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2021 Newsletter Week 1 Term 3
A warm welcome to Term Three. I hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful break and has found plenty of time to connect with family and friends where possible. Our students and staff have returned full of enthusiasm and excitement for a new Semester of learning, friendship, teamwork and enjoying being a part of the inclusive St Joseph’s community.
We are blessed to have new families join our school community. Welcome to Marli Kirk, Matilda Pratt, Jordyn Wood and families. We hope that these first few days and weeks of settling into the school go well for our newest St Joseph’s learners and families.
Staffing Semester 2
It is with pleasure that we introduce Miss Kristen McLeish and Mrs Trudy Sinnamon. We welcome them both to our school community and to our team of wonderful educators.
Miss Kristen McLeish, Year 1 teacher to our St Joseph’s community. Kristen has replaced Kelly Bienvenu and has already had the opportunity to get to know our beautiful Year 1 class last term which has ensured a smooth transition for her as well as the students.
Mrs Trudy Sinnamon is replacing Tammi Butters as the Year 3 Teacher for Semester Two. Trudy may be familiar to many of you as she has taught across all grades here at St Joseph’s last term in a relief teacher capacity. Trudy is an extremely dedicated teacher who is looking forward to starting with us in a full-time capacity from week 2.
P&F Association
Holy Name P&F Association is an extremely friendly and engaging group of volunteers, ably lead by our P&F President Aimee Robinson. Our first meeting for Term Three will be on Tuesday, July 12th in our school staffroom commencing at 7:00pm. All families are invited and most welcome to attend these meetings.
Assembly
Our School Assembly will continue to be held weekly on a Friday morning. Our Assembly is well organised organised and delivered by our Year 6 leaders, a much sought-after privilege of being a School Leader at St Joseph’s. All families are welcome, invited and encouraged to attend our assemblies.
EVENTS UPDATE
The focus of our first newsletter is to ensure that staff and parents are well informed about important updates as we begin the second half of our academic year at St Joseph’s.
Prep Enrolments
We are conducting our first round of Prep interviews for 2022 in week 2. It’s an extremely enjoyable experience to welcome new families and to meet the siblings of our existing students, welcoming them to St Joseph’s. If you have a child ready to attend Prep in 2021 please be sure to enrol as soon as possible.
We have some vacancies across our other classes for 2022. Help our school grow and be part of building St Joseph’s name into the future by being a loyal, supportive and vocal advocate for the high-quality education program and nurturing environment that is St Joseph’s.
Parent Information Evening -ANXIETY
Please join us on Wednesday 21st July at 5:30pm in our flexible learning space. All St Joseph’s families are invited to attend the Information Evening ‘Anxious Kids’ with our presenter Hannah Chapman.
Hannah is an educational Psychologist who is the CEO Manager of Counselling and Psychology Services. Not only is Hannah very knowledgeable and easy to listen to presenter with good sense of humour.
Hannah’s presentation will focus on- How parents and schools can help children reduce anxiety, strengthen wellbeing, achieve resilience and experience lasting happiness. Hannah’s research-based advice is grounded in a career of extensive study, clinical practice, education and endless compassion.
Catholic Education Week
Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across Queensland in Week 3 of this term, from July 25th to 30th. This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day. Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
- Tuesday 9am Spirit of St Joseph School Mass
- Wednesday 5:30pm ‘Let’s Dance’ School Dance
- Friday 9am ‘Open Day’
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NAIDOC Week
Each year NAIDOC Week falls in our school holidays. At St Joseph’s we celebrate in Term 3, Week 4. This year’s theme is “Heal Country”, invites us to share and celebrate with their children the unique place and history of First Nations cultures with the land and waters we now call Australia; a place of respect, of custodial relationships and of special connections built from generations and generations of living in harmony with their Country. Celebrations and activities for the week will include:
- Welcome to Country ‘Smoking Ceremony’
- Kindy visit
- Excursion to Cultural Centre
- Ranger visit ‘conservation’ https://youtu.be/98jWIgs7_PE
- Dance Troup performance
- Indigenous games and art activities
Book Week
Term 3 Week 6, in the library is always lots of fun. Term 3 is when we celebrate the Children’s Book Council’s Book Week … a celebration of books, libraries and all things reading. In 2021, the theme for Book Week is Old Worlds … New Worlds … Other Worlds. This relates so well to our experiences when we read a book … because when read, we can be transported to many, many different places.
In the library we will be enjoying listening to and reading the books that made it to the Book of the Year Awards Shortlist. Students will also have the opportunity to Choose their own Book Adventure, by selecting whether they would like to travel to an Old World, a New World, or an Other World.
- On Thursday 19th we will be having “Bring a Bear & Book Picnic’. All children are invited to bring a favourite teddy and book to share at our Teddy Bears Picnic.
- Our dress-up day will be on Friday 20th August. Students are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite book char-acter, or in a costume that fits with the Book Week theme. Think dinosaurs, ancient Egypt or the Hobit for old world inspiration or perhaps astronauts in space for the new world theme. Other worlds offer and enormity of choice with comic books, wizards and dragons as possibilities.
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Pupil Free Day
St Joseph’s Pupil Free Day will be held on 2nd September 2021 in line with WCC to ensure continuity for families.
This day has been traditionally used as a moderation day where teachers make judgement about the standards achieved by their students. St Joseph’s does this process throughout each term in conjunction with other Catholic Schools in the Diocese via zoom.
At St Joseph’s we use this day to provide professional development is an essential component of supporting high quality teaching and is a requirement of teacher registration in Queensland.
Colour Run Fun Day!!! Wednesday 1st September 2021 Starts at 1pm
NRL Visit and Gala Day
Each year the NRL brings the game to remote communities in Far North Queensland. This Year we are fortunate to not only have the NRL visit to provide a coaching clinic for each class, but we will be hosting the NRL Gala Day.
- 6th September -PE day will be held on Monday instead of Friday so that all classes can attend the NRL coaching clinic
- 9th September -Thursday NRL Gala Day Yrs 4-6 hosted by St Joseph’s
- The Moment of the Year competition is back in 2021. Scan this URL Code to see the moment from July.
Swimming Lessons
Week 9 Block -Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Friday 10th September
Week 10 block -Monday13th, Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th September
Swimming Carnival
The Carnival will be held on Thursday evening 4:30pm to 8pm. Sausage sizzle will be provided by the P&F. Volunteers are always needed to help the smooth running of the carnival. Special Night for Year 6 who celebrate at the end of the Carnival by jumping in the pool with their teachers.
Communication
Communication between home and school is essential to the successful progress of all students. The newsletter is still our number one form of communicating up to date information about school & class events. Other modes of communication include – online info and consent forms, School calendar, P&F, Facebook site, regular reminders at assembly and emergency messages via the Schoolzine App.
If the newsletter is not read, information notes are not read, you don’t check and update your school calendar, you don’t check emails, then at some stage something will be missed or forgotten. To ensure the best possible communication levels are achieved, I urge all families to read the newsletters which are emailed the link weekly. Hard copies of the newsletter are available upon request. The Schoolzine App is also a great way to receive updates or emergency notices.
