Update on New Uniform Orders for 2022

Following the announcement of our new uniforms being introduced for the start of the 2022 school year, the Uniform Store has received many inquiries about the availability of the new uniform items. While we know parents would like to be prepared, there is still a wait on their arrival. To keep you informed, we would like to offer you the process for purchase of the new uniforms - this information is directly from the Uniform Store.

New uniform items will be available for sale from when the Uniform Store opens for January trading on 4th January 2022.

• Lay-by is available prior to that time:
  • Sizing can be gauged using the existing uniform items.
  • The lay-by will be set up and a deposit taken.
  • Progress payments can be made.
  • Lay-by can be collected in January.
  • Sizing will be checked at the time of collection and adjusted if required.

P&F Colour Run

While the activity you have seen this year with our P&F committee has been small, they have continued their commitment to our school and children through regular meetings and planning on how they can support the school in bringing our community together. While COVID has again dictated what can take place with all of our great ideas, we are pleased that it can’t dampen one special event we have all been looking forward to. Our Colour Run will not be a fundraising event for 2021, but a fun event for our school to celebrate our resilience and strength to be positive at a tricky time. We are hopeful that restrictions will ease in December, so we are planning for it to take place in the last few weeks of the year. We will let you know of the date when we confirm it and fingers crossed we will be able to welcome families on site to share with us. It will go ahead with just students if this is our only option.

WELCOME

This week we welcomed back to St Joseph’s Huxon Jones in 1R. Huxon and his family started with us in Kindergarten and after a move away, they have returned to Port Macquarie. We are so pleased to have Huxon and his family continuing in our St Joseph’s community.

Congratulations

Special congratulations to Sequoia McCarthy (KSC) and her family who welcomed a baby girl named Raven Rose. 

Celebrating Our Faith

Socktober Shootout!

All students will participate in our Socktober Shootout next Friday 29th October to mark the end of Mission Week. This campaign has raised funds for underprivileged children in Thailand and helped out students to think of others and learn the importance of gratitude for our own circumstances in Australia. 

Students are allowed to wear CrAzY socks to celebrate the day and their House Colours. The use of sports equipment will be suspended for the day as we experience what some children from around the world experience, using homemade balls from recycled materials. These are called sockballs. Over the course of the week, students are encouraged to make their own sockballs using recycled materials; old socks, discarded clothing, plastic bags, string etc. A video on how to make these is shared so that you can ensure your child has theirs ready for next Friday. Students will use their own sockball to play with for the day and to have 5 penalty shots in order to score for their House (Macquarie, Hastings, Oxley, Mitchell). 

It is not too late to register your online support via the Socktober website. Please go to the relevant links below to register and to help in our fundraising bid for the children of Thailand and for our House’s total tally. 

Oxley - https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/oxley 

Hastings - https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/hastings

Mitchell - https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/mitchell

Macquarie - https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/macquarie

Community Values Survey

What have you experienced in your encounter with the St Joseph's School community? What are the values that define us as a community? Please have your say by completing this short survey and let us know what is important to you. 

This survey goes towards the staff learning during the Pupil Free day on Friday, 5th November. Our goal is to define the values that underpin our Catholic school community now and into the future.

Learning Together

During Week 4 and 5 our students in Years 2 - 6 will complete their ACER PAT Mathematics and Reading tests.  ACER’s Progressive Achievement approach is used in thousands of schools in Australia and around the world. The approach focuses on assessing and monitoring student growth over time and is underpinned by an understanding that students of the same age and in the same year of school can be at very different points in their learning and development.

These tests are designed to provide objective, norm-referenced information to teachers about their students’ skills and understandings in a range of key areas. The Mathematics test assesses students’ skill and understanding in the six strands of Number, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability.  The Reading test assesses students’ reading comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge and spelling.

Why do schools use PAT tests?

• They provide a measure of student achievement in each learning area.
• There is a common achievement scale for all tests within a learning area.
• They are mapped to the Australian Curriculum.
• They provide overall descriptions of the types of skills mastered and those still to be developed based on test performance.
• They can be used to inform teaching and learning and to assist in planning effective and targeted learning programs.

A healthy education system has multiple assessments (large-scale and small), each designed to suit the purpose at hand. Standardised tests are an imperfect measure by nature, and cannot be expected to measure children’s learning as competently as the teacher who spends hours with them every day.

On the other hand, individual teachers’ judgments cannot map learning across the entire education system. We may be experts on the progress of our students, but we cannot compare that progress with students in the school down the road, let alone a school in another state or territory. Standardised assessment provides the best birds-eye view of where the system is working, and where additional attention is required.

If you have any questions about the ACER testing please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher for further clarification.