St Joseph's Catholic School - Mundingburra eNewsletter

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

I hope this newsletter finds you all well. We have made it to the end of Week 2 of Term 1 without rain impacting important school activities, namely the school swimming carnival. Despite the overcast weather and threats of storms, the carnival went ahead without a glitch. I can only hope that the rain stays away for our next school event this Friday, the P & F Welcome to Joey’s get together and disco.

It was great to see parents/carers, grandparents and families cheering along with the students in the stands at Long Tan Pool for our swimming carnival Wednesday

morning. Due to the delayed start to school last year we did not hold the carnival, and the year before saw parents/carers and families sitting on the other side of the pool due to COVID restrictions. Congratulations to MacKillop who won the carnival, with Norris in second place and Gordon third. I was really impressed with the way our students conducted themselves at the carnival. Their behaviour was great, with most participating and all of them trying their best. One grandmother even stopped me to say how well behaved the children were. It was also pleasing to see good sportsmanship on display, and the enthusiastic cheering of the crowd was a terrific support for the swimmers. As we all know, these types of events don’t happen by themselves and I would like to take the opportunity to thank our staff for their contribution, particularly Miss D who organised the carnival, Mr Barton for assisting Miss D and our groundsmen for setting up.

Next Wednesday evening, 8th February, we are holding our Parent Information evening. The timetable for this event is included later in the newsletter. The Parent Information evening is an opportunity for parents to visit their children’s classrooms, meet the teachers and find out what their children will be learning throughout the year. It is an opportunity for teachers to explain daily routines and classroom expectations. For example, what is expected of students for homework etc. The evening is not a time for parent teacher interviews, these will be held later in the term. If you do wish to speak to your child’s teacher about any concerns you have regarding your child, please organise to meet with the teacher at a time suitable to both of you. I look forward to seeing you all at this event.

Have a wonderful week.
God bless
Tracy

APRE News

Welcome back to all of our families, I hope you are all well and enjoyed your holidays.

Beginning of School Year Prayer
Dear Lord,
Use my eyes to see new friends.
Open my ears to listen to my teacher.
Open my mind to learn new things.
Let my heart remember you are always near when I am upset.
Help me to love others like you do.
I want to shine so bright in all I do.
Amen

2023 Prayer Theme: Blessed to Serve

Bear with one another, help one another, and ever strive to serve God in a generous spirit. ~Mary MacKillop

This year at St Joseph’s Mundingburra our Prayer theme will be ‘Blessed to Serve’.

At St Joseph’s Mundingburra we are being challenged to create a community of service that is filled with amazing possibilities, exciting opportunities and great challenges that will enrich us and help us to reach out to others. It is a great reminder and opportunity for all of us to be encouraging, be optimistic, be supportive, be positive, and be uplifting of others. But most importantly through this theme we are challenged to be of service to others. To help others in need and find ways to spread the Good News to others around us. At St Joseph’s we are truly blessed to serve.

Opening Mass
Our Opening Mass will take place on Friday 10th February at 8:45am in the shelter shed. At this mass we will be presenting our Student Council Representatives and Year 6 students with their badges.

Christian Meditation will take place each Thursday morning 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! Mrs Plant will be away in weeks 3 & 4 so there will not be any meditation in those weeks.

Sacramental Program 2023
We will be running the Sacramental Program again this year. At this stage the dates are not finalised. As soon as we have more information we will let parents know.

May God’s blessing be with you, have a wonderful week.
Peta.

Enhancing Catholic School Identity Surveys

An important role of the principal and leadership team in the Townsville Diocese is to work to enhance the Catholic identity of their school with teachers, staff, parents/carers, students, parish and the wider community. So that Catholic Identity can be enhanced in the most optimal way, it is necessary for Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) surveys to be completed by a large majority of the school community.

ECSI surveys utilise a variety of research features to capture a snapshot of the attitudes among students, teachers, staff, leaders, families and other constituencies towards the foundations of Catholic school identity. The surveys are scientifically validated and are available in both adult and youth formats.

The ECSI Survey period for St Joseph's Mundingburra begins on Monday February 6 and ends on Friday April 28. Can I ask that you please take the time to complete these surveys so that our feedback from them represents a wide diversity of our school community.

The Joey's Way

Diary Dates

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to MacKillop who won our swimming carnival. It was a great day at the pool. All students tried their best and team spirit was high. In second place was Norris followed by Gordon.

Star Students

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons will commence on Fridays in weeks 4 to 9 for years 1, 2 and 4.

Notes were sent home last week. Please complete and return with payment before Wednesday 8 February.

Swimming Note Yr 1, 2 amd 4 Term 1

School Uniform Days

Events

From the Office

Please ensure that we have up to date family details, Concession Cards and a new Multi School Discount form completed for 2023. Multi School Discount and Pay Way forms are attached. We require both Multi School Discounts and copies of current Concession Cards as soon as possible. School fees are currently being processed.

Multi School Discount Form

Direct Debit Form 2023

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.

Enrolments - Prep 2024

We are currently taking sibling enrolments for Prep for 2024. Enrolment applications can be found on our website or by visiting our office for a paper copy. Please return to the office as soon as possible as interviews commence later this term.

Bimbi Wadja

This year the Indigenous lunchtime activities will be held in the art room on Wednesdays 1.10-1.30pm. This term we will be discussing our Yarning circle garden and some Australian native plants that we could plant in our garden. We will be doing many activities focusing on Indigenous symbols, bush tucker and native plants. Everyone is welcome.
I would like to welcome 5 new students to our Bimbi Wadja group, which will meet on the last Wednesday of each month starting on the 22nd of February 1.30-2.30.
We look forward to welcoming you all into our group and making new friends.
Duldhina ( Take care)

Cindy

Tuckshop

Our school Tuckshop is open Monday to Friday for both morning tea and lunch orders.

Flexischools offers a convenient way to order school lunches online. Please update your child's class to their 2023 class so that orders go to the correct place and children are not delayed in receiving their order.

Our Tuckshop list is also available on our school website.

Jeannine is our Tuckshop Convenor and is always appreciative of volunteers. If you can spare even an hour of your time, please contact her on M: 0407 578 105

Volunteers are required to complete our Induction process. Please follow the link below and follow the instructions.

Flexischools

Volunteer Induction Process for Parents and Carers

Library News

Welcome back to our school library! We are so excited to start the new year again with our wonderful Mrs Harrington and our lovely Library Teacher Mrs Luton.

Wednesday 1st February is, “World Read Aloud Day”, and starts an exciting month of February themes, with emphasis on the importance of reading. These themes are important as they identify another essential role we all play in early childhood literacy, by reading to them. The theme of “World Read Aloud Day” gives parents the opportunity to read and listen to their children read as well, both engaging academically and simply enjoying reading books together!
Why not this Wednesday, take the time to read aloud together tonight!

Mrs Luton continued with her engaging lessons with research and library skills for all the students here at St Joseph’s Library. This week introducing primarily book care for our books and lessons with middle and upper primary students on the Dewey System, which is a way of organizing nonfiction books in groups and how students can find them here in the library.

The usual excitement of library borrowing commenced first week with students enthusiastic and engaged in choosing books! Don’t forget to ensure students have a library bag, mainly for protecting our library collection of books from damage e.g. water, soft drinks. Also, if you have any overdue books from 2022, please return them as soon as possible.

Read aloud! Happy reading!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB 2023

Book Club Issue 1, 2023 have been sent out! Please note the issue is in newspaper form! There are some ‘Free Book Giveaways’ for this issue. (See the terms and conditions of the Scholastic Book Club).

Orders will need to be finalized by the 10th February. Please remember to place your orders through the Scholastic LOOP payment.

St Joseph's Choir - come and try

School Sport - Cricket Trials

Uniform Shop

For information regarding our pre-loved uniforms please call Kerin on 0401 100 757

P & F News

Speech and Drama

Drama classes started on Monday this week and what a wonderful start to the term! Students enjoyed learning controlled movement through mime and freeze, and were introduced to some fabulous new poetry. Our half hour lessons are focused on good communication skills, correct posture and confidence building activities for voice and movement. If you are interested in enrolling your son or daughter in our program, please collect an enrolment pack at the school office, or email Alyssa at libretto@outlook.com for more information.

Junior Engineers

Mary MacKillop Parish News

VINNIES VOLUNTEERS
St Vincent de Paul Society needs your help to make a difference in people’s lives. If you would like to know how you can help please contact Aathu Wilson at aathu.wilson@svdpqld.org.au or 0438 061 672.

CENTENARY PARISH MARKET WEEKEND

A Parish Market will be held following each Mass this weekend, 4-5 February. Donations of garden produce, plants, craft items or baked delights would be greatly appreciated. Goods will be accepted from 4.30 pm on Saturday or 7.00 am on Sunday, giving the committee time to set up ready for sales after each mass.