Dear Parents and Carers,

As we draw closer to the end of Term 3 it is timely to reflect on all the wonderful opportunities our children have had this term.  Some of these include Mother’s Day celebrations, the Environmentors incursion, Year 6 camp, Mrs Bridgeman’s book launch during Catholic Schools Week, Spelling and Maths Bees, Children’s University, and athletics.  Our term has certainly been busy.

School Reports

Over the past week or so, teachers have been busy preparing Semester 1 reports.  You will be able to access your child’s report on Compass from Friday the 23^rd of June.  If you need any assistance accessing these, please contact the office.

Welcome to our New Students

Welcome to Mathias in Year 3 and Sabellah in Year 1 who joined our school community recently.  We also welcome Lucia in Year 3 and Elisa in Year 1 who are joining us for the remainder of Term 2. 

Regional Athletics

Thank you to Mr Knoke, Mrs Downie and Natasha who travelled to Tuncurry with our School Athletics Team last week.  Our students displayed fantastic sportsmanship and gave 100% in all their events.  Students who have been selected to represent the Manning Region at the Diocesan Carnival, will be advised by the end of this term.

Woolworths Grant

We are thrilled to announce that we have received a 2023 Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant for our project, insert the name of your project here.

All students in the school will have the opportunity to work in preparing and creating our new native bush tucker garden.

St Joseph’s is one of 1,107 primary schools and early learning centres across Australia to receive a Woolworths Junior Landcare grant to help grow our next generation of environmental champions.

We are looking forward to getting their hands dirty and learning from this project – we’ll keep you updated!

Click on this link to read more about our project Connecting To Country - St Joseph's Primary School (juniorlandcare.org.au)

Vinnies Winter Appeal

Our Vinnies Winter Appeal is continuing, and we have collected many generous donations from our families.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this valuable cause.

Please join me in a prayer for those who have been affected by the horrendous bus crash in the Hunter Valley recently.  I pray that their community can support them and surround them with the care and compassion that they need.

God Bless

Prime Minister Award

‘Being a steward of creation’, ‘Trying your best’, ‘Speaking with kindness’ and ‘Being a responsible learner’ are some of the qualities that teachers consider when awarding ‘Prime Minister’ at our weekly assembly. It is an acknowledgement of the student’s efforts and they have the privilege of wearing the badge with honour, of suggesting a focus the school can work on, award Gotchas to other students at lunch time as well as earning Gotchas for themselves. Congratualations to Arlo Tuck (Week 8) and Peter Stewart (Week 9). 

MJR Awards

As part of our MJR system ,we acknowledge that the following students, Aria O'Neile has reached 50 Gotchas; Sophie Hook has reached 100 Gotchas; Shaneden Clarke has reached 200 Gotchas; Caitlyn Lyon and Phoenix Knowles have reached 300 Gotchas.  Well Done!

Religious Education News

On Tuesday of Week 7, I had the great opportunity of joining with Year 1 to answer some of their questions about Jesus and God. It was great to hear some of the inquisitive and well thought of questions from the students and I really enjoyed their thinking and real wonderings with questions such as:

-  What does God look like?

- Why did Jesus die on the cross when he could perform miracles?

- How did God make the world?

- Who are God’s parents?

One tip I do have to share when answering life questions such as these, is to be open and honest with children, particularly in the case when you yourself don’t know an answer. There were a few questions that Year 1 asked that I couldn’t answer but the students were happy for me to even say “I don’t know” or “ I’m unsure, I will have to get back to you..” or even “lets try and find an answer together.”

Getting to share our knowledge and experiences of Jesus and God is one of the many blessings of being a Catholic school teacher and reminds me of the gospel passage of Luke where Jesus said “let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

This week we also have a number of children preparing for confirmation and we ask that you keep Olivia and Sophie in your prayers for this special occasion.  

NSW CPR Program

Cameron McFarlane from the NSW CPR Program recently visited our school to educate the Year 5 and 6 students in performing effective CPR both around water and in the general community. This is an excellent program and also ensures all students have a sound understanding and knowledge on how to perform an emergency response plan in a time of need.  

What's happening in Year 6...........

Our final year at primary school is nearly half over! It has been a very busy semester. We have taken the lead at ANZAC services, received our school leaders’ badges, organised the weekly health hustles, joined in special celebrations and of course, had a fantastic time on camp. That is not to mention all the work we have to do in class! All of these things help to make our final year a special year and give us great memories of our school.

We are looking forward to the next semester and all the things we will be involved with, especially our Graduation. We are sure there will be lots of fun, still more jobs to do and special times with our friends. So far we think Year 6 is a great year.

School Fundraising Stall at Bonnie Wingham Scottish Festival

Wingham was a hive of activity on Saturday the 3rd of June!
We had started selling plants before our stall was even set up! Many faces were painted and lots of fun was had with the lucky dip and coin toss. We all enjoyed watching Caitlyn and Lucas Lyon share their talent in the parade and the pipes and drums created a wonderful atmosphere for the duration of the festival. Thank you to everyone who donated items and helped in any way to make the day a success! Our stall raised $2200 to go towards our playground equipment.

Special thanks to Gabrielle and Rodney Crocker (Mrs Lapi-an's parents, Sienna's grandparents) for their generous donation of potted plants and for helping with the stall all day including setting up and packing away.

Special thanks also to Jane Murray for her generous donation of potted succulents.

A huge thank you to David and Mel Hunt, Ian and Shae Lapi-an and Darryl and Belinda Bridgeman who set up, worked all day and packed away the stall with kids in tow!

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who helped out on the day:
Sally Gaudron
Jodie Raison
Sharna Atkins
Heidi Lyon
Kristy Campbell
Lisa Hagarty
Kristy Bonser
Lisa Minett
Stephanie Scott
Mark and Riley Knoke

You were a wonderful team to work with on the day and we appreciate you giving up your time to help! 

Further Thank yous:

To Mark and Mary Stepowikow for their help with preparing and for their donation towards the raffle.

To Clippers Hair Salon for their donation to our raffle.

To Rebecca Dawson, Anna Macmillan, Heidi Eijkman and Sharon Mulliett for wrapping lucky dip prizes.

This was a valuable opportunity for us to maintain our profile in the community and we are grateful to the committee for the opportunity to join the festival.
Shae Lapi-an

Baby Congratulations.....

Congratulations to Stanley Murray and Olivia Moran on the birth of their new baby girl "Seraya".  A new little sister for Bella (Yr 3) and Shyanne (Yr 6). 

Marley Dick turns 8; Zander Knowles turns 9 and Tyla Eakin turned 10.