ABOUT - Term 1 Week 3 - 15 February 2024

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Lent comes providentially to reawaken us,
to shake us from our lethargy.
- Pope Francis

WESTERN REGION SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Congratulations and best of luck to the following students who have been selected to represent St Joey’s at the Western Region Swimming Carnival being held in Coonamble today:  Lisa-Marie Vermeulen, Molly Adams, Piper van den Ende, Tom Mudford, George Taylor, George Meers, Lochie Thomas, Hannah Peart, Harper Wykes, Amelia Altmann, Archie O’Connor, Charlie Cruickshank, Ben Ryan, Rose Howard, Maci-Jae Lomax, Layla Walker, Mitchell Beaton, Oscar Medd, Chloe Heffer, Jocelyn Altmann, Hannah Meers, Mitchell Cosier, Darcy Adams, Bill Ryan, Tom McIsaac, Alana Spora, Claudia Harrison, Isabelle Peart, Alice Peart, Mary Lesslie, Oliver Peart, Lottie Duffy, Caitlin Younghusband, Indy Thomas, Milla Morris, Bella Ferguson.  We will provide full results from the carnival in next week's newsletter.

ROADS TO REGION RUGBY LEAGUE TOUR

Thank you to Simon Hartas, NRL Game Development Officer, for organising several NRL representatives to visit our school on Tuesday as part of their Roads to Region Rugby League Tour and speak with the children about healthy food choices, exercise, the importance of sleep and having fun with friends, through their 'Simply Your Best' program.  There was a lot of excitement as some of the children answered questions correctly and received some great Penrith Panthers prizes.  It was wonderful for our students to have the opportunity to meet NRLW West Tigers coach and professional rugby league player, Brett Kimmorley and the other NRL representatives.

PUPIL FREE DAY - Next Monday, 19 February

Next Monday, 19 February will be a Pupil Free Day.  During this day, staff will attend professional development training in Dubbo, presented by Dr Michael McDowell.  Dr McDowell will support classroom teachers to embed the new syllabuses, develop expert learners and create high levels of learning for all.

PROJECT COMPASSION

This is a Lenten Program that Caritas Australia focuses on each year.  Caritas Australia is a Catholic agency for overseas aid and development.  Project Compassion boxes have been sent home with the eldest child in each family today.  Whenever you are emptying your pockets perhaps you could 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 Project Compassion box back to school by Friday, 22 March so all our donations can be presented during the Holy Thursday Mass on 27 March.  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.

2024 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 next Tuesday, 20 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 10 spellers in each division will be held later this term at a date to be advised, 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.

P & F ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Our P & F AGM will be held at school next Tuesday, 20 February at 5:30 p.m.  Everyone is most welcome and encouraged to attend.

ST JOHN'S COLLEGE VISIT

The Interim Principal of St John's College, Mr Raymond Wooby, will be visiting our Year 6 class on Monday, 26 February at 10:00 a.m. to speak with the students about the college.  Mr Wooby has extended an invitation to any interested Year 6 parents or carers who would also like to attend.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

School photos will be taken on Monday, 11 March (Week 7).  Each child has today 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.

LIBRARY NEWS

A Scholastic book club catalogue was sent home last week and orders are due back at school by tomorrow Friday, 16 February.  Orders help earn new books and teaching material for our school so please consider ordering from book club.  Cash orders can be sent to school or alternatively you can order online via LOOP, details of which are contained in the book club catalogue.

MACQUARIE CONSERVATORIUM MUSIC LESSONS

We have been informed by the Macquarie Conservatorium in Dubbo, that music lessons will commence at our school on Tuesday, 12 March.  The late commencement date is due to a new music teacher having to be located.  Families will not be charged until such time as lessons commence.  Please direct any queries you may have to the conservatorium on 6884 6686.

UNEXPLAINED ABSENCES

We have today sent home unexplained absence letters with those children who have been absent from school this past week and have not informed the school why they were absent.  Would you please ensure that this form is completed and returned to school tomorrow, Friday, 16 February.  Absences need to be reported to school within 7 days from the date the child was absent.  This can be done via the Compass App, by phoning the school, or sending a note to the classroom teacher.  Each week, we will send home letters for any unexplained absences from the previous week.

FAMILY INFORMATION/PERMISSION NOTE

Every child received a Family Information/Permission Note in Week 1.  There are still quite a few families who are yet to complete and return a form for their children.  If you are one of these families, would you please complete and return a separate form for each child urgently.  A link for the note is below.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST - MEMBERSHIP OF DIOCESAN FINANCE COUNCIL

Please click on the below link to view information relating to nominations that the Bishop is seeking for consideration for membership of the Diocesan Finance Council.

FLEXISCHOOLS ONLINE CANTEEN ORDERS

Our school utlilises the Flexischools online ordering system.  We encourage everyone to use Flexischools to place their child's morning tea and lunch orders. If you have not set up an account with Flexischools, please click on the links below which will show you how to register and place an online order. Cash can still be used at the canteen for children to purchase their morning tea and any chips, ice blocks etc at lunch time.  If you have any queries, please see Toni in the office.

HOW TO VIEW THE SCHOOL CALENDAR

When viewing our school newsletter from a desktop computer, our 'What's On', now called the 'School Calendar', is on the left hand side as you scroll through the newsletter.

Unfortunately this is not the case when viewing the newsletter from a mobile phone.  To view the school calendar from an iPhone, you need to click on the menu button, being the 3 bars in the top left corner.  This should be similar on an Android.  If you have any queries, please speak with Heather or Toni in the office.

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Molly Armstrong and Charlie Freeman for beautiful work in their Handwriting books, Chase Copelin for being a super dooper scientist and Josie Burke for attending Kinder each day wearing a bright and happy smile.

YEAR 1: Henry Foran for writing a super detailed recount of his holiday, Thomas Riley for working hard in all areas and taking care to present neat bookwork, Alex Moeris for his great work in Maths, identifying numbers before and after and Mae Ryan for sharing interesting contributions to our discussions.

YEAR 2: Lola Newton for great sounding out of words during Phonics and Samson Starr for being a keen and helpful member of Year 2.

YEAR 3: Cruz Hazelton for spectacular swimming at this year’s swimming carnival and Tiffany Fong for positive contributions to all class discussions. 

YEAR 4: Tiaki Diamond for a conscientious start to Year 4, Taylor Alexander for giving 100% effort in class, Charlie Cruickshank for wonderful participation in lessons and Georgia Riley for completing work quickly and accurately.

YEAR 5: Hannah Meers for working hard to produce a bright 'All About Me' artwork and Jarvis Glennister for confidently identifying simple, compound and complex sentences in Grammar.

YEAR 6: Oli Chandler for his excellent predicting and hypothesising in our class novel, “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”,  Keaghan Lummis for his excellent reverence and composure during our Investiture Mass and Holly Wykes and Jessie O’Connor for displaying sensational sportsmanship at the Joey’s Swimming Carnival.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

This week Kinder enjoyed being interviewed by their Year 6 buddies who wanted to find out a little more about them as we prepare for our special Welcome Liturgy later in the term. We also enjoyed some delicious pancakes on Tuesday and a big thank you to our Year 6 buddies, Mrs Fuller and Mrs Colwell for preparing and serving them. In our classroom this week we have been learning how to read! It’s  so exciting to begin recognising and naming letters, sounds and even some words. "Humpty Dumpty" was our nursery rhyme focus for Reading  and we also completed a craft activity to go with the story. In Maths we classified objects according to their colour, size and distinctive features, while counting and recalling numbers. It has certainly been a busy week in Kinder! Have a lovely weekend.   Mrs Alison Newstead & Miss Lisa  Harvey

Year 1

Yesterday we celebrated Ash Wednesday with our school and Parish community. We discussed the importance of Lent and how we can use this time to remember Jesus and try to be better people. We wrote Lenten Promises and are going to try very hard to keep our promises during Lent. This week Year 1 was very excited to read the second book in our English unit and enjoyed reading about different places “Under the Southern Cross”. We looked at the structure of sentences and used this knowledge to write about a place in Australia that we think should be added into the book. In Maths Year 1 explored odd and even numbers and used our new hundreds chart to count and create number patterns. Thank you to everyone who has sent in a baby photo of their child. They are  displayed in the classroom and we have enjoyed discussing them in Religion. Have a great weekend!  Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 2

It has been another action packed week in Year 2! We have been discussing our image of God and how we think he looks. We also looked at how he is portrayed in the Bible - as a mother, a father, a potter and a shepherd. During History we looked at some old pictures of the first St Joseph’s School and how the school and the people have changed over time. Thank you Year 6 for cooking our delicious pancakes on Tuesday and to all of the students for participating in a lovely Ash Wednesday Mass. Year 2 added Maths Mentals to their homework routine this week. Thank you again to those parents who have been covering our workbooks, it really does help them to survive the year in good order. We hope all of the Joey's children had a great day of swimming and ‘Gave Of Their best’ today in Coonamble. Enjoy the weekend! Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

This week we marked the beginning of Lent with a lovely Ash Wednesday Mass. Year 3 wrote out some Lenten Promises which they are working hard to keep during this time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In the classroom our sound focus is the many different letter combinations that make ‘n’. We are writing narratives in English and focused on using descriptive language in order to make our narratives more entertaining for our audience. Maths saw us learn about place value by using playing cards to make the smallest and largest 3-digit numbers and writing out the words we say for these numbers. We are swimming for sport this term. Just a reminder that rash shirts are great sun protection. Sorry, we forgot to send home some books to be covered last weekend so we endeavor to send home the remainder of the books to be covered this Friday .We hope you have a lovely weekend.   Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Swade Wilson

Year 4

Year 4 enjoyed their yummy pancakes on Tuesday to celebrate Pancake Tuesday. Thank you to Year 6 for preparing the pancakes for us. We also enjoyed a lovely Ash Wednesday Mass. The ashes are a great reminder for all of us to use Lent as a time of new beginnings. In Maths we’ve been revising 4-digit place value and ordering numbers. We also completed an activity called ‘Sixty Seems Important’ that the children really enjoyed. We’ve continued reading our novel and have learnt that Oliver has autism. We watched a short clip explaining  what autism is and some of the challenges people with autism face and why they may have certain behaviours. We’ve also completed a character analysis of Mum, Tilly and Oliver. A note has been sent home about the Years 1 and 4 Sunday Mass on 25 February. Please complete the permission note and return ASAP so readings can be given out. It would be wonderful to have lots of Year 4 children in attendance. Have a great weekend!  Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

It’s been a busy week in Year 5! Thank you to Year 6 and the staff that helped cook the pancakes for Pancake Tuesday - they were very yummy! In Grammar we have been learning about the different sentence types and how to identify them. During our Literature unit we have been learning about subverted and expected patterns found in narratives. We predicted what pattern our novel, "The Wild Robot", would follow and will have to wait and see if our predictions are correct once we finish the novel. In Maths we focused on place value and the different ways we can represent numbers with a main focus on writing numbers, while in Religion we looked at the 'Catholic Social Principles' and how we can live by these in our own lives. We also started our new unit ‘Lent - A Time For Growth’ just in time to present our Lenten Promises during Ash Wednesday Mass. Have a wonderful weekend.   Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 6

What a fabulous week it has been in Year 6. On Tuesday we celebrated Pancake Tuesday with Year 6 serving some delicious pancakes to the whole school! Thank you Mrs Fuller and Mrs Colwell for organising this. On Wednesday we shared a beautiful Ash Wednesday Mass with our whole school community and we thank all of those who joined us . During Mass we brought forward our Lenten Promises as a representation of our understanding towards Jesus’ sacrifice. In the classroom we have been focussing on integers in Maths, particularly calculating the difference between negative and positive numbers and relating to real life situations. In English we continued to enjoy our class novel, completing a characterisation activity and identifying the themes we have explored so far . It sure is suspenseful! We have also had some time to meet with our Kinder Buddies this week and learn all about their interests, hobbies and favourite things! From here we will begin writing our 'Kinder Buddy Speeches'. Our final highlight of the week was certainly the visit from Brett Kimmorley and the Roads to Regions team. It was a very insightful and motivational incursion with one strong message for students - always strive to be ‘Simply Your Best’. A great message for all! We hope you have a safe and wonderful weekend.  Mrs Meichelle Schier, Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD

BENDIGO BANK 'MEET & GREET'

Bendigo Bank are extending an invitation to new and not so new residents of Gilgandra to attend a 'meet and greet' type function to find out information about sporting clubs, community groups and local services.   This event will take place on Monday, 26 February from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Gilgandra Services Club, 33 Morris Street and light refreshments will be provided.  If you would like to attend, please RSVP by Friday, 23 February to gilgandramailbox@bendigoadelaide.com.au, phone 6847 1502 or call into the branch at 51 Miller Street, Gilgandra.  See flyer at the end of the newsletter for more information.

AUSTRALIAN CAMPS ASSOCIATION

Australian Camps Association run a program known as 'People Outdoors' where they provide supported camps for kids, teens and adults living with a disability.  This program is being brought to NSW in April this year.  Please click on the link at the end of the newsletter for more information about this wonderful initiative.

LAKE BURRENDONG SPORT & RECREATION OPEN DAY

Lake Burrendong Sport & Recreation Centre is holding a FREE Open Day this Sunday, 18 February from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m at 205 Tara Road, Mumbil.  Activities and entertainment include: archery, peddle carts, slip and slide, free sports clinics, PCYC obstacle ninja course, open pool, traditional indigenous games and site tours.  There will be food options on-site to purchase or bring a picnic lunch to enjoy in the beautiful surrounds of the centre. Although the event is free, registration is required.  Please click on the link at the end of the newsletter to register.