ABOUT - Term 1 Week 4 - 27 February 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

In the ashes new seeds are sown, from the ashes new life will grow.
Leave the past in ashes, start a fresh new life right here today.

WESTERN REGION SWIMMING CARNIVAL

We wish our 38 students the best of luck as they represent St Joey’s at the Western Region Swimming Carnival in Wellington today.  Results from the carnival will be published in next week's About.

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 tomorrow, Friday, 28 February.  Bags and gloves will be supplied by the Council.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

Next Monday, 3 March

School photos will be taken next Monday, 3 March.  Each child has been given an envelope 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.

PANCAKE TUESDAY

Next Tuesday, 4 March

Pancake Tuesday (or Shrove Tuesday) is next Tuesday, 4 March, which is the day before Lent begins.   In the past, people ate up the butter, eggs and meat in their houses before beginning the Lenten fast.  In England the day is called Pancake Tuesday because people prepare for Lent by eating a feast of pancakes.  Therefore next Tuesday we too are going to cook up a storm.  For 50¢ your child can buy a pancake with a choice of yummy toppings.  For catering reasons and time, children can only purchase one pancake each.  All money raised will go to our foster child. 

ASH WEDNESDAY

Next Wednesday, 5 March

Ash Wednesday is next Wednesday, 5 March, which is the first day of Lent.  Lent is the special time of the year when we prepare for Easter by trying to be better people.  We encourage the children to take on extra responsibilities at home like doing the dishes, making their beds, taking out the garbage etc.  It would be wonderful if we all took time out before next Wednesday to discuss with our children what we all could do at home to make us all better people like Jesus.  There will be an Ash Wednesday Mass which all students from Kinder to Year 6 will attend next Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.  Because Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and abstinence there will be no morning tea after Mass.

CANTEEN - ASH WEDNESDAY

There will be NO meat products available from the canteen on Ash Wednesday.  A special Canteen Menu is attached and a paper copy has been sent home with each family, containing details of the products that will be available on Wednesday.  Fish cocktails (5 for $3.00) and crumbed calamari rings (6 for $4.20) will be the hot food available to purchase.

CHANGE OF TIME - GRANDPARENTS DAY

Next Thursday, 6 March - now at 2:00 p.m.

Due to extenuating circumstances, our Grandparents Day will now commence at 2:00 p.m.  We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

GRANDPARENTS DAY

One of our most anticipated and exciting days of the year is approaching and that is when we host Grandparents Day next Thursday, 6 March. 

This year, we will be celebrating Grandparents Day in the afternoon and everyone is invited from the very young to the very old to celebrate Grandparents Day with us.  The day begins at 2:00 p.m. with the students of St Joseph’s entertaining you with a mini concert.  After the concert, 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.  

Due to the later time there will be no cups of tea/coffee so we won't be requiring any plates of food.

NO CANTEEN TOMORROW

Unfortunately, we were unable to get enough helpers for the canteen tomorrow, Friday, 28 February, so we had to make the decision to close the canteen.  Please make sure your child brings their recess and lunch to school tomorrow.

YEARS 1 & 4 SUNDAY MASS

Sunday, 9 March - 9:30 a.m.

Our Year 1 and 4 classes are preparing the Mass to be celebrated in St Joseph's Church on Sunday, 9 March at 9:30 a.m.  Everyone is invited to attend.

2025 CITY OF DUBBO EISTEDDFOD ENTRIES

INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES

Individual entries for the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod are now being received.  A number of our students choose to perform an individual poem at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod each year.  This is separate from our school verse speaking choirs in which all children from Years 1 to 6 participate. The teachers will assist any children wishing to enter the eisteddfod with their selection of a poem.  Transport to individual events must be arranged by the parents.  The proposed dates for the eisteddfod are 16 to 20 June.

KINDER/YEAR 1 NURSERY RHYMES

At the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod, Kinder and Year 1 children (six years and under) are invited to enter the singing section – Nursery Rhymes in Costume.  In the past, children who have entered have enjoyed it greatly and gained much from the experience.  If your child wishes to enter you must be prepared to take your child to Dubbo on the day and prepare the costume.  Parents are to help their child select a nursery rhyme and we will then assist them practice at school. The proposed dates for this section of the eisteddfod are 3 to 5 June.

Children who wish to enter one of the above sections for their age group should fill in the tear-off slip that has been sent home with today’s About and return it to the school office no later than Wednesday, 13 March.  The age of the child shall be taken as at 31 December, 2025, ie, the age the child is turning this year. 

2025 SCHOOL FEES

The 2025 school fees have now been posted on your Compass portal.  Fee Statements will be emailed to all families tomorrow, 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 or by BPay or Direct Deposit with the BPay details 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.  

2025 PARENT/COMMUNITY CHARTER

Last week, Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst (CEDB) sent out a 2025 Parent/Community Charter to all families in the Bathurst Diocese.  This was done through the Compass Portal and requires approval by all families.  It appears that the CEDB didn't send out a Compass notification and the document has just shown up in the 'Course Confirmation' section on the Compass portal.

On Monday we sent home a paper copy of the 2025 Parent/Community Charter and ask that all of our families read through this document.  Please follow the below instructions on how to complete and agree to the Charter through the Compass app on your mobile phone:

• Open the Compass App.
• Click 'More' in the bottom right hand corner and then click on the 'Course Confirmation' icon.
• Click on the '2025 Parent/Community Charter' (you will need to do one for each child).
• Follow the instructions on the screen, then click on 'I have read and accept the agreement above'.
• Type your full name into the box and click on 'Next'.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Levi Anderson for spot on sequencing of the nursery rhyme, “Humpty Dumpty”, Joe Barry for a super effort at chair push ups during our Handwriting warm ups and Dougal Cruickshank for excellent effort counting backwards from 10.

YEAR 1: Darcy Morrissey and Paddy O’Connor for including fantastic adjectives in their writing, Jazmyn Aberley for hard work and application in all class tasks and Freyer Williams for application and attention to detail in all learning tasks.

YEAR 2: Henry Foran for always contributing great answers during class discussions, Esther Jijo for improvement in her swimming confidence and skills, Bridie Jordan for working hard during Phonics and Bill Pagan for beautiful reading each morning.

YEAR 3: Thomas Colwell for working hard identifying the adverbs within sentences, Grace Johnston for fantastic partitioning of large numbers in Maths and Caroline Taylor for super contributions to our “Fantastic Mr Fox” discussions.

YEAR 4: Liam Cosier and Mackenzie Harvey for sensational work multiplying numbers by 10, 100 and 1000, Harper Wykes for fabulous work partitioning 4 digit numbers and Sterling Newton for showing a keen interest in our History lessons.

YEAR 5: Pearl Mudford for reading fluently with a lovely expression and Layla Walker for a great simile and metaphor poem about herself.

YEAR 6: Caitlin Younghusband for writing an interesting character description using similes and metaphors and Jackson Towns for confidently solving tricky Problem A Day and Operations questions.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

In Kinder this week we are busily preparing for Grandparents Day. We have been completing lots of fun activities, including writing about our grandparents, completing art and learning some groovy dance moves to entertain our families. We are looking forward to showing everyone our hard work next Thursday.  It’s been very exciting each morning listening to Kinder read. Keep an eye out for sight words starting in Week 6.  During Maths we are learning to count and make collections to 5 and write the numeral 2 correctly. In PDH we learnt that we are all unique and we can use our strengths to show kindness, which will help us be good friends to others. We brainstormed, then drew some ways to show kindness to our friends at school. We decided kind words, including others, helping one another and smiling at each other are some of the ways we can show kindness.  Have a lovely weekend. 

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

We have spent this week preparing for Grandparents Day next week. It is a lovely day and we’re excited to show our grandparents and families all the fantastic work we have been doing so far this year. In English we began our week by learning that a narrative is an account of events which may be real or imagined. It has elements including characters, setting and events. We read the story, "A Bag and a Bird" by Pamela Allen which is a narrative about a journey. We used the map in the book and Google Earth to see the journey that took place in the text, sequenced the events in the text and wrote a series of sentences to describe the main events that took place in the narrative. We then used a story map to plan a narrative journey to, or around, the school. During Maths we used a table to track a growing pattern and discussed and explored how we can represent a number in multiple ways. Our History unit is focused on how we learn about the past by 'Engaging with Stories, Images, Objects and Sites' and this week we talked about 'The Dreaming' and its importance to Aboriginal people, discussed how significant places are connected to Dreaming stories and read a Dreaming story about "The Three Sisters" in the Blue Mountains that we illustrated in pairs. We hope your weekend is wonderful!

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

It has been another super busy week in the classroom. We read the story, "Peggy", during our Literature unit and have been learning about circular narratives and trying to build a mountain, this is where we focus on building the story. During Maths we continued to identify hundreds, tens and ones as well as learning about how to read calendars. During Religion we discussed how there is no one in the world just like us. God also created zebras and giraffes with their own unique pattern and we looked at our fingerprints which is our own unique pattern. We have been working on something special for Grandparents Day next week, we hope many of our family and friends are able to join us for this special celebration. Congratulations to all of the amazing Joey’s swimmers who attended the carnival today, you certainly did us proud inside and outside the pool. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

Week 4 is whizzing by! In our novel unit, we read more about the three nasty farmers and the absurd ways they are trying to catch 'Mr Fox' and his family. We broke down chapters 4-6 and discussed why Roald Dahl has written each chapter the way he has. In Maths we are looking at place value. We played a fun game using the MAB blocks and 10 sided dice on Tuesday to help us understand the importance of place value and all the different ways we can represent it. We all got our singing voices on and auditioned for Moorambilla on Wednesday. It was lots of fun singing in a group and a great opportunity for all.  During History we learnt about Lake Mungo and how the archeologist, Jim Bowler, discovered 42,000 year old remains. We drew a timeline of the lake and discussed how scientists learnt more about Aboriginal heritage after the discovery. Tomorrow, we are going to be participating in Clean Up Australia. We will be walking around our community picking up rubbish to show how we care for Gilgandra and are proud to call it home. Have a lovely weekend and try to stay cool everyone. 

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

I have been very impressed with the quality of the writing the students are presenting based on our novel. This week we have written tension building events as we work towards the complication of the story. In our novel we are at a cliff hanger stage and are excitedly waiting to find out what happens next! In Maths we are learning about decimals extending the application of the place value system from whole numbers to tenths and hundredths. This week we have completed activities that express decimals as both tenths and hundredths, located and ordered decimals representing tenths and hundredths on a number line, interpreted zero digits at the end of a decimal and distinguished the role of zero in various positions. The children have been very engaged in their Maths lessons and we’ve had a few “AHHH’ moments as they are learning new skills. We are busily preparing for Grandparents Day and are looking forward to performing and showing off our classrooms. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

In Maths this week we concluded our unit on place value by practising extended notation and accurately identifying the correct value of a number. In Grammar we consolidated our knowledge of apostrophes and wrote tricky tongue twisters to show the figurative language form of alliteration.  Next week is the beginning of Lent and we have discussed and written our Lenten Promises, which will be offered at the Ash Wednesday Mass. These prayers are our promises to strive to become a better person over the next 40 days and beyond. Tomorrow we will take part in the Clean Up Australia initiative and are proud to do our part to help keep our community clean and demonstrate our care for the local environment.  We hope our classmates had a successful day at the Western Region Swimming Carnival today in Wellington.  Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

It was a busy week in the classroom this week! We have continued enjoying our class novel, "Stormboy" and completed some activities to revise chapters two and three. We started learning about simple and compound sentences and endeavoured to include a wider range of sentence structures in our writing. Our narratives are on track and are very engaging! In Religion we have studied the Beatitudes and reflected on how we display these qualities in our everyday lives. We enjoyed our Moorambilla visit yesterday and congratulate all those who competed at the Western Region Swimming Carnival in Wellington today. 

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD

Gilgandra Junior Rugby League & Netball

2025 registrations are now open for rugby league & netball with Gilgandra Junior Rugby League & Netball.  Head to their Facebook page for all the latest information and to find links to register your child.

Netball Registrations close tomorrow, Friday 28 February. 

You're Invited! Community Strategic Plan 2035 - Consultation Sessions

Come along to Have Your Say!
Council is inviting the local community to assist in planning the Gilgandra Region’s future over the next 10 years, by joining the conversation around the 2035 Community Strategic Plan.

Come along to one of the upcoming community consultation sessions, where you can chat with one of the Councillors and share your views on the key issues, challenges, opportunities and priorities for the future.

• Cobboco Hall - Thursday, 27 February at 5:30pm
• GIL Library Hub (at the newly renovated Hub) - Tuesday, 4 March at 5:30pm 

Your insights will directly inform the review of the Community Strategic Plan to make sure the community's plan for our future stays relevant and targets those areas that matter most.

Whilst the community consultation sessions are an integral part of the Have Your Say process, attending in person is not the only way to share your community feedback. You can also Have Your Say in the following ways:

• Complete the Have Your Say form on Council's website
• Provide feedback in person at one of our offices
• Email council@gilgandra.nsw.gov.au
• Phone (02) 6817 8800
• Write to the General Manager; 15 Warren Road, Gilgandra 2827.

To read the full media release, visit Council's website.

Please RSVP by phoning (02) 6817 8800 or email council@gilgandra.nsw.gov.au