Dear Parents, Carers and the St Joseph’s Community,

Catholic Schools Prayer

Jesus, Good Shepherd,

Teach us through your Spirit,

To walk in your way of light,

To love your way of truth and in all things

To act with love and compassion.

May our schools be places of wonder, learning and peace

Where the lessons of today

Prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow.

We ask this is Jesus name.

Amen

Compass Parent Portal

Catholic Education is rolling out a new school management platform called Compass. The Compass Parent Portal is an online portal that will allow you to interact with your child's school and access up-to-date information. This platform will allow access to the following features:

• Submitting absence notes
• Accessing and returning permission notes
• Viewing your child’s academic report
• Communicating with your child’s teacher

In the coming week we will send you your log-in credentials along with instructions on how to log into the Parent Portal either through the Compass app (Android & IOS) or desktop.

Student Sign In/Out

As part of the Compass rollout, we now have a new Compass Kiosk for signing in students who arrive late to school or leave early. This Kiosk will be located just past the Front Office window from where our current sign in machine is situated. Once live, any visitors to the school will continue to use the usual sign in process but student sign in/out is to be done using the new Kiosk. This will allow for your child’s attendance records to be automatically updated in the Compass Portal.   

Mothers’ Day Breakfast

We look forward to welcoming our wonderful mothers and significant women in our St Joseph’s community to our Mothers’ Day Breakfast next Friday 7 May from 7:45am to 8:45am.

For catering purposes, please place your order on Qkr! by 10am on Wednesday 5 May. The cost is $5 per family.  

Social and Emotional Learning

This term it has been wonderful to be back in the classrooms continuing my social and emotional learning lessons. We have been revisiting the notion of ‘Present, Centred and Grounded’. When we are grounded, we allow ourselves to feel centred and balanced no matter what's going on around us. It is a way of helping calm any anxious thoughts we may be having. I taught the students the following techniques and encourage you to remind your child of them when you see that they may need some help to become centred and even try using them yourself!

Be a Tree

There’s nothing more grounded than a tree! “I am firmly planted. I feel my feet rooted to the ground. My back is a strong trunk helping me feel stable in the moment. I feel my toes connecting with the ground. My arms are my branches. I feel them reach out into the world.”

5-4-3-2-1 Sights

Create categories and have your child name what they see. For example:

• 5 colours I see
• 4 shapes I see
• 3 soft things I see
• 2 people I see
• 1 book I see

Stomp, Stomp, Blow

For an active grounding exercise, have your child stomp their left foot, stomp their right foot and then exhale deeply. Continue this pattern of stomp, stomp, blow, stomp, stomp, blow, stomp, stomp, blow. Feel the connection of feet with the floor. Blow away anxious thoughts.

Esafety Webinar

Please see the attached flyer on a free Webinar being run by the eSafety Commissioner on how you can set up devices and apps to help keep your child safer online.

Working Bee

Do you own a shovel, what about a pair of gardening gloves? Are you looking for something to do with your spare time? Then look no further…

We currently only have 5 responses to come along to the day.

If you are able to come along to help out on the day, please fill out the form below.

https://forms.gle/BhjCvif3zRM4u3Uz6 

Thank you to Jamie McRae who today positioned some more logs around our sandpit garden beds. He also cut up some great stepping logs for the ELC. All these additional logs came from the trees removed for the construction of the new classrooms.

Mother's Day Raffle

A reminder that the Mother's Day raffle tickets need to be returned, sold preferably, to the school by Wednesday 5 May. If you require additional tickets, there are some available from the ELC.

Enrolment Time

It is now enrolment time, so please promote our wonderful school to family and friends and encourage them to come for a visit.

Enrolment Open Days – Wednesday 5 May and Monday 10 May 9.30 – 11.00am / Wednesday 12 May 4.30 – 6.00pm. 

I hope you have an enjoyable end to the week.

Yours in Christ, 

Assistant Principal 

amy.doszpot@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Sustainability in Action

The annual Easter Foil Collection Contest is back! Organised this year by Bridget M, Year 5, Bridget is eager to save a large collection of aluminium from going to landfill. Aluminium is fabulous to recycle as it never loses its integrity and can be recycled infinitely, unlike plastic. If you have any more flattened Easter foil pieces to send in, the collection will go until Friday Week 3. The winning class will earn 10 extra Greenie Points!

Speaking of recycling, a new collection bucket has popped up! Please start bringing in your used blister packs to be sent in to Banish.com for recycling. Otherwise, these foil and plastic materials will be sent to landfill and live there forever, with no properties to break down. The Blister Pack Bucket will be placed outside the staff room with our other recycling collections (tooth care, Lids4Kids, batteries, Nespresso/Maconna/ Illy pods and used writing tools).

“There is no such thing as ‘away.’ When we throw anything ‘away’ it must go somewhere” - Annie Leonard

Ryan McGee

ryan.mcgee@cg.catholic.edu.au

Anzac Day 2021

Thank you to all the families who contributed their photos and stories for our Anzac Day service. I felt very honoured to be sharing the contributions and service to our country and in doing so keeping the memories alive of our service men and women. We Will Remember Them. Thank you to all the children who spoke, placed candles and performed in the catafalque party and wreath laying. Thank you also to Mr Hywel Evans for reading The Ode.

Sally Adams

Defence School Mentor

Athletics Carnival 2021

The Athletics carnival will be held this Friday 30th April at O’Connor Oval (directly across from the school on Macarthur Avenue). The carnival will run from approximately 9.15am-1.15pm and students will return to school for second break. Students need to ensure they have food and drinks for the day, as well as a hat and sunscreen. They may wear a shirt of their house colour with their sport uniform. Below is a run sheet for the carnival with approximate timings. Thank you to those parents who have volunteered to help.  Parent spectators are welcome to attend but are asked to maintain appropriate COVID safe practices.

Calling St Joseph’s skiers and snowboarders

Does your child ski or snowboard? We are seeking interest for participation in the 2021 Interschools Snowsports Championships. If your child/children ski or snowboard then this is a great way to have fun and improve their skills while representing our fantastic school on the snow.

What is it?

The Interschools Snowsports Championships is a series of snowsports competitions where students compete for their school as part of a team or individually.

When is it?

The Southern NSW & ACT Interschools Snowsport Championships are to be held at Perisher from Tuesday 20 July to Friday 23 July.

Who can participate?

School students from Kindergarten to Year 12 can compete. Children compete against their own age groups.

Skill level?

School students from all ability levels are encouraged to enter, with an emphasis on fun and participation. It is advised that all competitors are able to execute link turns and ride a chairlift/T-bar confidently prior to competing.

Costs / Accommodation

There are some fees for registering and racing and parents/guardians are responsible for arranging accommodation, meals & tickets for the duration of the Championship (20-23/7/21) which will be held at Perisher. Perisher has guaranteed tickets will be available for purchase by participants for the event dates.

Register Interest

Email Christina Grant (canddgrant@bigpond.com) to ask questions or register your interest. To register a team St Joseph’s will need 3 or more students for at least 1 event type (Alpine, ski or snowboard cross/moguls or cross-country). We will need to decide if we are going to participate by the end of April as school entries open in May 2021.

More Information?

If enough students are interested we will organise an information night / Zoom meeting to share further details. You can also find more information on the Interschools website: www.interschools.com.au

Koby Allan

Sports Coordinator

koby.allan@cg.catholic.edu.au

Canteen News

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed your holidays.

Starting next week, Week 3, there are a few changes to the menu with the addition of the following items:

Ham & Pineapple Pizza $4.00

New and improved Mac & Cheese $4.00

Potato Gems $2.00 per bag

Athletics Carnival

There will be no over the counter sales at first break this Friday 30 April, due to the Athletics Carnival. However, lunch orders and counter sales will happen at second break when the students return to school.

Thank you.

Katie Jenkin

Canteen Manager

Congratulations to this week's award recipients. 

Students receive their award at Friday morning assembly at 8.50am. Parents are again welcome to attend this assembly, but photos will continue to be taken each week and shared via SZapp. 

Happy birthday to these students celebrating their birthdays this week: