Newsletter Term 4 Week 4

Principal's Report

Dear Community,

Welcome to our Week 4 Newsletter. This term is certainly flying by. With less than 6 weeks left in the school year, we are rapidly approaching the Christmas School Holidays! At St Joseph’s, our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the fires in Millmerran and other parts of Queensland, as well as with the firefighters and volunteers supporting those displaced by these tragic events. We hope for a change in the weather later this week, which would answer many prayers and bring some much-needed rain.

Holy Land Pilgrimage

I would like to express my gratitude to Michele and the St Joseph’s staff for taking care of the school during the first two weeks of the term while I was on Professional Renewal Leave and Long Service Leave. During this time, I was fortunate to be one of the 20 Toowoomba Catholic Schools staff members who travelled to the Holy Land, visiting Jordan and Israel, and exploring various significant holy sites. This journey was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was incredible to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, visit places from his life, and delve deeper into his teachings and the areas where these events took place. We were fortunate to have undertaken this journey before the recent conflicts in the region. Our hearts go out to those affected by the events currently unfolding in Israel and Palestine, and we pray for peace in the area. Jesus' message was simple: to care for one another and love our neighbours, but this message is lost and complicated by politics.

It's through simple acts that we can truly embody the spirit of Jesus in our world. This spirit was clearly evident in the response to the Millmerran fires, with so many people offering support, donating items, providing food, and volunteering their time to help those affected. This is Jesus' message in action.

Awards Night & Awards

It's hard to believe that we are already discussing end-of-year events! This year, our Annual Awards Night will take place at Carallen Place at the Mill Inn Tavern on Friday, November 24th. The evening will begin at 5pm with dinner, followed by our presentations at 6:15pm. Due to our growing numbers, the school hall can no longer accommodate our expanding school population. The change of venue will also allow our hardworking PPF to enjoy the evening with everyone without the burden of setting up, packing up, or cooking. An official invitation will be sent out to all families soon, explaining the program for the night, including details about meals and how to order them via the tuckshop app.

We have slightly changed the format of the awards also. There will be 2 awards for each year level, Academic Success and Academic Effort. The Year 6 awards will proceed unchanged.  

Until the next newsletter.

God bless,

Mr Lawson Short.

Date Claimers

Prep/One news

Hi everyone, 

And we are back into the swing of Term 4 (after having a different first two weeks!).  

Last week, the 2024 prep students visited our class for their Prep Transition Day. I was so proud of each and every student in Prep/One. They were all so beautiful and caring with the new preps. It really made me feel quite emotional knowing that they are all growing up and are almost ready for Year 1/2! 

The Prep/1/2s will be running the World Teachers Liturgy on this coming Friday. If you could please get the Grade Ones to practice their lines at home, that would be fantastic. 

In English, the students are doing a unit called Pets Pets Pets where we are reading and writing lots about pets! For the Preps, their writing goal by the end of the year is for them to be forming their letters correctly, sounding out words and using finger spaces. For Grade Ones, their writing goal by the end of the year is for them to be writing using their dictionaries, using their capital letters and full stops correctly, and using adjectives to make their writing better. Please continue to practice this at home (and if you would like your child to use their dictionary at home, please let me know and I will get them to bring it home everyday). 

As always please continue to keep up the great reading practice (sight words and books). Reading tests will be coming up in the next few weeks so keep this up! 

In Maths, the students are continuing to master their numbers (Preps – number up to 20 and Grade Ones – numbers up to 120. In Religion, the students are learning about the Christmas story, in Science, the students are learning about materials and what they are made of, in HASS, the students are learning about special places and in Health, the students are looking into different safety messages, and will be making their own safety book on book creator. In Music, the students are singing, playing boomwhackers, and learning about different instruments. They will be performing a song they learnt in music in a Music Concert that will occur later in the term. 

Just a reminder that there are lots of testing going on this term – beginning in Week 4 until Week 7 (from about the 13rd of October until the 17^th of November). If you could please avoid your children missing school as much as possible in this important time, that would be fantastic (I completely understand that we can’t always help absences though!). 

Have a great Week 4! 

Kind Regards,

Grace 😊 

From the APRE

This week has been a tough one for the Millmerran community, as bushfires have ravaged our community.  We pray for all those who have been affected by these events and thank all the wonderful firefigthers and volunteers who have been working around the clock to try and get the fire under control.  The Mini Vinnies Club will be starting their annual Christmas Appeal in the next week, and this year, more than ever, there are families in our community who need our help this Christmas.  There are some who have suffered devastating losses of property and belongings, so close the the Christmas period.  We will be looking for donations of food to help create hampers to give to those most in need in our community this Christmas.  Posters and notes will be coming out in the next week of approptiate items to donate.

This Friday, our Prep/1/2 students will lead us in a liturgy for World Teacher's Day. This is a chance for us as a school to celebrate our wonderful teachers for their skilled work in educating, inspiring and supporting our students.

Next week we will celebrate two masses, All Soul's Day on Thursday 2nd November at 9:00am and Family Mass on Sunday 5th November at 9:30am.  Family Mass this term will be held in the school hall.

God Bless,

Michele Sanders

PPF News

Dear Commmunity

We have a busy end of year coming up with Lawson’s farewell drinks on Friday 10^th November at 5.30pm in the Mill Inn beer garden, please RSVP to the school office for catering purposes as we will be providing light refreshments on this evening – children most welcome.

Invitations for awards night will be going home in the next day or two with the oldest sibling in the family and also via email and the Sentral app, please keep an eye out for these.  The PPF has generously decided to pay for all St Joseph’s students and younger siblings meals as a gift to our families.  Please note that you will still need to order all children’s free meals along with all highschool student and  adult meals via the Quickcliq system so that we can provide the Mill Inn Tavern with accurate numbers for catering purposes.  We hope to see as many of you on the evening as possible as we celebrate the end of another great year.

We also will be finishing off the year with one last fundraising event in our Christmas ham and goodies multidraw raffle.  We invite you to donate Christmas items towards this raffle if you are able and appreciate the  ongoing support of our families in our fundraising efforts.

St Joey’s PPF