26 March 2024 (Week 9 Term 1 2024)

Principal's News

Dear St Joseph’s Community

As we approach the blessed Easter season, we reflect on the profound joy that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ brings into our lives. This time of year, more than any other, invites us to embrace the promise of new beginnings and the enduring hope that comes from Christ’s victory over death.

Easter is the cornerstone of our Catholic faith, reminding us that love triumphs over despair and life over death. It is a season that challenges us to look beyond the immediate, to find joy in God's promises, and to share that joy with others, especially in moments when hope seems most distant.

The joy of the Resurrection is not just a temporary happiness; it is a profound jubilation that comes from knowing that love has conquered. It encourages us not to ignore the sorrows of the world but to face them with hope and courage. As we celebrate Easter, let us also become bearers of this joy. Through acts of kindness, understanding, and forgiveness, we manifest the light of Christ, making His love and hope palpable in our classrooms, our homes, and throughout our community.

This Easter, let's renew our commitment to live out the message of the Resurrection every day. May the joy of this season fill your hearts and homes, inspiring us all to contribute to a world marked by love, peace, and hope.

Wishing you and your families a blessed Easter season.

FEEDBACK ON THE FREQUENCY OF THE NEWSLETTER

In 2023, we sought feedback from families in relation to the frequency of the newsletter. We’d like to check in again on this. We have worked very hard to ensure we are communicating consistently with families. With different families having different preferences for the type and frequency of communication, we know we won’t be able to find a solution that works for everyone. We also have the system communication tools that we are required to use: Compass and Schoolzine. We are not in a position to move away from these. 

We would like your feedback on whether the weekly newsletter might be too frequent and that perhaps a fortnightly newsletter might be more manageable for busy families. We’re happy to go with the preferences of the majority. Here is a very short form to complete. 

REALTALK AUSTRALIA RESOURCE

RealTalk Australia is a not-for-profit charity organisation that provides values-based presentations, programs and resources on human sexuality, relationships and personal identity. A new online resource hub is now available for all staff and parents within Lismore Catholic schools and provides a wide variety of resources to help parents and teachers explore topics, including:

• Puberty and personal development and identity
• Online Safety
• Friendships
• Consent and respectful relationships
• Impacts of Pornography.

We encourage all parents to make use of this excellent resource. Please see the flyer below.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK - CELEBRATING OUR COMMUNITY

In Week 11, our school will join with more than 45 schools across the Lismore Diocese, to celebrate Catholic Education Week (CEW). 

This year’s theme is “Innovation and Faith’. The transforming power of innovation and faith working in unison to ensure our students experience the fullness of life (John 10:10). 

At St Joey’s, we will celebrate what makes our school so special with a number of special events.

• Prospective Families Open Morning - Sunday, 7th April - from 10:00 am
• St Joey’s Community Day at Geoff Watt Oval  - Tuesday, 9th April.This includes games for Kindy to Year 5 groups, being led by our Year 6 leaders. If any parents can support this day, please complete this form.
• SeniorJarjums Cultural Group to visit Possum Place to read First Nations stories and complete scratch art.

CLASS PARENTS

Thank You to the parents who have made themselves available to be our class parents for 2024.

• Kindergarten Ashleigh Colnan
• Year One Lucy Condell
• Year Two Megan McCaffery
• Year Three Zoey Lange
• Year Four Ana Pucci
• Year Five Kate Webber
• Year Six Kelly Towns
  

You will have seen that there have been some invitations in recent newsletters to attend some social gatherings. We thank these parents for their time and efforts in enabling connection for our families.

Learning & Teaching News

DECODABLE READERS

The SPELD video playlist is a useful resource for parents whose children are reading decodable readers at home. The playlist includes a series of short videos providing advice for: 

• Repeated reading for fluency practice
• What to do when a child makes an error
• Reading decodable readers with your child

MATHS GAME - HEADACHE

A game for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

You will need: A deck of cards, 3 players

• Players 1 and 2 take a card from the pile and place it on their forehead (no looking at their own or each others card).
•  Player 3 says the SUM (addition) or PRODUCT (multiplication) of the two numbers.
• Players 1 and 2 look at each others card and then need to calculate what their own number must be.

Adaptations: Play it as player 3 using addition or multiplication to find the total.

Change the difficulty level: 

• 1 digit – players1 and 2 draw one card each 
• 1 digit and 2 digit – player 1 draws one card and player 2 draws 2 cards to make a 2 digit number
• 2 digit - players1 and 2 draw two cards each

Reflection/Discussion points: what number operation were you using to work out your number? Addition, subtraction, multiplication or division? Discuss the different strategies people use.

Mission News

HOLY WEEK LITURGY

Please join us for our Holy Week Liturgy at 2pm Wednesday 27th March. Each class will be presenting 2 stations from the Stations of the Cross. We will conclude with the song ‘Rise Up’ by Andrew Chinn. Please remember to sign out at the office if you would like to take your child home after.

PROJECT COMPASSION ART COMPETITION 

Thank you to everyone who has entered our art competition with the sustainability theme of Project Compassion ‘For future generations’. The 2 winners will be announced after our Holy Week Liturgy. Stay tuned for the announcement of our winners!

Library News

ANZAC DAY WRITING COMPETITION

Students from across the school are invited to take part in the Alstonville RSL Writing Competition. See the flyer below for all of the information. We have a great supply of resources relating to Australia’s war history which students can use to help them write their piece. We encourage all students to enter this competition. The winners will receive a prize from the  Alstonville RSL and will read their poem at our school service on Monday 29 April.

Sport News

CROSS COUNTRY

On Friday, 5th April, all students will be travelling by bus to Coraki to compete in our combined Cross Country Event. Our 5-7 year olds will be running on site at Joey’s Coraki, while the older children will be racing at Windsor Park, behind the school. Children will be running the following distances: 

• 5-7 years: 1km
• 8-10 years: 2km
• 11+ years: 3km

All information, including permissions, parking and times is available on Compass Events.

Cross country canteen orders are due back by the end of this week. 

WINTER SPORTS TRIALS

Awards were handed out at our assembly on Friday to celebrate our children who competed at the Diocesan Winter Sports Trials in Grafton in Week 6. Of these children, the following students were selected to compete at Polding Trials in Tamworth in May:

• Rugby League: Zeke Kubils.
  
• Netball: Lulu Barnes 
• Football (Soccer): Sully Mitchell 
• Hockey: Emma Quinlan, Harry Hosking and Tyler Webster.  
• Rugby Union: Hugh Woolley and Zeke Kubils

STEM News

STAGE 2 STEM

Stage 2 Students have been learning about life cycles in STEM. Year 4 students used Google Drawings to produce some fantastic diagrams of the life cycle of a butterfly. 

Thank you to Eloise, Poppy, Noah and Allanah for sharing their work.

Stage News

STAGE 3 MUSIC ~ By Maeve and Maggie

In stage 3 we have been learning about cup percussion in music lessons. Percussion is making noises with objects and instruments, like drums, cups and a range of different things. We have been using cups to make music instead of drums but the instruments make a similar sound.

 Percussion is made by hitting a hollow object to make a sound and the pitch of the noise is determined by where you hit the instrument and the force-hard or soft. In stage 3 we have been learning and practising routines from cup percussion tutorials. We have been having a lot of fun making music together.

Wellbeing News

SENIOR CHOIR

We were delighted to start our senior choir last Friday. We had quite a few new members join us. There was so much enthusiasm and delight in the group and they’re sounding amazing already!

ASSEMBLY GUEST SPEAKER

Last Friday our school was very lucky to have past student, Toby Conlon, visit us for assembly. Toby spoke about neurodiversity. We were delighted to have him back here at Joeys and thoroughly enjoyed his presentation. Toby very kindly donated some books to our library about neurodiversity, which will be available soon to borrow.

Toby sent through these words of thanks:

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to perform my speech for you all, I hope you all know that you've been an EXTREMELY important part of my educational journey and I definitely couldn't have done it without you. I hope you all have an amazing rest of the school year and I very much hope to see you soon.

Attendance Matters

BEING AT SCHOOL REGULARLY HELPS CHILDREN DEVELOP POSITIVE FRIENDSHIPS.

School attendance is not only about academic growth but also social and emotional development. Here are several ways in which consistent attendance contributes to the formation of meaningful and supportive peer relationships:

Shared Experiences. Regular attendance allows children to share common experiences with their peers. Being present in class provides opportunities for shared learning, activities, and interactions, fostering a sense of camaraderie.

Consistent Social Interaction. Attending school every day provides consistent opportunities for social interaction with classmates. Regular face-to-face interactions contribute to the development of communication skills, empathy, and a sense of belonging.

Building Trust and Reliability. Being present on a regular basis helps children build trust and reliability within their peer group. Dependable attendance creates a sense of predictability, and peers can rely on each other for mutual support and collaboration.

Celebrations

Happy birthday to these students who have celebrated their birthday since the last newsletter:

• Melodi Nolan
• Quinn McIlroy
• Riley Iverson
• Neo McElligott
• Elaina Battaglia
• Jack Kubils
• Alfia Arthur

Coming Events

ANZAC DAY 2024

Please mark your calendars for ther ANZAC Day March and Main Service at Alstonville on 25^th April 2024. The March will start from the Paddy Bugden VC Memorial in Bugden Avenue at 9.40 am (Form-up at 9.15am) and then proceed to Elizabeth Ann Brown Park for the Main Service which will begin at 10am.

There will also be a Dawn Service at Elizabeth Ann Brown Park commencing at 5.30am.

Our school commenoration service will be held on Monday 29 April starting at 2:20 in McCarthy Hall.

Parish News

Community News