Dear Parents and Carers,

Catholic Leader’s Day and Principal’s Retreat

I attended the Principal's Conference last week and appreciated the opportunity to meet with colleagues after beginning the year with only online meetings. We worked on developing our new system wide strategic plan in workshops on faith formation, technology, pedagogy, human resources and school-based planning.  

I was also formally commissioned by the Archbishop as a new principal and presented with a beautiful St Christopher candle that I have on display in my office. 

Mandarin Lessons

5/6 started Mandarin lessons this week. They were very excited to discover that their teacher joins them live from China for their lesson. This week they focused on getting to know her and learning some of her culture.

5/6 are trialling the program this year and we will look to expand into other classes next year if it is successful.

 

Asthma and Allergy Plans

 Please make sure you provide the school with an Asthma or Allergy plan from your GP if necessary for your child. Remember these need to be updated every year.

Music

I received strong feedback from parents regarding music tutoring. I am currently working with the Young Regional Conservatorium to plan for next term which will include having a tutor teach piano, guitar and drums. We also hope to have a specialised Music teacher that comes to teach classroom lessons aligned to the NSW Syllabus. More information to come. 

Cross Country Training

 During whole school sport we have begun training for the upcoming Cross Country on Thursday 31st March at the Golf Course. The distances are:

 Junior Category (8, 9, 10 years) 2km

Intermediate (11 years )  3km

Senior (12 years)  3km

 We hope to field a strong St Joseph’s team to represent at the Western Region level to be held in Gundagai on Friday 29^th April. We have many very capable runners who may like to train for this competition and I encourage parents to support a fitness routine if their child wants to build stamina and endurance.

 Have a lovely weekend.

 Kind thoughts,

Melissa Hotham

Principal

Tomorrow we will gather together as a school community to honour St. Joseph, the patron saint of our school. We recognise and appreciate that Joseph is a role model for millions of people around the world, through his faith and commitment to family life. March 19th is the feast day of St. Joseph, a special day to recognise that Joseph continues to inspire people to become closer to God and closer to one another. Kindness, trustworthiness, compassion, faithfulness, unity and reconciliation are some of the qualities Joseph modelled for the child Jesus and Jesus’ mother, Mary.

We seek to live these qualities in our own lives. We pray for the strength to be models of caring and compassion among others. St. Joseph, a carpenter, saw beauty in ordinary wood, and he also saw how important relationships were. He worked with his hands while he welcomed, respected, helped, loved and promoted acts of unity and reconciliation. He was faithful and constant because his heart was in tune with the heart of God.

Tomorrow, at our prayer celebration each student will contribute something to our special St Joseph’s table. The images and symbols they bring forward will each represent something about Joseph. The St Joseph’s table is a tradition that dates back to suffered through terrible drought and famine and had their prayers for relief answered by St Joseph. Each year after that, the people would create a St Joseph table (altar) in thanksgiving. As well as images, symbols, candles and prayers, there would be plenty of food for all to share. After the celebration, the remaining food would be given to the poor.

We hope that you will be able to join us for our special St Joseph’s Day celebration on Friday at 2:30 in the school library. 

Peace and blessings,

The K/1 class have had a great start this year and are making leaps and bounds in their learning. 

This term, both Religious Education and History are integrated together. The students have been learning that people understand family history through exploring evidence of the past. They are learning how historical evidence tells family history, what similarities and differences there are in family histories, and how historical evidence helps people to understand how things have changed over time. They have been relating these key themes to their own lives and the life of Jesus. They have especially enjoyed learning about the Bible and exploring what the Bible reveals about Jesus.

 In English this term, the students have been developing their literacy skills through the InitiaLit program. InitiaLit is a reading program that incorporates a synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics alongside a rich literature and vocabulary component. This is the second year our school has implemented this program which offers a thorough and consistent instructional approach across the early years at our school. The Kindergarten students have recently been learning about rhyme and syllabification, and are now beginning to focus more on letters and sounds and blending these together to make words. They are also enjoying literature rich tasks related to a variety of stories including How to Catch a Star, Grandpa Thomas, The Very Hungry Bear and Possum Goes to School.

This term, in Mathematics, the students have been developing their understanding of whole numbers. All students have been practising counting forwards and backwards and identifying the number before and after a given number, as well as reading numbers and representing numbers using objects, pictures, words, and numerals, and counting objects with one-to-one correspondence. The students have also been learning to use and record strategies for addition and subtraction, including using drawings, words, numerals, and mathematical symbols, and learning to recognise and recall combinations of two numbers that add to 10. More recently, the students have been learning to describe the features of familiar three-dimensional objects, predicting, and describing the movement of objects i.e. objects that roll and why, and sorting these three-dimensional objects. 

In Science, the students have been exploring the way objects move and are relating changes in motion to push and pull forces. They will investigate how technologies use forces to create movement, as well as design and make a toy that can be pushed or pulled out of recycled materials. The students used playdough to explore how push-pull forces change the shape of it.

 It has been fantastic to see the students flourish in their confidence as they try new things, share new learning experiences with peers, and develop skills and knowledge in all key curriculum areas.