ABOUT - Term 2 Week 7 - 12 June 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Do your little bit of good where you are.
It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

CONGRATULATIONS ROSE & KATIE

We were thrilled to hear that both Rose and Katie placed in the top 20 competitors in their age group at the CPS Cross Country Championships in Sydney yesterday, with Rose coming 15th and Katie 19th.  What a wonderful effort at this level of competition.  Well Done Rose and Katie!

PEER SUPPORT PROGRAM

Our Peer Support Program will continue next Monday, 17 June with a session all about 'Types of Friends'.  During this session, children will explore what encourages them to form friendships with different people (common interests, admirable qualities, etc).  Through activities, we will identify that friends can fall into categories of 'best friends', 'friends' and 'people we know'.  We will also discuss that friendships change over time for various reasons and that some friends may be more important at different times in our life.

We thank our Year 6 leaders for the wonderful job they are doing mentoring our students in this program.

CITY OF DUBBO EISTEDDFOD

Best of luck to our fabulous verse speaking choirs who compete next Wednesday, 18 June at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod to be held at the Dubbo Regional Theatre & Convention Centre (DRTCC). The three choirs have been practising very hard and sound beautiful.  The order for the verse speaking choirs is as follows:

Commencing at 10:00 a.m.

Section 5300 – Years 1/2 – Infants (we are competitor no. 5 of 5 competitors), followed by

Section 5301 – Years 3/4 – Junior Primary (we are competitor no. 3 of 3 competitors)

Section 5302 – Years 5/6 – Senior Primary (we are competitor no. 3 of 3 competitors).

We would love to see many family and friends in attendance at the eisteddfod to watch our wonderful choirs perform. 

The children are required to wear full winter uniform which is as follows:

Boys:  Grey trousers, blue shirt, school jumper, grey socks, black leather shoes.
Girls:.  Maroon trousers, fawn shirt, school jumper, brown socks, black leather shoes.

As previously mentioned, tickets can be purchased from the DRTCC Box Office or ordered online by visiting http://drtcc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/sale and searching "Eisteddfod".

OUT OF UNIFORM DAY

Next Tuesday, 17 June

To ensure that everyone's school uniform is sparkling clean and ready for the eisteddfod, we will be having an out of uniform day next Tuesday, 17 June.

NO CANTEEN NEXT WEDNESDAY, 18 JUNE

Due to the times that students will return to school on the day of the eisteddfod, we have made the decision to close the canteen next Wednesday, 18 June.  Please ensure you pack both morning tea and lunch for your child on the day of the eisteddfod. 

GOOD LUCK TO OUR INDIVIDUAL EISTEDDFOD PERFORMERS

We wish the following children the best of luck next Thursday, 19 June as they perform an individual item at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod.  To have the courage to get up and perform on your own already makes you all champions!

Year 1 Poetry:  Freyer Williams
Year 2 Poetry:  Henry Foran
Year 3 Poetry:  Annabelle Foran, Piper van den Ende, Thomas Colwell, Caroline Taylor
Year 4 Poetry:  Tiffany Fong, George Taylor, Allie Claire Williams, Isobel Barry, Harper Wykes
Year 5 Poetry:  Maci-Jae Lomax, Katie Colwell

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

St Joseph's Church - Sunday, 22 June

The excitement is certainly building for the First Holy Communion class as this special day is quickly approaching.  Our school community and parish are warmly invited to celebrate First Holy Communion at St Joseph’s Church on Sunday, 22 June at 9:30 a.m.  It would be fabulous to have lots there for this great occasion.

Please keep our First Holy Communion class in your thoughts and prayers:  Evie Adams, Molly Adams, Aabel Anoop, John Erick Badon, Charlie Budworth, Thomas Colwell, Annabelle Foran, Elsie Howard, Indiana Jeffery, Grace Johnston, Georgie Kirkwood, Samuel Luckie, Frankie Medd, Parthiv Rajesh Nair, Isabelle Sandry, Samson Starr, Caroline Taylor, Piper van den Ende, Edward Woodrow, Billie Toomey, Henry Mudford.

PRIMARY ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The St Joey’s Primary Athletics Carnival will be held at McGrane Oval next Friday, 20 June. This carnival involves all primary school students (Years 3-6).

We will need officials to help with the judging of the events and we will also need helpers to run the canteen.  Thanks to all those parents who have offered to help.  Below is an updated roster, from which you will note the events that still need helpers.  We are also short of canteen helpers.

If you are able to assist in any way please write your name down and return the roster to school or alternatively just phone or pop into the office and let us know.

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL LUNCH ORDERS DUE NEXT MONDAY

As previously mentioned, there will be a special Flexischools canteen lunch order for the Primary Athletics Carnival on Friday, 20 June.  Lunch order bags are also available from the school office upon request.

Children's lunch orders MUST BE placed by 9:00 am. next Monday, 16 June.

Children can bring money to purchase SNACKS ONLY at morning tea and lunch from the canteen, however students' lunch orders must be PRE-ORDERED.

Morning tea and lunch will be available for parents/carers to purchase from the canteen.

INFANTS CANTEEN ORDERS ON DAY OF PRIMARY ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

On the day of the Primary Athletics Carnival, next Friday, 20 June, infants students who would like to order their recess or lunch using the Flexischools online service, will need to use the following Flexischools services when completing  their order:

Infants Recess Order for Friday, 20 June
Infants Lunch Order for Friday, 20 June

This change in ordering is only for the day of the Athletics Carnival.  If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the school office. 

HEAR OUR HEART EAR BUS

Representatives from the Hear Our Heart Ear Bus Project will be visiting our school next Tuesday, 17 June to test children's hearing.  If you have any particular concerns regarding your child's hearing, please let us know.

JUNE P & F MEETING

The June P & F Meeting will be held at school next Tuesday, 17 June at 5:30 p.m.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

YEAR 6 RELIGION TEST

Our Year 6 students will sit the Diocesan Year 6 Religion Test next Thursday, 19 June.  All Year 6 students in the diocese will complete this test.

HEAD LICE

We have had reports of head lice at school.  Could you please check your child/ren’s hair and if there is any evidence of head lice, please treat accordingly.

SEMESTER ONE REPORTS

All Semester One School Reports will be published on Compass on Friday, 27 June. If you have any problems accessing your child's report on Compass, please let us know.

PARENT / TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Parent/Teacher Interviews will be held during the last week of term on Monday, 30 June, Tuesday, 1 July and Wednesday, 2 July.  Interviews will be held from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. and are set at 15-minute intervals.  Interviews need to be booked through the Compass Parent Portal.  Please view the below instruction sheet on how to access and book your interviews.  A paper copy of this instruction sheet is going home today to all families as well.  If anyone has any difficulty, please contact the office.  All staff members are looking forward to meeting parents.  We strongly urge all parents to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss your child's progress at school.

PUPIL FREE DAY - Friday, 4 July

The last day of this term, Friday, 4 July, will be a Pupil Free Day.  All Joey's staff will be engaging in a Religious Retreat in Dubbo.

TERM 3 CANTEEN ROSTER

We are starting to put together the Term 3 Canteen Roster.  If you can assist in the canteen during Term 3, please let us know your preferred day and also any dates that you are unavailable.  A Canteen Helpers Form will be circulated in the coming weeks and a Term 3 Canteen Roster sent home early next term.

ENROL NOW FOR KINDER 2026

We are now taking enrolments for our Kinder class of 2026.  If you have a child ready to start school next year, please call in and pick up an enrolment pack or phone the office and we can email a pack to you.

FOOD HANDLER TRAINING LINK FOR CANTEEN VOLUNTEERS

Please click on the below link to undertake the Food Handler Training required to be completed by all of our canteen volunteers. 

www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/training/food-handler-basics-training 

WHAT'S ON IN WEEKS 8 & 9

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Joe Barry, Angus Foran and Elisha Robin for being so brave during their individual eisteddfod performances. 

YEAR 1: Noopura Rahul for being so brave during her individual eisteddfod performance,  Darcy Morrissey for identifying pentagons with precision, Freyer Williams for reciting our eisteddfod poems with enthusiasm and expression, Angel Dinto for transitioning seamlessly back into school life after a wonderful holiday and Ted Johnston for expertly pressing his switch to say “good morning!”

YEAR 2: Claire Barry for great enthusiasm researching ‘wolverines’ for her information report, Reyansh Sobti for great work researching ‘bears’ for his information report and Jock Cruickshank, Becky Hutchison, Liam Mellor and William Pagan for outstanding improvement in their benchmark reading.

YEAR 3: Georgie Kirkwood and Evie Adams for fantastic facial expressions during poem practice and Indiana Jeffery and Frankie Medd for reading fluently with wonderful expression.

YEAR 4: Billy Jeffery for working diligently in Maths, Manu Binu for super contributions to class discussions and Ryle Walker for working hard on ‘The Last Stand’ writing task.

YEAR 5: Tiaki Diamond and Charlie Cruickshank for taking an active role during peer support activities with great enthusiasm and Liam Millstead for working quietly and conscientiously to complete tasks.

YEAR 6: Caitlin Younghusband for excellent leadership during our peer support sessions and Estelle Hazelton for consistent improvement during Reading fluency each week.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

Congratulations to Joe, Angus and Elisha who represented our school in the Individual Nursery Rhymes section at the Dubbo Eisteddfod. It takes a lot of courage to perform on stage in front of an audience, and we are so proud of you - well done! In the classroom Kinder has been enjoying the stories, “Dishy Wishy” and “Chip”. We have been working hard on writing sentences and learning to identify adjectives and nouns in our writing. In Phonics we focused on the ‘Cc’ sound and had fun cutting and pasting pictures that begin with our sound of the week. Maths saw us usingEssential Assessment to complete online activities that help us practise our number and problem-solving skills. For Art this week we carefully drew Chip the Seagull and painted our pictures using watercolours - they look fantastic! We hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

Year 1 was straight back to work after an enjoyable long weekend. During News we’ve loved sharing the games our parents played when they were growing up whilst in Phonics, we have focused on the ‘long o’ phonemes such as ‘oa’, ‘o’ and ‘ow’. The students have been using excellent expression during the shared reading of our decodable text, “Toad Moans and Groans”. We also continued our work on Penny Matthew’s book, “A Year on Our Farm”. We learnt that she often writes about her time growing up on the farm because it is the place most vividly real to her. We then thought about a place that is most vividly real to us and discussed with a friend what we see, hear, touch, smell and feel in this place. We took the ideas and wrote some fantastic responses about our special places and attempted to include prepositional phrases in our writing. In Maths our focus this week has been position. We learnt a strategy to help us work out our right from our left and watched an entertaining video that incorporated body movements. In History we talked about the purpose of museums and defined artefacts. We then looked at some different artefacts such as a rotary phone, typewriter and record player and identified their purpose. If anyone has any other artefacts at home they think would be interesting to share with the class, you’re more than welcome to send them in. We have improved greatly from consistent eisteddfod practices and are excited to perform in front of the school tomorrow morning in preparation for our performance at the eisteddfod next week. We hope your weekend is wonderful.

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

It's been a cold and busy week and Year 2 has continued to work well. We have been looking at different fables during writing and discussing the important messages within them. We also looked at the fable, “The Lion and the Mouse” which has no text and we had to interpret the pictures. During Personal Development with Mr Gibbons we have been revising being safe around the water, whether it be in the backyard, at the pool or the beach. We began a new unit in Maths where we will be learning about groups, area and fractions of a length. Year 2 is looking forward to getting up on stage next Wednesday to perform at the eisteddfod. Everyone has been trying so hard and Mrs Haling, Mrs Barry and I are very proud of you all. To all of the classes heading off to the eisteddfod, make sure you ‘Give Of Your Best’. We also wish Henry all the best as he bravely performs a poem by himself next week, we will be cheering you on back at school! Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

It’s been a wonderfully busy week in Year 3! We’ve been hard at work finalising our recordings for the Q&A audio projects - what an exciting achievement! We’ve also begun crafting persuasive arguments on ‘why we should protect and support sanctuaries’. The ideas being shared are thoughtful and powerful - I can’t wait to read everyone’s final pieces! In Maths we’ve been exploring multiplication arrays and even played a fun dice game. It’s been a great hands-on way to deepen our understanding. We also began a new Aboriginal artwork inspired by Hayley Pearson. The artworks are detailed and vibrant and while they’re going to take some time to complete, I am sure they will be stunning once finished. Preparations for our First Holy Communion Mass are coming together beautifully. Everyone is confidently practising their readings and our liturgical movement is looking truly special. Well done, Year 3 - keep up the fantastic work!

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

This week we have begun our new English unit focusing on the concept of ‘imagery, symbol and connotation’ and the supporting concept of ‘characterisation’ through the use of the mentor text, “Bindi" by Kirli Saunders and the supporting text, “Fire” by Jackie French. We have looked at many types of figurative language and have focused on similes and metaphors as we read the book, “Fire”. During History we have continued looking at how the arrival of the First Fleet brought diseases like smallpox and influenza and caused misunderstandings and cultural differences with the Gadigal people. We read about an Aboriginal boy named Nanbarry and a surgeon named John White. Nanbarry’s mother, father and sister had already died from the smallpox when Nanbarry fell ill. In the hospital the surgeon John White treated him and he made a full recovery. John White then adopted him as his son. A permission note has been sent home today regarding our excursion in week 10. Our eisteddfod poems are coming along nicely, Miss Dobson and I are very proud of the effort from all the Years 3 and 4 students. We look forward to presenting it on stage. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

This week we took a tour around the school grounds on a QR Code scavenger hunt by solving riddles to discover our next destination. Thank you Mrs Jeffery for preparing such a fun DigiTech lesson. In Personal Development we discussed the positive things about being online and how to be safe when enjoying online activities. We continue exploring coordinating numbers in Maths this week and apply our knowledge to a cartesian plane using positive and negative coordinating pairs. In Art we are now creating a replica of ‘Sunflowers in a Vase’ by Vincent Van Gogh and applying various patterns to depict a dynamic picture. We have been working very hard on our eisteddfod poems and are looking forward to delivering them to a larger audience next week. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

We hope you had a lovely and restful long weekend! Week 7 has absolutely flown by with minimal interruptions. We have been super busy practising our poems for the eisteddfod and they are sounding pretty amazing! In the classroom we have been working with the ‘aw, or, our, au’ sound and homophones such as ‘practise’ and ‘practice’, ‘license’ and ‘licence’. In Maths we have focussed on converting units of measurement, including millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres, plotting coordinates using all 4 quadrants on a cartesian plane and translating and reflecting 2D shapes across an axis. During Religion we have begun researching Catholic Saints, where we will select one Saint each who we see as a true role model and someone who we aspire to be like as we move through our life journey. In Science with Miss Dann we have enjoyed learning about the Periodic Table and all the different elements.  Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER