Our prayer from our Lenten service this week:

Week 8 Newsletter

Dear Parents, Caregivers, Staff, Students and Community,
The opening term of 2019 at St Joseph’s has been full of challenges, triumphs and new learning. Despite a brief interruption by Cyclone Trevor we have achieved a great deal so far. Students, Parents and Staff need to be congratulated for the significant improvement in attendance so far this year.
Students across the school have been immersed in learning over the past 8 weeks, with a major emphasis around focussing on student learning through high expectations. At St Joseph’s we want for our students to work hard and to achieve the best they can, whatever their best is. As part of this journey students are challenged to find problems, as opposed to avoid them, they are then supported by teachers to use critical and creative thinking to solve those problems. Students are encouraged to “give it a red hot go”, and that if at first they don’t succeed, then to try, try and try again.
Throughout the year, we aim to nurture and grow these essential skills to not only increase student engagement and academic outcomes but develop ‘lifelong learners’ who are well-equipped for the challenges of the 21st Century.

Christ Church Tragedy

In the wake of the horrific events in Christchurch, New Zealand, we join with Pope Francis - and all Christians and people of good will around the world - in prayer for the healing of the wounded, the consoling of those who grieve the loss of their loved ones, and for all affected by this tragedy.
Dear Lord, We pray for all those who grieve the loss of these precious lives …. parents and family, friends and neighbours: that they will find the courage, strength and hope to hold each other with tender care and rebuild their lives while cherishing her memory always. Amen
You might like to light a candle as you pray. You can do so online at: http://lightaprayercandle.bne.catholic.edu.au/LightaPrayerCandle/
We offer this prayer for all those who live within this time of grief and remember lives lost, hearts broken, hopes torn asunder, let us turn to our God of love and compassion in prayer.

Staffing Update
Hi, my name is Emma Dixon and I am thrilled to start as the Learning Support Teacher at St. Josephs in Term 2. I have lived in Weipa for 5 years with my loving husband Adam and amazing sons Evan and Toby. My family and I absolutely love everything that Weipa has to offer and feel blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world. I have been a teacher for 10 years and during this time I have taught in Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast, Charleville and Weipa. I have experience working with students from kindergarten up to Year 6, in both private and public sectors of education. I love the work that I do as a teacher, it drives me, inspires me and constantly fills my cup. It is an honour to be able to do this work. I am a very passionate, committed and highly motivated educator and will bring my experience and passion for high quality education into my new role as Learning Support Teacher. I can’t wait to meet you all and look forward to working with you and your family this year!

Mr Nigel Mitchell will be arriving in Weipa later today weather permitting. Mr Mitchell is originally from Adelaide. He has worked all over Australia in Church ministry, Teaching in schools, and as a consultant in Educational IT. In recent years Nigel has been working in Northern Australia in several schools, including Mount Saint Bernard College on the Atherton Tableland, and in urban and remote schools in the Northern Territory. He has University degrees in Theology, Education, and Religious Education. Nigel has taught at every level from junior primary through to lecturing at University, and he is looking forward to working with the year 6 students atSt Joseph’s. Despite having grown up in SA, Nigel is a rugby fan. He follows the Wallabies in Rugby Union, the Cowboys in NRL, and the Maroons (of course!). Nigel has an adult daughter who lives in Melbourne. His wife, Florence, is Indonesian, and they have a home in Bali. Due to family commitments Florence will not be joining Nigel at first, but is planning to visit Weipa several times during this school year.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews will be held next week in Week 9 of this term for all parents from Prep - Year 6.

Interviews will be for a duration of 15 minutes and will occur in your child’s classroom. Please ensure you have booked a time.

To book these interviews we are again using the internet-based booking system called Parent Teacher On-Line (PTO).

Please ensure that we have your most up-to-date contact email for the 'Main Contact' parent in our student database, as this will be used to enable access. If you have any problems with booking, please contact the school to assist you.

This is a great opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing towards the achievement standards this year and to set some goals for the remaining semester with your child’s class teacher. 

Harmony Day

Our diversity makes Australia a great place to live. Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity, a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home. Australia is a vibrant and multicultural country - from the oldest continuous culture of our first Australians to the cultures of our newest arrivals from around the world. Unfortuneately, due to Cyclone Trevor were were unable to celebrate HARMONY DAY this week. We will reschedule Harmony Day celebration to next Thursday 28^th March 2019. Children are invited to dress up in a cultural costume of personal cultural significance or to wear the traditional Harmony Day colour of orange. As part of our support for Project Compassion, we are asking all children to bring a coin to place on the word HARMONY displayed in the Library.

Be Allergy Aware

St Joseph’s is an allergy aware school. For some people, exposure to certain allergens can result in the most severe form of allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: If your child has eaten peanuts before coming to school, please be sure your child’s hands and face have been thoroughly washed. Please do not send peanuts/nuts or peanut butter to school.

NAPLAN Online Testing Program

In preparation for the NAPLAN Online testing program our Year 3 and 5 students will participate in a Practice test during week 9 – Thursday 28th March. Like the School Readiness Test in October 2018 when our current year 3 and 5 classes participated as Year 2 and 4 students, Year 5 students will undertake Writing (online) and the Omnibus test consisting of Reading, Conventions of language and Numeracy test items. Year 3 students will undertake the Omnibus test only; whereas Year 5 students will access the testing platform. Both Year 3 and 5 students are required to use their own set of headphones for the duration of the test. We ask parents to ensure that headphones are at school and in working order to support their child’s positive experience with the Practice test. Leading into both the Practice test and the full NAPLAN Online testing program, which is scheduled across Tuesday 14 – Thursday 23 May, teachers will provide opportunities for students to access the NAPLAN Public Demonstration site which offers sample test items. These have been updated since 2018 and contain different sample questions for students to try. Parents are also invited to access the site with their children to become familiar with question types and the interactive features of the online NAPLAN assessment program.

TEACHING AND LEARNING NEWS

The Proven Benefits of Reading with Your Child Parents and carers who read aloud with children in a secure, safe and comfortable context motivate their children to read. Parents’ perceptions, values, attitudes, and expectations play an important role in influencing their children’s attitudes toward reading, and subsequent literacy development. When children share a book with someone who makes them feel special, the attitude that reading is pleasurable is transferred to other reading encounters.                                                                      

Relationship Building At the core of reading is a relationship and it is the bond between children and parents that is enhanced through reading together. It only takes ten minutes a day to build this relationship.

Children’s Reading Improves The research is conclusive: When parents successfully support their children’s literacy learning from an early age, everyone benefits. When teachers and parents work together to support children’s reading and academic success, learning outcomes for all children improve.

Children Read More Students who read with their parents are better prepared for school. They begin school with knowledge of book language and familiarity with concepts of print. They understand how books work and have many more exposures to text types and vocabulary.

Children’s Self-esteem Improves Knowing someone cares enough to take time out of a busy schedule to give you undivided attention around a book makes a significant difference to how students perceive themselves as learners and readers. When parents show an interest in their children’s learning, children respond positively.

Reading Unites Families Through Shared Stories When a family reads together, stories form a common ground for communicating. Stories bind families and help students makes sense of where they fit in the world.

Not only does parent involvement have a specific and profound impact on children’s reading, but also on children’s language and literacy learning in general. It is through interactions with parents and carers that children learn new vocabulary, seek clarification of new understandings, and learn to comprehend their expanding worlds. Talk is the key to reading and writing success. Talking with children (walking to school, at the table, in the car, bedtime) has a significant effect on literacy learning in general.

News from the APRE – Week 8 2019

This week saw us enter into our second week of Lent and as a whole school we celebrated with prayer on Monday to focus on ‘the Voice of Love.’ We can all remember a time when someone has said something special to us. Kind words are an excellent way to show our love and care for others. Students made a conscious effort this week on using kind words 100% of the time when speaking to others. If you are interested in looking at our class intentions for Lent, there is a colourful rainbow on the pin board at the front of the Assembly area which contains these intentions.

Each Monday we meet for a 10 minute prayer ritual to set our intentions for the coming week. Monday 25^th March will see us set our intentions for Week 3 of Lent. This week we focus on “The Minds of Love.” We are using our minds all the time. When we do our school work, when we play, and when we sing. Our minds are a very special gift from God, and so it is important to always have good thoughts. This focus will be on having kind and loving thoughts about others in our minds 100% of the time.

Project Compassion Fundraising.

It has been wonderful to see so many students also making an effort to contribute to our Project Compassion boxes over the last two weeks and hope that we can achieve something of significance to make somebody else’s life just that little bit better and support one of the many projects we are looking at each week as part of Project Compassion. 

Easter Eggs…….not yet!

As we are currently in the liturgical season of Lent and will be right up to the holidays, it is not appropriate to share Easter eggs at this time. Students are most welcome to bring in and share Easter eggs as we commence Term 2 when we will have just celebrated Easter and will still be in the season of Easter.

Thank you and blessings for a great weekend,

Amanda

Program St. Joseph's Cross Country 2019

8:35am - Administration and Rolls. Move to Colour House Tents ASAP.

8:50am - Welcome, Prayer and War cries to be held prior to the first race.

9:00am -                800  metres           

 Race 1 - 2014 Girls

 Race 2 - 2014 Boys

 Race 3 - 2013 Girls

 Race 4 - 2013 Boys

                             1 Kilometre

Race 5 - 2012 Girls

Race 6 - 2012 Boys

Race 7 - 2011 Girls

Race 8  - 2011 Boys

10:40am       Morning Tea Coffee Van Visit after 11am

11.00am                2 Kilometres 

Race 9 - 2010 Girls    

Race 10 - 2010 Boys 

Race 11 - 2009 Girls

Race 12 - 2009 Boys

                                3 Kilometres

Race 13 - 2008 Girls

Race 14 - 2008 Boys

Race 15 - 2007 Girls

Race 16 - 2007 Boys

Race 17 - 2006 Boys

12.30pm - Sausage Sizzle by P and F and Parent Volunteers

3.00pm - Dismissal

Age Championship Medals will be presented at Assembly in Week 10.

Dear Families / Caregivers

In Literacy we will continue to focus on the pure sounds and correct letter formation of all the alphabet letters. Rhyming, Syllables and onset and rhyme are still a focus in the class as it plays a central role in learning to read and spell. We are also starting to write simple sentences and words. We have been learning about vocabulary and we have been finding words from story books to put on our word wall. Guided reading has been introduced to students in small groups.

Mathematics will include orally counting forwards and backwards to 20 and beyond, counting using concrete materials demonstrating 1:1 correspondence, subitizing (recognising a small amount without counting) and number recognition. Students will also sequentially order numbers and match the number’s quantity. We are exploring patterns and the students are practicing making their own patterns using concrete materials.

Social and Emotional Learning:

Students have been learning about the social and emotional capabilities, including: Confidence (academic, social), Persistence, Organization, Getting Along, and Resilience.

The are introduced in the program as characters:

• Charlie Confidence
• Penny Persistence
• Olivia Organisation
• Rosie Resilient
• Gary Get Along
  

I hope everyone has stayed safe over the last few days with Cyclone Trevor in town. I’m sure the students have enjoyed a few days of rest and play and will be re-energised so we can finish the term of with a bang. It has been wonderful to complete assessment and marking recently and see just how much the Year Twos have learnt this term. Reading tests are almost complete and I look forward to sharing all of your child’s progress with you next week during parent teacher interviews. The highlight of our fortnight was creating PowerPoints to show case our knowledge of life cycles. Year Two continues to have the lowest attendance in the school with 52% of our students attending school 95% of the time. Many children have been absent for various assessments, which I endeavour to catch up on as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Holly Jarden

We haven’t let the rain dampen our learning these past two weeks and we won’t let it dampen the last 2 either. The Year 3’s have been busy with addition and subtraction equations with and without regrouping. Every single child is able to set out their work so they can successfully complete equations. In English lessons we are at the pointy end of our time with narratives. The students this week have put a plan into place based a chosen picture stimulus and are now at the point of writing what I hope to be some very interesting and engaging narratives. We hope to be able to publish these over the next week too. In Religion our dedication to Lent and giving 100% is evident in the actions and words that the students are using. The end of term tends to bring out our tired emotions but we are working tough on being resilient and being mindful of others. Our Geography lessons have lead us to being able to map out each of the states and territories of Australia, the Capital Cities as well as some natural features. The students display of knowledge and skills has been impressive and it goes to show their ability to locate and understand the country they live in. Our attendance these past two weeks have sat at about the same percentage as the last fortnight with having 76.2% of our students attending over 90% of the time. Lets see if we can improve this for the last two weeks.

We have now finished Book 4 of Deltora Quest and next week will begin our Assessment writing task based on the books.  This will be a narrative and open-ended so that each student can focus on their area of interest.  The students wrote a narrative based on a stimulus picture last week about The Head of The World and it is pleasing to see how much descriptive language is becoming second nature to them now. We have also been looking at the elements of narrative writing for students to refer to and understand leading up to Naplan. They typed these stories up, as we have been practising our typing skills every other day to become faster on the keyboard. We have begun our research task in Science about Desert Survivors and this will be presented in Week 10 as a slide presentation. 

In Maths, we worked hard on division last week, and the importance of turning around times tables facts to help recall answers quickly. We worked in pairs to solve word problems. We explored the properties of 3D shapes: revising vertices, faces and matching nets. This week our focus was on time, particularly 24 hour time. Mrs Grant spent some time in our room explaining the Student Portal on our laptops and showing us some excellent websites and research sites.  This will be very helpful for our Science research. 

Let’s hope we get in a full week of learning next week!

Week 8 started with us looking at what is remaining to be done in our learning for the term. In Maths this week and next we are investigating the calculations of volume and capacity of objects and a revision of co-ordinates was to be completed once Cyclone Trevor appeared however we did not have the opportunity to follow through with this investigation. In Literacy this week we have again concentrated on our vocab building, dictation proficiency and looking at the strategies involved with reading comprehension. This week for our Lenten prayer on Monday the students ran the service which was well done and a prayer was read to support the victims of the Christchurch tragedy. 

Next week will see the class being introduced to Mr Nigel Mitchell as their teacher for the remainder of the year and he will transition to get to know the students alongside me until the end of term. We look forward to Mr Mitchell joining our St Joseph's team and a very big welcome to Weipa.

Year 1 - Paetyn Nash and TJ Raleigh

Year 2 - Frankie McKie Blamey and Ruby Scarabello

Year 3 - Antonia Sebasio and Louis & Oscar Argent

Year 4 - Sisco Bosuen and Sharli Wallace

Year 5 - Liam Mattisey and Sophie Steele

Week 8 

Prep - Summer Taylor and Kaylee Hofman

Year 1 - Emily Foy and Dastyn Cardelli

Year 2 - Jayce Christie and Jasmine Peet

Year 3 - Blayd Grant and Bill Gordon

Year 4 - Levi Jenkins and Sydney van Pelt

Year 5 - Archie Armstrong and Ramona Bond

Year 6 - Ryley Wellby and Kaden Brett

School Banking is collected from the office on Wednesday mornings. If you wish to set up an account with QCCU please phone 40 697 555.

All children who bring in banking next Wednesday 27th march and Wednesday 3rd April are eligible for this amazing Easter basket supplied by the lovely ladies at QCCU.

                                                     

Every weekend in our Church services are held at the following times: Saturday evening 6.00 pm and Sunday morning at 8.30 am. Should you require any further information please contact Mrs Kath Newman on 4069 9346 or via email on weipa.parish@cairns.catholic.org.au

This is what we have been doing this week:

Playing, learning and staying safe whilst Cyclone Trevor crosses over the Far North Cape.