ABOUT - Term 1 Week 9 - 3 April 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts."
-Winston Churchill

VALE TRISH BUCKLEY

It was with sadness that we heard the news of the passing of ex-Joeys teacher, Mrs Trish Buckley, on Friday.  Trish had a forty-one year association with St Joseph’s, having first come to our school as a Sister of St Joseph in 1962.  At that time there were six sisters teaching and no lay teachers.  From 1964 to 1967 Trish taught at Eugowra and then in 1968 returned to Gilgandra to a brand new convent where she stayed for a further three years.  The next school for Trish was Blayney until she returned to Gilgandra in 1974 where things had changed a little as there were now two lay teachers at the school.  After fifteen happy years as a Sister of St Joseph, Trish’s life took a different path.  After leaving the convent Trish did some casual teaching at both St Joseph’s and Gular Catholic School before returning to St Joseph’s on a permanent part time basis in September, 1985 as the principal’s release.  Trish held this position up until her retirement at the end of 2003. St Joseph’s was certainly a huge part of Trish’s life.  As a teacher Trish always gave one hundred percent.  During her time at St Joseph’s Trish taught a variety of classes and prepared the children for those special times in their lives when they would make their First Holy Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation.  Trish’s love and concern for the children in her care was exemplified when she undertook the Seasons Program for children who had suffered loss through the death or separation of loved ones.  Trish was predeceased by her husband, Toby and our thoughts and prayers are with her two daughters, Dani and Rachel and their families.

CONGRATULATIONS DARCY

Congratulations to Darcy Adams who won the 13 years 50 m Freestyle event at the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Polding Swimming Trials held in Homebush yesterday. Darcy will now compete in this event at the NSW All Schools Swimming Championships to be held at Homebush next Thursday and Friday, 10 & 11 April.  Well done Darcy!

DIOCESAN WINTER SPORTS TRIALS

Congratulations to all of our Years 5 and 6 students who participated at the Diocesan Winter Sports Trials held in Bathurst last Friday.  Special mention to Katie C and Jakirah M who were selected in the Diocesan Soccer team and will go on to represent the Bathurst Diocese at the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Polding Trials to be held next term.  Well done Katie and Jakirah!

IT WAS A 'GREAT' DAY AT THE GIL LIBRARY HUB!

On Monday, students arrived at schooling wearing RED and attended the new GIL Library Hub to participate in Gilgandra Reads Everything Around Town ('GREAT') Day.  It was a wonderful afternoon as the students were entertained by three amazing book authors, Nette Nilton, Melaina Faranda and Louise Park.  We thank Liz McCutcheon from the library for inviting our school to participate in this special event.

CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPS!

Congratulations to all our cross country runners for their fantastic participation in the school cross country today.  To be able to run 2km or 3km is a giant achievement.  Those students who participated in our cross country trials included:  Thomas C, Sam L, Samson S, Annabelle F, Isabelle S, Grace J, Caroline T, Billie T, Piper E, Liam C, Jack H, Billy J, Sterling N, Aaron R, George T, Lochie T, Amelia A, Isabel B, Madeleine F, Mackenzie H, Mary L, Bridie M, Hannah P, Harper W, Charlie C, Katie C, Rose H, Alice P.  Full results will be published in next week's About.

POLDING AFL TRIALS

We wish Mitch Beaton the best of luck as he competes at the Polding AFL trials  in Newcastle next Tuesday, 8 April.  He will not only be representing St Joey's, but also the Diocese of Bathurst.  Well done Mitch!

LIAM HENRY & ISAAH YEO RUGBY LEAGUE & NSW NETBALL SCHOOLS CUP

We have 57 students playing either rugby league or netball in Coonamble next Tuesday, 8 April.  The rugby league players will be participating in the Liam Henry & Isaah Yeo Rugby League Gala Day while the girls will play in the NSW Netball School Cup.  We all look forward to a day of fun, friends and fitness.  The students competing include:  Molly Adams, Aabel Anoop, John Erick Badon, Thomas Colwell,  Annabelle Foran, Indiana Jeffery, Grace Johnston, Georgie Kirkwood, Samuel Luckie, Frankie Medd, Parthiv Rajesh Nair, Isabelle Sandry, Samson Starr, Caroline Taylor, Billie Toomey, Piper van den Ende, Edward Woodrow, Isobel Barry, Liam Cosier, Madeleine Foran, McKenzie Harvey, Billy Jeffery, Charlie Jones-Copelin, Mary Lesslie, Sterling Newton, Hannah Peart, Aaron Robin, George Taylor, Lochie Thomas, Ryle Walker, Harper Wykes, Katie Colwell, Charlie Cruickshank, Bella Hammond, Laycee Hazelton, Jack Howard, Rose Howard, Dusty Jordan, Maci Lomax, William Luckie, Pearl Mudford, Archie O'Connor, Alice Peart, Layla Walker, Darcy Adams, Ryan Faulder, Estelle Hazelton, Chloe Heffer, Charlie Howard, Mack Hutchison, Clancy Larkin, Jakirah McKenzie, Oscar Medd, Tex Mudford, Braxten Towns, Jackson Towns, Neve Walker, Caitlin Younghusband.

PRIMARY SPORT NEXT WEEK

As so many of our primary students will be away in Coonamble for footy and netball next Tuesday, 8 April, those primary students who will still be at school will have sport on Tuesday next week and will need to wear their sports uniform.  All primary students will wear their normal school uniform next Thursday, 10 April.

Infant students will still be having sport, as normal, on Thursday next week.

APRIL P & F MEETING

The April P & F Meeting will be held at school next Tuesday, 8 April at 5:30 p.m.  Everyone is most welcome to attend.

KINDER COOEE VISIT

Our Kinder class will visit the residents of Cooee Lodge next Tuesday, 8 April at 10:30 a.m. bearing gifts.  It is a wonderful opportunity for the children to spread some Easter cheer.

CHAIR COVER WASHING

We are still in need of volunteers to help wash the chair covers that were used at the Ball.  We are about half way there with the washing, which means there are still around 150 to wash. 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.

ANZAC DAY

Our school has once again been invited to participate in the annual ANZAC Day March and an invitation is extended to all students from Years K-6 to represent our school on ANZAC Day.  St Joseph’s has traditionally had a fantastic representation at this march and hopefully as many students as possible will give up an hour or so of their time to represent their school on such an important occasion and show respect for those who served our country.  Children need to assemble in Bridge Street at 10:30 a.m. or they can come to Mass at 9:00 a.m. after which staff members will walk them down to Bridge Street.  The march will proceed down Bridge and Miller Streets to the War Memorial for the service at 11:00 a.m.  Students are required to wear full summer uniform.

MOTHER'S DAY STALL

Thank you Morgan Adams who has again offered to take on the role of coordinator of the Mother’s Day Stall this year.  Each year parents are asked to donate gifts for the Mother's Day Stall.  This gives the children the opportunity to purchase a gift for their mothers and grandmothers that they have selected themselves, whilst raising money for our P&F Association.  The stall will be held on Friday, 9 May.  This may seem a long way off at the moment, but with the school holidays in between, it will come around very quickly!  Your contributions can be sent in at any time and left at the school office.  If your gifts could be wrapped in clear cellophane, that would be greatly appreciated.  The Mother’s Day Stall is a fundraiser for the P & F Association, but most importantly it gives the children the opportunity to bring in their own money to purchase a gift for their mothers and grandmothers that they have selected themselves.  Prices at the stall range from $1.00 to $5.00 and we aim to have enough gifts for each child to purchase at least two gifts.

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.

PROJECT COMPASSION

At the beginning of Lent a Project Compassion box was sent home to each family. Project Compassion is a Lenten program that Caritas Australia focuses on each year.  Caritas Australia is a Catholic agency for overseas aid and development.  We hope that whenever you have been emptying your pockets you have been able to drop a few coins into your Project Compassion box.  Your donations could go towards improving health and education or aiding an emergency crisis somewhere in the world.  Send your boxes back to school during next week so that we can present all our donations during the Holy Thursday Mass.  Please encourage your child to give to this worthy cause as it is a wonderful opportunity for children to share what they have with those less fortunate.

CANTEEN HELPERS NEEDED FOR TERM 2

We are currently putting together the Term 2 Canteen Roster. 

Unfortunately, we were short on helpers during Term 1, which saw many of our helpers working 2-3 shifts each.  If everyone could spare 1 day per term to help in the canteen, we would easily fill the roster.  Please help if you can!

If you can help out in the canteen next term, please complete the below form ASAP.

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.

All enrolments must be received by next Friday, 11 April.

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: Oliver Harland and Dougal Cruickshank for a great effort with their homework and Noah Weston for painting a bright and colourful fish based on our story, “The Rainbow Fish”.

YEAR 1: Jackie Gronow for working hard to measure length using informal units in Maths, Kobi Hammond for adding more details in his Writing and Ted Johnston for working hard in Handwriting.

YEAR 2: Joel Ndlovu for working diligently on tricky Maths questions, Reyansh Sobti for his growing confidence in the water during sport and Flynn Weston for asking for clarification on tricky Maths concepts.

YEAR 3: Grace Johnston and Charlie Budworth for working hard to identify the long and short ‘i’ phoneme, Thomas Colwell for consistently making wonderful contributions to class discussions and Aabel Anoop for working hard during Problem A Day and Operations to achieve a high result.

YEAR 4: McKenzie Harvey, Harper Wykes and Billy Jeffery for writing great paragraphs about life on a ‘First Fleet’ ship.

YEAR 5: William Luckie for always being willing to contribute to class discussions, Dusty Jordan for displaying a good understanding of mathematical concepts and  Archie O’Connor for neat and legible presentation of his work.

YEAR 6: Jakirah MacKenzie for always displaying neat handwriting and beautifully presented work and Neve Walker for great recall of grammar conventions and correctly identifying changes of modality.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

As Term 1 is drawing to an end, Kinder has been busily preparing for our Cooee visit next Tuesday morning. This is a special day for the residents who always look forward to seeing the children and receiving a special handmade gift for Easter. In our classroom we read the story of “The Good Shepherd” and discussed how Jesus is like a shepherd to us and we are His sheep, following and trusting Him all the time. In Maths we made 10 frames and explored combining quantities. We also completed our portfolio task. During History we had the opportunity to look at some tools used by the Aboriginal people and reflected on some of the symbols they used in their art to tell stories about the past. Thank you to those Kinder families who have returned their project compassion boxes. Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

Year 1 enjoyed a fabulous afternoon at the new Gilgandra Library on Monday. We listened to three different authors tell us all about how they write books and some important things to remember when we are writing stories. During English we polished off our informative writing on dolphins. The students were challenged to write using subheadings and to make sure what they wrote about under each subheading related to that heading. You will be able to check out what we wrote in our portfolios. We also read a great book titled “Spoon” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Scott Magoon. We looked at the front cover and discussed who the main character was and made some great predictions about who the other characters in the story might be. We also talked about how good viewers and readers make inferences about texts. This means that they build their understanding of a text by looking for hidden meanings using clues from the situation. These clues can be found in sounds, objects, images and written text. We then made inferences about why the character of “Spoon” might be jealous of the other characters in the book. During Maths we have been sorting, classifying and describing various 2D shapes. We had fun working in pairs to group some 2D shape blocks into different groups according to their attributes. We hope your weekend is  a good one.

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

We kicked off the week in a ‘GREAT’ way at the Gil Library Hub. Thank you to the staff for inviting us along to a fabulous afternoon. We learnt a lot about how authors create interesting stories and will try to put these tips into our own narratives. During PDH, Mr Gibbons discussed consent and how we shouldn’t be touching anyone without their permission and this transfers into the online world and sharing pictures of people or information online without their permission. In Science we continued to discuss the water cycle and how we can conserve water. We enjoyed cheering on the primary children in the Cross Country today and can’t wait until we can have a go next year. In Maths we have been working on some difficult operations and discussing how the vocabulary might be different in a written problem but the operation remains the same. Our focus in phonics has been ‘Ll’ words. Have a relaxing weekend ready for the last week of term!

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

It’s been another busy week at school for Year 3. We have reached the end of our novel, “Fantastic Mr Fox” and started planning for the sequel. We have very clever and creative minds in Year 3 and I can’t wait to read the finished products. In Maths we have been learning all about inverse operations and how we can use addition number sentences to create subtraction number sentences. Today was very busy with our Cross Country to start the day and then Year 3 had their ‘God’s Beautiful Creation’ Mass. It was lovely to see all our beautiful artworks hanging in the church for everyone to see. Thank you to all those family members who came along.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

What a ‘GREAT’ day we had celebrating ‘GREAT Day’ at the library on Monday. It was a ‘GREAT’ opportunity to meet the authors and to hear about how and why they started writing books. Thank you to the library staff for organising the day. We continue to learn about the Solar System and informative texts in English. We have read facts and watched clips about both Uranus and Jupiter. We have taken notes from all sources of information and are completing a mind map as a way of taking notes. In Maths we’ve been revising subtraction with trading using the formal algorithm. We have been estimating using grocery catalogues to estimate the cost of multiple items to ensure our $20.00 would cover the cost. Congratulations to all students who ran in the Cross Country today. You should all be very proud of yourselves! Have a lovely weekend!                                                     

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

On Monday we enjoyed a visit to the new Library Hub, where three authors spoke to us about the tricks and strategies we could use to create a great story. During Maths we conducted a colour spinner experiment. First we determined the probability for each colour after spinning a spinner 32 times. We then tested the probability, recorded the results and compared these to our predicted results. In Comprehension we completed a Google Classroom folktale quiz about how elephants and emus cannot fly and continued to write wonderful description passages in Text Types. This week we have also been completing various portfolio tasks and in Art we have started a multimedia picture where we will endeavour to use as many different artistic tools and techniques as we can. Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

It has been a fabulous week in Year 6. We have begun exploring our new Literature unit, all about ‘Genre’. ­­­We spent some time researching Vincent Lingiari – an Aboriginal stockman and land rights leader with a very famous story. Over the next weeks we will further analyse “The Wave Hill Walk Off” and compare it to other literary texts. In Maths we have continued learning about fractions, completing fraction problems and strengthening our times table skills. In Religion we have reflected on “The Servant of the Lord” and how we can in fact be servants as well, through kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness and prayer. We like to remember the famous quote, ‘Never see a need without doing something about it!’ by Mary Mackillop. In HSIE we revised our knowledge of climate zones and researched how different animals adapt to their particular environments! The countdown is officially on, 6 more school days until holidays!! YAY!

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

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