ABOUT - Term 2 Week 2 - 8 May 2025

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Mothers hold their children's hands for a while, but their hearts forever.
Happy Mother's Day!

MOTHER'S DAY STALL

Tomorrow, Friday, 9 May

Thank you to those who have donated items for our Mother's Day Stall this year.  If you haven't already done so, it's not too late, just send them to school tomorrow morning.  Just a reminder that the gifts range in price from $1.00 to $5.00 and don't forget to send a plastic bag with your child to bring home their precious gifts!

HELPERS FOR THE STALL

If anyone can spare some time tomorrow to wrap last minute gifts and help man the stall, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.  Helpers are needed from 9:00 a.m.

MOTHER'S DAY RAFFLE

All raffle tickets need to be returned to school by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow as the raffle will be drawn at 9:00 a.m. before our Year 6 students depart for their peer support day at the Gil Library Hub.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 2025

"Guided by Faith, Inspired by Hope, Committed to Learning"

Our school will be celebrating Catholic Schools Week next week. This annual event is an opportunity for schools to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in these schools every day. The theme for this year’s celebrations is ‘Guided by Faith, Inspired by Hope, Committed to Learning’. There are 33 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Bathurst that educate around 9000 students and most will celebrate Catholic Schools Week in some way.  We will be celebrating Catholic Schools Week during the Mass which our Year 6 students are preparing next Thursday.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK MASS - YEAR 6

A Mass will be held next Thursday, 15 May at 9:00 a.m. in St Joseph's Church to celebrate Catholic Schools Week.  Our Year 6 leaders are preparing the Mass and everyone is welcome to attend.  Due to the early start time, there will be no morning tea after the Mass, however Year 6 students can still bring a plate to share with the class.

POLDING SOCCER TRIALS

Congratulations to Katie C and Jakirah M who competed in the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Polding Soccer Trials in Bathurst last Friday. Well done to Katie who was selected in the Possibles -v- Probables team. It is a fantastic achievement to reach this high level of competition.  Well done to Katie & Jakirah!

2025 GILGANDRA FILM FESTIVAL

Congratulations to Oliver Buckley, Mia Buckley, Katie Colwell, Thomas Colwell, Darcy Morrissey, Neve Walker, Caitlin Younghusband, Billy Jeffery, Indi Jeffery, Sophie Lacey and Tiffany Fong who created and entered mini films in the children’s documentaries section of the 2025 Gilgandra Film Festival titled, “This Is My Friend”.  Thank you to the film festival committee for inviting our students to be part of the festival and for presenting them with a certificate and trophy.  Well done to you all!

DIOCESAN CROSS COUNTRY

Congratulations to all our cross country runners who competed at the Diocesan Cross Country held in Coolah on Tuesday.  Special mention to Rose H (11 years) 3rd and Katie C (11 years) 4th.  There were over 70 competitors in this event. To come in the top eight is a fabulous achievement.  Well done Rose and Katie! They will now represent the Bathurst Diocese at the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Polding Cross Country Championships to be held at Eastern Creek on Wednesday, 11 June.  

Other students who finished in the top thirty were Hannah P - 17th, Harper W - 21st, Alice P - 28th and Jack H - 28th.  There were over 90 competitors in the 9 and 10 year events, so coming in the top 30 is a wonderful result!

Well done to all our runners!

SACRAMENTAL PARENT/CHILD MEETING

This Evening - 6:00 p.m.

A Sacramental Parent Meeting for all parents and children in Years 3 and 6 who will be receiving the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation this year, will be held at school this evening, Thursday, 8 May at 6:00 p.m. During this meeting Fr Nam will explain the significance of these sacraments and lead parents and children in a prayer session. We will also outline the programs that we will teach at school and organise how the days will run.  All parents and children in Years 3 and 6 are welcome to attend. 

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE - 'RAP, RHYME & ROCKING POETRY'

Next Tuesday, 13 May at 2:00 p.m. the whole school will be attending a performance in the school hall, titled 'Rap, Rhyme & Rocking Poetry'.  During this performance, children's author, Andy Jones, equipped with his electric keyboard, guitar, drum kit and microphones, will set off at an energetic pace as he gets the children 'Belly Dancing, Bollywood Style'!  Back 'In The Land Of Oz', Andy performs more of his original music and has students doing the 'Goanna Crawl' and 'Ooh Roo, That's A Kangaroo'.  The upbeat, lively beginning of the performance is designed to get everyone in the mood to explore their creative side.  Students will then help Andy write some really cool rap rhymes and perform them as well! 

PICKING UP CHILDREN FROM SCHOOL - A SAFETY ISSUE

Just a reminder that when picking up children from school to use the Wrigley Street entrance and not the Dudley Street entrance. The Dudley Street entrance is for buses only in the afternoon and it is too dangerous for children to be ducking between buses to leave school. Please ensure you walk across Wrigley Street to collect your child from the front gate.  No child should walk across the street unattended.

HATS MUST BE WORN DURING WINTER

The weather might be cooling down, but our faces are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation every day of the year and UV can be just as high on a cold day as on a hot one, especially if the skies are clear. That is why it is important to continue wearing hats during winter. Our ‘No Hat No Play’ rule still applies through winter, so please ensure your child has their school hat with them each day.

WALK SAFELY TO SCHOOL DAY

Walk Safely to School Day will be next Friday, 16 May. Objectives of the day are: 

• To promote the health benefits of walking and help create regular walking habits at an early age. 
• To help children develop the vital road-crossing skills they will need as they become mature pedestrians. 
• To ensure that children up to the age of 10 years of age hold an adult's hand when crossing the road.
• To reduce the car dependency habits that are being created at an early age and which will be difficult to change as children become adults. 
• To reduce vehicle emissions and help tackle climate change and improve air quality. 

We ask you to discuss with your child the health benefits of walking,  as well as safety rules. 

TERM 2 FEES

The Term 2 Fee Statements will be emailed to all families early next week with the second instalment for the year due on Friday, 23 May.  Fees may be paid by credit card via the Compass Portal or by BPay or Direct Deposit with the BPay details on the Statements and direct deposit details may be obtained from the school office.  Cheques and cash will also be accepted. 

Fee relief remains available for those parents who are facing financial hardship.  If you have not done so already, please contact the school for a Fee Relief Application.  There are also Health Care Card and Pensioner concessions available.  Catholic education will not be denied to any family due to financial difficulty.  If anyone is having difficulty paying school fees, please make an appointment to see Mr Gibbons.  Weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments can also be arranged.  

PROJECT COMPASSION DONATIONS

Thank you to all who contributed to this year's Project Compassion appeal. A total of $1,178.65 was collected this year from our school community which is an amazing effort!  Thanks again for your generosity.

ANNUAL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SURVEY

The annual School Improvement Survey has been emailed to all staff, parents and Years 5 and 6 students.  The purpose of this survey is to provide all stakeholders in our school community with a 'voice' in how our school operates.  The survey is straight forward and your responses are collected, collated and used to inform our school where we are operating well and areas where we may need to improve.  This is an important tool that all schools in our diocese participate in each year.  Data from the survey, forms and guides our annual improvement plans for the following year.  We would be grateful if all members of our school community would participate in the survey.

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.

LIFE EDUCATION VAN - HEALTHY HAROLD MERCHANDISE

To coincide with the Life Education Van visiting our school during Week 4 this term, Healthy Harold merchandise is available to pre-order for any families wishing to do so, by visiting https://bit.ly/haroldshop Instructions on how to order are below.  Orders need to be placed by TUESDAY, 20 MAY and items will be delivered to your child during Healthy Harold's visit to school in Week 4.

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.....for the next 2 weeks at St Joey's

MERIT AWARDS

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

KINDER: Olivia Wass for settling into the Joey’s family, Joe Barry for showing great understanding when exploring whole and half objects and Levi Anderson for showing great improvement in his handwriting.

YEAR 1: Molly Armstrong for writing a detailed recount of her holiday to Grawin, Jack Jeffery and Saddler Newton for adding detail and taking great care while creating their self-portraits in Art and Arthur Peart for focus and accuracy while labelling and using the number line during 'Number Of The Day'.

YEAR 2:  Tess Howard and Becky Hutchison for working hard in Maths groups to master new concepts.

YEAR 3: Aabel Anoop for fantastic contributions to our discussions in Maths, Georgie Kirkwood and Isabelle Sandry for great work identifying the common and proper nouns in Grammar and Samuel Luckie for working hard to achieve a high standard in Problem A day and Operations.

YEAR 4: Isobel Barry, Sterling Newton, Madeleine Foran and Allie Claire Williams for a fabulous effort when writing their hybrid texts in second person narratives and Kenzie Dollaga for settling into St Joey’s so quickly.

YEAR 5: Tiaki Diamond for consistently having a positive approach to all activities, Lleyton Lummis for working quietly and conscientiously to complete all tasks and Laycee Hazelton for asking clarifying questions in Maths to improve her understanding.

YEAR 6: Charlie Howard for his speedy Maths calculations and enthusiasm tackling tricky questions and Sophie Lacey for always producing interesting and very descriptive sentences.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Kindergarten

What a busy and exciting week we've had in Kindergarten! During our Literacy unit we read, “Thelma the Unicorn” and talked about how authors use characters to entertain readers and make them feel different emotions. We shared how the story made us feel and discussed the changes Thelma went through. In Religion we revised and sequenced the important events of Holy Week, showing our understanding through drawings and retelling. Maths saw us exploring how to combine groups of ten using a variety of strategies, including counting on, using tens frames and drawing pictures. In History we talked about the different stages of our life cycle - from being a baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult and then elderly. We sorted pictures into each stage and shared stories from our own lives. To all our wonderful mums, grandmothers and carers - we wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day for Sunday!

Mrs Alison Newstead & Mrs Julia Jeffery

Year 1

We had the best time celebrating our mums this morning during our liturgy. We think you would agree that there were some tough readings in there and that the students had practised well in order for our liturgy to happen so brilliantly. We’re also sure that you were all amazed at the incredible artworks they produced of their mothers! The book we have focused on this week is “Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus!”. We talked about how it is written in the narrative style of metafiction which is a text where the character speaks directly to the audience. We also defined the term ‘persuade’ and identified and discussed the persuasive arguments and language used by the author to convince us, as the audience, to let him drive the bus. We wrote two differently styled responses to Pigeon's argument giving our own argument as to why we think he should or should not drive the bus. We used speech marks in one of our responses which were challenging but we were very impressed with how the students included them in their writing. We further explored the text by composing a comic strip of our own version of the book which included some very entertaining arguments from Pigeon to let him drive vehicles like a truck, motorbike, boat or buggy. During Maths we have used hundreds charts, counters and paddle pop sticks to explore patterns that increase by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. We are looking forward to shopping for our mothers at the Mother’s Day stall tomorrow and we wish to thank everyone who donated gifts and time to help put this together for us.

Mrs Phillipa Haling & Mrs Haylee Barry

Year 2

Excitement is very high this week with the Gilgandra Show and Mother’s Day on the weekend. We have worked on a special gift for our mums and hope you all get to sit back with a cuppa on Sunday and enjoy. Keep a look out for the Year 2 artworks in the pavilion at the Show. We made Chinese dragons during Art and also lanterns as we learnt about the Moon Festival and Chinese New Year in Writing and History. In Maths we continued to refine our directions and gave our friends instructions to get to a spot on the playground. We have also revised 2D shapes and looked at the properties of 3D Shapes. During Religion we talked about ‘Spreading the Good News’ and ways we can be more like Jesus. Have a great weekend and be sure to put your feet up mums.

Mrs Nikkola Thomas

Year 3

We’ve had a great week in Year 3. We have continued exploring our new novel, “Wandi”. We learnt that dingoes are very important to our ecosystem and discussed why they are special. In Maths we have been working hard converting millimetres into centimetres. We raced cars down a slope and then measured the distance travelled before converting them into a different unit of measurement. In Religion we looked at the story of the ‘Road to Emmaus’ and how Jesus appeared to His followers. In PDH with Miss Dann we learnt how to be safe at home and at school. We looked at real-life examples and how we can make safe choices to keep ourselves and others safe. Well done to all those who travelled to Coolah this week for cross country. I’m positive you all ‘gave of your best’. We are looking forward to the Mother's Day stall tomorrow and can't wait to pick out a gift for our loved ones. Have a great weekend.

Miss Abigail Dobson

Year 4

What a busy week we have had in Year 4. We finished off our Term 1 unit on genre, perspective and context by writing a hybrid text in second person voice about a trip to the solar system. I was very impressed with the standard of the children’s work as they wrote an imaginative text whilst also including facts and information. They also cleverly wrote in second person to effectively engage the reader in the story. I was so impressed with their work! In Maths we have been learning the language of position and have been using compass points to give directions. We have also created some lovely Mother’s day gifts for our wonderful mums. I hope all mum’s have a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday!                                  

Mrs Melinda Morris

Year 5

This week we are consolidating our knowledge of whole numbers with inverse operations and exploring squared and cubed numbers and how they create patterns in Maths. In Text Types we are looking at the persuasive text of expositions and in Grammar we are identifying concrete and abstract nouns. As part of our Science unit we are researching and compiling a fact file about a planet and continue to draw and label Aboriginal symbols in Geography. In Religion we are using the Bible to read and then depict the events of Holy Week and have enjoyed making a special gift for our mums for Mother’s Day. I hope everyone has a great time at the Gilgandra Show on Saturday and I wish all our mums a lovely, relaxing day on Sunday!

Mrs Meichelle Schier

Year 6

We have continued with our novel study in Literacy this week. “Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief” had a very gripping start and has us wanting more! We are learning about characterisation and are starting to understand different elements of the main character, Sasha, already. Reflected in the title, he can run as fast as a rabbit and so it appears is also a known thief. In Maths we have focused on integers, manoeuvring up and down the positive and negative number line whilst during Religion we revisited the Resurrection and are preparing to explore elements of the Ascension.  Very excitedly we have begun our Peer Support Training at the Library Hub, which has proved to be a day of fun and friendships! We have learnt about effective communication, how to work as a team and most importantly the skills to guide our peer support group. We are really looking forward to meeting our individual groups! Mother’s Day is almost upon us, we hope you have a safe and wonderful weekend celebrating those you love!  "A mother's love is the foundation of the world".  

Mrs Jess Morrissey & Mrs Donna Colwell

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CANTEEN ROSTER

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