team and presented them with their badges. Thank you to those parents and grandparents who could join us as we prayed together for a year of quality learning, faith and friendship at St Joseph’s 2023.

Congratulations:

Councillors: Sam G, Will F, Harry S, Maisie D, Impgen H, Sienna L

Sports Captains:

Beachley- Sophie A & Miliana D

MacKillop – Kai D & Evelyn D

Bradman – Urban B & Ivy W

Irwin – Matilda R & Olive W

Mini Vinnies: Kipp H, Emily J, Jacob C, Bella S

Green Team: Ruby P & Lani C.

This week we begin the church season of Lent and this week is marked by 2 important liturgical celebrations, Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday. Tomorrow the school councillors will attend the launch of Project Compassion, our Lenten fundraising focus and on Wednesday Years 3-6 will attend our parish mass. K-2 will celebrate with a liturgy in their classrooms.

Lent is a time for spiritual renewal, a time to reflect on our lives and to consider and act on ways to become closer to God. On Ash Wednesday we receive a cross of ashes on our foreheads to remind us to turn back to God and to live lives filled with love, compassion, forgiveness and kindness. This is a wonderful article you may be interested in, gaining a better understanding of the season of Lent and its relevance in our lives: https://cathfamily.org/spiritual-spring-clean/

We are called to reflect and also to abstain from things that take us away from God. As suggested in the article instead of the traditional promise to give up chocolate, sugar, treats etc perhaps these negative attitudes would be better given up:

1. Grumpiness – irritability is a choice. We can choose to be grumpy and hang on to our right to be foul-tempered, or we can choose to be pleasant and good humoured.
2. Blame – when things go wrong, stop looking for a scapegoat. Practice acceptance and responsibility.
3. Superiority – A judgmental attitude is like a rotting corpse – it spreads it’s bile over everyone in criticism and put downs.
4. Gossip – resist taking delight in someone else’s failure. Protect their reputation and let the bad news stop with you.
5. Vanity – give up self-obsession and the fantasy that the world revolves around you. Start revolving your life around God and you’ll find more joy than you ever dreamed.
6. Self-pity – everyone has to deal with setbacks and disappointments. Self-pity won’t change your circumstances; it just makes you feel powerless.
7. Resentment – unforgiveness and resentment hangs over a person’s life like dark thunder clouds. It makes your life gloomy and your presence unpleasant. It’s not worth the cost.
8. Tiredness – if you’re always tired, go to bed early. Be self-disciplined and resist the TV, internet or other recreation that steals your sleep. And if you choose not to, then at least stop whining about how tired you are! (Parents of young children exempted!)
9. Busyness – you have all the time you could ever need for the things that are important to you. Stop using a lack of time as an excuse for neglecting relationships or your health.
10. Cynicism – it’s easier to be cynical than it is to be optimistic and hope-filled. Take the path less travelled.
    Congratulations to our swimmers who represented St Joseph’s at the Lakes Regional Swimming Carnival, last Monday. I was privileged to witness our students swim with a fantastic have a go spirit and also show enormous encouragement and support of each other throughout the day. There were some exciting races with close finishes that rivalled any Olympic race I have seen. The boys and girls Junior relay teams were exceptional, and both have advanced through to the next level. Well done everyone! Please see the Sport section below for our Diocesan swim team attending the carnival tomorrow at The Forum.

Last week we had 5 students attend the ASPIRE Young Scriptwriters program at SFX Belmont. Luca, Mili, Evie, Imogen and Alice have been given the opportunity to be involved in a program that introduces them to scriptwriting; developing their skills in storytelling and writing character driven work whilst developing their own voice as a writer, culminating in their work being performed at the end of the year. We will look forward to seeing the progress and final performance later in the year. Congratulations!

School Fee statements for 2023 will be issued this week. It is a commitment when you send your children to a Catholic school to pay the fees, one that is not required in our local public schools. Our fees support the school and our system to meet the educational needs of our students. Thank you to those who have already set up their preferred method of payment and have returned any forms required for discounts. We have various options for paying fees and making a regular payment via Bpay or through the CCF can help with ensuring you can manage this in your budget. Please contact the school office if you need assistance with setting up a payment plan. St Joseph’s will charge a $500 Resource Fee per student that is kept at school level to pay for stationery, technology subscriptions, books, excursions, incursions, sport providers and carnivals. Therefore, this year, we will not be asking for payments on whole class experiences or needs, it will be covered in this fee. The exception will be representative sport, Stage 3 camp, and Year 6 t-shirt. We will continue our commitment to fundraisers throughout the year to support our charitable works and these are of course, optional.

Our Canteen is off to a great start with Kelly Brands at the helm. Remember to place your lunch orders via QKR before 9am on Wed/Thurs/Fri. The students can use cash only at recess times for ice blocks and over the counter items. Huge thanks to Brooke and Natalie for their assistance in helping Kelly get settled in the role. Thank you too to Brooke for organising the Subway lunch day which helps to supplement the canteen on closed days. Kelly would love to see you if you have a spare couple of hours and are a registered volunteer through our Catholic Schools system. Please sign up to help if you can: https://signup.zone/ZYkfNzsbws83p9yHM

Next Wednesday 1^st March, 5:30pm- 7:30pm we will host a WELCOME BBQ to give us a fun opportunity to get together and to meet our new families. Our P&F and canteen will host a BBQ with the first sausage sandwich free for every family member. Our year 5 & 6 students will organise some games and we have also booked some surprise visitors to entertain and provide some fun for our students. Think reptile encounters, face painting, balloons and more!

Please come along and join in the fun! Register how many sausages you will need and if you can help on the BBQ for a short time, sign up too.

Sausage RSVP https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=x2JU50ZySU-2DkekmO6p1kUZvQ6hr_VPom9HxKx6eR9UN0xUM0ZMMURTMlc0VU5DTzhQUUhOWlRXTS4u

Help on the BBQ / Canteen - https://signup.zone/vaRmnuv7WppSRPMLX

The picnic and activities will be held on the bottom oval, so BYO chairs or picnic rug.

We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible!

God Bless,

Kate Drake

News from the Assistant Principal

This year NESA has released new syllabi to be implemented K-2 for both Mathematics and English.  Schools will continue to teach existing English and Mathematics 3–6 syllabuses until the new syllabuses become available for preparation and planning in 2023 and are taught in all schools in 2024.This has massive implications for systems, schools, teachers, students, and parents as we grapple with coming to grips with the new syllabus – the two largest syllabus – and how to effectively embed them into practice. 

This year the Catholic Schools Office has engaged Professor Peter Sullivan to provide professional development in Mathematics for Principals, teachers, and system leaders in the Diocese.  This commenced last week. Mrs Hill and Miss Peacock and I together with our diocesan colleagues experienced the first of these Professional Learning days. 

We have been fortunate to have had many and varied opportunities for all our teachers to attend Professional Learning and engage with the new syllabi last year and this will continue during 2023.

On the 6^{th of} April we have a Pupil Free Day.  On this day, staff will be in working with our colleagues from Holy Family Merewether and St John’s Lambton. We have engaged Dr Ange Rogers and Dr Bern Lon from RMIT university to look at how we can continue to develop our whole school approach to the teaching of mathematics. This day is deeply rooted in best practice and will present teachers with the latest research- based evidence to improve the educational outcomes of our students. I look forward to sharing with you what we learn.

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will be held from the 15 March – 27 March this year. All students in Years 3 and 5 complete the NAPLAN in the following areas:

• Reading
• Writing
• Conventions of Language
• Numeracy

Children complete NAPLAN online, except for the writing test for Year 3, which is completed in a booklet. Children do not need to “study” for NAPLAN, children also do not need to worry about the tests. The results of the tests allow us to identify student achievement, but more importantly we use the data to identify where we as a school are using effective strategies and programs in our teaching of English and Mathematics.

From 2023, NAPLAN results will be represented differently in the Individual Student Report (ISR) given to parents and carers.

The numerical bands (1-10) will be replaced with four proficiency standards for each school level that sits NAPLAN. The changes have been led by ACARA and are in response to parent feedback over the years, that the reports need to be clearer and results easier to interpret.

The NAPLAN report will have 4 easy-to-understand proficiency standards:

• Exceeding
• Strong
• Developing
• Needs additional support.

1. Strong means that the student is meeting the expectations of the literacy and numeracy skills required for their school level.

Further information explaining these changes will be in future newsletters.

Uniform Expectations

All students are expected to uphold our school values, which are explained by our Positive Behaviour Support (PBL) Team, at the assembly each week. Students are also expected to wear our school.

uniform correctly. The formal uniform is to be worn on all days except sport day when the sport uniform is worn.

• Black leather shoes are to be worn with their formal uniform and joggers/runners are to be worn on sport day.
• Black canvas shoes are not appropriate to be worn with the Formal uniform. If there are extenuating circumstances regarding Footwear, please contact myself or Kate to discuss this.
• All students with hair that is shoulder length or longer are expected to tie their hair back.
• All accessories e.g., hair tie, ribbons, headbands etc. are to be our school colours of blue and white.
• Jewellery is to be kept to a minimum. Students may wear the following - a watch, single earring is permitted e.g., studs or small sleepers, chains may be worn if they are kept on the inside of your child’s uniform.
• All of these are to ensure your child is not injured. Large earrings, chains etc., can become caught and cause significant injury to students.
• Smart watches are not permitted at school, as they are expensive and can be used for taking photos, communicating via text etc.
• Year 6 students have a commemorative sport shirt, which is worn on sport day.
• Hair dye and make up are NOT permitted at school.

If there are occasions your child cannot wear the designated uniform, please send in a letter or email, to explain the circumstances.

Medication

Medication is to be dropped into the office by a parent. Please avoid sending medication in with young children. The school cannot take responsibility for medication in school bags that is accessible to other children. The administering of short- and long-term medication requires a parent to complete a form available from the office to facilitate the delivery of medication.

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Pick up & Drop off Procedures

Playground supervision commences at 8.25am. The Shelton Street pedestrian gate is opened at 7am when St Nicholas OOSH commences. Students and parents are to access the school via the pedestrian gate. Please do not walk through the carpark. Parents dropping and picking up students at OOSH may use the carpark until 8:10am and after 3:30pm.

It is a requirement that students who arrive after this bell to be signed in via the kiosk by a parent. Please do not drop your students to the gate unsupervised after this time.

Please ensure you are familiar with our procedures and adhere to all parking restriction signs. Please do not block neighbours’ driveways and keep the bus bay clear.

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

From the Office of Safeguarding

This week we have included links for parents https://padlet.com/childprotection/resources-for-parents-carers-teacher-jqddlxahc0zswvk4 and students https://padlet.com/childprotection/resources-for-primary-school-students-ta8uzzgbz8vlvku0 that may be useful to keep all our children safe.

 A few tips to keep your children safe when they are online:

• Ensure your child(ren) are in a public area of your home when online e.g., the lounge room, kitchen etc. Do not allow your child to use devices alone in their bedrooms.
• Ensure your child is using age appropriate sites
• Ensure your child has access to social media that is age appropriate.

For a list of age appropriate online behaviours please refer to the safety commission at the following link https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/issues-and-advice/are-they-old-enough

Devices are an invaluable tool to keep us connected to others and access current information. Together, we will help all children to be safe and effective users of technology.

News from the Religious Coordinator

Ash Wednesday Liturgies

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the liturgical season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is a day of prayer and penance where Catholics and other Christian denominations are marked with a cross on their forehead as a visible sign of their Lenten journeys and turning their hearts back to God.

Year’s 3 to 6 will attend the Parish Mass at St Mary’ Immaculate Parish, Charlestown on Ash Wednesday at 9:30am. Families are welcome to attend.

Infants classes will mark this important day with liturgies in their units. They will also have the opportunity to receive the ashes.

Sacramental Program 2023

Students from 4-6 who have been baptised are invited to register for this year’s sacramental program. Preparation for the sacraments of reconciliation, confirmation and communion allow for full membership of the Church. Please contact the Parish Office on Tuesday – Friday on 4943 4153 if you wish your child to be a part of this program.

Coming Dates

St Joseph’s Day Liturgy , art competition and picnic- from 10am 17/3

Have a wonderful fortnight!  

News from the Primary Coordinator

Improving Writing Through the Use Of VCOP: 

Throughout the school, the children are involved in activities that help them to gain more knowledge about how to improve their own writing. As well as focusing on the genre-specific writing features, they are encouraged to always focus on four core targets - Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation (V.C.O.P) – as a way of improving all the writing they do. 

What is V.C.O.P.? V.C.O.P. are the four core targets we use to teach writing. The letters stand for: Vocabulary Connectives Openers Punctuation Vocabulary (Wow words!) It is important that children begin to think carefully about the vocabulary they choose and the effect that it has on the reader. We promote the use of “WOW” words in writing. These are words that are ambitious for the children to use to “up level” their nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. 

Noun - A word that names a person, place, or thing: The exhausted, frightened youngster trudged slowly through the thick mud. 

 Adjective – A word used to describe a person, place, or thing: The exhausted, frightened youngster trudged slowly through the thick mud. 

 Verb - A word to describe action; what is happening in the sentence: The exhausted, frightened youngster trudged slowly through the thick mud.  

Adverb - A word to describe how the action is taking place: The exhausted, frightened youngster trudged slowly through the thick mud.

How can you help? 

 Read to, and with, your child.  

 Talk about and write down interesting (wow) words in the stories you are reading at home. 

 Ask your child to try using the words you have found in a sentence. When you use a word, your child is unfamiliar with, discuss what it means with them (encourage them to use the word in a sentence).  

 Discuss with them words that you would use in different situations (e.g., formal, informal).  

 Have a mini quiz: ‘How many words can you think of instead of ‘said’?’ or ‘went,’ ‘nice,’ ‘good.’ Put each one in a sentence.  

Give your child two different words and ask them to make different a sentence from them. E.g.: ‘magical’ and ‘boy’  

Encourage your child to look up vocabulary to find possible synonyms (a word or phrase that means the same). 

PBL at SJC!   

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a whole-school framework that promotes positive behaviour across a school and helps schools develop safe and supportive learning environments to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for students.   

At St Joseph’s our PBL framework ensures all students are explicitly taught the expected behaviours and establishes clear and consistent boundaries. Staff take a proactive, preventative approach to ensure all students receive the appropriate level of support to help them to be successful at school.  

 It is important that all students are taught what is expected of them and have opportunities to practise expected behaviours. A key role of our principal and all school staff is to set high expectations for behaviour and learning across the whole school community and for all students. Having clear expectations for behaviour allows our school to provide consistency in what we teach, acknowledge, and correct in terms of student behaviour.  

PBL has a strong instructional and differentiated approach to teaching students the behaviours they need for success at school and beyond. Teachers define, teach, reteach, and model the expected behaviours. They provide regular opportunities for students to practise the expected behaviours in the settings in which they will be used. They also actively supervise students, promote the expected behaviour, prevent, and correct inappropriate behaviour and acknowledge positive behaviour continuously and in a variety of ways.   

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

Sports News

DIO SWIM TEAM

Congratulations to our swim team advanced to the Diocesan Swim Carnival to be held at The Forum Pool, tomorrow. We wish you the best of luck and good wishes!

Billie E – 10 yr 50m freestyle

Sophie A - 12 yr 50m backstroke

Junior Girls Relay – Billie E, Georgia C, Neva K, Audrey H

Jeremy H – 10 yrs 50m freestyle, Jnr 50m backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, Individual Medley

Junior Boys Relay - Jeremy H, Daniel B, Lachlan C, Tanner T.

Sport Trials

Congratulations to Matilda R who trailed at the Polding basketball trials last week. We are so proud of you Matilda!

This week we will host the Regional Football Trials at Kullkabah Reserve, Gateshead. We are vey grateful to Mr Scott Masters and Mr Craig Johnson for being involved in the selection processes. Huge thanks to Mrs Davis and Mrs Drake who have worked tirelessly to organise this trial at short notice, due to a change in another school’s commitments.

Congratulations to the following students who will attend the regional trials in the following sports:

Netball- Maisie D, Olivia B, Alice D

Football- Olive W, Sophie A, Sophie W, Ruby L, Flynn L, Harry S

Hockey – Will F

Congratulations to the following students who advance to the Diocesan trials:

Rugby League- Kobe W, Tanner T, Urban B

FUTSAL CHAMPION

Congratulations to Sophie W, selected in the U11 Girls Futsal team - Northern NSW (as Keeper) for the National Club Championships in Sydney in January.

After 4 days of competition - the girls came away Champions after winning against ACT in the grand final.

Sophie was also one of 3 NNSW girls to be selected in her 3rd All Stars team for future representative opportunities. 

Congratulations Sophie!

News from the Classrooms

P&F News

Our next P&F meeting will be our Annual General Meeting (AGM). All positons become vacant and we elect our committe for 2023. 

This is a great way to be involved in our school and we are very blessed to have a great team who volunteer for this committee each year. We'd love to see new members who want to contribute positively to our school. We meet only twice per term and have voluntees who support the canteen, uniform shop, events and fundraisers.

Our next meeting is Monday 13th March 2023, 6:30pm-7:30pm in the staffroom.

Canteen News

Kelly our new Canteen Officer would love to see you if you have a spare couple of hours to assist in the canteen. Volunteers need to be registered with our CSO, by following this link: https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/

Once cleared please sign up for a shift. The children love to see you here!

https://signup.zone/ZYkfNzsbws83p9yHM

Aboriginal Education News

Aboriginal Education  

What a wonderful start to 2023!!! It is so lovely to be back with our St Joseph’s Charlestown family after the Christmas holidays. There is lots of wonderful cultural activities and events already in the works for our students.   

Very exciting is our 2023 NAIDOC Day which will be take place in early Term 3. The theme for NAIDOC this year is, 'For Our Elders'. Our NAIDOC celebrations are set to be even bigger and better than last year! Watch this space to learn more…….  

13th February: Anniversary of the National Apology  

Recently on the 13th February was the anniversary of the National Apology. This was made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly the Stolen Generations.  

The National Apology to the Stolen Generations was a recommendation from The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal Children from their Families, as published in the 1997 Bringing them Home Report by the Australian Human Rights Commission.  

Students and staff at St Joseph’s Charlestown recognise the huge significance of the National Apology and acknowledge the profound trauma that has ensued as a result of past Australian government policies.   

  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