ABOUT - Term 4 Week 6 - 21 November 2024

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

You don't need to be perfect to inspire others.
Let people get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.

DIOCESAN SUMMER SPORTS TRIALS

Congratulations to those Years 4 and 5 students who represented our school at the Diocesan Summer Sports Trials held in Dubbo last Thursday and Friday. Well done to Oscar M, Tex M, Mitch B (Cricket), Clancy L, Jakirah M, Tiaki D, Mack H (Touch) and Neve W (Tennis).  Special mention to Tex who was selected to compete in the Possibles vs Probables match.  Well done to all of our competitors!

KINDER TRANSITION DAYS

On Tuesday, we held the third and final Kinder Transition Day to assist the children’s transition from preschool to Kindergarten.  It has been wonderful welcoming our Kinder class of 2025 into the Joey's family and we can't wait to see them back at St Joey's in 2025.

NOVEMBER P & F MEETING

Our final P & F Meeting for 2024 was held on Tuesday evening.  Once again, I would like to thank and congratulate all members of the P & F Association for the wonderful contribution made to our school in 2024.  A special thank you to President – Jodie Peart, Vice Presidents – Grant Zell and Scott Beaton, Secretary – Chris Riley, Treasurer – Simone Beaton and all those who attended meetings during the year.    Also, a huge vote of thanks to those who have coordinated fundraising activities, those who have assisted at these activities and helped out in the canteen.

YEAR 2 CHRIST THE KING MASS

Our Year 2 class is preparing Mass in St Joseph’s Church this Sunday, 24 November at 9:30 a.m. in celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation they received earlier this month.  Our whole school family is invited to join with Year 2 on this special occasion.

'PUFF & BLOW' MUSIC DEMONSTRATION

Macquarie Conservatorium of Music

 Ms Bella Fox from the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music will conduct a ‘Puff & Blow’ music demonstration at school next Tuesday, 26 November at 2:00 p.m.  Bella, together with some of her current students, will demonstrate a variety of instruments for the children in Years 2-5.  Parents are also welcome to attend.  A note has been sent home today containing details of how to enrol your child in music lessons at school in the event that he/she is interested in learning an instrument next year.  

The Conservatorium hasn't been able to provide us with details of the 2025 fees, however they have advised that the fees will be similar to the 2024 fees as noted on the flyer.

We have been informed that Bella is also happy to offer lessons on "string instruments", meaning students can choose to learn  Brass, Wind or String instruments.

YEAR 1 POLICE STATION VISIT

Our Year 1 students are looking forward to their visit to the Police Station next Wednesday, 27 November.  This excursion is part of the Year 1 Geography unit, ‘People and Places’.  We thank Sergeant Berryman for organising this visit.

ST JOHN'S COLLEGE ORIENTATION DAY

Those students from our Year 6 class who will be attending St John's College Dubbo next year, will be participating in their first Orientation Day next Wednesday, 27 November from 9:30 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. at the college.  We hope the students have a great day at their new school and enjoy meeting Year 6 children from other schools.

YEAR 4 LAKE BURRENDONG EXCURSION

The excitement is building in Year 4 as their major excursion to Lake Burrendong Sport & Recreation Centre is approaching.  The excursion is next Thursday, 28 and Friday, 29 November and the children will enjoy many activities including kayaking, free time in the pool, archery and slip ‘n’ slide.  The children will be back at school on Friday in time for the school buses.

KNOWLEDGE EXPLOSION

The Knowledge Explosion, for all children in Years 3-6, will be held in Week 8 on Wednesday, 4 December and Week 9 on Wednesday, 11 December between 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.  The Knowledge Explosion exposes the children to new activities that they may not otherwise have a chance to experience.  This year the activities include:   earring making, cooking, aqua aerobics, boxing, lawn bowls, sand art, painting, Christmas craft and  Meccano.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS ON THE CASTLREAGH

Our school has again been invited to perform at the Gilgandra Christmas Carols to be held on the lawn of the Cooee Heritage Centre on Sunday, 8 December. 

The evening will run a little differently this year, with the following changes:

• There will NOT be a sausage sizzle.  Please bring a picnic dinner, blanket, chair and bug spray.
• From 5:00 p.m. there will be many fun family activities including a Nativity Scene with live animals and actors, a hands-on carpenter’s workshop and special guests, Glenn & Leanne Coombs, who will tell the Christmas story, through voice and painting.  Families are invited to walk around and view the many attractions before the carols commence.  There will be ice blocks, lollies and chips for the children.
• The Carols will commence at 6:00 p.m. 

If you would like your child/children to join our choir please fill in the tear-off slip that was sent home yesterday and return it to school by next Thursday, 28 November.

LEAVING FAMILIES DINNER

Those families leaving St Joseph’s this year are invited to our Leaving Families Dinner to be held on Thursday, 12 December at 5:30 for 6:00 p.m. in the school grounds.  This is our way of saying thank you to those families for their involvement with the school over the years.  So, bring the family for tea and please feel free to stay on while the children go off to the social.  An invitation was posted to our leaving families on Tuesday.  For catering purposes please RSVP to the school on 6847 2828 by Friday, 6 December.

K-6 SCHOOL SOCIAL

Thursday, 12 December - 7:00 p.m.

All students are invited to our school social to be held at the Gilgandra High School Hall on Thursday, 12 December from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.  Parents are most welcome to stay or to leave their children at the social and collect them at 9:00 p.m.

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 end of year school pool parties.

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

As mentioned in last week's newsletter, 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). 

Thank you to all the families who have already registered their child online for the lessons.  Please don't forget to also pay the sum of $43.00 directly to our school, by cash or cheque. Payments may also be made via BPay, Direct Deposit or via the Compass portal, no later than tomorrow Friday, 22 November.  If anyone has any queries regarding payment, please contact the office.

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

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.

Applications close next Tuesday, 26 November 2024.

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: Kyro McKenzie for good listening and participation in Science activities, Jazmyn Aberley for an improved effort to complete her work carefully, Jackie Gronow for beautiful and expressive reading and Daniel Herbig for trying hard in addition and subtraction tasks. 

YEAR 1: Chase Hodges for using his imagination to create fascinating stories, Tess Howard for happily following class rules, Liam Mellor for treating others with care and respect and Duncan Semmler for consistently  creating fantastic artworks.

YEAR 2: Annabelle Foran for always being very prepared for ‘News’ and presenting it with confidence, Caroline Taylor for completing all tasks with care and a positive attitude and Edward Woodrow for a super effort to improve his swimming. 

YEAR 3: Harper Wykes for great enthusiasm and expression when she reads each day and Billy Jeffery and Ryle Walker for a beautiful description of Australia in their ‘My Country’ poem. 

YEAR 4:  Lleyton Lummis for always “Giving of His Best”, Bella Hammond for working quietly and conscientiously in class, Rose Howard for working diligently to complete assessment tasks and Jack Howard for great results in our Maths testing.

YEAR 5:  Chloe Heffer  for fantastic work multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, Jakirah McKenzie for consistently maintaining her high standard of book work and Braxten Towns for writing a well informed paragraph from the perspective of 'Bob the Dog' in our class novel. 

YEAR 6: Andrew Standing for confidently sharing his written passage on 'homelessness', Bayley Dent for a conscientious effort to produce an informative explanation, Heidi Colwell for working carefully to answer questions accurately in Maths and Holly Wykes for consistently challenging herself during Mathematics and asking questions to clarify information when required.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

Kinder has been working hard to finish testing in English and Maths this week. We used the iPads to complete Essential Assessment components for Numeracy. We also continued looking at data and reading information from graphs as well as revising 2D shapes. The theme in our Literature unit has been sentence structure and sequencing the story of "Koala Lou" written by Mem Fox. Everyone has worked really hard to use capital letters, commas and full stops during the writing sessions. In Religion we looked at the story of Noah’s Ark and completed activities. The ‘an' and 'ap' sounds have been the focus in Spelling this week. Keep up the great reading at home everyone and have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Alison Newstead & Miss Lisa  Harvey

Year 1

This week in English Year 1 has started a new unit of work based on the book, "Boy". We enjoyed reading the story of the boy with the dancing hands and even learnt some auslan signs to communicate without using our voices. In Science we planted some bean seeds and are excited to watch them grow over the next few weeks. During Religion we learnt about the Annunciation and talked about when the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary to give her the great news that she was to have a baby. On Wednesday we enjoyed the school performance, The Super Science Circus Show. It was a fun way to learn about gravity, the water cycle and they even measured Claire’s scream in decibels! We are all looking forward to our excursion to the Police Station next Wednesday!  Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Julia Jeffery & Mrs Prue Best

Year 2

The excitement levels are high with only 3 sleeps until the Year 2 ‘Christ the King’ Mass. I am looking forward to seeing you at the church on Sunday at 9:20am and celebrating this special feast day with you. The children have been working creatively to decorate their crowns to brighten our church. Year 2 has continued to work diligently on assessments this week with very pleasing results. During Science we have been learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly and other living things. Next week Miss Harvey will be showing the children photos of the teachers when they were babies and they will play a guessing game trying to work out which teacher belongs to which baby photo!  The students will be looking at how we have grown and changed. Have a restful weekend!
Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

Thank you for coming to celebrate our lovely Mass on 'Peace and Friendship' this morning.  The Year 3 students worked hard to prepare for our Mass and enjoyed coming up with acts of kindness and photographing them for the reflection. In class we’ve learnt about the letter patterns for the ‘f’ phoneme such as f, ph, gh and ff. We completed the PAT Reading and PAT Comprehension standardised tests and we also completed DIBELS testing where we saw great improvement in our reading fluency and accuracy. During Maths we began a new unit on Multiplicative relations and we started this by learning that a multiple is the result when you multiply a whole number with another whole number. We listed the multiples of 2, 4 and 5 and discussed what we noticed about the pattern. We also investigated the result of multiplying by one and zero. Swimming was a lot of fun for Sport this afternoon. We wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Swade Wilson

Year 4

The excitement is building as our Lake Burrendong Excursion is getting closer. A note was sent home earlier this week outlining what the children are required to take. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. We only have one chapter left to read of our novel. This week we are writing an alternate ending for the chapter, ‘Rising Water’ and trying to include all the textual features we have been learning about. We have also been having many discussions around friendship. This week we watched a webinar on how to handle mean moments. It highlighted the difference between rude, mean behaviour and bullying. Often we experience rude or mean comments from others which isn’t necessarily bullying. It highlighted that many of us are also guilty of making rude, mean comments at times. It provided us with some practical ways we can handle such comments without causing more drama. We all enjoyed the Science Circus performance yesterday. Have a great weekend!
Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

We have had a great week in Year 5. In Maths we have been looking at coordinates and working on plotting them correctly. We even played battleships to help us remember. We have begun working on our leadership speeches and Mr Gibbons spoke to us about what leadership looks like and how we can be great leaders next year. The speeches are slowly but surely coming together and we can't wait to deliver them to everyone. During Geography we learnt about some of the animals that live in Antarctica and how their bodies cope with the cold climate. We also looked at the food chain of Antarctic animals and learnt that plankton is at the bottom. On Wednesday we all went to the Super Science Circus Show. It was fabulous. The performer carried out some amazing Science experiments which we all really enjoyed. Have a wonderful weekend.
Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 6

This week we continued to enjoy our classmates' explanation reports. So far we have learnt about the formation of diamonds and opals, why our lips are red, why the ocean is salty, the seasons, and how chocolate is made. Through the message of Jesus’ parables, the students are recording what they think Jesus is trying to teach us in the story and how they can live this example in today's world. During Maths we have consolidated our knowledge of equivalent fractions and attempted to solve word problems involving fractions. In Grammar we investigated the five different types of abbreviations and spoke about consent and how to protect yourself in PD. On Wednesday afternoon, we really enjoyed the  Super Science Circus Show and we were all amazed by the tricky magic of Science! During Art we have been working collaboratively to create colourful Christmas pictures to decorate our classroom. Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Meichelle Schier, Mrs Donna Colwell, Mrs Haylee Barry

ALTAR SERVERS ROSTER

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD

Community Hub Day

Next Tuesday, 26 November a Community Hub Day will be held at the Gilgandra Shire Hall, featuring various services that will benefit people of all ages. Among the services attending, Transport for NSW will provide child seat fittings and information on safe driving programs. Additionally, the following representatives will be in attendance:

• Service Australia (assisting with inquiries)
• Legal Aid (providing information and support)
• NSW Health (offering health information)
• Department of Education (offering information)
• Orana Support Service (offering information)
• Seniors Rights Service (for inquiries)
• Salvation Army (providing free Money Care programs)
• Mission Australia (offering support programs)
• Marathon Health (providing support)
• RFDS (offering information and support)
• Red Cross (providing support)
• Births, Deaths and Marriages (offering free birth certificates)
• Benevolent Society (providing support and information)
• Uniting (offering support and information)
• Nguumambiny Indigenous Corporation (providing cultural support and information)
• VERTO (informing about local programs)

The day will be filled with free resources, fun activities, and valuable information with a free BBQ lunch.