ABOUT - Term 1 Week 8 - 27 March 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

One small positive thought can change your whole day.

ST JOSEPH'S P & F DEBUTANTE BALL

The St Joseph’s P & F Debutante Ball was held in the Gilgandra Shire Hall on Saturday evening.  Twelve stunning debutantes and their handsome partners came down the red carpet to be presented to the Matron of Honor, Mrs Leonie Mann, Parish Priest, Fr Greg Kennedy, P & F President, Mrs Jodie Peart and Debutante Ball Secretary, Mrs Bianca Williams.  Kindergarten students, Angus Foran and Charlie Haling did a wonderful job as pageboy and flowergirl.  The hall was once again brilliantly decorated thanks to the hard work of the Ball Committee, Bianca Williams and Jemma Burrell and their helpers.  Mrs Alison Newstead did a wonderful job as compere.  Thanks also to Amanda Anforth who organised the drinks for the bar, Mrs Meredith Schier, Mrs Nikke Foran and the hospitality cohort from Gilgandra High School for preparing the platters of food and David and Rebekah Makila who were fabulous teaching our debutantes how to dance in the lead up to the ball.  The contribution to the night by so many of our school community was superb, from the hard working committee, to those who attended the working bees, went to practices, helped decorate the hall and erect the smokers’ tent, served the food, worked behind the bar and on the door, donated sweets, attended the ball and helped dismantle everything!  Finally, a huge vote of thanks to Bianca and Jemma for the massive amount of work that they put into the organisation of this year’s Ball.  All in all, this was an amazing effort by a fantastic group of helpers and our school appreciates the amount of time and effort that goes into such a successful evening.

CHAIR COVER WASHING

We need volunteers to help wash the chair covers that were used at the Ball.  There are around 300 to wash and many hands make light work!  The covers are located in the otto bins in the school square, so come and get a dozen or grab 100!  It all helps.

SUPER SPELLERS!

Congratulations to our sensational Years 3/4 and Years 5/6 spellers who competed in the St Joey’s Spelling Bee Finals this week.  The audience was amazed at the students’ super spelling.  Well done!  A special mention to Isobel Barry and Tiffany Fong (Years 3/4) and Neve Walker and Mia Buckley (Years 5/6), who won their respective divisions.  Unfortunately, we have been advised that Mia will be unable to attend the Dioecsan Spelling Bee which will be held in Wellington on Wednesday, 28 May. Therefore our first runner up, Ryan Faulder, will represent our school, along with Neve, Isobel and Tiffany at the Diocesan Spelling Bee.

DIOCESAN WINTER SPORTS TRIALS

Over the past couple of weeks we have been running trials at school for all those Year 5 and 6 students who were interested in attending the Diocesan Winter Sports Trials to be held in Bathurst tomorrow, Friday, 28 March.  The sportsmanship and enthusiasm of every single child was absolutely fantastic. Congratulations to the following students who will represent St Joey’s at the trials: Charlie Howard, Tex Mudford, Jack Howard, Charlie Cruickshank, Neve Walker, Jakirah McKenzie, Caitlin Younghusband, Katie Colwell, Alice Peart, Rose Howard (Soccer), Archie O'Connor, Tiaki Diamond, Oscar Medd, Mack Hutchison, Braxten Towns, Jackson Towns  (Rugby League), Estelle Hazelton, Clancy Larkin (Netball).  Best of luck to you all.

'GREAT' DAY AT GIL LIBRARY HUB

Next Monday, 31 March, all students will be attending the new GIL Library Hub to participate in Gilgandra Reads Everything Around Town ('GREAT') Day from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

During the afternoon, the students will be divided into two groups (infants and primary) and will rotate around the Hub as they listen to three guest speakers.

This will be an out of uniform day and everyone is asked to wear the colour RED to school, as we show our support for REaDing.

GOOD LUCK DARCY!

We wish Darcy A. the best of luck as he competes at the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Polding Swimming Championships in Homebush next Wednesday, 2 April.  He will not only be representing St Joey's, but also the Diocese of Bathurst.  Well done Darcy!

SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

Training for the school cross country is in full swing! Cross country is for any students in Years 3-6 interested in competing.  The nine and ten year old competitors run 2 kilometres while the eleven and twelve year olds run 3 kilometres.  The Joey's trial will be held at school next Thursday, 3 April at 9:00 a.m.  The Diocesan Cross Country will be held in Coolah next term on Tuesday, 6 May (Week 2).

YEAR 3 MASS

Year 3 will celebrate a class Mass next Thursday, 3 April at 10:30 a.m. in St Joseph’s Church.  Everyone is welcome to attend and parents are invited to join us at school for morning tea after the Mass.  Please bring a plate to share.

PUPIL FREE DAY - Monday, 28 April

The first day back at school in Term 2, Monday, 28 April, will be a Pupil Free Day.  During this day staff will continue their work on the implementation of the new English and Maths syllabuses.

FLEXISCHOOLS CANTEEN ORDERS

Just a reminder that canteen orders need to be completed by 9:00 a.m. on the day of canteen.  Please ensure all orders have been placed prior to 9:00 a.m. to ensure your child's order in processed.

GILGANDRA FILM FESTIVAL 2025

Our school has once again been invited to be part of the Gilgandra Film Festival.  a 'How to Make a Documentary' brochure was sent home with all students in Years 4-6.  

Students from all years are invited to participate in this year's Film Festival, not just those in Years 4-6. The brochures containing instructions and suggestions on how to put together a documentary for the festival are available for any other interested students from the school office.

YEAR 7 2026 ENROLMENTS AT ST JOHNS COLLEGE DUBBO

Enrolments are now open for St Johns College Dubbo for those Year 6 students who would like to attend St Johns College in Year 7 next year.

The College has advised that enrolments will close on Friday, 11 April and are asking interested families to get their child's enrolment form in ASAP to secure a spot in 2026.

Interviews will take place at the College during the first few weeks of Term 2.

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Harrison Hammond for confidently writing a super sentence using finger spaces and sight words, Angus Foran for representing St Joey’s as the pageboy at our Catholic Debutante Ball and Charlie Haling for representing St Joey’s as the flowergirl at our Catholic Debutante Ball.

YEAR 1: Noopura Rahul for listening respectfully and asking thoughtful questions at news time, Molly Armstrong for great effort and application while drawing her crocodile and Eleanor Foran for effectively using prepositions in her writing.

YEAR 2: Chase Hodges for always being a caring friend and looking out for others, Thomas Riley for always having beautiful neat handwriting and Ally Wykes for brightening our classroom with her bubbly personality.

YEAR 3: Parthiv Rajesh Nair for working hard to constantly achieve 100% in Problem A Day and Operations, Annabelle Foran and Piper van den Ende for consistently making wonderful contributions to class discussions and Molly Adams for consistently working hard to achieve great results.

YEAR 4: Manu Binu for working diligently in Maths, Charlie Jones-Copelin for a super effort in Writing and Sterling Newton for working with confidence in Maths.

YEAR 5: Liam Millstead for achieving wonderful results in Vocabulary each week and Maci-Jae Lomax for great identification of main and subordinate clauses.

YEAR 6: Tex Mudford and Braxten Towns for writing interesting book reviews on “Storm Boy”.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

This week Kinder focused on the sound “Ff”. We read the story of “The Rainbow Fish” and during Art painted our own beautiful fish and added some sparkly scales. During Reading we built a sentence from the nursery rhyme, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and discussed different types of spiders in our environment. In Science we performed our first weather experiment. We predicted what a thermometer would do when placed in ice and in front of a hairdryer. We had great fun!! We celebrated a beautiful Year 5 Mass for the Annunciation of Mary on Tuesday. This is when Mary said “yes” to being the mother of Jesus. We will try and say “yes” to God too, by listening to our parents and teachers. This week for homework the children have some sentences to read that contain the sight words they have been learning. This will help them to become familiar with the words in context. Please read them each night with your child to build confidence and knowledge. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

We celebrated the Annunciation Mass on Tuesday where we remembered Mary said “yes” to God which reminded us that we should always open our hearts to God’s love. In English we worked on the structure of an informative text. We explored various resources such as a book, website, diagram and video to research dolphins. We then completed a frayer diagram of the relevant information we collected, in order to begin writing our own information report on dolphins. During Maths we worked in pairs and used an equal arm balance to compare the mass of two plasticine balls. We then removed plasticine from the heavier ball in order to make the balls have an equal mass. We worked in groups to measure the mass of an object using three different informal units such as blocks, scissors and textas. During Religion we listened to the story of “The Last Supper” and engaged in some ‘I wonder’ questions. We also sequenced some images which represented the events of the story. In History we identified some different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artefacts and described for what they may be used. We enjoyed our last swimming day for sport today. Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

It’s been another busy week in Year 2 and we can’t believe it is nearing the end of term. We have begun working on our Portfolios and cannot wait to show you all of the things we have been working on. During Maths we have been looking at the jump strategy to add large numbers and we have also been creating our own number sentences when given the answer. We enjoyed our last swim for Sport and thank the lifeguards for looking after us this season. Congratulations to the Years 3 & 4 children who participated in the Spelling Bee this week, you were very brave to get up in front of everyone. We now know what this is all about and look forward to competing next year. Enjoy a relaxing weekend.

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

What a fantastic week we have had here in Year 3. On Monday we had the Spelling Bee. Congratulations to all those who faced the crowd to participate. It was amazing to see everyone spell those tricky words and great to cheer on our classmates. We have continued reading “Fantastic Mr Fox”. He is a very clever fox and is definitely keeping the story interesting. We completed a vivid setting description task on Wednesday focussing on how the setting of a narrative is important and gives each reader an image in their head. In Maths we have been working on coordinates. We played battleships to further expand our understanding and had lots of fun. We have started preparing for our Mass next Thursday.  The theme is ‘God’s Beautiful Creation’ and will complete an artwork to hang in the church. Have a wonderful weekend.

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

We have finished our individual narratives and everyone made a great effort to include the features of a narrative that we had explored during our novel. We have now begun our new unit which is based on the book, “Deadly Science - The Solar System”. We are using the book to identify features of informative text. We read about ‘The Stars’ and used note taking to create a flowchart on the life of a star. In Maths we have completed our data and probability unit and have commenced our new unit, ‘Solving Additive Problems’. In History the children are writing a diary entry or letter from the perspective of a first fleet passenger. They are using their senses to describe what it is like on the ships. It was not very pleasant from all the sources we have read!  Have a great weekend!

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

What a beautiful celebration we had on Tuesday at our Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation. Thank you to all our family and friends who came along to support Year 5 as they led our Mass with such reverence and maturity. On Wednesday, we had the Spelling Bee Finals and were amazed by all the finalists who could spell such challenging words. Congratulations to Neve and Ryan for making it to the next level. In  Religion, we are researching organisations that reach out to help others - Caritas and Catholic Mission, and the vital role they play in people’s lives. In Text Types, we have written a class description using many figurative language techniques and continue to prepare our speeches for our class presentation. Good luck to all our classmates who are heading to Bathurst tomorrow for the Winter Sports Trials. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

Week 8 has flown by! We enjoyed celebrating the Annunciation Mass with Year 5 on Tuesday and have had a wonderful week in the classroom. In Maths we have continued learning about equivalent fractions and how fractions are, in fact, a division! In English we have revisited ‘modality’ and ‘nominalisation’ and endeavour to include more of these grammar conventions in our everyday writing. In Religion we have continued exploring our Lenten unit and completed activities that encourage us to create a fair and just world. We congratulate those who participated in the Spelling Bee, what a mammoth effort! Have a safe and wonderful weekend!

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD

Visit Vinnies Gilgandra next Monday, 31 March to receive a free book - see the below advertisement.