Term 1 week 7

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

There have been many wonderful learning, sporting and social events at our school in the past fortnight. Huge thanks to our P&F committee, Mrs Kelly Brands (canteen) and all who volunteered last week at the Welcome BBQ. It was a great turn out with many families in attendance and our students absolutely enjoyed the face painting, balloon guy, reptile encounters and the ‘pretty amazing’ Jono the magician. Special thanks to our P&F for the purchase of two new BBQs and to Mr Tony Evans for sourcing, delivering and building them for our use. Also, thanks must be said to our wonderful staff who assisted in many ways leading up to the event and for their attendance after school as well. It was such a lovely opportunity to meet new people and to have a chat outside of the normal school routines.

Last week we hosted the Regional Soccer Trials at the Speers Point Football facility. Special thanks to Mrs Natalie Davis our sport coordinator for organising this event and to our 7 selectors from Northern NSW Football. They did an amazing job running games and drills to ultimately select 6 girls and 6 boys from the Lakes region to advance to the diocesan trials. It was a difficult task indeed with so many talented players. St Joseph’s is very proud of our representatives at both the soccer and netball trials and of those who have advanced in other sports to Diocesan trials. We wish them all the very best!

Netball- Alice D, & Avalon W

Soccer- Flynn L & Sophie W

Rugby League- Tanner T, Kobe W & Marlo E

Hockey – Frankie G

AFL-Lochlan O & Sam R

One of our 2024 school improvement goals focuses on the teaching of numeracy with teachers in regular learning with the new Mathematics curriculum and current best practices for successful teaching and learning for our students in this area. As a part of this professional learning our Diocese has hosted Professor Peter Sullivan as expert and lead teacher working with schools to improve the teaching of numeracy. Peter visited our school last week and worked with all our teachers in the co-teaching cycle and he taught in the Yr 2 and Yr 5 classrooms. It was wonderful professional learning in action with all our staff given the opportunity to engage with Peter and his demonstration lessons, taking some new ideas back to their own classrooms.

We have welcomed 3 new students with Airlie (yr 3), August (kinder) and Xanthi (yr 2) joining St Joeys. We wish them all a happy transition into their new environs, meeting new teachers and new friends.

Tomorrow we are holding our annual Open Day for Kinder 2025 enrolments and prospective enrolments for Years 1-6. We will have 2 sessions for parents and students to visit and tour our beautiful school. If you know any family or friends that are interested, please let them know they can attend tomorrow at 9:30am or 6pm. Our wonderful yr 6 leaders will be showcasing our school by leading the tours. We now have a Diocesan Enrolment timeline with applications for enrolment open now and closing on Friday 24^th May. Interviews for prospective enrolments will take place in the coming weeks with Kinder 2025 Letters of Offer sent on Friday 14^th June.

As the school is growing we have noticed increased traffic congestion particularly in the afternoons. We do have staggered dismissals to alleviate the congestion and ask that children follow the expectations to be dismissed in groups based on alphabetical groups. Some children are joining the first group even though it is not their group and telling teachers their parents tell them to ‘jump the queue’. Parents, I ask that you be respectful of the systems we have in place to ensure safety of our students and be mindful of the road rules and only park in designated spaces, not blocking neighbour’s driveways or the bus stop. I have been in consultation with Lake Macquarie Council, traffic management and police liaisons as well as our Catholic Schools Risk Management team to look at further solutions moving forward. I also encourage families to investigate other options such as walking, catching the bus or car-pooling some days with neighbours. The congestion is actually only for a short time in the afternoon, so please follow the rules, street signage and demonstrate respect for each other and the processes in place as well as patience. We can all work together to ensure safety for our children and each other.

NAPLAN testing begins this week with Yr 3 & 5 involved in a series of online tests. It is important that your children arrive at school on time and are provided with headphones for the laptops and water bottles for hydration. We do not want these tests to cause any undue worry and pressure as they can be a positive experience for students and offer helpful data for teachers on their students learning. Please speak positively to your children and just encourage them to try their best.

As we continue to journey through the church season of Lent we take time to pray:

Lord, Teach me a new freedom.

Freedom to reject comparison And to embrace uniqueness.

Freedom to cut ties with greed And feast on love.

Freedom to abstain from over indulgence And feast on self-control.

Freedom to leave behind selfish thoughts And to focus on the needs of others.

Freedom to fend off insecurity And to embrace grace.

Lord, at this time of Lent, Thank you for the freedom you bring.

Amen.

(a Lenten prayer for young people from www.lords-prayer-words.com)
God Bless,

Kate Drake

Assistant Principal

Co-Teaching at St Joseph’s Charlestown

At St Joey’s we are blessed to have our open-plan classrooms to provide quality teaching and learning opportunities. One of our school improvement goals for 2024 is for our staff to focus on the six strategies for effective Co-Teaching. The advantages of Co-Teaching are extensively documented, encompassing benefits both within the partnership itself and throughout the wider educational community. These benefits span from professional growth among colleagues to enhanced learning outcomes and increased student engagement.

Benefit #1: Co-Teaching supports inclusion and differentiation by:

· Reducing student-to-teacher ratios, thereby allowing for more personalized attention and one-on-one instruction.

· Creating a less restrictive environment for students with diverse learning needs, leading to improved outcomes and increased likelihood of meeting individual needs.

· Providing opportunities for one teacher to work with small groups or individual needs.

· Offering multiple explanations of complex concepts and joint feedback from different teachers.

· Enabling earlier intervention in the instructional process.

Benefit #2: Assessment and curriculum become more holistic and integrated through:

· Co-debriefing and co-reflecting, allow for the sharing of evidence of learning and collaborative planning.

· Utilising the presence of multiple teachers to gather and document insights directly from classroom experiences.

Benefit #3: Co-teachers broaden their professional horizons by:

· Engaging in continuous and embedded professional learning through the co-teaching process.

· Collaborating with colleagues who bring diverse perspectives, practises, and values to the partnership.

· Mentoring one another and fine-tuning their teaching practises through collaborative efforts.

Benifift #4: Collective teacher efficacy is strengthened in schools with co-taught classrooms because:

· Teaching practices become less isolated as teachers plan, teach, debrief, and reflect together.

· The co-teaching cycle fosters collaborative evaluation of the impact on student learning.

· Co-teachers support and validate each other, leading to increased confidence and a shared sense of effectiveness.

Benefit #5: Co-teaching promotes learner and teacher wellbeing by:

· Cultivating positive teacher relationships that contribute to an inclusive culture and increased emotional support for students.

· Modelling positive peer relations and reducing stigmas associated with learning disabilities.

· Alleviating teacher burnout and boosting morale.

· Fostering learner engagement and the development of pro-social skills in co-taught classrooms.

Benefit #6. Co teaching drives positive changes in pedagogical by:

· Encouraging flexibility and willingness to adopt different approaches, strategies models through collaboration with co-teachers.

· It frequently results in richer and more effective class discussions, benefiting from the diverse perspectives and teaching styles of both co-teachers.

· Co-teaching facilities high-impact joint feedback, making learning visible and allowing co-teachers to manage multiple students and competing voices simultaneously.

· Teachers who engage in co-planning tend to employ a wider range of high-teaching impact strategies and use them more consistently.

· Co-teaching provides an opportunity for teachers to refine their instructional techniques and collaborate on initiative approaches to meet the needs of their students effectively.

Office of Safeguarding

Primary Coordinator

PBL - Positive Behaviour for Learning – ‘Keep our school clean’.

This fortnight as a PBL focus we are aiming to ‘keep our school clean’ at St Joseph’s. This began with everyone participating in School Clean Up Day on Friday 1^st March. It was amazing how many small pieces of rubbish we could find in the gardens, pathways and corners of our playground and common areas. I wish to congratulate the students and staff to committing to this event.

In the encyclical ‘Laudato Si’’ that Pope Francis published in May 2015, he talks about our responsibility to care for our common home. Pope Francis reminds us that the little decisions we make in our everyday life can have a big impact for a better future. For children, this may be explored by showing stewardship through caring for gardens and plants, being mindful of electricity and water use, not wasting food, picking up rubbish, using rubbish, compost, and recycling bins correctly, taking care of their personal belongings and shared resources, reducing what they buy and reusing things, looking after nature, and caring for pets and animals. Pope Francis in Laudato Si also reminds us that we are part of God’s Creation and motivates us to show respect for, and live in communion with, all of creation. By looking after nature and our environment, we are looking after each other.

Reflection Sheets

As an integral part of our PBL process at St. Joseph's, we spend time reminding and reinforcing our school expectations to students. This is achieved through engaging in restorative conversations and utilising reflection sheets. Should your child bring home a reflection sheet, this means your child has spent some time with a staff member or executive staff, reflecting on their behaviour that has not met our school expectations.  We strongly encourage you to engage in a discussion with them about the issue recording on the sheet and to contemplate strategies for handling similar situations better in the future. The reflection sheet needs to be signed and returned to school so that we know you have engaged with your child in this process. Thank you for taking the time to support your child and help us to maintain high school expectations.

NAPLAN 2024

Year 3 and 5 parents, please make sure you have the NAPLAN dates in your diary for Weeks 7 and 8. Testing will occur in the morning session, and we appreciate student being on time as they are utilising computers for most test. Year 5 students must bring their laptops fully charged each day. If any students are absent for the testing period, please update Compass and notify the teacher in advance so that we can reschedule the test in the second week.

 Kind regards,

Frances Courtney - Primary Coordinator

News from the Religious Coordinator

St Joseph’s Feast Day

Please join us to celebrate this special day with our school community.

Sacramental News

Ten students from years 4-6 are currently preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This sacrament offers a formal way of receiving the beautiful gift of grace for choices we make which hurt God, others and ourselves. God’s mercy helps to get us back on track. This week there is a practice at St Mary Immaculate Church at 6pm and the Sacrament will be celebrated on the 21st March at 7pm.

SJC Caring Group

We are inviting new members to join our SJC Caring Committee. The committee is a group of people who have registered their interest in making a meal from time to time for families in our community who are experiencing life issues like a new baby, illness, loss etc . These meals make a huge difference during these times of need. If you are interested in being part of the committee, please email clare.paff@mn.catholic.edu.au.

Class News

Thank you.

Thank you to James McLachlan, dad of Freddie in Year 1, who organised for a boat to be added to our nature play area. James has worked hard to renovate the boat so that our St Joseph's children can enjoy playing in it. 

We would also like to thank John Anieto, dad of Mitch is year 1, who painted the boat on the weekend. 

We are grateful for both James and John's time and skills to make this boat a feature at St Joseph's.

Warm regards

Kathryn Hill

Happy Birthday to the following students

We wish the following students a very happy birthday.

Sport News

Congratulations to the following students who have advanced to the Maitland Newcastle Diocesan Sport Trials:

Netball- Alice D, & Avalon W

Soccer- Flynn L & Sophie W

Rugby League- Tanner T, Kobe W & Marlo E

Hockey – Frankie G

AFL-Lochlan O & Sam R

P&F News

Our P& F meet twice per term on the 2nd Monday of the month. Tonight we will hold our AGM and regular meeting starting at 6:30pm in the staffroom. All positons will become vacant and open.

This term we are holding our annual Easter raffle. We ask each family to doante a prize for the raffle by sending the item to the office by Wed 21/3. Raffle tickets will be sent home for purchase on QKR this week.

TERM 2 MEETINGS Monday 13th May and Monday 17th June

Please join us if you can!

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!

https://signup.zone/ZYkfNzsbws83p9yHM

Uniform Shop

All enquiries to email: our volunteers. Shop open Monday and Friday at 8.45- 9.15am

chl.uniformshop@mn.catholic.edu.au

ORDER via the QKR App

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  

Guitar and Band.

Healthy Eating Snippets