Dear families and friends, 

It has been wonderful to return last week after a few days leave to see all the staff and students energised and keen to be back. The last few weeks have been a challenging time for my family. I thank you for reaching out with your thoughts and prayers for my mum’s quick recovery. I’m pleased to be able to report that she is doing well and has now returned home from hospital. I’m also very grateful to all staff who stepped up and supported each other in my absence. 

I love Term 4 as it is a time to reflect and celebrate the academic, physical and emotional growth of all our wonderful children. We have a wonderful term planned, full of learning, assessment, transition and events for the community as we prepare for transition into the 2022 school year. Please keep your eye out for upcoming events on our website, facebook and newsletter.

Congratulations to our students who received the sacraments of reconciliation, first Holy Communion and Confirmation over the weekend. The Church service was lead by Fr Dariusz and then we joined together to share morning tea and cut the beautiful cake that Mrs Veronica ah Shay made for the occasion. It was a joyful celebration with families and friends. It was lovely to see so many happy faces and families coming together.

A special thank you to Mrs Gear and Mrs Kath Newman who spent many hours preparing the students. We thank them for their time, effort and support to make this a special and memorable day for the children and their families.

School Survey Each year as a Catholic Schooling system in the Diocese of Cairns, we survey our school parents/carers, students and staff utilising the services of MYP Corporation. The survey is generic in nature with questions relating to our school services, curriculum offerings, teaching and learning and overall how we rate at educating your child. The data gathered assists us to plan for the future, guide where resources may need to be placed and gives us information to report back to our system and the government. Please be aware that each family will receive a survey link once they open on Wednesday 20 October. The survey will conclude on Wednesday 3 November.

St Joseph’s has just received our first edition of the St Joseph’s School water bottle. Once you have completed your survey, please claim your new water bottle for each student in every family from the office.

Staffing Update We are pleased and excited to welcome Chandler Connell as our full time Indigenous Liaison Officer and Stephanie Neil as our new part time intervention support teacher. Chandler and Steph will share their profile with us over the coming weeks as we showcase our staff for 2022.

We are currently making staffing and class arrangements for 2022 and if you definitely know that you will not be returning to St Joseph’s in 2022, it would be appreciated if you could let us know, as the number of class teachers is directly linked to the number of students in the school. The class structure and teaching staff will be announced, once finalised, closer to the end of term.

Expanding Classes in 2022 Each year we have high demand for Prep and our lower classes from both current and new families to our school. Although we currently have less siblings in our Prep than we did last year, we already have more than 20 siblings enrolled for 2023. We are currently expanding our lower year classes to ensure that we meet the needs of our growing school community.

As our school grows so do the resources and facilities we provide to our current students. Your ongoing support of our school is greatly appreciated, and should you know of friends, relatives or work colleagues who are considering schooling options for 2022, I ask you to encourage them to consider St Joseph’s as a preferred option. Should you or they require any further information regarding enrolment at St Joseph’s, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to meet with people to talk about what St Joseph’s has to offer.

At any stage, prospective families are more than welcome to come along, tour the school and see firsthand the calm classroom environments conducive to learning.

Class Learning Overview This week, all families will receive a letter from their child’s class teacher outlining the core content to be covered for each Key Learning Area during Term 4. This is the same process that has been undertaken throughout the year at the beginning of each term, with the purpose being to provide clarity for all families about what the learning focus is for your child in the classroom. I urge you to take some time to read this information, print it out if you find that easier, perhaps stick it on the fridge! In this way, you can engage in meaningful conversation about what your child’s day or week has been like. It is much easier to support your child in their learning journey by knowing in advance what they are engaging in. If your usual conversation around “What happened at school today?” is usually followed by “Nothing!”, then the information in this beginning of term letter will be very helpful for you! 

Parent Meetings As we enter the busy-ness of the final term, please remember that, as always, there is no need to wait until invited or contacted if you wish to discuss anything with your child’s teacher. Parents can contact teachers to arrange an appointment time at any stage of the year and in whatever way best suits their needs – face to face, email or phone. Your teacher is, at all times, your first point of call as they know your child and their learning needs best. Trying to “catch a teacher” in the morning is not advisable as they need to be focussed on welcoming the children and preparing for the day ahead, which is why arranging an appointment is advised. 

Day for Daniel The Morcombe Foundation’s ‘Day for Daniel’ is coming up on Friday 29th October (Week 4), and once again St Joseph’s will be wearing red to support this important cause. The work of the Morcombe Foundation is manifold. They provide education for children on ways to keep themselves safe through programs at school and at home but, they also provide support to families who have been affected in some way by abuse or harm. Wearing red on the ‘Day for Daniel’ is a simple but powerful gesture to show that we can keep our children safe and one that St Joseph is happy to get behind.

World Teacher’s Day Another upcoming event for Friday 29th October is World Teacher’s Day. This is a little later than the international day due to the school holidays. World Teacher’s Day is a day to recognize the great work and tireless effort of those who teach our children. Teaching isn’t always an easy job, but we do it because we love making a difference in the lives of our learners. Make sure you take the opportunity to say thank you to your teachers on Friday 29th October. If you want to learn a little more about World Teacher’s Day, you can visit the AITSL website - World Teachers’ Day - Australia 29 October 2021 (worldteachersday.edu.au)

Month of October: Month of the Rosary  

The month of October is a special time of the year where we honour our blessed Mother Mary through praying the Rosary. Rosary is derived from ‘rosarium’, Latin for ‘crown of roses’. It is believed when you pray the rosary it is like you are taking a walk through Mary’s beautiful garden of roses. This October why not learn more about the Rosary and try to learn how to pray a decade of the Rosary.  

Socktober- Catholic Mission Month 

On Friday, the school joined in Socktober by wearing crazy socks to school for a gold coin donation. This was to show our support of Catholic Mission who provide funding and project support for children and communities around the world. Socktober for Mission Month encourages students across Australia to kick goals on and off the pitch to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children in Thailand and around the world. Thank you to Year 2 for leading the Prayer Assembly on Friday morning, to Miss Ridgely for kicking soccer goals with the students to raise awareness and to all those who participated in raising funds for this worthy cause. 

Sacramental Weekend 

This weekend we had several students who received Reconciliation, Holy Communion and Confirmation. The St Joseph's students, combined with Western Cape College students have participated in the Sacramental Preparation Program since Term 3 and were prepared to receive the Sacraments. Father Dariusz  joined us on this special occasion. Congratulations to all the children and their families.

 Dear Parents and Guardians,   

Welcome back to Term 4. I hope you had a wonderful break and I look forwarding to seeing you all throughout the Term. 

Social Emotional Learning   

This Semester in SEL in the Seconds Steps Program we will be focusing on Emotional Management.   

Second Step   

Second Step SEL is research-based, teacher-informed, and classroom-tested to promote the social-emotional development, safety, and well-being of children from Early Learning through to Grade 8. Children learn and practice vital skills for listening and paying attention, having empathy, managing emotions, building friendships, and solving problems with others. The 25-minute interactive lessons and discussion-based activities with distinct grade-level experiences. The lessons focus on Social-Emotional Learning:   

• Mindsets & Goals  
•  Recognising Bullying & Harassment  
• Thoughts, Emotions, & Decisions  
• Managing Relationships & Social Conflict  

This Semester in SEL in the Seconds Steps Program we will be focusing on Problem Solving. These lessons will continue throughout the Year for Prep to Year 6.  

Positive Behaviour for Learning   

Our school community has identified the following school wide expectations to teach and promote our high standards of responsible behaviour:   

• Be Respectful  
• Be Responsible  
• Be Resilient  
• Be Ready for Learning  

PB4L assemblies take place on Monday’s at 2pm followed by Second Step lessons.  

Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs)  

The teachers are in the process of writing Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs) and will be meeting with Parents over the next few weeks. Personalised learning is a process that supports a wide range of students with additional learning and support needs. This includes students who may require support in one or more of the following areas: learning (including high potential learners), behaviour, social/emotional, cultural/language (including international students, boarders and learners of English as an Additional Language or Dialect) and those who have educational support needs arising from disability. Teachers, with the support of the Leader of Diversity, and in consultation with parents, collaboratively decide which adjustments and/or goals are to be targeted and determine appropriate strategies and supports to be implemented. It is the teacher’s responsibility to implement these planned strategies in order to support students to meet their goals. Teachers will direct School Officer support and plan for adjustments on a weekly basis. Teachers communicate weekly with School Officers regarding student progress and make adjustments as needed. Evidence is collected regularly and uploaded to ENGAGE. PLP meetings are set 6 monthly and will determine if current goals have been achieved before setting further goals.   

Visitors  

Week 3 we have Stephanie Fox - Speech Language Pathologist and Zinna Aylward - Occupational Therapist from Cairns Catholic Education visiting for the week and supporting teachers and students. 

In Week 4 from Wednesday 27th October to Friday 29th of October we have Mia Lumley - Psychologist and Verity Beams - Consultant for Diversity and Inclusion from Cairns Catholic Education visiting for the week and supporting teachers and students. 

In week 5 Tosca Grainger - Dee our School Counsellor will be visiting us again in Weipa providing her service to St. Joseph's School from Monday 1st November – Friday 5th November. 

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.    

Throughout Term 4, our school will be implementing the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum with students in all grades, Prep – Year 6. The curriculum is based on principles of best practice in child safety education and centres around three key messages: Recognise, React and Report. Through a series of lessons, students will learn how to recognise, react and report when they are unsafe or find themselves in situations that can have a significant detrimental effect on their physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing. 

Information about the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum can be found at  

www.education.qld.gov.au/child-safety-curriculum. 

We will be offering a parent information session about the program in the coming weeks with details to be communicated with you all as soon as possible.   

This year our school will also be participating in the Day for Daniel. On Friday 29th October, 2021 students are encouraged to make a gold coin donation and wear red to school. All funds raised will be donated to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. Please see the attached FAQs sheet and flyer for more information. 

If you have any questions or concerns about the program please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Regards 

Amanda Rowe 

PE News 

Swimming Lessons 

Our intensive swimming programme was a great success last term.  Watching the students grow in their skill development and confidence each day was great to see.  A huge thankyou to our swim team Stacey Edmonds, Tash Tapper, Rosa Murray, Raechel Gordon and Amanda Rowe for your patience, expertise and enthusiasm teaching the Swim and Survive program. We were very fortunate to have the help of Kelly Anderson and Paul Girardi in the pool as well. An important part of this program is water safety and many of the skills taught were about how to survive and what to do in an emergency.   Learning how to tread water, scull and float were key skills.  For the older students, practising survival strokes and safety jumps were essential, as well as performing a throw rescue. 

Each student who participated received a Swim and Survive Certificate.  Well done everyone! 

Swimming Carnival 

Our carnival on the last Thursday of Term 3 was a great success and every child who participated enjoyed themselves!  Thanks to every person who assisted in some way, from our parent helpers in and out of the pool, scoring tent, staff and P & F.  What a great school event with outstanding sportsmanship and participation.   

Team RESULTS      Pine 266        Embley 248      Mission 176 

Age Champions: 

2012 Boy- Jackson Reynolds         

2011 Boy- Louis Argent                

2011 Girl- Faith Chandler             

2010 Boy- Levi Payne                  

2010 Girl- Sydney Van Pelt           

2009 Boy- Ryan Potter         

   

Date Claimers:   

Friday October 22nd         Qld cricket visit 

Saturday October 23rd     Cricket Carnival 

Tuesday October 26th      NRL Cowboys visit (Yr 4-6) 

Sunday 14th November    Kids Try-Athlon 

Look forward to our PE lessons this term! 

Libby Lange 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER 

Hello Prep Families, 

Welcome back Prep families to Term 4!  

We have had an exciting start to the term, learning our songs for Starry Starry night and welcoming some of the new preps for 2022 into our classroom for a morning. All the students have been very kind and welcoming to these new students.  

English:  

Students have been focusing these last two weeks on their writing and reading what they have written. We have been learning how to write a sentence using a subject and a what, whilst including our capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces. The students have been using their brilliant imaginations to write sentences about a picture and their favourite season/holiday.  

Maths:  

Students have just finished learning about times of the day and have moved onto 3D shapes. We have learnt about a sphere, cone, cylinder, pyramid, and cube so far this term and the students have had a great time finding these around our school.  

Religion:  

Students have been learning about the different rituals and celebrations we have in the church and relating them to their own personal experiences with these celebrations.  

Science:  

The focus for this term in science is physical sciences, the way things move. We have been exploring our bodies and the way they move. Also, the movements we don’t need to think about but still happen like breathing, coughing and blinking.  

HASS:  

This term is about geography, students have been looking at familiar places in our school and community whilst also looking at other unknown places around the world. This week they will be designing their own water park and making a map of where all the rides will go.  

Daniel Morcombe Curriculum:  

We started our Daniel Morcombe curriculum this term in week two. I discussed safe places and practices and the students all drew places they felt safe and highlighted practices that were not safe like running with scissors and leaving the stove on.  

Assembly:  

Preps will be on assembly this Friday of Week 3. It would be great to see you there. Assembly starts at 8:40am.  

Kindest Regards,  

Anneka 

Hi Parents and Caregivers! 

It’s been a great two weeks of Term 4 so far in Year one. We have been learning all about Australian animals, so far we have learnt about Kookaburras, Platypus and this week we are learning about Wombats. We’ve been learning lots of interesting facts and doing some craft too, as well as some acrostic poems.  

Here is just a few. 

In Geography we have been answering questions that students have had about Constructed, Managed and Natural features all over the world.  

Hello families of Year 2, 

Thank you for a great start back to school for Term 4. The students have been busy in maths this term. We have been ordering numbers up to 1000 and representing them using MAB blocks. We did some small group work as well, which aimed to improve our communication skills. In the coming weeks we will begin to look at data and representing different data using tables, graphs and pictures. 

At the end of last term, we were lucky enough to have Year 6 come and visit us to show us what they had built during their technology and science units. The students were very interested in the use of electrical currents to make the traffic lights work! 

For our up coming Starry Starry Night, I ask that the students wear bright Christmas colours, such as green, red, white. We are singing Little Drummer Boy and In Harmony. Josh Arnold will also be joining us for a great night of celebration and singing!  

Thanks, 

Emily  

Welcome back to Term 4! It’s a short but very busy term. 

In Writing, we have begun a poetry unit. Students have been learning about rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and onomatopoeia. I have particularly enjoyed seeing the students’ creative examples of onomatopoeia. 

In Maths, students have enjoyed using Sunset Maths to practise their number facts. Students have also been showcasing their mathematical skills in their daily maths mental challenge. This is a good opportunity for students to receive feedback on their progress. 

In Science, students have learned about the changing states of matter and what happens to solids and liquids when we add or remove heat. Over the next couple of weeks we will be conducting a number of scientific investigations into melting and freezing. 

In Civics students discussed the Australia Day Awards and enjoyed working in groups to write a criteria for a school hero award. 

Just some reminders: 

• Homework is sent home on Monday and collected on a Friday. 
• Homework sheets are to be glued into students’ homework books. 
• Weekly library time is scheduled for a Friday this term. 
• Overdue library books need to be returned.  

I look forward to more quality weeks of learning with Year 3. 

Regards, 

Miss Trudy Sinnamon 

It was so lovely to be welcomed back after spending a week on camp with Year 6. The class has jumped straight back into learning and is showing real progress with their organisation and dedication to their work. This week we have been investigating how the Cairns Catholic Diocese continues the ministry and work of Jesus. Students were surprised when they accessed the Diocese website and saw all of the wonderful work done by people like Fr. Dariusz to help others, teach people about God and educate children. Please ask your students to share with you what they have learned about how they continue the work of Jesus both at school and at home.  

And just like that, we are at the end of Week 2. The Year 5 students have definitely jumped back into learning and with such passion. Last week they took on fractions in Maths like they had been doing it all year with so much confidence and resilience. Students were able to add and subtract proper, improper and mixed fractions accurately. This then helped them when they completed their Pat Testing this week. This week we have also been looking at angles. Accuracy is the key to measuring whether this is with our protractors or rulers. Next week's challenge will be using the Spheros to code accurate angles.  

Starting off this term looking at The Rosary and other marian prayers has helped shape the students understanding of Mary, mother of Jesus as an honored figure in the church, not a worshiped figure. Through repetition allows meditation and reflection time so that we can be closer to Jesus and Mary. Next week we will start to look at Mary through the scripture so we can start to see her various roles over her life as well as how she is portrayed. When the RE Team from CES come they will then share experiences with us using the scripture we would have studied in the coming week.  

Our Procedural Texts are coming along very quickly. The Year 5’s are very committed to typing their recipes up while taking the time to ensure there is a variety of verbs and adverbs to enhance the reading experience for the creators. Over the next couple of weeks, students are going to be asked if they can create their recipe choice at home and have some photos or videos taken. This will add to their presentations, but is not essential.  

Information about the Year 5 retreat and sleepover will be coming out next week so please keep an eye on your emails. Only 2 weeks to go!  

Yr 6  News   by Y 6 Students              School camp 2021 

Whilst we were having the most awesome time of our life, we played an incredible game  called Capture the Flag! We had to split up into different teams (red + blue) that we stayed  in for every activity all week. The people in the red team were Sydney, Mitchell, Noah,  Samuel and Aiden. The people in the blue team were Sharli, Ryan, Levi, James, Sarah  and Leon. The aim of the game was to try and capture the flag from the other team's zone.  If you got tagged you would have to go to jail. So your team would then have to free you.  It was incredibly fun and I sure would like to go there again one day. 

Sydney 

Canoeing  

We walked down to one of the dams at Camp Paterson where there were canoes laid out.  You got to pick a partner in your team (red and blue) to go in the canoe with you.  Jeremy was telling us about how to use them and some tips and tricks for 10 minutes.  We did different challenges in the canoes that were going around the island in the dam,  going from one side to the other, getting out of the canoe and doing push ups or a star jump  and getting back into the canoe and going back to the other side.  Lots of us flipped our canoes but it was pretty good fun. 

Sharli 

Archery and Draw Bridge           

In school camp in 2021 we played Archery. In this game you had to get as many bull  eyes as possible in 40 minutes.  The targets were 3 big hay bales with different scores  around it. James got 3 bullseyes, Ryan got 4, Levi got 1, Sharli 3, Sarah got 3 and Leon  got 2 of them. That was the blue team. Every so often we had to move backwards to  make the distance longer.  The Red team did really well. Miss Libby got 3 bullseyes in one go, Sydney got her eye  in and got lots.   We all cheered each other on as we got better at hitting the targets. 

Sam

The next challenge was the drawbridge. We had 3 planks that were 3m long.  There were pylons sticking out of the water in the dam. We had to get to the other side  with only using the 3 planks. It was a close challenge. It meant thinking logically. Some of the pylons were too far away for the planks to reach so we had to problem solve and really talk about what we were going to do as a team. 

James and Noah 

Water Wipeout 

Water Wipeout was so fun. We had a practice race, then we got timed on our final race, and then we got free time to just play. So to start the race, you have to begin at a red  marker and we rushed into the water and swam over the t bone, over the lump, across the sinking ground, up one side of the slide and down the slide into the water.  Then we had to swim to the trampoline, as a team get everyone up, bounce on the trampoline, jump off and swim to the bank and run back to the red marker.  There was also a big hamster wheel that you run in and you get rolled. It was good to have timingas a team. 

 Survival 

To survive you had lots of different materials and had to try to make a shelter in 30 minutes. After that you got sprayed with a fireman's hose and see how dry you could stay.  It was really fun and our whole class enjoyed the activities at Camp Paterson. 

Levi and Aiden 

Obstacle course 

At camp we did a lot of things there. My favourite was the obstacle course.  So we had this big doll and we had to try and save her. Her name was Betty and she had  to stay on the stretcher.  First, we had to go through a small tunnel, climb on big tyres then we have to try  and climb over this big dog house.  That was hard.  Then we had to crawl through the mud  under the commando ropes. After that was the rope swing, the tyre crawl and last was the  zip line chair.  We had to carry Betty over that.  Funny as! 

Sarah and Mitchell 

Rogaine 

Rogaine is a game where you have a short amount of time (25 minutes) to run around a big block  of land and write down different symbols or letters. These symbols and letters turn into a riddle  that you then have to solve that riddle for extra points. We all broke up into small teams inside  our own teams. We had a compass and a map to get ourselves around the block of land and  find the symbols. We all started at different symbols/letters and did a star formation to find as many numbers or symbols/letters as we could.  We got more points the further we got from base point.  It was challenging but we learnt heaps. 

Sam and Ryan  

Spider walk 

At Camp Paterson we had to do challenges. One of the challenges was spider walk.  

First at the start of the spider walk we had to step onto two planks one on each foot then  we had to hold onto ropes one in each hand. After all that we had to see how far we could  go in 15 mins as a team.  It was all about communication and teamwork. Once the 15 mins was up we had to go over to the Spider Web. That was tricky as each person  had to go through a web part without touching the ropes.  It took us no time but we did  have to talk about who was the best for each web.  We kind of knew and worked really well together.  We had to throw and pull Noah through the last one and Miss Libby had to be an  acrobat for her last web! 

We had many other activities during the week and the food was amazing! We had a campfire, jigsaw challenge, AND  cabin inspections. 

It was a great experience for every student, learning to be independent, to look after their belongings and most importantly……..to work as a team and communicate.   

Lifelong lessons and memories! 

Thankyou Mrs Gear and Mr Smith for your amazing support and making it so much fun!!! 

Our next P&F meeting will be held on Tuesday 26th October @ 7.00PM

ALL WELCOME!