St Joseph's, Tara - Term 3 Week 5 2021 Newsletter

From the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

Show holiday

I hope everyone enjoyed their show holiday long weekend. The weather was perfect for enjoying the  great outdoors.

Attendance

Congratulations! Already this term, student attendance data has improved for many students, supporting opportunities for student wellbeing and success, while reducing gaps in learning and building and sustaining stronger relationships.

Radii

There was a very good response from St. Joseph's students, parents and staff to the invitation to complete the school's Radii (Research Australia Development and Innovation Institute) survey. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback about teaching and learning, leadership and safety. Your voice in these areas, supports school improvement.

Census

School Census Data collection, a legal requirement, is now complete as per the letter sent home to all parents Commonwealth School Data Collection Notice. 

Consistency of Teacher Judgment (CTJ) Day

Friday 3rd September is CTJ Day. Visitors from Inglewood, Mitchell and Toowoomba will be joining us for the day as we moderate student work in the KLA of Mathematics. This will be a pupil free day.

Athletics

Today Ella Sinclair, Kandice Nystrom and Braydon Clark competed as part of the Combined Small Schools Team. All three students are to be commended for their effort, achievement and behaviour. I was extremely proud of them. Congratulations to Ella Sinclair for being selected to participate in the South West trials. The south West trials were cancelled today to ensure student safety in the current Covid environment.

Courage- our second learning super power

Students are learning how to be courageous by practising the use of positive self talk, believing in their ability to learn and overcome  challenges. 

'Be a Joey' Day 

Check your calendars and be ready for the next transition days from  8.40-1.15 pm on Tuesday 17th & 31st August. Please bring a hat a drink and monrning tea. It has been great getting to know the students and their families. 

Mary Porter
Principal

Pictures of the Week

 Favourite photos captured on camera!

From the APRE

Retreats for students, staff and parishioners 

The recent Bishop Inservice Day and Sr. Di's staff and parishioner twilight retreat gave us the opportunity to reflect on the Year of St. Joseph and the school  tradition of Jesus and Mary MacKillop. Through a Pedagogy of Encounter participants were encouraged to engage in religious dialogue, exploring issues through a process of inquiry, knowledge gathering and deconstructing and reconstructing to find                                                                personal meaning for their life (Ricour, 1965; sharkey, 2017).

P-2 and Yr 3-6 students participated in a Joseph and Mary MacKillop retreat with Sr. Di Phillips last week. Together with card and cake, we celebrated Sr. Di's birthday. We hope she can visit again  in 2022. 

Year 3-6, Mrs Smith and Mrs Fraser shared a beautiful Liturgy of the Word with parents and students yesterday, celebrating through prayer, reflection and song, the Feast of Mary MacKillop, Australia's  first and only saint!

Please pray our school prayer written by Sr. Di for our school.

Mary MacKillop Prayer

(Di Phillips rsj)

God, thank you for giving us

St Mary MacKillop.

She shows us how to love and care for each other.

May we, as members of St. Joseph’s School,

listen for God’s call;

make room in our hearts for all;

develop an attitude of gratitude;

and have the courage to do our bit

to make the world a better place for all we meet.

May St Mary MacKillop help us to follow

Jesus in our everyday lives.

So that we may  ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’

                                                     St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.                                                   

From the Parish

Father Jack is back with us and doing marvellously. He has been visiting the school community each day and has joined us for lunch, dinner and birthday cake.

St Mary Of The Angels - Tara

Mass Times

Friday: 9am                                                                                                Saturday: 6pm

Parish Priest: Fr Jack MacGinley
Pesbytery: 4665 3401

Wellbeing

Have fun with the daily activities on our Happiness Calendar. See how many you can achieve.  We will also be focusing on a different Key to Happiness (below) each fortnight.  The 10 keys are listed below.

Head Lice

There has once again been an outbreak of head lice at school. If we could ask all families to check every family member's hair even if you are not itchy. It is much easier to break the cycle if we can remove the adult lice before any eggs are laid. A note has been sent home today, once you have checked your family's hair please complete and return the tearoff to the office

Prevention Tips

• Lice can’t fly or jump. They transfer by direct head-to-head contact, so school kids are advised to avoid swapping hats in the playground.
• Long hair should be tied back in pigtails or a pony tail. This makes it harder for the lice to get access to the hair and don't allow children to share hairbrushes and hats.
• Chat to other mums about head lice and do a quick check of the hair every night if you can. The quicker you get on top of an infestation the easier it will be to clear it.
• Defend when you know head lice are around. Check every memeber of your family. Don't wait for the itching to start. Prevention is better than cure. 
• Change treatment products regularly. Lice can build up a resistance if you use the same product each time.

Treatment Tips

• Choose natural pesticides as the scientific evidence shows that head lice are building up resistance to many synthetic pesticides.
• Follow ALL the instructions on the pack. Head Lice can be very frustrating, but this frustration can be compounded if the instructions aren’t followed carefully.
• Look for a treatment type that suits your needs.  Find a product that works for your whole family.
• Wash all bedding, towels and hats,and dry them in the sun.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I treat head lice?
The key to treatment and eradication of a head lice infestation is to break their life cycle. A lot of the frustration parents experience stems from their belief that current treatments don’t seem to work. There are several possible reasons for this. Head lice resistance may be one cause. Another reason for recurring infestation can be attributed to not fully completing a treatment cycle, and therefore not breaking the lifecycle of the head lice. It is difficult to kill all the eggs present when the infestation is first treated. This is why more than one treatment is necessary. Treatments are to be administered on day 0, day 7 and day 14.

How long does it take to get rid of head lice?
To effectively treat head lice, three treatments over 14 days are required to break the head lice life cycle.

Why do I need to treat my child 3 times?
Due to the nature of the head lice’s life cycle, it takes three treatments to ensure all lice on the head are effectively targeted. The second and third treatments ensure that any eggs or nits that had not hatched before the first treatment, or those that survived are destroyed.

Are head lice found in dirty hair only?
No, head lice is not a sign of poor hygiene. Head lice don’t discriminate and don’t care if hair was washed this morning or last week.

Is the person with head lice the only one who needs to be treated?
If you have a head lice infestation in the house it’s best to do a thorough check of all family members and treat as needed. It is also advised to contact the parents of friends whom your child has had close contact with so they can get on top of any infestation they may have caught.

How long can they live off the head?
Lice need regular blood meals to survive and are very good at staying attached to the hair. Lice can only survive for 24 hours without a host. If a louse is found on the floor or attached to furniture it will be dead or dying and not an infestation risk.

Are they nits, dry scalp or dandruff? How do I tell?
Though nits may look like dandruff at first glance you can tell the difference by simply brushing through the hair; dandruff will move freely whereas empty eggshells are firmly attached to the hair. 

Can head lice live on pillows, sheets or towels?
Head lice cannot live for long on pillows or sheets. It is possible for a live louse that has come off a person's head to crawl onto another human host who also puts their head on the same towels, pillows or sheets.

From the Learning Environment

Inspired Maths at Home

Intersecting a 3D shape and a plane might seem intimidating, but a few bottles, a box cutter, and some creativity can give us some insight into what it can look like. A particularly interesting 3D shape to cut is the cone, as depending on how we cut, we can get circles, ellipses, and parabolas (hyperbolas too, those are harder to cut out). Thankfully many bottles include cones, so we can have some fun cutting up bottles and using the conic sections we get to make art. Check out the video for some examples.

https://www.youcubed.org/resources/reduce-reuse-geometry-3-12-video/

P-2 Learning

We have had such a wonderful start to Term 3 already, with so many fantastic things happen within our classroom. Students have been exploring new ways to think about Math problems. It has been incredible to see students explain their thinking in different ways. Students have also become more aware of our Learning Superpowers and we have become more curious learners and over last week and this week we are becoming more courageous!  

We also have our Three-Way Parent Teacher interviews coming up. So look out for the note coming home in your child’s bags this week, be quick to get the time slot you would like. I look forward to sharing all the fantastic learning that has been going on. Homework is due back every Friday. Please ensure your child is bringing back their Homework Folders along with their two Home Readers.  

If there is anything you would like to chat about or anything you would like to know about your child’s learning, please feel free to contact me and we can arrange a time to meet. 😊 

Tara Fisher

St. Joseph's Awards

Bronze Award Recipients

Damon Grose, Leakella-Ann Norford, Tamarah Leis, Jorjah Furniss

Curious Learners

Jorjah Furniss                                

Students of the Week

Weeks 4-5

Bentley Tucker, Keira Furniss, Pippa McDonald

Student Safety

                                                        THE 2021 STUDENT PROTECTION CONTACTS:                                                                                                                                          Sue Whelan                                                                                                                                                                                      Mary Porter                                                                                                                                                                        Susan Rodd (Counsellor)

STUDENT SAFETY INFORMATION

Braydon Clark is the winner of the student safety competition. Braydon enthusiastically and accurately counted the student protection posters in the school and was able to name all student protection contacts. Well done Braydon! 

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 5 - 12 Aug: Sara Shields & Monica Moran

Wk 6 - 19 Aug: Tash Anthony & Lesley Truebody

Wk 7 - 26 Aug: Anne Furniss & Sara Shields

Wk 8 - 2 Sep: Craig Riddiford & Annie Stapleton

Wk 9 - 9 Sep: Monica Moran & Dan Cole

Wk 10 - 16 Sep: Sara Shields &  Craig Riddiford

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 - Friday 27 August

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 watch the Book Week Parade (9:15) & then join in our Father's Fun Day (11:15) on Friday 27 August.

Enjoy a sausage sizzle and spending time making something special together with your children  with the support of a Bunnings workshop crew.       More information to follow.                  

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Thank you everyone. We have 3 or 4 blankets left now. So please come in and pick up a blanket.