2021 Newsletter Term 3 Week 3
From the Principal
Principal
Dear parents and carers,
It is Week 3!
Catholic Education Week
Happy Catholic Education Week! The Theme of Catholic Education Week is 'A Spirited Tomorrow.' As noted in the previous newsletter, Friday 30 July is the Bishop’s Inservice Day. It is a holiday for students and a professional learning and reflection day for staff. During this week each year we take the opportunity to join with all Catholic schools across the country to celebrate and promote our distinctive mission and ethos. Catholic education works to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools by challenging students to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, human beings who make a difference and create a spirited tomorow.
Catholic education:
- Enables all students to succeed
- Is a faith based education which places Jesus at its centre.
- Occurs in welcoming, inclusive communities.
- Is a high quality, holistic education for 1 in 5 young Queenslanders, educating them to be well-informed, constructive members of the community.
- Values diversity and treats each student with dignity enabling them in turn to promote and respect the dignity of all.
- Nurtures in students a commitment to social justice and stewardship of the earth’s resources.
- Is an integral part of the local and universal Church.
We congratulate and show our appreciation of the efforts of all members of our Catholic school communities past, present and future as they continue the great tradition of 'A Spirited tomorrow' through Catholic Education in the Toowoomba Diocese.
So far it has been a great week with Josh Arnold and the Tara town schools launching a new music video, Solid Ground, out now on spotify, facebook, youtube and Instagram.
Please join us to celebrate Catholic Education Week with a Liturgy of the Word tomorrow, Thursday at 1.45 p.m.
Catholic Education Service Awards
I am very happy that I have served Catholic Education in the Toowoomba Diocese for forty, yes that's right, forty years! Hopefully I have a few more years of service to come. Catholic Education has given me great purpose, passion and peace in educating students within a distinctive Catholic environment. It is rewarding working in a Catholic school, doing challenging and satisfying work, that makes a difference in the lives of the students, the spirit filled leaders of tomorrow, enabling them to experience inclusion, human dignity, success and wellbeing.
Mrs Smith (20 years) and I (40 years) received a special Service Award from the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office during Catholic Education Week.
The 2021 St. Joseph's Catholic Education Awards go to Keira Furniss, Tamarah Leis and Milly Lobley. These three students alway use their learning super powers. They have a great attitude to learning and are always ready to do their bit to make a difference in the lives of students, staff and the wider community through the support and outreach they demonstrate.
RADII Survey
By now parents, staff and students will have received an email invitation to complete a Radii survey to provide feedback for the future direction of the school. I encourage each person to complete the survey. Your feedback is a very important and valued part of school improvement.
Inspire Maths
Teachers are working hard on maintaining and deepening mathematical learning. Asking questions is very important for connecting learning to real life and making it meaningful. I see teachers applying the Wolfram process across many curriculum areas.
Wolfram (2010) proposes that working on Mathematics has four stages:
1. Posing a question
2. Going from the real world to a mathematical model.
3. Performing a calculation.
4. Going from the model back to the real world, to see if the original question was answered.
Winter warmth for the Tara community
To date, 271 blankets, donated by the Tara community and especially the parents of St. Columba's Primary School, Wilston (Brisbane), have been distributed to cold families in the Tara community. Everyone has been so appreciative of the donated blankets and the thoughtfulness behind it. There are about ten warm blankets remaining. Please encourage people who you know need the added warmth, to collect blankets from the office. Once again I commend the generosity of the St. Columba's Wilston community for providing warm blankets for the school and wider community.
Athletics
Brrr! Well done to the students, staff and parents who were early to rise and braced themselves against the cold weather, to attend and support our students at the Small Schools Athletics Carnival last Wednesday. Students your behaviour was excellent, as was your sportsmanship.
Congratulations to Ella Sinclair (10 Year Old Girls Runner Up Age Champion) and Tamarah Leis (8 Year Old Girls Runner Up), Kandice Nystrom and Braydon Clark who have been selected to represent the Combined Small Schools team to compete at the Tara and District Athletics Carnival on 4th August.
Courage- our second learning super power
In the last week or two, all students have been learning to be curious by asking questions, trying new things, finding something interesting to explore and knowing that the statement "I am bored," is not part of being a curious learner at home or at school.
Next, students will learn how to be courageous. At home, you can support your child's learning super power development by modelling courage and supporting them to overcome challenges, use positive self talk and believe in themselves. This is a learning super power that will be needed for success and wellbeing all their lives.
'Be a Joey' day
Students interested in attending St. Joseph's School in 2022, are invited to participate in the SECOND of four transition days. Please see the calendar for future dates. The second Term 3, 'Be a Joey' day will be on Tuesday 3rd August from 8.40-10.45 a.m. It is going to be another great morning!
Mary Porter
Principal
Pictures of the Week
Favourite photos captured on camera!
From the APRE
Prayer for Catholic Education Week
God the Father
You are the Creator and life giver
You are our shield and our rock
May we be people who honour and respect others.
May we support and challenge each other.
God the Son You are the light of the world
You are our teacher and healer
May we be people who listen to and care for each other.
May we reach out to those who are excluded and treated unfairly.
God the Holy Spirit You are our helper and friend
You inspire us and guide us
May we be people who speak the truth and share our gifts.
May we make a difference in our school community.
We make this prayer through Christ our Lord
Amen
From the Parish
Please keep Father Jack in your prayers. He will be back in Tara quite soon.
St Marys Of The Angels - Tara
Mass Times
Friday: 9am
Saturday: 6pm
Parish Priest: Fr Jack MacGinley
Presbytery: 4665 3401
From the Administration Officer
School Fees
HOW TO PAY YOUR SCHOOL FEES:
*Cash
*Direct Deposit: Bank: ADF Name: St Joseph’s School BSB: 064-786 ACC: 100025583 Reference: Your Name.
*Centrelink Centrepay Deduction Payments can be made fortnightly or monthly. The School’s CRN: 555075545A
Not Sure how it’s done? Ask at the office for Assistance.
Thank you to those making regular payments and/or have their account up to date. With Term 3 fees going out next week, could I please ask everyone to check how their account is travelling. If it doesn’t seem to be reducing as quickly as you would like, I recommend increasing or begin making regular fortnightly payments or Centrepay deductions to help manage the fees more comfortably.
ABSENCES: Please notify the school whenever your child is absent.
Unexplained Absence Letters are being distributed to students this week.
Parents/Carers are requested to please, explain the listed absences, then sign and return the letter to the Office by Monday, 2 August.
We understand that there are valid reasons for your child not to attend school e.g. They are sick. Please be aware that the following examples are not acceptable reasons for keeping them home from school.
If your child:
- Doesn't feel like coming to school
- Thinks it's too wet, cold, hot or the work is too hard or easy
- Stays home when another sibling is sick or a family member has an appointment or is going shopping
- Had a disagreement with their best friend
- Got into trouble or thinks they might get into trouble at school
- Is embarrassed about something that happened yesterday
- Has an activity or subject on that day they don't like
From the Learning Environment
Attendance... Every Day Counts
Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child's education. ... Attending and participating in school will help your child develop: important skills and knowledge to help them learn. Social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and team work.
Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance. This relationship between attendance and achievement may appear early in a child's school career.
The attendance rate is important because students are more likely to succeed in academics when they attend school consistently. It's difficult for the teacher and the class to build their skills and progress if a large number of students are frequently absent
Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days , negatively affects a student's academic performance. ... When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating.
An attendance rate of 95% is generally considered good; this allows for children to miss 9.5 days across the school year. Persistent absence is defined as an attendance rate of 90% or below.
Poor attendance can affect children's ability to make and keep friendships; a vital part of growing up. Setting good attendance patterns from an early age will also help your child later on in their life.
Greg Smith
Learning Support
Inspired Maths at Home
Number Hunt
In this activity, students guess the number you are thinking of given clues. This is a fun way to build number sense, logical reasoning, and mathematical vocabulary. If students can’t remember some of the vocabulary or concepts, it is a great opportunity to have some conversations about them. It can be useful to let kids use a hundred chart to keep track of which number it is not. Ask your student why they are crossing out certain numbers and not others. This activity comes from books by Terry Kawas.
Here is a hundreds chart: https://www.ccboe.com/schools/jenifer/images/pdfs/100Chart.pdf
Example 1
- It’s more than 43.
- It’s less than 50.
- It’s an even number.
- Both digits are the same.
- What is my number?
Example 2
- The number is greater than 6 x 4.
- The number is less than 8 x 7.
- The number is even.
- The number is a multiple of 3.
- The difference of the digits is four.
- What is my number?
Older students can make their own number hunt.
You can adapt this for younger students by using different vocabulary appropriate for their year level or using the numbers 0-10. For example, you could have them draw the numbers from 0-10 on a number line. They can guess a number and you can tell them it is bigger or smaller than that number. With each guess, they can narrow down which numbers it could be.
You can find more of these problems in Terry Kawas’ books here: http://mathwire.com/problemsolving/guessthenumber.pdf and http://mathwire.com/hblogic/hblogic2.pdf
(YouCubed.org)
St. Joseph's Awards
Catholic Education Week Award
Keira Furniss
Tamarah Leis
Milly Lobley
Bronze Award Recipients
Leon Riddiford
Zak Phillips
John Chottu
Curious Learners
Tyzah Phillips
Students of the Week
Weeks 1-3
Rhys Warwick, Karlos Partridge, Tamara Leis, Chevelle Robinson, Ella Sinclair & Rubie Warwick
Student Safety
THE 2021 STUDENT PROTECTION CONTACTS: Sue Whelan Mary Porter Susan Rodd (Counsellor)
STUDENT SAFETY INFORMATION
How Do I Talk To My Child About Protective Behaviours?
A child as young as 3 years old is able to say when they do not like something and when they are feeling scared or sad. As soon as a child is old enough to begin to understand their feelings and name some of them and name their body parts, they are old enough to have conversations about keeping safe. As they grow older, the Protective Behaviours conversations become more detailed; appropriate to their age level and understanding.
EVERY CHILD HAS THE RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE
Term Dates
2021
*Term 3 2021 – Tue 13 Jul - Fri 17 Sep
*Term 4 2021 – Wed 6 Oct - Fri 3 Dec
2022
*Term 1 2022 – Tue 25 Jan - Fri 1 Apr
*Term 2 2022 – Wed 20 Apr - Fri 24 Jun
*Term 3 2022 – Tue 12 Jul - Fri 16 Sep
*Term 4 2022 – Wed 6 Oct - Fri 2 Dec
Tuckshop
ROSTER
Term 3
Wk 3 - 29 Jul: Anne Furniss & Annie Stapleton
Wk 4 - 5 Aug: Monica Moran & Dan Cole
Wk 5 - 12 Aug: Sara Shields & Luisa Camenzind
Wk 6 - 19 Aug: Tash Anthony & Lesley Truebody
Wk 7 - 26 Aug: Anne Furniss & Sara Shields
Wk 8 - 2 Sep: Craig Ridiiford & Annie Stapleton
Wk 9 - 9 Sep: Monica Moran & Dan Cole
Wk 10 - 16 Sep: Sara Shields & Luisa Carmenzind
If you are unable to attend on your rostered tuckshop day please contact another person on the roster to arrange a swap of days.
Tuck Shop Menu
P & F News
Father's Day - Stall & Fun Day
Our Father's Day Stall will be held on Thursday 26 & Friday 27 August. Our Dads and significant others are invited to come along and join in our Father's Fun Day on Friday 27 August.
Enjoy a sausage sizzle and spending time making something special together with help from a Bunnings workshop crew. More information to follow.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
LOURDES HILL COLLEGE, BRISBANE - REUNION – All students who attended Lourdes hill College, Brisbane in:
1966 – Year 8, 1967 – Year 9, 1968 – Year 10, 1969 – Year 11 and 1970 – Year 12, are invited to attend the Reunion of the 1966-1970 Cohort on Saturday 16 October at Lourdes Hill College.
For enquiries, please contact:
Maree Foley (Stanton) maree_foley@hotmail.com , events@lhc.qld.edu.au or phone Mary at LHC on 3399 0411.