Report Cards

Over the course of this semester teachers have been gathering evidence of learning for each learning area for each of our students. This process involves gathering, analysing and reflecting on multiple sources of evidence to make an informed judgement about what students know, understand and can do.

Assessment in the classroom can come in many forms. It can either be …

-          Diagnostic (assessing prior learning) - pre-tests and work samples.

-          Formative (assessing for learning) - observations, group work, individual conferencing, ongoing work  

           samples.

-          Summative (assessing of learning) - tasks, assignments, presentations.

Early next week, families will receive Semester 1 Report Cards for students from Prep to Year 6. This Report Card is a culmination of your child’s academic achievement throughout the semester, as well as a snapshot of their spiritual and social development. It is just one way of communicating information about student achievement, effort and behaviour.

For each Key Learning Area (KLA), in accordance with Federal standards, your child will be receiving a standard using the five-point scale of A-E.

The Australian Curriculum is written in such a way, that there is an ‘Achievement Standard’ for each year level for each subject area. It is this Achievement Standard that we report against. The standards are written as a statement of what a student is aiming to achieve by the end of the school year for their year level. A student receiving a ‘C’ standard indicates that they have met this standard, that is, that their work demonstrates a conceptual understanding of the concepts covered and that they can apply this knowledge and skills in familiar situations. Simply speaking, a ‘C’ standard indicates that your child is able to do what is expected of them for their year level.

To move beyond a ‘C’ standard, a student must demonstrate that they are developing a sophistication of conceptual understanding, with a strong application of skills, and that they are beginning to transfer their knowledge and skills to new situations (B standard). For an A standard, students must demonstrate excellent application of skills and be readily applying the knowledge and skills to new situations.

Similarly, a ‘D’ standard does not constitute a fail, this standard indicates that a student is continuing to develop their understanding of the expected curriculum, and may be able to demonstrate some of the elements within it, wither with support or inconsistently. A rough outline of these standards is provided below.

In each KLA, students also receive an effort achievement level. This level is derived by the students level of application and study habits during that particular KLA. Please see the table below for the effort achievement scale.

Similar to above, a student receiving a ‘C’ standard indicates that your child is applying the effort standard. You will find these criteria tables in the report card. Parents are strongly encouraged to discuss student progress with your child’s teacher at any time. Should you have any concerns in regard to your child’s progress, please don’t hesitate to arrange a time to meet with your child’s teacher.

The Church Liturgical Calendar  

As we celebrate important events in our lives, so to the Church celebrates the mysteries of Christ’s life in a cyclical pattern. Each liturgical season has its distinctive colour that emerges from nature, celebration days, themes and symbols. Within the cycle of a year the Church remembers and celebrates Christ’s birth, death, resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Easter Triduum, with the inclusion of the Easter Vigil, is the peak of the Liturgical Year. The liturgical Year commences with the first Sunday of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas. 

We are currently in the season of Ordinary Time which has the longest duration during the Liturgical Year. The colour green is used during this period to symbolise nature, life and continuous new growth in all of creation. Ordinary time is a 33-34 week period that falls into 2 blocks. It begins after Easter and continues until Advent. The 2nd block begins after Christmas and goes until Lent. During Ordinary Time we celebrate our faith from day to day.  

Year 6 Leadership Retreat  

On Friday 4th June Year 6 participated in the St Joseph’s Leadership Retreat which included several sessions around leadership qualities and leadership in action. Miss Libby and Mrs Gear focussed on leaders in the Church and modern-day leaders who have been positive role models.  Mrs Pearce led a session on the “flock of the geese” and how working as a team is highly effective. We were fortunate to have Rachael McLean from CES present an amazing session about Reconciliation and how Year 6 could represent this through iconology. The group worked together to design an icon specific to St Joseph’s and Weipa which looks at the journey of moving forward respectfully and the importance of partnership. It was a great day for all.  

Year 6 Leadership Mass 

On Monday 7th June, we gathered as a community to celebrate the 2021 Year 6 students being leaders of the school. The students had input into the planning of the mass selecting their favourite hymns and analysing the readings. All the students attended with their parents and the community to show that they are ready to be leaders of the school. Each child received a badge which they have continued to wear all week and read out a pledge to show their commitment to upholding the school values. The mass finished with a morning tea with the parents to celebrate this special milestone.  

Sacramental Program 2021 

This year our Sacramental Program will be offered as follows: 

Baptism: available to all students and adults any age, one parent and Godparent must be baptised. 

Dates: 

• Saturday 3rd July (6pm) or Sunday 4th July (8.30am) 

• Saturday 7th August (6pm) or Sunday 8th August (8:30am) 
•  

Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Confirmation are all available to students who have been Baptised as Catholics and are in Years 3-6. Children being confirmed will need a sponsor.               

Dates:                                  

• Reconciliation Liturgy at Parish on Saturday 16th October 3/4pm.  

Preparation Sessions: approx. 4 x 40mins sessions in Term 3 at 3:30pm at St Joseph’s 

• First Eucharist and Confirmation will be at a Parish Mass on Sunday 17th October at 8:30am 

Preparation Sessions: approx. 6 x 40mins sessions in Term 3 at 3:30pm at St Joseph’s 

Asked to attend Reconciliation on Saturday 16th October before receiving the Sacraments.  

Forms will need to be completed if you child is receiving any of these sacraments and returned by the end of Term 2. Please collect paperwork from the school office or contact Michelle Gear mgear@cns.catholic.edu.au 

 Dear Parents and Guardians,   

Welcome to Week 9 and it has been another busy 2 weeks and the children have been working hard during this time with lessons and end of Term 2 Assessment. Some of the activities that the students are participating in are training for Athletics Carnival, AFL classes and the Year 5 and 6 students participated in a Cricket Gala Day with students from Aurukun State School last Friday. 

Social Emotional Learning 

This Semester in SEL in the Seconds Steps Program we have focused on Emotion Management. The Year 5 and 6 students also participated in 3 Sessions with Ms Tosca on the topic of Bullying from the Bullying No Way Framework:  

• Understanding Bullying  
• Responding to Bullying  
• Preventing Bullying

To celebrate the students hard work in Year 5 and 6 we are having a SEL Celebration. On Friday the 25th June we will be watching The Ant Bully a PG rated Movie that focuses on these topics.  

NCCD - Nationally Consistent Collection of Data 

The NCCD is an annual collection of information from all Australian schools on the numbers of students with disability and the adjustments they receive. All Teachers at St. Joseph’s School will be expected to understand their obligations to students with disability under the DDA and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 and consistently collect and provide evidence which is recorded on ENGAGE.    

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.   

P E News     

For our weekly lessons, over the last few weeks we have been focusing on skills of catching, rolling and throwing different types of balls and refining locomotor skills of running, jumping and balancing.  Last week Yr 2-6 practised their long jump skills and some students have been coming at lunch time to improve on this.  

Next week we will have the high jump mat out to practise High Jump in preparation for the Athletics Carnival.  

The students in Yr 4-6 nominated for their events and the timetable and events list will be out early next week. 

This week the students were fully engaged in cricket skills with the Qld Cricket team.  They were amazing the way they engaged the students and made it so much fun! 

News to come soon regarding the Athletics Day on the 23rd June at Andoom Oval.   Parents please add it in to your calendar as we need many helpers. 

Stay active everyone! 

Libby Lange 

Prep Newsletter – Term 2 Week 8

Rosie’s Walk

We have been retelling stories and had a big focus on the story of Rosie’s walk. Students chose their favourite part of the story and wrote a sentence to match their picture. We then created our own Rosie’s walk using some of the things we found in the shed and students were very excited to use their positional language walking across the yard, around the pond and past the windmill, etc. 

In English, the students have been focusing this week on the letter’s ‘l’, ‘k’ and ‘u’ and reading these sounds in words. Next week we will be moving on to letter ‘b’. The students bank of letter sound is growing, and we are all excited to be moving on to different in class readers. 

In Religion, we are finishing up our learning about Love, Forgiveness and Compassion. We will be focusing on how we can do this at home and at school. Focusing on social stories of how we engage respectfully in play and how we share and take turns. 

In Technology, we made some beautiful wind chimes. These came home last week. The students worked very hard on designing and choosing materials for these. They then put this into practice and constructed their own windchimes.

In Maths Year 1 have been revising 3D objects. We have made different 3D objects from their nets and then used these objects to help us count the number of faces, corners and edges. This week have been working on our addition skills. We are learning to partition 2-digit and 3-digit numbers and are still developing our understanding of ones, tens and hundreds. In our classroom we do a range of hands on activities and digital activities to support our learning in mathematics. 

In Science we have been learning about constellations and the different phases of the moon. Some of us have uploaded pictures to Seesaw of the different moon phases made out of playdough. The phase of the moon is how much of the moon is shown to us on Earth. Did you know that the moon doesn’t actually produce light? What we see is actually the sun reflected off the moon. 

We have been working hard to earn Joey Tokens each day. Joey Tokens are rewarded to students for displaying our school expectations of ‘Be Respectful’, ‘Be Responsible’, ‘Be Resilient’ and ‘Be Ready for Learning’. At the start of Term 2 we set a target of 5500 Joey Tokens. We are currently at 4749 Joey Tokens. Well done Year 1 on a wonderful Term 2 so far! 

Hello families of Year 2, 

We are steaming ahead to the end of term 2, and the students have been applying their learning over the past 2 weeks. We have a busy end of term coming up! Students have been completing their technology assessment – creating a toy that can be pushed or pulled. 

Over the week Father Dariusz was here to present our Leadership Mass, and Year 2 were lucky enough to have him visit us and discuss the Sacraments of Penance.  

Gentle Reminders: 

• Homework due Friday, given out Monday (no homework week 10) 
• Library is Friday  

• Athletics Carnival Wednesday Week 10 
• Under 8s Day Thursday Week 10 

I hope you have a lovely week, please contact me if you have any questions.  

Welcome to Week 8! 

This Term is going by so fast and as they say, time flies when you are having fun (and learning). Year 3 students have really been enjoying their math lessons over the past few weeks and are now able to correctly identify right, acute and obtuse angles as well as being able to collect, display and interpret data. Students have had a great time posing questions to their peers about their favourite animals, food, book, movies and more and then turning this information into graphs and discussing their findings. They have also enjoying discussing chance when looking at statements and deciding if the statement is likely, unlikely, certain or impossible. The students’ favourite statement was ‘I will lay an egg today’. 

Students have also continued to enjoy the visits from Matt and Shelby for AFL on Friday and have been learning some great skills and fun games. Here are what some students have to say about their AFL lessons: 

“I like AFL because you can kick a goal. I have been learning about AFL and all the special kicks you can do.” - Dom 

“I learnt that in AFL you have to bounce the ball every 15 metres.” - Toby 

“In AFL I learnt about kicking balls. My favourite part of AFL is when we get to play mad eagle.” - Paetyn 

“AFL is great. It is fun and we get to do drop kicks.” - Daston 

“In AFL I have learnt how to handball to people.” - Kade 

Have a great fortnight and I look forward to touching base again in Week 10! 

As we move into the final 3 weeks of Term 2, the students are busily sharing everything they have learned as they complete some final assessment tasks. Students have been busily sharing their scientific learnings as well as researching convicts from the First Fleet and deepening their understanding of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit through art works they have created. I am incredibly proud of the students’ efforts on their assessment tasks as everyone has been approaching their assessment with a ‘can do’ attitude.  

In Year 5 we have been having so much fun learning about symmetry in Maths. The students have been able to create shapes that have 1 or more lines of symmetry as well as find how many lines of symmetry the letters of the alphabet has. As we move into next week we will gain a better understanding of rotational symmetry. This can be tricky to visualise but I’m sure with enough practice we will grasp a solid understanding.  

In Religion for the last few weeks of term we are looking at a unit of work that shows how students can make decisions based on love. This looks at how we can be respectful, kind and caring to those around us even when we don’t want these people as a friend. Our circle time reflecting on our moral conscience and linking this to scripture has been worthwhile. It makes the bible ‘real’ by looking at the actions of those in parables or stories and comparing it to what we do each and every day.  

We are also working on our handwriting skills so that we can start to use pens more in our classwork. Students have been demonstrating neat and tidy book work using a pencil. They have also been given opportunities to use pen to see how different it is and adjust their writing styles when using pens.  

On Friday we were fortunate enough to participate in another sporting activity with Arukun. This time it was cricket and the students displayed great sportsmanship and respect to our visitors as well as each other. It was a hot day but it was great to be apart of this event on our own school grounds. Thank you Miss Libby and Kylie Argent for organising such a wonderful opportunity.  

With only 1 and a half weeks of the term left we still have plenty of learning to do. We will finish off our speeches on our Natural Disaster reports as well as a few little pieces of assessment that are done at the end of each term.  

Yr 6 Newsletter Week 4 Term 2   

We are settling into a calmer routine and Michelle and I are looking forward to seeing some really productive work over the next few weeks.  

It has been a pleasure to meet and talk during parent interviews and see the family behind the smiles in class.  This process has been very beneficial for us to set goals and gain more insight to each student. 

ENGLISH: In class, we have been exploring different ballads, the language features a ballad has and exploring these in depth.  Next week the students will start to write their own ballad, a process that may take over a week.  Every other day we are increasing our vocabulary by learning about a Word of the Day:  exploring synonyms, antonyms and writing sentences. 

MATHS:  We have been revising the 4 algorithms (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) as well as revisiting prime, composite, triangular and square numbers.  The students are enjoying maths bingo for more fluency and accuracy and the website transum.com has been a great mental maths warmup.  We revisited our maths goal today so we will be working towards meeting this over the next few weeks. 

SCIENCE:  Our unit is Creators and Destroyers and is focusing in on Earthquakes and Volcanoes and how these occur in our world.  The students are starting to learn about tectonic plates, the different types and how the movement of these cause different reactions on our earth. 

We have enjoyed the AFL sessions in recent weeks and as always are working towards good Leadership skills in our daily activities at school. 

Libby and Michelle