Newsletter Term 1 Week 2
Principal's Report
Dear Community,
Welcome to the 2023 school year!
I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's period, and are ready for the excitement of 2023!
Although we got off to a stressful start to the year with our classroom renovations taking longer than anticipated, we were able to get moved back in and ready for day 1 of the school year! I am sure you will agree with me that the updated classrooms are a massive improvement for our school and these new, modern learning spaces will be an asset to the school for years to come. A big thank you to the Toowoomba Catholic School Office, who provided a substantial amount of additional funding to St Joseph’s, to cover some of the initial renovation costs, but also paid for the removal of asbestos which was discovered during the course of renovations. We are currently investigating doing a ‘mini’ reno of the Year 2 classroom over the Easter Holidays.
Welcome to our new teachers Grace and Georgia. Already they have had a massive impact on our school, and I am sure you will make them feel very welcome to the St Joseph’s family.
Social Night / Meet the Teacher
On Friday night we will have our annual meet the teacher and social BBQ night. This is a great opportunity for all members of the school community, new and old, to come along for a very relaxed catch up. The night will begin from 5:30pm with a Sausage Sizzle, followed by short classroom presentations from 6:30pm. We ask that families please bring along a dessert to share.
NAPLAN
Some of you may be aware that NAPLAN has moved from May to March and will now be sat during the test window of Wednesday 15 – Monday 27 March 2023.
As in previous years, only students in Year 3 and 5 sit the NAPLAN tests, which are all completed online (except the Year 3 Writing).
If you have any questions at all around NAPLAN, the test dates, withdrawal of students etc, please do not hesitate to contact the office.
UNIFORM
Thank you everyone for your adherence to the new uniform policy. Our students have returned for 2023 looking spectacular and our girls are enjoying the blouse option! As is expected, there have been a few hiccups with sizing, and getting the correct sizes in stock etc, but hopefully this will be sorted in the near future.
Classroom teachers will email/notify parents should their child’s uniform vary from the uniform policy.
SCHOOL FEES
The school's Term 1 School Fees will be sent out via email next week. Please check your junk mail folders in case this email is directed to it.
At St Joseph’s we aim to keep our fees as low as possible to ensure a quality Catholic education is available to all families, with our school fees being comparatively cheap to other educational sites.
There are a number of ways to pay school fees, including at the office by cash or card, through direct deposit into the schools bank account, or through regular direct debits. If you would like to set up a direct debit or for any fee information, please contact the school office.
SENTRAL FOR PARENTS APP
All parents should now have received an email with a log on key for our Sentral for Parents App. This is the place where important school information can be accessed and will be the primary source of information for families. If you are unsure how to use the App, or are having difficulties signing up/using your log on key, please pop into the office and we can help you with this.
ASSEMBLY
Everyone is welcome to attend school assembly this Friday 3rd February at 9.00am in the hall.
Have a wonderful 2023!
Until next time,
Mr Lawson Short
Date Claimers
- Meet the Teachers BBQ - 3rd February 5.30pm
- PPF AGM and General Meeting - Tuesday 14th February 5.30pm
- Opening School Mass - Friday 17th February 9:30am
- Pancake Toss - Tuesday 21st February
- Ash Wednesday Mass - Wednesday 22nd February 9:30am
- Family Mass Term 1 - Sunday 5th March 9.30am
- St Joseph's Day - Friday 17th March 9.30am
- Easter Liturgy - Thursday 30th March
- Last day Term 1 - Thursday 30th March
- Toowoomba Show Holiday - Friday 31st March
Awards
St Joseph's Learning Behaviours
Welcoming Wagtail
Last year we launched our St Joseph’s Learning Behaviours and this year we will be doing a deep dive into these with students, and each class will learn about the values and how these can be expressed when learning, when socialising and when being part of the community.
Our first focus for the year is Welcoming Wagtail, with the guiding words of Mary MacKillop- "Serving others is the best sacrifice we can make." Staff have been on the look out for students displaying this behaviour, and we have started a raffle ticket system for these students, which will be drawn at assembly before we move on to our next learning behaviour focus.
My New Gallery
From the APRE
Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful break and were able to spend quality time with family and friends.
We jump straight into our Mary MacKillop value for the month of February – Be Welcoming. This ties in with our Learning Behaviours – in particular Welcoming Wagtail. The quote from Mary MacKillop that connects with being welcoming is ‘Serving others is the best sacrifice we can make’. Over the next month teachers will be discussing how we can be welcoming to others and what the concept of service means and why it is important.
We will be having our Opening Mass and induction of student leaders on Friday 17th February at 9:30am in the Church. This will be followed by a shared morning tea. We encourage you all to come along and help us to welcome in the new school year.
God Bless,
Michele Sanders
REFLECTION
Matthew 5: 9
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family … Blessed are the peacemakers”.
Sammy Johnson was a peacemaker. Sammy was a little boy who lived at a childcare home I worked in years ago. Every time I hear the phrase, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” I think of Sammy. There were 16 boys, aged 5 to 9, who lived together in his dorm. They were all wards of the state, taken from their homes for various reasons, usually neglect. With so many boys in one hall, there was a lot of opportunity for conflict. But Sammy somehow found a way to not only avoid getting into arguments, he had a calming effect on us all – even us youth workers.
One day when the boys had been at odds all morning, I was keeping an especially close eye on their game of tag. I had the sense something was going to flare up any second. Just then, Sammy came out of the dining hall where he’d been on clean-up duty. He was carrying a jumbo bag of freshly popped popcorn. He walked calmly through the melee and sat on a bench. He said quietly, “Anyone want any?”
Soon the kids were all crowded around the bench, eating popcorn and joking good-naturedly again. It wasn’t what he did so much as simply who he was. Sammy had a sweet and generous nature, and he saw the good in everyone he met. He was a 9-year-old peacemaker. Maybe you know somebody in your life who’s like that. Maybe it’s you. Blessed are you, Sammy.
Paul Skippen
Prep/ 1 News
Hello everyone!
My name is Grace Twidale and I am the new Prep/One teacher for this year. I am so excited to be teaching at St Joseph's; not only because I went to primary school here, but I completed Prep/One in the same classroom as I am teaching in! Many memories are coming back!
Despite it only being short, the first week in Prep/One we learnt about the routines and expectations in our classroom, we have been creating some awesome craft pieces and we have been practicing writing our name neatly. We have also been doing lots of singing and dancing (and there has been some pretty awesome dance moves!).
If you have not already joined the Prep/One Facebook group page (where information and notices will be shared), please let me know and I will forward through the link to you.
I am absolutely honoured to be teaching your beautiful children in Prep/One and I am looking forward to what the year has in store for us!
Kind Regards,
Grace Twidale
Church Visit for Religion
Year 2 News
Dear Family and Friends,
Welcome to Year 2 for 2023. We have had such an awesome start to the year with lots of learning and engagement already.
To help commemorate Australia Day on Thursday we tried and rated a lot of different Aussie Favourite snacks. We tried vegemite sandwiches, Tim Tams, musk sticks, Anzac biscuits, and lamingtons. Year 2’s favourite snack was Tim Tams and Musk Sticks.
We have been doing lots of different activities getting our new classroom set up and ready to do some great learning. We are so excited to get stuck into our units for this term.
I am looking forward to seeing all our families next Friday for our get to know the teacher evening. I know most of you will already know me but it will be a good opportunity to go over everything that will be changing this year!
Until next time,
Lauren Grant
Year 3/4 News
Hello Family and Friends!
Week 1 has flown by, and Year 3/4 have done an amazing job settling into their new classroom and routine. As this is my first year at St Joey’s I am beyond grateful for an amazing class of 18, with some newcomers and other continuing students. They have welcomed me into their classroom and I am so excited to continue getting to know them and to learn alongside the class. As you may have noticed when dropping off or helping out on Monday, we have some beautiful new classrooms, which have made the beginning of the year pleasant and exciting for the students.
This week we have been focusing on getting to know each other, learning new rules and expectations, and settling into a new routine. On Friday we started brainstorming some ideas for the Millmerran Show artwork and began practicing to get a head start! Year 3/4 are ready for an amazing year!
Thankyou
Georgia
Millmerran Show Art
Year 5/6 News
Welcome back to another year. I hope you all had a wonderful break and enjoyed time away from the pressures of school and routines. We are very lucky and excited to have newly renovated classrooms. Our classroom in particular is very big with lots of space to move around. We are trying flexible seating this term which means that students have the option to choose where they sit and have a number of different choices of furniture to use to best suit how they learn.
At the moment we are working on getting our writing and artwork for the Millmerran Show completed before we move into our learning cycles for this term.
We also spent the last week setting up class routines and our classroom contract for 2023. We had a bit of fun with some playdough challenges and creating items based on a set criteria.
I’m looking forward to a wonderful year and working with this group of students again as a 5/6 class.
Michele Sanders
Fun with Playdough
Student Achievements
Congratulations to Charlie French who was selected in the Inner Downs Cricket Team after trialling on Monday afternoon. Congratulations and all the best Charlie with your future trial dates.
Millmerran Indoor Sports Centre News
Tuesdays 515pm - Netball for fitness
We are excited to bring to you for the first time, Netball for fitness!! It is a great way to gain some netball skills, have some fun, get fit and meet some new people without the pressure of officially competing and without having to be part of a team. It is also a great opportunity to train if you are part of the social netball competitive groups. Netball for Fitness will be starting on Tuesday 24th January, and you can come to as many or as little of the sessions as you like!
Thursdays 415pm - Junior Basketball
Junior Basketball sign ups and registration will be on Wednesday 25th January at 530pm. If your child/ren are not part of a team and would like to be a part of a team this is the perfect night to come and express your interest, depending on numbers we may not have official teams but will play games with the individuals that do take part. Throughout this session we are also allocating team captains, organising refs and going over the terms and conditions of playing at the Millmerran Indoor Sports Centre and preparing for a great season! We are aiming to have skills, drills and games kicking off from Thursday 2nd February, so if you cannot make pre-sign up and registrations, please organise another time with us as soon as you can.
Fridays 4pm - Kids Club
For the kids wanting something different but still wanting to be active and get out of the house for some games, activities and to make some new friends we are introducing kids club!! Kids club runs similar activities as our holiday programs and activities range from scavenger hunts, obstacle courses and games, red rover, cooking to arts and crafts and more. Pre-register and book in on the app and come along and join our weekly session.
Pre-Registration
To make the process easier to join into our team sports and to book into any kids sports or activities, download the activeworld app, type in MILLMERRAN_SC as the centre and register as a customer and if applicable add children as family members to your profile, then it is easy as Clicking on Book Other Programs and choosing the session you would like to book into, you are able to pay in the app as well making the process easy and smooth, then all you need to do is let us know when you arrive at the centre. If you have any issues with this process, it is absolutely no issue for us to assist you in centre or over the phone where available.
School Counsellor News
Tuckshop News
Hello everyone and welcome to Tuckshop for 2023, tuckshop will kick off on Monday 13th February for the year. For our new families, my name is Marg Gaske, I am Mum to Harlen, Kingston and Colin and volunteer to coordinate the tuckshop which we run on Mondays of each week during the term. Our kids love tuckshop as do the Mums and Dads like me who get a day off lunchbox prep! We need volunteers to help run the tuckshop successfully and I am once again seeking helpers. A tuckshop day is usually 9.30 till about 1.30 and we have a very simple menu that requires limited amounts of preparation by our volunteers. We usually have 2 people on together on a tuckshop day.
Volunteers have a simple induction process, nothing further is needed other than a bluecard if you aren’t Mum or Dad (such as if you’re a grandparent wanting to help out).
The Tuckshop uses the Quickcliq website and it can be found at the link to register below. Please see attached instructions to register your child and place an order. Orders are due by 12.30pm the Friday before the Tuckshop day.
Thanks
Marg Gaske
Tuckshop Convenor
Library News
This term we are studying all things Australia. We have started on Bush Rangers and have found out lots of very interesting facts. Everyone is looking forward to what else we can discover.
Please note: All Library bags must be a waterproof plastic pouch with a functioning zip. This is to keep all our precious books safe on their travels.
