Dear Parents,

Father’s Day Celebrations

We were so delighted with our heartwarming Father's Day celebrations that took place last week at our primary school. The morning began with a scrumptious breakfast featuring sausage sandwiches, banana bread, chocolate muffins, and delightful fruit platters. Our talented choir and recorder group added a musical touch to the festivities with their wonderful performances.

The excitement continued with a thrilling raffle, offering an array of prizes such as gift cards, gym memberships, hampers, and dinner packages. The anticipation and joy were palpable as winners were announced.

The highlight of the morning was undoubtedly our beautiful liturgy, which conveyed our deep love and appreciation for fathers and fathering figures in our lives. The liturgical dance, performed by pairs of sisters left everyone moved. Our Kinder students, along with Alex (Yr 3) serenaded us with a touching song dedicated to our fathers and father figures, and a unique book authored by our Year 1 students was shared.

The atmosphere was truly special, filled with a sense of unity and community. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the parents, carers and family members who joined us on this memorable morning, as well as to the dedicated staff members and parents who organised this special occasion.

Public Speaking

Last Tuesday, we sent four very capable and eloquent students from across all the stages to represent us at the regional public speaking finals. Archer, James, Ava and Darcy represented us proudly. They spoke with animation, well supported arguments and were very entertaining. The adjudicator felt that they all have much potential in this field. It’s not easy to stand up in front of an unfamiliar audience, with minimal preparation time, and no microphone. We congratulate these very capable students for their incredible efforts.

Water Safety Program

We were very lucky to have lifeguards from the City of Newcastle Council come along today and deliver their unique Water Safety Education Program. This program sees the lifeguards deliver key messages about safety and drowning prevention. It seeks to interactively educate children about water safety and covers water safety at the beach, at the pool and around open bodies of water such as rivers, lakes and dams.

By actively engaging children and empowering them with the knowledge to keep them safe, we hope to prevent child drownings, accidents and minimise children getting into dangerous situations. seasons. We encourage you to talk with your children about what hey heard and saw today to further reinforce these extremely important messages.

Fruit and Vegetable Month

As part of our fruit and veggie month activities here at school students from across the various grades assisted Mrs Temple in preparing our vegetable garden for a summer crop of crunchy and healthy goodness.

It was all hands on deck in the garden! Such a brilliant day of planting!

We planted

- rockmelon

- watermelon

- sugar snap peas

- tomatoes

- cucumber

- corn

- beetroot

- spring onions

- basil

- wombok

We also harvested carrots, sugar snap peas and mint. Harvesting always brings such joy to the children. Weeding, on the other hand, is not met with quite the same level of enthusiasm, however the young gardeners did a great job and the Year 5 girls are takin gonthe role of slug and snail catchers - keeping them away from our delicious veggies!!

Student Council News - Joey’s Got Talent 

Please see a copy of the running sheet below for our upcoming Joey's Got Talent event next Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th September. Each day of the event will be held in the school hall and run from 11.30am until approximately 1pm. Families are warmly invited to attend this fun and entertaining talent showcase. We look forward to seeing you there! 

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) 

Our students are continuing to be rewarded for their positive behaviours in the classroom and on the playground, with our Dash tokens. All four Colour Houses are doing their best to be crowned winners for the second half of Term 3. Our house captains have today completed a token count and the progress results are as follows: 

Red House: 89 tokens 

Gold House: 81 tokens 

Green House: 87 tokens 

Blue House: 89 tokens 

Each house will have the remaining two weeks of this Term to vie for the prize. Good luck to everyone! 

Our PBL focus area for this term continues to be Care for All: Care for belongings and equipment. As part of this focus, we have been encouraging all students to have their belongings clearly labelled. This has resulted in a huge reduction in lost property across this school.  

Please support your children to make these positive changes by ensuring all items (hats, jackets, lunch boxes and drink bottles) are clearly labelled. If items do get lost or left at school, please encourage your children to go and collect them from our lost property boxes. 

Congratulations to the following students who received a PBL Award this fortnight:

Isla S (KB), Isla W (KG), Hugo C (1B), Amelia M (1G), Annie-Rose Mc (2B), Sophie P (2G), William H (3B), Hudson S (3G), Harry R (4B), Izzy A (4G), Clara P (5B), Zaylie PF (5G), Edie P (6B), Coco W (6G).

Safeguarding - ‘Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility’ 

National Child Protection Week – Decorate your Gate 

This week is National Child Protection Week. This is a campaign held annually across Australia to raise awareness of child abuse prevention.  

This year, the theme is ‘Where we start matters’. Where we start in terms of the values instilled in us from birth, the resources available to us, our securities and opportunities make a significant difference in our life outcomes. Where we start in terms of our education, family supports, community interaction also play a significant role in our personal and social outcomes. 

To recognise the importance of this week, St Joseph’s has decorated an area near the Farquhar St entrance of the school to show that we are making a powerful statement that child protection is a top priority. Our banner is a call to action, encouraging us to uphold every child’s safety, well-being, and untapped potential. It inspires us to maintain a safe environment where students can blossom into remarkable individuals, influential leaders, and sources of inspiration to others. Our banner symbolises how we foster a community of safeguarding our students and families. We acknowledge the profound impact of where we begin our journeys, therefore unlocking expansive horizons for students and our community.  

RE Curriculum 

In 2024, Year 2 and Year 3 will begin their journey with the new RE curriculum, Pedagogy of Encounter. Year 2 will continue the theme Belonging moving from belonging to the family to what it means to belong to the wider church community and how the importance of belonging draws us into an encounter with God. The modules will follow the same model as Kinder and Year 1 where students are invited into relationship with God through pondering, responding, and reflecting on the theme.  

Year 3 and subsequent years after have a different inquiry model which compliments the learning from the infant grades. The Stage 2 theme is encountering the Word with Year 3 focusing on the relationship Catholics have with the Bible as the Word of God and encountering Jesus within. Stage 2 students are invited to engage with and be challenged by their own and others’ views, enquire and explore to deepen their understanding, express their ideas in ways that suit their learning and reflect on the learning throughout the modules. As the new modules are introduced in our schools, further information will be shared to assist in what your children will be learning about. 

Socktober  

During October, Catholic mission has its annual Socktober program. According to Catholic Mission’s website “The program uses the Head, Heart, Hands framework to help students think deeply about why they are participating and raising funds for missionary works.  

Through the rich resources and learning pathways developed for Socktober by Catholic Mission, students first get their heads around the reality of children in developing countries.  

Our 360 virtual reality experiences, first-hand storytelling from partners, and formation activities throughout Socktober fill students’ hearts with love and compassion for the people we are supporting. 

This compels us to use our hands to take action. We pray, advocate for and financially support children in need, in whatever way we can.

In light of Catholic Mission’s Socktober, we are asking for any clean socks that you are no longer using or the single socks you may end up with when the washing machine “eats” one of them to be sent to school so we can make soccer balls out of the socks in preparation for the Diocesan launch next term. Please send any unwanted socks to school in a bag marked with my name and I will collect them from the office. Thank you for your support. 

Donna Morgan 
Religion Education Coordinator

Professional Learning – Mathematics  

Our primary focus for professional learning in 2023 continues to focus on Mathematics. Throughout Term 3 our teaching staff have engaged in a variety of professional learning sessions. The professional learning links directly to our school goals and is student centered. The professional learning included instruction from leading mathematical educational leaders including Peter Sullivan, Dr Paul Swan and Michael Minus.  Please find below an outline of what we have been engaged in. 

About Peter Sullivan  

Peter has had a career that combines research into task design with the development of teacher support resources and classroom trialing. He was author of the Shape of the Australian Mathematics Curriculum, a paper commissioned by the National Curriculum Board to lay the foundation of the Australian curriculum. Subsequently he was appointed the “lead writer” for the development phases of the curriculum and has supported ongoing development of the documents, including consulting on the review conducted in 2015.  

Peter Sullivan’s Rule for Teaching: 

• Experience before instruction – give students an opportunity to try something first and have a go 
• Give learners time – they need opportunity to think and process 
• Don’t tell them where the eggs are or steal their struggle – let them discover it for themselves 
• Let students read the question 
• Start at the level that nearly everyone doesn't know what to do  
• Confusion can be your friend  
• Give them something to talk about through discussion and collaboration 
• It is the end of the learning we want them to know not the start  
• Activate thinking then consolidate learning 
• Less teacher talk time  

About Michael Minus  

Michael Minas has worked in education for over 25 years and his areas of interest include problem solving and student engagement. Michael’s YouTube channel features 100 videos of engaging maths games and has attracted over three quarters of a million views from educators from across the globe.   

In 2018, Michael’s ability to shape learning was recognised when he won a CHOOSEMATHS Teaching Excellence Award. He presents at conferences around Australia and provides consultancy services to a range of organisations, including the Mathematical Association of Victoria and the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership.   

Workshop: The 3 Cs of Student Engagement 

Student Engagement should always be a high priority when thinking about the best way to teach mathematics.  Teachers explored the three Cs of student engagement- challenge, collaboration and context, with examples drawn from real students from real classrooms.  It provided teachers with a range of practical ideas to help ensure that students feel excited and passionate about mathematics.  

About Dr Paul Swan  

Dr Paul Swan is an award-winning author, highly sought-after speaker and experienced designer of maths games, programs and resources to support teachers with teaching key maths concepts in an interesting and engaging way. He’s also an honorary fellow of the Australian College of Educational Leadership and a long-time member of the Mathematical Association. Dr Paul Swan has taught in primary, secondary and tertiary settings and is now a consultant to local, national and international schools. He designs easy-to-use mathematics and support materials for maths teachers around the world. 

Workshop: Reducing Reliance on One-off Worksheets 

In this session teachers were provided with practical ideas for reducing the reliance on one-off worksheets. We have access to many resources with practical ideas and games to replace the need for worksheets to increase student engagement and enjoyment in mathematics. We are fortunate at St. Joseph’s that we have access to a wide variety of concrete materials in all our classroom to facilitate our students learning.  

Leanne Skinner
Primary Coordinator and Pedagogical Mentor 

AFL – Paul Kelly Cup 

On Tuesday 29 August, our AFL team travelled down to Sydney to participate in the AFL State Championships for the Paul Kelly Cup. There were over 100 schools from across the State participating in the competition. At the local level, we were undefeated for the entire day which put us through to the regional finals. The regional day was a lot harder and we played more skillful teams. We played well and we were again undefeated which put us as back-to-back premiers. 

Our next level of competition was the NSW State Championships which was held at the GWS Stadium. The skills and quality of the competition were very high. We played the best we could which got us into the semi-finals for the first time in the school’s history. The final game was very quick and we battled hard, but we ended up losing by just 1 point. We all gave it 100% effort throughout the whole tournament, and it was a super effort to come in the top 3 of NSW. 

We were very lucky to have Miss Cook organise everything for us and help David & Mark with the coaching. We couldn’t have done it without them. 

We are thankful for our parents giving up their time to take us down and especially for the loud cheering from the grandstands! We loved playing together and working together as a team, and we had an amazing experience. We hope that we made the school proud. 

Callum VH, Jacob F and Max L 

Summer Trials 

A reminder that regional summer trials for basketball, cricket and tennis will be occurring early next term. Please check compass for further details if your child wishes to nominate themselves. 

Please note that only students with high levels of skill in these chosen sports should apply. They need to have great experience in their chosen sport with demonstrated ability to be able to progress to the next level. Parents/students will need to complete the required forms with explicit detail to demonstrate their child is at the required level of expertise.  

This is only for students in Years 4 and 5 (who will be in Year 5 or 6 in 2024). 

Trivia Night - Saturday 16 September

Get dolled up for the St Joseph’s Barbie and Ken themed trivia night

Event Details:

6.30pm – 10:30pm

St Joseph’s School Hall

BYO food and drinks

Theme:

The theme is Barbie and Ken, but trivia questions and games will cover a wide range of topics!  Get dressed up and feel free to decorate (and name) your table.

Tickets:

Tickets are now available via QKR. Sales will close Wednesday 13 September.

Individual tickets - $20 per person or Table of 10 - $180.00

Please have the names of people you are booking for ready to include.

A reminder that this event is adults only.

Prizes:

We have some great prizes on offer already but are on the lookout for a few more. If you would like to donate a prize, please contact the P&F sjpandf@gmail.com or phone the school office.

Golf Day

It’s that time of year again when we raise money for the St Joseph’s P+F and Lifeline Hunter. We have another fantastic day of Golf and fundraising planned. We have added a couple of extras to the packages this year including Lunch and a FREE bus (limited to the first 50 people to book a ticket on the bus).

Share this with your friends so we can go bigger and better than last year!

Where: Rydges Resort Hunter Valley (formerly Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley)

When: October 27^th; arrive 7am; 7:30am breakfast; 8am tee off

What: 18 holes of golf with carts, Breakfast and Lunch, Great Prizes, Raffles and more. Drink stations will be set up at multiple spots around the course.

Who: YOU! Supporting the St Joseph’s Merewether P+F and Lifeline Hunter’s vital, life-saving, crisis support services

How: We have the option of a FREE bus leaving from the Junction Hotel, The Junction at 6:20 am and then leaving the Golf Club at 2:30 pm to return to the Junction Hotel. (50 seats available, make sure to include when purchasing your team, first in best dressed)

Cost:

$600 Team of 4 with 2x Carts, breakfast and lunch included for all players and a snack bag for all players

$1000 Hole Sponsorship (advertising at a hole with your flags and banners etc plus the option of activating at your hole, think novelty competition or merch. Feel free to call me with ideas). Team of 4 with 2x Carts, breakfast and lunch included for all players and a snack bag for all players

Purchase tickets here

In an effort to further encourage inclusivity and celebrate diversity, we're excited to introduce an additional special prize for the top-performing team that includes a female participant. Let's make this golf day an even more welcoming and enjoyable experience for everyone!

If you can’t join us on the day, please consider donating a prize for the raffle.

Your friendly St Joey’s P&F team.