Welcome to the first official school newsletter of the year.
It is stating the obvious that this is not how we expected the school year to begin. However, I am grateful for how well the community has adapted to the changes and challenges of this interrupted commencement.

Our learners across all year levels have been engaged and
cooperative and the feedback, thus far, has been overwhelmingly positive. I want to congratulate all the new Preps, who have coped so well with the disrupted start.

Overall, it has been a very promising sign for the year ahead.
I do wish to acknowledge the teaching and support staff for what they have done over the past few weeks that has enabled such a smooth transition for all.  They have spent time planning and preparing lessons, completing mandated student protection, code of conduct, health and
safety and first aid training over the past two weeks.  The plans that they had in place have had to change and change quickly. The innovative work of teachers in preparing and adapting thecurriculum means that we return to school with some momentum.
In welcoming everyone back to school, it is important to draw your attention to the followingmatters.

We return to school while the wider community is learning to live with COVID-19. This means we have to operate school as normal in some regards while also managing the likely presence of the virus in the school. In this context, we are focused on keeping students and staff healthy while also mitigating the risk of further infection.

The fundamental step in this regard is to be clear about our processes and protocols in the Health Management of our community.

To limit the spread of illness:
 Staff and families will monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 and seek testing if they
develop symptoms.
 Staff and children should not attend school if they have symptoms. Please seek testing and isolate at home until well or for seven days after a positive COVID test.
 If anyone in your household has COVID-19, you are deemed to be a close contact. Youwill need to isolate at home for the same period as they are in isolation. Because any respiratory illness is most likely to be COVID-19 at the present time, it is also advisable that if anyone in your household is isolating while awaiting COVID test results, children should not attend school until the household member returns a negative result.
 All staff employed at St Joseph's are fully vaccinated. Medical authorities encourage full vaccination as the best form of protection against serious illness. There is no mandate for student vaccination and the school does not judge, discriminate, or highlight the
status of any child in relation to vaccination.
 The safety and wellbeing of staff and students is our key priority at all times. As such we will continue to work closely with Queensland Health to ensure that all necessary health advice is followed. Should you have any concerns regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Over recent weeks there has been extensive planning from the School Leadership Team for the term ahead during what is likely to be a time of considerable uncertainty. It is clear to us that some students will fall ill, as will staff, in the coming weeks. Consequently, we anticipate
disruption throughout the first term. As a school community we have all done so well to support each other with Covid restrictions and requirements to date. The beginning of this year has been no different.
I am particularly grateful for the blessing of this community, and I look forward to working with you all to ensure that our students have an enriching and joyful school year.  

I hope that whatever comes your way in 2022, that you will find encouragement, support and a listening ear, here at St Joseph's Primary School. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns, 

Megan

Staffing Updates:
After 4 years of dedicated service, Leanne Gibson -Finance Officer, will be leaving us to pursue a career in mining. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Leanne for her hard work, for the compassionate and caring way she has supported our families and for being such a steadfast support for myself. Leanne has been an asset to our community and won’t be easily replaced.

The position of Finance Officer will be advertised shortly, following the Cairns Catholic Education Services Recruitment procedure. Once the procedure is complete, the successful applicant will be announced to our community. 

Religious Life
Loving God who is with us, the year ahead holds many unknown, unborn opportunities.  Bring life and growth to all that awaits us. Open us to the new and unfamiliar, the challenges and the surprises. Amen

The beginning of a new year is an opportunity to reflect upon the joys and challenges of the year that was and to re-vision our hopes and dreams for the continuing journey ofour life.  We do not know what or who will challenge, delight, surprise or sadden us during this year.  What we do know, however, is that we can walk the journey of the new year
with confidence and in the sure knowledge that God goes with us
What gifts do you bring with you into the new year?
What fears or anxieties does the year hold for you?
What do you hope to contribute to this community?
What is your greatest desire for the community in the coming year?

2022 brings a new school year, as part of the St Joseph’s Annual Action Plan, we aim to ensure that every student benefits from an engaging, contemporary and personally relevant religious education curriculum.
Over the course of this year, we will be working to support staff, students and families in the following areas.

 Prayer Meditation Practices – This year we will continue to build our skills andknowledge in the teaching of year level appropriate prayer, introduce meditation practices and develop our own school prayer.

 Social Justice vs Charity – Staff, students and families will be invited and encouraged to participate in activities and learning experiences that promote social justice. Charity is incredibly important for many things however knowing and understanding the difference our actions and time can make is extremely powerful.

 First Nations Reconciliation Action Plan – Working together to ensure that our First Nations communities and families are honoured, their cultures and beliefs respected, and our schools committed to Closing the Gap imperatives for every First Nations students.

 Parish & School Relationship – We will continue to foster our relationship with our parish, St Joseph’s. School staff and families are encouraged to attend parish celebrations and events as well as parishioners invited and welcomed to our school events. Throughout the year we will schedule weekend children’s masses where families
and students are encouraged to come along. We will be working with Fr Dariusz and the Parish to introduce children’s liturgy at Mass each week.

Reminders

Late Arrivals: If your child is late to school - it is very important that they are signed in at the office as presenting late, before going up to their classroom.  School commences at 8.40 am each day.  Roll Marking is done between 8.40 am - 8.45 am.  All children who are late, must
take a Late Slip up to their classroom teacher.  

Early Departures: Children who leave school throughout the school day, must be signed out by a parent or guardian in the office.  Children are not permitted to walk out of the school grounds without a parent/guardian during school hours.  They must also be signed back in once theyreturn to school.

Late Pick Up: If you are late to pick up your child from school, the children are supervised till 3:15 pm.  After 3.15 pm they will be wait in the office, and a parent will be rung about collection.  

Absentees: Please remember to notify the school office by 9.00 am each day if your child is absent from school.  For any absences that are unexplained you will receive a call from the school about this absence.

Sickness: It is important to remember that if your child is unwell, particularly in these current times, we do ask that you keep them home until they are feeling better to return to school.  Any child who presents to school with symptoms of feeling unwell will be sent home immediately.  

Medication at school: Medication at school can be administered by the office staff, however it is very important to note that any medication administered must be prescribed from the doctor with a doctor's label printed on the medication.  We are unable to administer any kind of
panadol or paracetemol.  Parents will be rung immediately if a child presents with high temps. A medication form must be completed by a parent prior to any medication being given to a student at school.  
Asthma Medication: Children who are asthmatic are required to have their puffer, spacer and asthma medication plan at school.  This includes children who do suffer from seasonal asthma.   If you are yet to send in your child's asthma medication and current plan, we do strongly advise you to do this as soon as possible. 

Head Lice: At times we do have cases of Head Lice present at school. Please see attached flyer from Qld Health outlining the correct steps in treating head lice.  If Head Lice are detected on your child whilst at school, a parent will be rung and you will be asked to come and collect
immediately and commence treatment at home.

Birthday treats: We love the children celebrating their birthdays at school.  Just a quick reminder that ice-blocks can be an option to bring in, please ensure that they are frozen (particularly Zooper Doopers).  Cupcakes (rather than a whole cake) are welcome however we
do ask that you check with your child's teacher first in case of food allergies in that class. 

Facebook: St Joseph’s has a Facebook page.  If you like Facebook hop on and like us.  We do post updates and events on Facebook regularly, so it is a great way to keep in touch with what is happening in and around our school.

P&F: Welcome BBQ has been postponed to Friday 11th March. More details to come closer to the date. The first P & F meeting will now take place on Tuesday 8 th March will be the AnnualGeneral Meeting (AGM) for the year starting at 6p.m. 

School Crossing Supervisors:
We need Crossing Supervisors for 2022.  Please see the advertisement below

Learning & Teaching at St Joseph’s Parish School 

Welcome back to what is already turning out to be a fun filled year of learning at our school. Our students and our teachers have quickly settled in and begun their lessons. As I wander through the classrooms I can see and hear students engaged in explicit lessons throughout all learning areas.  

At St Joseph’s we are fortunate to have iPads and laptops for all students. This week you will have received a copy of our ICT policies to review and discuss with your children. Please ensure you return these notes as soon as possible so that your child can begin to take their device home to use for homework. At St Joseph’s we ask that our devices are only used for educational tasks set by the classroom teacher.  

Working mathematically 

You may have heard teachers talk about getting their students to work mathematically. So, what is working mathematically? 

Working mathematically is integral to the learning process in mathematics. It provides students with the opportunity to engage in genuine mathematical activities and develop the skills to become flexible, critical and creative users of mathematics. 

Working mathematically encompasses five interrelated components. 

Communicating- we want our students to develop the ability to use a variety of representations, in written, oral or graphical forms to be able to formulate ideas and explain their thinking. 

Problem Solving- through problem solving develop the ability to make choices, interpret, model, and investigate problems. 

Reasoning- as part of reasoning students develop an increasingly sophisticated capacity for logical thoughts and actions by being able to prove and justify their thinking. 

Understanding- when students understand they are able to adapt and transfer mathematical concepts. 

Fluency- a fluent student can carry out procedure flexibly, efficiently and accurately. 

In our classrooms we use variety of number talks as one way to develop these five components. A number talk is a short whole class maths activity where students find the answer to problems in their heads, then share aloud the strategies they used to find the answers. Sometimes, we give students the problem and ask them to represent their thinking visually. 

The St Joseph’s Way 

Amanda Rowe 

Middle Leader Learning & Teaching 

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

Welcome to Term 1 Week 4 at St. Joseph’s School in 2022. We are all very excited to be back into school to start the year and have thoroughly enjoyed the last 2 weeks learning and re connecting with each other.  

We plan to have a lot of fun while ‘bringing faith and learning to life’. 

This Year as well as being the Middle of Diversity and I am also excited to be teaching in the Year 5 and 6 Senior Learning Hub alongside Ms Edmonds, Ms Hall and Ms Libby and am equally excited to work with the Year 5 and 6 students and families.   

The Position of Middle Leader - Diversity works within whole-school initiatives to address the diverse needs of students through a culture of inclusiveness. This role includes working closely with teachers to plan and implement teaching strategies and programs that identify and respond to the individual needs of students.  

Communicating with parents as key partners in the educational outcomes of students and liaising with visiting specialists, including Therapists to support student learning is also an integral part of this role.  

In Week 6 Ms Tosca Grainger - Dee our School Counsellor will be visiting us in Weipa and providing her service to St. Joseph's School. Please see Tosca’s article below. 

I look forward to meeting you all and working alongside you throughout the year on your child’s journey of learning.  

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. 

Bringing Up Great Kids Program – Term 2 

Dear Parents 

It is my pleasure to offer a crafted program for parents called Bringing Up Great Kids in Term 2. 

Bringing Up Great Kids is a reflective, mindful, respectful program that provides parents with an opportunity to reflect on their parenting journey. 

Bringing Up Great Kids provides a friendly and safe environment for parents to learn from each other as they continue their parenting journey. 

As a school community we would like to offer this group program. We envisage this program would be multi-modal including face to face and on-line (zoom) sessions. 

The duration of the program is for 6 weeks. Each lesson will take 90 minutes. 

The program content is detailed below. 

Program Content 

The Bringing Up Great Kids’ program supports parents and carers to: 

•        learn more about the origins of their own parenting style and how it can be more effective;
•        identify the important messages they want to convey to their children and how to achieve this.
•        learn more about brain development in children and its influence on their thoughts, feelings and behaviours;
•        understand the meaning behind children’s behaviours, and how to respond to children’s underlying feelings and needs.
•        explore new ways of communicating with children;
•        discover ways for parents to take care of themselves and to find support when they need it.

If you are interested to participate in the Bringing Up Great Kids Program in Term 2 or have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me tgraingerd@cns.catholic.edu.au .  

I look forward to connecting with you. 

Warm regards, 

Tosca Grainger – Dee. 

Special mention must go to Louis Argent, Oscar Argent and Levi Payne who tried out for the Peninsular swimming trials last week.  They swam very well for a last minute notification!

Also Levi Payne tried out for the netball trials and has been picked as a shadow player.  Congratulations!

Prep Newsletter Item – Wk 4 Term 1, 2022 

In Prep we have been very busy getting to know each other and learning, learning, learning! 

These are some of the things that our amazing Prep students have enjoyed… 

Fun in 1A!

It has been an amazing start to Grade One in 1A! We have come back to school with enthusiasm, big smiles and a wonderful attitude. It has been so great having the students back at school after an extra long break and I’m sure parents are happy they are back too!

In 1A, we have been working hard to follow the St Joey’s Four 4’s in our classroom and on the playground and these rules have been reiterated during our Monday PB4L assemblies.

In English, we have settled into our Initil Lit and Reading Group routines and have been working on writing sentences including correct punctuation.

In Maths we have been working on counting to and from 20 and ordering, modelling and writing numbers to 100 using lots of games, songs and hands on activities to make our learning fun and enjoyable.

We have also been teaming up with our buddies next door in 1B and have busy learning about St Joseph in Religion, the past in HASS and sounds and light in Science.

Some gentle reminders for this term:

· Homework will go home on Tuesdays, please bring folders back to school the following Tuesday

· Library is on Tuesdays, please bring in library bags and any borrowed books to return

· PE Fridays, sports uniform is to be worn

Miss Rowe and I are looking forward to some more wonderful learning over the next few weeks!

Kind Regards,

Mrs Tash Tapper.

What a fantastic first two weeks back at school. It was so wonderful seeing everyone’s smiling and enthusiastic faces coming through the school gates last week. 

Learning over the last fortnight has consisted of lots of engaging hands on activities as well as jumping straight in to our explicit teaching of new concepts and revising previously learnt ones too. In Maths we’ve been exploring the concept of number including skip counting, place value and working with number lines. We’ve also been working with picture graphs while collecting data. 

Through explicit Literacy lessons we’ve been exploring a range of text types and writing responses to these texts using both informative and imaginative genres. During HASS we are exploring time, Science we are diving into sight and hearing and Religion has been looking into Joseph and who he was. It’s always exciting heading out to learn all about line and colour in Art with Miss Libby, the alphabet, songs and greetings in AUSLAN with Miss Hall and of course, Health and PE too.

I’m sure you’ve had very tired little people over the last couple of weeks and you should be very proud of how hard they have been working right from the beginning of Term One. We have been learning all about learning bodies, focusing attention and being resilient through our SEL program, Second Step and endeavour to continue this support through the year.

Thanks for such a wonderful ‘kick off’ to 2022 and I look forward to continuing work with you and your children.

Mrs Backhouse

What a great start we have had to Year Two settling into routines and expectations. This past week we have celebrated Valentine’s Day with great big smiles and some craft which was great fun. 

For maths this week we have been focusing on Place value and I have been so impressed with our classes attitude in giving the tasks a ‘red hot go!’ 

Here are some proud faces working with Thousands, Hundreds, Tens and Ones.

We have been lucky enough to have Miss Libby in our classroom teaching us about The Zones of Regulation. Today we talked about the Blue Zone and the Green Zone. 

Happy Week 4!.

Year 3 Celebrate Celebrations!

In HASS this term, year 3 is learning about different celebrations around the world. We are investigating what activities cultures participate in, what traditional foods they eat and traditional dress they wear. This week we start with Australia’s own celebration – Australia Day. Students shared how they celebrate Australia Day with their families. We also discussed how schools and the Weipa community celebrate Australia Day. The class also coloured replicas of the flags of Australia as symbols of celebration as often these are displayed at events on Australia Day.

Year 4 have had a great start to Week 2! We have dived into our science and have been looking at the different layers of soil. We made a soil flip book and researched some information to describe each layer. 

We have also been using our laptops for different learning areas. We used Kahoot for our science, and students were asked about the different soil and rocks they have been learning about. We have also been using them to record our reading and improve our fluency in reading groups. 

I am sure we are in for another busy week next week, so stay tuned! I am also posting some of our activities on to the St Joseph’s Facebook page weekly. 

Kind Regards,

Emily