ABOUT - Term 2 Week 7 - 13 June 2024

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.

CONGRATULATIONS FREYER

Congratulations to Freyer who won her section of the Kinder Nursery Rhymes at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod yesterday.  Also, well done to Jack on his individual performance of a nursery rhyme at the eisteddfod.   It is such a courageous effort by both students to get up and perform solo in front of a crowd.  A huge thank you to Estelle Joseph for accompanying the students on the piano.

PRIMARY ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The St Joey’s Primary Athletics Carnival will be held at McGrane Oval tomorrow, Friday, 14 June.  This carnival involves all primary school students (Years 3-6).

Thank you to all those parents who have offered to help throughout the day.  Below is an updated roster.  There are still a few helpers needed.  If you can help out on the day, please do so.  We have also today sent home a hard copy of the roster with the eldest child in each family.

We hope to see as many parents and family there as possible to cheer the children on.  Canteen facilities will be available throughout the day.

INFANTS CANTEEN ORDERS FOR TOMORROW

Infants students who would like to order their recess or lunch tomorrow, Friday, 14 June, using the Flexischools online service, will need to use the following Flexischools services when completing  their order:

Infants Recess Order for Friday, 14 June
Infants Lunch Order for Friday, 14 June

This change in ordering is only for the day of the Athletics Carnival.  If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the school office. 

GOOD LUCK TO OUR INDIVIDUAL EISTEDDFOD PERFORMERS

We wish the following children the best of luck next Wednesday, 19 June as they perform an individual item at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod.  To have the courage to get up and perform on your own already makes you all champions!

Year 2 Poetry:  Indiana Jeffery, Thomas Colwell.
Year 3 Poetry:  Tiffany Fong, George Taylor, Billy Jeffery, Allie Claire Williams.
Year 4 Poetry:  Regan Godber, Katie Colwell.
Year 6 Poetry:  Isabelle Peart, Holly Wykes, Heidi Colwell.

CITY OF DUBBO EISTEDDFOD

Best of luck to our fabulous verse speaking choirs who compete next Wednesday, 19 June at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod to be held at the Dubbo Regional Theatre & Convention Centre (DRTCC).  The three choirs are sounding absolutely beautiful.  The order for the verse speaking choirs is as follows:

Commencing at 10:00 a.m.

Section 5300 – Years 1/2 – Infants (we are competitor no. 6 of 6 competitors), followed by

Section 5302 – Years 5/6 – Senior Primary (we are competitor no. 5 of 6 competitors).

Section 5303 – Small Schools (1 competitor), followed by

Section 5301 – Years 3/4 – Junior Primary (we are competitor no. 3 of 3 competitors)

We would love to see many family and friends in attendance at the eisteddfod to watch our wonderful choirs perform. 

The children are required to wear full winter uniform which is as follows:

Boys:  Grey trousers, blue shirt, school jumper, grey socks, black shoes.
Girls:  Maroon trousers, fawn shirt, school jumper, brown socks, black shoes.

As previously mentioned, tickets can be purchased from the DRTCC Box Office or ordered online by visiting http://drtcc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/sales and searching "Eisteddfod".

CANTEEN HELPER NEEDED ON DAY OF EISTEDDFOD

We are still in need of a canteen helper next Wednesday, 19 June.  This is the day of the eisteddfod and it would be wonderful to have someone help out who is a Kinder parent or isn't attending the eisteddfod. If you can assist, please let the school office know ASAP or email t.fuller@bth.catholic.edu.au.

RITE OF COMMITMENT FOR CONFIRMATION

During Mass this Sunday, 16 June at 9:30 a.m. the Year 6 Confirmation candidates will be participating in a Rite of Commitment for Confirmation.  During the Mass the students will be stating their commitment to prepare themselves for Confirmation.  Their families and the parish are asked to support and pray for the Confirmation candidates.

WELCOME BACK JORDAN

We welcomed ex-student, Jordan Neeves, back to Joey's on Tuesday as she completes a week's work experience.  We hope Jordan enjoys her time back at St Joseph's.  Once A Joey Always A Joey!

YEAR 6 RELIGION TEST

Our Year 6 students will sit the Diocesan Year 6 Religion Test next Tuesday, 18 June.  All Year 6 students in the diocese will complete this test.

HEAR OUR HEART EAR BUS

Representatives from the Hear Our Heart Ear Bus Project will be visiting our school next Tuesday, 18 June to test children's hearing.  If you have any particular concerns regarding your child's hearing, please let us know.

'LITTLE WINGS' YEAR 6 FUNDRAISER

Year 6 has decided to support the 'Little Wings' charity as a fundraiser this term.   Little Wings is a children's charity that provides free professional and safe flight and ground transport services for sick children and their families in rural and regional NSW. They do everything they can to support families by easing the financial burden, emotional strain and travel fatigue that they experience due to the long- distance travel associated with receiving vital medical treatment.

We are encouraging children to come to school out-of-uniform next Tuesday, 18 June and hopefully wear their own set of wings.  We are asking that they also please bring a gold coin donation to support this worthwhile charity.

Thank you, Year 6, for this wonderful fundraising initiative!

JUNE P & F MEETING

The June P & F Meeting will be held at school next Tuesday, 18 June at 5:30 p.m.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

YEAR 6 MASS

Year 6 will celebrate a class Mass next Thursday, 20 June at 10:30 a.m. in St Joseph's Church.  Everyone is welcome to attend.  Please bring a plate to share for morning tea which will be served following the Mass.

YEAR 2 RURAL MUSEUM VISIT

Our Year 2 students are counting down the days until their visit to the Gilgandra Rural Museum next Friday, 21 June.  This excursion is part of their History unit, 'The Past In The Present' and it should be most interesting investigating the way things were in days gone by.

SEMESTER 1 REPORTS

All Semester One School Reports will be published on Compass on Friday, 28 June.  A hard copy of the report will NOT be sent home.  If you have any problems accessing your child's report on Compass, please let us know.

PARENT / TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Parent / Teacher Interviews will be held during the last week of term on Monday, 1 July, Tuesday, 2 July and Wednesday, 3 July.  Interviews will be held from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. and are set at 15-minute intervals.  Interviews need to be booked through the Compass Parent Portal.  Please view the below instruction sheet on how to access and book your interviews.  If anyone has any difficulty, please contact the office.  All staff members are looking forward to meeting parents and discussing your child's progress.

Please note that Year 6 parents will need to select either Mrs Schier or Mrs Barry, depending on who is their child's main teacher.

POSITION VACANT: ASSISTED TRAVEL SUPPORT OFFICER

The Department of Education currently has a position to fill to assist with the transport of a student with additional needs to travel safely to and from school.  This position is for three days a week.

The Assisted School Travel Program (ASTP) plays a significant role in meeting the needs of eligible students with disability by providing free specialised transport to and from school where parents and carers are unable to provide or arrange transport for the student either fully or in part.

Benefits & Perks:

• Work reduced hours, twice a day and time to pursue other interests in your free time
• ‘Feel-good’ work opportunity while giving back to your local community
• Providing support to the disability community and their families
• Only work school terms and enjoy school holidays

As an ATSO you will:

• Play a significant role in meeting the needs of eligible students with disability by ensuring they get to school safely and ready to engage in learning
• Work with the school, parents, contractors and drivers to provide a high level of supervision
• Be provided training in Child Protection, Code of Conduct, Anaphylaxis, emergency care and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
• Be provided with individual training on the specific travel support needs of students on transport.

Further information on the role can be found at:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/astp/atsos  

All successful applicants need to obtain a Working with Children Check, obtain the necessary proof of identity and complete the Expression of Interest form online.

HOW TO APPLY: The EOI and documents should be sent to ASTP at atso.astp@det.nsw.edu.au

PUPIL FREE DAY - Friday, 5 July

The last day of this term, Friday, 5 July, will be a pupil free day.  All Joey's staff will be engaging in a Religious Retreat in Dubbo.

TERM 3 CANTEEN ROSTER

We are starting to put together a Term 3 Canteen Roster.  If you can assist in the canteen during Term 3, please click on the below link and indicate your preferred day and also any dates that you are unavailable.  A Term 3 Roster will be sent home early next term.

ENROL NOW FOR KINDER 2025

We are now taking enrolments for our Kinder class of 2025.  If you have a child ready to start school next year, please call in and pick up an enrolment pack or phone the office and we can email a pack to you.

MERIT AWARDS

Congratulations to the following students who received Merit Awards at Assembly on Tuesday:

KINDER: Eleanor Foran for a fabulous effort sounding out tricky words, Harry Harvey for trying hard in Story Writing, Cecilia Smith for excellent work when sounding out 'Consonant-Vowel-Consonant' words and Darcy Morrissey for super work in Phonics lessons.

YEAR 1:  Flynn Weston for working well with 3D shapes, Duncan Semmler for creating a wonderful comic strip about why a pigeon shouldn’t drive a motorbike, Tess Howard for great work with subtraction and Becky Hutchison for creating a beautiful artwork of an outdoor setting.

YEAR 2: Billie Toomey for working more independently on tasks, Piper van den Ende for working hard on her ‘Giraffe’ information report and Edward Woodrow for always completing his work with enthusiasm and a smile. 

YEAR 3: Madeleine Foran for always being a polite and respectful member of Year 3 and Bridie Moeris for “Giving of Her Best” during Maths.

YEAR 4:  Tiaki Diamond for creating a great piece of writing based on ‘The Last Stand’ from Ned Kelly’s perspective, Archie O’Connor for creating a great piece of writing based on ‘The Last Stand’ from the point of view of a hostage and Layla Walker for working diligently in Spelling.

YEAR 5:  Mack Hutchison for whizzing through his Literacy Pro chart and Sophie Lacey for working hard improving her Essential Assessment results.  

 YEAR 6:  Alana Spora for applying great pencil shading techniques in Art, Bill Ryan for always confidently contributing to class discussions, Jocelyn Altmann for working conscientiously in Maths and Milla Morris fabulous work identifying adverbs in Grammar. 

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

Congratulations to Jack and Freyer who competed in the Individual Nursery Rhymes at the Dubbo Eisteddfod yesterday. It takes courage to perform a nursery rhyme by yourself in front of an audience. Well done! In the classroom, Kinder has been enjoying the stories of "Dishy Wishy" and "Feathers for Phoebe". We have been doing a great job with sentence writing and identifying adjectives and nouns. The focus in Religion has been 'What is the church?' We looked at the ‘c’ sound in Phonics and cut and pasted pictures that begin with the sound of the week. We painted some great 'Floof' pictures and also looked at dot paintings in our History unit when we discussed Aboriginal stories and artefacts. Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Mrs Alison Newstead & Miss Lisa  Harvey

Year 1

Week 7 has been a short, yet very busy week. In English, we have been learning about representation and how when we read and view texts about the same thing they can be represented for a range of purposes in a variety of modes. In Maths, we have been learning about 2D shapes and explored how some shapes can be combined to create different shapes. In Religion, Year 1 has been learning about what it means to be a bucket filler and identifying all the ways we can fill other people's buckets by making others happy. We’ve been busily practising our poems for the eisteddfod. We are very impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment the children are showing towards the poem. Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Julia Jeffery & Mrs Prue Best

Year 2

We have continued to focus on information reports this week during writing time and chose an animal we would like to study further. Children researched their chosen animal, made notes and compiled the information into a report. There are reports about lions, alligators, hedgehogs, kangaroos, flamingos and many more interesting animals. Inverse operations has been one thing we have been working on in Maths this week, we have been turning subtraction problems into addition. We have continued to work on our eisteddfod poems with Year 1 and they are sounding great! Well done Year 1 & 2, we are very proud of you all and the effort you put into our poems during practices. We can’t wait to perform them next week on the big stage. Good luck to our Year 2 runners who are off to the Primary Athletics Carnival tomorrow and well done to all of the children who gave the 200m heats a go! Go Cedars! We are also keeping Year 6 in our prayers as they make their Rite of Commitment on Sunday. Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

We hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Year 3 has spent this week preparing for the Athletics Carnival by practising high jump and competing in the 200m heats. We’re also perfecting our eisteddfod performance. All of the students have approached this with enthusiasm and we’re sounding great! In Grammar this week we’ve focused on verb tense by rewriting sentences in past, present or future tense. Due to the short week we’ve decided to hold off on presenting our persuasive speeches until next week and we began our new English unit which aims to give students a deeper understanding of the textual concepts of imagery, symbol and connotation and characterisation. To begin, we explored how images can create different emotional responses in a viewer and co-constructed a definition of imagery, symbol and connotation. In Mathematics we have continued our work on multiplication by learning to use arrays to establish multiplication facts from multiples of 2 and 4, 5 and 10. We are looking forward to the Athletics Carnival tomorrow. Have a nice weekend.
Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Swade Wilson

Year 4

Year 4 has begun our new Maths unit on multiplication and area. We have been learning to use number properties to find related multiplication facts and also representing and solving word problems with number sentences involving multiplication or division. We have finished our writing piece on "The Last Stand" and will be presenting them to the class. Today, we began our new English unit. We are reading the book "Fire" by Jackie French. We discussed the author's experience with fire and also watched a clip about backburning. We used the text to identify similes which is our Grammar focus. During Art the students replicated the Ned Kelly artwork by Sidney Nolan. They look fantastic and will be going home in our portfolios at the end of the term. We are all looking forward to the Athletics Carnival tomorrow. We are hoping for beautiful weather! Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

We’ve had a great week here in Year 5. In Religion we learnt about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and even learnt a song and actions to help us remember them. In Maths we are working on placing decimals on a number line and expanding our understanding of decimal place value. In our novel study this week we have looked at "Shakespeare's Sonnets". We even tried to write one about nature, which was tricky. In Art we completed a poetry inspired artwork titled, ‘I Am’. We had to write down words that described ourselves and then add them to our design. In Science we continued to learn about Space through a research activity. We have also completed our portfolio task ready for the end of term. We are all looking forward to the Athletics Carnival on tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 6

This week, we have enjoyed some presentations about Saints from our fellow classmates and learned about their lives and the hardships they endured. We have continued our work on the perimeter and area of rectangles and applied strategies to find these concepts in triangles. To complete our unit of work on adverbs in Grammar we completed a quiz identifying adverbs of time, manner and frequency. In Text Types we investigated ‘point of view’ and discussed how we could recognise if a text is written in the first, second or third person. In Art we are exploring techniques of shading with pencil and painting with watercolours in preparation for our major artwork for the Christmas Art exhibition. We are all looking forward to a great day tomorrow at our Athletics Carnival and hope it won't be too chilly! Go Peppers! Go Gums! Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Meichelle Schier, Mrs Haylee Barry & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER