Newsletter Term 4 Week 2
Principal's Report
Welcome to our Week 2 Newsletter! Our term is already well underway and as always, Term 4 will certainly go by very, very quickly.
Camp!
Congratulations to our wonderful Year 5 and 6 students for your amazing efforts on camp last week. Our students represented our school brilliantly and are to be commended on their excellent behaviour, effort, and resilience. We had a wonderful (and tiring) week!
Swimming Carnival
The St Joseph’s Swimming Carnival will take place this Friday, following our week of swimming lessons.
The day will commence at 9:00am with our 50m and 25m events for our Year 3-6 students. Following these events, we will conduct our fun races and 12m races for our younger students.
After these events we will conduct our presentations and students may head home from the pool. (around 12:00pm/1:00pm).
To assist in reducing the expense of swimming lessons and given the fact that most parents will be attending the carnival, we have not booked buses for this event. Students are to gather at the Pittsworth pool from 8:30am and will travel with parents or an organised lift.
If you are unable to get your child to the pool, please contact the school office if you require the school to organise travel for your child. Thank you to those people who have already done this.
Please note that the Swimming Carnival is a school day, and as such, all students are expected to attend. Students who have not nominated in an event are asked to still attend and support their sporting house!
Student attendance will earn points for their sporting house!
Audiology
Mrs Twidale is organising hearing screening over the coming weeks. If school has no record of your child receiving a hearing test, you would have received a letter and/or permission form for this to go ahead. Hearing is very important in a child’s education and is often the first thing we check if children are experiencing some learning difficulties. By testing all our students, we can identify any issues early and assist our students in their learning journeys.
Later in the term, we will be having an audiologist visit our school, and she will be conducting full audiology testing on students who have issues arise during the screening process.
If you would like to access this service, please contact the school office. The audiology testing is around $80, which is around half the price you would pay if you were to access this privately.
Communication
We believe at St Joseph’s that parent/teacher communication is an integral part of your child’s schooling. If there is ever a need to contact your classroom teacher, please do not hesitate to do so.
Classroom teachers can be contacted via school emails, and also can be contacted via the school phone number on 46 953 600, where a message can be left with the Administration Team. Although teachers will try to respond to emails promptly, please understand that they may not be able to access and reply to these until the end of the school day between 3:00pm and 5:00pm and in some cases the next day. For any urgent matters or to schedule a meeting please contact the school office directly.
Additionally, information is regularly posted on the Sentral Parent Portal, St Joseph’s Facebook page and in the School Newsletter. Please ensure you have access to these to stay up to date with important updates/information. If you are not receiving emails, Sentral notifications or are having difficulty with the school’s Facebook, please reach out and we can ensure you are receiving all information.
Please note that some school emails are being diverted to ‘Junk’ folders. Please ensure you check your junk folders and add school email addresses to your trusted list of contacts.
Calendar
Also, on the topic of communication, please remember that important dates can be found in the school newsletter and on our online school calendar which can be accessed via our school website. This calendar can also be printed / downloaded to assist with planning and organisation. https://sjcsmillmerran.schoolzineplus.com/calendar/1
Matific Maths Olympiad- Congratulations!
As a part of our Inspire Mathematics program we decided to take part in the Mathematics Olympiad as it really focuses on the important concepts around our Mathematical Mindsets.
The objectives for the Maths Olympiad are to create a love of maths, reduce learning loss, reduce maths anxiety and boost maths outcomes, whilst encouraging participation, not excellence, and to ignite a love of learning in Mathematics. The Mathematics Olympiad isn’t designed to be a formal assessment, under exam conditions etc, but rather is designed to create a love of Mathematics and excite students about learning Mathematics.
Well done to our community for their great effort and participation! St Joseph’s took out first place in the competition, and our students as a result, will receive the following:
- $1500 to be spent on Mathematics hands on resources and a Mathematics Celebration Day.
- Book resources for the library.
- Access to ‘Footsteps’ an online dance program for the whole school!
This was a great event for our school that promoted a love of learning in Mathematics and created much excitement around the learning of Mathematics!
A concern had been brought to the school’s attention around how the Olympiad had been implemented and the support that parents, staff and students had provided during the week and this was passed on to Matific.
Matific examined these concerns and were more than happy with the way St Joseph’s participated in the event.
“Matific has no issue with the manner in which St Joseph's School, Millmerran participated in the 2022 Aus/NZ Matific Maths Olympiad. The event is about maximising student participation and creating excitement around mathematics. It sounds like it did just this at your school. We appreciate your transparency about there having been some teacher, parental and peer support for students in the completion of activities and have no issue with such collegiality. We accept that this is probably the case at most, if not all schools participating.”
A learning from this for all involved is that during future Matific Maths Olympiads or indeed any other events/competitions, is that communication around student, parent and staff participation and how the implementation/execution of activities is carried out and the expectations of this will be more clearly communicated to all involved.
God Bless,
Mr Lawson Short.
REMINDERS
OVERDUE Term 3 fees were due Monday 8th August
Term 4 fees will be due Monday 7th November
Date Claimers
- Swimming lessons at Pittsworth Pool - Monday 10th October to Thurs 13th October
- Swimming Carnival at Pittsworth Pool -Friday 14th October
- Tuckshop to resume, menu to be announced - Monday 17th October
- PPF Meeting 5:30pm - Tuesday 18th October
- Prep Transition Day - Friday 21st October, 9:00am to 11:00am
- Day for Daniel - Wear Red! - Friday 28th October
- All Saints Mass - Wednesday 2nd November 9:00am
- Years 5/6 Inspire Maths in Toowoomba - Thursday 3rd November
- Prep Transition Day - Friday 4th November, 9:00am to 11:00am
- School fees for 2022 due for payment Monday 7th November
- Remembrance Day Liturgy - Friday 11th November
- Year 4/5/6 Musical - Thursday 17th November 5:30pm
- Prep Transition Day - Friday 18th November, 12:45pm to 3:00pm
- Awards Night - Friday 25th November
- Graduation Mass - Friday 2nd December 11:00am
AWARDS
Term 3 Week 10
Matilda Jones- For having some great ‘wonderings’ during religion this term.
Isabella Collier- For writing an interesting and detailed fairytale.
Benji Wise - for his excellent effort working in groups and offering help to others.
Ellie Purnell - for showing resilience and a desire to improve with all tasks this last week.
Eloisa Lehuede - for her excellent start in her new class. You have made a wonderful impact already.
Layla Stoker - for showing perseverance in math this week, when it became difficult you didn’t give up.
Felicity Clark – for her fantastic improvement in Maths. Keep up the great work!
Bella Sese – her amazing acting skills. We love watching you perform!
Josephine Wise – for always looking to improve her work by asking for feedback.
My New Gallery
From the APRE
Welcome back to Term 4. This term will be a very short but busy term.
Beginning next week, some of our students will be starting their Sacramental Program on Wednesday afternoons. We wish them all the best for this journey.
Last term we celebated our Mary MacKillop value of 'having courage'. This award went to Liam Folker, who always gives things a go and shows perserverance, even when things are tough. He never lets his fear stop him from trying or doing new things.
We have a Mass coming up on 2nd November to celebrate All Saints Day as well as a liturgy on 11th November for Rememberance Day.
Socktober is a journey towards and celebration of World Mission Month. Socktober uses the world game of soccer to form a connection between students in Australia and the children they support with their fundraising, while also incorporating formation and education components throughout its entire structure. Through Socktober, Mini Vinnies will be running a number of activities to help raise awareness and do some fundraising for Catholic Missions.
God Bless,
Michele Sanders
Prep Transition Days
Prep/ 1 News
Hello families! What an amazing start the Prep/One class has had back at school! Last week they jumped straight back into work consolidating what they learnt last term! On the very first day of school this term, we gave Prep/One a challenge. I drew a diagram of where I wanted their desks. I showed them the diagram but did not tell them anything about it. They had to work together as a whole class to try and decipher what it was and how to do it. They did an awesome job at working as a team and completed it in only 7 minutes!
Last week we had so much fun doing some whole school activities while the 5/6’s were at camp. We did some building challenges, maths challenges, and sport/games together. It was awesome to see 5 different grades come together to complete tasks. One of the building challenges was that we had to add up everyone's age in the group and that was how many bricks we were allowed to use. This was so challenging as they couldn’t use many bricks but there were some amazing and creative builds!
During HASS, we are continuing to work on our parks. Hopefully we will finish designing them soon and we can finally start building!
This week we have been doing lots and lots of swimming. It has been amazing to see Prep/One’s resilience and persistence and continuing to try their hardest even though it has been tricky and cold! Great work Prep/One!!
Lauren Grant
2/3 News
Hi St Joey’s community! Hope you had a relaxing break; can you believe we are already two weeks into Term 4! I know the rest of the year will fly by with the busyness that comes with this time of the year. We have begun the term as busy as ever, and I know the kids will have earnt a well hard rest by the end of this week.
The students have been putting in a mammoth effort this week swimming each and every day. We couldn’t be more proud of them! It has been a little overcast, a little windy all week while swimming, but they have pushed on and achieved great results. They should be commended for their effort all week and I’m sure we will see this pay off on Friday at the swimming carnival.
We have a busy term ahead both inside and outside the classroom, so make sure you stay up to date on the Parent Portal, and Facebook!
Congratulations to Week 10s students of the week: Benji Wise, Ellie Purnell, Eloisa Lehuede and Layla Stoker. Keep up the good work!
Have a great couple of weeks,
Mitchell Albury
4/5/6 News
Welcome back to Term 4 and can you believe we are nearly done two weeks already. Last week the Year 5 and 6 students had a wonderful week on camp. We canoed, hiked, moutain biked, swam, dragon boated and shot some arrows. It was a beautiful setting and we had lots of fun and laughs throughout the week. The Year 4 students also had a lovely week engaging in some fun activities and enjoying being the leaders of the school for the week.
We have a very busy term coming up with only a couple of weeks of learning time, so we need to make the most of it. We also have whole school testing and our musical as well as having another Prac student with us for 4 weeks.
It's going to be a jam packed term. Remember if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Michele Sanders
Camp
Swimming Lessons
PPF News
Parish News
Catholic Church Sacramental Program
Any child aged 9 years or above who has been Baptised and wish to continue their faith journey through the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Communion. A new program is commencing on the 15th October at 6:00pm Mass with the children being presented to the community, sessions will be on the 4 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:30pm at Penola House. For further information, please contact the Parish on 4695 1462.
PSHS Transition Days
Every Day Matters
Absence notifications
School commences at 8.30am each morning and rolls are marked between 8.30 and 9.00am. Daily absences must be reported by 9.10am each morning either by phoning 07 4695 3600, emailing millmerran@twb.catholic.edu.au or through the Parent portal app. If an absence has not been reported, parents will be contacted via SMS to alert them to their child's absence. Parents are then required to contact the Office to confirm the absence.
This procedure follows strict student protection guidelines for always ensuring safety of students.
Guidance Counsellor News
Millmerran Indoor Sports Centre News
