St Joseph’s School, Millmerran eNewsletter

Principal's Report

Dear Community,

A lot has been happening in our school over the past couple of weeks. We have had students participate in Darling Downs Athletics Trials as well as students participating in ICAS tests. It is great to see students displaying the learning behaviours of 'Courageous Corella' and 'Persistent Parakeet' as they strive to achieve goals they have set for themselves.

Last week we were very fortunate to have a visit from some senior students from Mary MacKillop Catholic College at Highfields. These students wanted to do some outreach programs to Mary MacKillop primary schools and we were lucky enough to be involved with this. The students engaged in lots of great activities with our students, teaching them about the work of Catholic Mission. They discussed with our students how the work of Catholic Mission can be connected to the work of Mary MacKillop and how they can do their part to continue the work of Mary MacKillop in our school community. It was wonderful for our students to engage with older students from another Catholic school in our diocese to come together to learn about our school values and how the work and messages of Mary MacKillop are so relevant to how we live our lives today.

Another fantastic activity from last week was our Book Week Dress Up Day. This is always one of my favourite days of the year. I love to see the students come dressed in their costumes and talk about their book characters. Our parents and students always put so much effort into their costumes and it brings so much joy to the day. The students also participated in some activities focused on some of the shortlisted books for the year. As always, Mrs Gunning did an outstanding job organising some fun activities for the day.

Next week I will be away in Toowoomba, sitting on a School Renewal Panel for St Anthony's. This will be a valuable experience as our school will be involved in this process next year. Mrs Fiona Andrews will deputise in my place next week.

The Master Planning Survey is still open. We value your opinion and would love everyone to have a say in the process. The survey will only take you a short while and we would appreciate your honest feedback in this process. Please note that it is anonymous and we will not see your name. You can fill out the survey using the following link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=_f1LV0RCBUK3EBaPWwxYDepnqVxJQ-pBnrpSRjfTEH9UOFQ5UkczUTRKNExXTk9XMzhNSks3VEk1Ti4u

God Bless,

Michelle

From the APRE

Tomorrow we will celebrate all of our dads and the fatherly figures in our lives. We will begin with a breakfast, starting from 7:30am. The Year 1/2 class will then lead us in a liturgy at 8:40am in the hall. We would love everyone to come along and celebrate with us.

Mark 7: 6

“This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me …”

Have you ever tasted 100% pure chocolate? It looks luscious and sweet but because it has no sugar in it, it tastes bitter and dry. It’s not at all like milk chocolate found in the sweet that we love so much. Can you think of other things that look good on the outside but are quite different on the inside? Sadly, sometimes people seem charming and smart by the things they say and do but inside they are bitter and selfish.

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus confronts some church leaders who see themselves as more important than Jesus’ followers. These scribes and Pharisees judge Jesus’ disciples by a set of human-made rules while ignoring the commandments given by God. They are using these rules to put the disciples down and criticise Jesus, their leader.

When people bully and degrade others, it should be a warning sign to us not to follow their example. To be a follower of Jesus, we must love like he does.

Do you know someone in your community who is being judged unfairly because of their looks, culture, or language? Make a point this week to reach out to that person.

Justice Challenge

The Catholic Church upholds the dignity of work and the rights of all workers. One of the rights is a just wage, one which provides adequate income to support oneself and one’s family. This week’s challenge is to advocate for a just wage for all people, no matter what their occupation or situation. As a household, find out what the minimum wage is. Discuss what you would have to do if your family had to live on the minimum wage.

Book Week

Runner Up: Rylee Huth (Wednesday Adams)

Year 1/2 Winner: Emily Andrews (Charlotte’s Web)

Runner Up: Colin Pink (Cat Kid)

Year 3/4 Winner: Madeline Folker (Beryl the Brahman)

Runner Up: Amelea De Coning (Wolf Girl)

Year 5/6 Winner: Heidi Sanders (Octopants)

Runner Up: Liam Folker (Dog: Footrot Flats)

Special Mention – Book Club Voucher

Brad Stower (D-Day)

Shannon Maddison (Gandalf – Lord of the Rings)

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Prep News

Hi everyone,

Once again, this term has flown by! Thankfully, this term hasn’t been as busy as last term, however in saying this, the students have still been working just as hard! We had a great start to the Term with the 100 days of Prep day as seen in the photos. What an awesome day! During the term, we also went to visit the residents at Yallambee. The preppies sang songs, drew pictures and spoke to the elderly. It was such a rewarding experience for everyone involved, and we hope to do another visit like this soon!

In Maths, the students have been focusing on naming, representing and quantifying the numbers from 10 to 15. If you have noticed that your children are not very confident with these numbers, please do some work on this at home as we want them to be confident so they can complete addition, subtraction and more complicated sums in the future.

In English, the students have been listening and learning about different fairytales. They will be performing their favourite fairytale towards the end of the term and details about this will be shared soon! In Literacy Rotations (which we complete everyday at around 12pm after our UFLI lesson), I have noticed a huge improvement in the Preppies alphabet letter/sound recognition, and fluency when reading which is fantastic. Keep up the fantastic work at home! Please ensure you are bringing back your children’s SPELD decodable readers and their signed slip so we can regularly give the students a new book to read and they can continue to progress with their reading!

In Religion, the students have been learning about the Creation story, the story of David and Goliath and the story of Joseph and the Dreamcoat. The Preppies are always so engaged when learning these stories and do a fantastic job at relating these to their own lives, and expressing their opinion on what this story tells us about God.

In Health, the students have been learning about themselves, which groups they belong to and what makes them who they are. They have been collating this information together and showing this through an iPad app called Book Creator. In Book Creator, they have been adding text, drawings and photos – it is amazing what tools the Preppies have discovered on Book Creator that even I wasn’t aware of!

On a Friday with Mrs Folker, in Science, the students are learning about what things are made of and in HASS, the students are learning about important places. They always have lots to tell me after these lessons, so they must be learning lots! In Music, the Preppies are continuing to learn new songs and explore concepts like beat. We are also continuing our tradition of Chef of the Week where parents/grandparents cook with their children, and this is always a highlight for the Preps! Finally, the Preppies are continuing to do their alphabet craft with Miss Amelia every week – as can be seen on the windows in the classroom.

Keep up the hard work at home, and I look forward to seeing the Preppies progress even more in their last term of Prep! Let’s hope next term doesn’t fly by as fast!

Kind Regards,
Grace 😊

Date Claimers

Thursday 29th August - Father's Day Breakfast and liturgy
Friday 30th August - Pupil Free Day
Monday 9th September - Parent Teacher Interviews
Tuesday 10th September - Parent Teacher Interviews
Tuesday 10th September - St Joey's Got Talent
Friday 13th September - Last Day Term 3

Students of the Week

Congratulations to all our student of the week award winners.

Week 6 Term 3 - Amazing Attitude

Learning Behaviours - Persitent Parakeet

Term 3 Week 6

Reading Awards

Student News

Well done to the following students who represented St Joseph's at the Inner Downs Athletics trials. Each student performed well and did themselves and their school proud.

Levi Bryce - 5th in Discus
Felicity Clark - 2nd in 800m
Desmond Commens - 18th in 100m
Bradley Stower - 4th in Shot Put
Harlen Pink - 1st in High Jump
Heidi Sanders - 2nd in Long Jump, 2nd in Shot Put, 2nd in the Multi, 5th in 800m, 8th in 200m final, 12th in 100m.

Congratulations to Harlen and Heidi who were selected in the Inner Downs Team and competed at the Darling Downs Trials last week. Both students did very well in tough conditions and against some very tough competition. Harlen placed 5th in the High Jump final and Heidi placed 4th in the Multi and 6th in Long Jump.