ABOUT - Term 2 Week 8 - 19 June 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

First Holy Communion Prayer
Come Lord Jesus, into my heart today.
Help me always to follow Your will, Your work and Your way.

EISTEDDFOD EXCELLENCE

Congratulations to our verse speaking choirs who performed so well at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod yesterday.  It was a pleasure to watch the performances.  Thank you to the students for their great contribution and to the teachers for their fantastic preparation.  Well done!  Our results included:

Infants Verse Speaking Choir - Third

Adjudicator's comments included:

"Beautiful entry onto the stage.  Very professional.  Excellent projection.  Title well annunciated.  Well done with your expressions, it always helps to tell the story.  You made it enjoyable to listen to and watch.  Good use of pitch with the rise and fall through the poem."

"Good entry into the second poem.   Well done to split the group.  You watched your teacher intently.  Well done by the soloist.  Clearly conducted by both teachers.  Well done."

Junior Primary Verse Speaking Choir - First

Adjudicator's comments included:

"You entered the stage professionally and watched your teacher well.  Good position on stage, loved the smiles.  I like the use of the word 'haunted'.  Good use of dramatic suspense.  Good use of the two groups sharing the dialogue.  Good use of pausing and speaking slowly.  Well conducted and rehearsed."

"Good contrast of poem.  Excellent use of movement to express the poem.  Well paused between paragraphs.  Everyone was in perfect time, started and finished cleanly.  Well conducted.  Beautifully performed.  I loved the echo's with the galah.  Excellent finish.  Well done."

Senior Primary Verse Speaking Choir - First

Adjudicator's comments included:

"Good entry onto stage.  Excellent pausing.   Well done with splitting the group and vocals.  You watch your teacher very well, excellent.  I like the use of the intensity and speed through certain sections.  This helps to set the scene and story.  Good use of suspensive pausing and flow overlines.  I enjoyed the movements.  Good finish, well done"

"Good choice of contrast poem.  I like the placement of boys on one side and have their own spotlight of voices with the wolf.  Well conducted and good use of pausing.  Excellent character voices, very entertaining.  Strong finish."

Thank you to our P & F Association who contributed $1,215.00 towards the cost of the eisteddfod bus hire.  This enabled us to keep the cost of the bus hire to $5.00 per child.  

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

This Sunday, 22 June at 9:30 a.m.

The excitement is certainly building for the First Holy Communion class as this special day is almost here!  Our school community and parish are warmly invited to celebrate First Holy Communion at St Joseph’s Church this 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.

WORKING BEE TO CLEAN CHURCH FOR FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

There will be a working bee for Year 3 parents to clean the church in preparation for First Holy Communion tomorrow, Friday, 20 June from 3:20 p.m.  We hope to see as many as possible there.

YEAR 2 PARENTS TO SERVE FIRST HOLY COMMUNION BREAKFAST

Thank you to those Year 2 parents who have offered to help prepare and serve morning tea for the Year 3 First Holy Communion class and their families this Sunday, 22 June.  If anyone else would like to assist, please just turn up on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. 

FAREWELL FR NAM

Sadly, we said farewell to Fr Nam on Tuesday.  He celebrated his final school Mass on Tuesday, at the conclusion of which our school captains, Charlie & Neve presented him with a token of appreciation on behalf of our school.  Fr Nam's final Mass in Gilgandra will be on Sunday, 29 June following which he will head to Bathurst as part of the Cathedral Parish.  We thank Fr Nam for all his contributions to our school and we wish him well in the future.  God bless you Fr Nam.

BEST OF LUCK TO OUR INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS AT THE EISTEDDFOD

Best of luck to all our individual competitors at the City of Dubbo Eisteddfod today.  We will give a full report of their results in next week's About.

PRIMARY ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

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

Thank you to all those parents who have offered to help throughout the day.  Below is an updated roster.  There are still a few helpers needed.  If you can help out on the day, please do so.  We have also sent home a hardcopy of the roster with the eldest child in each family. We hope to see as many parents and family there as possible to cheer the children on. 

Canteen facilities will be available throughout the day for parents/helpers.  Students can bring money to purchase morning tea from the canteen and snacks/ice blocks at lunchtime.  If your child has not pre-ordered his/her lunch for the carnival, please ensure a packed lunch is taken to the carnival.

1500 M TRIALS FOR WESTERN REGION ATHLETICS

As we don't hold a 1500 m event at our Athletics Carnival, but it is an event at the Western Region Athletics Carnival,  we will hold trials for the 1500 m next Friday, 27 June at school.  It is open to any students from Years 3 -6 and at the carnival will be held as  Junior, 11 years and Senior events.

INFANTS CANTEEN ORDERS FOR TOMORROW

Infants students who would like to order their recess or lunch tomorrow, Friday, 20 June, 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. 

YEAR 2 RURAL MUSEUM VISIT

Our Year 2 students are counting down the days until their visit to the Gilgandra Rural Museum next Thursday, 26 June.  This excursion is part of their History unit, 'The Past In The Present' and it should be most interesting investigating the way things were in days gone by.

SEMESTER ONE REPORTS

All Semester One School Reports will be published on Compass next 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

TERM 3 CANTEEN ROSTER

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 9 & 10

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Charlie Haling for outstanding results in her Essential Assessment tasks, Dougal Cruickshank for listening carefully and trying his best in Phonics activities and Colt Budworth for terrific work identifying the needs of living things in Science.

YEAR 1: Charlie Burrell for using groups of 5’s and 10’s to efficiently and expertly count collections, Evelyn Easman and Jackie Gronow for using critical thinking skills to add detail to their houses in Science and Jack Jeffery for working hard to determine the value of chance worlds like ‘maybe’ and ‘we’ll see’. 

YEAR 2: Lachlan Foran and Ally Wykes for great results in their Essential Assessment tasks, Chase Hodges for working hard on his reading fluency and Bridie Jordan for being a caring friend.

YEAR 3: Charlie Budworth for working hard creating arrays using counters and Parthiv Rajesh Nair, Elsie Howard and Molly Adams ​ for writing great persuasive texts on why we should help sanctuaries.

YEAR 4: Mary Lesslie for detailed responses in our History assessment task and Tiffany Fong, Isobel Barry and Allie Claire Williams for writing excellent poem stanzas about ‘Sights in the Country’. 

YEAR 5: Layla Walker for consistently contributing to class discussions, Bella Hammond for working hard to improve fluency and accuracy and Dusty Jordan for great work identifying points on a cartesian plane.

YEAR 6: Braxten Towns for a positive attitude and persistence in Maths, Neve Walker for enthusiastically learning the periodic table in Science and Clancy Larkin for consistently improving her reading fluency each week.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

We started the week with another wonderful Peer Support session alongside our Year 6 buddies. This week we discussed the different types of friends we can have and how to form positive friendships with a variety of people. In English we continued exploring the book, “Chip” and looked closely at the role of illustrations. We talked about how authors and illustrators work together to help the reader understand the story and its meaning. In Maths we’ve been learning about time and becoming more familiar with the features of an analogue clock. We’ve had fun identifying the hour and minute hands and practising telling o’clock times. Congratulations to all the students who participated in the eisteddfod this week. We are very proud of your efforts and confidence! Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

A huge congratulations to all the Year 1 and 2 students for your efforts at the eisteddfod yesterday. Your expression, attention to the conductor and most importantly your smiles, made all the hard work worthwhile! You should all be very proud of yourselves. It was wonderful to see so many of our parents and friends in the audience too, we appreciate all the support. This week in English we have been exploring the concept of context and how it is used to create a deeper meaning in a story. We have focused on our own context and have used storyboards to create ‘A Week In My Life’ stories. Our Grammar focus this week has been pronouns and we have discovered their importance when helping sentences to make sense. In Science we have continued to work on assessing materials based on flexibility, strength and usability. This week our material was cooked spaghetti! We explored its properties and then used the spaghetti in an artwork. During Sport we have continued to work on our catching, throwing and teamwork skills while playing invasion games, whilst in Art we have put the finishing touches on our decorations for the First Holy Communion celebration. We have been keeping Year 3 in our prayers as they prepare for their First Holy Communion and we look forward to celebrating with them on Sunday. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

What a busy week it has been at Joey’s. Years 1 and 2 performed yesterday with great enthusiasm and school pride. We are very proud of you all, go Joeys! We have been writing our own fables on the chromebooks this week and sharing the important morals with each other. During Science with Mrs Barry, Year 2 has been learning about aerodynamics and making paper planes to test our skills and knowledge. During Library time, Mrs Jeffery shared the new book “Runt” with everyone and we can’t wait to continue reading it next week. We farewelled Fr Nam on Tuesday, we will miss playing soccer with him. Good luck to the Year 2 children running at the carnival tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

What a fabulous week it’s been!  We’ve been very busy preparing for our First Holy Communion - only three more sleeps! There’s such a lovely buzz of excitement and we’re all really looking forward to sharing this special celebration with you on Sunday. A huge congratulations to everyone who performed at the eisteddfod yesterday - and an extra big cheer for Years 3 and 4 for placing 1st! Your hard work and dedication truly paid off. Well done! In our novel unit, we wrapped up our persuasive writing pieces on ‘Why Sanctuaries Should Be Protected’. Everyone did a fantastic job using strong arguments and thoughtful language. We also launched into our next unit, reading the beautiful picture books, “Piano Fingers” and “Sonam and the Silence”. Through these stories, we’re exploring imagery, symbolism, and connotation and the discussions so far have been brilliant. In Digi Tech with Mrs Jeffery, we’ve been reading “Esio Trot”, and we’re absolutely loving it! We can’t wait to continue next week. We also experimented with Scratch, creating small animations, it was so much fun seeing everyone’s creativity come to life. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

Congratulations to our Years 3 and 4 students on your superb performance at the eisteddfod yesterday. Miss Dobson and I couldn’t have been prouder of your commitment during practices and your amazing final performance yesterday. You are all superstars! During History we have been learning about Bennelong and the role he played in trying to establish stronger links and communication between the English and the Eora people. In English we have written free stanza poems about ourselves inspired by our book, “Bindi”. We are all looking forward to the athletics carnival  tomorrow and celebrating First Holy Communion on Sunday. Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

Congratulations to the Years 5 and 6 Verse Speaking Choir on their fantastic performance at the eisteddfod yesterday. Their hard work and enthusiastic participation earned them a well-deserved first place. In Maths this week, we are looking at units of measurement and have spent time estimating and measuring distances with tape measures, trundle wheels and rulers. Defining and identifying urban, rural and remote areas has been our focus in Geography and in Grammar we identified adverbial clauses in sentences. On Sunday, Year 3 celebrates their First Holy Communion and it would be wonderful for Year 5 to come along and support their fellow students. Tomorrow, we are looking forward to running, jumping and throwing at our school’s athletics carnival - Go Gums!! Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

Another week has zoomed by! In the classroom we have been very busy across all KLA’s. In Maths we are learning to solve a variety of problems involving length and perimeter, including problems involving different units of length. We have continued to strengthen our skills in converting measurements between common metric units of length. In English we are writing a descriptive essay, with a focus on the main theme of our novel, “Rabbit, Soldier Angel, Thief”. We have also continued our poetry focus and enjoyed writing a Bio Poem - which is a poem all about ourselves! The highlight of the week so far was definitely the eisteddfod yesterday. Congratulations to each and every student for their wonderful, polished performances, we are super proud! Your hard work has definitely paid off. One last thing to look forward to tomorrow is the highly anticipated athletics carnival. We wish students all the very best as they compete in the different events. Have a safe and wonderful weekend - we hope to see many of you at First Holy Communion on Sunday where we will celebrate this special Sacrament with Year 3.

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS

CANTEEN ROSTER