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Welcome back to the 2022 school year and first newsletter of the year. I trust all families had a safe and relaxing break.
In 2022 we welcome Miss Kate Jordan to St Josephs Gloucester. Kate will be teaching 5/6 this year and comes to us after teaching at St. Paul's Primary School Rutherford last year. Welcome Kate! Mrs Clare is our K/1 teacher and Mr McCann is our Year 2/3/4 Teacher. Miss Gooch will be our Librarian (Thursday) and also work in K1 on Monday and Friday and 2/3/4 on Tuesday and Wednesday as Mr McCann works on his role as Religious Education Coordinator and Pedagogical Mentor, which is implementing quality teaching and learning strategies across our school. Mrs Clare will also be our Sport Coordinator for 2022. Mrs Alison Perry is our school counsellor and is at school once a fortnight on a Wednesday.
Our new Kindergarten students have made a great start and are settling in really well. Welcome to Elliot Banyer, Stephenie Battle, Jack Butchers, Ameila Fulton, Isabelle Geosits, Myla Goldsmith, Kirra Muddle and their families. We trust their time at St. Joseph's will be one of wonderful learning, friendship and support. The Successful Foundations for learning, with a focus on building academic success and wellbeing, will be a part of the first five weeks of Kindergarten. Please see some more information on Successful Foundations included below in the newsletter.
We also welcome the following students and their families to St. Joseph's; Sloane Peninton, Year 1, Ella Gambrill, Year 3 and Ewan Sheely Year 5. We hope that your time at St. Joseph's will be filled with wonderful experiences of learning, friendship and support.
This year Mr Gary Pomplun will cooordinate our new Gifted Education initative. This is an exciting initiative which will allow opportunities for our students. Gary will also work at Holy Name Forster, St Joseph's Wingham and at the Catholic Schools Office, supporting in this role.
We have came back to school in 2022 with many of the same COVID-19 guidelines in place from Catholic Schools NSW. Thank you for your continued support and we will keep updated as the term progresses. Thank you to all parents for your organisation in picking up the RAT tests so far this term. At this stage we have been asked for students and staff to continue testing for the next two weeks.
Our sincere condolences to the Pettge family on the passing of Cindy. Condolences also to Mrs Middlebrook family on the passing of Kelly's father over the school holiday break. Our thoughts are with you at this time.
We look forward to a positive and productive partnership with parents and carers this year. Together we can ensure a wonderful, safe and successful learning environment and achievements for our students!
Amy Maslen
Principal
Week 3 |
|
Monday 14th | Shared Table - Chicken Wraps |
Wednesday 16th | Sport day |
Thursday 17th | Library |
Friday 18th | Canteen |
Week 4 |
|
Monday 21st | Shared Table - Pizza |
Tuesday 22nd | Diocesan Swimming Carnival |
Wednesday 23d | Sport |
Thursday 24th | Library |
Friday 25th | Canteen |
K/1
Welcome Kindergarten!
2/3/4
It has been a wonderful start to the year in the 2/3/4 class. We welcome the addition of Ella Gambrill to our class this week. We now have a class of 12 which is wonderful. The set up of the classroom and the use of rotations has been our main focus over the first week. We have been so proud of the way the students have adapted to having 3 classes in the one room and their willingness to follow new routines in the class. Our goal is to create a classroom where the students are able to work independently while direct instruction is given to a specific grade. We are confident that the students will be able to adjust quickly to these routines. I would just like to congratulate all the class on making a fantastic start to the new year.
5/6
What a wonderful first week we have had in 5/6! During one of our religion sessions this week we learnt about the qualities of Jesus and discussed how we demonstrate acts of compassion, leadership, kindness and others in our everyday lives. The students of 5/6 enjoyed creating their own mobile highlighting their best qualities.
Message from Miss Jordan: Thank you all so much for welcoming me into the wonderful St Joseph's community. I am so excited to be here and can't wait to meet you all soon!
Gifted Education at St. Joseph's
My name is Gary Pomplun and I have recently been appointed as the Gifted Education Mentor Project Officer for the Manning Region. This is a newly created role this year. In this role I will be working at St Joseph’s Gloucester, St Joseph’s Wingham, Holy Name Forster, as well as the Catholic Schools Office each week. I am excited to be at Gloucester every Tuesday this year!
I have been a teacher for the past nine years in schools in the Manning Region, and have been the Gifted Education Mentor at Forster since 2017.
As the Project Officer, I will be responsible for:
- leading and supporting the identification of gifted learners at St Joseph’s,
- working collaboratively to support teachers and students by differentiating teaching programs that engage and challenge all learners,
- engaging in regular Professional Learning and sharing my knowledge and understanding with staff,
- developing strengthened connections between schools across the Manning Region to promote gifted education, and
- monitoring the tracking and analysis of student data to inform teaching practices.
I look forward to working alongside the students at St Joseph’s and sharing stories of their academic success throughout the year.
We had a fantastic day at our Swimming Carnival on Monday. The weather was much nicer than Thursday and we were lucky to have this option available on Monday. It was wonderful to see all children have a go in many of the events, encourage each other and do their best. Congratulations to Mia Barnes, Rory Ashby, Xanthe Fenning and Molly Paynter who qualified for our St. Joseph's relay team for the Regional Swimming Carnival. Thanks to Mrs Clare and all teachers for organisation of this event.
Congratulations to Mia Barnes, Rory Ashby, Molly Paynter and Xanthe Fenning who represented our school at the Manning Regional Swimming Carnival in Gloucester on Thursday. Holy Name Forster, St. Joseph's Bulahdelah, St. Joseph's Wingham and St. Joseph's Taree' all came along with students representing their schools. We are currently awaiting the official results but are very proud of our students who came 1st in the PP5 (Small Schools) relay and who will represent St. Joseph's at the Diocesan Swimming Carnival at Lambton on Tuesday 22nd February. Well done Mia, Xanthe, Rory, Molly!
PASTORAL CARE
It has been so nice to see all our students back at school. I can honestly say that I missed their smiling faces and all their special personalities. Everyone seems to have settle into the 2022 school year very quickly, especially the new Kindergarten students and our lovely new students. It is very reassuring to see the way in which our older students care for the younger students. There are so many examples of patience and ways in which the older students care for and “look after” and it is all done so willingly without being asked to do so. We are lucky to be in such a caring school.
“Give Thanks every day for all the wonder that surrounds you”
MINI VINNIES
We have had our first Mini Vinnies meeting and are already planning some great activities for this term. The main goal of Mini Vinnies is to help others in need and the new Mini Vinnies are enthusiastically looking forward to the year ahead.
On Friday 18 th Feb, each of the Mini Vinnies will be presented with their Badge as a symbol of the important role they have within our school community.
Our first activity will be Pancake Day to be held on Shrove Tuesday
CANTEEN
The Year 5 and 6 students started Canteen last week and are already doing a great job of running the canteen. We will still be selling ice-blocks and ice-creams during the second half of the lunch break. If you have suggestions about other items that you would like to see at the canteen, please let us know.
SECOND-HAND UNIFORMS
Lots of second-hand uniforms have been donated from past students and these are now available. They are in good condition, and we have quite a range of sizes in tunics, jackets, shirts, trousers, shorts and tights as well as shoes and joggers.
“Wishing God’s sweet blessings
not in droplets, but a shower,
To fall on you every day”
Sport will be held on a Wednesday for this term. The next few weeks we will be focusing on Cross Country training.