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Friday 26th June 2020 - End of Term 2
Monday 13th July 2020 - Start of Term 3
Friday 14th August 2020 - Public Holiday
Friday 18th September 2020 - End of Term 3
Tuesday 6th October 2020 - Start of Term 4
Monday 19th October 2020 - Pupil Free Day
Friday 27th November 2020 - End of Term 4
Dear St Joseph’s friends and families,
We have been blest over the last couple of weeks with many beautiful sunny days were the children can be out enjoying the sunshine and playing after being in isolation. How lovely it is to have everyone back together! Students are very quickly settling into the rhythm and routine of life back at school. Classes have been busy consolidating the learning covered during ‘Learning from Home’ and the enthusiasm across the school has been great to see.
At St Joseph’s we want every student to feel like he or she belongs. In our morning announcements and school assembly, we remind students to be welcoming, to act and speak in safe, respectful, and responsible ways. We’ve also begun teaching the Second Step program, which includes lessons that support these behaviours. Support your child at home in welcoming others, acting and speaking in safe, respectful, and responsible ways. Please tell your child’s teacher if you have questions about specific ways you can help your child with these behaviours at home.
Loneliness can make people feel empty, alone, and unwanted. Whilst people who are lonely often crave human contact, sometimes their state of mind makes it hard to form connections with other people. (https://www.verywellmind.com)
The playground at St Joseph’s is a bustling place. There are children running around, sitting together, playing games together. You can always hear laughter, chatting, and squeals. The sound that you don’t hear is the sound of a lonely child. Sometimes this can be the case because they find it hard to go up and ask others if they can play. This can often be due to self-confidence, fear of rejection or even as simple as a skill that they have not acquired.
People are happiest when they have meaningful relationships. For many of us, our relationships with our friends are vital to our wellbeing. After the time we have recently spent, we are all acutely aware of the need to maintain our relationships and the importance of friends in our lives.
This week, I was aware of a child who desperately wanted to play with others. Together we worked on skills to enable this little one to ask if they can join the game. From the outside, it all appears so simple really, yet so desperately hard from a child’s perspective. Seeing that things were going well, I left the situation.
When I checked in with the same student the next day, she told me that she moved closer to the children that she played with on Tuesday but couldn’t bring herself to join the actual game. What was exciting was that she asked if I could help her tomorrow as she really liked playing with these children. Asking for help is hard, yet necessary. This is something that we need to teach our children now as it gets harder as we get older.
With social media emphasising how great everyone else’s life is, it may well be ‘fake’ posts that make it appear that someone’s life is everything that you’ve ever dreamed. Take the time to check in on each other and teach your children to be inclusive and look out for others. You will not just be helping someone else, you will be helping yourself. It’s a great feeling when you know that you’ve made someone feel worthwhile.
God Bless,
Megan
National Reconciliation Week
Throughout the week we celebrated National Reconciliation Week? National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. The dates for NRW remain the same each year; 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey — the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Reconciliation is a journey for all Australians – as individuals, families, communities, organisations and importantly as a nation. At the heart of this journey are relationships between the broader Australian community and First Nations peoples. We strive towards a more just, equitable nation by championing unity and mutual respect as we come together and connect with one another. On this journey, Australians are all In This Together; every one of us has a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and cultures. This year we planned to have a whole school exhibition about Aboriginal Peoples and Reconciliation however due to COVID19 this was not be able to take place however all classes have been doing activities in the classroom to ensure our children have an awareness and understanding of our shared history.
Positive Behaviour For Learning -Competitive Games
Since all students have returned to school we have been mindful that after spending so much time in isolation that students are in need of additional support with friendship and social skills as they transitioning back into play, especially when put in competitive situations without an adult referee. For this reason, we have added additional play equipment, have more staff on duty during break times and set up skill and drill games for the rest of this term.
Lunch time interest Clubs will also gradually start over the next few week and into next term. Teachers running these clubs will put up posters and let students know when they are starting. We are very excited to have some new play equipment arrive.
Soccer Skill Challenge
Can you do this? https://youtu.be/FDp6MHF9NZ8
Watch this video to learn how to juggle https://youtu.be/l8BOHYsCxAQ
To show us how well you can juggle send video to secretary.weipa@cns.catholic.edu.au
Assembly
With Whole School Assembly's still off the table, we held our first attempt at a Virtual Assembly last Friday. Although we had some challenges, it was a great way to be able to recognise our students who were celebrating birthdays and to acknowledge the great work of our 'students of the week'. The video link has been emailed to all families. We will add more items to Assembly this Friday.
Staffing
We are pleased to welcome Ryan Rutherford to St Joseph’s as our part time grounds person. We are looking forward to having the grounds ship shape in no time.
Aimee Robinson will be taking 12 months maternity leave from the end of this term. After receiving many quality applications for this short-term contract position, Susan Lesic has been the successful candidate. Susan’s prior experience in school administration, and knowledge of the school community will make for a smooth transition in Aimee’s absence.
Due to complications with her pregnancy, Amanda Rowe has had to fly out earlier than expected. We keep Amanda and her family in our prayers and look forward to hearing her happy news in a few months.
COVID-19 Protocols
We can all help to restrict the spread of COVID-19 by adhering to these protocols.
Thank you to the parents and carers who are not entering our school to help limit the amount of adult-to-adult contact in and around our school.
You are helping us by:
- minimising the need to enter the school
- not gathering inside or outside the school
- working with school staff and new protocols on ways of working in and around the school
Part of these school guidelines remain the inability to hold one-on-one meetings with classroom teachers. If you need to communicate with your child’s teacher, please contact them via email or leave a message at the office and they will return your call asap. We are hopeful that we will be able to hold face to face Parent/Teacher interviews early in Term 3.
Thank you so very much for your support with the school guidelines regarding parents on school grounds. These guidelines will remain in place for at least the remainder of the school term.
Signing In
For the safety and wellbeing of all students, a friendly reminder that it is mandatory for all students who arrive late to school, to come to the office upon arrival. Similarly, students who need to be collected from school earlier than 3:00 p.m., are required to be signed-out by their parent or carer. Your co-operation with this process will be greatly appreciated.
Report Cards
All students at St Joseph’s will receive their Semester One report card on Friday 17th July and will be followed by Parent teacher interviews in Week 3. These reports are designed to inform you how your child is performing based on the Australian Curriculum Standards which define what students should know and are able to achieve at each grade level. This semester the structure of the report will look different to previous years, due to covid-19. All students will receive a grade for all subject areas, however there will only be one general comment.
All teachers at St Joseph’s use a range of different quality assessment strategies and tools to gather evidence of student achievement with reference to the Australian Curriculum and the Achievement Standards. Based on the evidence, teachers, make an on-balance judgement to assess student achievement in awarding a grade. The student learning outcomes on school-based reports reflect the learning from units of work and major assessment items taught.
When reading your child’s report, it is important that you remember that as the grade level increases the higher the expectations are from the curriculum and this may result in your child receiving a different mark from the previous year. Although this is not ideal it occurs because teachers are making professional judgements on what your child can do now, based on expectations that need to be achieved by the end of the year.
Please remember that report cards are designed to be one form of communication between parents, teachers and students to acknowledge your child’s achievements and provide supportive and constructive feedback to ensure student success.
Please if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s report card please feel free to make an appointment to see your child’s teacher.
Uniform
At St Joseph’s we pride ourselves on ensuring the students come to school dressed according to the uniform requirements. It is an expectation, that all students wear the full correct school uniform on the designated days and to do so in a respectful way. If you child is unable to wear a part of the uniform for a specific reason, please send your child to school with a note of explanation to their teacher. If uniform requirements are not adhered to, families will be contacted to rectify the situation via a Uniform Notification Slip. This slip will be used by the class teacher if your child presents to school in the incorrect uniform, shoes, socks, hair styles, jewellery, nail polish etc. You will, however, not receive one of these if you have sent a note of explanation in with your child if they are out of uniform.
Please take the time to become familiar with this document and our uniform expectations.
Catholic Identity
The Catholic Identity of our school is the fabric of who we are at St Joseph’s, the glue that holds us together and as such it is so important that we continuously strive to improve in this important area of school life. This year at St Joseph’s we have a number of goals we are working towards achieving. One of our Catholic Identity goals is to focus on the spiritual formation of both staff and students. A formation plan will be developed, containing details of professional learning for staff and activities for students aimed at developing the faith dimension of our lives as members of a Catholic school community. I look forward to when this plan is complete so it can be shared with our school community and begin its implementation.
For 50 great days, the heart of the Christian community has a sense of ultimate fulfillment. It is a delicious time. A shaft of light has come to pierce the uncertainties of the seeking. We are living now with a torch in our hand, however dark the darkness...Pentecost is a period of Christian enlightenment. We come to know during these fifty days not only who Jesus is but who we are meant to be, as a result...it is a time of unbounded assurance and a sense of limitless liberation. It is hope and faith and trust all bound into one in us. It is the 50 great days of illumination meant to carry us across the darkness of life’s divides. From The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister
This Week Let us include in our prayers…..
- The gift of reconciliation. Help us learn from our past and dream of a better future through the grace of faith, hope and charity. Remind us, when we fail to forgive, that the great gift of reconciliation begins when we listen to the fear in our own hearts and then dare to listen to the wisdom of others
- Those who suffer from systemic racism. For those in Australia, the Americas, Europe and all countries where people are judged on the colour of their skin. We stand peacefully and in solidarity with those who have lost loved ones and pray for healing for those who continue to suffer as a result of prejudice and racism
- Our resilient planet in the week that we celebrate the proclamation of Laudato Si. May we remember that we are co-creators and custodians of the land, waterways, seas and skies. Help us to respect and care for these sacred places and all that live and are nurtured on them.
World Environment Day
Friday was the celebration of World Environment Day. As Catholics we are called to be Steward of God’s Creation. For something different, perhaps this week we could pray the an examin about nature:
All Creation: reflects the beauty and blessing of God’s image.
Where was I most aware of this today?
Can Identify and pinpoint how I made a conscious effort to care for God’s creation during this day?
What challenges or joys do I experience as I recall care for creation?
How can I repair breaks in my relationship with creation, in my unspoken sense of superiority?
As I imagine tomorrow, I ask for the grace to see the incarnate Christ in the dynamic interconnections of all Creation.
World Oceans Day
Monday is the day of international recognition of our oceans. We are so fortunate in Australia, especially Far North Queensland, to be blessed with some of the most spectacular marine life in the world. It is important as Stewards of God’s Creation that we take our responsibilities to protect our oceans and waterways seriously. Maybe in the coming weeks as isolation restrictions ease and we venture out more into the wonderful outdoors we could be extra vigilant and do our little bit to take care of the environment. As we learnt in Year 4 Health lessons, we rely on the environment for our health and wellbeing just as much as it relies on us to take care of it.
Prayer of our Oceans
Swirling God, who at the dawn of creation swept over the face of the waters, hover over our oceans and all waterways with your blessed presence.
May each droplet of mist and sea be clean and fresh for all life who come in contact with these holy streams.
Bless each cell and molecule of life below the surface of the waters who trust in you and us to create a prosperous world.
Continually nudge us to nurture creation, joining together with humans all over this planet to covenant with one another and celebrate the gifts of water, air, fire, and land that you have given us.
Amen.
Curriculum News
Semester One Student Academic Reports
As the end of Semester One fast approaches, teachers are busily preparing Students Academic Reports. Due to the interruptions to learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, student reports have been modified for this semester.
Reports for Prep
For our Prep students, their report will cover 5 learning areas of Religion, English, Maths, Science & Health & Physical Education. Your teacher will provide a statement of learning attainment against the achievement standard in each learning area, as to whether your child has achieved or is working towards the Foundation Curriculum.
Reports for Year 1 & Year 2
For students in Year 1 & Year 2, we will be reporting on your child’s overall achievement in 5 learning areas, Religion, English, Maths, Science, & Health & Physical Education. The overall achievement will be based on a 5 point scale of Very High, High, Sound, Developing and Support Required. The overall grade of Sound means that your child is achieving what has been covered from the year level curriculum for that learning area. Your teacher will also provide a general comment.
Reports for Year 3 to Year 6
For students in Year 3 to Year 6, we will be reporting on your child’s overall achievement in 5 learning areas, Religion, English, Maths, Science, & Health & Physical Education. The overall achievement will be based on a 5 point scale of A to E. An overall grade of C means that your child is achieving what has been covered from the year level curriculum for that learning area. Your teacher will also provide a general comment.
May St Joseph smile on you,
Meg Newell
Dear Parents / Guardians
In English we have been focusing on:
- recognising the most common sound each alphabet letter makes
- writing the alphabet letters using the correct letter formation
- segmenting and blending consonant vowel consonant (cvc) words
- reading simple sentences
- Writing simple words and simple sentences.
In Mathematics we have been focusing on:
- Numbers before and after a given number between 0-20
- Ordering numbers in sequential order
- Comparing objects and ordering objects according to their length
In Religion we have been learning about how to be Good Neighbors and forgiveness. We are learning to differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ choices.
In Science we have been learning about what plants need to grow. We have been labelling the parts of the plant and we look at the life cycle of a plant.
Congratulations Curtis and Neve for being our Star Students last week!
The Year 1’s have settled into our regular school routines and practises. We have been learning to entertain our readers by creating narrative texts rich in describing words. We drew illustrations of our very own Blue Thingamajig to show the connection between ideas and text. We will be publishing our work and displaying it in the classroom. I will take a photo and share it in our next newsletter.
In Maths we have been building our number sense by identifying and continuing patterns, skip counting, and sequencing numbers from 1 to 100. We have been using place value to find numbers quickly and easily on our 100s chart.
In Science we have been learning about states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and how we can use heat and cool to change states of matter. We also explored the reasons for wanting to change the states of matter. For example, a burger just wouldn’t taste the same if we didn’t cook our egg before adding it!
The class has been reading two scriptures - the Calling of the Disciples, and Jesus Lost in the Temple. We have been discussing Jesus' mission of sharing God’s word and how we can capture people’s hearts by spreading love, patience and kindness. The students have shown they understand these stories and are putting our ideas into practise. There is so much love and kindness to share in our class.
Over the past week we have been continuing our routine of doing an obstacle course each morning to build our motor skills in the Perceptual Motor Program (PMP). Doing this before our school day prepares us for a focused day of learning. It is also a lot of fun!
In maths we are reviewing the concepts of addition/subtraction and collections of money. We have been using fake coins and notes to construct different values and observing the different pictures and colours each coin and note have.
In religion we are looking at the Jewish concept of Mitzvah and how Jewish people live today. We have been looking at the types of clothing, food, and objects Jewish people often use.
Welcome back to face-to-face learning! I just want to say thank you to all the families for supporting their children during the first five weeks of the term. Since learning returned to the classroom, we have been busy revising our behaviour expectations in the classroom. This fortnight we have been focusing on respect and how we all contribute to making the classroom a respectful place. Respect can be shown in our words, actions and body language when we are interacting with each other.
We will continue to use the laptops in Year 3 to support our learning across different subject areas. Throughout home learning we have used different programs which we will continue to have a place in the classroom. These include Seesaw, which is a brillant tool for sharing learning with families; Studyladder to consolidate taught maths concepts, Mathsonline to revise Year 3 concepts and provide data for future learning. Literacy Planet and Reading Eggs for consolidating taught reading concepts. In order to use these programs, the laptops need to be taken home each day and returned the following day fully charged.
As we get back into a ‘normal routine’, homework will be sent home. It is due to be returned on a Thursday and sent home on the Friday. At this stage, homework does not require the use of a laptop. Homework will consist of reading and recording in the green reading log book, and a maths sheet to revise a concept taught during that week. If you have any concerns about the homework, please email me.
In Maths we have been learning about addition and subtraction strategies that speed up solving problems. The strategies include: using our friends of ten, using a number line and looking at the place value of numbers. Using these stratergies, we are starting to understand the connection between addition and subtraction. We are exploring these concepts by working in groups where the students rotate through activities like studyladder, working with the teacher and maths games.
Throughout this term we have been looking at procedural texts with a focus on recipes. We have explored many recipes and have been learning about the structure, language features and audience of recipes. This knowledge has helped prepare the students to write their own recipes which will be compiled into a class recipe book.
In Religion we have been looking at the heroes of the Bible. These are the figures from the Bible that have had important roles in our history. We started by looking at the armour of God and how we can arm ourselves with protections like truth and peace to live a good life. We have since moved on to look at Moses’ life and how he saved the Isralites from their life of slavery. We look at these stories and think about how we can act like these heroes in our own lives by showing courage and believing in God.
In Science we have been studying the states of matter: solids, liquids and gases; and how heat can change these states. We have looked at how some changes are reversible and won’t affect the product like if water is frozen then melted it will still be the same. But some changes like cooking an egg cannot be changed back and these are irreversible changes.
Hello Everyone and welcome to Week 7.
Religion
In Religion Year 4 learnt about Reconciliation. This means lots of different things to different people. In Australia, and in our schools and early learning services, reconciliation usually means working to ensure everyone understands and values that we can learn, know, speak and be in many different ways. A large part of learning about, and working towards, reconciliation is learning about and respecting Australia’s First Peoples– Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The students to reflected on their own relationships with friends and family by asking:
What are the ingredients of a good relationship/friendship?
What makes you feel proud of yourself and those around you?
What does culture mean?
How do you celebrate culture in your life? In the lives of your friends?
We then created a poster which answered the following questions:
What does reconciliation mean to you?
How do you celebrate your culture?
How can we celebrate our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture?
What is 1 word that summarizes what Reconciliation means to you?
Reminders
Auslan is on Monday
Library Day is Wednesday – please ensure Library bag is packed on that day
Physical Education is Thursday – please wear Sports Uniform on that day
Homework is due on Thursday
Health is on Friday
Our email addresses are
mturner@cns.catholic.edu.au and sulanas@cns.catholic.edu.au
We will endeavour to return your email within 24 hours.
Kind regards,
Ms U and Ms T.
How nice is it to have all of us back together? The enthusiasm in the classroom has been so lovely to see. We have been busy consolidating some of the content covered during our Home Learning time. Our mapping skills were put to the test and the results were amazing. So neat and well presented with continents correctly labelled.
Our Maths lessons have been all about Multiplication. The correct placement of numbers and symbols are super important if we want to calculate correctly. The students are really getting the hang of it and are nearly all the time correct which is so great to see.
Our writing lessons have been about feature articles. We have looked at some evidence that there was a Black Panther in the town of Flotsam (all made up) and the students are now reporting on this incident using objective language (emotional) to persuade if there is or isn’t a panther on the loose.
Mary has been our focus in religion. The students have created wonderful word art and created some creative diamante poems about Mary. Next week we are going to dig deeper into Mary’s roles and begin our art pieces based on one of her roles. I can’t wait to see the creativity spill out onto paper.
If there are any Home Learning packs or homework folders at home, could they please come back to school as soon as possible.
Our first week back in class last week was such a positive experience for everyone! I was so proud of how each student reset themselves into classroom learning and the focus on their tasks was outstanding! We have merged our online learning routine with normal day-to-day face time so that the combination was easy to transition into.
BIg shout out to all the Yr 6 students for showing outstanding Leadership and acknowledgement of the 4R’s in daily learning and during play.
These are the thoughts of the Yr 6’s about their first week back into normal routine:
BACK AT SCHOOL: Being back at school is fun because we get to see our friends and teacher. Miss Libby helps us get through our work and is reasonable with our behaviour and learning. We can’t play the games that we want yet, like touch footy, cricket, basketball and soccer. Apart from that, it is actually really enjoyable and fun!
ONLINE LEARNING: Online learning was great because you could work at your own pace and take more time to learn the subject. It was great because you can have a movement break and a food break whenever needed. The Live meet was good to see your friends and ask any question.s We could work on all our projects to the best of our abilities and take aside a lot of time. The platform Google classrooms really helped us by having a due date and it popped up on our screen when the screen updated.
SCIENCE: We are learning about Micro-organisms. For our bread experiment we left 7 types of bread in a sealed bag to see which bread grew mould fastest. After beginning our experiment, we have observed the mould growing on the turkish bread, Pane di Casa, white bread and wholemeal bread. After looking through the microscope, we have found some micro-organisms, which are tiny living things. Some even move!
POETRY: We have been writing different forms of Poetry. The first was a limerick, next a Cinquain and this week a KENNINGS poem. Next week we are writing a Ballad. We know that each poem has a structure and rules, as well as devices that help make the poems interesting. We usually write a class poem together, then in partners then on our own.
LEADERSHIP AND RECONCILIATION It has been good to get back to some of our Yr 6 riles, like the flags, bins, helping the younger kids out and this week leading assembly. We also looked at how we can show Reconciliation in Action at our school. In this together is the theme for this year.
PB4L/SECOND STEPS: Last week we started Second Steps. It teaches us about moving into high school and about how we talk to each other. We have been talking about empathy and different peoples perspectives and how we make assumptions sometimes without knowing the whole story.
REWARD PARTY: Last week we were rewarded with a pizza party because we did not have any minor or major behaviours. We all got at least 2 pieces of pizza, and a cup of sugarfree soft drink.. We are very grateful that we were rewarded and hope we can do it again soon. Thank You Miss Annette in the tuckshop for making our pizzas from scratch..
From Yr 6 Students and Miss LIbby
Prep - Curtis Steele and Neve O'Connor
Year 1 - Chastyn Lyon and Blaine Turner
Year 2 - Alex Paxton and Domonic Johnson
Year 3 - Jayce Christie and Nate Robinson
Year 4 - Ayden Vogler and Evan Ah Shay
Year 5 - Mitchell Jones
Year 6 - Ethan Edmondson and Jessica Hynes
Congratulations to Lopeti for winning the Queensland Country Bank Smiggle Pack for participating in school banking each week.
School banking is picked up via the school office each Wednesday. Please see Queensland Country Bank if you wish to open an account.