Term 4 Week 9

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we begin this beautiful season of Advent, I pray that we have peace in our homes, in our school, in our community and in our world. Advent begins 4 Sundays before Christmas and is a time of preparation for the birth of Jesus. We take time amongst the busyness to pause and reflect on God’s love which comes to us through Jesus, and we are then called to share this love with one another.

Thank you to Fr Tony and our committee for the organisation of last weekend’s prayer vigil. It was wonderful to see our parish and school communities come together to pray for Emma, Flo and their families. Michelle, Alex and their families were extremely grateful for this support during this difficult time.

Last week we listened to our upcoming 2024 school leadership speeches. We had a large number of students apply for positions and it was wonderful to hear their pledges and aspirations for leadership positions. Putting themselves forward is a courageous step and one that each individual should be proud of completing. The students who applied, will be told on Thursday afternoon of the successful candidates. Then this then will be announced to the community at our school mass on Friday.

Congratulations to Ms Brydie Houlahan who is now on leave to prepare for her upcoming wedding. We wish Brydie and James all the very best and much love and happiness.

We also congratulate Mrs Amber Christie on the exciting news of her pregnancy. We wish Amber, Richard and Madi happiness and good health with their growing family.

Thank you to all for the donations to the St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal. We are so grateful for your generosity and will look forward to passing these items on to be shared in Christmas hampers for needy families in our local area.

Please note our canteen will be closed next week to allow for cleaning and auditing.

Don't forget to support our P & F Raffle fundraiser for a chance to win a weekend getaway at Shoal Bay. Tickets are $5 each or 4 for $20 and can be purchased on QKR.

We have many events to look forward to in these last 2 weeks of school. Please check the COMPASS notifications for up-to-date information Please read below for times and events. Please note the change in start time for the SJC Talent show tomorrow. We need to begin 15 minutes earlier to fit all acts in.

Tuesday 5^th Dec                 SJC’s Got Talent 1:30pm

Wednesday 6^th Dec          SVDP Christmas Appeal – Come dressed in Christmas clothes and bring an item for the hampers (you                                                  may have already sent these in - thank you!)

Thursday 7^th Dec               Wear sport uniform- whole school practice for mass

Friday 8^th Dec                    End of Year Mass / Farewell Yr 6 – St Mary Immaculate Church, 9:30am followed by the Awards                                                             Ceremony  approx. 10:20am

LAST WEEK - NO CANTEEN THIS WEEK

Monday 11^th Dec              Step Up Afternoon – 2pm – Students meet 2024 teachers

                                              P & F Christmas celebration 6:30pm Charlestown Bowling Club   

Tuesday 12^th Dec               Swimming Carnival

Wednesday 13^th Dec        Stage 3 Surf Day

Thursday 14^th Dec            Volunteers Thank You Morning Tea 11:15-12:15pm                          

                                             School Christmas Concert 12:30pm                                         

Friday 15^th Dec                  Last Day – Yr 6 Bowling and Clap Out 2:30pm     

There will be a final brief newsletter published next week.

God Bless,

Kate Drake

News from the Assistant Principal

Dear Parents, 

 As we approach the end of this week, you will have the valuable opportunity to review your child's Semester Two report. These reports are a reflection on your child’s progress. Reporting is an important phase of the schooling year and teaching and learning. Reporting is also a significant part of the partnership between parent, teacher and student.  

 When perusing the reports, I encourage you to keep your child's overall progress in mind. Focus on their accomplishments thus far and consider areas where there is room for further development, contributing to their personal growth and academic journey.

I urge all parents to not only congratulate their child on their commendable efforts but also engage in discussions about areas where students can channel their attention to enhance their results in the coming year.

In recent weeks, we've enjoyed a series of delightful events, with more to come. It's heartening to witness our students come together for these special occasions, fostering a sense of community within St Joseph's.

I extend my sincere gratitude to all students and families who contribute to making St Joseph's the exceptional place it is. Your involvement and support are integral to our success.

A special thank you goes out to my remarkable colleagues, who inspire me daily. Our dedicated staff at St Joseph's work tirelessly to provide a quality education within a nurturing and vibrant environment.

While I will be bidding farewell to St Joey's at the end of this year with mixed emotions, I am thankful for the trusting relationships we have cultivated as we guide our young learners toward becoming the best versions of themselves.

It has been a pleasure being part of the leadership team at St Joey's, where we have achieved many great things together, often accompanied by laughter. I am confident that the journey of improvement will seamlessly continue under Kate, Clare, Kathryn in her new role, and with the addition of Frances to the team.

As the holiday season approaches, I wish all students and families a safe and joyous break. Merry Christmas!

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

From the Office of Safeguarding

Safe and Respectful Peer Relationships

The Kids Helpline website has a number of great resources that are child friendly to help support safe and respectful relationships. Some topics include:

· Fights with friends

· Bulling is not ok

· Making friends

· Being ok with being different

· How to be happy being yourself

· My friends are fighting

· Wanting to fit in

· Treating others well

Please take some time to show your child the Kids Helpline website so they can learn to navigate through these resources should they ever want to know more information on some of these topics or others. - https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/issues

News from the Religious Coordinator

Advent

Sunday the 3rd December marked the beginning of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation. We prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and welcome His presence into our lives.

During a time of Christmas shopping, parties, and family gatherings, it can be hard to find the time to prepare properly for this faith-filled season. However, the Catholic Church has a rich history of traditions to help keep our minds focused on the true meaning of the season. The Advent wreath is commonly used to celebrate the season. The circular shape of the Advent wreath symbolises God’s infinite love for us – it is never-ending, just like the true Light of the World, Jesus, who leads us into eternal life with Him.

Today in class we lit our first Advent candle, the candle of Hope. It is a season of hope as we anticipate the birth of Christ and celebrate the beginning of a new liturgical season as well. The first candle is purple, the primary colour of Advent and a colour symbolizing royalty. Sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle,” the first candle harkens us back to Isaiah’s foretelling of the birth of Christ and all of the promises God gave us in the Old Testament that would be fulfilled by the birth of Jesus.

St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal

Thank you for all the wonderful Christmas hamper items which have already been donated. They will make Christmas brighter for many. This Wednesday the 6th December is the last day for donations.

Kinder- Lollies

Yr 1- chips, pretzels, nuts, popcorn

Yr 2- Tinned ham/fish

Yr 3 cordial soft drink

Yr 4 rice, pasta, pasta sauce

Yr 5- milo, long life milk , tea, coffee

Year 6- chocolate, shortbread, biscuits.

These items will be used by the local St Vincent de Paul Centre to make hampers for those in our community. We are requesting items come in by the 6th of December. On Wednesday, students may wear Christmas clothes to mark the day. Please remember in shoes, a hat and shoulders need to be covered. Thank you for your support.

Christmas Eve Mass

You are invited to join us to celebrate Christmas as a school and Parish Community. Christmas Eve Mass will be celebrated on Sunday 24.12.23 at St. Mary Immaculate Church at Charlestown at 5:30pm. If you would like to join us please email clare.paff@mn.catholic.edu.au. I will be seeking children to participate in the Christmas Eve Mass.

News from the Primary Coordinator

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL)

Our PBL focus area is Do Your Best: Have a go and participate. We encourage all students to ‘be a learner,’ while fostering the valuable skill of perseverance. Through this learning students will reflect on what it means to persevere:

• Not giving up when things become challenging.
• Understanding that it requires both effort and consistency to complete a task.
• Using different strategies to solve problems.
• Practice helpful self-talk (e.g., “I can do it” or “Keep trying.”)
• Accept that mistakes are how we learn.

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

Sports News

Well done to Bruno, Rocco and Bede who trialled at the Diocesan basketball trials last week. 

Congratulations to Darcy with his recent awards in Moto Racing. Darcy has worked very hard throughout the year training for 2 hours every week with a coach.

He placed 1^st in JTDBC Enduro Championship 50cc and Junior 1^st place at the Denman Trials club.  Well done Darcy!

Billie outdid herself by being awarded the Pursuit Of Excellence Perpetual Award for Jazz from her dance studio: 

Congratulations to Ashlyn and Arabella for receiving a trophy for their hard work in dance.

News from the Classrooms

Pastoral Care Worker

Hello Everyone

My name is Maree – Mrs H by the children, and I am the Pastoral Care Worker here at SJC. You may know me from the gate, as I love welcoming the children and their families to school every morning.

My role involves meeting with children if they are feeling anxious, sad, confused, overwhelmed, having friendship problems, or just having a bad day overall.

I am not a counsellor, but rather someone who the children are able to chat to when they might need one-to-one time. We usually colour-in or draw together, basically, whatever the children would like to do. Parents and teachers often request I meet with a child who they think might need this time.

I love my role and feel very blessed to work in such a special school with amazing children, staff, families, and of course Kate, our beautiful Principal!

Wishing you all a blessed, happy Christmas and New Year.

Looking forward to seeing you all in 2024.

Hub

Music and Band

"Proud," almost doesn't do justice to the way our school band performed at Vivace at City Hall last week. Congratulations again to Eli, Heath, Lillian, Lauren, Charlotte, Elise, Julian and Harper on a truly wonderful performance. Big thanks to Mr Bryn Kelloway-Wilson for conducting and steering our school band onwards and upwards this year!

This is a great time for students in year 2-6 to consider joining the school band in 2024. See the office for more information or Mrs Savage.

Garden Group.

Garden Group News

Summer is here, and with the warm weather has come an abundance of fruit and vegetables, as well as creatures and crawlies to the garden.

This fortnight we harvested our first zucchini and avid garden group member Jackson from year 1 took it home to share with his family. We also learnt that zucchini flowers are edible and feature as a delicacy on the menu of many up market restaurants. The flowers are delicate, and need to be picked at the exact right time and consumed within 24 hrs. 

Planted in companionship with our vegetables we have flowering plants such as giant pansies and lavender. This helps attract pollinators to help our cucumber's and zucchini produce plenty of fruit.

Our students have been enjoying interacting and learning about beneficial insects and creatures in our garden and how they help control pests and keep our plants healthy. We have a gorgeous green tree frog living amongst the leaves, and we discussed their importance to vegetable garden eco systems. We talked about looking but not touching frogs so they can prey on insects which destroy our plants.

Finally, our budding artists have been busy painting rocks for our fairy garden each week, often writing messages of hope and kindness.

As the year winds down we will continue to harvest and stage 2 will plant out some sunflower seeds to come back to in term 1 2024.

My New Gallery

P&F News

Our last P & F Meeting will be a Christmas celebration on Monday 11th December, 6:30pm at the Charlestown Bowling Club. Please RSVP your attendance to admin@charlestown.catholic.edu.au

Huge thanks to all our volunteers throughout the year. Your help and assistance at our meeitngs, organising the Uniform shop, helping in the canteen and supporting our fundraisers has been invaluable.

Canteen News

In readiness for 2024 please sign up to be a volunteer! Kelly our 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 

I recently had the pleasure of working with both our Year 3 Red and Year ¾ Blue exploring the work of Aboriginal Artist, June Peters who is from Warum Country in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia.

June Peter’s Country is not far from the spectacular beauty of the Bungle Bungles ‘Purnululu’ and surrounding landscape of flatlands, surrounded by high rocky breakaways and outcrops.

It was fascinating to see these landforms as well as the local Dreaming represented in June Peter’s artworks.

Students considered landforms we have here on Awabakal Country and how our environment differs to June Peter’s in the East Kimberley. Students then created their own artworks which pay homage to our local and beautiful, Lake Macquarie ‘Awaba’.

Students added details to their artworks using symbols incorporated with techniques and elements from June Peter’s art. It was a wonderful way for students to draw connections between our local environment, the landscape of the East Kimberley region and what experiences, memories and people are important and meaningful to students.

Check out our awesome work!!

Like 5/6 Red and 5/6 Blue whose artworks were recently celebrated in our last newsletter, 5/6 White had their turn to create fantastic ‘Totem’ artworks with me. Students loved learning more about Aboriginal totems which can be a natural object, plant or animal that is inherited by members of a group or family as their spiritual emblem.

They look fantastic!!

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 Michelle for further information.  

MICHELLE BIRCH 
NOMINATED SUPERVISOR | ST NICHOLAS OOSH    
P 0429 435 571     M  0429 435 571   
Email michelle.birch@stnicholasmn.org.au   Visit us online www.stnicholasoosh.org.au  

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