Term 2 Week 6 - June 4th, 2024

From The Principals Desk

Dear Parents and Carers,

Week 6 is upon us. How quickly the term progresses once underway! We are certainly moving into the business end of the term and semester with all classes heading toward formal summative assessments to determine final grades for the Student Academic Reports that will be available to parents and carers on Thursday Week 10 of term. In saying this, as always, student attendance is extremely important to provide your child/ren with the best opportunity to succeed in their learning at school. This includes ensuring students arrive on time in the mornings and stay until the final bell in the afternoon. Let's set our students up for success!

We are well into our athletics season with our students having already participated in two of the events that make up our annual athletics carnival. Discus and the 1500m events have been completed with the School Athletics Carnival taking place on Friday 14th June at the Murwillumbah High School athletics field. As always, families are warmly invited to join us on the day. I congratulated the students who participated in the 1500m event last Thursday after school for their inspiring performances and behaviours during the event. So humble in victory and gracious in defeat! We even had to delay a couple of our presentations as the winners were back out on course encouraging the other competitors’ completion of the exhausting event, such wonderful sportsmanship!

Stage 3 had an excursion to Byron Bay today to watch the NORPA ‘Laboratory of Light’ production, an experience fully funded by the Lismore Catholic Schools Office. We will share about this experience on facebook and in our next newsletter.

Stage 2 is preparing for their School Camp experience next week, they will be busy packing over the long weekend to ensure they are ready to take off to Tyalgum Ridge Retreat on Tuesday! We wish them well for what is always a most enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Another busy couple of weeks! Not forgetting all of the students who are also preparing for the Public Speaking Competition, who I congratulate for having the confidence and resilience to nominate themselves!

Go the Blues on Wednesday night! Have a great long weekend when it arrives!

Peace and blessings,

Jason Clarke

Principal

Attendance

If your child is avoiding school, contact your child’s teacher so together you can explore what is happening for your child. 

If your child is avoiding school, it's crucial to proactively address the issue by contacting your child's teacher. Teachers play a key role in observing and understanding students' behaviours and can collaborate with you to identify and address any challenges your child may be facing.

Share your observations about your child's behaviour and express any concerns you may have. Be open and honest about the challenges your child is facing in attending school regularly.

Collaboratively work with the school and your child to explore possible causes for your child's avoidance of school. This could include academic challenges or social issues. Work together to develop and monitor strategies to address the identified issues.

You can seek advice free from NSW ParentLine 1300 1300 52.

Watch Help! My kid doesn't want to go to school by Maggie Dent.

"You Can Do It!" Awards

WEEK 4 - Term 2

Kinder
Jett Everton for Organisation and Planning My Time.
Kayley Bray for Persistence and Working Tough.

Year 1
Harriet Stovold for Resilience and Working Tough
Clara Polson for Organisation and Planning My Time.

Year 2
Harry Lindsay for Resilience and Working Tough. 
Frank Wilkinson Resilience and Growth Mindset. 

Year 3
William Polson for Confidence and Giving Effort.
Ariella Donaldson for Organisation and Planning My Time.

Year 4 
Shelby Walsh for Resilience and having a Growth Mindset
Amber Milliken for Confidence and Taking A Risk.

Year 5
Annabel Casey for displaying Persistence and "I Can Do It" Thinking.
Nate Linkins for displaying Persistence and Giving Effort.

Year 6
Blake Stuart for Persistence, Giving Effort and showing "I Can Do It" Thinking.
Ava Hunt for Confidence, "I Can Do It" Thinking and Showing Independence.

 Week 5 - Term 2

 Kinder
Jesse Bedser for Confidence and Accepting Myself.
Grace Duffy for Getting Along and Being Socially Responsible.

Year 1
Leo Robinson for Getting Along and Being Socially Responsible.
Jayliah Walsh for Persistence and Giving Effort.

Year 2
Fynn Holliday for Organisations and Planning My Time.
Elsie McLeod for Persistence, Giving Effort & showing “I Can Do It” Thinking.

Year 3
Carter Alexander for Confidence and "I Can Do It" thinking.
Bailey Clarkson for Getting Along and being Socially Responsible.

Year 4 
Pip Bourke for Persistence, Giving Effort and for having a Growth Mindset.
Sonny Moore for Persistence, Working Tough and for having a Growth Mindset.

Year 5
Nakoha Heterick for displaying Persistence and “I Can Do It” thinking.
Yasmin White for displaying Confidence and “I Can Be Independent”

Year 6
Sienna Alexander for displaying Persistence and “I Can Do It" thinking.
Zilli Hatton for displaying Confidence and “I Can Do It” thinking.

Sharing the Gospel

Stage 3 enjoying a hot chocolate around the camp fire!

Mini Vinnies

Thanks to the promotional style of Darcy, Frank, Henry, Fynn, Amira, Imogen, and our Mini Vinnies team we have had great success in our first two fundraisers. Between the Hot Chocolate & Pajama Days, we have raised $482.05 so far....WOW!

Don't forget our final fundraiser on Thursday...THE CAKE STALL...Mmmmmmm delicious cakes on offer. 

PJ Day 

Curriculum News

 Tweed Regional Museum Excursion

This term, students are studying the book ‘One Small Island’ as part of their English unit on ‘Argument and Authority.’ To support their research for a book they will be composing about Mt. Warning, they  attended an excursion to the Tweed Regional Museum to research and gather information.

Stage 3’s Delightful Excursion.

 On Friday the 24th of May, Stage 3 went on a delightful journey to the Tweed Regional Museum, exploring the backgrounds of Mt Warning’s History. During the journey they were on a mission to find more details about the Aboriginal Cultural significance of Mt Warning, alongside important history of the mountain.

 The Museum entertained the students by providing them with fun and enjoyable hands-on activities. Blake's favourite part of the excursion was touching the stuffed (real) animals. Archie's favourite part of the excursion was seeing a small image of Murwillumbah and Imogen’s favourite part of the excursion was seeing the rainbow room of history. 

 From this information we gathered, Stage 3 are now working on creating a persuasive multimodal hybrid text, with arguments around either protecting or opening Mt Warning. 

This journey was delightful; it shouldn't have ended so quickly!

Our Museum Visit

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Sports News

DIOCESAN CROSS COUNTRY:

Recently four students (Indi Asanuma, Ava Hunt, Esther Cambridge and Max Bourke) travelled to Grafton to compete in the Diocesan Championships at McAuley College.  It was very tough competition, running a hilly course against strong runners who were all contending for a place in the Lismore Diocesan team.  The top 8 in every age group progresses on to compete in Sydney at the Polding Championships.  All four students ran exceptionally well representing our school and themselves with Heart and Pride!  Both St Joseph’s students and Mt St Patrick’s students were able to open the event by reading the Welcome to Country (Mt St Patrick’s students) and the Diocesan Prayer (Ava Hunt and Max Bourke).  The Tweed Zone did so well that we won the Champion Shield against Clarence Zone, Richmond Zone and Hastings Zone!

Congratulations to our four fantastic runners!  It was such tight competition that their place across the line does not accurately reflect how close they came to progressing on to Polding.  Their times show just how close each competitor came to progressing: 

Indi Asanuma 20^th in 12/13Yrs (1min 45sec off qualifying to Polding), Ava Hunt 18^th in 12/13Yrs (1min 31sec off qualifying), Esther Cambridge 24^th 10Yrs (60sec off) and Max Bourke 12^th in 12/13Yrs (13sec off!).

                                  Congratulations on a fantastic day of representation and competition!

1500M RACE:

Last Thursday after school we had a fantastic turn out of students ready to race the 1500m!  Due to time restraints, we can not run this event at the School Athletics Carnival.  Results and participation points were recorded and added to the house point score / age champion point score ready to continue on the day of the carnival.  It was fantastic to see so many students ready to earn a point for their house and supporting their peers as they finish!

Congratulations to the following students who were presented with their ribbons for 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd in their age group:

An extra special congratulations to the following students for breaking the record for their age division!!

Ali  8Yrs

Kobe Robinson 9Yrs

Sam Stovold 10Yrs

Max Bourke 12/13Yrs

Lyla McMahan 11Yrs

Ava Hunt & Indi Asanuma 12/13Yrs

These students will receive their record breaking certificate this Friday at assembly!

To progress onto Zone, the 8Yrs, 9Yrs & 10Yrs are combined and are classified as the “Junior Age Group”.  The top two times progress onto Zone in the following categories: Junior, 11Yrs & Senior. 

Congratulations to the following competitors who are progressing onto zone for this event:

Junior Boys:  Sam Stovold & Kobe Robinson

Junior Girls:  Esther Cambridge & Sierra Casagrande

11Yr Boys:  Misha Reed & Jaxon Mann

11Yr Girls:  Lyla McMahan & Imogen Rudman

Senior Boys:  Max Bourke & Caleb Bourke

Senior Girls:  Ava Hunt & Indi Asanuma

DISCUS IN PE:

Last week in PE lessons Mrs Walker and I measured all students in their Discus event.  Thank you Mrs Walker for your help in getting the students measured!!  These measurements will be submitted to the Tweed Zone sports committee to determine the two top throwers out of the following age categories:  Junior (8Yrs, 9Yrs & 10Yrs combined), 11Yrs and Senior (12Yrs & 13Yrs combined).  St Joseph’s Murwillumbah is the only school that measures students for this event however, students can submit a measurement if they have one recorded through Little Athletics.  Once the top two throwers have been determined for each age category for the Tweed Zone (the 8 catholic schools in our Tweed Zone) I will announce the results.  If any of our students at St Joseph’s qualify as the top two in their age category, they will progress straight to Diocesan in this event which is in Coffs Harbour on Tuesday 13^th August.

Congratulations to the following students who placed 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd at school level for this event:

An extra special congratulations to Shelby Walsh for breaking the school record for the 10Yr Girls!!

SCHOOL ATHLETICS CARNIVAL:

Next Friday 14^th June we will be holding our School Athletics Carnival at Murwillumbah Highschool!  A Compass permission request will be sent out on Wednesday. Please approve consent for your child as soon as possible.  This Friday we will hold the 800m heats to help with timing at the carnival as the 800m event is the most time consuming track event of the day.  The top 6 in each age group will then race the final on the day of the carnival.  Every other track event will be open to all competitors on the day.

If there are any parents available to help set up tents, etc., please contact the office.

Library News

Thank you to the Campbell family for their kind donation of beautiful books. Many families donate books to our school library and we are very grateful!

                       BOOK NEWS

After enjoying this years National Simultaneous Storytime book "Bowerbird Blues" by Aura Parker, we have some breaking news!

Aura Parkers says " I have been incubating a sequel to Bowerbird Blues - it's called Bowerbird Brood and I'm excited to tell you the chicks will be hatching at the end of the year in a new story filled with longing, reassuring warmth, and love."

We look forward to meeting the new brood!

All students in years 3-6 are now well underway with recording the books they have read for the challenge. If any students are having any trouble recording online, please let Mrs Fraser know.

CONGRATULATIONS to the following students who have already independently completed the challenge:

William Glasby, Kobe Robinson, Daisy Westwood, Archie Anderson, Ava Bray, Ebony Burton, Zilli Hatton, Bella Higgins, Ava Hunt, Ivy Hunt, Emily Pham and Blake Stuart.

YOU DID IT!

ICAS Assessment Information

Lost Property

Do you own any these items left behind after our disco and Friday sport?

If so you can collect them from the office.

General News

Canteen News

CANTEEN VOLUNTEERS NEEDED URGENTLY!

One volunteer is urgently needed for up to 3 hours on Wednesday, 19th June.

(No experience required)

If we can't get helpers we may not be able to open the canteen on these dates!

Canteen Roster Coordinator Needed
Please consider assisting with this important volunteer role:
- creating and sending out the canteen roster once per term (template and volunteer contact details supplied.)
- being a point of contact for volunteers re: roster queries.
- support is provided by the school office and our canteen coordinator, no experience necessary.
- minimum of 1 term commitment.

Please contact the office if you can help.

Cancelling a canteen order

If you need to cancel a canteen order you can do this through Compass up to 8:00am on the day of canteen. Your refund will go to your Compass Wallet as a credit. You can then use the credit in your Compass Wallet any time to pay for a canteen order, school fees, or a school event. Access these funds through the payment method drop down menu.

Enrolment Changes

New student applications for 2025 can be completed now.

If you have already applied via our old system, rest assured we have your application; there is no need to reapply.  See our website (see Link below) for more details on how to enrol and where to get assistance if you need it.

Compass Help for Parents

                                                    Compass Absence Notes

The Compass attendance note feature is now up and running again.
Parents can let the school know of student absences in advance through the Compass app using the shortcuts icon on their homepage. 

Alternatively you can still respond the SMS sent to your phone on the day of the absence, or email / phone the school office prior to or on the day of absence.

Parish News

Tuesday 4 June            5:30 pm - Mass
Wednesday 5 June      5:30 pm - Mass
Thursday 6 June          8:15 am - Mass
Friday 7 June                 8:15 am - Mass (please note change of time)
                                            9:30 am - Legion of Mary | Parish Meeting Centre
Saturday 8 June           8:15 am - Mass
                                           5:30 pm - Rosary
                                           6:00 pm - Vigil Mass
Sunday 9 June             8:30 am - Rosary
                                          9:00 am - Mass 

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