Filter Content
Dear Families and Friends of St Joseph’s School Community,
Welcome to Week 5! The term is certainly flying by very quickly!
Last week we celebrated Catholic Education Week. Celebrating all the things we do that make our school such a special place, was a wonderful reminder of how blessed we are to be a part of Catholic education.
This year’s theme for Catholic Education Week is ‘Communities of: Faith, Hope & Love’. Friday we all came together to rejoice in and acknowledge the importance of community within our school and the important qualities of Faith, Hope and Love that are shown in our daily interactions with each other.
At St Joseph’s, we value deeply the partnership between families and teachers in the support of our learners and their progress. We believe that when we work together, children can reach their next goals in learning and experience great feelings of success. This is a unique partnership like no other, integral to this relationship is a trust that each other is trying to do their best in their roles in this important work for your children. We are working with young people that need the relationship between home and school to be positive and heading in the same direction.
As a Catholic school we strive to make a difference in the lives of all those at St Joseph’s School and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
Congratulations to the students who received a Spirit of St Joseph’s Award. These students were recognized for living out Jesus’ message in their daily lives.
A special thank you to Veronica Ah Shay for making such a beautiful cake for our Spirit Award Winners to cut and the delicious cupcakes the children enjoyed as a special treat.
School Satisfaction Survey
Thank you for your assistance in helping to shape the future direction of St Joseph’s. For some reason we had a number of surveys being sent out to parents over the last few weeks. I appreciate this can be confusing and a little frustrating. We didn’t quite reach the goal of 89% completion, but we will be holding a Pizza Party for all on Friday week 6. Those children who do not like Pizza will have alternative preferred options available.
Prep Enrolment Interviews
I am looking forward to conducting Prep Enrolment interviews for 2023, which begin in week 6. These beautiful children are always excited and keen to join their older siblings as they join the learning community of St Joseph’s.
It takes a community ‘to grow a school’!
We are currently adding an additional Prep class in 2023 to St Joseph’s to support our growing enrolments! This is great news and is testament to our wonderful community, families, and teachers.
I ask all members of the St Joseph’s community, staff, students and parents to encourage friends and family to enrol at St Joseph’s. All families can help build St Joseph’s into the future by being a loyal, supportive, and vocal advocates for the high-quality educational program and nurturing environment that is St Joseph’s. It takes a community ‘to grow a school’! Thank you for playing your part as an invested member of our community to promote St Joseph’s
We are very much looking forward to our upcoming Prep Open Day on Wednesday the 24th of August 2022. If you know of anyone who may be looking to start Prep next year, please pass along our flyer, or to share our Facebook Posts.
Choosing a school is not just a decision we make with our minds, it’s a decision we also need to make with our hearts. You need to feel a school to see if it’s the right fit for you and your child. This is why we encourage anyone considering St Joseph’s to attend our Open Day and experience for themselves what we have to offer.
Here are just some of the reasons to enrol at St Joseph’s
Learning for the future St Joseph’s has developed a strong reputation for academic excellence, embracing the latest in learning and teaching practice, our students are reaping the benefits of high impact strategies founded on educational research.
Every Child is known At St Joseph’s, knowing the diverse needs of each student is essential to providing quality personalised learning. Responding to the dignity of each and every child, St Joseph’s staff meet each learner in creative ways that challenge the mind, stretch the imagination and improve educational outcomes, engaging with the latest learning resources and technologies.
21st century facilities St Joseph’s state-of-the-art agile learning spaces facilitate delivery of the schools dynamic and integrated curriculum that is essential to 21st century learning needs – even of our youngest learners. Modern technology 1:1 devices, robotics, programming, and STEM from Prep.
The St Joseph way Based on the dignity of every child, the values of respect, engagement in learning and personal best, you’ll love the feel of our welcoming and caring community and our growth mindset culture that produces resilient learners.
A growth mindset A growth mindset embraces challenges, persists in the face of obstacles, sees effort as necessary, learns from constructive criticism and is inspired by others’ success. St Joseph’s students learn how to have and maintain a growth mindset, so they can be resilient learners for life. This Growth Mindset permeates all learning at St Joseph’s, from Prep through to Year 6
Flexible fees St Joseph’s strives to keep fees as low as possible and be affordable to all. We also offer generous concessions and multi-student discounts. No child is denied because of financial hardship.
No application fee To help families, we have no enrolment application fee. So, you can complete an online application form, and have a tour of our school without any out-of-pocket expense. There is no reason not to apply and see what St Joseph’s has to offer.
A Catholic school for all St Joseph’s is inclusive and welcoming to all faiths and abilities. St Joseph’s realises its authentic Catholic identity through a strong spirit of community, outreach, excellence in learning, and spiritual formation and growth.
COVID Update
It is a COVID environment that we live in and unfortunately, we have had a large number of students and staff away due to COVID over the last 3 weeks. Despite this ongoing challenge, the school has continued delivering, due to staff supporting each other and ensuring your children get the very best in education.
St Joseph's regularly consults with the Cairns Catholic Education Services and relevant authorities, and continues to follow the advice of Queensland Health regarding cleaning requirements. Queensland Health has advised that no quarantine of students or staff is required as a result of a school based contact.
As COVID-19 remains active in our community we ask you to continue to monitor your child’s/children’s health and if they develop any flu-like symptoms:
- Keep your child/children at home
- Seek a Rapid Antigen test where it is recommended and notify the school of positive results.
- Follow the advice of Queensland Health
We will continue to work closely with health authorities to keep our school community informed of any developments and advice. Thank you once again for your ongoing support.
Principal Forum
This week I am fortunate enough to be attending the Principal Conference in Cairns, along with the other Principals from the Carins Diocese. Thank you to Mrs Gear and the rest of the leadership team who will be filling in while I’m attending the Conference. This Professional Learning opportunity provides a chance for all Principals to gather, network and share ideas, as well as ensuring our school aligns to system policies and initiatives.
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead,
God Bless,
Megan
Mary MacKillop Prayer
Ever generous God,
You inspired Saint Mary MacKillop
To live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and constant in bringing hope and encouragement
to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy.
With confidence in your generous providence
and through the intercession of Saint Mary MacKillop
We ask that our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit
so that we too, like Mary MacKillop, may live with courage, trust and openness.
Ever generous God, hear our prayer.
We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.
ST MARY OF THE CROSS MACKILLOP
This Monday the 8th of August, we celebrate the feast of Australia’s first saint – St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Mary MacKillop was born in 1842 in Melbourne, Victoria. Mary cared about the people who had no-one to look after them such as boys and girls who just roamed the streets, children in the country who had no school to go to, people who were old and sick and people who had nowhere to live. Mary wanted more than anything to help these people.
Mary went to work as a teacher in a little country town in South Australia called Penola. There she met Father Julian Tension Woods who also wanted to do something for the poor children who could not afford to pay the money needed to go to school.
Together, in 1866, they began the first St Joseph’s School in an old stable. Two of Mary’s younger sisters also taught in the school and other young women came to help them.
On 19th March, 1866 – St Joseph’s Day – Mary started to wear a simple dark dress and began the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph. Now as a Sister, she dedicated her life to doing God‛s work. As more and more young women joined Mary as Sisters, they were able to start more schools. All children were welcome at their schools, even if they couldn‛t pay.
In Adelaide they opened a place for women who had nowhere to live, an orphanage for children who had no parents to look after them and a house where poor people could come and stay. The Sisters visited people who were in gaol and those who were poor and sick.
Mary MacKillop died on 8th August, 1909 in North Sydney. Mary helped many people during her lifetime and after she died the Sisters of St Joseph kept on doing the good work she had started. Mary MacKillop kept her faith in God and bravely challenged those who did not support her vision for a more caring world. Mary is an important Australian who spent her life helping people, especially children. She is Australia’s first Saint.
Catholic Education Week
On Friday we celebrated Catholic Education Week and the Spirit of St Joseph Awards. Thank you to the Year 1 class for presenting one of their favourite hymns Come and Follow Me, and Year 3 for presenting the Gospel echo for Matthew’s Gospel which focused on the Greatest Commandment- to love your God and love your neighbour. The prayer space was set beautiful by Year 4 using the artworks created by classes and the readers did a wonderful job. It was great to see the families of the Spirit of St Joseph Award winners be present to see their child receive their trophy. A big congratulations to the following students who keep the Spirit of St Jospeh alive every day through showing love, compassion and humility to others.
| Prep | Tasheena.A |
| 1A | Lola.S |
| 1B | Melia.D |
| Year 2 | Addison.L |
| Year 3 | Aniyah.S |
| Year 4 | Jed.H |
| Year 5 | Philemon.A |
| Year 6 | Evan.A |
A lovely morning tea was shared afterwards and all the children received a cupcake to celebrate Catholic Education Week. Thank you to Veronica Ah Shay for preparing the lovely cake and cupcakes.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day
On Thursday it was National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day. What a great day to celebrate during Catholic Education Week as learn about all the cultures which are a part of St Joseph's. The theme for 2022 is My Dreaming, My Future and time to reflect on the deep listening that takes place to care for Country and the hope for the future. We celebrate the strengths and culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Islander people and are grateful for the knowledge and wisdom that is passed onto the children.
PB4L- Positive Behaviour for Learning
Our school behaviour matrix is a visual tool that outlines the expectations of behaviours we expect all children and staff to learn, practice and demonstrate. They allow us to teach proactively and to provide the students with a positive message about behaviours for learning at school. One way in which we teach the expected behaviour is through our weekly PB4L assemblies. With a focus on only one behaviour, as a school we look at what these behaviours might look like, sound like and feel like. There are always lots of images and videos shown of students doing the expected behaviour.
The focus of this week was; we are respectful in the Church.” This coincided with our Liturgy held in the Church on Friday. The students were aware of the expected behaviours before attending and were able to attend and particpate respectfully.
This week, our focus will be: We are respectful when using sporting equipment.
Dates for Term 3 2022
There are many exciting events taking place this term. Please make note of the following dates which have been set for Term 3 2022. We hope you are able to join us.
|
Week 5 |
|
|
Week 6 |
|
|
Week 7 |
|
|
Week 8 |
|
|
Week 9 |
|
|
Week 10 |
|
|
Term 4 Resumes Tuesday 4th October 2022 |
|
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to Term 3, Week 4.
Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs)
Over the next few weeks the teachers are in the process of writing Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs). Personalised learning is a process that supports a wide range of students with additional learning and support needs. This includes students who may require support in one or more of the following areas: learning (including high potential learners), behaviour, social/emotional, cultural/language (including international students, boarders and learners of English as an Additional Language or Dialect) and those who have educational support needs arising from disability.
Teachers, with the support of the Leader of Diversity, and in consultation with parents, collaboratively decide which adjustments and/or goals are to be targeted and determine appropriate strategies and supports to be implemented. It is the teacher’s responsibility to implement these planned strategies in order to support students to meet their goals.
Teachers will direct School Officer support and plan for adjustments on a weekly basis. Teachers communicate weekly with School Officers regarding student progress and make adjustments as needed.
Evidence is collected regularly and uploaded to ENGAGE. PLP meetings are set 6 monthly and will determine if current goals have been achieved before setting further goals. The teachers will meet with Parents of PLP students later this Term.
Visitors
This Term we welcome back may visitors:
Last week we had Stephanie Fox - Speech Language Pathologist, Zinna Aylward - Occupational Therapist and Vicki Reimann - Psychologist from Cairns Catholic Education visiting for a few days and supporting teachers and students.
In Week 6 we have had the pleasure of Tosca Grainger - Dee our School Counsellor visiting us again in Weipa providing her service to St. Joseph's School from Monday 15th August– Friday 19th August and offering the Building Great Kids Program to the Parent community.
Later during the Term, Lillian Miller - Consultant First Nations Education from Cairns Catholic Education to our School. Lillian will continue to provide her service to St. Joseph's School during Term 3.
SEL Wellbeing Survey
The children at St, Joesph’s Parish School Weipa have been invited to take part in a survey about student wellbeing and mental health from the between 01/08/2022 and 19/08/2022. The survey will be completed online during school hours and contains between 25-57 questions (depending on the age of your child) and will take 10- 15 minutes to complete.
This annual survey is being issued to all students in the Diocese of Cairns by the Student Wellbeing and Diversity directorate of Catholic Education Services. The survey aims to gather student opinions about aspects of the school that relate to supporting student wellbeing and mental health.
What is the purpose of the survey? The survey will provide schools with student opinions on what the school is doing well and what they can improve to better promote and support student wellbeing and mental health. Long term this survey may be used to track student wellbeing and mental health over a period of time.
If you have any questions, please feel free to make contact with myself at a convenient time that suits. My email address is mturner@cns.catholic.edu.au
Kind regards,
Melanie Turner.
Our Prep highlights for the last fortnight include: -
English: Increasing our knowledge of letters and sounds and using a new digraph ‘qu’ to write a sentence.
Maths: Exploring numbers in a range of ways – numerals, words, pictures, symbols, and concrete objects. Learning about measurement – length, height, volume, and capacity.
Science: Exploring the properties of materials and investigating what happens when they get wet.
Technology: We had great fun learning to program a basic sequence using our blue-bots!
We also enjoyed learning to tie our shoelaces (and the fact that the practice shoe was also a pencil case made it extra special!)
WOW, can you believe we are almost halfway through this term already?!
We have been very busy in Year One with lots of exciting and upcoming things on the horizon.
This week on Monday we had a shoelace tying workshop hosted by the wonderful Ascent Footwear via Zoom. We were shown how to tie our own laces and got given a great little take home shoe to continue practising at home. On Tuesday, we had an exciting and informative visit from the Weipa Fire Brigade. We learnt some very important tips about safe and unsafe fires, and what to do if we come across a fire situation. We also learnt how to stop, drop and roll and to get down low and GO, GO, GO! At the end, we also got a turn at holding the hose, as well as watching the canon spray water with the lights and sirens turned on. It was a very fun filled week!
We look forward to and have been busy practising for our school dance concert that has been postponed to the end of term, Book Fair and Science Week! Many exciting upcoming events so be sure to keep an eye on the calendar.
Many thanks,
Mrs Kate Backhouse and Mrs Tash Tapper
Hello families,
Lately Year 2 have been increasing their technology skills. We have been using our Chromebooks all for literacy with our informative writing and have been using them to consolidate our mathematics skills too.
We were also lucky enough to have our Year 4 peers to come and teach us some skills.
Thankyou Year 4 for teaching us all about Google slides, it was lots of great fun.
Year Two have been working hard on earning Joey’s tokens and redeeming their time, choosing from drawing or some quiet games including connect 4 or card games.
On Tuesday the local firefighters visited Year 1 and Year 2, firefighter Tony and firefighter Alex, and we had a great time. We learnt about safe and unsafe fires, and that we need to call 000 in an emergency and tell them where we are, our address. We practiced how we need to stop drop, cover our face and roll and also how to stop drop and crawl.
Enjoy the Pictures!.
It’s been a bit slimy in year 3 this week!
In English this term, year 3 has been learning how to write a procedural recount. The must include a title, aim, equipment/materials, verbs, add verbs and time words. We looked at how to make fluffy slime and watched a family make it. We then recounted what they did in our writing. These students are going to be experts at giving instruction by the end of the term!
Hello families of Year 4,
Thank you for being so flexible with the change to the dance date. We will continue to practise during the week, so we don’t forget our moves.
In English we have stepped up our writing game and began publishing some persuasive texts on different topics. Some students wrote about the need for sprinklers, class pets, BMX training and some personal home ones. Hopefully we can persuade our audience to change their opinion!
In maths students have been calculating the area, perimeter and volume of shapes using the correct units of measurement. We have been using the formulas for area and volume to find how many squared cm or cubic cm each shape is.
Year 4 have also had the opportunity to teach younger students in the school how to use laptops and perform different functions, such as cutting and pasting an image to a google doc. It was great to see Year 2 students welcome us into their classroom!
Moving forward, we will be half way through the term next week with lots more events to happened. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Gentle Reminders:
Amazing Race 19th August
School Photos 22nd August
Book Week Parade 26th August
Whole school dance Week 10
Students in the Hub have been super engaged in our PBL unit. We have been collecting data on our science experiment of growing dwarf beans from seeds. We are recognising that environmental features play an important part in ensuring plants grow.
The students are distinguishing between wants and needs this past week during our Business and Economic lessons. They are now applying this knowledge to their wants and needs for their garden design. Looking at the Mitre 10 website and searching for some of these wants and needs has been a challenge as we have choice and the price becomes the next challenge to overcome.
Our research and creation of fact files for vegetables, fruit, herbs and spices has been engaging with students learning when certain produce grows, how much water they need as well as sunlight. Students will then add these to their Google Site.
Over the coming weeks the students will go out to Mitre 10, design their garden and present that information to a targeted audience.
Congratulations to Evan & Philemon on receiving the St Joseph’s Award this year. This is well deserved and we are so proud of you both.
Dates to remember:
Week 6: Amazing Race
Week 7: Book Week Dress up
Week 8: Colour Run Thursday 1st September
P ED NEWS
SKIPPING SKILLS
Skipping skills are improving so much! It is great to see so many younger students grabbing skipping ropes during play time to work on their tricks, skills and endurance.
In each class we have been learning a trick or two each week and are building up stamina to skip for longer periods each week. This incorporates locomotor skills, coordination and self-confidence. Putting it all together is a huge success for every student!
At the end of each lesson we have been learning to “skip in” to the long rope and then “run out” and I am very proud to see everyone give it their best shot. As I say every lesson…. practice, practice and keep at it! And it is happening!
CATCHING/FIELDING/THROWING SKILLS
The older grades have been working on the skills of catching and fielding balls, working together in pairs and groups. The focus has been on how our bodies need to be ready to catch or field a ball, or to bat. Position is so important. This takes time to learn and practice and each week we are using different scenarios to build on these skills.
It is such a pleasure to see so many students give it their best shot out on the oval or under cover, trying to improve their skills and have fun doing it. Great to see team encouragement as well.
Yours in Sport,
Libby Lange
P ED TEACHER
ARTS
Students are disappointed that our Dance Off has been postponed until the last week of term. But on the upside, we hope that everyone can attend and dance like crazy!
DANCE OFF!
BOOK IT IN EVERYONE
15th September Thursday night
This week we start our new ARTS programme. Each class is learning about and exploring the Art of Drama or Media Arts. Students will be focusing on one of these ARTS subjects and integrating technology and other subjects. The purpose is to gain a better perspective and understanding about how to reach out to their world in Weipa, and to others outside Weipa in different formats.
UNITS OF WORK Term 3/4
|
Year Level |
ARTS focus |
Unit |
|
PREP |
DRAMA |
“Feelings Are Important” |
|
YEAR 1 |
DRAMA |
“Stories Come to Life with Feelings” |
|
YEAR 2 |
DRAMA/MEDIA ARTS |
“My Family” |
|
YEAR 3 |
MEDIA ARTS |
“Why Weipa?” |
|
YEAR 4 |
DRAMA |
“A Fairytale from Me!” |
|
SLH |
DRAMA/ MEDIA ARTS |
“Growing the Mind” |
I look forward to seeing some “creative and out of the box” thinking from every student over the next few weeks. As well as exploring different elements of media/drama/miming/expressive voice and actions.
It will fun, educational and engaging!
Yours in Art,
Libby Lange
ARTS TEACHER
My name is Julie, I’m the new Tuckshop Convenyor. I am nearly all settled into the great little school community and just wanted to let you know of the menu changes. I’ve kept all the basics but have changed around the daily specials.
Monday
Honey Chicken & Rice
Tuesday
Hot Dogs
Wednesday
Chicken Carbonara
Thursday
Spaghetti Bolognese
Friday
Fish & Chips
If you have any suggestions of what your children would like or any concerns, please feel free to email the school office.
secretary.weipa@cns.catholic.edu.au
Thank you
Julie
