St Joseph's School, Tara eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

Child Protection Week

Week 9 is Child Protection week. This year's theme is Every child, in every community, needs a fair go. To treat all of Australia's children fairly, we need to make sure every family and community has what kids need to thrive and be healthy.

This week P-6 students have learned about keeping safe, at assembly and in class lessons. All students have also participated in Australia's Biggest online Child Safety Lesson as well as learning from visitors from Act For Kids and videos from Kids Helpline.

Students, staff and families are invited to wear yellow this Thursday for 'RU Ok day.' For tuckshop you will be able to select yellow food items from the menu. I'm having a warm pineapple and banana kebab with custard for morning tea.

Dr Pat Coughlan's Visit

The students, staff, parish priest and available families made the executive director of the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office feel very welcome. Dr Pat chatted with all groups and discovered just what makes St. Joseph's Tara the great school that it is. Did you guess that it was student learning and wellbeing in a distinctly Catholic environment? If you did, you were right!

Transition Day

Dr. Pat was lucky to meet the new 2022 students participating in the transition day. 2022 students and their families are getting to know our community, it's standards, expectations and welcome.

Please book in for the Term Four Transition Days:

Tuesday 26th October
Tuesday 9th November
Tuesday 23rd November

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

So far we have seven regulars attending the transition days to prepare for 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).

Speaking and Spelling Bee Competitions

I commend Tyzah Phillips, Keira Furniss, Rubie Warwick, Tiannah Playford, Harley Robinson, Ella Sinclair, Alex Windsor and Chevelle Robinson on their persistence in learning their speeches and spellings for the Small Schools Speaking and Spelling Competition hosted by St. Joseph's last week. The effort, courage and confidence shown by the competitors was wonderful to witness.

From the start of Term 4, when you ring the school and we are unable to answer your call, you will hear a delightful message recorded by Tyzah and Keira, the 2021-2022 voices of St. Joseph's Tara.

Father's Day

Thank you to the father figures who joined the students to pray, share a sausage sizzle and make a tool box with the students. I hope all father figures enjoyed Father's Day on Sunday 5th September.

Three Way Learning Meetings

Collaboration between students, parents and teachers around learning and wellbeing are under way and have been most beneficial. These collaborative conversations allow the student to share their learning and next step improvement goals. Families and teachers work together to positively support the learner and their well being.

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

Teachers are learners too. Like you they need to grow their brains! On CTJ Day,St. Joseph's hosted the day and teachers collaborated together, shared their practice and learned more about student learning, the curriculum and how to explicitly impact learning for ongoing growth and wellbeing. Thank you to Miss Fisher and Mrs Smith for demonstrating a professional culture of courage.

Resilience - our fourth learning super power

Students are learning how to be resilient. Students are learning to ask for feedback, check the success criteria and collaborate with their peers. At the end of Term 3, I know I get a little tired and have to focus on being resilient. Please talk to your child and help them learn to be resilient by practising the success criteria below, at home.

Last day of Term 3

The Tara Futures Group, LNG and Origin have partnered to provide the community and St. Joseph's students with the opportunity to enjoy a free concert by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in the Tara Soldiers Memorial Hall on the last day of term! A free morning tea follows.

The students are holding a Talent Quest on Friday 17 September at 1.30 pm, the last day of term 3. They would like to have a gold coin donation coloured clothes day on the same day. Please support your child to practise their act (30 seconds to two minutes in length, no longer please). They might like to sing, dance, do magic, recite a poem, hoola, juggle...the possibilities are endless.

Enjoy the holidays and see you on Wednesday 6th October after the Queens birthday holiday on the Monday and the Pupil free day on the Tuesday. I am going back to the farm of my childhood over the holidays and I can't wait.

Mary Porter
Principal

'May God grant you courage and true wisdom in all you do and say.' Mary MacKillop 1875

THANK YOU JOAN & LORENZO

We'd like to say a huge thank you to Joan Grose and Lorenzo for volunteering to weed our garden bed. Weeding and deprickling the grounds is a huge ongoing task. Joan, we greatly appreciate your thoughtfulness and all your hard work. It looks MARVELLOUS.

If anyone has an urge to garden, help with weeding or assist us deprickling the grounds, we'd love to hear from you. Racing against nature, especially with the Marthaguy Flea Burrs (prickles) is an uphill battle. Having the students play on the grass without their clothes being covered in prickles is the goal.

Invite_to_Tara_QSO_event.pdf

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

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.

Welcome_Pack_Enrolment_Poster_2021.pdf

Be_a_Joey_Day_Term_4_Dates.pdf

Bus Notification Reminder: Please notify the school if your child's bus travel arrangements change by 2:30pm each afternoon.

If your child is being picked up instead of catching the bus home or is required to catch the bus instead of being picked up then the school needs to know before 2:30pm. Our staff have a duty of care to ensure your children get home safely, in accordance to the arrangements you have advised.

ABSENCES: Please notify the school whenever your child is absent.

Thank you to those making regular payments and/or have their account up to date. 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.

Could I please ask those families who received an Unexplained Absences Explanation Request Form and have not returned them or notified the office could you do so asap. These forms will now be sent out on a fortnightly basis and are to be returned by the Friday of that week please.

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 out of town
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 the day before
Has an activity or subject on that day they don't like

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 Second Key to Happiness is - Relating.

People with strong and broad social relationships are happier, healthier and live longer. Close relationships with family and friends provide love, meaning, support and increase our feelings of self worth. Broader networks bring a sense of belonging. So taking action to strengthen our relationships and build connections is essential for happiness.

Our connections with other people are at the heart of happiness - theirs and ours. Whether these connections are with our partners, families, friends, work colleagues, neighbours or people in our broader communities, they all contribute to our happiness. Chris Peterson, one of the founders of positive psychology puts it simply as: "Other people matter".

Scholars and scientists agree about the central importance of relationships for our wellbeing and our happiness. Many studies have shown that both the quality and quantity of social connections have an impact on our health and longevity as well as psychological wellbeing.

Not having close personal ties poses the same level of health risk as smoking or obesity. Having a network of social connections or high levels of social support appears to increase our immunity to infection, lower our risk of heart disease and reduce mental decline as we get older.

Close, secure and supportive relationships are the most important for well-being, whether these are with our husband, wife, partner, relatives or friends. Research shows that it's the quality of our relationships that matters most.

This is influenced by:

Experiencing positive emotions together - e.g. enjoyment, fun
Being able to talk openly and feel understood
Giving and receiving of support
Shared activities and experiences.

Just as relationships are a two-way thing, it seems the connection between happiness and relationships is too. Not only do relationships help to make us happier, but also happy people tend to have more and better quality relationships.

So working on our relationships is good for happiness and working on our happiness is good for our relationships. That's a win all round!

R U OK? DAY - Thursday 9 September

Wear Yellow to school. Bring a Gold Coin Donation

Are they really OK? Ask them today.

Do you know how the people in your world are really going?

Life's ups and downs happen to all of us. So chances are someone you know might be struggling. Your genuine support can make a difference whatever they are facing, big or small.

So, don’t wait until someone’s visibly distressed or in crisis. Make a moment meaningful and ask them how they’re really going.

Are they really OK? Ask them today. Your conversation could change a life.

Starting a Conversation - Try the Are You Ok? Quiz to help you feel more confidend starting a cnoversation.

https://www.ruok.org.au/questions

From the Learning Environment

Library News

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” - Mortimer J. Adler

Key events and dates:

Book Week Celebration

We will hold our annual Book Week Celebration on Thursday 21 October. The theme is “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds”. Our celebrations will be based around “Alice in Wonderland”. The students are encouraged to come dressed as a book character related to the theme. More information will be coming soon.

Book Fair

We will be holding a Book Fair from Monday 19 October until Monday 26 October (before and after school).

A flyer will be sent home next term.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

It was great to see students participating in the Premier’s Reading Challenge. We had five students complete the challenge. They read 100 books.

In Library Time

During their library lessons, Year 3-6 have been learning how to use online encyclopedias, organise their research and develop their notetaking skills. Prep to Year 2 have been learning about library organisation and alphabetical order.

Online Resources

Remember our students have access to several online resources, both at school and home.

Accessit: https://au.accessit.online/STJ238

Britannica: https://school.eb.com.au/

Username: stjosephs Password: tara

St. Joseph's Awards

Bronze Award Recipients

Roco Phillips, Jason French, Pippa McDonald, Harley Robinson, Chevelle Robinson, Tyzah Phillips

Silver Award Recipients

Karlos Partridge, Kaesha Partridge, Bentley Tucker, Keira Furniss

Students Of The Week

Jason French, Gnhevea McLuckie, John Chutto, Leon Riddiford

Student Safety

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

STUDENT SAFETY INFORMATION

National Child Protection Week starts on the first Sunday of September each year, and continues for one full week.

This year the Daniel Morcombe Foundation has organised Australia's Biggest Child Safety Lesson! The live stream lessons took place on Tuesday 7 September. Two sessions, each aimed at the lower & upper ages. Our students participated. As witnessed in the photos below everyone was focused and contributed to the sessions.