ABOUT - Term 4 Week 1 - 16 October 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Nothing is impossible.  The word itself says, "I'm possible"
~ Audrey Hepburn ~

WELCOME BACK!

We welcome everyone back to a new school term.  Hopefully everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable break and we now look forward to an exciting and busy final term for 2025 at St Joey’s with a lot of fun events to look forward to!

PORTFOLIOS

All children took home their portfolios at the end of last term with samples of their Term 3 work.  Hopefully you have been able to look at and enjoy all the children’s work.  All portfolios need to be returned to school as soon as possible so the Term 4 work can be placed in them.

TERM 4 SPORT

Sport for primary students will revert back to Thursday this term, which means that the whole school will now have sport on a Thursday.  ALL students should wear their sport uniform each Thursday.

Weather permitting, we will be swimming from Week 3. All students will need to bring their swimmers, towel and pool entry fee of $1.00, if you don’t have a season ticket.

NO HAT, NO PLAY

Just a reminder that school hats are an essential part of the school uniform.  It is imperative that each child has a school hat and please don’t forget to write your child’s name on the hat.

GOIN' TO GIL STREET PARADE

A huge thank you to those students and staff members who participated in the 'Goin' To Gil' Street Parade during the school holidays.  It was wonderful to have a representation from our school in such an amazing community event.  Congratulations to Gilgandra Shire Council for organising this wonderful  weekend of activities in our town.

KINDER ORIENTATION DAY

Next Tuesday, 21 October, the newest members of the St Joey’s family will come to school.  Our 2026 Kinder class will have their first real taste of ‘big school’ and we are all excited about their visit.

GOOD LUCK KATIE!

We wish Katie C. the best of luck as she competes at the NSW PSSA Athletics Championships to be held in Homebush next Wednesday, 22 and Thursday, 23 October.  Katie will compete in the 11 years Long Jump and 11 years Discus.  It is an amazing achievement to reach this level of competition!

ST JOEY'S P&F SCHOOL FETE

ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY!

This year's school fete will be held next Friday, 24 October.  The fete will start at 2:00 p.m. and conclude at 5:00 p.m. with the 'Slime Run'.

CAKE & PRODUCE STALL - Plastic containers are available for collection from the school office at any time. 

RAFFLE BASKETS STALL - TOMORROW, Friday, 17 October is the last day for your child to bring in items for their class raffle basket.  This will give our stall coordinators time to make each basket into a beautiful hamper, ready for the fete next Friday. 

A reminder that the themes for each class are:

At the fete, the class raffle hampers will be on display and children/adults can purchase tickets for $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00.  They then place their tickets into the relevant box for the basket/s they would like to win.  Towards the end of the fete, the raffles will be drawn and the six lucky hamper winners announced.

CHILDREN'S FETE & SLIME RUN TICKETS ONLINE

Don't forget that you can pre-purchase tickets for the various fete stalls and the slime run online through Flexischools until 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the fete.  On the day of the fete, all pre-purchased tickets will be handed out to the students.  Tickets will still be available to purchase at the fete, as normal.

This year, we also have a 'SLIME RUN, HOT DOG & POPPER COMBO' available to pre-purchase on Flexischools.  Grab yours now, so your child can participate in the slime run and dinner will be ready to eat on your way home!

FETE ROSTER

Thanks to all the families who have offered to help out on a stall at the fete.  We have today sent home a further Fete Roster.  We are calling for helpers to assist the coordinators man the stalls during the fete.  If everyone helps out on the day for just one hour, then all the gaps will be easily filled. 

WE HAVE NO HELPERS FOR THE INFLATABLE RIDES, which is the main attraction for the children.  Please help if you can.

If you can help out, please write your name in the 'YELLOW' box/es and return the form by next Monday, 20 October. There is also a place on the roster for helpers to set up on the day of the fete, from 11:15 a.m.  If you can help, please put your name down and return it so we know if we will have enough helpers.

COW PAT LOTTO

At the fete each year we have a Cow Pat Lotto. How does Cow Pat Lotto work?  We erect a yard with an area of 400 square metres.  You then have the chance to purchase one or more of these one metre squares for $5.00 per square.  A cow is led around the yard and if you own the square where the first dropping lands, then you win $1,000.00!  A book of four tickets was sent home with each family last week.  If you would like more tickets, just let us know and we will send them home, or pop into the school office and collect a book. All sold tickets need to be returned to school by Tuesday, 21 October.

CYBER SAFETY CONCERNS

It has been brought to our attention that some of our students have been accessing a concerning website from home during the school holidays.  We have notified the relevant parents and we ask that you please take the opportunity to speak with your child about cybersafety and the possible dangers of inappropriate websites.  For internet safety information and help please see the link below.

https://www.childsafe.org.au/help-for-families/e-safety-online/

WELCOME MISS MURRAY

This week we welcomed Miss Eleisha Murray to the Joey's family.  Miss Murray is a Learning Support Officer and will be working at our school on a casual basis.  We hope Eleisha enjoys her time at Joey's.

MRS NEWSTEAD ON LONG SERVICE LEAVE

Mrs Newstead is currently on long service leave and will return to school in Week 3.  During Alison's absence, Miss Harvey has been teaching Kindergarten from Monday to Wednesday.  Mrs Jeffery is teaching  as normal on Thursday and Friday.  We hope Alison is enjoying a lovely break.

YEAR 7 ORIENTATION DAYS

Macquarie Anglican Grammar School and Gilgandra High School

Those students who will be attending MAGS next year are having a two day Orientation session today and tomorrow at Macquarie Anglican Grammar School.  Then, next Thursday, 24 October our Year 6 students attending Gilgandra High School next year, will participate in their second Orientation Day from 9:30 a.m.  We hope the students attending enjoy their taste of high school for next year.

SCHOOL STUDENT TRAVEL

School travel applications for the 2026 School Student Transport Scheme are now open.  Students who change address, school, campus location, have repeated a year or received an expiry notification for their school travel entitlement should renew or update their details before the end of Term 4 by visiting the Transport NSW website at: https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/eligibility-concessions/school-student-travel/update-or-renew-school-travel-pass.  This will ensure that we can endorse applications before the end of the year, ensuring students travel entitlements remain valid for the start of the 2026 school year.

Students living in rural and regional areas should receive their travel pass at the start of the new school year from their nominated transport operator.  Parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass. You should plan ahead and make sure your child knows which bus to use and has a valid School Travel Pass for the start of the school year.

TERM 4 CANTEEN ROSTER

We still have many gaps to fill on the Term 4 Canteen Roster - a further copy of the roster is below.  If you can assist in the canteen this term, please let us know your preferred day.  We would like to send home the final Term 4 Roster early next week.

PARKING CHANGES AT ST JOSEPH'S CHURCH

We have been informed by St Joseph's Parish that there are now chains and "NO VEHICLE ENTRY" signs across the Wrigley Street and first Wamboin Street driveways into the church.

Parents are welcome to park their vehicles in the church carpark accessed via the second Wamboin Street driveway and walk children to and from school from there.

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 

CANTEEN POLICY

Please find below a link to the St Joseph's School Canteen Policy. Due to various changes with Food & Safety Handling, we have been required to update our school's policy. Would all of our canteen volunteers please take the time to read through this document to ensure they are aware of the changes that are now in force.

LITTLE ATHLETICS TONIGHT

Gilgandra Little Athletics will resume training tonight at 5:30p.m. If you would still like to join, it is not too late to register. Little A’s look forward to welcoming new and existing members back at McGrane Oval this evening.

WHAT'S ON IN WEEKS 2 & 3

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

Welcome back to our final term of Kindergarten! We hope you all had an enjoyable holiday. It has been so wonderful to be back together and ready for another fun and busy term of learning. This term we will be exploring the wonderful world of Pamela Allen books and taking a closer look at some of the parables Jesus taught us in the Bible. In Geography, Kinder will be learning about special places, discovering the features of this marvellous world God has created for us and discussing ways we can care for it. In the classroom this week we have been learning the ‘sh’ digraph and enjoyed making some fantastic shark artworks to help us practise. We are really looking forward to the fete next week, it should be lots of fun! A friendly reminder that we are still looking for donations of local products for our class raffle basket as they will be collected tomorrow. We thank you for your generosity. Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Julia Jeffery & Miss Lisa Harvey                                                                            

Year 1

Welcome back to the last term of the year. Year 1 has settled in nicely. We started the week with Tuesday morning Mass. We then spent the week reviewing sounds in phonics and in spelling. We learnt that to change many verbs to past tense we add ‘ed’ to the end. In Literacy we read the text, “The Mess That We Made” and discussed the author's purpose and perspective. We wrote about why we would not swim in the ocean at the beginning of the text and why we would at the end. We also explored key vocabulary from the text, matched these words to their definitions and wrote some of them in sentences. During Maths we sorted problems into addition or subtraction using our knowledge of Maths symbols and language. We used teddy bear counters and hundreds charts to complete subtraction problems and worked hard to partition the numbers and take away the tens before the ones. We began a new unit in Religion titled, ‘Creator God’. We discussed the many colours of nature and wrote a prayer to thank God for this colour. During Geography we looked at a globe and located the equator along with the southern and northern hemispheres. We also found Australia and labelled our neighbours. Our chocolate basket donations for the fete next week is filling up so we thank everyone for their donation. Tomorrow will be the last chance for donations if you haven’t already done so. We’re always in need of volunteers to help out with the fete so if you can spare some time it would be greatly appreciated. Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

Welcome back, it sounds as though an enjoyable holiday was had by all. Year 2 has wasted no time in getting straight back into the work. In Maths we have been learning about rounding and sequencing 3 and 4 digit numbers as well as estimating strategies for large quantities. In Geography we brainstormed the way we use water in our everyday lives and ways that we can protect this precious resource daily. We began our Reconciliation unit in Religion and there will be more information to follow about the Reconciliation Program for Year 2. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful donations to our class raffle basket for the school fete next week. Tomorrow will be the last day for donations if you haven't already done so. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

Welcome back to Term 4! I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. We’ve started our new nonfiction novel, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”. It’s a powerful story full of hope. We’ve been exploring some of the language used in the novel to deepen our understanding. We also watched a short BTN segment about the story, which sparked some amazing class discussions! In Maths, we are focusing on place value and partitioning numerals for the first two weeks. Although this is a revision from Term 1, everyone is learning something new and building on their understanding. In Art, we are learning how to fold paper cranes. It’s a detailed and careful process, but our goal is to fill the classroom with them! In Geography, we explored how to identify different landforms. Using National Geographic Mapmaker, we located and examined various landforms from around the world. Thank you for all the kind donations to our class raffle hamper for next week’s fete. Tomorrow will be the last day to bring your donations in. It’s been a wonderful start to the term and I can’t wait to see what happens for the rest of the year!

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

Welcome back to Term 4! It sounds like everyone enjoyed a well earned break over the holidays. This week we are straight back into our routine. We are learning about the types of sentences in Grammar and identifying if a sentence is declarative, imperative or exclamatory. Today, we looked at our new novel for this term, “200 Minutes of Danger”. We are looking forward to finding out more about this intriguing book. In Maths we are revising place value and making numbers 10x, 100x and 1000x larger. We are all looking forward to the fete next week. Just a reminder to bring something in for our class raffle basket ‘Camping and Fishing’ if you haven’t already done so. Tomorrow will be your last chance to bring in your donations.  Have a great weekend!

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

Welcome back to our final term of Year 5! It was wonderful to hear about everyone's exciting holiday adventures and we are looking forward to all the amazing activities in the term ahead, including our school fete next Friday. In Maths, we have been solving perimeter problems for regular and irregular shapes and consolidating our knowledge of decimal place value. During Religion, we depicted the seven days of creation according to Genesis and discussed the difference between a free settlers' colony and a penal colony in History. We have begun researching a place of interest in Sydney as part of our excursion report and continue to work on our leadership speeches, which we will present in Week 7. Thank you to everyone for your kind donations to our class raffle hamper for next week’s fete. Tomorrow is the last day for any more donations. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

Welcome back to Term 4! We hope you had a wonderful holiday break! We have hit the ground running in all aspects of learning. In English we have begun our new class novel, “Queenie in Seven Moves” and have so far enjoyed the intriguing start. In Maths we have continued on with our 2D Shapes unit and have been exploring how we can dissect shapes and rearrange them using translation, reflection and rotation, along with using triangles to create new shapes. The possibilities are endless. In History we have begun planning our research projects of historical and iconic places that we will visit whilst on our Sydney Excursion. Creative Arts has seen us begin our puppetry unit which is proving to be very fun so far! We enjoyed playing some entertaining group games which focussed on eye contact, tone, body language and ways we can perform dramatically. We will be learning ways to manage elements of drama (e.g. tension, contrast, time, space, focus and mood) as we prepare our very own puppet show and characters. We look forward to a very busy term, especially our high school orientations, the school fete and the end of year social. Thank you to all those who have donated some wonderful ‘Lego’ for our classroom fete hamper. Just a reminder to please bring your donations in by tomorrow.  Have a great weekend!

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

ALTAR SERVERS ROSTER

CANTEEN ROSTER

NOTICEBOARD