Dear Parents & Carers,  

This week we celebrate Catholic Schools Week across our Diocese. The theme this year is 'Fully Alive'. Our school will be celebrating by having a Liturgy, Open Classrooms and a BBQ. This will be held next Tuesday 31st May. Time and details will be confirmed through Compass notification soon. 

In the last weeks Year 3 & Year 5 have sat their NAPLAN tests. Tests were completed online with the exception of Year 3 writing which is still completed on paper. We are proud of the work teachers and students have put into preparing for these tests. Thank you in particular to Miss Jordan who coordinated the NAPLAN tests. Results will be sent home as soon as they are available later in the year. We are mindful that NAPLAN is a snapshot of student learning on one particular day. 

Well done to our Minni Vinnies, and thank you to Mrs Jensen, in organising a successful fundraising to support Guide Dogs NSW. Students voted on names to name a Guide puppy and were successful in raising enough money to name four Guide puppies. Thanks to all staff for organising the sausage sizzle and parents for your support of this Minni Vinnies event. 

Our school community has been affected by COVID in the last few weeks, with a number of student cases. At school we promote active washing of hands sanitsing and social distancing. As per the current COVID guidelines, staff and students cannot attend school if they are showing any symptoms of COVID-19. These include fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of smell/taste, muscle/joint pains, diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting, extreme tiredness, unexplained chest pain or conjunctivitis (eye infection). Close contacts may attend if they have a negative RAT test on the morning before school and are not displaying any symptoms. 

We are now taking enrolments for Kindergarten 2023. Next month, there will be an information session on Successful Foundations. We look forward to inviting new families and students into the St. Joseph's community next year. If you know of anyone that is interested in enrolling their child for next year please share this information and ask them to contact the school. 

On Friday 27th May, teachers across the state will be taking Stop Work Action. As a result of this there will be no classes on Friday. Please see the letter attached from Mr. Gerard Mowbray, Director of schools below. 

Peace and best wishes

Amy Maslen

Principal

5/6 News

Catholic Schools Week 2022 in Week 5 is 'Fully Alive'

During the week of the 23-27 May 2022, we celebrate Catholic Schools Week across the many schools in our diocese.
As an annual event, it is a time where we celebrate the remarkable work, passion, and enthusiasm our Catholic schools exhibit daily. We recognise these places as learning communities who are committed to excellence through the education of the ‘whole child,’ providing an all-round education that nurtures each student spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically. It is this education that enables all students to flourish and become the best versions of themselves.
This year our Catholic Schools Week theme is “Fully Alive,” which reminds us that we are most alive when we are in touch with our inner selves and can acknowledge deep connections between ourselves, God, others, and creation. As communities of faith, we are called to grow in awareness of the life in and around us, to live more fully and not to “settle for a bland and mediocre existence” (Pope Francis, Gaudete Et Exsultate). In a world that is unconsciously losing touch with this inner awareness, our theme encourages us to live in harmony with all of creation, to cultivate a Sacramental Imagination that enables us to recognise the beauty of God in all things.
As we embark on this significant occasion for all our schools, may we truly honour the privileged gift of Catholic education and for all those who contribute to its vitality and spirit. May we too celebrate our young people, who are formed to be good citizens of the world, who love God and neighbour, and who enrich our society by living out the call of the Gospel.
May we all strive to live in active service of Jesus and His mission as we celebrate together during Catholic Schools Week and always.

Mini Vinnies:

Thanks to our Mini Vinnies efforts and the generosity of our school community, on Friday we raised $200 for Guide Dogs NSW. Everyone enjoyed the “election. We all had the opportunity to vote for the best puppy names for the Guide Dogs and we all learnt a lot about the voting process. The clear winner was the name “Clifford”, followed by “Joey”, then “Chevy” and poor “Reed” was a distant last. The good news is that because we managed to raise such a large amount of money, that we can now submit all four puppy names to Guide Dogs NSW. A special “thank you” to Mr MCann and Mrs West for preparing the yummy “democracy sausages”, and to Miss Jordan for assisting with pre-election promotion.  

Our next big activity is the “Winter Appeal” which will start next week and run for the month of June. Please have a look through your drawers and cupboards for any items of winter clothing and blankets. All the donated items will be sent to Vinnies to be given to people in need of warm items during the coming Winter. Please search your household to see what you can find… Our donation tubs will be waiting!

G.J’s. Activities:

Students are continuing to enjoy their special activities on Mondays and Fridays at Recess time. Recently, our Dance activity was heaps of fun and those who came along showed some really great dancing talents. The main idea of G.J’s. is to offer a range of different activities so that students can experience something new. We only have about 25 minutes so the activities are short and pretty simple activities. Now that parents are able to come into the school, if any parent has an idea for other activities, please have a chat with Ms Jensen so that we can arrange. We are happy to invite you to come along to show students a new skill.

Quote: “The simple gift of giving becomes a rich aftertaste, full of a wonderful, blissful feelings.”  

Our school works on embedding quality teaching and learning strategies to empower our students. Each week our staff focuses on our student data and how to support their learning. Principal's from the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, including Mrs Maslen, discuss how this works in our school communities. 

At this stage our Sports Carnival will be on Thursday 2nd June at the Gloucester District Park, Recreation Centre Oval. This will be contingent on weather and the oval being open and dry next week.  

Dear Parents & Carers, 

In Week 7, March 6th to March 10th, we will be holding Parent Teacher Meetings. During the meetings teachers will discuss students strengths and goals and we encourage all parents to touch base with their child's teacher. Parents will be able to access booking times through Compass, via the Compass website or Compass App from next week. Teachers have made timeslots of ten minutes available during the week. To access these times please login to Compass and select 'Conferences' from the main menu, select your child's teachers name and a time that suits. For more information on booking please see https://www.compass.education/guide#section-09. 

Interviews will be held in your child's classroom.  If you need help booking a timeslot please contact your child's teacher or the school office.

We look forward to touching base. 

National Reconciliation Week starts on 27 May. The theme is , 'Be Brave'. Make Change'. National Reconcililation is intended to celebrate about indigenous history and culture in Australia and foster reconciliation discussion and activities. 

Menu Term 2

23rd May - Pizza                                        

30th May - Chicken wraps                        

6th June - Fried Rice

20th June - Chicken Burgers

27th June - Hot dogs

To maintain the success of Shared Table on Monday's can we please ask Parents/Carers to have $5 cash in an envelope with name clearly marked and in school by 9.15am at the very latest.  Another option is to pay in advance - please see Lisa in front office.

This will assist our Volunteers with the quanitity of food items to purchase in the morning and continue the smooth running of Shared Table.

Thank you

Volunteers

Shared Table