ABOUT - Term 1 Week 3 - 20 February 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

You look best when you wear your smile.
There is no beauty like one that comes from inside you.

VALE ANDREW McCUTCHEON

We were deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic passing of Andrew McCutcheon on Friday afternoon.  Andrew, his sisters, Emma and Kate and brother, Simon all attended St Joseph's School, as did his mother and grandmother.  During his time at our school, Andrew served as vice-captain in Year 6, and in 2006, he was elected captain of Gilgandra High School—an acknowledgment of the respect and admiration he earned from his peers.  Andrew was a remarkable young man who embodied the values of our school throughout his life. He lived with enthusiasm, kindness, and a strong work ethic, always ready to lend a helping hand. His natural ability to connect with young people made him an exceptional teacher, and his warmth and generosity left a lasting impact on those around him.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Andrew's wife, Jen, and their two children, Evie and Annie, as well as his parents, Di and Ian, his siblings, Emma, Kate, and Simon, his grandparents, Ron and Pat, and his extended family and many friends. Andrew will be greatly missed, but his spirit will live on in the hearts of all who knew and loved him.

PEPPERS & KURRAS - JOINT CHAMPIONS!

It was another sensational swimming carnival held at the Gilgandra Pool last Thursday.  Congratulations to all our students for their magnificent swimming and school spirit.  You were all fantastic.  It was with much excitement when it was announced that we had a tie for first, for the first time ever!  Congratulations to our joint champions, Peppers and Kurras!  Many thanks to those parents, family and friends who helped.  Without your support these types of activities do not happen.  A huge vote of thanks to our staff for preparing the carnival and ensuring that everything ran so smoothly.  We would also like to thank Ty Sutherland and Chloe Mudford for their assistance leading up to and during the carnival itself. 

WESTERN REGION SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent St Joey’s at the Western Regional Swimming Carnival being held in Wellington next Thursday, 27 February:  Clark Baker, Jock Cruickshank, Duncan Semmler, Tess Howard, Claire Barry, Thomas Colwell, Samson Starr, Molly Adams, Piper van den Ende, Caroline Taylor, Lochie Thomas, George Taylor, Sterling Newton, Hannah Peart, Harper Wykes, Mary Lesslie, Charlie Cruickshank, Archie O’Connor, Will Luckie, Layla Walker, Rose Howard, Maci-Jae Lomax, Mitch Beaton, Ryan Faulder, Oscar Medd, Chloe Heffer, Estelle Hazelton, Caitlin Younghusband, Darcy Adams, Madeleine Foran, Dusty Jordan, Alice Peart, Katie Colwell, Jakirah McKenzie, Bill Pagan, Tiffany Fong, Clancy Larkin, Bella Hammond, Amelia Altmann.

INTERNATIONAL ANGELMAN DAY

We had a great day at school last Friday when we all arrived dressed in BLUE as we showed our support for International Angelman Day.  Thank you to all of our families for your generous donations.  We managed to raise $331.00 for the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics to help find a cure for this disease.

P & F ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Many thanks to those who attended our P & F AGM held at school on Tuesday.  I am sure the P & F will again be a vital member of the St Joey’s family this year.  

Congratulations to our elected office bearers:

President: Jodie Peart 
Vice Presidents: Claire Harvey and Scott Beaton
Secretary: Jess Morrissey
Treasurer: Simone Beaton

Just a reminder you are all invited to our P & F Meetings.  There are only five more meetings this year.  The meetings go for an hour and then everyone is invited for refreshments. So come along and have a good time while supporting your P & F Association.

2025 DIOCESAN SPELLING BEE

The Diocesan Spelling Bee is a fun and educational way for students to engage in spelling.  Children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 are eligible to enter the competition.  There are several stages to the competition.  Selection trials will be held at school next Monday, 24 February where children sit a written test.  There are two divisions (Years 3/4 and Years 5/6).   This test is voluntary.  A school spelling bee for the top ten spellers in each division will be held on Monday, 24 March (Years 3/4) and  Wednesday, 26 March (Years 5/6) with the top two students from each division progressing to Stage 3 which is the Diocesan Spelling Bee to be held in Wellington next term.

2025 SCHOOL FEES

The 2025 school fees are currently being prepared by the school accountants at the Diocesan Office in Bathurst.  When they are posted, they will appear on your Compass portal.  Fee Statements will be emailed to all families next Friday, 28 February.  The full year's fees will appear on the statements, however, fees may be paid in three equal instalments, with the first instalment due on Friday, 14 March.  Fees may be paid by credit card via the Compass Portal, by BPay or Direct Deposit, the BPay details will be on the Statements and direct deposit details may be obtained from the school office.  Cheques and cash will also be accepted.  Fee relief remains available for those parents who are facing financial hardship.  If you have not done so already, please contact the school for a Fee Relief Application.  Just a reminder that these forms need to be renewed each year, so if you have had fee relief in the past, it is only valid for that calendar year.  You must complete a new Application for Fee Relief each year.  There are also Health Care Card and Pensioner concessions available.  Catholic education will not be denied to any family due to financial difficulty.  If anyone is having difficulty paying school fees, please make an appointment to see Mr Gibbons.  Weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments can also be arranged.  

MOORAMBILLA WORKSHOPS

Moorambilla Voices Artistic Director, Michelle Leonard is currently touring the north western region of NSW facilitating free workshops for school students in Years 3-12.  In each workshop the children are taught music theory and sight-singing and participate in movement, drumming and percussion.  A workshop will be held at our school next Wednesday, 26 February for all students in Years 3-6.  From these workshops gifted children who show outstanding natural capacity are selected to participate in Moorambilla Voices' annual program. The program consists of residential camps in August and September where students work alongside professional musicians and composers to create original compositions and culminates in a concert at the Dubbo Regional Theatre.

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

We will once again be participating in the Clean Up Australia Day campaign this year.  We will be collecting rubbish in the area bordered by Chelmsford Avenue, the railway line, Warren Road and Wamboin Street on Friday,28 February.  Bags and gloves will be supplied by the Council.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

School photos will be taken on Monday, 3 March (Week 5).  Each child was given an envelope last week with full details regarding price and products available. To order your photos online go to www.advancedlife.com.au before photo day and enter our school code: 7Q9 5JT KQZ at the top of the page.  Then just follow the prompts.  You do not need to return your child’s envelope if ordering online.  You can also make payments by cash or cheque which must be returned in the envelopes provided.  A separate envelope must be used for each child.  ALL PHOTOS NEED TO BE PAID FOR PRIOR TO PHOTO DAY.  The money for photos may be returned to school at any time.  If you have more than one child at school and would like a family photo taken, special envelopes are available from the office.

GRANDPARENTS DAY

One of our most anticipated and exciting days of the year is approaching and that is when we host Grandparents Day during Week 5, on Thursday, 6 March.  Everyone is invited from the very young to the very old to celebrate Grandparents Day with us.  The day begins at 10:30 a.m. with morning tea in the weather shed. Following morning tea the students of St Joseph’s will entertain you with a mini concert.  To conclude the activities everyone is invited to inspect the classrooms.  So, if you have a grandma, grandpa, nan, pop, an elderly next door neighbour or in fact know any person, young or old, please invite them to our Grandparents Day.  We will be needing cakes and slices etc. for morning tea, so please bring a plate.   

REMINDER ABOUT NUT ALLERGIES

As some of our students have a ‘nut’ allergy, we ask that you refrain from sending nuts and nut products as part of school snacks and lunches. We appreciate your help in this matter.

FLEXISCHOOLS ORDERS

Just a reminder that the cut-off time for all Flexischools recess and lunch orders is 9:00 a.m.  Please ensure that all orders have been placed prior to 9:00 a.m.

CANTEEN HELPERS

Thank you to all of our families who have offered to help in the canteen this term.  A paper copy of the Roster was sent home yesterday and a digital copy is below.  We still have 5 shifts to fill this term.  If you can help out, would you please complete the note that was sent home last week, or alternatively click on the below link and complete the form.

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Noah Weston for being a sensational syllable sleuth in Pre Lit, Colt Budsworth for writing a super story about an alligator and Angus Foran for great use of attributes to sort and classify objects in Maths.

YEAR 1: Jordee Burgers and Saddler Newton for excellent work modelling and identifying odd and even numbers and Evelyn Easman and Eliza Hancock for adding great detail to their seasonal trees.

YEAR 2: Jock Cruickshank and Chase Hodges for a great effort during Problem A Day and Operations, Lachlan Foran for a great explanation of the water cycle in Science and Flynn Weston for his cheery smile each day.

YEAR 3: Samuel Luckie for fantastic work identifying speech and adding the correct punctuation to sentences, Indiana Jeffery for fantastic work weaving a tricky Valentines Day heart and Piper van den Ende for super contributions to our  'Fantastic Mr Fox' class discussions.

YEAR 4: Manu Binu for asking for help when needed, Amelia Altmann for being a cheerful and polite class member, Billy Jeffery for a diligent approach towards his work and Charlie Jones-Copelin for his valued contributions to our novel discussions in class.

YEAR 5: Tiaki Diamond for fantastic contributions to class discussions and Alice Peart for an excellent start to her Literacy Pro goal.

YEAR 6: Oscar Medd for taking pride in his work and producing neat and tidy bookwork, Neve Walker for great comprehension and recall of historical facts in fluency passages and Clancy Larkin for being a helpful, kind and courteous member of her class.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

This week in Kinder our Spelling focus has been the sound “Mm”. We brainstormed things that started with this sound and then located the sound in words using our ‘Sound Hound’.  During Maths we made groups of objects from 1 to 5 and used our fingers to represent the numerals. Our Reading activities have been based on “Humpty Dumpty” and we painted a great picture of this famous egg, cut him up and tried to put him back together again!  Our PDH focus is kindness and we have discussed ways we can show kindness to others at school and at home. During Science we have been observing the weather and drawing the symbols to match the types of weather we have been experiencing.  Just a reminder that the children need a paint shirt. This can be an old shirt from home.  Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

This week we read “Under the Southern Cross” by Frané Lessac. It is an informative text that tours Australia at night. We have based our writing task on this text by writing about one place we would like to visit and what we would do there. We also wrote sentences that compared two places in the text, then planned and wrote about our own special place such as a favourite holiday destination. These stories were fantastic and we’ve typed them up for the students to illustrate so we can decorate our classroom with them. During Maths we began our unit on ‘Exploring Repeating Patterns’ by identifying, describing and adding missing numbers to number patterns, when skip counting forwards or backwards by two’s and five’s. We used unifix cubes to model skip counting by two’s. During Religion we discussed how the Sacrament of Baptism is a special meeting with Jesus and drew some of its symbols. Thanks for covering books and returning them so promptly. We hope you have a great weekend!    

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

The children enjoyed using their chromebooks to complete an Essential Assessment this week relating to our Maths unit. This will give me an indication of what the children know already and the areas of further development. During Religion we discussed how we were all created to be like God and brainstormed our great qualities. We enjoyed our Library time on Tuesday with Mrs Jeffery, don’t forget to bring a bag if you wish to borrow books. Maths and sight words were included in the homework routine this week, please let me know if your child is finding this difficult to complete. I will send home our textbooks tomorrow which can be covered in any covering. Thank you for covering books, I know it can be a tedious task but it really does help the books to last with the wear and tear. Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

We’ve had yet another fabulous week here in Year 3! In Grammar, we are looking at adverbs and how they add information and detail to each sentence. We worked on adding them to sentences and highlighting them in paragraphs. In Maths, we are working on partitioning numerals. We have expanded a range of numbers in all sorts of different ways to help us with our understanding of place value. We even played a small game using a deck of cards. Our novel unit has us reading, “Fantastic Mr Fox” by Roald Dahl. We have read the first two chapters and are loving it. We are specifically looking at characterisation and how each character is so different. We drew the three farmers based on the description in the novel and then compared them to the illustrations found in the novel. It was lots of fun inspecting everyone's different take on the farmers. During Art, we completed some tricky weaving. Our woven hearts look amazing hanging in our classroom. Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

What a fabulous day we had at the swimming carnival last Thursday! Congratulations Kurras and Peppers on your win. In class we have continued learning the reasons why a penal colony was established. We looked at the painting, “Inside Newgate Prison” by Francis Greenway and identified all we could see within the painting. We were surprised to learn that Greenway was a convict on the First Fleet but went on to become NSW’s first government architect and built the Sydney barracks and St James Church in Sydney. He is also featured on the $10 note. In Maths we are revising place value and have been arranging four digit numbers in ascending and descending order. Our novel is continuing to be engaging and we are excited to read more each day. This week we have been learning how building tension adds to the plot of the story. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

This week we have written some entertaining simile and metaphor poems as we explore figurative language in our writing. In Maths, we continue to learn about seven digit place values and placed these in ascending and descending order. During Religion we wrote about the Beatitudes and how we can use these as a guide in our everyday lives as Christians. Punctuation is our focus in Grammar this week and in Art we have been inspired by Andy Warhol who produced iconic ‘Pop Art’ artworks. We each selected an image, copied it multiple times and coloured them with bright colours to create our own ‘Marilyn Monroe’ artwork. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

Another fabulous week in Year 6 has flown by. We have enjoyed beginning our class novel, “Stormboy” and learning all about the Coorong National Park, where the story is set. We have focussed on the figurative language elements of the text and revised similes, metaphors and personification. In Maths we have been learning about integers and using a number line to track both positive and negative numbers. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit from the Principal of St Johns College and we thank him for giving us the opportunity to learn more about the college. We hope you have a safe and wonderful weekend! 

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER