ABOUT - Term 4 Week 4 - 7 November 2024

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.

YEAR 2 RECONCILIATION

Year 2 is busy preparing to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a special time for us to admit when we have gone wrong in our lives and say sorry to God.  It helps deepen our relationship with God and helps us grow to become better people.  Parents of those children making their Reconciliation for the first time can take their child to Reconciliation next Tuesday, 12 November at 3:45 pm or 5:00 p.m.  To celebrate this special sacrament, Year 2 will prepare the Mass on Sunday, 24 November at 9:30 a.m.  This is a special time for Year 2 and we keep all these children in our prayers as they continue their faith journey.

FANTASTIC FETE!

What a wonderful afternoon we had last Friday at the St Joey’s School Fete.  The weather was spectacular and it was great to see a large crowd of both children and adults enjoying the activities and the variety of stalls, whilst raising money for our P&F Association.  Many thanks to the fete coordinators, Prue Starr and Claire Harvey, who did an amazing job bringing the fete together.  Thank you also to the stall coordinators who organised the various stalls, the families from our school who donated so many goods and their time to ensure such a successful fete and to the Gilgandra community for attending the fete, purchasing tickets and supporting our school.

COW PAT LOTTO WINNER

Congratulations to Ryan Ferguson, the lucky winner of $1,000.00 in our Cow Pat Lotto!  Thank you to all of our school families and the Gilgandra community for supporting this wonderful P&F fundraising initiative.

ICAS MATHS COMPETITION

Congratulations to the following students who were presented with certificates at assembly on Tuesday for their achievements in the ICAS Maths Competition held last term:

CREDIT:  Tiffany F, George T, Allie Claire W, Kellie H, Thomas M

MERIT:  Alice P

ICAS SPELLING COMPETITION

Congratulations to the following students who were presented with certificates at assembly on Wednesday for their achievements in the ICAS Spelling Competition held last term:

CREDIT:  Holly W

MERIT:  Thomas M, George T

DIOCESAN RELIGION TEST

There were some excellent results achieved in the annual Bathurst Diocesan Religion Test which is sat by all Year 6 students in the diocese.  Our students who excelled included: 

High Distinction:  Tom M, Lottie D, Lucy Z, Indy T

Distinction:  Mitch C, Heidi C, Claudia H, Arabella C, Kurt M

Credit:  Isabelle P, Oliver P, Lucas R, Bella F, Milla M, Mackenzie S, Lucy P, Alana S, Harrison N, Lily J, Akhiro B, Oli C, Bayley D, Chloe A

NSW PSSA CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIPS

Lucy Zell, Claudia Harrison and Heidi Colwell competed at the NSW PSSA Cricket Championships in Bathurst last week. The girls played some amazing cricket with lots of catches and wickets being taken and some nail-biting finishes. The Polding team had a strong win against North Coast, bowling them out for just 19 runs. They played 6 games in total and ended up finishing 6th overall from the 13 teams competing. It was a wonderful achievement for the girls to reach this level of competition! 

'MY FRIEND FRANKLIN'

On Tuesday our Years 5 and 6 students participated in the final session of the 'inclusion awareness' program run by Social Futures, where facilitator, Cody Jones, shared his experiences growing up with a disability.  It was wonderful for our students to be part of this program and be able to explore and discuss what it means to be inclusive of disability and to ask questions.  

KINDER TRANSITION DAYS

The first of our three Kinder Transition Days was held today.  The second transition day will be next Wednesday, 13 November and the final transition day the following Tuesday, 19 November.  These days assist the children’s transition from preschool to Kindergarten and we look forward to welcoming our Kinder class of 2025 back to big school.

INFANTS SPORTS CARNIVAL

The weather was clear this morning allowing our Infants Sports Carnival to finally take place. There were lots of fun races and all of the children had a wonderful time.  Many thanks to the staff for organising and running this carnival and to all the parents, family and friends who came along to cheer on the children.  Go Joey’s!

REMEMBRANCE DAY MASS - YEAR 5

Next Monday, 11 November - 10:30 a.m.

Our Year 5 students are preparing a Remembrance Day Mass to be celebrated in St Joseph’s Church next Monday, 11 November at 10:30 a.m.  All are most welcome to attend.  Morning tea will follow the service so please bring a plate to share. 

Our Year 6 students will attend the cenotaph and participate in the service organised by the Returned Services League.  ~Lest We Forget~  

KINDER LITURGY

Next Thursday, 14 November - 10:30 a.m.

Kinder will celebrate a class Liturgy next Thursday, 14 November 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 follow the Liturgy.

DIOCESAN SUMMER SPORTS TRIALS

We wish the following students the best of luck as they compete in the Diocesan Summer Sports Trials to be held in Dubbo next Thursday, 19 and Friday, 20 November:  Oscar Medd, Tex Mudford, Mitch Beaton (Cricket), Clancy Larkin, Jakirah McKenzie, Tiaki Diamond, Mack Hutchison (Touch) and Neve Walker (Tennis).

SCHOOL BASED SWIMSAFE LESSONS

Our school is once again participating in a school based swimsafe program run by Gilgandra Learn to Swim.  These lessons are for children from Kinder to Year 2 and are held during school time with qualified Austswim instructors.  The children will be involved in the swimming lessons for nine days from Monday, 2 December to Friday, 13 December.  Please note that children will NOT participate in swim lessons on Thursday, 12 December as this is the day of our school pool parties.

We are pleased to advise that this year the school will be covering half the cost of the swimming lessons this year, meaning our infants families will only need to pay $43.00 (this does not include pool entry). 

This year, enrolments must be done online by clicking on the below link.  Please ensure this is done by Friday, 22 November.  When completing the online form, please ensure that you select the "School Swimming Program" option under the "Program Type" heading.

Please pay the sum of $43.00 directly to our school, by cash or cheque. Payments may also be made via BPay or Direct Deposit and should be received at school no later than Friday, 22 November.

We hope that through this program the children will enjoy participating and improve their water confidence and swimming skills. 

CANTEEN HELPER STILL NEEDED FOR WEDNESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER

We are still in need of a canteen helper for Wednesday, 20 November.  If you can assist, please contact the ladies in the office on 6847 2828.

POSITION VACANT - FINANCE & CLERICAL ASSISTANT

33 hours per fortnight, commencing Term 1 2025

Applications are invited for the above temporary/part time position.  The finance & clerical assistant plays a crucial role in shaping the first impressions of our school, serving as the initial point of contact for students, parents, and visitors alike. Positioned at the heart of the school’s daily administration activities, this position reports directly to and collaborates closely with the Principal to ensure a welcoming and efficient front office environment.  Duties include managing phone calls and emails, reception tasks, assisting with administrative tasks, providing support to students and staff.

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.

Further information about this role is contained in previous newsletters or 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

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Molly Armstrong for writing a great recount of her weekend, Chase Copelin for trying hard to elaborate ideas during Writing activities, Kobi Hammond for quick recall of sight words in Phonic activities and Teddy Kelly for working well during Science lessons.

YEAR 1: Thomas Riley for bringing a smile into our classroom every morning, Bill Pagan for always “Giving of His Best”, Becky Hutchison for working well in Phonics and Claire Barry for being an attentive and capable worker.

YEAR 2: Lola Newton, Billie Toomey and Piper van den Ende for working hard to learn trading in Maths.

YEAR 3: James Riley for great application and effort towards class work, Amelia Altmann  for "Giving of Her Best" with each week’s Spelling words, Lochie Thomas for "Giving of His Best" with each week's Grammar topic and Madeleine Foran for super work with the 'Chance' unit in Mathematics. 

YEAR 4:  Oliver Buckley and Tiaki Diamond  for writing entertaining recounts of ‘Rising Water’, Maci-Jae Lomax for enthusiastic participation in Spelling and Layla Walker for a great effort in Maths Operations.

YEAR 5:  Clancy Larkin for going out of her way to help her peers and teacher in the classroom and Tex Mudford and Oscar Medd for great sewing of their Remembrance Day poppies. 

YEAR 6:  Isabelle Peart for fantastic understanding of personification, onomatopoeia and oxymorons, Chloe Alexander for successfully mastering long division, Lottie Duffy for creating a passionate and well-informed discussion on the impacts of social media and Harrison Newton for a consistent effort in all class tasks and discussions.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

It was a fabulous morning of fun, races, cheering and giving of our best at the Infants Athletics Carnival this morning. Thank you to everyone who was able to come along and enjoy the morning. It was great to go to the pool for a well earned swim during Sport. In the classroom this week we have been busy learning about words that begin with the ‘wh’ sound - wheel, whiskers, whales, just to name a few. In Science we continued looking at the push and pull forces of toys and then completed an activity listing things that move in the classroom, on our playground and outside our school. We have worked hard to learn more about telling the time on an analog clock and a digital clock as well as practising our ‘teen’ numbers. We are preparing for our Kinder Liturgy on 'Creation'  and we hope to see lots of family and friends at the church next Thursday. If you still have a borrowed costumed from the concert at home please return it next week. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Mrs Alison Newstead & Miss Lisa  Harvey

Year 1

What a busy day we have had today! We started the day with the infants sports carnival. The sportsmanship shown by all the students was commendable. Year 1 also enjoyed a lovely liturgy, celebrating the parable of the Good Shepherd. It was wonderful to see so many family and friends at both events. We also enjoyed a fabulous fete last Friday. It looked like the slime run was a lot of fun! Thank you to all the parents who helped run the stalls, our fete wouldn't be possible without your help. In English we have written some great complex sentences, remembering to join a dependent clause to an independent clause using a comma and in Spelling, we continued learning about past tense verbs. During Maths we have explored volume and capacity. We have used different units to measure the volume of various containers and discussed how we choose appropriate units. We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Julia Jeffery & Mrs Prue Best

Year 2

Another big week has flown by in Year 2. It was an action packed day today with swimming and the athletics carnival. Thank you to our family and friends who were able to come and cheer us on this morning. A note was sent home at the start of the week outlining the Reconciliation program. If you haven’t returned the permission notes can you please do so ASAP so I can organise readings etc for children during the Mass. Our Maths activities have been very hands on this week as we continue to work on chance experiments and the likeliness of an event occurring. We have been writing narratives this week about finding a treasure map. We look forward to sharing these with you in our portfolios at the end of the year. Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

We enjoyed cooling off in the water at the pool today for Sport. We were also excited to see the new Kinder children for 2025 on the playground preparing for their transition to Joey's next year. This week in English we explored the textual concepts of theme and topic by exploring how images can represent the different themes from "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" and writing a paragraph that explains how the image represents that theme. In Maths we collected data on how many letters in the surname of each student in the class, then drew a dot plot to represent this information. We also constructed a table, chart or graph to display the way students traveled to school. During Religion we read and discussed Luke 6: 27-38 where Jesus talks about love. We then wrote a blessing prayer for the classroom and included in it one thing that we wanted God to help us with in regard to improving our relationships with others. We wish everyone a top weekend!
Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Swade Wilson

Year 4

What a fabulous time we had at the fete on Friday. A huge thank you to our fete coordinators and all the parents who helped to make it such an enjoyable day. We used our experience at the fete to write a recount, trying to remember all the elements needed for a successful text. In Maths we have been learning to construct and interpret data displays with many-to-one scales. We have learnt what is needed to construct a column graph and we also learnt how to create a data table in Google Sheets, then use this to create a column graph. During Geography we read information about looking after our beaches and we created a column graph on the amount of litter dropped at a beach. Just a reminder that all notes for the Lake Burrendong Excursion need to be completed including the online registration which has been emailed to all parents. Have a great weekend!
Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

We have had a great week here in Year 5! In Science with Miss Harvey we continued our unit on matter. We explored the three different states of matter and identified different properties of each and how the molecules change into solids, liquids and gases. We had a few sad chapters in our novel this week. One of our characters passed away. She was portrayed as the mother figure in the novel and now we are left wondering who is going to care for Ivan and Ruby. In Maths we are exploring 24 hour time. We played time dominoes and learnt about the different time zones and completed an activity converting time across Australia. We have been busy preparing for our Remembrance Day Mass and thinking about those who fought for our country. Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 6

Our Science unit this term is Natural Disasters and we have explored the causes and effects of earthquakes. We are also completing a mini-research activity to find facts about a particular earthquake we have had in the past. During Maths we continued to add and subtract decimals and consolidated our knowledge of 12 and  24-hour time. Direct and indirect speech is our focus in Grammar and in Text Types we are looking at explanations with the students researching a topic of their choice. During Religion we are learning about the purpose, ritual and symbols associated with the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. We continue to explore the wonderful continent of Antarctica and the environmental conditions experienced there. We all had a great time at the fete last week. A big thank you to all the parents and friends who put together a wonderful afternoon. Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Meichelle Schier, Mrs Donna Colwell, Mrs Haylee Barry

ALTAR SERVERS ROSTER

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD

DUBBO DISTRICT DEAF CLUB AGM

Secretary of Dubbo District Deaf Club extends an open invitation to everyone who would like to join their group and be part of a wonderful community for hard of hearing and deaf people.  Their AGM and general meeting will be held on Monday, 18 November and the club would love to see new and past members join them and help support their community.  Many of you would know one of their projects- the Hear our Heart Ear Bus. Another of their projects is 'Family Camp'. Next year the club is planning a family camp.  For the meeting link please contact Peter Pringle by emailing: dubbodistrictdeafclubsecretary@gmail.com.