28 May 2024 (Week 5 Term 2 2024)
Dear St Joseph’s Community
Last week was a big week for our school. Our Stage 3 students and staff headed off to their camp in Brisbane. This was an excellent excursion, full of historical and cultural sites. We visited cathedrals, museums, houses of Parliament and places of historical significance. Some of our Year 6 students have written a summary below. A huge thank you to Mrs Miller and Miss Clark for their significant efforts in planning for, organising and attending the excursion and to Mr Trickey and Mrs Hall for joining us on the camp as well.
Many of our Year 3 students received the sacrament of Confirmation on Tuesday. This is the last of the Sacraments of Initiation and an opportunity for our students to publicly acknowledge their faith and to be confirmed and strengthened in the Holy Spirit. We are proud of our Confirmands and will continue to keep you in our prayers. We thank Bishop Greg for visiting us to confer the sacrament and Fr Max for his ongoing support. Thank you to Mrs Jones and Miss MacDonald for their work in organising the ceremony and the formation day on Tuesday. Thanks to our parents for their work in forming their children to receive the sacrament.
At assembly on Friday, in honour of Reconciliation Week, Mrs Murgha and our amazing Jarjums indigenous students read the book Listen, by Duncan Smith and Nicole Godwin and Jandamarra Cadd, to our whole school community. This is a beautiful picture book capturing the importance of listening to first nations people so we can better move towards reconciliation through, voice treaty and truth telling. Thanks Mr Murgha and our Jarjums. You might like to see a recital of the book Listen here.
Assembly also saw us celebrate 12 students (a record) receiving their gold awards! We are very proud of how consistently they have engaged in their learning and have demonstrated excellent learning behaviours.
WEDNESDAY 29 MAY - NO SCHOOL
A reminder that this Wednesday is a Catholic Schools Diocese of Lismore day, called Proclaim, where all schools in our region will join together at Xavier College in Ballina to engage in spiritual formation. This is a whole-of-system event that moves up the diocese over the course of the week. Unfortunately, our school does not have any influence of choice in relation to which day our region is allocated to attend. We appreciate that a mid-week pupil-free day is less than ideal for families, but this day is completely out of our control. As Wednesday is a pupil-free day, and as all staff will be off-site, the office phones and emails will not be manned. We will respond to messages on Thursday. We thank our families for their patience and understanding.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
On Trinity Sunday, we reflect on Matthew 28:16-20, where Jesus calls His disciples to "make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
The Trinity is such a challenging concept to understand in Catholic theology. We often resort to inadequate human analogies to understand a mystery at the heart of who God is and how we understand God. The best analogy I have ever found (however imperfect) is the one presented by St Augustine. He saw the Trinity as a relationship of love, something we as parents and carers can absolutely understand. A relationship of love requires three things: a lover, a beloved and the love itself. Augustine saw these as the persons of the Trinity. God the Father is the lover, loving Jesus the Son, who is the beloved. The Holy Spirit is the love that flows between the Father and the Son. As parents and carers, we can relate to this. May this Trinity Sunday inspire us to embrace God’s love and reflect it in our daily interactions.
You are invited to listen to Bishop Greg’s Homily from Sunday’s Mass.
CHILDREN’S LITURGY AT SUNDAY 8:30 MASS
Thanks to a strong parish response, particularly from our St Joseph’s Staff, the parish is reintroducing Children’s Liturgy for Sundays in term time at the 8:30 Mass. This was something the parish was undertaking prior to COVID-19, and it is terrific to see this being reintroduced so regularly. After the opening of Mass, children at Mass are invited to join the children’s liturgy group, who head off to the hall to do some age-appropriate learning and activities. They rejoin Mass at around communication time. We are blessed to have such a welcoming and inviting parish, and I know all our families will be made to feel welcome when they attend Mass.
Below are the dates for the remainder of the term and the Children’s Liturgy leaders that students might know:
- 1st June - Mrs Jones
- 16th June - Mrs Pagotto
- 23rd June - Mr Crosby
TELL THEM FROM ME SURVEY
A huge thank you to our families for completing the Tell Them From Me Survey. We had a significant response rate, and we look forward to taking on board the feedback from our parents and students. Thank you again for sharing your voice.
SCHOOL COMMUNITY GROUP TERM 2 MEETING AGENDA AND RSVP
Our Term 2 School Community Group Meeting is scheduled for Monday, 3 June, from 6:30 - 7:45 pm in the school staffroom. A huge thank you to Wendy Sawan for volunteering to chair the meeting and to Simone Green for taking notes. We have Kate Jones presenting on the Zones of Regulation pastoral learning program all of our students are undertaking this year. We also have Julie Parker, Digital Learning Specialist and consultant, presenting on how parents can manage screen time with their children; thanks for organising this, Wendy. The school will share student feedback on the changes to classroom structures and the whole-school approach to pastoral care and wellbeing being undertaken at school this year. There is also an opportunity for parents to share their thoughts on the school uniform.
Here is a link to RSVP for the SCG Meeting.
MATHS IDEAS
THUNDERGOATS!
Use your knowledge of different strategies to find the total number of Thundergoats as efficiently as possible (e.g. use combinations for ten).
Mathematical ideas and strategies this game supports:
- Noticing how items are organised can help you work out their total (subitising).
- There are many ways to add and subtract numbers to reach a total.
- Number lines can show how numbers are partitioned.
- Tens frames can be used to organise objects and easily recognise totals.
- Using doubles and near-doubles strategies to add or subtract numbers and reach the total.
GOATBUSTERS!
Use the area model and your mathematical thinking to find the answer to tricky calculations.
Mathematical ideas and strategies this game supports:
- Area model for multiplication
- 1 x 2-digit multiplication
- 2 x 2-digit multiplication
- Identifying factors
- Partial products
- Distributive property
- Place value partitioning (tens and ones)
WRITE ON 2024 - WRITING COMPETITION
Entries are now open for students to write a short, imaginative text of up to 500
words using the artwork above as inspiration. The annual WriteOn competition allows students to develop their writing skills and if their entry is selected for inclusion, become a published author. Students are welcome to work on these at home and bring to Mr Crosby for feedback.
To find out more and to enter visit
nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/awards-and-events/writeon-competition
CONFIRMATION
What a wonderful night for Confirmation! Thank you to all our families and friends who came to celebrate this special sacrament with our candidates. We are very grateful Bishop Greg was able to celebrate this sacrament. Thank you to Fr Max for his constant support.
Confirmation and Formation Day
ST JOEY’S BIGGEST AFTERNOON TEA FOR THE CANCER COUNCIL
Thank you to everyone for supporting our afternoon tea at school. It was a lovely way to start the week! I sincerely thank our parent helpers, who helped run our afternoon tea and all the families who baked at home over the weekend. Without you, it wouldn’t have been possible!
Together, with online donations, we raised $527.9 for the Cancer Council! Wow!
CHOIR FUN AT BALLINA RSL
Thank you to everyone from the choir who came along to the Ballina RSL to learn from the Headliners choir group and have fun singing together. We look forward to having some fun with our new warm ups!
STAGE 3 CAMP
Last week, our Stage 3 students attended a camp in Brisbane. We had a packed and exciting itinerary and learned a great deal. Some of our Year 6 students volunteered to share their experiences of camp below.
THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM (Roman Roberts)
The Queensland Museum was a wonderful experience. The dinosaur exhibit was a fun and interactive experience. We were able to look at and watch videos about dinosaur facts; there were also some games to play and to learn about dinosaurs.
There were some fascinating facts like Megalania Prisca (a massive terrestrial lizard) is the closest relative to a komodo dragon and lives for 35,000 years. Also, Procoptodon was the first proper kangaroo to look like a kangaroo, and the first ever species of kangaroo was the Ganguroo Robustiter.
THE GALLERY OF MODERN ART (Sullivan Mitchell)
Stage 3 was very fortunate to go to the GOMA, the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art. It was amazing to see and there were also some interactive things. It was great to experience, all the art was a new way of expressing people's talent. It was using advanced technology to project pictures and make animations to listen and watch.
OLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE (James Cormick)
On Stage 3 camp, we visited Old Government House which is a place where lots of different governors used to live. At Old Government House, we had a teacher-guided tour, which showed us all the different areas where the Governors would have used to eat, sleep and work. There were two different levels upstairs and downstairs. Downstairs is the area where they lived and upstairs, we made a kind of art called frottage, based on Archibald Prize-winning artist William Robinson’s techniques. We put the paper over the sketches and then used stencils to go over and it created an image.
SAINT HELENA ISLAND (Harry Collins)
Our stage 3 students were super lucky to visit Saint Helena Island. When our bus arrived everyone got confused thinking where the island was. When we boarded the 20-minute ride by boat, we saw lots of magical things like dolphins having a swim.
As soon as we arrived, we were all excited and ready to experience what it was like in the gaol, where we saw Henry Irwin face the wrath of this prison. We got to see all the buildings and ruins that were left of the original buildings. We also got to see an actor, Zoe, play roles of people in the prison like the mother of Henry.
The reason Henry went to this prison was because of a small thing: all he did was steal a little bit of leather because his dad had died from a very bad disease called Scarlet Fever. Henry’s dad was a shoemaker and made all the shoes for their family to sell because they did not have a lot of money. Stage 3 also got to learn about a weapon called the cat of nine tails which is a deadly whip.
THE CATHEDRAL OF ST STEPHEN (Emma Quinlan)
The Cathedral of St Stephen is 150 years old this year. Every day, many people come together and pray at a Mass held there. Our Class was fortunate enough to experience a tour of this cathedral. In the cathedral, they have many wonderful stained glass windows that each tell a story from the past. At the bottom they have some special people who helped get the cathedral up and running. In the tour that we experienced we got to see first class and second class relics from St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. The remains include her hair and part of the wood from her coffin that she touched. We then moved to a place next to the cathedral called a chapel. This was where Mary Mckillop came to Brisbane to pray, not to teach but to worship. In the chapel, there was a wooden statue of Mary MacKillop. We then enjoyed Mass held in the Cathedral, which was very wonderful, but sadly, they did not have a choir there, so we could not enjoy their beautiful music. After the Mass, we were lucky enough to meet the Priest, introduce ourselves to him, and enjoy an unforgettable experience
QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT HOUSE (Maeve Crook)
Parliament House was a great experience for Stage 3. We were able to experience a live sitting of parliament where the Quuensland Health Minister, Shannon Fentiman MP, was arguing about how they were doing a good job at keeping everyone safe and healthy. We also got to participate in a mock trial about how Queensland schools should have a minimum of one hour of homework a day to improve the education levels. We had a lovely tour of parliament and we had a beautiful experience with our lovely tour guide.
QUEENSLAND MUSEUM SPARK LABS (Tyler Webster)
On Stage 3 camp we were super lucky to go to Spark Labs, where we could interact with a great range of scientific machines and mechanisms. These included a plasma ball or a miniature Tesla Coil that, when you put your hands on it, the electricity goes to your hands, electrical circuits that have instructions to help you when you get stuck, a helicopter chair where someone spins you around and if you tuck your legs you go fast and when you have your legs out you go slower, a cloud machine where if you push down on it, it puffs out clouds, a marble run to make your own marble run, maker space where you male your own electrical circuit. We were even one of the first schools to see a working Tesla Coil.
Stage 3 Camp
DIOCESAN CROSS COUNTRY
Last Tuesday, Braith Duncan (Yr 4) and Hugo McCall (Yr 3) travelled to Grafton to compete in the Diocesan Cross Country. We congratulate both boys for representing our school with such pride and passion. We further congratulate Hugo on his success with placing 1st the 9 years boys 2km race.
SPORT REPRESENTATION
Congratulations to Zeke Kubils, Hugh Woolley, Braith Duncan and Hugo McCall who were presented with their certificates for representing St Joseph's in sport. These young men have achieved great things and we are all very proud of them.
NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME
Last week our students joined millions of other students around the country in National Simultaneous Storytime. We read Aura Parker’s books “Bowerbird Blues”. We learnt about the bowerbird and helped to construct a bower.
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT BULLYING
Having an open dialogue about bullying with your child fosters trust, understanding, and resilience. You could use this video from Bullying No Way as a conversation starter.
Here are some tips for initiating and maintaining this important conversation:
- Ensure your child feels comfortable and safe discussing sensitive topics like bullying. Choose a quiet, private setting where your child feels relaxed and free to express themselves without fear of judgement or reprisal.
- Be ready to manage your reactions.
- Start the conversation by asking open-ended questions that invite your child to share their thoughts and experiences. For example, you could ask, "Can you tell me about what's been happening at school lately?" or "How are things going with your friends?"
- Practice active listening by giving your child your full attention and demonstrating empathy and understanding. Avoid interrupting or dismissing their feelings, even if you disagree with their perspective. Reflect back on what they're saying to show that you're truly listening and validating their experience.
- Let your child know that their feelings are valid and that it's normal to feel upset or worried about bullying. Reassure them that they're not alone and that you're there to support them every step of the way.
- Focus on empowering them with knowledge and strategies for dealing with bullying. Help your child to brainstorm possible solutions or strategies to manage the situation. If your child is experiencing bullying or if the conversation reveals other issues, contact the school.
By fostering an open and supportive dialogue about bullying, you can help your child feel empowered, resilient, and equipped to navigate challenging situations with confidence. Starting the conversation about this topic should be grounded in your family's beliefs and values. Make sure you have early, regular conversations with your child about the values you have as a family regarding respect and care for others and the dignity of each human person.
~ Gold Award Winners ~
~ Award Winners ~
GET TO KNOW YOUR CHILD'S FRIENDS AND THEIR FAMILIES. STRONG CONNECTIONS HELP YOUR CHILD FEEL A SENSE OF BELONGING AND SAFETY.
Building strong connections with your child's friends and their families can be highly beneficial for your child's social and emotional development. Here are some reasons why getting to know your child's friends and their families is important:
- Sense of Belonging. Knowing your child's friends and their families helps create a sense of belonging for your child. Feeling connected to a social group provides emotional support and fosters a positive sense of identity.
- Enhanced Social Skills. Interacting with a diverse group of peers allows your child to develop and enhance their social skills. Building relationships with friends and their families contributes to improved communication, empathy, and cooperation.
- Safety and Comfort. When your child knows their friends and their families well, they are likely to feel safer and more comfortable in social situations. Familiarity with the people around them can reduce anxiety and build a sense of security.
- Shared Values and Expectations. Getting to know your child's friends' families allows you to understand shared values and expectations. Consistency in parenting styles and values contributes to a more cohesive and supportive social environment for the children.
GARDINER CHESS COMPETITION EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
The Gardiner Chess Tournament will be held on Tuesday 18th June, hosted by Alstonville High School. Registration is from 8.30 am to 9.15 am. Start at 9.30 am and finish around 2.30 pm.
This tournament is open to students in Stages 1-3. As this event is local, we can walk students to and from the event.
The cost of the tournament is $24.00. Expressions of interest are due by Friday, 7th June. Please complete this form to indicate your child's interest in this event.
