Newsletter 4 2023
Principal Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
Professional learning continued for staff on Monday with a focus on understanding and exploring Catholic Identity and our teaching of Religious Education. The aim is to make sure this is relevant for all students at St Joseph’s. The day was very interactive, very thought provoking and very exciting, imagining how the way forward might look for staff and students. On Shrove Tuesday students were treated to pancakes for morning tea. Many thanks to Julie Bourke, Naomi Fitzpatrick, Lila and Cooper for preparing and serving the delicious treat. Yesterday afternoon we attended the Ash Wednesday Mass in the parish church.
Ash Wednesday begins the liturgical season of Lent for those of Christian Faith. Lent is a time for reflection and growth as we journey towards Easter Time. Lent was traditionally a time to ‘give something up’. Today we think of ways we may fast (go with less of something like treats or screen time), pray more often or be an almsgiver (donate money, time, old toys, food). Term leaders, Cooper and Lila, handed out Project Compassion boxes at the end of Mass yesterday. Any contributions will support programs that promote human dignity and fight injustice in our world. Finally, we cannot exist alone, so my hope is that we may all use this time of Lent to be appreciative of all those who we interact with in our community each and every day.
Loving God,
As we begin this Lenten journey we pray for open hearts and minds so that we can use this precious time to grow.
As companions on the journey, may we nurture each other by compassionate and attentive listening and by carrying each other’s burdens where we can.
May we journey with hope filled hearts, knowing that we are not alone, for you are always with us.
Amen
Bus Travellers
Please remind your children to take extreme care if they use the bus for travel each day. Students must wait until it is safe to cross the road after they dismount the bus. The end of the school day can be very busy at school pick up time and students must be cautious and aware of their safety. This means NO RUSHING, NO RUNNING and EXTREME CARE to be taken each day.
If you have to cross in front of the bus, walk on the sidewalk way out in front of the bus, make sure that the driver sees you, then cross.
Parent Teacher Interviews
Interviews will be held next Wednesday 1st March 2023. The opportunity to choose an interview space will be sent out via PAM today. These interviews provide an important opportunity to connect with staff and learn more about your child’s academic, emotional and social development. This is also a perfect chance for you to help your child’s teachers understand more about your child and their individual needs.
School Photos
School photos will be on the 1st of March this year. This is a Wednesday, so all preps will be required at school this day. Envelopes have been sent home, please return by Monday 27th February, even if you are not buying any photos. All students are to be in full SUMMER UNIFORM please - not sports uniform. Girls may wear either shorts or a dress.
Swimming Program
The Swimming Program culminates with the St Joseph’s Swimming Carnival tomorrow, Friday. As hot weather is forecast we will now run the carnival from 10:00am – 12:00pm. The students had a run through of events on Tuesday and were very vocal with their cheering! All are most welcome to attend and join in the barracking!
Students will be placed into two teams – Dory (BLUE) and Nemo (ORANGE). Students are encouraged to come to school dressed in their team colours. Prizes to be awarded for the best dressed! The teams are attached. Students DO NOT need to bring their school uniform, they can stay in their team colours all day.
School Nurse Visit
Kerrie McCosh, primary school nurse, will be visiting our school on March 3rd this year.
Foundation Grade Health Assessments: All parents/guardians of Foundation students will be asked to complete a Health Questionnaire and return the form to the school before her visit. If you do not wish your child to be seen by the school nurse, please sign the non-consent section and return the form to the school.
Referrals (Grades 1-6): Parents and/or teachers may refer children from any grade for assessments of vision, hearing, basic speech, physical abilities, medical conditions, behavioural and parenting issues. Please collect a referral form from the school office if you need to make a referral.
Completed forms are to be handed into the school office prior to March 3rd 2023. Should parents wish to have an interview with the School Nurse, please indicate your request on the form.
Please note: You can talk to the primary school nurse at any time throughout the year. The school has her mobile phone number.
The school calendar seems to be filling with important dates and events as we make our way towards the middle of Term One. Please keep an eye on the dates as they continue to populate in each weekly newsletter.
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead,
Mary Hogan
Principal
Information
CCSA Meeting. The next CCSA meeting will be held on Tuesday 7th March @ 5:00p.m. in the multi-purpose room. They will be making a decision on the future of the CCSA and where it is heading. Apologies to Kelly Wright.
Rapid Antigen Tests. School will no longer be receiving RAT tests but we still have dozens of them here at school if you want any. Please ask at the office.
Camp, Sports and Excursion Fund. If you have a valid health care card, you are eligible for the CSEF funding. Please bring your health care card into the office so Cate can get a copy of it and she will give you the appropriate paperwork to fill in.
Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement. We are now required to adopt DOBCEL's Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement. Although the Grade 3,4,5 and 6 students and parents have already signed their iPad agreements for 2023, we ask could you also please read through and sign the DOBCEL required document the children have brought home.
Murray River Encephalitis Information. Please open link for more information. Link
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
It's been another great week in the junior learning classroom with the students working hard on their learning goals and really starting to show progress in areas we've focused on - letter names/sounds and phonemes, counting to 20 and beyond and both making connections to texts and exploring understandings of books when reading.
Our swimming program has come to an end and we are very proud of the students and the progress they've made. During the two weeks, we've learnt many swimming techniques and water safety skills including: how to enter the water safely by the stairs and from the side, how to hold a kickboard out straight and against your chest and using it to help guide us when swimming (both forwards and backwards), floating on our backs with and without a flotation device, diving for discs and sinkers and practising breathing and blowing bubbles with our faces under the water. Some of the more advanced swimmers in our class have been working on their freestyle and backstroke and they have made some excellent progress! Great work everyone! We look forward to some competitive races as well as fun activities in the pool on Friday for our Swimming Carnival - all welcome from 10am to 12pm.
In Religion this week, we've continued to explore ways that the students have a sense of 'being, becoming and belonging' in their little worlds. We've been exploring our connections to school, local sporting groups and clubs, family and friends. The students have learnt that as a student of St Joseph's, they have joined a school inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus and what it means to join with or connect with a community of believers, i.e. rituals, sacred artefacts and symbols, what they believe and what a community of believers looks like. The students have been naming symbols and important concepts of a Catholic school and we'll continue to unpack and explore this further with an exploration of some of the 'senses' - what it feels like to go to Mass, what things do we hear, what can we see in the church, what do I do with my body/hands (sign of the cross, blessings), what do the words spoken at Mass mean for us, etc. It's always lovely to hear the innocent responses of young children when it comes to understanding the world around them and the idea of 'God', 'Jesus' and the 'Holy Spirit'; as we start exploring wonderings and questions that the students want to find the answers to and seeing what the group has to offer in terms of open ended and positive discussions and what we can find out about through our own inquiry - the start of a lifelong journey into the mystery and wonder of God and faith inspired living.
In History this week the students have been exploring the question 'What is a Family?'. The students have developed an understanding that people live in families and that there are many different types of families. We've been learning vocabulary used to describe different family members, i.e. Mum-Mother, Dad-Father, and the different names used to describe grandparents and other people who might be a part of our own unique families. In the coming weeks, we will explore ways in which people record their family's history with a particular look at how family relationships can be displayed in a concept map (a Family Tree).
Grade 3/4 Class Report
Welcome to week 5! Our term is nearly half over and is going by quickly.
This week is special in our liturgical calendar with Shrove Tuesday and the beginning of our season of Lent. Students have discussed and explored the religious meaning of these days and seasons and how these celebrations can look, such as having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Students participated well in Mass for Lent.
Well done on student participation and dedication to their swimming lessons in preparation for our school swimming carnival. Fantastic work everyone.
Although this week was shorter, our timetable is beginning to look more ‘normal’. We are looking at Imagine by Alison Lester for our shared reading and discussing how the structure of the writing impacts how it is read. We practice our skills of reading (accurately, fluently and with expression) daily in whole class, small group and individual activities. We are learning about and using OLSEL strategies to recognise the phonemes in our words to support us in our reading, spelling and writing. Everyday students practice these strategies and one vocabulary word from our shared reading text. We are continuing to work on our narrative writing this week with a focus on narrative structure and using more complex vocabulary for descriptions and OLSEL strategies for spelling. We are continuing to revise punctuation and ensuring it is used appropriately in our writing. Students have written narrative texts based on being a good friend and what that means in a friendship.
Students have continued to work on place value this week. We are working on counting from hundreds to thousands and reading, writing and modelling these numbers. We are looking at number facts such as ten more or ten less and skip counting from non zero numbers. Students have revised rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. We have looked at number patterns and what the terms ascending and descending mean. Students have also revised reading, writing and expanding numbers to show place value to numbers past 5,000. Students continue to practice their multiplication tables daily in class and are constantly revising varied maths concepts through daily mental maths practice.
Homework contract 3 and spelling homework is due this Friday. Our multiplication focus for this week is x4. Thank you.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
Grade 5 & 6
A shorter week with the school closure day on Monday, but a very busy week! I think we tried to fit the week into four days! The highlight for this week will be our Swimming Carnival on Friday. All students have shown improvement in their skills and knowledge and the weather is looking perfect for the carnival. We enjoyed some pancakes for Shrove Tuesday and celebrated Mass on Ash Wednesday. We also had the pleasure of celebrating two birthdays this week – Happy Birthday to Cooper & Liam.
ENGLISH
Students are using their “Sky, Grass, Ground” Books for Handwriting each day and I am seeing improvement already! In writing this week we have explored ways to make ‘sensational starts’ to a narrative story. Students learnt a new word – ONOMATOPOEIA – which is the formation of a word that represents the sound it describes (eg sizzle, pop, cluck….). Each week we continue to work on using correct punctuation in our written work and to implement effective spelling strategies.
MATHEMATICS
In Mathematics we have continued to work with place value and students are showing a greater understanding of this concept. Students need to know how to break numbers apart, put them back together and how to read, say and write them! Encourage your children to use commas to break numbers up to assist their understanding, especially when working with large numbers.(eg 5, 678, 340) Each day we work on our counting and multiplication facts and use our i-pads to reinforce learning.
A reminder that students need their satchel, reader, diary and Homework Book at school each day, please. Reader diaries are to be filled in each day with the number of pages read and signed, please.
Congratulations on a fabulous effort at the swimming pool each day and for getting in the swing of the class routine. Top effort, 5 & 6!
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