Message & Notifications From The Principal
Dear Families and Friends
I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and had the opportunity to look at some of the wonderful waterfalls that are currently in full flow! Thank you for your patience and understanding in getting students to and from school safely last Friday. It has been a number of years since we have experienced that amount of rain in such a short period of time.
We are continuing to use our school Facebook page as a means to keep you up to date with relevant information that concerns our school community. If you haven't liked our Facebook page, this is a great time to do so. In addition to publishing a wide range of important information, we use Facebook to post photos and celebrate what's great about our school.
Project Compassion
Tickets for our Easter Raffle can be purchased in the lunch shed each morning (before school) from Wednesday 4th March. Tickets will be $1 each or 3 for $2. We are also looking for Easter Egg donations to go towards the raffle prizes. Donations can be brought to the office. Thank you in anticipation of your support for this worthy cause.
Shoes and Helmets
The staff at St Joseph’s work very hard to ensure that all children can learn in a safe environment. We ask for your assistance by sending your children to school with shoes on their feet. If your child rides a bike to school, please ensure they wear a helmet.
Swimming Notes
A reminder that all swimming notes should have been signed and returned to school. We look forward to our swimming program beginning on Monday 16th March for all children in Years 3, 4, 5 & 6.
Three-Way Conferences
Our child-parent/caregiver-teacher interviews will take place on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th April. More information concerning these meetings will follow over the coming weeks.
Early Childhood Conference
Next week, Assistant Principal Mrs Laura Christopher, Kindergarten teacher Mrs Melinda Fitt, Pre-Primary teacher Miss Izzy Stewart, Year One teacher Miss Marion Gehrmann and Year Two teacher Miss Elle Tierney will be attending an Early Childhood conference in Broome. We wish them all the best as they participate in professional development which will assist them in their respective roles upon their return to school. Relief teachers have been arranged in their absence.
St Patrick’s Quiz Night
The countdown is on with only ten days until St Patrick’s Quiz Night. Be sure to book your table this week to avoid disappointment. Tickets will be available at the front of Coles from 10:00am - 12:00pm this Saturday 7th March or you can call the school on 9168 1079. If you are available to assist in the lead up to and during the night, please let me know. Thanks in anticipation of your support.
National Day of Action against Violence and Bullying
On Friday 20th March, our students will band together as we acknowledge the National Day of Action against Violence and Bullying. Students will spend time in their buddy groups demonstrating the qualities that make our school the safe and happy environment it is.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Tim Hogan
Principal
Term Dates 2020- Term 1: 4 Feb– 9 April
- Term 2: 29 April—3 July
- Term 3: 21 July—25 Sept
- Term 4: 13 Oct—11 Dec
School Closure Days 2020- Monday, 3 February (PD)
- Tuesday, 28 April (PD)
- Friday, 29 May (Catholic Day)
- Monday, 20 July (PD)
- Monday, 12 October (PD)
"Living in a simple humble way, we want for nothing."
Mary Mackillop
A big thank you the families who have recently donated clean lids and bread tags. So far we have saved 907 lids from going into landfill along with 650 g of bread tags. Please keep the donations coming! The canteen menu for Term One has been well received by all children and it is has been pleasing to hear all students use excellent manners on a daily basis. A friendly reminder that if children would like sauce on hot dog and pie days, they will need to come to the canteen to collect it.
Return and earn
We have a new challenge! Each time a student returns the cutlery they borrowed at recess or lunch, that individual will receive a ticket. This ticket will then be given to respective classroom teachers and the class with the most tickets at the end of the term will win a prize.
Frogs in Ponds and Icy-Poles are being sold each week with all proceeds going towards Project Compassion. A big thank you to the Year 5/6 students who have been giving up their play at lunch to assist in providing this initiative for our school.
I am always looking for additional volunteers so if you are free to lend a hand in the canteen at any stage, please let me know.
Developing Comprehension Skills
Although word recognition, decoding, and fluency are building blocks of effective reading, extracting meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal. Comprehension is a prerequisite for acquiring content knowledge and expressing ideas and opinions through discussion and writing.
The process of comprehending text begins before children can read, when someone reads a picture book to them. This allows children with the opportunity to listen to the words, see the pictures in the book, and they begin to associate the words on the page with the words they are hearing and the ideas they represent.
Both reading and listening to a story opens up a rich and wonderful world of imagination and experience for your child and helps develop strong comprehension skills.It is important for children to learn how to develop different meanings, in different ways.There are a number of comprehension strategies that you can use every day to help encourage and develop good comprehension skills at home.
1. Reading
Reading frequently will help your child learn new words and interpret different meanings. Encourage them to build an ample and wide vocabulary by looking up difficult or unfamiliar words in the dictionary and writing them down. It is recommended the students read or be read to for 20 minutes each night.
2. Make links to the text
Children can make links by relating and comparing the text they are reading to something in their own life. Ask them whether the text reminds them of something they have previously read, seen or heard before.
3. Try to guess what will happen next
Children can use the information in the text to guess what might happen next. What clues are provided in the text to suggest where the story might go next?
4. Visualise
Encourage them to form a vivid mental picture of the things that are being described in the text. What do they picture in their mind from the descriptions in the text?
5. Ask questions
Help them to ask questions about the text and answer them in order to tease out the meaning. What is the main character like? When is the story set? Form the habit of asking questions when you are watching a film or TV program together.
6. Keep track of the meaning
Remind them that it’s okay to stop and ask questions when they are unsure of the meaning. Encourage them to slow down and re-read difficult passages and ask themselves regularly whether the text is making sense. What clues can they obtain from the text about its meaning?
7. Summarise
Help your child to summarise the main points of a text in their own words. What do they think is the main theme or subject matter of the text? Encourage them to tell you about the text and to put the main topics in their own words.
Being able to read well and gather the layers of meaning in a text is a valuable gift you can help your child to develop. Encourage them to read widely every day, to build their vocabulary and to put their comprehension skills into practice as often as possible.
Mrs Christopher
