Dear Parents & Carers

It’s hard to believe that we have reached the end of another school year.
As this is the last newsletter for 2022, it is important that we take some quality time to reflecton the year that has been, celebrate achievements and offer gratitude for what we have and for what others have done for us.

We have long forgotten the disruptive start to 2022 as the learning and achievement of every student quickly became our focus, even though our staffing became stretched at times.

You just have to take a little time to wander around the school to see how well the students have progressed over a relatively short period of time. Our Preppies are confident and raring to go for Year One and of course our Year 6s most of who are slightly taller, a little anxious
yet more than ready for the challenges of high school.

The end of each year brings a sense of excitement in the lead up to Christmas, but it is a time where we must sadly say goodbye to our Year 6 students. This week, there has been a number of things they have done for the very last time. Hopefully this was an opportunity to
make many lasting memories of their time here at St Joseph’s.

Being the founding Prep class there are a number of students in our graduating class of 2022 who are the first student to have gone all the way through Primary school here at St Joseph’s. Whether our Year 6 students have been here for a short of long time, they have all been great ambassadors for our school, families and have been a credit to themselves in what they have achieved, especially in their final year.

As a school, this week we celebrated and reflected on their journey at three very special occasions. Firstly, at our Annual Awards Evening on Monday 21 st November, at the Storm Shelter from 5:45pm. We celebrated the success our students have had over the year as they were presented various academic and special awards to those students in Years
Prep to 6.

The next morning, families joined us for our End of year Mass on Tuesday morning 22nd November at 9am in our St Joseph’s Church. It also gave us the opportunity to say thankyou to the contribution of those families who finish their time here upon the Graduation of their youngest child.

On Thursday 24 th November, a Graduation Dinner was held in their honour. It was an opportunity to showcase their memories and many talents. This is always a very special occasion filled with mixed emotions. My sincere appreciation to the Year 6 teachers for not only their time and effort in preparing the Graduation Dinner but for their passion, dedication, and pastoral care of this wonderful group of kids.

Finally, today our graduating Year 6 class hosted Assembly. Handing over the Senior School Leadership responsibilities to Year 5 before we then cheered them out through the traditional guard of honour and out through the school gate for the very last time.

I will take this opportunity to recognise the wonderful contribution our Year 6 cohort has made to St Joseph’s. I, along with their teachers, have only but admiration of their growth, achievements, and positive attitude towards school life. On behalf of the school community, I wish each and every one of our departing Year 6 students all the very best for your transition into secondary school.

Upon reading report card comments this week, it is most rewarding to read how children have improved and developed into more responsible learners. It is now time though, to have a well-deserved break. A rest from the day-to-day routines and the daily challenges of academic endeavour and handling the various ups and downs of school life is definitely needed.

Thank you as well to all our parents for your continued support of our school. The building and maintaining of positive relationships with the teachers make a big difference. We really do appreciate all the assistance and look forward to renewing the strong partnership in 2023.

I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciation once again to our teachers and support staff for the supreme effort you all put into making St Joseph’s a very special place. The ongoing success of the school can be contributed to the team approach
and your willingness to do that little extra for the students under your care. Thank you.

I hope and pray that you will all have a safe, fun and loving Christmas with families and friends. May the New year will bring you joy and success. We look forward to welcoming new and returning students back in 2023!

God Bless,
Megan

Final Note for the Year 

Congratulations families on a wonderful year at St Joseph’s. It only feels like yesterday that we saw the 2022 Preps walk through the gates ready for their first day of school and today they walk out a little taller, more confident and with so much knowledge up their sleeve. We have had many families leave us this year and move on from Weipa, but we have also grown greatly as a community and introduced many new families. We hope you have felt a great sense of welcome, we are grateful to have you a part of the St Joseph’s community.  

Thank you to all the St Jospeh’s Staff, from the most dedicated teachers, passionate leadership team, nurturing support officers and office staff, you bring the best out of the students and you continually show your commitment and passion for your profession every day. Thank you to Father Dariusz, our Parish Priest who has provided much guidance for the students especially through leading Masses and Liturgies. We look forward to having you continue to visit in 2023. 

Thank you, parents, for working in partnership with the school throughout the year, to better know and learn about each child and aim to bring out the best in them. We look forward to strengthening our relationship in 2023. May the season of Christmas be filled with joy and happiness. Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday. 

Farewell Graduating Class of 2022 

Today we celebrate the Graduating class of 2022. This is the first cohort to have started in 2016 when the school first opened and today, they graduate. Congratulations on completing your primary schooling at St Joseph’s. You have grown into young adults with your own unique talents and strengths who are ready for high school. We are very proud of you all and wish you great success and happiness in 2023.  

We were fortunate to celebrate Graduation on Thursday evening at the Kumrumja Centre. The evening was spent with families to recognise the efforts and successes of the class of 2022. The event was catered by Sodexo with many staff members assisting behind the scenes. Thank you to Stacey Edmonds, Kim Wallace, Kathy Mitton and Kellie Davies for you all the work you put into the event.  It was a great evening. Congratulations to the class of 2022! 

End of Year Prayer 

At the end of this school year we give thanks to God:  

For all the teaching and learning that has taken place in our school,  

both in and out of the classroom,  

For the talents and gifts that have been shared 

and the challenges that have been faced;  

We give thanks for the friendships that have just begun  

and for those that have grown.  

For the faith that has been lived in our daily struggles,  

For the hope that has lifted our hearts on the dark days  

And for the love that has kept us going.  

We give thanks for the community that we are, 

Bless our families as we take our holidays,  

may our time together leave us with memories to cherish.  

Pour out your love on us that we may return renewed and  

refreshed to continue our journey together in 2023. 

Amen 

BEGINNING OF THE 2023 SCHOOL YEAR

Please note that in Week 1 2023, students will attend school on Tuesday and Wednesday only. Monday and Friday will be student-free days, and Thursday is a public holiday for Australia Day. 

Monday 23 January: Student Free Day
Tuesday 24 January: DAY 1 - 2023 school year begins
Wednesday 25 January: DAY 2
Thursday 26 January: Australia Day Holiday
Friday 27 January: Student Free Day

UNIFORM SHOP

Our uniform shop will be available by appointment from Monday 16 January 2023. We will also have a number of good quality second hand uniforms that people may be interested in purchasing.

SCHOOL CAMPS 2023
Parents will receive emails regarding further details of camps for 2023 and an information session will be held in week 2 of Term 1.

Year 6 will be going on Camp in Term 1 week 6. (Tuesday28/02/23 to Friday 3/3/23)

In 2023 we are introducing a school camp for Year 5.
They will be attending a camp Week 1,Term 3. (Tuesday 11/7/23 to Friday 14/7/23)

Our updated 2023 School Calendar will be shared via email with families in the firstweek of December 2022.

This week we celebrated the success our students have had over the year as they were presented with various academic and special awards to those students in Years Prep to 6.

Congratulations to all our award recipients.

Dear Parents and Guardians,  

Welcome to Week 8. What an exciting couple of weeks it has been, with Starry, Starry Night, St. Joseph’s Annual Awards Night and Year 6 Graduation.  

I would like to congratulate the Year 6 students who celebrated last night with their families graduating from Primary School. This is the first Prep class of 2016 and it was a very special night reminiscing with past and present staff and pictures. 

We look forward to continuing to celebrate with you on Friday at the last School Assembly for 2022. 

Today we finished off Music for the Semester with a Concert of Songs compiled by myself and Matt Wallace. Matt joined us and played the guitar and learnt the songs that the children have been learning over the past 6 months. Thank you Matt and Sharli for a wonderful experience we look forward to the next Concert.  

 I would like to take this opportunity to say ‘Thank you’ for all your support over the year and congratulate all the students on all their hard work and resilience that they have displayed throughout the year.  

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and safe and happy holiday and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2023.  

Kind Regards,     

Melanie Turner.

What a fantastic year we have had together in Prep!  In the last two weeks we have discussed celebrations, Christmas and the birth of Jesus and prepared for Starry, Starry Night. We have read with our teachers and Year 3 friends, listened and followed instructions during drawing activities, written letters and cards, made beautiful Christmas decorations, attended the end of year school Mass and had fun with our friends. 

I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas. 

Take care, 

Stephanie 

Welcome to week 8 of Term 4!!  

It’s been a fun filled fortnight with lots of excitement in the air as we near closer to 2023. Bump up day was a great success and we loved heading off to visit our new classrooms and new teachers. We played a Kahoot, new technology we will be using next year, and also some ‘getting to know you’ games. Once the excitement of Bump Up Day had passed, we were back into getting ready for Starry Night. I’m sure you will agree that the children did a FANTASTIC job at their beautiful performance singing Mary Did You Know? A very musical little bunch that love singing and dancing so of course they shone throughout the whole song. The rest of the term saw us completing lots of Christmas crafts which you can get a sneak peak of below.  

We have had an amazing time in Year One this year. We’ve all learnt so much and it has been such a pleasure watching our little people grow as the year has progressed. A HUGE thank you to our families for your continued partnerships this year and supporting us to help your children continue to blossom.  

Thank you again for a great year and we wish you and yours a safe and happy holiday break,  

Mrs Tapper and Mrs Backhouse. 

Thankyou so much Year 2 for all the smiles and laughter filling the room.  

Our last weeks together as a class has been filled with lots of Christmas singing and Christmas craft too. 

Here are some happy faces enjoy themselves.  

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas in Year 3! 

WOW what a year in Year 3! Can you believe that they are Year 4 now?! I am so proud of everything that we have learnt this year. We have been on a year long journey together and I have loved every minute of teaching Year 3 this year.  

Students have been working hard to refine their compound sentence and paragraph structure. We have been learning about independent and dependent clauses, joining words known as FANBOYS and using different kinds of punctuation. In week 7, we were learning about different kinds of animals and how to structure an information paragraph. In week 8, we have been using our narrative school to write Christmas Stories that were dictated by a roll of a dice… 

Here is some of our writing…

Hello Families and Friends of Year 4, 

We did it! Thank you all for such a fabulous year. I have truly loved every minute of teaching Year 4 this year and I wish all the students the best of luck with their transition to Year 5. This week we have been doing some fun craft activities, as well as completing some work with Miss Kent. Students have completed a final copy of a poem, created a gird map of Santa’s Village and published a letter from a perspective at the time of the First Fleet.  

There were many happy events on during the last week of school, and it was great to see so many smiling faces at different times. All your children’s belongings and books would have been sent home during the week, if there is anything missed or left over, I will keep hold until next year.  

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday time. I hope it is a time spent with family and the ones we care about, and I will see you all around next year.  

Emily  

What a year it has been. So many firsts and lasts for our Seniors this year. As I write this and reflect on our year, it has been a pleasure to see so many of our children grow in height, wellbeing and academics. Each and every student should be proud of how much they have achieved this year. I know that I am. We have had a great week with awards night, end of year mass, excursion to the pool for the Year 6 students, graduation night for year 6 and our final assembly with a guard of honor for our students who are leaving. All the events have been a nice culmination of the year that has been.  

I wish all families a safe and restful break and can’t wait to see you all again next year.  

P ED NEWS     

What an eventful year we have had in the Sporting life of our school for 2022. 

The list includes Cross Country, swimming lessons, Swimming Carnival, hockey lessons, Athletics Carnival, AFL lessons and Crusader Cup, Cricket Cup, Futsal lessons, NRL lessons and visit from NQ cowboys and more. The highlight for me was the amazing success of the Jump Rope campaign. It is great  knowing that most kids love coming to their PE lessons each week and seeing their growth in confidence and skill level! 

Thankyou parents and teachers for your support this year in helping make these events run smoothly.  

Yours in Sport, 

Libby Lange 

P ED TEACHER     

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART PRIZES AND CERTIFICATES    

Parents, 

The prizes and certificates for Jump Rope fundraising were damaged in a truck rollover while on their way to Weipa late last term.  After a lot of negotiating, a second lot have been sent to us, however they are still in transit!  Thankyou for your patience, they will be distributed to students when they arrive, however that may not be until next year.