Term 3 Week 5

What's on at St Joey's in August

Principal's Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have had some wonderful events at St Joey's these past couple of weeks that have made us feel so happy to be a part our vibrant and active school. I would like to say a huge thank you to the various staff who have organised these events for our students. We've had Spelling and Maths Bees in classes followed by school finals, Stage 3 Debating Competition and Science Week this week with the marble run design event. Congratulations to all our winners and to those students who have the opportunity to represent St Joseph's at the Lakes Region Competitions. I was fortunate to witness our 2 debating teams practise for their regional competition and I would have to say both teams were absolutley outstanding. I was very proud that these young ladies represented our school last week and competed graciously against each other, whilst still offering encouragement and support. Team 2 came second in the final event which was a wonderful result!

Next week we have our Book Week celebrations. We can't wait for our book character parade, book fair and author visit with Leila Rudge. Leila is mum to Marlow in Year 1 and is a renowned author and illustrator. Her book 'Winston and the Indoor Cat' has been shortlisted on this year's Children's Book Council of Australia Awards List. We wish Leila the very best as the winners are announced on Friday. Parents are welcome to attend the parade at 9am Wednesday 24th August. Please use the QR code at the school gate and sign into our site for events. If attending the Book Fair in the Hub, we ask that you wear a mask. Please see our Compass notifications for further details.  

Today we welcome the Bhattari family with Kashbi joining 5/6 white. We trust that you will find St Joseph's to be a welcoming and happy school community.

We are finalising our Kinder 2023 enrolments and are looking forward to our first Play & Learn session on Thursday 22nd September. If you know of any families looking for enrolment for their children please tell them to contact our office for information. 

Thank you to our wonderful P & F Committee who meet twice per term to organise fundraisers and to support the school in its endeavours and services such as the canteen and uniform shop. Please see Compass for our Father's Day fundraiser. We will also be working together to organise a school FUNDAY COLOUR RUN in term 4 to raise funds to continue improvements in our playspaces. We will be asking for donations of prizes from local businesses. If you can help out please contact us via the school office: admin@charlestown.catholic.edu.au

Please keep the Seymour family in your prayers as they grieve the loss of their cousin and are also caring for Analie's very ill father.  We pray that you feel comfort in the love of family, friends and God who loves you.

 God Bless,

Kate Drake   (Principal)

News from the Assistant Principal

Dear Parents,

We have a very busy calendar with lot's of visitors attending onsite and staff and students attending events. Students are thoroughly enjoying participating in these events. We are still under pressure with limited staff to replace those members of staff who become unwell and are unable to come to school. Thank you for your understanding and for ensuring students are staying home if unwell or displaying symptoms.

I hope you are enjoying our "new-look" newsletter and the picture galleries of the varied learning opportunities at our great school.

Tell Them from Me (TTFM) Survey
This year the Tell Them from Me (TTFM) Survey will be conducted from the 5th September to 7th October. In the coming weeks, we will send through a summary of the survey results from 2021, and the targets that have been set by the school, to address the survey results. You will also be sent information about the TTFM, which is completed by all students in Years 4-6, staff and parents. If you do not want your child to complete the survey, you will need to complete a non-consent form. This will all be sent on Compass.

Spelling & Maths Bee

Last week we held our Spelling & Maths Bee stage finals. These students will represent our school at the Lakes Region finals this Friday. 

Congratulations to the following students:

Spelling Bee Finalists

Maths Bee Finalists

with every best wish,

Nikki Norley

Assistant Principal

Spelling & Maths Bee Finalists

From the Office of Safeguarding

RAISING CHILDREN.NET.AU THE AUSTRALIAN PARENTING WEBSITE
Raisingchildren.net.au, provides free, reliable, up-to-date and independent information to help families grow and thrive together. Funded by the Australian Government, reviewed by experts and non-commercial.
Designed for busy families and full of tips and tricks to try, the content is easy to find and easy to digest. They have the answers to hundreds of parenting questions, where and when needed.
The articles, videos and interactive resources are tailored to different ages and stages, from nurturing a newborn to raising a confident, resilient teen – and helping parents/carers with a range of parenting helplines and hotlines.
Topics cover a vast array of topics such as moving schools, transitioning to school, self-regulation for 5 -17 year olds, school refusal are just a few of the topics.
Also they have a series of resources available: A-Z health reference, Activity guides: ideas for play & wellbeing for children with diverse abilities,
Get fun, low-cost ideas for play activities that help kids learn and grow. Families can do our wellbeing exercises together, so they’re good for everyone!
raisingchildren.net.au is here for you, every step of your parenting journey.

News from the Religious Coordinator



REC News

Sacramental News

Students who are a part of the sacramental program will make their final steps in becoming a full member of the Catholic Church this week. A practise session for the Holy Communion will be held this Wednesday 17^th August at 7pm at St. Mary Immaculate Church Charlestown for children making their First Holy Communion at Charlestown on Saturday 20^th August. Alternatively, practise will occur at 7pm at St.  Paul’s Gateshead on Thursday evening for students making their communion on the 21^st of August at St. Pauls Gateshead.

Return to Mass

This week stage 2 students were the first stage to return to Mass after a significant break from school attendance due to COVID. It was a beautiful sunny day. The students enjoyed the message of the wonderful Saint St. Lawrence who served God gladly right until the end and all the students received a blessing. We look forward to other stages and families returning to Mass.

Stage 3 and ES1  7th September 

Stage 1: Wednesday  31st August

Family members are more than welcome to attend these Parish Masses.  

The Feast of the Assumption

On Monday 15^th of August we celebrated a special Feast Day within the Catholic Church: The Feast of the Assumption. This is the day we remember when Mary the mother of Jesus, returned to heaven. We will remember this special Holy day of obligation during our Monday morning assembly. 

Support CatholicCare this Winter 

Our school is hosting an out of uniform day on the 30^th August to support CatholicCare Social Services Hunter-Manning. 

This vital community organisation supports people in need by giving them access to hot nutritious meals and other services.  

In recent weeks, demand for meals at their Community Kitchens has almost doubled and they need our help to support individuals and families doing it tough.  

Please donate by QKR  – your generosity will make a big difference in our community.  

For more information or to make an online additional donation, please visit www.catholiccare.org.au/make-a-difference



Father's Day

We will celebrate Father's Day at St. Joseph's on Friday 2^nd September. There will be sporting activities and treats from 1:30pm followed by a closing prayer and a song to remember all our Dad's, Granddads and father figures. We hope you can join us.

God Bless,

Clare Paff

(Religious Education Coordinator)

News from the Primary Coordinator

News from the Primary Co Ordinator

PBL

For the next 2 weeks of Term 2 we are focusing on the Care for Belongings value of our SJC matrix.

Caring for our belongings includes our classroom and sports equipment, and our personal belongings. It would be wonderful if all lunchboxes and containers made their way home over the next few weeks.

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 behavior in all settings.

Kind regards,
Karen Nolan.

Happy Birthday to the following students

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

Sports News

Congratulations to following students for making Polding Athletics carnival on Friday 9^th Septembers at Hunter sport Centre Glendale

Liam Barr – Senior Boys high Jump

Hamish Kirkman – Senior Boys 800m & Senior Boys 1500m

Harrison Searle -   11 yrs boys 100m

Sophie Abbott – 11 yrs Girls 800m & 1500m

Olive Wade – 11yr Girls Long Jump

Lochlan O'Brien -11 yr junior Boy's discus

NRLW Junior Membership from just $30pp includes a member pack full of epic goodies, perks and benefits including:

• 2022 NRLW Membership card, Lanyard, Flag, Shoelaces and Sticker sheet

PLUS

• Junior Members enjoy access to an NRLW Clinic
• $10 off a 2022 NRLW or NRL Official O’Neills youth size jersey purchase at the Knights Club Shop.
• 10% discount on any Knights home match day tickets purchased via Ticketmaster
• 10% discount on merchandise at the Knights Club Shop
• 10% discount on game day food and beverage from McDonald Jones Stadium
• Priority access to NRLW Finals Series Tickets

*Terms and conditions apply

Plus UPGRADE to Ticketed Junior Membership for an additional $10 and unlock access to 2 home games. 

We would love for students, teachers and parents to be a part of the action as the Knights NRLW team redefine the future of league this season.

Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards, 

The Newcastle Knights

P: 1300 465 644        PO Box 152 Wickham NSW 2293    www.necastleknights.com.au/knightshq/

Stage 2 Basketball Gallery Pics

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News from the classrooms

Music News 

Music Making At St Joseph's!

Not only are our school grounds looking incredible but most weeks they even sound amazing! It is not uncommon as you wonder around our peaceful gardens to encounter some of our emerging and talented musicians. In this picture a group of year 2 students have created simple melodic and rhythmic ostinatos to play together as a group. Stage 3 are often found strumming ukulele's, rehearsing their latest songs ready to perform.

We enjoy such a robust program of percussion music, singing, recorders, ukuleles and music technology at our school, and we look forward to sharing our music making with you!

Choir - Don't forget our wonderful school choir rehearses every Thursday with Mrs Savage in the Hub at first half lunch.

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

Aboriginal Education

NAIDOC Day 2022

Wowzers… what an amazing day staff, students and visitors had at our recent NAIDOC celebration!!!!

Our day started with a beautiful Welcome Ceremony that students, staff, family members and friends had the privilege of witnessing and being part of.  It was mesmerising to watch our special guest- Hilary as she performed traditional Aboriginal dancing. We were then cleansed with a very special smoking ceremony led by another special guest- Steff.

After our incredible Welcome Ceremony…. our day was action packed with fabulous workshops!!

We tantalised our tastebuds and tried so many different traditional bushtucker foods. Some very brave St Joseph’s kids can now say that have tasted kangaroo, crocodile and emu!!! Steff from Numa Ngarra shared her plethora of knowledge with us about these fascinating foods, and we loved learning about their traditional healing properties as well.

Our Symbols workshop was loads of fun! Our visitor Kirsty taught us all about the use of symbols in different Aboriginal cultures and we looked at many different types of symbols used in traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art. It was great creating either symbol artworks or our own stories using symbols.

Our ochre workshop was messy but loads of fun!!! It was fascinating seeing the different colours of ochre rocks and watching it being grinded on a grinding stone to make powder to paint with. We loved creating our own handprint artworks using ochre paint.

Weaving was a huge hit and we loved exploring the weaving process! It was fascinating to see lomandra plant leaves and stringy bark pieces, to learn how they are woven and to then see the final products these materials make. Things like dilly bags, eel traps, fish traps, tools and weapons are all made through the traditional art of weaving.  We enjoyed using the Aboriginal flag colours and the Torres Strait Islander flag colours to weave our own head bands and wrist bands.

We certainly had fun participating in our Traditional Indigenous Games workshop. Our special guest Jody taught us many Awabakal words while we played PE games that are based on games and practices of traditional Aboriginal peoples.

Our traditional dance workshop was wonderful! Hilary from Dreamtime Dance Co lead us through some amazing dance movements and explained the meaning behind them. We have some pretty awesome brolgas, goannas and emus among us!

Our guests remarked at how lovely our school was and students are to be commended on how well they participated in the activities. It really was wonderful to watch students so incredibly engaged in our workshops throughout the whole 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  

St Mary's Graduation Class of 1981

St Mary's High School Gateshead, Graduating Class of 1981 Reunion. 

If you were at St Mary’s from 1978 (Yr7) thru 1981 (Yr10), Join us for an evening of fun and frolicking at the beautiful Babylon Newcastle, a sophisticated 1920’s inspired Whisky, Cocktail and Craft Beer destination.

https://facebook.com/events/s/st-marys-graduating-class-of-1/1478828669146713/

Tickets $50

The Mezzanine floor is a large yet private space where we can enjoy canapes and platters.

Greater Bank - Name of account 

Bronwyn Currie/Gabrielle Clappison

637000

Acc. 724887767

Any inquires please email us at

sm78to81@gmail.com