Term 3 Week 10 Newsletter, 2022

Acknowledgement of Country

We respectfully acknowledge the past and present traditional owners of this land on which we stand, the Wulgurukaba and neighbouring Bindal people who are the custodians. We pray that we can walk together to a better future.

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers, Staff and Students
 
Welcome to the last week of term, and what a busy one it is. This week we have our Class Showcases as well as our Showcases for The Arts. The idea of the Class Showcase is for parents and caregivers to come along and talk to their children about the work they have completed this term. Teachers have organised displays, as well as folders with examples of work students have completed this term. Our Class Showcase is a parental engagement activity which recognises that both parents and teachers play an important role in children's learning, development and wellbeing, and that children generally do better when there are positive connections between the different spaces they learn in. It is also an opportunity to talk to your child about the work they have completed and acknowledge the strengths that the work samples demonstrate.
 
During The Arts Showcase presentations, students will be presenting the Dance routines they have been learning and practising all term. Dance is one of the strands which comes under The Arts in the Australian Curriculum. They will also present their Eisteddfod poems, which again, they have been hard at work practising. Of course, during all of this, we have had classes heading off to the Townsville Civic Theatre to participate in the Choral speaking competition at the Eisteddfod, as well as children who are participating individually in a variety of sections.
 
As the holidays approach, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a lovely break. Whether you are travelling away with your family or remaining at home, school holidays can provide an opportunity for the family to slow down a little, or at least not have to be concerned with homework and making school lunches. Often, after school sporting activities and the like stop for the holidays, creating that extra space for families to enjoy. Below are a few tips for the school holidays, some of which might be of interest to you:
 
1. Involve Other People - Your friends, particularly those with children or the parents of your children’s friends, will also be trying to find ways to entertain their children during the holiday.
2. Use Community Resources - Community resources, such as libraries often have craft activity sessions during school holidays and, better still, they are likely to be inexpensive.
3. Look Out for Sports and Other ‘Camps’ - Schools and sports centres are well aware that parents work, and that children need entertaining. Junior Engineers are running a school holiday camp in Townsville. The flyer for this is on our FB page and in this newsletter.
4. Check for Special Offers and Events at Local Venues - Because so many people go away in the summer holidays, local venues like leisure centres and swimming pools often have special offers, especially midweek. You can do more with your children within budget.
5. Stock Up on Craft Activities or Equipment - Make sure that you have plenty of indoor activities in hand, planned and ready to go, especially for wet days, or if you unexpectedly have to do some work for a few hours.
10. Plan a Treat for the End of the Holidays - Plan to take your children out somewhere special, perhaps a museum or theme park, or somewhere they have always wanted to go.

Enjoy the rest of your week.
 
God bless
Tracy

APRE News

Open Your Heart

Be a Gift of Love and Compassion for

One Another Mary MacKillop

St Joseph’s Catholic Identity Advisory Committee - Call for Nominations

The Catholic Identity Advisory Committee plays an important role as an advisory group within the school community to support the school leadership team to ensure the Catholic identity of the school remains recognisable, credible and meaningful to the school community today. 

St Joseph’s Primary School welcomes nominations from school community members to join the newly formed Catholic Identity Advisory Committee. Interested nominees are invited to access the Nomination Form at this link and submit the form to the Principal,Tracy Nuttall via email to prinicpal@sjmbtsv.catholic.edu.au

Information on the school’s Catholic Identity Advisory Committee is available via this link.
All forms to be submitted by Friday 7th October 2022. Members will be appointed in Term 4  and the first meeting will be held mid-Term 4, 2022.

Next month (October) is Catholic Mission Month, a time where we raise awareness of the work of Catholic Missions. Our Mission Week celebrations will take place throughout the month with a variety of activities including Soctober and Mission Stalls.

In Week 4 on Monday 24th October, our Year 6 classes will be holding our annual Mission stalls to raise money. All money raised will go to the programs run by Catholic Missions Australia to help restore dignity and end poverty. Donations of Pre-loved toys and books can be dropped off anytime before then. Donations of baked goods for the cake stall can be dropped off on the day (with ingredients listed). Students are welcome to bring in money to spend at the stalls, coins are preferred. 

Christian Meditation

Christian Meditation will take place on Thursday mornings at 8:00am in the Library.  Meditation is a form of sacred and silent prayer, known as prayer of the heart. It is  a lovely way to start the day! Parents are welcome to attend.

Dear Lord,
We thank you for the many blessings we have received this term. 
We voice our gratitude for the good things you have done in us, 
and we praise you for all who have shared in the work of our school.
We ask you to bless all our learners, their families and our staff, 
                                       and give them refreshment and peace during these holidays.
                                       Amen

May God’s blessing be with you all, Peta

The Joey's Way

Important Dates

Diary Dates

From the Office

Term 3 Fees are now overdue. 

Due date for payment was Friday 2 September.  

Could all accounts please be finalised before Friday 16th September.

Is your child absent from school?  Please notify the office via

• emailing absent@sjmbtsv.catholic.edu.au
• calling the office and leaving a message at the absent option
• parent/guardian can note the absence through Compass
  

A text message will go out at 9.30am to any parents whose child is marked absent without an explanation.  Please reply to this text using one of the above methods.  If your child arrives after 8.30am, they must pass through the office for a late pass so that if the role has been marked at the classroom, office staff can make the ammendment for the arrival.  We thank parents for assisting with this. Roles are marked promptly at 8.30am on Mondays due to assembly - students are required to collect a late pass before moving to assembly if they are late.

Our Tuckshop will be closed on the last day of school, Friday  16th September.  There will be no ordering available on this day.

Socktober

Term 3 Showcases 2022

Star Students

Library News

What an amazing few weeks for the library, with focus on Indigenous Literacy Day on the 7th September and International Literacy Day on the 8th September celebrating astounding indigenous and Australian  authors! We also remembered the RU OK? in the library. The RU OK? organization advocates conversations with people and caring for others. We also hosted our awesome P & C with their Father’s Day Stall in the library. The children were so excited!

We have had many visits to the library, especially our St Mary MacKillip kindy kids!  The kindy kids from Miniversity also visited our wonderful library, joining with their St Joseph’s buddies in 5B to visit and share the joy of reading together!

Yesterday, we received a very special, exciting, visitor to the library from Tuhlulah Tillet, ‘Tilly’ to her friends and Tilly’s friend Ash, from the famous Gold Stars!  Tilly talked to students about the value of working together as a team. Tilly read a fabulous pirate story which had the children enthralled.  What a wonderful visit! Go girl Cowboys! Go ‘Gold Stars’!.  We are looking forward to seeing Tilly and Ash again soon, because they love reading too! 

This week, we celebrate the famous British literacy author… Roald Dahl whose birthday is celebrated on the 13th September.  This year is also the 30th Anniversary of the publishing of our favourite Roald Dahl story: ‘MATILDA’!  
The library is running a competition for students this week, from year 3 – 6 to write a letter to the library, about what students imagine, the character of ‘Matilda’ would be and what Matilda would be doing with her amazing life, 30 years later! The competition has a prize and all entries can be dropped into the library, up until this Friday!  The winner will be announced Term 4 first assembly!  Students have been enjoying activities about Roald Dahl at lunchtime and viewing a video called ‘The Queen’s Green Planet’ with David Attenborough. Students are still loving our ‘Iceberg’ reading area and chess has been a popular success with Mrs Bortignon in the library. 

We also congratulated Daniela Ruzickova from 4B for completing the ‘4 Week St Joseph’s Book Week Challenge’, well done Daniela great reading! Thank you also to 2A who sent some lovely, warm messages of ‘Thank You’ to Mrs Luton and Mrs Harrington this week. We loved your enthusiastic words, especially about your love of reading and coming to the library and messages about Mrs Luton’s fabulous teaching and Mrs H’s happy borrowing!

Ebook Hub

Enthusiastic students have been enjoying the ‘eBook hub’, held every Thursday lunchtime with Mrs H as well! Come join us and learn about our Sora app and enjoy borrowing and reading electronic books, you can read all over the holidays, opening a world of reading! 

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SCHOOL HOLIDAY READING!

Looking for more reading variety over the school holidays!

With Sora, you can access free eBooks and audiobooks from your school access. Digital books are automatically returned on their due dates, so you never need to worry about returning them...

Firstly, access our school Destiny Discover link on our school library site, then access the eBooks app link Sora.  Open the Sora icon and choose the ACEN Member Collection, then use your school user name and password to log in OR use the ‘How to log into Sora App’!!

Don’t forget to check out Story Box Library! St Joseph’s Mundingburra families are able to access our Story Box Library subscription! Use our poster and place them on the fridge for quick access to our amazing resources!  

Happy Holiday Reading everyone!

P & F News

Please use the link below to purchase tickets for the Trivia Night.

P & F Trivia Night Link

Guidance Councellor

Honey the Therapy Dog

Honey and I have formally passed as a Therapy Dog Team!  

Commonly asked questions…
What breed is Honey?
Honey is a Groodle (Golden Retriever crossed with a large poodle) and is 15 months old. 
Does Honey come to school every day?
In Term 4, Honey will come to school one or two days a week and spend most of her time in my office. She may join me around the school, such as if I’m running an activity in a classroom or I’m collecting a student for their counselling appointment with me. 
What is animal assisted therapy?  
Animal-assisted therapy incorporates animals, such as horses, dogs, cats, and birds, into the counselling treatment plan. Developing a bond with an animal can help people feel calmer and better engage in therapy activities. This short video from Therapy Dogs Australia will help answer this question further.  Honey is a ‘therapy dog’ trained to work with me with the people I’m counselling. She is not an ‘assistance dog’, which is trained to focus on supporting one person only. 
Can you pat a Therapy Dog?
Preferably not, and only if we’ve stopped and you have asked. Honey is not a pet. She is a working dog trained to walk through a school and pretty much ignore children playing and other people.  Most of the time we are trying to get somewhere, so please understand if we do not have time to stop for a pat. She loves people and attention so if we do have time, I will stop.  Please stand back a reasonable distance and ask if you can pat her. If someone else is patting her, you will need to wait so that there are never more than a few people near her. As me move around the school it is important that people do not run up or crowd around her to give her a pat as this is very overwhelming for both of us.

Thank you for your understanding
Barb Salisbury Guidance Counsellor

Eisteddfod 2022

Congratulations to our Combined Choir who achieved FIRST place in the Unison Chorus (Yr 6 and Under) and SECOND place in the Folk Singing Traditional (Yr 6 and Under). Thank you Miss Di Bella for the time and effort you put into preparing our children for these performances. A fantastic achievement! The Choir will present these performances to our school community during Monday's Assembly.

Italian Speech Competition

The students below are super Star Students who have really put their best foot forward to learn the Italian poems for the Italian Speaking Competition.  They turned up each week and they were very dedicated to learning the poems. I am extremely proud of all of them. I hope to see you all again next year when the Speaking Competition is on again. Excellent work everyone! Bravissimi!

*Year 2B - Olivia, Ruby, Eden, Miller and Mila                         *Year 3A - Maeve, Maggie 

*Year 3B - Patrick, Isabella and Pia                          *Year 4A - Evie and Edie                                           *Year 4B - Daniela                                                             *Year 6A - Mia                                                        *Year 6B - Cleo and Brooke       

Bimbi Wadja

September 7th was Indigenous Literacy day,  we celebrated with the book " Somebody's Land" by Adam Goodes and Ellie Laing.  We also read the story then did some activities including making book marks.

Ms Lazzaroni also read a story to the Reef Guardians in the Mary MacKillop courtyard while they ate their morning tea. The Indigenous story was about their special connection to the country and about giving back what we take from the land. This was a beautiful story full of rich Indigenous language and sparked a great conversation about only taking what we need from the land and by planting our garden we are giving back to the earth and country. Thank you Miss Cindy for sharing your book and all you do!

Festival of Sport

Eco Warrior Day

Yesterday, Mrs Lazzaroni and four of our Reef Guardian students attended the Eco Warriors Day which was held at St Clare's Burdell. They participated in a number of activities which focused on care for our environment. One of the activities was bird watching, whereby students used binoculars to identify different local species of birds. They took turns looking through the binoculars while the other students were engaged in conversation about the birds. These photos also show Oran, Layla, Flynn and Naia in their new recycled plastic caps. They received these from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Stall where they engaged in Ozbot coding. They were tasked with getting their ‘fish’ to follow the correct path to ensure it’s safety from fishing trawlers!

Prep Vision Screening

Visit by Registered Nurse for Free Prep Vision Screening

Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. Vision screening checks for common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and therefore impact their learning and development.

A Registered Nurse will be visiting the school between 1 – 2 NOVEMBER 2022 to conduct vision screening for children in their prep year. Your child does not need a Medicare card in order to participate in screening.  If you wish to have your prep child participate in this free vision screening program, please complete a consent form by 10/10/2022   Online or paper consent forms are available and will be distributed to you. Parents do not need to be present for screening, however if you would like to be, please contact the school to arrange this.

If your child’s vision is screened, you will be advised of the results in writing. If a vision concern is found, you will receive a phone call from the nurse to discuss referral to an eye health professional for further assessment. If a vision concern is identified and your child requires glasses, eligible health care card holders may be assisted with free basic glasses through the Spectacle Supply Scheme.

Participation in vision screening is not compulsory. If you do not wish for your child to participate in screening, please complete the consent form and indicate that you wish to decline screening.

If you have any questions, please contact the Primary School Nurse Health Readiness Program on 1800 687 372.

The following video explains the benefits of having your Prep child’s vision screened-  

Junior Engineers

Tuckshop

CCI - Catholic Church Insurance

Further information regarding CCI is available from the office.

SMMC

St Margaret Mary's  wish to invite students that have been accepted into Year 7 2023  to attend the Orientation program day on Wednesday 16 November.   The day will commence at 8:45am and concludes at 12.40pm.

Parents are also invited to attend the information session below.

Community Notices

Mass Times

Parish Mass Times

Tuesday 7.00am

Friday 7.00am

Saturday 5.00pm

Sunday 7.30am