St Joseph’s School, Millmerran eNewsletter

Principal's Report

Newsletter

Dear Community,

It is hard to believe we are at the end of Term 1 already! Despite a bumpy start with COVID restrictions (and a bumpy end!) it has been a wonderful term full of excitement, learning and fun! Congratulations to the staff, students, and families of St Joseph’s for your continued resilience and perseverance during COVID, floods, restrictions etc. It is amazing that despite all these setbacks, students have continued to thrive here at St Joseph’s, which is a testament to our community.

Girls Winter Uniform

With our uniform review currently happening, we do not have a complete picture of what the final winter uniform will be, therefore, during Term 2 girls may chose to wear their summer dress, with green jumper, and in cool weather may wear their black tights.

In Term 2 students may also wear the existing winter uniform of the white blouse with the tartan skirt + black stockings in cooler weather. As previously indicated this winter uniform will be replaced with an ‘all year round’ uniform.

Thank you for your assistance and understanding with this transition period.

Tuckshop Volunteer Helpers

Thank you to all those who have been able to volunteer to help in tuckshop. It has been great to see so many grandparents sign up to join in the fun!

We are still requiring more helpers, so if you are able to lend a hand, please contact the school office or Marg Gaske.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Due to the delayed start of Term 1, we have moved our parent teacher interviews to Term 2 Week 3. More information around signing up for this will come out closer to the time.

Meet the Teacher Night

On the first Friday night in Term 2 (Friday the 22^nd April) we look forward to hosting our meet the teacher BBQ. This will be a great opportunity for us to gather socially as a community for a relaxed evening. See you all there!

School Calendar

Don’t forget to stay UpToDate on school events by accessing the school calendar on our school website. https://sjcsmillmerran.schoolzineplus.com/calendar/1

Have a wonderful safe, happy and healthy Easter Break, and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Wednesday the 20^th April.

God Bless,

Mr Lawson Short.

From the APRE

What a wonderful term it has been. Thanks to the Mini Vinnies for all their hard work organising and running the acitivities this term to raise money for Project Compassion. It has been a very successful campaign. While a final total has not yet been counted, the money raised to date comes to over $1000. This is a fantastic effort for our school community. A big thank you to everyone for your support. All this money goes to Caritas Australia to help support vulnerable communities put programs in place to help them build thriving communities and sustainable income.

Unfortunately, due to increasing Covid cases, our Easter liturgy has had to be postponed until the first week next term. Hopefully we will have everyone back on deck ready to go.

I wish everyone a very happy and holy Easter and look forward to seeing you all next term.

Michele Sanders

Mini Vinnies Activities

WEEK 8

Matilda Jones- For trying her very hardest in all tasks this week
Ricky Henriksen- For being a super star at stretchy snake
Clancy Battisson- For thinking of some great words to describe his friends
Dominic Sauverain – his extremely creative ideas in writing. You keep us entertained.
Bella. Klein – always giving her best effort and working hard
Harry Farrington – for his exceptional behaviour, always listening and following directions and showing what a fantastic learner he is.
Samuel Folker – for always asking questions and trying to improve his work. Keep it up!
Bella. Sese – always having a great attitude to learning and giving it her all.
Kobi Turner– showing persistence during Maths and having confidence in himself.

Student Awards

Prep/ 1 News

I can’t believe we are already in the last week of Term One! This Term has absolutely flown bye. Prep/One have been very busy in the last two weeks doing lots of great learning. They have been busy completing lots of assessment and testing and they all did amazing! Last week, we welcomed Van into our classroom. He has been a great addition to our classroom and we can’t wait to get to know him a little better. In English, we have been reading lots of different books for learning and for enjoyment. We had the opportunity to write all about our favourite book and why. There were some very interesting reasons as to why these books are our favorites! In Math’s, Preps have been learning how to subitise. Subitising is when you can look at a small group of objects and know how many are there without counting e.g. dots on a dice. They have got to play lots of board games to help practice this skill. Year One’s have been learning all about place value and their tens and one’s houses. In Health, we have been learning about how to be friendly and include others. Last week, we acted out some examples to show good choices and bad choices. They were very entertaining! Each morning during PMP we have been practicing for cross country and it is so crazy to see how many laps their little legs can already run! They all did a great job!

What an amazing first term Prep/One have had. I hope everyone enjoys their well deserved Easter break and comes back ready and raring to go for Term Two!

Lauren Grant and Catherine Folker

News from 2/3

Hi Parents, Friends, and St Joey’s community.

We are fast approaching the end of Term One, only a couple of days to go, and we are definitely crawling to the end. Between Covid-19 and flood waters again, it has been a challenging few weeks. So, I think everyone needs a little break.

I’m glad most of the 2/3s got to visit the museum last week before our numbers declined too much. We had a bunch of fun and the students enjoyed all the exhibits, it was a great way to round out our HASS unit this term.

Well done to everyone who was able to participate in Cross Country this week. You all did a great job and did Evans and Oxley proud.

Have a great holiday,

Mitchell Albury

Museum Excursion

I can't believe that the term is over already. How quickly it has gone by!

Over the past two weeks, the 4/5/6 students have been busy working on completing their assessment tasks. We finally finished reading the 'Malamander' and many of the class are excited to read the next book in the series. We have been analysing the characters from the book and how they have grown and changed as the story went on based on the challenges they faced. In writing we have continued our work on fantasy writing and there have been many great starts to the stories the students have been writing. You will see some of these below.

In Maths this week, the students were excited to go the the 'Lolly Shop' and purchase some yummy treats. This activity gave them real world experience of shopping and calculating change. This is still a skill that needs lots of development, so when you get a chance, send your child into the shop to buy something for you and ask them how much change they should get.

Notes went home today to all students selected in the Gore Hwy Cross Country Carnival to be held on the first Friday of Term 2. Please return these in the first week of term. Please remember that if you are selected, it is an expectation that you will attend. For those not at school, forms have been emailed to you.

I thank you all for a wonderful term and hope you have a relaxing break.

Michele Sanders

Ice covered the entire town of Poko. It seemed like Grongy Grooper had finally accomplished his mission. On the other hand, Olive Potts desperately needed the ingredients for the potion to stop everything freezing but they were also frozen over and so was her warm taser. She ran to the cupboards, messing up the kitchen, but it was worth it because she found one ingredient. Olive went to her tree house. “I can’t do it. The town will always blame me.” She lost faith in herself for one minute. ”Ohhhhhhhhh look at that!” With her new creative idea, she built a new weapon, “The Boblo Bill”. - Heidi Sanders

As I drag myself up to shore quietness grows. All that comes to the ear is the splashing of the waves. I step onto the ground and it crunches, its sand, leaves are flying everywhere and coconuts are falling. I’m on an island, it’s nearly night and there’s an abandoned town. - Liam Folker

Western Creek is a jungle to people who don’t know their way around and, when you’re lost out there you will get worried because there is no one. No noise except the animals. You can taste the dust in your spit. There is not much water out there and it is the colour of chocolate. You can smell the cattle in the breeze. - Will Purnell

‘Vroom’ “Strewth those blasted bikies!” They’re on a search. A search for me. On a search to take me along with all the other kids they’ve taken. Including my best mate. I’m defenceless. Defenceless against a mob of killers. Defenceless against Motor Bike Riding Muzza.

‘Bang!’ Then there’s a prolonged silence, like the outback at night, they must have broken down as I got away. I was skating on thin ice. In my panic I lost my precious Akubra I got from my Dad. I am outraged at the fact I lost my hat. I get a whiff of the smokey diesel, like a black fire, which makes me cough as I get a tear in my eye. - Samuel Folker

As I stepped out of the cave I felt a shiver down my spine, like a spider just crawled down it furiously. As I took my second step out of the cave, I heard a bang. A big bang. I won’t forget the cave had shut. I felt like something happened to me, like the pack ditched me. The shiver turned into a wobble and the wobble turned into a fall and everything went black!!! - Felicity Clark

Cross Country

A very warm welcome to the new 2022 PPF Executive:

President – Kass Clark and Katie Battisson

Vice President – Kelsee Huth

Secretary – Fiona Andrews

Finance Coordinator – Marg Gaske

Events Manager – Kelsee Huth

The PPF meets once a month. All families, old and new, are very welcome to attend the meetings, which are generally held each third Tuesday of the month. The meetings are a chance for all school community members to have a say about varying issues regarding our wonderful school and to contribute new ideas to fundraising events. The meetings are also a great way for new families of our school to become involved and socialise with existing families. New ideas are always very welcome.

The first social event for our families to enjoy will be a BBQ dinner/meet the teachers, which will be held on Friday 22^nd April at the school. More details will become available over the coming weeks. Be sure to put it in your calendar, as it is a great way to welcome our new families and catch up with the old.

Please come along to the next PPF general meeting, which will be held Tuesday 26^th April at 5.30pm, in the school hall. All are welcome!

From the Fathering Project

The below article, written by Dr Bruce Robinson, shares some positive messages on the importance of dads’ involvement in education.

Supporting school learning at home

When dads support school learning at home, this shows our kids that we truly value education and the school.

Your job as a parent is to encourage them, support them and challenge them to learn and do their best. If you can instil in them the mindset that learning is a process, that is positive and enjoyable, they will grow up to be lifelong learners who thrive on challenges.

Evidence – Did you know?

Fathering involvement in educational activities with their children is associated with improved educational outcomes for all students.
Children at all ages with fathers interested and involved in their learning have a clear academic advantage.
Children do not stop needing their fathers because they get older, or because lives get busy.
You don’t have to be strong academically yourself to have an impact on your child’s education. Evidence shows you just have to be supportive and positive about learning.

Top tips

Read with your child from an early age and encourage a positive attitude to learning from reading – both books and online.
Promote a positive mindset in your children to help them see the benefits and enjoyment that can be found in learning and improvement.
Don’t put too much pressure on them. Encourage them to be as good as they can be and help them plan how to improve.
Be willing to help with homework, even if that just means asking them questions.
Let them be independent learners and be there to support if they want to do the home learning themselves.
Encourage them to see mistakes as an important part of the learning process and help them to see how to use their mistakes to learn.
If homework is causing stress or arguments, put it aside and take a break. Try again later and if there are still problems, contact the teacher to discuss solutions.

Dr Bruce Robinson is the founder of The Fathering Project – Your support of learning impacts your child’s results at school - The Fathering Project

If you or your children are struggling
Kids can call Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800 or Youth Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or you can contact your child’s GP. If you are struggling, call Lifeline on 131 114, or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.