Term 3 Week 3

What's on at St Joey's in August

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents,

Last Tuesday we held our Grandparent's Liturgy and Picnic. We had a very impressive turnout! Whilst the weather was not on our side we made the most of the day and students enjoyed time with their special visitors. Thank you to Kindergarten and Year 2 for their preparations to ensure the liturgy expressed the important and valuable role Grandparents have in their grandchildren's lives.

The NAIDOC activities on Thursday were amazing with the students involved in dancing, games, painting, weaving and tasting bush tucker. I was so proud of our students as I walked around the school, to see them listening, being respectful and joining in with enthusiasm to each workshop. Our presenters who have been at many schools, commented on our students’ beautiful manners and respectful behaviour. Thank you to Mrs Shaw for organising these great experiences for our school community.

Huge congratulations to Hamish K. who competed in the NSW PSSA Cross Country in Week 1. What a fantastic achievement to get to State level in this event. We are very proud of you Hamish!

Congratulations also to Charlotte M. in Year 1 and Ava Long, Year 5, who were named finalists out of 1200 entries in the annual Interrelate ‘Say yes to respectful relationships’ poster competition. We were excited to watch the Virtual Award Ceremony last week and to see our last year’s winner, Mikaela M. presenting with the team. You can watch the recording here

We have such enormous responsibility as parents and teachers to be good role models for our children in how to behave, respond to challenges, and how to treat each other. We live in a world filled with diversity and yet we are each created in the image of God. Let’s show our children through our own words and actions how we want to be treated and how we should treat others.

Welcome to the Tindall family who join our community today. Tanner has joined 4 Red and Reid in 2 Red. We also welcome our intern from Newcastle University, Isabelle Peacock, who will be teaching in 4 Red this term. We trust you will find our school to be a place of welcome, faith, fun and great learning.

We keep the Whale family in our prayers as they grieve the loss of Sara’s dad, Sophie and Jesse’s grandfather. There is such deep sorrow when we lose our parents. We pray that your loving memories bring you peace and comfort at this sad time. 

PAYMENTS and FEES

A reminder to parents to please pay for any outstanding events via QKR as per our Compass alerts. Dance Fever, Aspire, and NAIDOC are all due at the moment. We were very fortunate to receive a Lake Macquarie City Council grant to assist with the NAIDOC events and also a NSW Sporting Schools grant to cover Stage 2 basketball.

Thank you to those parents who have paid school fees in full for the year and to parents who are making regular fee payments. It is a financial commitment to send your children to a Catholic school and one that we appreciate can be difficult at times. Please contact me if you are experiencing financial difficulty and we can discuss a payment plan.

BUILDING WORKS

As you visit our school you will continue to see building works in progress, to improve our facilities for our students. Year 1 have moved into the newly refurbished classroom while their classroom is renovated. Kinder will be next with an additional outdoor learning space created. Followed by the 3/4 unit. Our playground renovations will begin in a few weeks with the retaining wall around the space being removed and replaced with sandstone blocks. Then the softfall will be resurfaced ready for the installation of the shade sails and our new fort/structure. All very exciting that’s for sure! The Catholic Schools Office have also approved my application for funding of new security fencing around the site. I am hopeful that all these projects will be complete by the end of the year.

This week I received with mixed emotions the news that our amazing and wonderful administration extraordinaire, Carolyn Trimble has decided to retire. Carolyn has made this decision carefully after 25 years at St Joseph’s. Her two boys went to school here and Carolyn started as a Teacher’s Aide, then moved into her area of expertise, finance and office administration. Carolyn is the backbone and heart of our school with immense knowledge, wisdom and experience that will be greatly missed. But we understand that it is the right time for Carolyn to join her husband in retirement so they can enjoy travel and time with their family, especially with the two new grandbabies. Carolyn will finish at the end of this term and we will organise an opportunity to thank and farewell her. Please join me in wishing Carolyn all the very best as she moves into this new chapter of her life.

Finally, I end with another retirement announcement, that of our Director of Catholic Schools, Gerard Mowbray. Gerard has been committed to Catholic education for 46 years in this diocese. His achievements are vast and varied, spanning many schools and positions. In my time in the Maitland
Newcastle Diocese, Gerard has been instrumental in bringing a clear diocesan approach to leading learning with a strong emphasis on positive student outcomes and excellence in teacher pedagogy. Gerard has always been a calm, approachable and faith filled leader. Gerard will retire at the end of the year to spend time with his family and friends. There will be time later in the year to thank and celebrate Gerard’s outstanding career.

God Bless,

Kate Drake   (Principal)

News from the Assistant Principal

Kindness Culture at St Joseph’s.

We have had a busy couple of weeks. No doubt you have heard from your students about our amazing NAIDOC Week activities and celebrations held last Thursday. As educators, teaching students to respect and value differences helps foster their acceptance of diversity. When we plant seeds of understanding we grow young people into adults that live like Jesus and include others.

Wishing you a fabulous fortnight ahead,

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

Science Day Monday 15th August

On Monday the 15^th of August, week 5, we will be holding a whole school marble run challenge day. This will take place in Science Week and link to the national theme for Science Week this year: glass.

All classes from K-6 will participate in this challenge day.

To assist with forming a bank of resources for students to draw from when creating and building their marble runs, we are asking if you could please send in any of the following before the day.

• Cardboard rolls or tubes (paper towel, glad wrap)
• Cereal boxes
• Tin cans
• Plastic bottles
• Egg cartons
• Small boxes; toothpaste, tissues etc.
• Newspaper

These materials will be stored in the classroom until the day of the challenge. They will then be shared amongst students on the day.

From the Office of Safeguarding

Beyond Blue Healthy Families

A reminder about resources from Beyond Blue link

News from the Religious Coordinator

Grandparent's Day

It was wonderful to see all our grandparents and family members celebrating grandparent's day on Tuesday. This date is chosen as it is the feast of St Anne and St Joachim. The parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus and therefore Jesus’ grandparents. Additionally, Pope Francis declared last year that each Sunday closest to this feast day would be recognised as the World day for Grandparents and the Elderly, recognising the valuable role that grandparents play in raising up the next generation.

St Mary of the Cross Mackillop’s Feast Day

Monday the 8^th of August marks the feast day of St. Mary of the Cross Mackillop. Mary Mackillop holds a special place at our school as she was responsible for founding the Josephite order of nuns who had an important role in education of students , especially  those who had the least access to education. The Josephie order eventually founded schools in the Maitland Newcastle Diocese, including St Joseph’s Charlestown. We will celebrate St Mary Mackillop’s feast day at 9am Monday morning in the Cola. Parents and family members are welcome to attend.

Sacramental  News

Sacramental preparation has started again in readiness for celebrating Eucharist or First Holy Communion on the weekend of the 21^st and 22^nd of August. Eucharist is a term which means thanksgiving and refers to the special and sacred meal when initiated Catholics can partake in sharing in the bread and wine as the disciples did at the Last Supper.  Please continue to keep these students in your prayers

Many Blessings,
Clare Paff

News from the Primary Coordinator

Lost Property 

We have been focusing on ensuring the number of items in our lost property boxes decrease each week. It has been pleasing to see improvements in students caring for their belongings.  

By ensuring names are written on all clothing, lunch bags and plasticware we can easily return items.  

If you have purchased an item from the 2nd Hand clothing pool, please change the name to your child to assist us in returning the clothing to the right person.  

Thank you for your assistance. 

Kind regards,
Karen Nolan

PBL

For the next 2 weeks of Term 2 we are focusing on the Use kind words and actions (hands off) value of our SJC matrix.  

In class we will be talking about this focus value and teachers will be reinforcing this with positive feedback and regular prompts for our students to assist them to demonstrate this behaviour in all settings.  

PBL AWARDS TERM 3 Week 1

Congratulations to the following students: 

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

Sports News

Dance Fever

This term all students will be particpating in Dance Fever. The Dance Fever payment of $38 is now due on QKR- thank you!

Dance Fever Fun

Students in Stage 2 will be particpating in Basketball clinics on Mondays this term.

We have obtained a sporting schools grant and there is no cost for the Stage 2 particpants.

News from the classrooms

What an eventful week 2 it has been at St Joseph's for Stage 3. From our Grandparents day on Tuesday, Aspire production at the Civic Theatre Wednesday and the best day on Thursday- our Naidoc week celebrations. NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal Islander day Of Commemoration. We had special Indigenous visitors that organised a variety of activities such as, art symbols, dancing, Ochre painting, weaving, Aboriginal sporting games and bush tucker tasting. We certainly had an enormous amount of fun. Our deepest gratitude to St Jospeh's for organising this and especially Mrs Shaw for the NAIDOC events. 

This report was written by Isla, Lily and Ruby (Stage 3 students). 

Stage 3

P&F News

Thank you for requesting to volunteer at St Joseph’s Charlestown.

However, before we can accept these generous offers, volunteers new to the role of volunteering or who have perhaps not been an active volunteer for a while due to COVID, will need to go to the diocesan website and complete the Volunteer registration form. There is a  link here to register your interest in becoming a volunteer at St Joseph’s. This is a Diocesan mandate, and all volunteers are required to complete this registration form online (unless you are already registered and cleared to volunteer by the Diocese). It has a Police check section that is mandatory. Once this registration form is completed and a police check is completed, then we will be notified by the Diocese that you are clear to volunteer here at school. This whole process can take a few weeks.

We ask that you follow the link to the website and complete the registration form ASAP so you can all come on site and be part of this amazing school community in many varied ways! 

Canteen News

If you are able to assist in the school canteen please email Natalie Evans nattthebatevans@gmail.com or 0400413448

Hub News

Stephanie Tranter,
Teacher Librarian

Aboriginal Education News

St Joseph’s held their NAIDOC Week celebrations last Thursday. This day was very successful, students found the activities to be meaningful and authentic. Students enjoyed the Smoking ceremony and workshops including weaving, bush tucker and cultural dances. All children were thoroughly engaged in hands-on experiences that celebrate the many diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. What a privilege to have Aboriginal community members come to our school and share their experiences and knowledge which has been passed to them by their Elders. Mrs Shaw and our special guests had countless students thank them for providing such a fun day- a beautiful reflection of our school community. An unforgettable day!

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