St Joseph's, Tara - Term 3 Week 7 2021 Newsletter

From the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

Kite Festival (organised by the Tara Futures Group)

Well done to the Tara Futures Group for a running a very successful community Kite Festival.  Thank you to Bob Duncan for bringing FREE kites for every student and for modelling kite construction to the students during assembly last week. The students decorated, constructed and flew the most beautiful kites. Two thirds of the students participated in Saturday's Kite Festival. Keira Furniss won the kite decorating competition. It was amazing to see all the kites in flight. Some of the student favourites include the huge sea snake, horse, camel, crocodile, pokemon, soccer ball, fish, aliens, and  windmills.

A big thank you to P & F president, Sara Shields and her band of  willing Flavour Fusion Kite Festival workers for preparing, cooking, carting, serving, cleaning and donating to enable the stall to be a financial success. Your labour of love, supports the learning and wellbeing of every St. Joseph's student. 

St. Columba's Wilston reaches out to our familiesr

The principal of St. Columba's Wilston, John O'Connor and his community have reached out to help our school community once again. Mr O'Connor arranged for every child at St. Joseph's School to receive a brand new St. Joseph's tracksuit top and pants at no cost to families. After providing 281 blankets to warm those who needed blankets in the school and wider Tara community, the tracksuits were such an unexpected and generous surprise. The students took their tracksuit home on Monday. Students commented on how 'comfy' and 'cuddly' the tracksuits felt and have decided to  create 'Thank you' cards for the St. Columba's community to show their appreciation for their  heart, body and soul warming gifts. 

Speaking and Spelling Bee Competitions

This week St. Joseph's School conducted its annual Speaking and Spelling Bee Competitions. Thank you to all students who prepared so well and participated. The following students will represent the school at the Combined Small Schools Competition, being  hosted by us, on the 1st September.

APRE Days

I am looking forward to exploring the theme of Sacred Stories on Sacred Ground on Thursday and Friday. Please see Deputiser, Tara Fisher, in my absence.

Book Week Parade and Father's Day 

Students are to dress up as their favourite book character to take part in the community book week parade this Friday 27th August.

Following the Book Week parade the students will return to school for a Father's book sharing,  prayer,  sausage sizzle and construction of a Bunnings tool box with their child and their friends. 

I wish all father figures all the very best for Father's Day. The care you take of your child makes a big big impact on your child's life. 

Teaching and Learning

Week 5 student learning data has been collated, analysed and student and teacher goals are being co-constructed for next steps learning and wellbeing. This is the third year of our three way student parent teacher learning meetings. ALL students are to attend this meeting with their parent and their teacher. The student will share their learning successes and struggles and learning goals as an essential  part of the collaborative dialogue. 

The relationship between attendance and learning is easy to see.

Puil Free Day: Consistency of Teacher Judgment (CTJ) Day

Friday 3rd September is a pupil free day.  Teachers from Millmerran, Inglewood, Mitchell, Tara and Toowoomba will present, review and dialogue about evidence of student mathematical learning to grow in knowledge and consistency across about assessment at, above and below a 'C' standard. It will be a day of discernment and dialogue about learner evidence and ways to explicitly teach and grow all learners.

Director's visit

The school community is very excited to have TCSO executive director, Dr Pat Coughlan, visit St. Joseph's on Tuesday 31 August. Parents, carers, staff and Father Jack are invited to come for morning tea at 10.45 a.m. Come along and greet him. Dr. Pat will spend time with our learners, teachers, school officers, and Fr. Jack.

Persistence - our third learning super power

Students are learning how to be persistent. Students know that mistakes are going to happen and that they can learn from their mistakes when they don't give up and attempt learning activities. 

Don't miss out on the 2022 Enrolment  Welcome Pack!

So far we have six regulars attending the transition days to prepare for Prep 2022. Don't forget to get your enrolment application in as soon as possible to access the Welcome Pack benefits ($105 off the Term 1 fees, a school uniform and school essentials). 

It was wonderful to see the students settling in, learning and enjoying school life during last Tuesday's transition day from  8.40-1.15 pm. The next one will be on the Tuesday 31st August, with  four more to come in Term 4.

Mary Porter
Principal                                                         

                                         'There where you are you will find God."  Mary MacKillop 1871

Pictures of the Week

 Favourite photos captured on camera!

From the APRE

Mary's Assumption 15 August

We remember the feast of the Assumption of Mary the Mother of Jesus who was the first disciple. We remember that she is a model of how to live. Mary’s assumption into heaven – her rising up to God – reminds us that because we are followers of Jesus, we believe we will also be friends of God forever.

Mary has a special place in our history. She was

- the young woman who said ‘Yes’ when God asked her to be faithful and to do an important job.

- the woman who raised and cared for Jesus, following him throughout his ministry.

- faithful to him to the end and was with him at his death on the cross

- the first disciple – the first to see him risen from the dead and to believe

The Magnificat

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him 
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen

From the Parish

St Mary Of The Angels - Tara

Mass Times

Friday: 9am                                                                                                Saturday: 6pm

Parish Priest: Fr Jack MacGinley
Presbytery: 4665 3401

Father Jack's Message

Sometimes when your mate tells you a tall story you might find it hard to believe them. All through his life Jesus was wanting people to believe in Him - to have faith in Him. He wanted them to believe that he was the Messiah. Even more so, that he was, and is, the God, man. 

This was a challenge for him as he met so many people on his travels. He healed the sick and those with leprosy and all types of sickness, as we read in the Gospels. He brought Lazarus back to life after being dead for four days. He fed 5,000 men and perhaps 15,000, with 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread.

However, they were not convinced in his power or who he was and so they gave up on him. St Peter said "Who else could we believe in? We have seen what you have done. There is no-one else who can do what you can do. We believe."

Of course, the great thing Jesus did was to come back from the dead, as he predicted. Jesus was seen by many people when he came back to life. It was this miracle that proved to the Jews, and to us, that Jesus is Our God and Saviour.

Shalom,

Fr Jack MacGinley

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. 

Our first Key to happiness is Giving. This includes giving to yourself as well.

"You have to take care of yourself, before you can take care of others."

How many of these bingo squares can tick off today, this week, this month?

From the Learning Environment

Inspired Maths at Home

Suppose the farmer wants to make a much larger orchard with many rows of apple trees? As the
farmer makes the orchard bigger, following this pattern, which will increase more quickly: the
number of apple trees or the number of conifer trees? How do the growths compare to each other?
Justify your answer using multiple representations: the visual pattern, equations, tables, written
descriptions and graphs.
Write a description of how you would determine the number of conifer and apple trees in any case
number.

Year 3-6 Learning

This term we have been planning, creating and delivering our persuasive speeches. It is great to see how far the students have come from the beginning to now.

We have been focusing on the novel, ‘Stolen Girl’. This has dovetailed into our HaSS unit and indigenous studies. We will also be looking at the HaSS based text, ‘The Lorax’ which examines sustainability.

In Maths, we have been looking at fluency activities as well as a more in-depth look at money, giving change and making financial plans. We continue to examine operations, problem solving and times tables. In Science, we have been studying, ‘Desert Survivors’, which looks at how our plants and animals adapt to their harsh environments. In Religion, we have been examining how people live Jesus’ message in our community, by examining the Beatitudes, Jesus’ commandment of charity and actions such as ‘Pay it forward’.

Homework has again been given each week this term (except for those leading up to the speech competitions) as well as a Home Reader’s sheet. Please encourage your child/children to complete both of these components. If you have any problems with these, can you please contact me.

Three-way Interviews are coming up in the next two weeks. I would really love to see all parents or caregivers. It is important that the students come along as their input is so important.

God Bless,

Ann Smith

St. Joseph's Awards

Bronze Award Recipients

Gnhevea McLuckie

Courageous Learners

Rhys Warwick, Rubie Warwick                              

Principal's Award

Ella Sinclair - For her outstanding athletic prowess

Students Of The Week

Kaesha Partridge, Tiannah Playford, Keira Furniss

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 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

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT