Term 1 Week 11

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a wonderful first term of school it has been. There have been so many great experiences both inside and outside the classroom, with our students involved in a variety of learning experiences, sports, liturgical celebrations, community events and fundraisers. Thank you to all our staff and to our parent and grandparent volunteers who have made this term such a success. We are blessed at St Joseph's with a dedicated team and a caring community! Thank you!

I also thank Ms Houlahan, Mrs Paff and their team for organising the cross country run last Friday. Thanks too, to all volunteers who assisted on the day. Our course is quite challenging and our students are lucky to experience an authentic and natural course such as ours. It was great to hear of the determination, stamina and have a go attitude of our students. Well done to all!

Last week we welcomed back Django into Year 1 Blue, we are so happy to have Django and his family returned to St Joeys!

Tomorrow we will farewell Mrs Kate Linklater, as she takes parental leave and awaits the birth of her third child. We thank Kate for her efforts in Stage 3 and wish her and her family all the very best during this special time.

This week is Holy Week, the most important time in our Church's liturgical calendar. We will be remembering the events of Holy Week with a Stations of the Cross reflection on Wednesday 10:30am. Parents and friends are welcome to attend. It is a sombre time filled with reverence and reflection. After 40 days of Lent where we have been called to fast, pray, give to others and commit to being more like Jesus, we now rejoice in God's love for us which He showed through Jesus' death and resurrection. Please see our parish mass times below and join our parish for celebrations over the Easter weekend.

Our last day for students is Wednesday and for teachers, Thursday as we attend professional learning with a number of schools. We will be working on best practice in teaching mathematics with Dr Ange Rogers and Dr Bern Long. The day will present teachers with the latest research-based evidence to assist them to better identify and overcome common student place value misconceptions. The area of best practice in numeracy is a Strategic Improvement goal for our school this year and we are looking forward to our day with staff from St John's Lambton, Holy Family Merewether Beach and St Joseph's Merewether.

Our first day back at school is Monday 24th April.

I wish you all a beautiful Easter with your families and happy and restful holidays.

God Bless,

Kate Drake

News from the Assistant Principal

Growing GRIT

As a parents we have a responsibility to care for our children. At times, I’ve felt like it’s my duty to alleviate any discomfort my child is feeling. Lucky for me (although at the time I feel a little unlucky!), I have a terrific husband who pulls me up on this. He reminds me that when our children are out of their comfort zone it is often when they grow the most. Afterall, our long term goal as a parent is to support them into adulthood where they will be happy, well-adjusted and resilient young adults that positively contribute to our world.

Some of us by nature are more “gritty” than others, able to push ourselves and deal with discomfort. Think about endurance runners who stumble across the finish line, emotional and exhausted. Others of us are more prone to climbing deeper into our turtle shell when faced with life’s inevitable discomforts and challenges. We tend to hunker safely inside our comfort zone and not let anyone or anything pull us out.

No matter where our kid’s (or our own) starting point may be, it’s important to explore the concept of being uncomfortable and, as parents, learn to tolerate that discomfort when our kids are feeling anxious, nervous, disappointed or afraid.

It’s not easy. Our natural instinct is to protect our kids from any and all discomfort. And when they’re little, that natural instinct serves us (and them) well. We change nappies, feed them when they’re hungry, grab them before they run into the street.

Unfortunately, we can’t just “turn off” our instinct, and it can lead us astray. When an 11-year-old decides not to bring a jumper to school on a cold day, he/she will learn from his/her discomfort. If we swoop in to “save” him/her from the discomfort of cold, that 11-year-old will not learn to appropriately dress him/herself (and yes I am speaking from experience 😉).

How can we best help our kids develop into adults who persevere and can handle life’s inevitable setbacks?

We must learn to coach our children to tolerate their discomfort. If we help them figure out coping strategies, they will be better able to respond the next time an uncomfortable or painful situation arises. For our kids to develop their grit and learn to expand their comfort zone, we need to be supportive, engaged, and empathetic, without immediately swooping in to ease their discomfort.  (referenced; Monke 2023)

How is Gaining Grit Supported at St Joseph’s?

Learning behaviours and thinking are key to students being motivated and positive about their learning. As part of our Positive Behaviours for Learning, together with our learning goals we encourage our students to reflect on their behaviours, attitudes and responses.  At school, we talk to students about having a Growth Mindset. This is a way of thinking that encourages us to try new learning opportunities. When you have a Growth Mindset, challenges are seen as learning opportunities and mistakes are embraced as part of the learning journey.

Learners with a Growth Mindset can:

• Learn from their mistakes
• Use feedback constructively
• Be challenged
• Persevere with learning
• Use effort and a positive attitude for all learning tasks

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

From the Office of Safeguarding

Anxiety & Resilience Webinar- Presenter Justin Coulson

The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT has arranged for Dr Justin Coulson PhD to present a FREE webinar on the important topic of Anxiety and Resilience.

The webinar for parents, carers, and staff in NSW and ACT Catholic schools will be held on Wednesday 29 March at 7.00pm.

Register via the QR code below or ccsp.catholic.edu.au/upcoming-webinars.

News from the Religious Coordinator

MacKillop Parish Holy Week times

Project Compassion Fundraiser

A sincere thank you to the Mini Vinnies members and their families who donated baked items and goods and students who participated so generously in this year’s Project Compassion Fundraiser. Mini Vinnies baked some delicious treats on Tuesday, 21st, March. The amount raised from the cake stall was an amazing $944.60. Additionally, students raised $284.65 in money through donations to their class Project Compassion box. This amounts to an amazing $1229.25. Your generosity is the pebble that allows Caritas Australia to create the ripples that will improve the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, supporting them to flourish and creating opportunities for future generations to live to their full potential.

Thank you!

Holy Week

During Holy Week, we are led through the events of the last days of Jesus' life, his death, and his resurrection - from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally to the joy of Easter morning when Jesus rose again.

When Jesus died, which we remember on Good Friday, hope seemed lost for his followers. Jesus was promised to be “the hope of all the world” (Matthew 12:21), but He was placed on a cross and buried in a tomb.

Yet, three days later, Jesus  rose again. The message of Easter is one of hope.  God wants to meet us in our challenging lives and help us rise up in hope. We pray that this Easter Season is a time of hope for all in our community.

At St. Joseph’s we will be reflecting on the events of Holy week at 10:30am on the 5^th April in the Cola. We hope you can join us.

Mass Times in Holy Week

Please see below times for Holy Week liturgies at both St Mary Immaculate Church, Milson St, Charlestown and St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Felton Street, Gateshead.

6 April, THURSDAY of the LORD’S SUPPER:

Mass,      Gateshead, 7.00pm.                                                       

News from the Primary Coordinator

Best practice for teaching:                          

Since the beginning of 2020 our school, along with all the schools across the Diocese, has been implementing best practice for teaching, based on the work of Lyn Sharratt (Canadian educational researcher). The premise of her research is based around teachers ensuring the following in classrooms:

• establishing learning intentions that are drawn from the relevant syllabus and clearly describe what students should know, understand and be able to do at the conclusion of a unit of work.
• creating success criteria that describe what success looks like in relation to the learning intentions and are co-created by students and teachers.
• providing explicit descriptive feedback to students in a timely manner and ensuring that it is clearly understood by students.
• building the capacity of students to peer assess and self-assess using the success criteria as a reference.
• developing the capacity for individual goal setting by students, which includes students asking questions such as ‘What do I need to improve?’ and ‘What is my next step?’

How can you help with this? Ask your child what their Learning Intention is and how they are using goal setting to improve work. You can also check out your child’s weekly/fortnightly Overview of work to see the Learning Intentions set by teachers.

Kind regards,

Mrs Kathryn Hill

School Fees

All families have been emailed their annual school fee statements. 

Thank you to those families who have arranged regular payments. If you haven't yet, please arrange for a regular Bpay, Direct Debit or an annual payment. Cash payments can be accepted at the administration office between 8.15am-3.15pm Monday to Friday or credit card payments can be taken over the phone on 4943 5414. You will find a direct debit form attached below. If you have a health care card (HCC), please complete the attached HCC discount form, and return it along with a copy of your HCC to admin@charlestown.catholic.edu.au 
Please avoid using the Compass pay option as this attracts high fees. 

Additionally, any family experiencing financial difficulty is entitled to fee assistance and will be appropriately and confidentially supported to assess what is affordable for their family. Please contact principal, kate.drake@mn.catholic.edu.au
Thank you

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

Sports News

Girls in Cricket

Congratulations to Imogen, Evie, Isla and Arlia on their efforts at weekend cricket last weekend.

Imogen captained the team. She won the toss and elected to bat. They all batted well against some very strong bowlers from Newcastle City. Their fielding was exceptional. Evie took a great catch at wicket keeper. Arlia’s bowling improved out of sight and hit the stumps for it only to be called a no ball! City was only able to get 9 runs from Islas bowling of 3 overs. Imogen managed to hold them to 5 runs off her 3 overs, bowled 2 out and took a roaring catch!

Congratulations to all students who competed in this year's Cross Country event on Friday 31^st March. It was a beautiful day with everyone putting in a strong effort on the hilly course. The following students recorded times which allow them to progress to the Diocesan Event on the 10^th May at Maitland Park.

Harry Se, Jake, Luke, Ruby L, Maisie, Olive W, Flynn L, Alex Bi, Harry Sm, Alice D, Evie Ha, Summer B,  Lochlan, Eli, Gus, Evie C, Sibylla, Cora, Owen, Huon, Flynn H, Aria, Frankie,  and Lani. 

News from the Classrooms

P&F News

A big thank you to all the parents for all the Easter donations, and your support throughout the term. Our Easter Raffle will be held on Wednesday the 5^th of April in classes. We appreciate your support of our fundraiser.

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Easter.

Canteen News

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!

A new Sign Up roster for Term 2 will be posted soon.

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  

Spanish Club Term 2

Learn Guitar at St Joseph's

Calling all Rock n’ Rollers!! Learn Guitar at St Joseph’s Charlestown with Ricky’s Music Tuition

Open to years K to 6, students will learn everything from Imagine Dragons to Harry Styles, to Ed Sheeran to Post Malone, to Tones and I, to AC/DC. Student will learn in small groups at school, and have the opportunity to perform as part of an ensemble, enjoying the excitement and experience of being a real musician with skills that will last a lifetime. If you are interested in your child being involved, please email enrol@rickysmusictuition.com.au

AFL AUSKICK