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Dear parents and carers,
Last Friday was a great day to be supporting a worthy cause. The weather was challenging but it was great to be warm and comfortable in our jeans and boots!
This week has seen much activity in each of our classrooms, visits to 5/6 have coincided with a discussion around how the world and in particular dance has changed over the decades. K/1 have been working on their narratives with some very interesting storylines in progress. 2/3/4 have been looking at completing research about various cultural groups, and I was part of a very interesting discussion about the things that different cultures bring to us including games, foods and clothing not to mention the significance of colours.
This week, we also had a visit with Healthy Harold and Rae from Life Education. These sessions were great reminders on things that we need to be doing to keep ourselves healthy in a physical mental and virtual sense. Given the changes in our world, these messages have come at a very good time.
Considering the current challenges being thrown up by the pandemic, we will be moving our open day to an online format. We plan to stream activities for you next Friday. Information about how to access this event will come out to you early next week.
While it is disappointing that you won’t be able to join us in person, we look forward to sharing our learning with you in this virtual format.
P & F – information was sent home yesterday reminding everyone of the upcoming P & F meeting on Tuesday. The meeting will be conducted via Zoom. Please return your details to school so that we can get the link to you. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
The annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff is being conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential and individuals cannot be identified. The surveys were launched via email on Friday 7 August 2020 using the email addresses supplied to the school.
Thank you to those families who have already responded to the 2020 survey. For those not able to access the link sent via email, please see below.
PARENTS WEBLINK
https://www.research.net/r/stjosephsgrenfellparent2020
Public Speaking - We have been working in conjunction with St Mary’s School at Young to prepare for our inter school public speaking event for this year. In 2020, we will be conducting this event online via Zoom in Week 9.Information about the event has been given to the children in Yrs. 2-6, they should be preparing their speech for our school-based event. All children will be participating in our school based public speaking. This will take place on 24/08 (Week 6).
Changes to routine - Thank you to those families who are keeping us informed when children are absent from school, or there are changes to the regular routine.
Please make it your custom to check in at the office if your children are running late to school – we appreciate your efforts to do this.
Reminder – now is a good time to check your children’s hair for nits. The season is beginning to change and often this can be a catalyst for an outbreak of nits. Please check and take action as appropriate.
In terms of our behaviour management, we are focusing on participating in all activities.
During this week we have spoken about making a conscious choice to be positive about lunchtime games. Choosing to keep the game moving means that more people get more chances to be involved in the game.
This also involves having a go at all activities that are available to us at school. Sometimes it is easy to say, “I don’t want to…” or “I don’t like that, so I don’t have to…”. Sadly, this is seen as an easy way to avoid trying out new activities. Whereas, a positive “can do” or “I can try this out” approach can open up chances to try out new activities and learnings.
Take care and stay safe,
We celebrated our first school mass today since the Covid lockdown. Fr James entertained the children with smiles and laughter and reminded them that God is with them always and will continue to be with them throughout their lives. He encouraged them to think about their choices, both now and in the future, so they can make the best use of their gifts and talents with others.
He also asked us to continue to pray for all the people who are sick with Corona virus all around the world, and all of their carers, including health care workers and family members. We look forward to a time when Corona virus will be a thing of the past.
Love God, Love People
Helper of the helpless, we know that you are with us. We go up to the heavens: You are there.
We go to the limits of the sea: You are there.
Confined now, and with so much physical space between us and our loved ones: You are here, too, God.
Always with us, inescapably.
Give our hearts the peace that only you can give.
Remember your people. Help us remember, too.
Bless the tears that fall from these eyes: they are love.
Bless the aching in our hearts: it is love.
they are also filled with love and gratitude.
Bless us, Lord, and abide with us. This, too, shall pass.
We ask this through Jesus, Our true companion and comforter.
Amen
We have enjoyed a flying start to the term with new and exciting learning projects commencing!
Healthy Harold was a recent visitor to school with the Year 5 and 6 students exploring positive, respectful and safe relationships as their learning module. The students also recently enjoyed an excursion to Lake Cowal to consolidate their understanding of gold mining, comparing past and present techniques.
Whilst at Lake Cowal, the students also looked at water quality and management. This will form the focus of our Kreative Koalas program this semester, which uses art and multimedia to inspire students to investigate and reflect on global sustainability issues and act. The students also participated in the Ronald McDonald House Superhero and Jeans for Genes Day fundraisers.
In Religious Education this term, the students will learn how humankind are called to be wise stewards of creation. They will learn about the scriptures and real-life examples that tell of God’s creative spirit, that all living things are interconnected, that people are made in the image of God, for relationship, with God, others and the environment, and that humanity must take responsibility for their role in caring for the Earth. The students will also be able to relate selected global, national and local environmental issues to decisions made by themselves and others. They will demonstrate that people can be stewards of the Earth through their care of living things and the environment.
This term, in English, the students will learn more about the informative text type and, specifically, how to write a well-structured informative text. The students will initially be introduced to the purpose and types of informative texts. They will identify the difference between fact and an opinion and explore the structure and language features of informative texts, and correct paragraph structure for informative writing. They will use a fact file to write an informative text. The students will also independently write an informative text using correct text structure, language and features.
In Mathematics this term, thus far the students have been learning about decimals, adding and subtracting fractions, multiplying fractions, and addition and subtraction. The students initially explored ordering and comparing different decimals and decided on the place value of digits. They also explored operations using decimals as well, by reviewing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division examples. Following this, the students learnt to add and subtract fractions with the same and different denominators by creating equivalent fractions using the lowest common multiple. The students were then introduced to the multiplication of fractions through addition and learnt how to convert improper fractions to mixed numerals. The students are now developing their addition and subtraction skills using mental strategies and algorithms with different numbers of digits. They will also use prediction and inverse operations as a means of checking their solutions.
This term, in Japanese, the students are learning about language related to body parts (‘karanda’). The students interacted in a fun game of heads, shoulders, knees and toes in Japanese, before getting into two teams to verse each other to see who could correctly recall and name a given body part the fastest. The students then reinforced their language knowledge through a game of Pacman.
We welcome Chelsea Anderson into our classroom this term, who will be completing her final university practicum with us this term. There are a number of valuable learning experiences to be garnered this term. Watch this space to keep informed with everything happening in our classroom!
