Dear Families and Friends of St Joseph’s Parish School, 

The end of Term 1 is fast approaching and when I look back on the term, I am so grateful and proud of the resilience shown by the staff, students and our families this year already. With a delayed start to the year and a few disruptions along the way our staff have continued to deliver a high-quality and engaging education for the students at our school whilst keeping student wellbeing a top priority. Thank you to all families for continuing to work with us and support us as we adapted to what was required throughout this term.  

Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Thank you to all families who attended our parent/teacher conferences last week. These conferences are an important part of our reporting process and provide a welcome opportunity to discuss the successes and goals for your children. If you are yet to have a parent/teacher conference, please contact your child/s teacher to arrange a time for early next term.  

Easter Raffle 

Thank you to all families who have donated items for our Easter Raffle. We have also had a donation of a quality Shimano fishing rod and reel valued at $250. Thanks once again to our school community for your generosity. 

We have many prizes to be won this Friday on our virtual assembly. All money raised from these raffles will be donated to those people in SE QLD and the Northern Rivers NSW directly affected by the recent floods. It simply devastating what these communities have had to endure and continue to endure this week.  

Raffle tickets will continue to be sold up until our virtual assembly on Friday morning. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5.  

Swimming Update 

What a wonderful first week of swimming we had in week 9. Thank you to Miss Libby, the swim teachers and all the staff for your additional hard work in making this a success. Unfortunately, we needed to postpone the remaining lessons and carnival due to staff and student absences. We will be providing additional days for lessons before our carnival takes place on a date to be confirmed. We will notify families of the new dates as soon as possible.  

Term 2 Sport 

In Term 2 our sports day will change to Wednesday each week. This change is to accommodate the much-anticipated Auskick program that is delivered each year. Please ensure your children wear their sports uniform each Wednesday starting next term on Wednesday 20th April.  

We will continue with cross-country training next term up until our carnival which is scheduled for Thursday 28th April. Keep training hard over the holidays.  

Athletics training will also commence next term with days and times to be provided early next term. These training sessions are a great way to prepare for our athletics carnival which will take place on Wednesday 22nd June.  

Shania Kennell who is working with Douglas Hockey Association, will be working with each class throughout the year during break times as well as offering after school coaching. We will provide more information on the Hockey program early next term.  

Under 8s Day 

In Term 2 we are fortunate to be hosting the Under 8s Day event for the wider Weipa community. This is a wonderful event involving all schools and many businesses in the community. If you have friends and family with young children within the community, please encourage them to come along. Under 8s Day is on Friday 17th June, 9am – 11am. 

NAPLAN 

Last week our students in Years 3 and 5 participated in some NAPLAN practice tests. These tests were not about collecting data of student learning, but rather the opportunity for us to see how well our computer system coped under testing situations. In addition, it provided students the opportunity to become familiar with the NAPLAN assessment platform and the style of questions being asked. I am pleased to say that our IT systems worked seamlessly and the students show cased their high level of ICT skills as they navigated their way through the assessment platform. 

The NAPLAN assessments for 2022 are set for weeks 4 and 5 of Term 2. Should you have any questions about NAPLAN please contact your child’s teacher. 

Travel Day 

A reminder that school resumes in Term 2 on Wednesday 20th April as Monday 18th is a public holiday and Tuesday 19th is a designated Staff Travel Day. As the first day of term is sport day, please remember to have students wear their sports uniform. 

Covid 19 Update 

We continue to practise ‘good hygiene’ and social distancing. We currently have a number of people within our school community with the virus and a number of others in isolation. As such we have chosen to post-pone all events for the final week of school and hold a virtual assembly this week. We have been very fortunate to have been able to hold several events earlier in the term. Please keep children at home if they have any symptoms. Thank you to everyone for continuing to keep our school children and staff safe as best we can during these times.  

Prep Enrolments 

Children born between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018 are eligible to attend Prep in 2021. We begin looking ahead to Prep enrolments for the 2023 school year and beyond. We are starting interviews for 2023 Prep placements next term. If you haven’t already, we encourage all of our existing families with children eligible for Prep next year to complete and submit an application form as soon as possible so that you can be part of the interview process.  

Stay & Play 

In Term 2 we will be holding ‘Stay & Play’ mornings for children between the ages of 0-4. Families are invited to stay after our morning assembly as we will have a range of early-childhood activities set up for your children to engage with. Play and Stay will commence on Friday 22nd April after our week 1 assembly. We look forward to seeing many of our younger siblings and families at our first session.  

URGENT! Crossing Supervisor needed. 

Interested in becoming a Crossing Supervisor? Although I enjoy greeting families and students who use the crossing each day, this is not a feasible long-term solution. I encourage all families to either spread the word that we are looking for a crossing supervisor or consider taking on the role full time/part time. Please see the advertisement attached. 

THANK YOU! 

Once again thank you to all families for your support throughout Term 1. We hope that all families have an enjoyable Easter break and look forward to welcoming you all back in Term 2 feeling refreshed and ready for learning.  

Happy Easter 

Amanda Rowe