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Communities such as ours at St Joseph’s thrive when there are events and activities that bring people together and strengthen the fabric of our community. As we enter the final few weeks of Term 3, we have had some exciting events and more activities ahead that will be weaved into our days.
The last two weeks have been particularly busy as we had School Photos, Prep Open Day, Pizza Party, Amazing Race, Book Week Dress Up parade and our traditional Fathers’ Day Liturgy and Colour Run. Parent/Teacher Conferences will take place this week on Tuesday and Wednesday and then in week 10 we end the term with our ‘Just Dance’ Thursday night and jump rope for heart ‘Jump Off” last thing on Friday afternoon.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
We hope all fathers enjoyed Father’s Day. What a beautiful heartfelt liturgy the children presented to honour and celebrate those men in our lives who are our fathers or who are father figures to us. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the audience as the Year Ones sang about their father ‘Heros’ and as we viewed the slide show of our dads.
Acting Principal
In week 10 Lillian Miller, Consultant -First Nations from Cairns Catholic Education Services, will step in for me as Acting Principal. Lillian is a regular visitor to our school and knows both the staff and students well. Lillian will also join us in week 1 Term 4, as Acting Principal, while I am in and out attending compulsory Professional Development in Cairns and accompanying our Year 6 students on camp. I’m sure you will make Lillian welcome in my absence.
The reason for my absence is that I will be going on a Red Centre Pilgrimage to Uluru. Each year every Principal is given some time for Professional renewal leave. Over the last four years I have chosen to not take any of this leave as I felt it not appropriate to be leaving the school when face with the many challenges, we have experienced due to Covid. Although Covid continues to be a thorn in our side this year, I have been encouraged to take this time.
Pilgrimage is an opportunity to seek what our spirit longs for. It’s not just travel; it’s travel with purpose and faith that bears lasting fruit. I feel very privileged and grateful to have this opportunity to visit such a spiritual place, not just to visit Ularu to admire its nature, art and history, but to seek and immerse myself in the presence of God. Something deep and mystical calls all Australians to journey to the heart of our nation to honour its symbols, stories and beauty in a prayerful spirit of awe and thanksgiving. I look forward to sharing with our school community a deeper understanding of the ‘Uluru statement of the heart’ and the invitation it gives us to join into reconciliation within the context of our school community.
I encourage you to look at this utube clip of Dean Parkin (TEDXCanberra) as he shares his experience of co-constructing the Uluru Statement from the heart.
STUDENT LEARNING MEETINGS
Term Three Student Learning Meetings, previously known as Parent / Teacher Interviews will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6th/7th September (3.00pm-6.00pm), to discuss the learning journey and academic progress of your child/ren. These meetings will take place in the classrooms and can be booked through PTO. If you have not yet booked a meeting time, please do so at your earliest convenience. These meetings are vital to maintain clear communication about your child’s learning progress. They provide a great opportunity for teachers and parents to clarify understandings around learning and assessment, as well as effort, attitude, and behaviour in class and around school. Teachers will be able to provide next learning steps and suggestions to support learning at home.
Next week is Queensland Child Protection Week. Most of us recognise that child protection is key to ensuring that children in our communities, families and schools are safe, nurtured and protected. Sometimes this means acknowledging that children are neglected or harmed in these same places. That is hard to acknowledge. As such, children continue to experience child abuse and neglect in our society.
In order to stop child abuse and neglect and ensure child protection in our society, we all need to play our part by assisting families who struggle and by speaking out about abuse when we see it or hear about it. Often children tell us what is happening to them through either very clear statements or in subtle ways. Our role as adults is to pay attention regardless of the way children tell us what is happening for them. Another role we can play is in hearing parents when they say they are finding their role of parenting difficult and offer assistance.
When children speak out or adults speak out on behalf of children they need those involved in the wider child protection system to be well trained and available to pay attention to what they are saying. This includes the Queensland Police Service, professionals such as Social Workers, Psychologists and Psychiatrists as well as Teachers who are often in the key position of being able to note difficulties for children and their families. Family members and friends also play a crucial role in such disclosures in terms of hearing what is stated and offering support and friendship. When unable to offer such support or when such support isn’t accepted, family members and friends can contact community organisations of the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services to seek further assistance for the child/ren and family. For more information, please visit the National Child Protection Week website at https://www.napcan.org.au/get-involved-2022/
School Irrigation System A huge thank you to Wayne Paxton and Hambell Plumbing who have worked together to get the oval section of our irrigation system back up and running. They will have the rest completed by next term.
SCHOOL FEE STATEMENTS School fee statements have been distributed for this current term. If you already have a direct debit plan in place and your account is in credit then the statement is for your information only. Please contact the office if you would like to discuss fee payments. Payment plans can be tailored to suit your family needs.
On Thursday St Joseph's showed their dads and loved ones how much they meant to them at the Father's Day Colour Run. The oval at the school was transformed into the ultimate obstacle course with plenty of mud and colour thrown at them along the way. There wasn't a clean body in sight but there were plenty of smiles. We hope all our Dads and father-like figures a wonderful Father's Day on Sunday.
Thank you to the St Joseph's P&F, staff and local companies including Australian Border Force, Goodline, Emmett Contracting, Carpentaria Contracting, Weipa Dirt Karts, PCYC Napranum, Mitre 10, Rio Tinto Fire and Rescue who worked together to make the event a success.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to Term 3, Week 8. There are still many exciting events still to come including the Colour Run, Jump Rope for Heart and the School Dance just name a few. Last week In PB4L we focused on Being Responsible – Everybody has the Right to Learn!
Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs)
Over the next two 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 in Week 8, 9 and 10 of this Term.
Visitors
In week 10 Ms Lillian Miller - Consultant First Nations Education from Cairns Catholic Education will visit our School. Lillian will continue to provide her service to St. Joseph's School during the Term.
Long Service Leave
From next week I will be on long service leave for the remainder of the Term. Mrs Michelle Gear, Mrs Amanda O'Brien and Ms Libby will teach the Senior Learning Hub for the remainder of Term 3 to ensure that the students have a smooth transition during this time.
Wishing you a relaxing and safe holiday and I look forward to seeing you all in Term 4.
Kind regards,
Melanie Turner.
School Fee Reminder
Overdue Accounts
Thank you to families who have settled their school fee accounts by the due date of Friday, 12 August. If you require an extension or would like to negotiate an alternative payment plan, please email accounts.weipa@cns.catholic.
Welcome to Prep News!
Our highlights for the last fortnight include:-
English: Our focus in recent weeks has been on writing using appropriate letter combinations to represent familiar and less familiar words and creating sentences. A big part in literacy learning is oral language and so our class discussions prior to our writing lesson form a crucial part of our day. We encourage critical listening, so that the students listen to evaluate ideas and form opinions. Our words and sentences have been amazing!
Maths: We love counting to 100! We are continuing to explore number and algebra, particularly teen numbers using hands on materials.
Science: We have explored the properties of materials and made sunny day or rainy day hats using materials suitable for the purpose. Our rainy day hats had to be waterproof, and our sunny day hats need to give protection from the sun. The extra flourishes added undeniable style.
Technology: Programming our bee-bots has continued to expand and this week we tried to program a more complex code so that our bee-bots located buried treasure on our island map. Sometimes our bee-bots didn’t quite go to plan, so we needed to test and reprogram.
Book Week was fantastic and we loved the parade!
Hello Families!
This term we have begun our relationship lessons. During our lessons we read a story called “Everyone has a Bottom” where we learnt a very important message:
From our head to our toes, we can say what goes.
Students are learning the proper names for their body parts and have learnt that they are in charge of their body.
In Maths we have been learning about time to the hour and half hour. We participated in a fun activity where we estimated the amount of times we could perform different task such as jumping stars, building cube towers and singing happy birthday in one minute. We then performed these tasks to see if our estimations were correct!
In Science we got to make (and eat!) popcorn! We have been learning about chemical and physical changes. We drew and labelled what the popcorn looked like uncooked and then drew what happened when heat was added. What a super fun science experiment it was!
Year One had a fantastic time dressing up and parading for Book Week. Look at all of our amazing costumes:
A few gentle reminders of the upcoming events we have happening at St Joeys during the last couple of weeks of Term 3:
Parent-Teacher Conferences – Tuesday 6th Wednesday 7th September – please book via the e-mail that was sent earlier this week
St Joseph’s Dance – Thursday 15th September
Kind Regards,
Mrs Tash Tapper and Mrs Kate Backhouse
1A and 1B
Hi families,
What an amazing week it has been.
This week Year Two started experimenting and exploring with our Bee Bots. We used some maps and coded the robots to move specific ways. It was lots of fun.
As a class we have been skipping daily, learning new tricks and skills. Have your child show you the pretzel, it’s a very tricky skill and some of our Year 2 students have mastered it! Keep up the great skipping Super stars!
Thursday was an excellent day full of colour. Happiest Father’s Day to all the Dads and Father Figures. I hope you have a great day in celebration of all the hard work you do.
Two more Weeks to go!
Kindest,
Miss McLeish
Year 3 - What makes the Earth go round?
In year 3, the students have been learning a lot about our solar system. We have learnt that the Earth rotates on its axis on a tilt. It also orbits the Sun. We have learnt that it takes 365 and ¼ days for the Earth and that is why we have a leap year every 4 years. The rotation of the Earth and the orbit of the Earth also contributes to how our seasons are made at different times of the year in different parts of the world. The year 3 students have made a orbiting rotating Earth that is orbiting the Sun to demonstrate their knowledge.
Hello Families,
Welcome to the last 2 weeks of the term. Year 4 have been busy consolidating their learning in all areas. Students have been investigating Africa and South America and the difference between Australia. Soon, the students will write a persuasive text based on which country they recommend for our imaginary guests to travel too.
In maths, students have been working on fractions and multiplication/division. Together we have solved problems using decimal points, improper fractions and using strategies such as vertical multiplication and division.
Year 4 have been practising their dance routine for ‘Just Dance’ in week 10. The students are encouraged to keep practising so they don’t forget any steps. Thank you to everyone who helped at the Colour Run. It was great to see so many smiling faces. I wish all the fathers and father figures a very happy day on Sunday.
Thank you to those families who have booked in some parent-teacher conferences for week 9. Some gentle reminders as we move to our final 2 weeks:
- Homework given Monday, returned Friday.
- Library borrowing Friday – please make sure your child returns any books and brings their library bag in to borrow.
- Our PB4L focus this week was using technology safely in all areas of schooling.
Warm Regards,
Emily
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P Ed News |
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JUMP ROPE FOR HEART SJW are showing we have a big heart when it comes to donating to a worthy cause! We are so close to reaching our goal of $5000 for the Heart Foundation. Currently it is $4807 due to 39 students in our school community raising these funds. You are to be congratulated! When I went around classes this week to update them on how much each class has raised, the excitement for our Jump Off day was fantastic. Students are so excited so show off their skills and tricks. Keep skipping and great to see such support from our awesome teachers! Parents, Please see the flyer for times for our Jump Off day on the 9th Sept. We welcome any helpers in the afternoon or just come and watch the kids in action. Our Yr 6 Leaders will be assisting on the day and will be cheering each class on. So many students have told me about their skipping at home, thankyou parents for supporting them. What a great community we have. Keep skipping and hope to see many of you at our Jump Off afternoon next Friday. Yours in Sport, Libby Lange |
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Skipping tricks:
There are lots of other tricks for students wanting to learn. Google skipping tricks or get onto the Jump Rope for Heart website above. |
