In Praise of Saint Joseph

Joseph, patron saint of workers,
blending skill with charity,
silent carpenter, we praise you!
Joining work with honesty,
you taught Christ with joy to labor,
sharing his nobility.

Joseph, close to Christ and Mary,
lived with them in poverty,
shared with them their home and labor,
worked with noble dignity.
May we seek God’s will as you did,
leader of his family!

Joseph, inspiration for workers,
man of faith and charity,
make us honest, humble, faithful,
strong with Christ’s true liberty,
Make our labor and our leisure
fruitful to eternity!​

Athletics Carnival

Due to a clash of dates the St. Joseph's Athletics Carnival has now moved to Monday 20th May (Year 3 - 6)  Field Events

AND Tuesday 21st May  (Prep to Year 6)  Track Events and Ball Games.

If you are able to assist with the Athletics Carnival 

please contatct me on mturner@cns.catholic.edu.au

Training for Athletics Carnival will be available on the following dates for students in Year 3 - 6 that would like to participate from 3.10pm - 4.10pm on the school oval.

Monday 13th May  - High Jump/ Long Jump

AFL 

AFL began this week and we welcome Matt Mellahn from AFL Cape York who will be working with us for 5 weeks.

We are extremely excited to be working with AFL Cape York and over the past 2 years we have a developed a strong and positive relationship with the Staff  and we hope this will continue in 2019 and the future.

AFL will be held on Wednesdays in Term 2 for P.E on the following dates:

Wednesday, 15th May 2019

Wednesday, 22nd May 2019

Wednesday 29th May 2019

Wednesday 12th June, 2019.

In addition to the IN-SCHOOL Program, AFL Cape York would also like to facilitate our Auskick Community Program from 3.15- 4.00pm on the Wednesday afternoon that they visit.

This Program will be run AFTER-SCHOOL and is a choice by the Students (and their families) to attend – the same as previous years. . 

The  Afterschool Auskick Program is $40.00 per participation, however, for Term 2, 2019, AFL Cape York would like to subsidise the program from $40.00 to $20.00 per person. Please be aware, attending this Program would be optional for the Students (and parents). 

The Auskick Pack includes: Bag, Hat, Lunch Box, Pump, Water Bottle and FOOTBALL. 

The Program is fun, inclusive and rewarding and caters for both males and females of all ages.

 All students that attend the afternoon clinics must be accompanied by an adult.

If interested please see the front office for an application form.

Regards,

Melanie

CURRICULUM/ SEL/ HPE TEACHER

Headlice Policy

What a wonderful day was had by all! Thank you to everyone who was involved, participated or just came along to celebrate, sing and pray. 

Dear Parents/Caregivers 

Welcome to Term 2. We have another busy term ahead of us. The Prep students are excited to be hosting the Mother’s Day assembly in week 3, Friday the 10th of May.  

English: 

Students are participating in reading simple text using the sounding out strategy for decoding unfamiliar words. The first tricky list has been introduced to the students which included the words: “a, I, the, is and my”. Students are making connections to texts. The story for the week is Pig the Winner. Where students identify their favourite part, get introduced to new vocabulary and express their opinions about the text. Students are also starting to write down their own words using the sounding out strategy, demonstrating beginning writing behaviors such as writing left to right.  

Mathematics: 

Students will continue to connect number names, quantities and numerals. We will start partitioning the number 5, 10 and then beyond. The students are introduced to measurement, where they are completing informal length measuring to identify which item is long and which is shorter.  

Science: 

The Weather in my world unit is an ideal way to link science with literacy in the classroom. Students’ beliefs and understandings about the air, Sun and wind will be developed as they work through hands on activities. Through investigations, they will increase their knowledge of how the characteristics of weather affect their daily lives. 

Andrieka. 

Good morning parents,

Welcome back to Term 2, it is nice to feel refreshed and watch the students settle into the school routine so happily.  I have included our class news in the newsletter this week, and wanted to share a couple of messages with you now.

A reminder and clarification of before school routine.  To ensure student safety we ask that no students be in the class unattended. Students can arrive from 8.15am.  Students are asked to wait in the eating area till a teacher is on duty between 8.15am and 8.20am. Students are then asked to put their bag on the racks then head to play in the basketball court area. As you can appreciate, we want to make sure our students are being supervised and are safe whilst at school.  

Teachers use before school time for preparation and before school meetings. For this reason, with the exception of Prep who are still transitioning into school routine, we have made a whole school rule that classrooms will not be opened until the start of school at 8.35am.  When the bell goes at 8:35am, the students can go to the toilet, grab a drink, then line up at the classroom with their lunch box. We will put our lunch away and say good morning as a class. I realise the students have been doing this quite successfully already this term, but I wanted to email to confirm the change and the reasons we have made a whole school decision.

Year One will be presenting the school assembly on Friday 17 May.  All parents are invited to attend and celebrate the hard work the students have put into showcasing their achievements during the school year.  Aligning with our Religion and Health unit, we will be singing the song “Great Big God”. Feel free to sing this with your child in the lead up to assembly, they love this song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K3TUFFpmhA

Kind Regards

Kelly

Term Two is off to a great start.

Although our fortnightly attendance seems low with 40% of our class here more than 95% of the time, we now have all our families back from holidays and 100% of the class in attendance. It is great to be back, and I am very excited about the learning that will take place this term.

Firstly, in English we are studying storytelling, particularly, the writing conventions needed to communicate ideas clearly using the correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. In Science we are learning about mixtures. We will be making a range of concoctions throughout the term.

In HASS our unit is based on places and the features different places have at a personal, local and national scale. We loved the start of this unit, designing our perfect bedroom and are excited about continuing this learning when drawing plans and maps of playgrounds, classrooms, our school, Weipa and beyond.

This term’s Religion focus is on the creations stories and what it means to be stewards of creation.

Everyone’s Homework including sight words will now be marked each Friday. Please ensure your child has completed their holiday recount, length sheet and coloured in the magic e words they know.

A star chart has been created to encourage everyone to complete their work.

This Friday a Maths booklet will be added to your child’s folder. Please complete one sheet per week.

If you were unable to make a parent teacher interview last term, I am free any morning or afternoon next week.

It was wonderful catching up with most of you last term to discuss your child’s progress so far. Thank you!

A big welcome back all of our Year 3 families, especially the Vogler family who are back with us after having a term away. It has been a busy start to the term with the students showing off their artist abilities across a variety of activities last week.

In our writing lessons we have been learning about what a persuasive text is and how to write sizzling starts. We are aiming to engage the reader with the first paragraph, ensuring that it is convincing, it has 3 or 4 sentences and starts of with a ‘bang’ or an action.

During maths we finished off our money studies for a while and have moved onto time. The students are getting good at learning to tell the time to quarter past, quarter to and to the nearest 5 minutes. The have been participating in activities where they are timing themselves doing things in 1 minute. It has been exciting to see their enthusiasm while counting and keeping track of timers.

We are learning about the sacraments in Religion this term and are starting off with the Sacraments of Initiation. Baptism has been the first sacrament to investigate with the students asking many questions. Please talk to them about what you know to help link those connections with school and home.

Our History has started off with looking at what we know about ANZAC Day and why we commemorate, not celebrate this day. We will continue this unit of study throughout the term with the students in the end giving a detailed explanation of why we should commemorate ANZAC Day.

With a staggered start to the term due to Public Holidays our attendance hasn’t been as high as it has in the past, but I’m sure with coming weeks our percentage will increase.

Welcome back! It has been wonderful to see all your faces again and hear about your adventures over the holidays.

It is a new term and time to just remind our students about being responsible and respectful with our belongings so we are always Ready to Learn each day. I would like to remind everyone of a few points so we can work successfully this term:

• Ipads need to be charged each night at home and return to school with each day. These devices are important as they are used to practise and consolidate learning that has been previously taught.
• All of the consolidation activity results can be viewed by myself so I can determine if they have mastered the concept or need some further support.
• Some students are also in need of new headphones, so I ask if you could please check in with your child as to whether they need a new set. This may also be a time to check if they need any stationary refilled/replaced for the term.

All of these reminders allow a smooth start to the term and allow the students to understand our 4 R’s when it is related to their academic part of school life.

The last fortnight, I have introduced literacy rotations a couple of times a week. The students get a chance to participate in activities that cover each of the three main strands in English: reading, writing, speaking and listening. The rotations allow me to spend time with each group and also gives me a chance to do individual reading records to see where the student is at and what they need to work on next. You can help your student get the best outcomes in this by encouraging reading every day. It could be an audio book in the car, your child reading a story to you, or a five minute bedtime story. Anything that help students fall in love with reading because you know as well as I do, that when a student is engaged in something, they will want to do it more often and will improve.

Reports go out this term, which mean there will be lots of preparation for assessment tasks over the coming weeks. Attendance is key to helping your child succeed! Our attendance at the moment is sitting at only 47% of students attending 95% or more. There are a lot of events already filling up the school calendar which means every hour counts. If you are aware that your child will be absent, even for one day, please let me know in advance so we can arrange ways of making sure your student does not miss out or fall behind. I am committed to helping your child grow and learn and attendance can be a key to their success.

As always, if you have any concerns about your student, please come and see me.

thank you,

Sammy.

There has been a strong feeling of respect, acceptance, friendship and understanding of each other’s differences in our classroom which is what we have been striving to achieve. Well done each and every student!

 It has been great to hear all about the kids holidays and what they got up to.  Many happy times for most. However it has been also rewarding to settle back into a routine this week. 

In English, we are well into learning about Persuasive writing and the devices (tools) we need to incorporate into our writing to make an argument clear or convince our reader about our point of view. This week everyone wrote about “Should children do more or less homework.”  This led to good discussions facts and having your opinion heard with sensible, logical reasons.  The students typed this on their laptops in preparation for Naplan in Week 4.

In Maths, we have revised the 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and what strategies to use to work out problems. Every day we are spending some time doing some Naplan questions and working in pairs to encourage each other to work out how to solve the questions.  This has been very rewarding and as a class we have built up a bank of strategies to use. 

We explored the qualities of St Joseph and how this has made a difference in our school and the qualities we strive to achieve.  Last week we celebrated Easter and made some beautiful stained glass window crosses, as well as recognising the importance of ANZAC day.  The poppy mosaics created are a credit to each student and listening to each other’s stories and memories was really interesting. We will be working hard next week, introducing lots of new concepts in our Learning areas and preparing for our Naplan week.

The year 6 group is now all back at school after the holidays, and we have enjoyed writing about the things we have seen and done during the break. Many of us participated in the ANZAC Day march and dawn service and we reflected in the classroom and at our school liturgy on the importance of honouring those who have served on our behalf.

We have begun an integrated unit of study on Countries of the world, which will take us through most of this term. It will include looking at countries, especially our near neighbours, through Maths, English, Religion, Science  and Technology.

This week the highlights for year 6 have been our Leadership retreat and our induction as school leaders. On Monday we spent the day thinking about different forms of leadership with Mrs Pearce, Father Dariusz, Mr Mitchell and Mrs Turner. We learnt about Saint Joseph and Saint Mary Mackillop, our school patrons, and the importance of showing kindness and having a Growth mindset in everything we do.

On Wednesday we joined with the rest of the school in celebrating our St Joseph’s day Mass, and we also received our badges and made our promises as school Leaders for 2019. It was great to have the support of so many parents and family members, as well as the whole school community.

St Joseph's Parish School Finance Department.                                                                                                     

Below is some important information regarding Catholic Education School Fees process, please do not hesitate to contact me regarding any questions. I’m looking forward to establishing open and positive communication with parents to help manage school fee / accounts. Included is a fees and levy schedule for 2019.

The payment of school fees and levies is an important component of the income of the school. The school relies on these payments in order to provide the high-quality education enjoyed by your child/ren. In situations where there is genuine family financial hardship, please contact the school. Your circumstances will be treated in strictest confidence.

After the 14-day due date, period overdue fees letters will be emailed to families who may have overlooked the due by date as a first reminder. (Payments made by families close to the due date will not present as being paid into our account. Disregard this letter if that is the case. Usually takes 3-5 working days). After the first reminders, the Accounts Department will call the family to arrange a meeting with the Principal to discuss the matter.

We do encourage you to contact the school if you are struggling to pay school fees. Meeting with the Principal to discuss your particular situation is a positive way for you to address the matter going forward. Please email lgibson1@cns.catholic.edu.au for assistance regarding your school fees. We appreciate your efforts to deal with your fees in a timely manner.

If you have any enquiries regarding you school fees account please contact Leanne by email on lgibson1@cns.catholic.edu.au we may not be able to attend to your email immediately, please allow up to 48hrs for response.

School fee accounts can be paid by our EFTPOS terminal, Direct Debit, Bpay, Cash or Cheque. Looking forward to working together.

Regards
Leanne Gibson
Finance Officer

Don't forget to drop your stickers into the box at Woolworths marked "St Joseph's Weipa", or into our school office.

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

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.