Welcome back to Term 3.  I hope that all of our St Joseph’s families had a nice break and time to recharge the batteries.  I know that lots of families unfortunately experienced a lot of sickness during the holidays.  It is still the expectation that if your child is experiencing symptoms such as runny nose, fever or coughing they should not be at school.  It can be frustrating that symptoms linger, however it is important that children and staff at school remain well.

We welcome three new students and their families to St Joseph’s this term - Talia Taufu’i in Yr 3, Harriett McGowan and  August Smith in Yr 1, which takes our enrolments up to 54. 

We congratulate Taylor Maher, Henry Roche, Alice MacDougall, Edward MacDougall, Eva Corbett, Barney Roche and Billy Bamblett who travelled to Batlow last Friday to ‘Speak off’ against St Mary’s Batlow. (Lily Pearce was unwell and unable to attend).  All students were confident and did a great job and the judges were very impressed with all of the students and the content of their speeches.  Taylor was runners up in Yr 6, Alice was runners up in Yr 5, Edward was the winner in Yr 4 and Barney was the winner in Yr 3.  Congratulations to all of the students.  

Term three is busy with many events and excursions coming up.  Please ensure that you are providing consent to excursions in a timely manner, as you will appreciate there is lots of administration involved with any event/excursion and we need to meet our deadlines and compliance requirements.

Years 3 – 6 will head off to Borambola in Week 3 which is indeed a fabulous opportunity.  There is no cost to our families as this excursion has been made possible through the Commonwealth Governments Well being boost grant.

At the end of Term 2 staff wrote a behaviour script for the entry and exit routines to assembly and classrooms. The children are now lining up and leaving the assembly area in silence.  This has lead to a more settled and calm approach to enter all classrooms and has already seen an increase in settled work habits and the children’s readiness to learn. The children have settled into the new routines very quickly which is fantastic.

Kirsty Beavan

Principal

Welcome back to Term 3! I hope all families had a restful break. 

Term 3 began with staff attending our annual Spirituality Day, with Batlow and Gundagai. The day was centred around the theme Holy Spirit and how it is present in our lives. 

In Catholic theology, the Holy Spirit is considered the third person of the Holy Trinity, which is a fundamental doctrine. The Holy Trinity is the belief that there is one God who exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is distinct yet fully and completely God. 

St Mary Mackillop Feast Day - 8th August

All Saints have dedicated Feast Days when they are remembered with special mention and prayers. Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day is on 8th August, which is the day she died. Mary’s Feast Day is a wonderful time to reflect on the qualities and actions that set her apart, and how her legacy continues to be relevant today. Mary MacKillop fiercely believed in the power of education to lift communities out of poverty. Education in Australia is what it is today, thanks in large part to the dedication and determination of Mary and the Sisters of St Joseph.

Did you know?

• Mary Mackillop is Australia’s first and only Saint.
• She was born in Victoria in 1842 and had 7 brothers and sisters. 
• Mary became a Saint because she devoted her life to God and serving other people.  

 

Upcoming dates this term:

• The Assumption of Mary - Date and time to be confirmed.
• Sacrament of Reconciliation - 10th September 11.30am St James’ Church.

Many thanks,
Stacey Braun

Religious Education Coordinator

Our 2024 Selwyn Ski Trip is on this Friday for students in years 3-6. Students are very eager and excited!

Please ensure payment and consent are completed by Wednesday 31st July 2024. 

Students that travelled to St Mary's Batlow for a 'speak off' all did very well! 

Congratulations to Barney and Edward who have made it through to the Western Region Public Speaking! They will now represent St Joseph's at Young on Friday 9th August 2024. We wish them all the best! 

On the last day of Term 2, Kindergarten held a Teddy Bear's Picnic!

This was based on the Initialit storybooks that the children had read and explored over the term. 

The children each bought in a special toy to join us for the picnic. We started the morning by showing our friends our special toys and then we wrote about them. We then played games, Teddy Bear Says, Musical Chairs and set up our picnic. We shared party food, decorated teddy bear biscuits and sang the Teddy Bear Picnic song.

We had a fabulous morning and it was a lovely way to finish term 2. 

5/6 have been very excited to welcome Laura back to our class after her big trip around Australia last term. They have been very interested in where the family went and what they saw so we decided to map out Laura's trip. First we wrote a list of all the towns/major places they visited. We then located these places on Google Maps and Atlases and plotted them onto a blank map of Australia. After doing this, we then calculated the distances between each town, then lastly calculated the total distance of Laura's trip. This has been a fun activity with plenty of discussion of the amazing places Laura was lucky to visit.

Term 3 school fees have been issued, we do ask that if you are paying by instalments that you make sure they are covering the fee amount and make adjustments if necessary.  Thank you for your assistance in keeping up to date with fee payments.

The Premier's Reading Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition and it is not compulsory but we would like you to encourage your children to participate and challenge themselves to read more from a wider range of books.

This year participation in the PRC will be optional for all children. Books that students have read need to be recorded onto the PRC website by logging in with their username and password. If your child has participated in the PRC previously their username and password will be the same. If you would like to know your child’s username and password please email me jess.campbell@cg.catholic.edu.au and I will send it to you.

Keep up to date with events happening at St Joseph's via our electronic school calendar (please note dates can be subject to change).