Leader's Message
The Spirit of Sportsmanship
Yesterday our Zone Athletics team went to St Joseph's Regional College to compete. It was a day full of excitement, anticipation and school spirit. There have been several reports back at school today commenting on the sportsmanship displayed by students from St Joseph’s. It is a very proud moment when the community acknowledges our amazing students in this way. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the team and the staff who supported the students throughout the day.
Some of the values we would like to instil in our students is that of empathy, resilience, understanding and selflessness. This was demonstrated by two students in particular at yesterday’s carnival. Caden Connor (Yr 5) and Lucas Single (Yr 4) were both competing in events where they were potential podium finishers. During Caden’s 800m race, a student from another school stumbled and stopped. Caden stopped running and went to the aid of the student. He encouraged the boy and ran the rest of the race with him. Similarly, Lucas’ 1500m event also had a boy stumble. Lucas stopped, turned around and ran back to support the student across the finish line. The boys received a Principal’s Award at today’s Prayer Assembly in recognition of their sportsmanship.
Schools Tree Day
Today at St Joseph’s, we celebrated Schools Tree Day.
It was a great opportunity to inspire and educate future generations on the many benefits of trees and connection with nature.
Today, each grade took part by planting a Lilly Pilly along our fence line. Check it out as you drive past our school! We are grateful to Bunnings Port Macquarie, who donated 14 Lilly Pilly plants for this occasion. Thank you so much!
COVID/Flu/Illness
As we enter Term 3, we appear to be faced with more uncertainty around the spread of COVID-19/flu related symptoms in our school setting and the broader community. Please be assured that we have continued to maintain strict health and safety measures throughout the school to ensure that we keep our staff and students safe.
We ask for your ongoing support in testing your children if they develop any symptoms and to keep them home to prevent the possible further spread throughout our school community. We will be distributing more RAT kits to students next week.
School Review
In Week 6 of this Term, a School Review panel will be visiting our school on 23rd, 24th and 25th August, to support the school in our 3 Year Cyclical Review Process.
Our school has sent documentation to the panel which provides evidence of how we are supporting students in their faith, learning and well-being.
The panel will come in for the 3 days and during that time will:
- Interview individually class teachers, small groups of Educational Assistants, a representation of families and a representation of students.
- Use the above interviews to determine whether the practice is in line with the previously sent documentation.
- Determine with the school the strengths and commendations.
- Determine with the school recommendations that will provide important opportunities for growth over the following 3 years.
- Support the school to create a first year plan for 2023, which will develop goals to realise the above opportunities
Pastoral Care & Wellbeing Student Check-in
As a way to check in with the students at St Joseph's, teachers will begin trialling collecting data from students about how they are feeling at school. The purpose of this check-in is to be aware of student wellbeing and support if needed in order to improve students accessing their learning. The check-in survey will consist of questions to find out how students are feeling about their learning, on the playground, and if they have any messages to share with their teacher. If you have any questions about this please contact your child's class teacher.
Tell Them From Me - Upcoming Partners in Learning Survey
This term we will be inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.
We would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Joseph’s Primary School. Next week you will receive a message about the survey to complete. Thank you for completing the survey when it is shared with you.
Celebrating Our Faith
This term, primary students who are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation will be engaging in learning to explore the Christian call to be saints – to holiness – which all of us receive at our Baptism. Students will identify, in their experience, people who demonstrate holiness in love and service of others. The Sacrament of Confirmation is the second of the three sacraments of Christian initiation. It completes Baptism, by which in the laying on of hands and the anointing with Chrism Oil, candidates are confirmed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The preparation time for each sacrament marks another significant step in your child’s formation in the Catholic faith and continues to be a very important period in your family’s life too, with Jesus Christ and his Church.
Students who are preparing to complete the Sacrament of Confirmation will need to be registered by Wednesday 10th August. A note with further information was emailed to parents of Sacrament candidates this week.
Dates for your calendars and parent reminders are:
Workshop 1 - Tuesday 23rd August at 3.30pm - St Agnes’ Primary School
Workshop 2 - Thursday 25th August at 6.00pm - St Agnes’ Catholic Church
Workshop 3 - Wednesday 31st August at 3.30pm - St Joseph’s Primary School
Workshop 4 - Thursday 1st September at 6.00pm - St Peter’s Primary School
Learning Together
Open Classrooms for National Science Week
National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology. It aims to encourage an interest in science pursuits among the general public and to encourage young people to be fascinated by the world we live in.
‘Glass: more than meets the eye’ is the school theme for National Science Week in 2022 to celebrate the United Nations International Year of Glass.
This year at St Joseph’s, we are opening up our classroom doors and inviting our families to participate in a morning full of investigation. We will be running simultaneous science experiments across Kindergarten to Year 6 on Wednesday 17th August.
Dust off your lab coats and come prepared for a fun filled morning of learning!
Science and Technology is a foundational subject for inspiring young minds to explore, test, play and ultimately create. Starting with a simple idea, students are able to try and prove or disprove a concept, learn from the outcome, improve their knowledge, delve into digital technology, design and create.
Students are able to learn important developmental skills through processes that naturally transpire in Science and Technology, skills such as critical thinking, open-mindedness and intellectual rigour.
Science and Technology helps students to answer questions about the world they live in by showing them how to think critically and learn the resilience to keep on questioning.
If you would like to know more about National Science Week, you can visit the website at: www.scienceweek.net.au
Here at St Joseph’s we want to instil a love of learning through subjects such as Science and Technology and what better way to accomplish this than immersing ourselves in National Science Week.
We look forward to celebrating with you.
Stay tuned for more information.
