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Developing Leadership
This week I had the absolute pleasure to spend time with our Year 5 cohort at the St Francis Retreat in Bonny Hills. As soon as I arrived you could feel the overwhelming sense of excitement and pure happiness as the children were all preparing for the afternoon/evening activities. We engaged in a very competitive game of spotlight, roasted marshmallows around the fire and enjoyed watching Encanto. My favourite memory will be watching them all stand up and move to the back of the hall and begin performing their Glasshouse dance performance. Every single child was up and dancing together. It reminded me of how amazing they were as a team all the way back in Kindergarten. I look forward to watching them continue to develop their leadership skills and lead our school in 2023.
A very big thank you to all our staff who supported the students while they were away. Thank you also to the St Francis Retreat staff for keeping us all beautifully fed and hydrated.
Supervision
Throughout this term we have noticed a number of students arriving at school as early as 7:30am. We would just like to remind parents that teachers are not on duty until 8:25am. Whilst we do understand some parents may need to drop their children off early, we would like to acknowledge there are a number of before school child care options to ensure your child is safely supervised. If you would like more information about these establishments please contact the Office.
National Day of Mourning
As you would be aware the Australian Government has announced a National Day of Mourning to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II and have declared Thursday 22nd September 2022 as a public holiday.
As such St Joseph's Primary School Port Macquarie, will not be operational on Thursday 22nd September. This decision means that the last day of Term 3 will now be Wednesday 21st September as we already have a Staff Development Day planned for Friday 23rd September.
Parish Long Service Awards
This week we recognised a number of our staff who have served our school community for 10 or more years. Due to COVID-19 restrictions we have been unable to celebrate for the past two years so we enjoyed a morning tea together and presented each staff member with a gift during our Friday Prayer Assembly.
Congratulations to the following staff members:
2020
25 Years - Susan Cameron
10 Years - Sarah Blundell, Kate Mitchell, Leah Toole
2021
35 Years - Veronica Kiers-Hawkins
25 Years - Robyn Fitzpatrick
2022
25 Years - Cate Hearle
10 Years - Holly Hough, Antoinette Smith
Cyberbullying and Online Drama
The Council of Catholic School Parents has partnered with the eSafety Commissioner to provide a free webinar to parents about cyberbullying and online drama which continues to be an issue for many schools and families. This webinar will be held on Tuesday 20th September from 7:30-8:30pm.
Learning Together
Nothing is more important for our society than the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.
Students must receive an education that provides them with a solid foundation for life – preparing young people to make a productive contribution to our society. This is why constant curriculum reform is a necessity.
This week in our extended staff meeting teachers began professional learning designed to support the implementation of the new English K-2 syllabus.
The English K-2 syllabus is required to be taught in all NSW primary schools from 2023. Engaging with this new learning will help our staff develop the required knowledge, understanding and skills for effective syllabus implementation.
Celebrating Our Faith
Year 5 Faith Leadership Retreat
What a privilege it has been to take Year 5 on their first retreat this week. The Year 5 Leadership Retreat is built around the themes of Exuro, leadership, team building and fun. Exuro is a Proclaim Lismore Program, which runs with the theme: Set the World on Fire.
It explores the quote from Timothy:
“Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your love, faith and purity.”
1 Timothy 4: 12
Students explored ways in which they can be a disciple and carry on the mission of Jesus in our world today.
Students also tested their team work in a scavenger hunt, team building challenges, sand sculpture competitions and in an after dark spotlight game. They had fun in their cabins whilst making new friends and memories.
Thank you to our amazing team of staff and students.
“It was literally the best experience of my life. The food was amazing and the games were really fun.” - Lucy
“It was amazing. All the challenges and adventures.” - Evie
“The wildlife was amazing! I loved to see how they reacted to us being here.” - Joe
“The food was exquisite!” - Eli
“The challenges and games were amazing. Especially the water bucket challenge.” - Lucas L
“I love how we played lots of activities and games morning and night.” - Benji
Exuro Year 5 Discipleship Retreat Day
Year 5 students who enjoyed the themes of Exuro at Retreat are invited to join other like-minded peers from our surrounding schools, in a Exuro Retreat day at the Port Macquarie Youth Hub next term on Tuesday 18th October. An email has been sent home with details on how you can apply. Please note there are limited places available for the Retreat. If your child would like to nominate for this great, faith building experience please complete with them the online nomination form in the email. Nominations close Tuesday 20th September.
Sacrament of Confirmation
Congratulations to our Confirmation Candidates for making this special sacrament this week with their family and parish community. Thank you to our staff and amazing Faith Choir for supporting our candidates on Tuesday night.
Grandparents Day - Save the Date
Calling all Grandparents and Grandfriends. Save the date for Friday 28th October at St Joseph’s Primary for some fun and love with your grandchildren. Details to follow. We can’t wait to see you!
John Henry Institute
St Agnes' Parish Senior Drumline Makes it 5 in a Row
This past Sunday afternoon the Senior Drumline composed of students drawn from the St Agnes' Parish Secondary Schools (MacKillop College, St Joseph's Regional College, and Newman Technical College) were crowned Australian Drumline Champions for the 5th consecutive year.
In addition to the resounding success of the senior drumline, the Port Macquarie Brumbies junior drumline team made their debut this season competing in the B division, which included students from not only the secondary schools but also the Parish primary school students as well. Bronte (Year 6, St Joseph's Primary) who was the recipient of a scholarship for 2022 with the drumline is really proud to be a part of this. Their effort in the test piece and their own choice floor show, titled "Perpetual Motion", were enough to secure a second place finish in both the Test Piece and Own Choice components of the competition. The students should be proud of their hard work and results of their debut season. A video of the Port Macquarie Brumbies junior drumline performance can be viewed on the St Joseph's Primary School Facebook Page or in the below link.
Click here to view the Port Macquarie Brumbies junior drumline team in action.
I would like to congratulate all of our students from St Joseph’s Primary who participated in the Port Macquarie Speech and Drama Eisteddfod. I am so proud of all of them, as they all performed to such a high standard, from our little infants to our very accomplished senior students. It made the adjudicator’s job very difficult! I can’t mention every prize winner as there are too many! I have congratulated them all personally!
- St Joseph’s Wednesday group who won 1st place in the Play Section against other schools.
- Our Year 6 Improvisation group, Amelie, Imogen and Lucinda won their section.
- Year 5 and 6 Verse for Multiple Voices was won by Lachlan, Joshua, Bailey and Jack.
- Lucinda and Imogen won the Duo/Trio Dramatic Characterisation and Imogen won the highly contested Dramatic Characterisation section.
- Marielle won the Impromptu Reading Section.
- Emerence won the Infants Humerous Verse.
- Many 2nds, 3rds, Highly Commended and Encouragement awards were also won by our students.
- The Major Awards were presented on the last evening. Amelie won the Junior with the Most Potential and Lucinda, the Versatility Award.
- Finally, the Championship was awarded to Imogen who came 1st and Amelie coming in 3rd!
Congratulations to every competitor!
Sandra Thompson
Speech and Drama Teacher
KHB | Indi Ross | Levi Burleigh | Phoebe Briggs |
1CS | Daniel Shijo | Levi Widdison | Cody Ylias |
1PS | Nakuya Gatonye | Conor Grieves | Brayden Watson |
2B | Hudson Bruen | Ashvik Thapa | |
2DT | Huxon Jones | Lewis Freeman | |
3B | Livana Lijo | Emelia Stoner | Toby Hamilton |
3MH | Tilly Scott | Archie Rex | Bronte Wood |
4MM | Annetta Yewdall | Gemma Cooper | Hayley Ylias |
4R | Lilly Chapman | Lily Francis | Lilly Smith |
5T | Joseph Jarvis | Ariannah Beard | Liam Jones |
6H | Maddyx Gray | Lucinda Giurissevich | Abbey Delforce |
6L | Samuel Cummins | Bo Sprague | Imogen Mulligan |
End of Term stocktake
Due to our short week next week and being that it is the end of Term 3, I will be running down stock on certain items to complete my end of term stocktake. I apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.
Kim Goldie
Canteen Co-ordinator
Whole School Tennis
St Josephs welcomed back Greg Alchin from Port Macquarie Tennis Club this week. Greg has been a part of our school community for years and we are excited to have him back. This program is completely free to our students due to the Sporting Schools Grant and will occur during normal school hours. Greg will spend more time with all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 next week (Week 10).
Zone Summer Sports Trials - Touch Football and Basketball
Notes have gone home welcoming students in Year 4 and Year 5 to nominate for Zone Summer Sports Trials in Basketball and Touch Football. Nominations must be received before Thursday 22nd September. If there are more participants than spots available, we will run selection trials at school on Monday 10th October (Week 1, Term 4) to determine the final teams that will attend on the day.
Junior Club Person of the Year - Port Saints
This past week Matilda Coleman (Year 6) was awarded the Junior Club Person of the Year at Port Saints Football Club. Matilda received this award for “her valuable contribution to the Club as a player, game leader, ball person & volunteer over many years.”
Congratulations Matilda, great job demonstrating our St Joseph’s values within your club!
David Lynch
Sports Coordinator
We began a trial of a new email system last week in place of the paper notes that we normally send home if we haven't had a reply from the SMS.
We would appreciate parents completing the form via the link in the email and welcome any feedback especially if you have replied to the SMS and still received the email. This will help us keep records of any issues so that we can take that to our IT department and even Telstra in the future.
We are looking forward to seeing how this email system works as a back up to the SMS platform and appreciate your patience.
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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 3
Kindergarten to Year 6 commence classes for Term 3 - Monday
18th July 2022
Kindergarten to Year 6 last day of classes Term 3 – Wednesday 21st September 2022
National Day of Mourning - 22nd September (Public Holiday)
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 - Thursday
15th December 2022
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) - Monday 7th November 2022
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) - Friday 16th December 2022
Other Holidays in 2022
Labour Day – 3rd October (Public Holiday)
Christmas Day - 25th December (Public Holiday)
Boxing Day - 26th December (Public Holiday)
Year 6 School Photos Special Groups Orders
$20 Boss Agreement - Year 5 2022
National Day of Mourning 2022-09-22 and Staff Development Days 2022-11-07 and 2022-12-16
Kinder Term 3 2022 Science and Technology
Year 5 Exuro Retreat - Expression of Interest
Year 2 Fairytale Day
Emergency Evacuation and Lockdown Drills - third practice
COVID-19 update 2022-09-15
Final Details - Dance Eisteddfod 2022
Cancellation of participation in the Hockey NSW Mid North Coast Gala Day
Year 2 Prayer Assembly Postponed
2022-2023 Summer Sports Trials for Touch Football and Basketball (Year 4 and 5) - Expression of Interest
IFA7 is recognised by FIFA and is the world governing body for seven a side football played throughout the world.
With 27 x countries / member associations, OPTUS 7 are very honoured to be invited as the official Australian representative with the International Football Association 7.
Junior and Senior International tournaments include: Nations Cup, Copa Americas, Mundial and the IFA7 World Football Cup, just to name a few.
As an example: The IFA7 World Cup is the world’s largest single sporting event for football 7 reaching people all over the world.
Australia will be sending Official Junior and Senior National Teams to future IFA7 events.
This is your chance to represent and be involved with Football sevens.
The OPTUS 7 tournaments:
U6 & U7 Saturday 22nd October 2022 / Boys and Girls
U8 & U9 Sunday 23rd October 2022 / Boys and Girls
U10 / U12 Saturday 29th October 2022 / Boys and Girls
U14 / U16 Sunday 30th October 2022 / Boys and Girls
SENIORS - TBA
Times:
~ Planned from 8:00am - 5:00pm
Competition level:
~ Open to all Social teams, football clubs, academies, school teams.
Rules:
~ FIFA (with some modifications)
Address:
~ Synthetic pitch; 1 Hockey place, Port Macquarie NSW 2444
Mid North Coast Softball Association
Players wanted ! Girls/Ladies welcome from 12 years +
for ladies Social competition
Boys/Girls Juniors from 5years to 12 years for Junior competition
Form a team or we can help you find a team
Games are played at Findlay Park Port Macquarie
Juniors 11:00am to 12:30pm
Ladies 1:00pm to 2:30pm or 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Season starts 8th October 2022
More Information :- email portmacquariesoftball@gmail.com
Or Phone 0418 279 954