Term Three, Week One

St Joseph's Primary School • July 22, 2020

Message & Notifications From The Principal

Dear Families and Friends

Welcome to Term 3! Thank you in anticipation of your support for what is shaping up as a busy term ahead. 

Welcome
A big welcome to Mrs Emma Walker and Mrs Kimberley McLaughlin who have joined Ms Bernice Dann as members of our Aboriginal Families as First Educators (AFaFE) team. We thank Mrs Melinda Fitt for her valuable contribution to the AFaFE program over the past four years. Melinda will continue to teach the Kindergarten class. 
We also welcome Miss Chantelle Stock who is completing her final teaching placement with Miss Gehrmann and the Year 1 class. We wish Chantelle all the best over the course of the term.
Finally, we welcome Miss Harriet Maingard who will be teaching the Pre-Primary class from the beginning of Week 3. Miss Izzy Stewart will continue to teach the class for the next two weeks. 

Parent/Teacher/Child Conferences
Our 3 way conferences will be conducted next Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th July. They will provide an opportunity to discuss student progress over the course of Semester 1 and set academic and social goals for the remainder of the year. If you are yet to arrange a time to speak with your child’s teacher, please do so by the end of the week. 

Congratulations
Well done to the following students who were acknowledged for their various entries into the Kununurra Agricultural Show over the holidays:
Dale Polzin, Lacey Polzin, Alannah MacTier, Quilla Ford and Evie Ford. A special mention to Miss Tierney and the Year 2 class who came up 40kg short in their quest to win the 'Heaviest Pumpkin' award!

Baby News 
Congratulations to Natasha Kendall, her partner Dàvid, sons Rory (Year 1) and Chase on the arrival of a baby boy - 'Matan.'
Congratulations to Gemma Robertson, her partner Toby, son Archie (Year 1) and daughter Poppy on the arrival of a baby girl - 'Luna.' 
Both babies and their respective families are doing well.

Year 5/6 Camp
A reminder that the Year 5/6 Camp will take place from Wednesday 12th - Friday 14th August. Students are required to return their permission slips along $50 by the end of this week. Please don't hesitate to contact Mr Luke Roberts should you have any queries. 

Assemblies
We look forward to the return of our Friday afternoon assemblies this term, beginning with the Year 3 assembly next Friday at 1:20pm. Parents and Carers are most welcome to attend. Please see the  roster for Term 3 included in this newsletter for further information.

School Banking
School Banking will resume for students next Tuesday 28th July. Mrs Stephanie Hogan will be set up at the lunch shed from 7:40am. Both existing and new school bankers are most welcome.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Tim Hogan
Principal 


Term Dates 2020
  • Term 3: 21 July—25 Sept
  • Term 4: 13 Oct—11 Dec


“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Mother Teresa 



Reminders

Whole School Performance

Mary Mac Performance

An interactive presentation about Mary MacKillop with dress ups, puppets, cheers and magic!

Friday 7th August,  1-2pm on the lawn near Mary MacKillop‘s statue.

Families are welcome to attend.

~~ Mary’s Feast Day is August 8th ~~


School Fees were re-issued last week. Many of our families have either paid all their fees or are well on their way to having them paid in full by the end of Term 3.

School fees make an important contribution to providing your child with the best possible education.

Families who have a Health Care Card are asked to present it at the office for the appropriate discount on their tuition fees. If you are experiencing financial hardship, and are not eligible for the card, please make a time to see the Principal to discuss your individual circumstances.

ALL FEES MUST BE PAID IN FULL BY 25 SEPTEMBER UNLESS A PAYMENT PLAN HAS BEEN APPROVED BY THE PRINCIPAL






Friday of every even week beginning 1:20pm


Assemblies, Fridays, 1.20pm

31 July, Week 2: Year 3

14 August,  Week 4: Year 1

28 August, Week 6: Year 2

11 September, Week 8: Pre-Primary 

25 September, Week 10: Kindergarten 



 

We will continue to work on reducing our waste and recycling our rubbish this term. 

Virtual Bookclub

We prefer card!


In these COVID times we prefer payment by card so that we don’t have to handle cash. There are EFTPOS machines in the office and Canteen. We accept most cards, including the Indue Card.




This week myself and Miss Deb will participate in a  MacqLit Training PD. MacqLit is an explicit and systematic reading intervention program for small groups of older readers. It provides a comprehensive sequence of lessons that includes all the key components necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. MacqLit is a research initiative of Macquarie University, Sydney, which focuses how best to teach children who struggle to learn to read. The carefully constructed sequence of lessons teaches essential skills such as:

Letter-sound correspondences presented in an easy to hard sequence,

Strategies for decoding multi-syllable words,

Prefixes and suffixes, and

Generalising component skills through connected text reading.

 Over the next few weeks we will begin to implement the MacqLit Program, targeting literacy skills in readers who require additional support. The program will be delivered to small groups of students in Year 3 to 6. Each group session will be designed to cater for the students’ individual needs. We will be running sessions for 50 minutes a day, four times a week.

We look forward to seeing student confidence grow, as well as an increase in reading fluency, and spelling skills. 


Mrs Laura Christopher, Assistant Principal






Sisters of St Joseph
Last week I celebrated 30 years since I became a Sister of St Joseph, the Religious Order founded by Mary MacKillop. She had a dream to start schools for poor children without access to education in remote areas. This was the way forward out of the poverty in which they lived. Many women joined in that dream and hundreds of schools were founded across Australia and New Zealand. Mary’s struggles were great. She was even excommunicated (“thrown out of the Church”) at one time! She never gave up on her dream and lived her life with the motto, “Never see a need without doing something about it”. She died on August 8th, 1909. The Sisters continued her work. Hence St Joseph’s School was founded in 1967, with almost a totally indigenous enrolment needing access to education suited to their needs. 
I have always been one of the youngest Sisters in our Order. I get asked, “Aren’t you sad that others have not joined?”. Well, there are times when I long for our Order to grow, but mostly I look around me and rejoice that the charism of Mary MacKillop is continuing; for example, outreach programs to those in need, quality education, and fees negotiated for those in hardship, so that all are welcome.
A child said to me once…“Mary MacKillop, she the Australian Jesus! She was strong, smart and deadly.”

Sr Julianne Murphy










School Bus

Our Bus is Full!

Many children are catching the St Joseph’s bus (and it’s fabulous to see them all coming to school), but we often have to do three bus runs before and after school. As a result, some children are starting school late or getting home quite late.

To alleviate this problem, please drive your child to school if you have a car and time allows. Or encourage them to safely ride or walk.

Note: This does not apply to the out-of-town or Lakeside buses.

Many thanks.

 



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Past Newsletters

Term 4, Week 9

December 6, 2024
Vision Statement Inspired by Mary MacKillop, we strive to achieve excellence in education and pastoral care, foster well being, develop strong values and include all cultures and community members.

Term 4, Week 7

November 22, 2024
Vision Statement Inspired by Mary MacKillop, we strive to achieve excellence in education and pastoral care, foster well being, develop strong values and include all cultures and community members.

Term 4, Week 5

November 8, 2024
Vision Statement Inspired by Mary MacKillop, we strive to achieve excellence in education and pastoral care, foster well being, develop strong values and include all cultures and community members.