Term 4 Week 1

What's on at St Joey's

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 4. It is lovely to be back after my long service leave and it was just wonderful seeing happy children and parents this morning. I extend my gratitude to Mrs Wilson for caring for the school in my absence and to our amazing staff for their continued dedication and commitment to our school. My husband and I enjoyed a fabulous overseas adventure, visiting many countries and experiencing beautiful places, foods and cultures. We also spent the last 2 weeks with our eldest child in Japan, celebrating his marriage. So, I am feeling very blessed and content, so very happy to be back at St Joseph’s.

During the holidays we have had some maintenance work and improvements completed, including new carpet in the Yr 6 and Yr 3 units, pest maintenance and some landscaping. We have also had the roll out of the Diocesan Period Positivity resources with installation of free sanitary product dispensers in the girl’s bathrooms across the school. Before the products are stocked the school will be conducting education around the dispensers and their purpose, in line with the syllabus for each grade. This is a great initiative from our Diocese, encouraging accessibility, equality and dignity. Please see the letter attached below with further information.

Congratulations to the Rickard family on the arrival of Fynn, baby brother for Jace in Year 1.

Congratulations to Mrs Hoffman our Library Assistant who has become a grandmother for the first time, with the arrival of grandson Charlie.

We wish both families much love and happiness.

Stage 3 embarked on their 2 day camp today, in Tea Gardens. I’ve already heard they are having a wonderful time. Thank you to Mrs Hill, Ms Davis, Mr Faith, Mrs Flanagan, Ms Morris and Mr Fox for attending with the students. We appreciate their time, organisation and being away from their own families overnight.

Deepest sympathy to the Fagan family on the passing of Eddie and Annabel’s paternal grandfather. May your loving memories bring you comfort at this sad time.

Term 4 is a busy term filled with many events and celebrations. Please see above for important dates. Our End of Year dates for your diaries are as follows:

Thursday 5^th December – School Christmas Carols 5:30pm-7pm

Wednesday 11^th December – End of Year Mass including Yr 6 Farewell & 2025 School Leaders Announced – St Mary Immaculate Church Charlestown 9:30am

Thursday 12^th December 1:30pm - SJC’S Got Talent Show –

Monday 16^th December - School Swimming Carnival

Monday 16^th December - Yr 6 Farewell (including Yr 5) – Charlestown Bowling Club

Tuesday 17^th December - End of Year Awards Assembly 9am

Wednesday 18^th December – Last Day for Students

Thursday 19^th December – Last Day for Staff

We are very much looking forward to our SJC GR8 Race on Friday 1^st November. Please register your child’s participation and pay the $20 fee and order the sausage sizzle asap. Please see below and COMPASS for all the details. We appreciate your support of this major fundraiser for the year.

With all the unrest in the world we are called to pray for peace. You may like to pray the Rosary with your children or even a simple prayer for world peace before dinner.

Keep in touch with us throughout the term and I will look forward to seeing you at upcoming events soon.

God Bless,

Kate Drake

Assistant Principal

Reflecting on the Past 3 Terms and Finishing Strong in Term 4

As we enter Term 4, it’s a great time to reflect on the progress we’ve made over the past three terms and prepare for a strong finish to the school year. Each term has brought its own set of challenges and successes, and it’s important to recognise the dedication shown by our students, staff, and families.

In the first three terms, we witnessed growth not only academically, but also in areas like leadership, collaboration, and community spirit. Our students have embraced opportunities to learn and grow, whether through classroom achievements, extracurricular activities, or social development. Teachers have worked tirelessly to support each student's learning journey, adapting lessons and finding new ways to engage students. Families have been invaluable partners, offering support and encouragement every step of the way. As we embark on the final stretch of the year, Term 4 presents a chance to consolidate what we’ve learned and push toward achieving our goals. It’s a time to stay focused, build on the foundations we’ve set, and finish the year on a positive note.

A Family Challenge for Term 4: Choosing a Word That Represents You

To help maintain motivation and reflection, we invite all families to take part in a special challenge this term. We encourage each family to choose a word that best represents your goals and values for the remainder of the year. Words like thrive, growth, ambition, or resilience can serve as powerful reminders of the mindset we want to embrace. Once you’ve chosen your word, take time each week to discuss it as a family. Reflect on how it’s guiding your actions and how it aligns with the progress you’re making. This simple activity can create meaningful conversations and keep everyone focused on finishing the year strong.

Let’s all work together to maintain the momentum, celebrate our achievements, and continue striving for excellence in this last term. With dedication and a positive mindset, we can ensure that everyone finishes the school year strong!

Wishing everyone a successful and fulfilling Term 4!

Warm regards,

Kathryn Hill

Office of Safeguarding

News from the Religious Coordinator

First Communion

First Holy Communion is approaching this term with a rehearsal on Thursday 7^th November 6pm.Holy Communion will be held on the 9^th November at 6:30pm at St Mary Immaculate Church, Charlestown. In the meantime, candidates are to consider materials sent from the Parish Office and we will check in on understanding later in the term at school.  

Praise and Worship Event 27^th October

You are invited to a contemporary prayer and praise event at the Factory at St Pius.   A group of beautiful contemporary musicians will share some modern songs. Tinah Deluca- Tohi will be giving her powerful witness of loss, love and the power of faith.  Please come along and experience the power of God’s presence in a new and contemporary way.

Socktober:

Socktober for Mission Month cultivates the passion of students to rise, engage their local community, and take action against poverty through the world game of soccer. It provides young people in Australia with the opportunity to lead in mission, encouraging them to think not only of what they will do to help, but why they will do it. This year the focus is Mongolia. During the next couple of weeks classes are encouraged to place money in a class sock. The fundraising will culminate in an event day on the 8^th of November where students will bring a donation , wear crazy socks, participate in a liturgy at 10:30am on and enjoy soccer based games after lunch to celebrate their efforts.  Your support is appreciated. 

Coming up this term

Remembrance Day: We will commemorate remembrance day on the 11/11 starting at 10:40am. All Welcome.

End of year Mass: We will celebrate our end of year Mass on the 11^th of December at 9:30am at St Mary Immaculate Church, Charlestown. Please note class awards will not be issued at this event, but 2025 counsellors will be announced at the end.

Primary Coordinator

This fortnight, our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) focus is Strive High - Do Your Best. This is an important focus for the beginning of term where we return from holidays refreshed and ready to give our best effort. This includes believing in our ability to grow and improve and embracing a positive growth mindset!

Doing Your Best

Doing your best means putting in effort in everything you do—whether it's in the classroom, on the playground, or at home. We want to encourage all students to take pride in their work and strive for excellence. Throughout the fortnight, we will focus on celebrating successes, encouraging perseverance, and learning from mistakes together.

Embracing a Growth Mindset

A positive growth mindset means understanding that challenges are opportunities to learn and grow. Instead of thinking, “I can’t do this,” we want students to say, “I can’t do this yet!” This mindset helps them tackle obstacles with confidence and determination.

Tips for Parents

• Encourage Effort: Praise your child for their hard work and determination with tasks.
• Share Experiences: Talk about times when you faced challenges and what you learned from them.
• Set Goals Together: Help your child set small, achievable goals and celebrate their progress!

Let’s work together to foster a community where everyone feels empowered to do their best and embrace growth!

Kind regards,

Frances Courtney

Primary Coordinator

The GR8 RACE 2024

THE GR8 RACE IS OUR MAJOR SCHOOL FUNDRAISER FOR 2024.

On Friday 1 November our school oval will become a sports dreamworld. Our student’s eyes will light up when they arrive at school to see the colour, energy and incredible equipment that is THE GR8 RACE. Our students will be on a journey to visit as many countries as they can, completing challenges and activities at each to gain that country’s stamp on their passport. Whether it be ‘Colour Run in Cuba’, ‘Bolt Stack in Bulgaria’ or ‘Bullseye in Brazil’ the challenges are fun and engaging and the 90-minute race will see the kids having the time of their lives.

Prior to race day our students will gain sponsors (similar to what has been done in the past with say a skip-a-thon) however this is all online. To kick this event off, our students have today received their boarding pass to help them set up their online sponsor page. Sponsors will jump online and pledge a donation amount.

St Joseph’s are fundraising for an extension to our ninja park and we are so excited to be running a GR8 RACE to support this project. We can’t wait to see our wonderful school community get behind this very exciting initiative. All funds raised from sponsor pledges come directly to the school. We know the kids are going to love this and we thank our school community in advance for your support! Keep your eye out today for your child’s boarding pass to get them on their way.

Class News

Hall of Fame

We love celebrating the achievements of our students both in and out of the classroom! If your child has recently accomplished something special in sports or any extracurricular activity, we encourage you to share their success with us. Whether it's a competition, performance, or personal milestone, we'd be thrilled to feature their accomplishments in our school newsletter. Please let us know so we can celebrate their hard work and dedication!

Felix won his grand final last week, after an amazing season being undefeated all year, they were minor premiers and won the grand final after a nail-biting overtime that then went into penalties.

Year 5 students Cora, Evie and Jeremy had a successful basketball season, winning their grand finals with their Lakers teams. 

Jeremy and Cora also earned MVP awards for their team for the season. 

Garden Group

Half way through spring and our kitchen garden is really springing to life!

Watermelon seedlings have emerged and will start to mature and hopefully provide some beautiful melons.

Our beds are bursting with crops including corn, cucumbers, snow peas, garden peas, climbing beans, beetroot and onions.

Our beautiful green team of Charlotte, Emily, Harvey, Jace, Charlotte, Audrey, Kai and Felix are commended for their efforts in developing and setting up our display at The Living Smart Festival late last term.

The children were enthusiastic in their efforts, building the display which consisted of plants they cared for throughout the term, as well as up cycled mushrooms, that were salvaged from the side of the road, and a sample of Jace from year 1’s writing on Earthworms.

Mrs McAlister and Mrs Courtney accompanied the kids to Speers Point park where they set up the display which also included photos of our students,  displayed using sustainable materials.

In more exciting news, St Joseph’s Charlestown has been awarded a Sustainable School’s Award by Lake Macquarie City which includes a monetary grant. Well done St Joseph’s!

Thank you Mrs Courtney for entering the school in both the Sustainability competition and the Garden Bed competition.

The money will be used to rejuvenate our strawberry beds, as well as purchase some more raised beds to feature indigenous herbs and edible plants.

We are all looking forward to a fun term 4 in the garden!

Thank you

Kim McAlister

Happy Birthday to the following students

We wish the following students a very happy birthday.

School Fees

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 4!

Thank you to all the families who have already paid their school fees. This is a friendly reminder that all fees are due by November 29th. If any families are experiencing difficulties, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our admin staff.

PH 4943 5414

Thank you for your support!

P&F News

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

As many of you may be aware, we have been working on transitioning the St Joseph’s Charlestown P&F Uniform Shop to an external provider throughout this year. We are pleased to confirm that we have finalised planning this transition with Wearitto Retail Solutions.

Wearitto has now taken over the operation of our school uniform shop. Below is a summary of the changes. 

• Parents can order uniforms online through the Wearitto website and click and collect from the school (or delivered to Home that has $12.50 Delivery Fee).
• Uniform shop will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays 8.00am to 10.00am
• Pricelist is attached
• Additional hours the week prior to School 2025 start date.

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