2023 Week 5 Term 1

As you know, Lent is our 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. Many know of the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, but we are also called to practise self-discipline and fast in other ways. Monica Dutton suggests two other practical types of fasting, relating to the modern dilemma of busyness and speed; and many people’s (including the media’s) preoccupation with negativity:

Fasting from speed and negativity

“Mahatma Gandhi said

‘There is more to life than
increasing its speed; Not everything has to be done fast.

In fact, some things deserve to be done slowly – like
reading a bedtime story to a child, eating lunch with a
friend, cooking a special meal, pottering in the garden,
watching the sunset… Slowing down nurtures patience’.
Slowing down gives us a chance to also become positive…

Negative people see the world through grey-coloured
glasses. They focus on what’s wrong with the world instead
of what’s right. They complain. They shoot down every new
idea and every expression of hope. Yes, life has
disappointments. Yes, life has pain. But life is also filled
with goodness, joys, and beautiful surprises. If we tend to
look at life negatively, then Lent is a good time to get a new
pair of glasses”.

Children's Liturgy

Kindergarten and Stage 3 Children's Liturgy last Saturday evening was very well attended by many of our school families from all year levels. We were extremely excited to see you all attend. Our school community came together to give thanks to God and enjoy each others company and friendship. Thank you to all families who attended the Mass and provided the delicious evening supper. We look forward to our next Children's Liturgy.

Parent Meet & Greet

As we complete our first month of school for 2023, we were encouraged by a wonderful response to our Parent Meet and Greet. We appreciate you coming and meeting with our teachers and having meaningful and considered discussions around your child and their learning.

The beginning of each school year is such an important time and one whereby teachers are working hard to formulate positive relationships with their students. A learning environment based on trust, where students feel safe to share their ideas and comfortable to make mistakes.  This can set the scene for a successful school year, for each child.

Our teachers have been forming these positive relationships over the past few weeks by getting to know your child; finding out their strengths as learners, their passions, hobbies, challenges and goals they have for the year ahead. It has been a joy to watch Kindergarten begin their journey of primary school. The provocations set up by our Kinder teachers (as part of Successful Foundations) has created a wonderful space for our little ones to play.

Research has shown that students achieve more in school when their parents are actively involved in their education. Parental involvement not only enhances academic performance, but also has a positive influence on a child’s attitude and behaviour. A parent’s interest and encouragement in a child’s education can influence the child’s attitude towards school, classroom conduct, selfesteem, absenteeism, and motivation in a positive manner. Make that positive commitment to be a strong part of your child's education in 2023!

St Joseph's Commitment to Learning 

It is extremely important that children are at school every day and they attend for the whole day. As you know we have a brief Monday morning assembly only. We make a school wide commitment to commencing literacy teaching promptly each morning - that is Spelling, Literacy - Reading and Writing, MiniLit, MultiLit and Initial Lit. If your child is late, they are missing vital and explicit learning in spelling, reading and writing.

Similarly, their learning continues until 3.00 pm. Normally, our afternoon timetable consists of Religious Education, HSIE, Science and Creative Arts activities which are also a very important part of a child’s learning with spirituality, creativity, collaboration and problem solving forming key aspects of these lessons. Many informative messages are also given to students late in the day.

I discourage you from continually taking your child from school early.  It is as not only disrupting your child’s learning, it interrupts other children's learning and the class teacher’s focus on teaching. Constant phone calls and interruptions to the classrooms are far from ideal. If there are extenuating circumstances as to why your child needs to leave early, please advise your child’s teacher and again explain to the Office ladies for recording. 

Our staff and children thank you in anticipation for your commitment to learning for all students. Please ensure that you explain your child’s absence from school. The Education Act mandates that, we as a school, have legal requirements to monitor children’s attendance levels and report any unexplained absences or trending absences. Parents of children with excessive days off or partial absences from school may be asked to provide medical certificates or attend a meeting to discuss the attendance situation.

Online Safety - Are You Aware?

The Office of Safeguarding eSafety Schools are often asked how to safeguard children in terms of “digital safety”, our advice is always to monitor very closely what your child is doing when using technology. Every year new social media sites become popular, which then result in issues for students who may have negative comments made about them, in some cases cyberbullying also.

The Australian Government has excellent information on the following website around safety, I encourage parents to visit this site whenever you are unsure how appropriate  certain content is for your child

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

The comments we often hear from parents are “I don’t want my child to miss out”, “everyone else is online and the other children are doing it also”, “my child has a tantrum if I refuse them screen time”, "they use it without my permission" and so on. Rather than worrying that your child will be left out, focus more on what you believe to be in their best interests of your child. All social media sites have age limits for good reasons, such as inappropriate content and reduced security. Your digital footprint can NEVER be erased. 

Kindergarten 2024 Enrolments

We are currently taking Enrolments for Kindergarten 2024, please go onto our website and complete the form. Kindergarten enrolment interviews begin in June. Our school tours are scheduled every Wednesday for new families and for parents who may be interested in viewing our Learning spaces in action.

BABY NEWS - It's a Boy

Congratulations to Lauren, Sam and Huey Mascord on the arrival of their new baby boy, Eden. We wish them all the very best as the grow together as a beautiful family unit.

NAPLAN changes for 2023

Since 2019 Education Ministers have been considering a range of changes to NAPLAN. These changes include bringing forward the testing. From this year, tests will be undertaken in March instead of May.

Now that the tests are undertaken fully online, reporting can be done earlier in the year with parents and schools scheduled to receive individualised reports in July 2023. Benchmarks will be more meaningful and clearer to reflect the personalised online tests that students undertake. They will be set against a challenging but reasonable standard of literacy and numeracy expected for the child at the time of testing.

Education ministers agreed in 2019 to set proficiency standards for numeracy and literacy assessed by NAPLAN. These new standards will give teachers and parents better information about what a student can do. The names of the new standards are based on advice from ACARA’s First Nations Australians Advisory Group and parent bodies. They are Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support.

These will be accompanied by detailed descriptions that are useful for teachers and families. The descriptions will be developed by a panel of teachers. They will simplify reporting, replacing the current 10 NAPLAN bands and national minimum standard, allowing parents and carers to know at-a-glance whether their child is where they need to be in literacy and numeracy, which are skills that underpin all other learning.

These will provide parents and schools with easy-to-read information about what they mean for a student’s strength in literacy and numeracy. The statistical benchmarks for the new categories of achievement will also be confirmed by teachers with relevant experience.

Sacramental Program 

At St Joseph's School, Wauchope the Sacramental program is designed to prepare Catholic students for the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, First Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation. 

Generally, the program run at school is structured around the three Sacraments, of First Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation with each Sacrament being taught and celebrated in a particular grade level. First Communion & Reconciliation is taught and prepared for during Year 4 while Confirmation is usually received during Year 3.

(Other Diocese celebrate these Sacraments in different years. If you have moved to our area and your child is interested in receiving the Sacrament, please contact Mr Nigel Toole, Assistant Principal)

The program typically includes classroom instruction, retreats, and other activities designed to help students deepen their faith and prepare for the sacraments. Students are also expected to participate in regular Mass attendance. 

The goal of the program is to help students develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of their faith, and to help them grow in their relationship with God. It is also intended to help students become active members of their Catholic community and to encourage them to continue to practice their faith throughout their lives.

If you are seeking further information on any of the sacraments, please contact Nigel Toole via the front office. 

Sacramental Program Dates

Project Compassion

Project Compassion is Caritas Australia’s main annual fundraising campaign. It mobilises Australians to raise much-needed funds to help alleviate poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity in the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in the world.

Project Compassion is held during Lent. Our school and parish communities participate in a diverse range of fundraising activities and events to support Caritas Australia’s programs, both overseas and in Australia.

The theme of Project Compassion 2023 is, ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good we do today extends and impacts the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues. This year, we focus on the stories of remarkable, resilient people from Nepal, Australia, Zimbabwe and Vietnam. 

We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through prayer, fasting and almsgiving in support of Project Compassion. In each classroom is a Project Compassion box for donations or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website.

INCITARE

Assembly Awards - Friday 10 March 2023

ES1A:   Blake Vos, Pippa Dixon, Isla Carson, Maia Ryall & Thomas Germany

ES1H:   Josephine Thrum, Oliver Howarth, Isla Hancock, Luca Boyd & Raeya Hughes

S1C:   Zac Brown, Charli Gayler, Iluka Rennes & Heath Parry-Hawkins

S1M:   Michael Thrum, Angus Barling, Hudson Brown & Benjamin Graham

S1P:   Riley Hurrell, Henry Webber, Hayne Baird & Edith Heenan

S2KL:   Koby Morgan, Lilliana Dring, Lailah Davis, Matilda Pippin & Henry Christian

S2PL:   Nicholas Redman, Adelaide Thrum, Tierra Graham, Abigail Shields & Drew Arnett

S2S:  Ashlee Black, Hudson Cook, Aria Tonkin, Harper Manwarring & Keira McCarthy

S3C:   Hollie Black, Elijah Vause, Arlen Wass, Rose Parker & Felix Dy

S3CL:   Tara West, Indianna Singh, Jett Simmich-Peterson, Alex Redman & Ruairi Groogan

S3S:   Zac Welton, Billy Copp, Leila McDonnell, Cruz Mason & Ivy Copelin

Term 1 - 2023 

Winter Sport Trials

Monday 20 February 2023, St Joseph's School was represented by a large number of Stage 3 students in Soccer, Rugby League and Netball. These students are to be commended for their participation and sportsmanship on the day.

Congratulations to William Drummond and Nicholas Riley (Soccer), Riley Searson, Coopa Andersen, Joel Marchment and Jack Marchment (Rugby League), Taliah Crawley (Hockey) and Hollie Black (Netball). Hollie progressed to Diocesan Winter Sports to be held in Grafton on Friday10 March 2023. Good luck to these students, we know you will do yourselves and St Joseph's proud!

Zone Swimming Carnival

Tuesday 21 February St Joseph's School sent a swimming team to the Hastings Zone Swimming Carnival in Macksville. All students gave their best on the day and represented our school with pride. Congratulations to Ivy Pope, joint runner-up Junior Girls Age Champion, Isabel Thompson, runner-up Under 11 Age Champion, and Emily Saunders, Senior Girls Age Champion. Best wishes to Isabel Thompson, Emily Saunders, William Saunders, Ivy Pope, Rhett Moylan and Ruairi Groogan whom have been selected to represent the Hastings Sports Zone at the Diocesan Swimming Carnival, 3 March 2023.

Kindergarten Drawings

Pancakes

Tuesday 21 February 2023, our school celebrated Shrove Tuesday with pancakes.  A delicious treat to start the day. Thank you to everyone involved.

First Day of Lent

Wednesday 22 February 2023, Ash Wednesday, a time when many Christians recognise a chance to reconnect with themselves. During the Mass, ashes are placed on the foreheads of participants with words to remind us to follow the teachings of Jesus.

Three leadership students from Year 6 were acknowledged and presented with their badges.

Thank you to all families and parishioners who attended our Stage 3 and Kindergarten Children's Liturgy on Saturday 25 February 2023.

The first Children's Liturgy for the year saw lots of participants from St Joseph's whom stood together to receive a blessing from Father Felix. 

Australia Government Collection Notice 2023

Please read the following notice from the Australia Government Department of Education regarding the undertaking of residential information collection in March 2023, regarding Student residential Address and Other Information.

If you have changed your residential information, please contact the office as soon as possible to update this.

Brendan Kiely

The Principal

Business Sponsorship Needed

We had such a response from our recent Winter Trials about the new representative footbal jerseys, we have decided to launch a range of soccer jerseys. 

St Joseph's is seeking interest for sponsorship, especially from parents and families that would like to promote their business. We are currently in the design phase and would love to see our soccer stars represent in style at the next event. Please contact Renate Pope at  renate.pope@lism.catholic.edu.au  or by calling the school for a letter of sponsorship form or further details.

Thank you again to Mid North Coast Allied Health, Office Choice, Scott Cooper Metal Roofing, BDM Heavy Vehicle Repairs, Pope Tiling, Wattle Recruitment Agency, Handy Andy Tech Support for their generous support so far.

Art work titled: GATHAY NYIIRUN WAKULDA

"Lets us all go together as one" Jamie Donovan

2023 - Term 1

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