Term 2 Week 7

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,
What a busy few weeks it has been with many events and celebrations at SJC. I would like to thank our wonderful staff for their commitment and dedication, and also thank the many fabulous parent and grandparent volunteers who help make these events a success. 
This week we congratulate our students involved in the parish sacramental program, receiving the beautiful sacrament of reconciliation last Thursday. Reconciliation is a sacrament that focusses on forgiveness and God’s love. Through reconciliation we acknowledge our wrongdoings, and through God’s love and forgiveness are healed allowing us to also forgive others when they hurt us. Reconciliation means to ‘be at peace again’. In these critical and challenging times, we can all do with the gift of forgiveness and the ability to forgive others too.

Thank you for your generous support of our St Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal, last Friday. QKR donations can still be made if you are able. The SVDP Society are currently experiencing higher than ever requests for support from families, single men and women and elderly people. Homelessness is growing, with a huge increase in women aged 50 and over finding themselves in this situation. Your donations and support will go to our local chapter to support people in our community. 

This week we welcome Mrs Kathleen Arthur-Smith to Year 1 Red, replacing Mrs Angela Shaw. Kathleen will be working in jobshare with Mrs Sue Woodward. We also welcome 3 University Teaching undergraduates to the Stage 3 team. Hannah Smith, Emrah Manning, Eve Leacey all from the University of Newcastle will be working with our Stage 3 students and teachers for the rest of the term. I am sure you will all welcome these people to our school community.

Kinder 2024 Letters of Offer will be sent home today via email and hard copy. Please check your inbox for these letters. It is pleasing to see the strong interest we have for our beautiful school with 42 enrolments being accepted so far. If you know of someone who is seeking enrolment please let them know to apply or if you have not returned your application, please do so this week.

In week 9 our school will be undergoing an External Review as part of our Continuum of School Improvement (COSI) cycle. This involves an external panel of 7 people visiting our school for 2 days. They will be reviewing our school's Strategic Improvement Plan, school data, policies and procedures and interviewing staff, students and parents. If you would be interested in contributing to the conversation, please contact me for a timeslot on either 20/6 or 21/6.

Congratulations to the Follington family with Darcy in year 2, welcoming a baby sister, Mae. We wish you all much love and happiness with your new family member.

All students should now be in full winter uniform. Huge thanks to our parent volunteers Lindsey, Hannah and Caroline in the uniform shop. They have bene inundated with orders and have managed to get everything out to those who have placed orders. There is still a wait on the ties for Kinders and new students but these should be arriving this week. Please encourage your children to take pride in our uniform and in particular the wearing of correct black polishable  shoes on non sport days. Our uniform is something we should be proud of, as it represents our belonging to the St Joseph's community. Please also remember to check labeling on all items so that they can be returned to the correct person. Tidy hair and minimal jewelry are also important, with hair at shoulder length tied up with school coloured accessories. Earrings are limited to studs and sleepers only. Thank you for your suppport of these expectations.

God Bless,

Kate Drake

News from the Assistant Principal

Reporting

Semester Reports

Our school is a hive of activity with busy bees in classroooms (students and teachers alike) working hard.  Teachers have begun the process of collating data and writing Semester reports. The reports take the same structure as last year.   Key points to note are:

• The strands of English: Reading & Viewing, Writing & Representing and Speaking & Listening, are further broken down to specific skills in these three areas.
• The comments for Religion, English and Mathematics will be in two sections:
• Areas of Strength
• Areas for Development
• Commitment to Learning has a 3-point scale: high, developing & emerging
• Personal & Social Development and Learning Dispositions have a 5-point scale: consistently, usually, often, developing or requires support.

The reports will be available on Compass in Week 10.

Learning / Children & Devices

There are an absolute plethora of apps and sites out there that are simply sensational as learning platforms to assist students.  Below find links to some great sites for primary aged students and adults that are great for reasoning, spelling, flexibility with numbers and operations, and vocabulary building.  Have a go, but be warned they can be addictive!

Vocabulary & Spelling

• Wordle click here
• Tridle click here
• Qourdle click here
• Duotrigordle click here
• Blossom Words  click here
• Scrabwordle – click here

Mathematics

• The Numbers Game click here
• Nerdle click here

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

From the Office of Safeguarding

News from the Religious Coordinator

Last Thursday Students from SJC , St Paul’s and other local schools completed their preparation for the first of the rites of initiation in the Church and they made their first reconciliation. Reconciliation allows us to make amends with God, ourselves, and each other as we receive the gift of love and forgiveness when we say sorry for the mistakes we have made. The students participated beautifully in the liturgy and next term will start preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Last Friday we wore our PJs and donated towards the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal. This year’s campaign is particularly important as we know the cost of living is driving up electricity and rental prices as well as the cost of food. A target of the campaign this year is women over 50 who are over represented in homelessness rates due to relationship break down, lack of superannuation and insecure employment. Because of the difficulties experienced in many communities at the moment, we are keeping our QKR fundraising open until the end of term as well as taking donations in classrooms. Thank you for your support.

Join us at  the Parish Mass 

This term each stage will attend Mass at 9:30 am at St Mary Immaculate Church, Charlestown on a Wednesday. Last week Stage 1 attended Mass. This Wednesday 7^th June Stage 2 will be attending and in Week 8 Stage 3 and Early Stage 1. Parents and family members are more than welcome to join us as part of our faith community.

News from the Primary Coordinator

PBL: Be Respectful: Use Kind Words and Actions:

This fortnight in class and on the playground, our PBL focus for this fortnight is to use kind words and actions. Students are reflecting on the impact, on others and ourselves, when we use kind/unkind words. They will be identifying what these actions look like, sound like and feel like. Please keep this conversation going at home.

Explicit Instruction in Numeracy:

At St Joseph’s our teachers provide direct instruction and explain the process step by step. It involves setting clear expectations, demonstrating strategies, and providing explicit guidance on the content being taught. By breaking down the process in numeracy into manageable tasks, children gain a solid foundation and understanding of the key concepts. We use whiteboards to check for understanding, differentiate and provide feedback.

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

Hub

Sports News

Our athletics carnival was a great success thanks to the wonderful students who did their best and to all our amazing volunteers. THANK YOU! 

Notes have been sent home to students who have advanced to the Lakes Regional carnival, which will be held on Wednesday 28^th June. Please return permission notes and pay via cash or call to pay by credit card asap. Congratulations to these students:

News from the Classrooms

School Fees - Bursur - Amale Yi

Fee statements have been emailed for the month of June.  These were sent out on Thursday June 1st to the nominated fee payers email address.  If you are paying fees "in full" as one payment, please finalise by 30 June 2023.

- If paying fees by instalment, your weekly, fortnight or monthly frequency needs to commence immediately, and fees are paid in full by 30 November 
2023.
- Our preferred method of payment is either BPay or direct debit.
- For Fee Payers wishing to establish a new Direct Debit, or adjust their existing direct debit, please complete the form on the Catholic Development Fund 
website www.CDFmn.com.au.
- For those families experiencing financial hardship, or wishing to discuss other payment arrangements, please contact the school office to arrange an appointment with the Principal.  Any fee enquiries please direct these to Amale Yi on 4943 5414 or email, admin@charlestown.catholic.edu.au.

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!

Please sign up!

https://signup.zone/ZYkfNzsbws83p9yHM

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  

School Holiday Programs