Newsletter Term 2 Week 6

Principal's Report

Dear Community,

It feels like I haven't had the opportunity to see the wonderful students, staff, and families of St Joseph's for an eternity due to my involvement in the St Saviours School Review, Principal Forum, and now having COVID! Thankfully, I can return tomorrow to see our wonderful learners and the amazing learning that has been taking place.

I want to express my gratitude to the staff and team of St Joseph's for their work in ensuring the smooth running of the school. A big thank you to all those who were able to assist today in setting up and organising our Prep Open Day. This day is always a highlight in my calendar, and I wish I could have been there to participate. From all accounts, the day was a huge success, and we are expecting another large cohort of Preps in 2024.

Looking back over the last four years, it is certainly hard to believe how much the school has changed and grown for the better. At our lowest enrolment numbers, St Joseph's had just around 40 students, and currently, our enrolments are in the 70s. This is an amazing result and a testament to the outstanding work of the teachers, staff, and wider parent community of St Joseph's. St Joseph's is certainly seen as a desirable place to be, not just for learning and education, but for developing the whole child.

Last week, I had the privilege of working with leadership members from TCS and the other principals of our 31 schools of the diocese in Charleville. During a significant session, we listened to a presentation and engaged in a discussion about TCS ATAR results from 2022 and how we can ensure the greatest impact for our students to achieve success in their future pathways. It was interesting to engage with the secondary school principals and learn more about what they do to prepare their students for success in ATAR, the primary mechanism used nationally for tertiary admissions. We also discussed the importance of identifying and extending our students in primary school to encourage their success as they progress in their learning journey.

It was fascinating to see the high school principals seeking input on how we, as primary educators, identify students with needs, identify students who require extension, and what measures we put in place once we have identified these students. At St Joseph's, this is something we do very well, and we have implemented many procedures to ensure all students are learning to their full potential. It is certainly an honour when larger secondary school principals look to emulate the quality practices that we currently undertake, in their own schools. At St Joseph's, we have a strong focus on differentiation, ensuring high-impact teaching strategies that provide the right amount of support and challenge for every student. Our team is always seeking ways to modify the classroom and their teaching strategies to meet student needs.

Currently, we are collecting our termly reading data to form our teaching and learning agenda. It is wonderful to hear about the success our team is having in their classrooms with reading improvement, and I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all staff to ensure this success. In our context, we have the ability to group our students based on their learning needs and reading goals.

During the forum, we dedicated a significant session to discussing our school's Charism, which is linked to the Sisters of St Joseph and Mary MacKillop. It was wonderful to hear from others what they have done in this area and also to receive praise for our efforts in creating the St Joseph's Learning Behaviours and linking them to our awards and Charism.

Semester 1 Report Cards:

This semester, our report cards will have a different look as we transition to reporting on our students' educational progress within the Sentral program, the same program that incorporates the Sentral Parent Portal. These report cards will be available within the Sentral for Parents App at the end of Term 2, as well as in hard copy upon request. We hope that these new-look report cards will provide a clear depiction of student achievement and how students are progressing in their learning journey.

Until next time,

God Bless,

Mr. Lawson Short Principal "God loves us all." (Mary MacKillop, 1906)

State of Origin Game 1

Wear your QLD or NSW team colours on Wednesday. 

No coin donation 

Students still require a wide brim hat. closed in shoes, and their shoulders covered

(no singlets etc)

Date Claimers

Student Awards

Student of the week

Week 4

Elana Hughes - For being such a great leader to all her classmates in Prep/One and excelling in her reading.

Lola Fitzgerald- making an awesome "magnificent creation".

Eloisa Lehuede – for making great connections in HASS conversations.

Ryan Abbott – for trying to make better choices for his learning.

Week 5

Robert Stoker - For being a star in the Mother's Day Liturgy when he played the role of the Mum in the dance last minute.

Kingston Pink- writing a very detailed procedure on how to make his "magnificent thing". 

Aiden Domin – for putting in the effort to make good choices.

Liam Folker – for his outstanding sentence writing in any class task.  Your detail is amazing.

Learning Behaviours - Persistent Parakeet

Week 4

Esther Hollis - For persisting with her reading and sentence writing.

Aleeah Garner- trying hard and never complaining during dance lessons. 

Jack Stubbin – for giving things another go when they are hard!

Jo Wise – for her dedication and positive attitude to learning her songs and lines for the school musical.

Week 5

Zerena Sariman - For learning another student's lines overnight and reading so well at the Mother's Day Liturgy.

Harper Turner- continuing to try even when things get hard.

Emmi Gollan – for working so hard to finish her writing assessment.

Felicity Clark – for her dedication and persistence to training for cross country.  You never give up.

Heidi Sanders - for her dedication and persistence to training for cross country.  You never give up.

Student of the week

Year 3/4 News

Hello family and friends!

Wow! I cannot believe we are already halfway through Term 2. It has been a whirlwind of a term and we have been working very hard in Year 3/4 amongst the craziness of events, public holidays and everything else the last 5 weeks have entailed.

In English, we have just finished our narrative unit (after a late start in Term 1), where students got to write their own secret chapter in The Twits by Roald Dahl. I loved seeing all of the students’ creativity come out through these stories through the planning and writing stages, and am excited to continue reading through their final chapters! Now we are moving onto a shorter unit, teaching students about procedural writing, in which we will work towards being able to write a procedure text explaining how to play a game.

Students have moved on from multiplication and division in Mathematics onto shapes and symmetry. Students in Year 3 are focusing on 3D shapes and how to create these, while the Year 4s are looking at some new complex and irregular shapes, and how to use these in different artworks. Year 4s will also be looking into symmetrical lines and patterns in the coming weeks, and both year levels will be completing some hands-on tasks to display their knowledge of different shapes! They will be very excited to hear that this may involve toothpicks and marshmallows… The rest of the term will involve more shape work and moving into some financial mathematics towards the end.

Science this term has been all about water cycles, and we are currently in the middle of a simple experiment involving water in a plastic cup. Evaluating how much this evaporates is taking longer than expected thanks to the cold weather, but this is a great lesson on the different variables that can affect experiments. This is a great topic that we can relate back to our everyday lives, and I am looking forward to having discussions around the water in Millmerran, and how this can impact farming, the town and the school itself!

Year 3/4s have been showing me their best dance moves this term in The Arts, which has been a great opportunity to learn in an active way. We usually do this on a Friday, and it’s a great way to get the students moving and having a bit of fun at the end of the week!

The coming weeks will involve a lot of assessment and testing due to the upcoming Term 2 report cards. These students are working so hard already and I am so proud of how much effort they are putting in despite the busyness of a school year.

Have a great rest of your week!

Thank you,

Georgia Tocknell

From the APRE

Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you”. Then he showed them his hands and side. The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting, “Peace to you”.  In today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus’ followers were very scared. The bullies who killed Jesus were powerful and could easily target them as they did Jesus. This ties in with our Mary MacKillop quote for our learning behaviour, 'Courageous Corella', "Whatever troubles may be before you, may you accept them bravely."  For the remainder of the term, we are teaching the students what it means to be brave in their learning and in all aspects of schooling life.  Being brave is not easy, so we need to encourage our students to take small steps that lead to bigger steps to help build their courage and confidence.

Thank you to our Prep/1 students who led us in a beautiful liturgy for Mother's Day.  It was great to see so many of our mums, grandmas and friends there to share with us.

God Bless,

Michele Sanders

Dear Community,

Thank you to those that were able to attend our Mother's Day social night, it was a great success.  The weather was very kind to us for the evening which made for a a very pleasant night.  Thank you has to go to Lachlan and Sam Folker for organising games and for supervising the the children in attendance, they had a great time!

The PPF is very grateful for everyone who donated prizes for the Mother's Day raffle and sold tickets.  The raffle was a huge success and all the prizes were well received.  Donations like these are what helps the PPF raise funds to purchase items for the school that directly benefit the students.

Pie Drive 2023

A Pie Drive form will come home with your eldest child today with a note regarding a slightly different format for this year's pie drive.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Kelsee Huth on 0423 870 379 or come into the school office.

General Meeting  - New time of 5.00pm

Our next PPF meeting will be held at St Joseph’s on Monday the 29th of May, at 5.00pm in the School Hall, and all are welcome!  We realise that all our parents are busy people, so we try to make the meetings as quick and efficient as possible, and if you have children that you are unable to leave, please feel free to bring them along.  It would be lovely to see some new faces, and as the saying goes, many hands make light work! 

Kind Regards,

St Joseph's PPF 

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