Dear Parents and Carers,

This week, we have settled into our new routines and have enjoyed a smooth start to the new year.  It has been fantastic to see the children take on new roles and responsibilities in a positive fashion.  Thank you children!

The children are reminded that they wear blue school socks with their sports uniform.

Thank you to those families who have already returned their Emergency Contact updates.  Please be aware that we are required to collect this information on an annual basis – it helps us to ensure that we have your most up to date contact information.  If you need another Emergency Contacts/Medical Updates form, please contact the front office.

House Captains - Congratulations to the children who have been elected as house captains for 2019.

Dominic – Fergus Moore and Amelia Donnelly

Augustine – Charlie Best and Hamish Gibson

Xavier – Xanthe Johnson and William Wilson

I am certain that the house captains will do a terrific job in their new roles.

Swimming Carnival - Things to remember for today’s swimming carnival –

• be sun smart
• have fun and be a good sport

Do not bring or wear coloured zinc or coloured hair

We plan to begin the carnival as promptly as possible so as to ensure that we are able to complete all necessary events in good time.  Events will begin at 5:00pm.  The pool’s regular canteen will be in operation tonight.

Please be aware that this year we have begun using the Meet Manager program, and we hope that this transition process will be smooth.

Thank you in advance to everyone who has volunteered their time to ensure the smooth running of the events – your support and assistance is appreciated.

Please note the Western Region swimming carnival is next Friday (15/02) in Tumut.

School sore/Impetigo – please be aware that there I have been advised that there have been a number of cases of school sores in recent days.  Please take action as required.

School counsellor – our school counsellor will make her first visit for 2019 next week.  Each year, the counselling service requires for parent referral forms to be updated.  If your child accesses this service, please return an updated form by Tuesday.  A copy of this form is attached.

Canteen – the canteen roster and menu were provided to all families earlier this week. Additional copies are attached to this newsletter.

Japanese lessons – our Japanese program for Yr. 2/3/4 and Yr. 5/6 began on Tuesday.  This year we will be using our whiteboard for lessons with Sensei Ken and Sensei Peta.

From next week the children will have their lessons in their class groups.

Food at school - Did you know that many different foods such as cakes, salad dressings, health bars, nut bars, seafood, ice creams or even breakfast cereals can cause allergic reactions?

With this in mind, we discourage our children from sharing their lunches and snacks.

Parent Information Evening — our Parent information evening is to be held on Thursday February 21. We are looking forward to meeting you and sharing with you, information about your child’s class in 2019. 

Personal Equipment – Please be aware that the children should not be bringing personal mobile phones/toys/iPod etc. from home to school.  Please contact the office if you need to get a message to your child, we will let your child know of changes to their routines.

School will not be responsible for any loss or damage caused to these items.

Scholastic Book Club – the book club order forms have been distributed.  All purchased now need to be made online using Scholastic’s LOOP ordering system.  Instructions are on the order forms.  If you need assistance setting up an online account, please ask.  Book Club orders need to be completed by Friday February 15.

Volunteer Checks – we are endeavouring to ensure that our processes at school are in line with those across a range of areas.

If you have not sent a copying of your most recent volunteer check to school, please update it through the following website:

http://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/child-safe-organisations/working-with-children-check/apply/apply

There is no cost for volunteer checks. 

If you already have a current volunteer WWCC as part of your involvement in children’s sports or other programs outside of school, we would appreciate if you would send a copy to school.

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation in completing these checks. 

Library - Well done to everyone who has been looking out for overdue library books and returning these to school. 

Our Library lessons have begun this week.  Library days are as follows:

2/3/4 – Monday

5/6 – Tuesday

K/1/2 – Wednesday

Everyone is asked to bring their Library bag to school on their designated day.  Using a library bag simply helps to keep books in one location, either at school or at home.  A library bag can be a pillow slip, a special bag that you have or a plastic bag.

All children will be borrowing from our Library.

We will also be participating in this year’s NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge, so feel free to begin reading at home, we will also be reading books at school that can be included in the reading tally for the Challenge.  More information will be coming home about the challenge as it comes to hand.

Calendar – we have been updating our calendar as dates for this year come to hand.  We include a calendar in each newsletter, hopefully this will help you to know the dates for the various events that take place during our school year.

Our school calendar can also be found on the school website at:

https://www.stjosephsgrenfell.nsw.edu.au/

Swim Safe – please note that the second Swim Safe instalment takes place next week. 

Please bring your swimming gear to school on Monday.  Additional information has been sent home in a separate note today.

Kinder children will need to return the permission form by Monday

Sincerely,   

Therese Clancy

REC News

Opening Mass

Wednesday the 13^th of February

Next week we will celebrate our Opening Mass for 2019. This mass will be held on Wednesday the 13^th of February at 10 am. This is a special mass for all members of the St. Joseph’s School community, but is particularly special for the Kindergarten students and their families, as they are officially welcomed into the St. Joseph’s School family.

The School Captains, Sport Captains and the Student Representative Council members for 2019 will also be recognised, as they will receive their badges at this mass. It would be wonderful for all of these students if someone from the family could be there to pin on their badges.

A warm welcome is extended to all family members and friends of the St Joseph’s School community to attend this special celebration.

Peace and blessings,

Leslie King

Classroom News –
Our classroom news will return next week, see below, some snaps from our first few days of 2019.

NUMERACY

Year 5/6 Students have been practising their large number reading skills. This also provides opportunities to brush up on place value skills. Naming place value in large numbers is an essential skill which will need to be applied in many areas of numeracy. We have also investigated number properties such as, prime and composite numbers, factors. Square and triangular numbers allowed students to investigate patterns by entering the data in a table and looking for a symbolic way to express the pattern.



Year 2/3/4
Students in year 2/3/4 have also been investigating reading large numbers and identifying the place value of digits within a number. We read a section from a book called “If” which scales down large data to something tangible so we are able to gain better understanding of how ‘big’ some things are. I asked the students to ask Mum or Dad to go out and find the Milky Way as the book scaled this down. One students replied ‘My mum or dad wouldn’t know anything about that”. Kids say the funniest things. We also investigated patterns by using our 100 charts and counters and counting on by 3’s, 4’s and 5’s. It’s wonderful to hear excited voices when they discover patterns.


Kindergarten and Year 1
As with any early years Mathematics classroom, time has been spent on counting, recognising and making numbers. We gave out the poly plugs to make dice patterns and one student told Miss Clancy “We played with the ear plugs and made 1 and 6”. Kindergarten students have been investigating numbers to 9 and using Make, Say, Write and Do with great success.

We have also looked at ordinal numbers. We watched a You Tube clip on ordinal numbers. Students were given an ordinal number card and were asked to get themselves in order. It was great to watch them helping others.

"Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes."
~ Mickey Mouse