17 September 2024 (Week 9 Term 3 2024)

Dear St Joseph’s Community

Friday’s assembly was full of celebrations of student achievement on the sporting field, in the ICAS assessment, in our Gift of the Gab performances, in the classroom with our teachers awards and Gold Awards. It was also wonderful to hear our Gift of the Gab finalists present their poems and speeches to their peers; they have clearly been working hard. We wish them luck as they represent us at the regional competition at St Carthage's on Friday.

UPCOMING PUPIL-FREE DAYS 

We have two pupil-free days coming up. Our final day of the term, Friday, 27th September, is a pupil-free day. This day will be conducted off-site so the school will be closed, and the phones will not be manned. We will follow up on any emails after the day. 

We will also start our term with a pupil-free Staff Development Day on Monday, October 14. We will be on-site for this day. 

These are our final pupil-free days for this year. We thank our parents and carers for their understanding and support of our staff’s need to plan and engage in ongoing professional learning. 

STAFFING UPDATE

This week, Mrs Moloney returns after her break away, travelling with her family. She resumes her role as Leader of Inclusion and STEM teacher. 

I would like to acknowledge Mrs Crosby, who undertook Mrs Moloney’s role in her absence. She did a terrific job of working with our students, staff and families and liaising with the many allied health workers who support our children.

I would also like to acknowledge Mrs Keough, who took on the STEM component of Mrs Moloney’s role while she was away. She also did an amazing job and I know the students appreciated her hard work and dedication. 

CONGRATULATIONS MISS CLARK

Congratulations to Miss Clark, who has completed her accreditation with the NSW Education Standards Authority, NESA. This is an incredibly rigorous process, and Miss Clark’s submissions were incredibly detailed and impressive, highlighting her deep understanding of best practices. Thanks also to Mr Crosby, who supported Miss Clark through the process. 

STAGE 1 FAMILY MASS

On Sunday, our Stage 1 students led the parish Mass at 8:30. It was lovely to see so many families in attendance. The students sang beautifully and the readers and welcomers did a wonderful job! It was lovely seeing so many families playing together after Mass as well. Thanks to Mrs Jones, Mrs McElligott and Mrs Bakeberg for their organisation. 

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION 

In Mark 8:27-35, Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter responds, "You are the Messiah." Jesus then teaches that following Him involves sacrifice, even to the point of carrying our own cross. As parents, this passage invites us to reflect on how we help our children understand who Jesus is in their lives. By modelling faith, love, and selflessness, we show them what it means to follow Christ, even when it requires our own sacrifice. We model this to our children in the hundreds of sacrifices we make every day for our families. Sometimes, the only thing left is to unite our sacrifices with the sacrifice of Jesus. 

You are invited to listen to Bishop Greg’s Homily from Sunday’s Mass. 

REINFORCED READING (PAUSE, PROMPT, PRAISE)

WHAT IS REINFORCED READING?

When listening to a student read, it is important to provide them with the right feedback. Reinforced Reading is a strategy for providing guidance to a student as they read aloud.

Reinforced Reading uses Pause, Prompt, and Praise (PPP). The PPP procedure supports and encourages a student’s reading. It provides feedback and error correction in a positive way, instilling good reading habits with minimal disruption to the reading flow, which reduces the student's frustration.

• the reader is positively reinforced for good reading by means of highly specific and contingent praise; and
• the learning of sight words and word attack skills is reinforced by the supported reading of real words in real text in context.

You can use reinforced reading as a strategy when listening to your child read at home. Click here for more information. 

FAMILY MASS

Thank you to all our students and families who attended our Family Mass on Sunday. It was wonderful to have so many of our Stage 1 students involved in Church ministries, including welcoming, reading, offertory procession and singing. We can’t wait for our Family Mass in Term 4 when Kindy will lead these special parts of the Mass.

ALTAR SERVERS

All students who have received their First Communion are eligible to become an altar server in the parish. It is wonderful that some of our Year 4 students have already signed up. Thank you to all our current altar servers within the school. Your annual trip to Wet n Wild is a fun celebration of your special contribution to our parish life. All invitations to our current altar servers for this year have now been sent out! Please contact Kate Jones at school or Tanya Pagotto in the Parish Office if you would like more information about altar serving for your child. 

THIS WEEK’S VALUE FOCUS: SAFETY

Our value focus this week is safety. Safety is important because it helps us learn and play without worry.

Our behaviour focus this week is ‘I play in bounds areas and designated spaces’. This reminds us to stay in supervised areas and keep play activities in our playground and upper undercover areas. We always ask teachers if we need to go out of the red-marked areas to get something, such as a ball that has bounced away. When we all follow the rules and look out for each other, we continue creating a happy and safe place for everyone. 

POLDING ATHLETICS

Last Friday, 4 of our students travelled to Newcastle to compete at the Polding Athletics Carnival. We congratulate these children for their hard work and skill on the day, especially given the feedback that they “competed and conducted themselves outstandingly” (Dio Representative). 

• Zeke Kubils- 1st place Discus, and 1st place Shot-put
• Jonty Allen- 2nd place MC 100m, and 2nd place MC Long-jump
• Jordy Thompson- 13th place JNR girls Long jump
• Jack Kubils- 11th place JNR boys Discus 

Zeke and Jonty’s results qualified them for the CPS team to attend the PSSA Championships. Well done boys! 

In Stage 3, this term we have been learning about natural disasters and last week's focus was volcanoes. Year 5 and Year 6 were very interested in learning about how volcanoes erupt and we finished our learning by making their own volcanoes. The students had a lot of fun and their volcanoes were quite impressive!

END OF TERM LIBRARY 

As we move towards the end of term all student library books are now due back. Students wanting to borrow for the holidays may do so in their own time (before school, at lunch and recess). This will be the last week of take home reading going home, all of these will be due back in week 10.