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There is always hope….good news!
We would like to thank our families and students for their absolute support during the challenges and changes that COVID has again thrown our way to start this school year. We have become so accustomed to talking about restrictions and conditions we are operating under, that it feels that is what life has become about. We have appreciated families communicating with us around their need to isolate, while our continuity of learning at school has been smooth with a great staff who have adapted to what needs to happen each day. Thankfully there are lots of great things going on at school that can take the focus in the coming weeks and we look forward to sharing this with you.
We have finally received details of how things are about to change in our schools around the loosening of restrictions. From Monday 28th February, there will be significant changes that we are sure you will be happy to see. Spoiler alert……we are getting excited about welcoming our families back into the school! Before Monday, you will receive a letter emailed to you, outlining the changes to our practices. Please be assured that at all stages of planning, we will keep the health, safety and care of our students, staff and families at the forefront. We appreciate your continuing support in keeping each other safe.
Incitare Retreat - an Opportunity for Faith, Friendship and Fun
Incitāre is a one-day retreat experience for Year 6 students from Catholic Primary Schools based in regions of the Diocese to celebrate their faith. The retreat is a chance to bring students together to meet like-minded peers and to celebrate with other young people who practice their faith.
Nine Year 6 students have nominated themselves to participate in this great retreat experience. They will meet up with like-minded Year 6 students from around the Hastings region. They will be led by some secondary school students who are part of the Catholic Schools Youth Ministry classes at our local high schools and other teachers from our Primary schools.
The activities will be a mixture of large and small sharing groups as well as celebrating a liturgy together. The program focuses on the needs of the participants. The experience allows attendees to build relationships with other students in their region and invites the participants to talk about and share their faith journey.
Sacrament of Penance Workshop - Year 4
Notes were emailed this week to our eligible candidates from Year 4 to 6 with Sacrament of Penance Workshop information. St Joseph’s will hold a workshop for these families from 3:30 - 4:30pm on Thursday 10th March 2022.
This workshop will be designed to be a collaborative sacramental preparation moment for students and their parents. Looking forward to seeing all our Penance Candidates at our workshops.
Preparing for the Sacrament of Penance is a St Agnes’ Parish process. Thank you to the coordinators for their work in ensuring this Celebration occurs.
Ash Wednesday
Next week we begin the Season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. This Season brings many opportunities to reflect and grow to be the person we can be; grow in our relationships with God, with others, our awareness of the needs of others and where we can build strong habits that have positive outcomes.
We will hold an Ash Wednesday Liturgy at school at 1:00pm for our students and staff.
Here is a short video that was used by some classes to support their understanding of Lent and Ash Wednesday.
Premier's Reading Challenge
On Monday 28th February the 2022 NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge will begin. The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.
A note has been emailed to all parents of children in Year 1 to 6 with more information about how to engage in this wonderful initiative. You can also access more information from https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html.
The Uniform Store has received their delivery of new uniform items. If you were waiting on items to come back in to stock or were looking to purchase any new uniform items please drop in and see them.
They are located at 6 Boronia Street, Port Macquarie, next to St Agnes’ Primary School.
Opening hours are:
Monday to Friday 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Saturday 9:00am – 12:00pm
2023 Kindergarten Enrolment Information Sessions
Come and meet our Principals and learn about the St Agnes’ Catholic Parish Education pathway and what we can offer for your child’s schooling.
Registration is essential to attend our Information Nights for parents considering our schools for Kindergarten in 2023. Click on the link in the below flyer to register and school tour information.
2023 Year 7 Enrolments
More information on 2023 Year 7 Enrolments can be found by clicking on the link in the below flyer.
AFL
A massive congratulations goes out to Xavier Mat in Year 5 who has been selected in the Lismore squad to attend Polding AFL trials in Newcastle on Thursday 31st March 2022.
Touch Football
Well done to the following St Joseph’s students who attended as representatives the Hastings Zone Summer Sports Touch Football Selection Trials in Kempsey. The competition was fierce, but our students displayed an immense amount of grit on the field.
Mia Basanovic | Maddyx Gray | Joseph Hunt | Oscar Peirce |
Kruz Batterson | Isabella Hawkins | Evie Johnson | Blayde Redding |
Edvin Benny | Blake Herbert | Jesse Johnstone | Zada Robinson |
Charlie Burns | Harry Hoade | Mikayla Love | Charli Robinson |
Matilda Coleman | Charli Hoitink | Murphy Maher | Bo Sprague |
Macie Taylor | Lailah Watson | Charlie Holloway |
WINTER SPORTS TRIALS
Sporting opportunities have been through the roof so far in 2022. On Monday, St Joseph’s students competed at the Zone Winter Sport trials held here in Port Macquarie. Athletes were able to compete in Netball, Soccer, Rugby League and Rugby Union. Congratulations to the following students who were selected to attend:
Jesse Johnstone | Joseph Hunt | Mikayla Love | Ruby Holmes |
Charlie Burns | Murphy Maher | Peyton Berry | Evie Johnson |
Blake Herbert | Mia Basanovic | Zali Roberts | Charli Robinson |
Lachlan Matheson | Bronte Gawith | Charli Hoitink | Lailah Watson |
Kruz Batterson | Isabella Hawkins | Zada Robinson | Joel Crook |
Edvin Benny | Charlie Holloway | Ariannah Beard | Xavier Mat |
Lucas Yates | Matilda Coleman | Macie Taylor | Lucinda Giurissevich |
Hudson Alexander | Rocco Davidson | Harrison Hoade | Oscar Peirce |
Caden Connor | Swapnil Dahal | Joseph Jarvis | Ryder Monckton |
Justin Dennison | Maddyx Gray | Oliver Hanks | Gene Smith |
Billy Stapleton | Jackson Coleman | Samuel Cummins | Baxter Matthews |
Riley Tattersall |
We had students make it to “possible and probables” in every sport, and the following were selected to represent the Hastings Zone on Friday 11th March 2022 at the Diocesan Winter Sports Trials. All these Diocesan Trials will be held at Grafton.
Hockey
Joel Crook | Xavier Mat | Lucas Yates |
Soccer
Ruby Holmes | Lailah Watson | Ariannah Beard | Caden Connor |
Netball
Charlie Holloway |
Futsal
Just a reminder that students in Year 5 and 6 are invited to participate in an U11’s or U12’s Boys/Girls Futsal team to represent St Joseph’s Primary at the 2022 Hastings School Futsal Titles. It is to be held on Friday 25th March at the Port Macquarie Indoor Stadium. If your child is interested please see the email sent on 21st February to complete the online expression of interest by Monday 28th February.
Cross Country
Our annual school Cross Country Carnival will take place on Wednesday 16th March (Week 7, Term 1) in and around the school grounds. This carnival is for all students in Kindergarten to Year 6. Starting this week (Thursday 24th February) for the next few weeks, when the field is dry, students are welcome to train on Thursdays and Fridays before school from 8:30am, supervised by our staff with a mock set up of the course.
David Lynch
Sports Coordinator
K - 2 Dance Diaries
WHY IS DANCE IMPORTANT IN CHILDHOOD?
Dance as an art form is beautiful and breathtaking. There’s nothing quite like watching a skilled dancer turn and leap across the stage in time to the music, telling a story with their body. However, dance provides benefits far beyond that available to those trained in the discipline.
For young children, dance and creative movement can help improve their cognitive development, building skills necessary for success later in life.
Here are 10 ways creative movement can benefit children during the K - 2:
Sensory Awareness
Young children are highly sensory beings. They flock to things that stimulate their senses of touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing. Dance and creative movement provide stimulation for three of those five senses at once: touch, sight, and hearing. By listening to the music and learning how to move in time with the beat, children begin to more finely hone their senses and learn how their bodies can work in harmony with the stimuli around them. Additionally, these sensory experiences help children connect with themselves, with one another, and with the world around them, leading them to begin appreciating the beauty of their environment.
Development
Dance provides opportunities to hone both gross and fine motor skills. From turning and jumping to carefully controlling the movement of hands and fingers, dance engages all aspects of a child’s physical development. Dancing also awakens the inner creativity in all children, allowing them to hear a piece of music and decide how their body can best respond to it. In early childhood creative movement, it’s important to have a mixture of structured directions for moving as well as plenty of time for individual exploring. This balance gets children used to bringing to life someone else’s creative vision while giving time for their own exploration.
Social Skills
To have a healthy social life, children must understand and embrace their own uniqueness. Through creative movement, they learn that not everyone interprets music the same way they do, and not everyone moves the same. This helps children see that everyone is different but no one is wrong in their individuality. Being able to understand these differences – and similarities – helps children develop richer social skills and a better acceptance of others.
Health and Fitness
Simply put, dancing is great exercise. Teaching children at a young age that frequent exercise is fun and beneficial helps build lifelong lovers of sports and movement. This leads to improved health and wellness even as adults.
Language
Coordinated movement is essential to proper brain development, which is necessary to developing language skills. The right side of the brain, the sensing and feeling side, functions best through creative activities. The left side is the logical thinking and planning side of the brain. Dance allows both sides of the brain to engage, as children must follow steps and directions while also utilizing their creativity and interpreting the music.
Body Awareness
Young children often cannot tell the full limits of their own bodies. Through dance, however, they learn in a controlled environment the things their bodies can and cannot do, and what actions they need to take to perform a desired movement. Dance helps build coordination and spatial awareness, which improves children’s gross motor skills.
Concentration
Remembering the next steps in a dance sequence requires a great deal of concentration. So does sitting down to do school work. By using and honing concentration skills in early childhood, children are better prepared for the expectations of the classroom. They learn when it’s OK to move and when they need to sit still, what types of movement are acceptable, and how to stay within their own physical boundaries.
Respect
Through dance, children learn that it’s not possible to move in someone else’s space. If you do, you crash and no one gets to dance. Learning this skill helps children understand that everyone has their own body boundaries, and they should respect the limits of those boundaries at all times. Additionally, children learn that everyone is different and to honor and accept those differences.
Self Esteem
As children learn and develop new skills, their self esteem increases. Just like in school, play, and the rest of their lives, dancing and creative movement gives young children new skills to learn and master. This progress keeps them motivated and interested, leading to better tenacity later in life.
Additional Needs
The great thing about creative movement is that it can be adapted to meet any additional needs. Creative movement gives each child the opportunity to get out on the dance floor at their own level and express themselves. Few other art forms or skills allow that amount of adaptability.
(Article sourced: https://www.danceunlimitedfrederick.com/why-creative-movement-is-important-in-early-childhood/ )
Dancers of the Week:
Kindergarten |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Charlize Roach |
Talon Clogg |
Jack Rock |
Stay tuned for next week’s ‘K - 2 Dance Diaries’ article.
Nicola Jackson
Kinder to Year 2 RFF Teacher
Term 1 Canteen Menu
Volunteers
Our new COVID guidelines now allow volunteers into the school. As we prepare to start back with volunteers, you can register to volunteer via this link - Click here for Volunteers Form
Supply Issues
There are currently a variety of supply issues across the country impacting some items that I usually stock. I will update Flexischools daily however if an item you order is unavailable, I will offer an alternative or a credit.
Lunch Orders
Canteen lunch orders can be placed via Flexischools or by dropping them in the basket on the counter each morning.
Flexischools is our preferred method for submitting lunch orders.
Reminder - Cutoff time for online orders is 8.30am.
- Download the Flexischools app from the App Store or from Google Play.
Note: for iPhone and iPad please select ‘Allow’ notification - Click “Register Now” to create account
- Top-up your balance
- Start ordering immediately
- Alternatively Go to www.flexischools.com.au or you can find the link on the school website.
Don’t forget you can place your online orders days or even weeks in advance, making the morning rush even easier!
Kim Goldie
Canteen Coodinator
KBB | Shiloh Bridger | Olivia Couch | Annmary Sefin Vallooran |
KHB | Lucas Andrew | Harmony Hasthibeer | Mackenzie Sonter |
1CS | Charlotte Guild | Spencer Single | Cooper Wallis |
2BT | Isabella Connor | Oliver Godwin | Elijah Van den Boom |
3B | Savina Fernando | Leah Donovan | Diane-Grace King |
3MH | Elsie Enriquez | Bronte Wood | Hardy Lin |
4MM | Hayley Ylias | Jack Armitage | Koby McGinley |
4R | Oscar Mckern | Lylah Robinson | Jazmine Taylor |
5BH | Charlie Burns | Charli Hoitink | Zada Robinson |
5T | Caden Connor | Charli Robinson | Ariannah Beard |
6H | Bronte Gawith | Oliver Hanks | Willa Corless-Brown |
6L | Kruz Batterson | Mia Howell | Ruby Comer |
In Year 4, our students engaged in new learning which focused on developing their understanding of the diversity and longevity of Australia's first peoples and the ways the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples are connected to Country and Place. To ensure their learning was authentic the Year 4 cohort participated in an immersion day last Friday. This sparked questions, excitement and experiences that assisted them in the learning process. The students listened to stories, explored quality literature, virtually looked at the stars and their link to our Indigenous culture, played traditional games, explored signs and symbols and spent time investigating our Indigenous Garden, including playing the didgeridoo (if you were male). Our students were challenged by some of the activities and were able to use their problem solving skills to make decisions about their learning.
Please check your child's school bag for an information note and a permission form that has to be signed and sent back into school as soon as possible.
Any Year 3 students who are interested, will be learning to read music later in the year in a percussion class before they start a band instrument in Year 4. So please fill in the form and send it back into the school so we know your child is interested. We will send out more information by the end of Term 2.
Please contact me on 0416 291 648 if you would like more information.
Sharon Green
Student Absences
Currently we are experiencing issues with the school Absent SMS system relating to student daily absences. We will be temporarily disabling this platform and to assist with this problem, please record a student absence by submitting it either via the school website, Schoolzine App (SZapp), phoning the school on 6583 3848 or sending an email to sjpport@lism.catholic.edu.
Student Medical Appointments and Early Departure
We strongly encourage parents to organise medical appointments outside of school hours (Start 8:55am and Finish 3:10pm) but are conscious that this is not always possible. For your convenience if you have to make a medical appointment for your child during school time please be aware of our breaks for your planning as there will be a delay in getting your child to the office if they are out at lunch play:
Lunch 1 is at 11:00am - 11:40am
Lunch 2 is at 1:40pm - 2:10pm
Hometime messages
If there is a change to your child's hometime travel arrangements please let your child know before they leave the house or write a note to your child's teacher. Some parents also write a "H" (homelines) or a "B" (buslines) on their child's hand. We understand that plans may change during the day and ask that you phone the Office Aunties on 6583 3848 between the hours of 8:30am and 2:30pm. This enables us to ensure that your child gets the message in a timely manner. Please DO NOT email the school or message your child's teacher directly as it may not be seen in the timeframe you require. If an emergency occurs or there is a late change to your child's home time plan we will do everything we can to get the message to your child after 2:30pm. Please be aware that a school bell sounds at 3:00pm for classes to prepare to leave the class for hometime at 3:10pm which makes it difficult to guarantee that a message will get to your child.
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Please note these dates can change from time to time due to unforeseen circumstances and we will endeavour to advise you of any changes at the earliest possible opportunity. Our school Google calendar can be accessed via this link for additional advanced dates -
For your convenience 2022 school term dates are listed below. They are also located on our website. Click on the words “TERM DATES” on the home page.
TERM 1 2022
School Administration Day (Pupil Free) - Friday 28th January 2022
School Administration Day (Pupil Free) - Monday 31st January 2022
Year 1 to 6 Maths Assessment Interviews - Tuesday 1st February to
Thursday 3rd February 2022
Kindergarten Best Start Interviews - Tuesday 1st February to
Friday 4th February 2022
Year 1 to 6 commence classes for Term 1 - Friday 4th February 2022
Kindergarten commence classes for Term 1 - Monday 7th February 2022
Last day of classes for Term 1 - Thursday 7th April 2022
Staff Spirituality Day (Pupil Free) - Friday 8th April 2022
TERM 2
Kindergarten to Year 6 commence classes for Term 2 - Tuesday
26th April 2022
Kindergarten to Year 6 last day of classes Term 2 – Thursday
30th June 2022
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) - Friday 1st July 2022
TERM 3
Kindergarten to Year 6 commence classes for Term 3 - Monday
18th July 2022
Kindergarten to Year 6 last day of classes Term 3 – Thursday
22nd September 2022
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) - Friday 23rd September 2022
TERM 4
Kindergarten to Year 6 commence classes for Term 4 - Monday
10th October 2022
Kindergarten to Year 6 last day of classes for Term 4 - Friday
16th December 2022
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) - Monday 19th December 2022
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) - Tuesday 20th December 2022
Other Holidays in 2022
Australia Day – 26th January (Public Holiday)
Good Friday – 15th April (Public Holiday)
Easter Monday – 18th April (Public Holiday)
ANZAC Day – 25th April (Public Holiday)
Queen’s Birthday – 13th June (Public Holiday)
Labour Day – 3rd October (Public Holiday)
Christmas Day - 25th December (Public Holiday)
Boxing Day - 26th December (Public Holiday)
Kindergarten Science and Technology - Our Pets
Kinder Term 1 Information to assist with Communication and Organisation
Year 6 Incitare Retreat Day (Successful Applicants Travel, Consent and Medical Details)
Kinder Glasshouse excursion - Guess How Much I Love You
2022 Cross Country
2022 Netball NSW Schools Cup - successful nomination
Year 5 PG Permission Note 2022
Year 6 PG Permission Note 2022
Beekeeper Visit and Honey Permission
Bebras Participation and Privacy Consent Form 2022 (Year 3 to 6)
Bebras Challenge 2022 (Year 3 to 6)
Liberty Services Information Zoom Session - Year 5 and 6 parents and carers
Premiers Reading Challenge 2022