ABOUT - Term 3 Week 3 - 8 August 2024

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.
- Psalm 18:32

PRIMARY FANCY DRESS SOCIAL

Our primary school students and their teachers had an amazing evening at the Primary Fancy Dress Social last Thursday evening. The theme was "I'm a Celebrity" and we sure had a variety of celebrities turn up to party with us! There were sporting stars, singers, movie stars, Peppa Pig, barrel racers, ‘Thing’ from the Adams Family, even Russell Coight was there to teach us some of his survival skills and we were thrilled that some of the athletes from the Paris Olympics took time out of their busy schedules to pay us a visit! Fantastic school spirit was shown by all students as everyone counted down the Joey’s Top 20! We appreciate the effort of the primary teachers for organising the social and providing the music and lights.  It was a fantastic evening.

Some of our Primary Celebrities!

JEANS FOR GENES DAY

Thank you to everyone who donated money for Jeans for Genes Day, which was held last Friday.  We raised $326.00 for this worthwhile cause which is a fantastic effort!

WESTERN REGION ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

 ISABELLE & KATIE – AGE CHAMPIONS!

Congratulations to all our athletes who participated in the Western Region Athletics Carnival held in Dubbo on Tuesday.  We were thrilled to hear that two of our athletes were named champions in their age groups.  Congratulations Isabelle (Senior Girls Champion) and Katie (Junior Girls Champion) – what an amazing achievement!  We also had two students who broke Western Region records on the day.  Katie broke the Junior Girls Discus record and Tom McIsaac broke the Multiclass Senior Boys Discus and Shot Put records - well done Katie and Tom!  Unofficially, we can also tell you that our Senior Girls Relay Team won their event and our Junior Girls Relay Team came 2nd - great job girls!  We are awaiting official results and will report on these in next week’s About.

SOCCER GALA DAY

We have approximately 80 students from Years 3-6 competing in the St Laurence’s School Soccer Gala Day in Dubbo tomorrow. A transport note was sent home last Friday and yesterday we sent home a further note detailing the teams and draws. We wish the following students the best of luck.  We trust you will all ‘Give Of Your Best’ and have an enjoyable day:  Amelia Altmann, Liam Cosier, Tiffany Fong, Cruz Hazelton, Billy Jeffery, Charlie Jones-Copelin, Mary Lesslie, Tom Mudford, Sterling Newton, Hannah Peart, James Riley, Aaron Robin, George Taylor, Lochie Thomas, Ryle Walker, Allie Williams, Harper Wykes, Mia Buckley, Oliver Buckley, Katie Colwell, Charlie Cruickshank, Tiaki Diamond, Regan Godber, Bella Hammond, Laycee Hazelton, Jack Howard, Rose Howard, Dusty Jordan, Maci Lomax, William Luckie, Pearl Mudford, Archie O'Connor, Alice Peart, Michael Vermeulen, Layla Walker, Olivia Yates, Darcy Adams, Mitchell Beaton, Estelle Hazelton, Charlie Howard, Mack Hutchison, Clancy Larkin, Jakirah McKenzie, Oscar Medd, Tex Mudford, Braxten Towns, Jackson Towns, Neve Walker, Caitlin Younghusband, Jocelyn Altmann, Akhiro Baker, Arabella Chandler, Oli Chandler, Heidi Colwell, Mitch Cosier, Bayley Dent, Lottie Duffy, Bella Ferguson, Claudia Harrison, Kellie Hutchison, Lily Johnson-Honey, Connor Jones-Copelin, Keaghan Lummis, Kurt McBurnie, Thomas McIsaac, Milla Morris, Harrison Newton, Jessie O'Connor, Isabelle Peart, Oliver Peart, Lucy Profke, Lucas Riley, Mackenzie Skinner, Alana Spora, Andrew Standing, Indy Thomas, Harry Thurlow, Holly Wykes, Lucy Zell.

ICAS ENGLISH COMPETITION

The ICAS English Competition will be held next Tuesday, 13 August for those children who have entered this competition.

FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION MASS

Next Thursday, 15 August, the whole school will be attending Mass at 9:00 a.m. to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption.  This is a holy day which celebrates Mary being taken into heaven body and soul.  Year 5 is preparing this special Mass.  There will be NO morning tea following the Mass, however if the Year 5 students would still like to bring a plate to share with the class, they can. 

FATHER'S DAY STALL

ONLY 3 WEEKS AWAY

Our Father’s Day Stall is only three weeks away and will be held on Friday, 30 August. Thank you to Bianca Williams who is the coordinator of the stall this year.  The stall is run along the same lines as the Mother’s Day Stall.  Each year parents are asked to donate gifts for the Father’s Day Stall.  This gives the children the opportunity to purchase a gift for their fathers and grandfathers that they have selected themselves, whilst raising money for our P&F Association. Your contributions can be sent in at any time and left at the school office.   Ideas for the stall include chocolates, keyrings, mugs, caps, pens, tools, hose fittings, car care items, beanies, socks, etc.  It would be wonderful if we could have enough gifts for the children to purchase 2 gifts each.  Please keep an eye out for presents no matter how big or small….it all helps!  If the gifts could be wrapped in clear cellophane, that would be greatly appreciated.  There will be a raffle run in conjunction with the stall.  Tickets are $2.00 each and a book of five tickets will be sent home as soon as the raffle prizes have been finalised.

MOORAMBILLA RESIDENCY CAMPS

Four of our students will participate in the 2024 Moorambilla Voices program, along with other talented singers from across the North West region of NSW, in a series of workshops that are being held during Week 5 in Baradine.  Congratulations to  Archie O'Connor and Oliver Buckley who will participate in the Birray Residency Camp from 17-20 August and Jessie O'Connor and Regan Godber who will participate in the Mirray Residency Camp from 21-24 August.

PICTURE PLATE PROJECT

We hope everyone is having a wonderful time creating their masterpieces that will soon be transformed into plates that can be treasured by loved ones for many years to come!  It's not too late for your child to create a Picture Plate.  Templates can be collected from the school office, however please ensure that the completed templates and payment are retuned to school by next Friday, 16 August.

Those students creating their design at school, will meet with Mrs McIsaac in the library during lunchtime next Monday, 12 August.  If your child is creating their picture plate at school, would you please call into the school office and arrange for payment ($25.00 per plate). 

Payments can also be made over the phone via EFTPOS.

PRIMARY LUNCHTIME CRICKET PROGRAM COMMENCES NEXT WEEK

Our weekly lunchtime sessions, with representatives from Cricket NSW, will commence next Monday, 12 August and will run each Monday for four weeks.  These sessions are only for those primary students (Years 3-6) who have registered online. This cricket program is aimed at developing cricket skills in a fun and familiar environment. It's not too late to register.  The online links are as follows:

Girls - https://www.playhq.com/cricket-australia/register/406c1e

Boys - https://www.playhq.com/cricket-australia/register/478ef8

A flyer was also sent home last week with a QR Code to register if you would prefer.

KINDER ENROLMENT INTERVIEWS

We have commenced our Kinder Enrolment Interviews.  It has been wonderful to meet with both new and existing families, as well as our new Kinder students who will commence in 2025.  These interviews will continue during Week 4.

BOOK WEEK - INFANTS DRESS UP DAY

To celebrate Book Week this year, we will be holding a 'Dress Up Day' for all infants students from Kinder to Year 2, on Friday, 23 August.  This year, the theme for Book Week is "Reading is Magic" and we would love to see the infants students come to school next Friday as their favourite book character (magical or not!).  If you experience any problems with a costume for your child, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will try to help you out.

NEW COMMITTEE REQUIRED FOR ST JOSEPH'S DEBUTANTE BALL

As previously mentioned, our current ball committee has decided that it is time for them to hand over the reins to a new committee.  We are therefore in need of volunteers to take over the running of the debutante ball to ensure that this major fundraiser for our P&F Association can continue next year.  If you can assist, would you please contact the ladies in the office as soon possible. 

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Darcy Morrissey for showing great enthusiasm during our Geography unit about the Olympics, Arthur Peart for a super response during our Literature unit, “Wombat Stew”, Angel Dinto for beautiful handwriting and Paddy O’Connor for great work building number bonds in Maths.

YEAR 1: Claire Barry for being consistently organised and ready to learn, Lachy Foran for using his imagination to create an interesting story in free writing time, Bridie Jordan for putting a big effort into writing simple sentences and Bill Pagan for completing a fantastic story board about a week in his life.

YEAR 2: Elsie Howard for working super hard to crack the spelling codes, Georgie Kirkwood for reading with beautiful expression and Lisa- Marie Vermeulen for creating a beautiful 'Eiffel Tower' artwork. 

YEAR 3: Isobel Barry for expert knowledge of fractions as whole numbers, Billy Jeffery for his enthusiasm towards our zoo presentation and Tiffany Fong for creating amazing sentences using collective nouns.

YEAR 4:  Charlie Cruickshank and Rose Howard for great work identifying equivalent fractions on a number line and Pearl Mudford and Olivia Yates for successfully using imagery in their poems titled, "Fambam".

YEAR 5: Darcy Adams for writing a Canberra Excursion recount that is full of detail and description and Jackson Towns for working hard identifying the displacement of water when adding objects into the jug.

YEAR 6: Milla Morris for great participation in class discussions and Arabella Chandler, Claudia Harrison and Holly Wykes for taking time and careful consideration with their Christmas artworks. 

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

Kinder has enjoyed another busy week of learning. We look forward each morning to the medal tally for the Australians at the Paris Olympics and are so proud of all the competitors' achievements. We even have some gold medalists in our class each day! We celebrated a beautiful whole school Mass today in honour of our first Australian saint, Mary MacKillop. She was a very courageous woman who showed compassion and love to everyone she met. During reading activities we completed a comprehension task based on the picture book, "Meg’s Veg" and chose a vegetable we thought would be good to grow. In Science we used our sense of touch to discover different objects and decide what materials they were made from. Everyone really enjoyed using the iPads and exploring the fun activities on the reading app, 'Teach Your Monster To Read'. Have a great weekend! 
Mrs Alison Newstead & Miss Lisa  Harvey

Year 1

We have had a short, yet very busy week in Year 1. Today we celebrated Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop Mass. Thank you to Year 4 for preparing a beautiful Mass to celebrate such an important role model. In English we have been revising what a narrative is and how different features are used to create suspense and entertain the reader. In Grammar, we looked at where, when and how to use adverbs in our writing and identified irregular plurals in Spelling. In Maths, we’ve had fun measuring with informal units and experimenting how we can display the data. During Science, we are continuing to explore our new unit as we investigate the different forms of energy around us and how we can detect them. We hope you have a great weekend! 
Mrs Julia Jeffery & Mrs Prue Best

Year 2

Another action packed week has flown by in Year 2! We played a couple of games in Religion where we had to follow the actions of our partner. It was difficult at times and we likened it to sometimes finding it difficult to follow Jesus when we are with our friends. We created cute little piggies during Art to follow on from reading "The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs". During Science we have been learning about natural and man made materials and their uses in our everyday lives. Congratulations to our athletes who headed off to Dubbo for Western Region on Tuesday, we are super proud of you all! We have continued to cheer on the Aussies at the Olympics and have been discussing the great role models they are for us. Have a lovely weekend! 
Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

We enjoyed a fantastic Mass today to celebrate the Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. It was lovely and we thank Year 4 for making it so special and to Father Nam for encouraging us to become saints ourselves. Congratulations go to all of those who competed in the Western Region Athletics Carnival in Dubbo. We’re sure you all had a wonderful day participating in sports you enjoy. Many of our Year 3 students are also excited about participating in the Soccer Gala Day tomorrow in Dubbo. This should be a fun day for all involved. Many thanks to those parents who are driving and fingers crossed for some nice weather. We have read Chapter 2 of “Rowan of Rin” this week and completed a character map to record the characters we have met so far and their roles in the text. We also defined the textual concept of a narrative and predicted how we thought Rowan would progress in his journey.  During Maths we explored equivalent fractions using a fraction wall. Have a lovely weekend. 
Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Swade Wilson

Year 4

What a lovely Mass we had today to celebrate the feast of St Mary MacKillop. Congratulations to all students on their reverent participation. What a mixed up week we’ve had with the pupil free day and the Western Region Athletics Carnival. We have managed some school work in between. We’ve started our new novel which is “The Callers” by Kiah Thomas. The children are enjoying reading about Quin and his family. We have started a character profile of Quin, his mother, Adriana and his sister, Davinia. We’ve also begun our new Maths unit, 'Exploring Time'. Good luck to those representing our school at the Soccer Gala Day tomorrow. I’m sure it will be lots of fun! Have a great weekend! 
Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

What a great week here in Year 5! We started the week with the Western Region Athletics Carnival. What a great day out on the field and track, everyone out did themselves and ‘Gave Of Their Best’ the whole day. Well done to all those who attended and competed. In Science we are learning all about the different types of forces and energy. We discussed how the Olympians use different forces and energy to perform to the best of their ability in each event. We also looked at how two forces can work at the same time to either attract or repel each other. In our novel study we looked at the different characteristics of our main two characters. We have only just been introduced to them but can already tell so much about their character and how their life events have affected them. In Maths we are learning about capacity. We had fun working with lemonade cans and bottles and worked out how many we need to get to 1.5L. We also spent some time measuring the capacity of different baking tins, working out which one would be best for a chocolate cake recipe. On Friday we are heading into Dubbo for the Soccer Gala Day. We are looking forward to having the day out of the classroom and playing a great game with our friends. Have a wonderful weekend! 
Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 6

We have had another busy week in Year 6 this week! Well done to our athletes who competed at the Western Region Athletics Carnival on Tuesday - you are all super stars! This week we have been working on our Christmas Art, and everyone should be very proud of their efforts. These will be completed and then judged for entry into further competitions with other Catholic schools in the diocese and across the state. We have been focusing on the importance of women in Religion, and celebrating Mary, Mother of God, as a role model for all believers. This has led perfectly into learning more about St Mary MacKillop and it was very special to celebrate her with Year 4 and the whole school this morning at Mass.  We have been focusing on figurative and descriptive language and text structure as we reflect on the Canberra Excursion. In Science, we have been learning about different types of energy and about energy transfer and energy transformation. We are all looking forward to having a fun day tomorrow at the Soccer Gala Day- GO JOEYS! 
Mrs Meichelle Schier, Mrs Donna Colwell, Mrs Haylee Barry

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD

eSafety Commissioner Cyber safety Talk

As children begin to navigate the online world, they need to know how to make decisions around consent and boundaries. The Council of Catholic School Parents is hosting a FREE 30 minute webinar on Tuesday, 20 August from 7:30 - 8:00 p.m.  During the webinar, strategies for parents and carers will be outlined, as well as support for those hard-to-have conversations. This webinar is suitable for parents and carers of children in primary school.

To register, please click on the following link:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1244428795787444059

Service NSW Aboriginal Community Hub Day 

Service NSW Community Hub Day has organised an Aboriginal for Gilgandra on Tuesday 27 August 10am-3pm at Gilgandra Shire Hall.