St Joseph’s School, Millmerran eNewsletter

Principal's Report

Dear Community,

As we approach the Easter holidays, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the significance of this time for our students and families.

Easter is a time for celebration, renewal, and rebirth. It is a time to reflect on the importance of family, friends and community. As a school, we believe that Easter provides a wonderful opportunity to teach our students about the values of kindness, generosity, and empathy.

We encourage our families to take some time during the Easter holiday to spend quality time with loved ones and engage in activities that foster these values. Whether it is participating in a community service project or simply spending time with family and friends, there are many ways to make the most of this holiday.

Our Mini Vinnies club has done such an amazing job of servicing others over the Lenten period. Their fundraising efforts have been amazing and they have raised over $1000 for Project Compassion!

We also want to remind our families that Easter is a religious holiday, and we encourage families to have open and respectful conversations with their children about the meaning and significance of Easter, as well as the diverse cultural and religious traditions that are celebrated around the world during this time.

We wish all of our families a happy and safe Easter holiday. May it be a time of reflection, renewal and love.

Sincerely,

Mr Lawson Short

Date Claimers

Easter Liturgy - Thursday 30th March 9.30am
Mini Vinnies Easter Raffle drawn and Colouring competition winners announced - Thursday 30th March
Last day Term 1 - Thursday 30th March
Toowoomba Show Holiday - Friday 31st March
Monday 17th April - Pupil free day
Tuesday 18th April - First day Term 2
Thursday 2oth April - Gore Highway Cross Country
Tuesday 25th April - Anzac Day
Monday 1st May - May Day holiday
Monday 8th May - Step into Stories - Author visit
Friday 12th May - Mother's Day Liturgy
Friday 12th May - PPF Mother's Day Wine/Cheese/ Movie night (Raffle drawn)

Easter colouring competition is due in tomorrow

From the APRE

Well, it has certainly been a busy term. The Mini Vinnies Club has been very active again this term, helping to raise money for Project Compassion. Thank you all for your support of these events. This money goes to those who are in need of support in some of the poorest regions in the world. Caritas uses this money to upskill people in these regions so they are able to better cope with their circumstances.

Tomorrow we will celebrate our Easter Liturgy at 9:30am. All of our classes will be invovled in this liturgy and the telling the Easter Story. All are welcome to come along and join us.

I was very fortuante to spend the last two days in Toowoomba, engaging in professional development with Br Damien Price, who is a christian brother. Br Damien led a masterlcass on service learning in schools. It was very engaging and informative and I have lots of new ideas about how we can incorporate service learning activities across all year levels at St Joseph's.

God Bless,

Michele Sanders

Easter

Despite hot cross buns and Easter eggs appearing on store shelves from early January, Easter is not an easily understood Christian holiday. For starters, the week is full of contrasts. There is honour and praise followed by a day of deep, dark sadness, followed by joy, hope and light. 

Holy Week refers to the days and events leading up to Easter Sunday. It starts with Palm Sunday – when Jesus was celebrated – and remembers his journey through to death. This includes his betrayal by a close friend, his last meal with his followers, a night of sorrowful prayer and then Good Friday – when Jesus died on the cross.

The true meaning of Easter is about the love Jesus has for us and the purpose he gives us.

In the Bible, Jesus said of himself, “I am the path, the truth, and the energy of life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, The Voice). Jesus died and rose back to life so everyone can have a meaningful relationship with God the Father – the Creator of the Universe. Because of Jesus’ victory over death by coming back to life, we too can experience a new, everlasting life.

But not only does Jesus offer us a promise for the future, he also offers everyone hope and joy for today. When the world causes us stress about the cost of living and health concerns, anxiety over safety, heartache, dissatisfaction, fear and many other crises or negative feelings, Jesus offers us something greater and deeper.

Jesus says, “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]” (John 10:10).

It doesn’t mean we will never experience sickness, financial hardship, family crisis, disappointment, loneliness or grief – but it does mean that we can have hope and peace even through those hardships. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection mean you are deeply loved, and you are not alone in your struggles.

That’s life in overflowing abundance. That’s what it means to feel truly alive today and into the future. That’s the meaning of Easter.

Year 5/6 Camp form and deposit is due tomorrow!!!

Cross Country 2023

Hi everyone!

I hope you have had a great term so far – I can’t believe we have almost finished Term One already! Although, despite it going fast, we have had a huge term (particularly for our Preppies of whom have just finished their first term of school)! I think they all deserve the holidays!!!

With the help of the awesome Grade Ones, the Preps have settled so well into their new school routines. It is amazing to see the progress they have all made, particularly when you compare them to where they were at the beginning of the term. I am so proud of all the students!

This term, the Preps have been learning to identify, represent and write the numbers 1 to 5. They have also been learning simple addition through hands on activities. The Grade Ones have been learning all about the numbers from 1 to 100. They have been learning place value, counting forwards and backwards, skip counting and addition. To help the students learn different concepts (particularly in English and Maths), we have been using different chants, rhymes, songs and dances which has made learning fun!

In English, the students have been learning about rhyming and retelling stories. We have been making up some fun and wacky rhyming words and have also been reading lots of stories. Both Preps and Grade Ones have been learning their sounds very quickly! The Preps have learnt to write and read 20 letters already which is amazing. Their progress is evident in Guided Reading when we have been sounding out words and they have been applying their letter/sound knowledge. The Grade Ones have been revising their letter/sounds and learning new digraphs like th, sh and the magic e sound. They are applying this to their writing – so this is fantastic! Both the Preps and Grade Ones have also been picking up their sight words very quickly which is a credit to all the parents. This sight word practice is definitely paying off as it helps them read more difficult books!

The students have been learning about living things in Science, families in HASS and prayer in Religion. In Art, the students have been creating different Alphabet crafts which can be seen on the windows inside the classroom.

It has been a busy, successful and fun term and we can’t wait to do it all again next term! But for the moment, have a great holiday and Easter, and have a well deserved rest!

Kind Regards,

Grace 😊

Last week Pittsworth was very proud to host the sixth three-day Choir Camp (Wednesday 22 March – Friday 24 March). The event was held at the Pittsworth Town Hall and featured almost 80 students from eight Darling Downs primary schools … Pittsworth, Biddeston, Mt Tyson, Southbrook, Millmerran, St Josephs (Millmerran), Greenmount and the Back Plains.

As co-ordinator of the Choir Camp, I am always very proud to work with incredible young performers during an exciting three days of making amazing choral music. With support from local teachers and volunteers, the students fully immersed themselves in the challenges of workshops and rehearsals and created lasting memories and lifelong friends. They demonstrated great maturity over the course of the three days and were great ambassadors for their school.

And the concert on Friday night was absolutely BRILLIANT! So much energy, talent and enthusiasm from our young performers. The drummers, the dancers, the soloists … and our fantastic guest artists, the wonderful Peters Family and the outstanding Fern Brothers.

Congratulations to our talented singers - Grace, Bella S, Bella K, Paige, Iahnelle and Jo who represented St Josephs at this year’s Choir Camp. Also thanks to Mrs Andrews, Mrs Sanders and Mrs Stower who were the St Josephs supervisors over the course of the three days. Thank you, also, to the many parents and siblings who helped stack chairs and pack up all the gear on Friday night.

What an outstanding showcase of the talent of our primary school singers!

Beth Wheeldon – Choir Camp Co-ordinator

Performing Arts Teacher and Choir Director

Pittsworth – Biddeston – Mt Tyson – Southbrook

bwhee1@eq.edu.au

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoiU2UHFVug

Choir Camp

Millmerran Museum Year 2 Excursion

Parish_Bulletin_19_03_2023.pdf

Tuckshop News

Dear School Community

I would like to let the school community know, after an offer to take over from me and give me a bit of a break, Billie-Dee Sinclair plus a few other helpers will be sharing the tuckshop convenor position from term 2. Thank you for your support over the past 2 and half years, I have enjoyed the role and look forward to still helping out where needed.

Thanks - Marg Gaske

Tuckshop Term 2

Dear School Community

I am super excited to be taking on the Tuckshop with a few lovely ladies putting their hands up to help also if needed. A huge thank you to Kimberley Harber, Kyla Dalton and Taylah Willett! I am wanting to put the option out there for any parents to contact me and let me know if there is something you would like to see added to the menu that your kiddies will enjoy, either message me on Facebook or feel free to send me an email at b.harber1994@live.com! I also appreciate any bit of help we can get to do the tuckshop days I know we are all super busy but it’s only 1 or 2 days a term and the kids certainly love their tuckshop days.

The link for the Term 2 roster preferences has been sent our via the app, please have your selection completed by the end of school this Thursday so we can hopefully be up and running in Week 2.

Thanks

Billie-Dee Sinclair

PPF News

Dear School Community

Term 1 is so close to finished and we are all ready for a well earned break. The PPF has been busy working behind the scenes organising a Mother's Day raffle, a Wine and Cheese night and catering. Being a Parent Partnership we need all the help we can get from our beautiful school community and if each family could donate a small item to the Mother's Day raffle it will make for a highly sort after prize. We are looking for hamper style items that any mother would love to receive. Tickets have been sent home to sell for each family, please return to the office by Wednesday 1oth May. This will be drawn at the Wine & Cheese Movie night on Friday 12th May. More information will come out next term about this amazing event.

Thankyou to all the amazing helpers who volunteered their time at the MOC catering job a few weekends ago. Very much appreciated and it was a well received event that raised some funds so we can purchase new items for our students as needed.

On behalf of the PPF we would like to thank Miss Marg Gaske for all her hard work and time as Tuckshop Convenor for the last 2.5 years. Thankyou to Billie-Dee Sinclair and helpers for taking on this role for next term. Please don't forget to follow the link that was sent out on the parent app to select the preferred days you are available to volunteer.

Have a happy and safe Easter

Fiona Andrews - PPF Secretary

PPF Uniform Muster Term 2

The PPF is running another uniform muster where you can donate your unwanted uniforms, books and stationery to donate to a partner school in the Phillipines.

Bring your items to the school office.

TR_Libraries_Autumn_school_holidays_2023_Cecil_Millmerran_V2.pdf

Easter_Holiday_Activities_Program_2023.pdf