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Dear parents and carers,
We have continued working this week with a classroom based focus. The children are busy finalising publications and completing current units of work.
Semester Two Reports – It is reporting time once again and quite often school reports can mean anxious times for parents and students. Children of all ages take their cues from their parents, so your reaction to their school report can affect the way they see themselves as learners and as people. When you open the school report, do you look for strengths or weaknesses first?
The challenge is to focus on strengths rather than focus purely on areas that need improving. Take into account your child’s effort and attitude to learning. If the report indicates that effort is below standard, then you and your child have something to work on. If your child is putting in the required effort, then you can’t ask any more than that regardless of the grading. Broaden your focus away from academic performance to form a picture of how your child is progressing as an individual in a social setting.
The skills of independence and cooperation are highly rated by employers these days so don’t dismiss these as unimportant.
Please make use of the online booking system to make an appointment time to speak with your child’s teacher. Bookings can be made on the School Interviews website:
https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code
Our code is p54qp
The final reports for 2019 will be available next Friday (13/12). There will be an opportunity for you to meet with your child’s class teacher if required.
This week we have continued watching the works project that is taking place here at school. There have been upgrades to our storm water harvesting system, and the concrete has been poured for the disability access. The next steps involve completing the cladding work and installing handrails. The children have been very interested in watching the progress of the works.
Presentation Night – our presentation night will be next Thursday (12/12) at 6:30pm. We look forward to seeing you all this evening. Children are to wear their summer school uniform to this event.
Carols in the Park – the Carols in the Park will be on Sunday December 8. I understand that the BBQ will be available from 6:00 with the formal part of the evening commencing at 7:45pm. We are scheduled to perform at approximately 8:15pm. The children are to wear their summer uniform to this event. We look forward to seeing you at the carols on Sunday evening.
School Board - Thank you for the nominations for the School Board in 2020. As we received 4 nominations and there are 4 positions, it will not be necessary for any voting process to occur. The new Board in 2020 will consist of Robert McLelland (continuing member), James Clifton, Amanda Protheroe, Sally Metcalfe and Rebecca Knight. The AGM of the Board will occur in Week 4 of Term 1.
School Fees – Now is the time to finalise any outstanding payments for 2019. Thank you to those families who have already paid the fees for this term. Thank you also to those who are keeping us up to date with making payments, this is very helpful. If your family is experiencing difficulties paying school fees, please make contact with Therese Clancy at school for assistance.
SwimSafe – is set down for next week. Please ensure that all of the children have all of their swimming equipment for every day next week. Remember to bring:
- Towel
- Swimmers
- Rashie
- Sunscreen
- Thongs
Chooks – the chooks have been very busy eating up our lunch scraps and giving us eggs that have been used in a number of different cooking adventures. We are asking if anyone is able to care for the chooks over the summer holidays. If you can help, please let us know.
Telephones – please be aware that we have been experiencing some dropouts with our phone services. We are currently working with Telstra/NBN to resolve this problem. We ask that you continue to use the landline service, however if you are unable to get through to us, please try our school mobile number – 0407401054.
Please continue to use the landline service in the first instance.
P & F News – Please note the Annual General Meeting is to be held on Tuesday February 18, 2020 at 7:00pm in our school library. All executive positions will be vacant.
Year 6 Graduation Mass Presentation Photos – We would like to remind parents that school related photos of your Year 6 child, depicting a range of activities throughout their schooling, for the end of year school Graduation Mass presentation, are to be submitted to the school as soon as possible. Submitting these now will allow ample time to compile the presentation.
Congratulations to Skye on having her work shortlisted in this year’s 2019 National Cherry Festival Writing Competition. The winners of this competition will be announced on Sunday.
Winter Rain
By Skye McLelland
As gentle as the soft breeze,
sliding over the evergreen trees.
Rain, Rain, Rain.
Descending down from the sky,
an endless water supply.
Rain, Rain, Rain.
On a journey from dry to wet,
it hides my worries within its depths.
Rain, Rain, Rain.
Something that we can do for others – and for ourselves at the same time…
This initiative has been put out to schools Australia wide – the excerpt below comes from St John’s School Trangie’s Facebook challenge…
As a group of country kids, we were struggling to find the perfect way to help out in the drought...until now!
On the 13th of December, we are inviting all schools to stop and Raindance with us.
At 1pm, take a break from the classroom, bust a move and help us to #bustthedust
Then simply upload a video of your school dancing to this page, it could be any song, any dance moves and any duration you like!
What better way to lift up the spirits of people in need while this drought heads into the festive season than with a raindance to cheer up everyone doing it tough!
We will be participating in the Raindance after swimming on Friday December 13. You are welcome to join us for the dance and stay on for lunch afterwards.
Library – as we are now moving towards the end of the year, please start looking for those extra library books to return to school. They might be under the bed, on the coffee table, in the pile of things on the kitchen bench.
All returns will be appreciated – our record for the most overdue library book in this week is 187 days, I wonder if we can beat that.
SRC Message- This year, the SRC have worked hard to be leaders and positive role models to the student body, regularly attend meetings and represent student ideas. In addition, the SRC have held a variety of successful fundraisers. These have included Crazy Hair Day, which raised money for Cystic Fibrosis, and the popular Movie Night and Talent Quest Fundraisers, to raise money for school resources. The SRC would like to thank the school community for their ongoing support of fundraisers throughout the year.
Christmas masses - This year there will be two masses at Christmas time, a 6.00 pm Vigil Mass on Tuesday 24th December and a 9.00 am Mass on Christmas day, Wednesday 25th December. The 6.00 pm mass will be a Children’s Mass so we would like to have some student participation, especially as readers and taking up the offertory. If you would be able to help, please contact Mary Moffitt on 6343 1575 or 0419 440 692.
Sincerely
Last Friday, the Mini Vinnies group visited the Grenfell Food Hall to learn a little bit more about what they do for the community, and to contribute some of our collected Christmas food hamper items to this very worthwhile organisation. Before we left for the Food Bank, the students posed for a photo with all of the food that has been collected from the St. Joseph’s School community since the beginning of the term. The students were amazed at how much we had collected in spite of the fact that we are a small school.
We sang for the volunteers and customers who were at the hall and then they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to all who had birthdays in November and those who will be celebrating birthdays in December. They very generously offered to share their birthday cake with all members of the Mini Vinnies group.
The children learned a lot about how the Grenfell Food Hall operates and we have been invited to come back next year. One particularly special moment happened after we sang, when one customer came up to the children and thanked them by saying, “You’ve made my day”.
On Monday, a smaller contingent will be heading to St Vincent de Paul in Young to donate the rest of our collected food for their Christmas hampers.
Grenfell Food Hall Christmas hampers
This term in Year2/3/4 Religion, we have been investigating at the first 5 books of the Bible. Students will develop their understanding of God's relationship with people as individuals and as community, and the presence and action of God in daily life experiences, as they engage with a variety of texts and images of God used in Old Testament texts. We are also investigating prayers of thanksgiving and prayers of praise to facilitate an appreciation of the significance of these forms of prayer for Christians. Students then chose a saint who they believed upheld living life like Jesus and put together a research project on their chosen saint.
In Science, we have been conducting a range of experiments that demonstrate how energy is transferred from one thing to another. The students enjoyed constructing their solar ovens. We then put marshmallows in the oven and waited for a hot day. The children certainly enjoyed their gooey marshmallows.
We also conducted a range of experiments with tug-o-war. We tried with our bare hands, and then we used disposable gloves, then again with disposable gloves with liquid soap. A fun way to experiment with variables.
We had fun on our recent excursion.
The mineral and fossil museum provided many interesting items.
