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

Lord Jesus,

You chose to put yourself into the nurturing and watchful hands of a human mother.

Since then, every act of mothering, both physical and spiritual, recollects Mary’s.

 Inspired by this example, we honour our mothers and mother figures.

Bless these women, that they be strengthened as Christian mothers and nurturers.

 Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.

Grant that we honour them always with a spirit of deep respect.

Amen

Compass Parent Portal

Yesterday you should have received an email from Compass with your login details for the Compass Parent Portal. 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.

Once you have logged into the Parent Portal, the functionality to submit Absentee Notes and email your child’s teacher will be active. Click here for instructions on how to do this.

If you did not receive an email from Compass, please email me, amy.doszpot@cg.catholic.edu.au, to ensure we have your correct email details loaded into the system.

Please note, from Monday 24 May, the student absentee capacity on SZapp will be disabled and all absences will need to be submitted via the Compass Parent Portal.

We will continue to send email reminders to those parents who have not yet logged into the Compass Parent Portal in the lead up to our transition date.

Community Event

Are you coming to the P&F Family BBQ this Sunday? Please see the P&F section of the Newsletter for information about the event. This will be our first community gathering in nearly 18 months so it would be great to see you there. The success of any community event relies heavily on volunteers, so don’t forget to sign up for a job!

Social and Emotional Learning

This last fortnight I have been speaking to the students about the “Circle of Control’. In life, there are many things we can control and many things we cannot control. By recognising what is in our control, helps children understand that putting their energy into things they can control will help them arrive at solutions more effectively. They can develop a strong internal locus of control and a sense of self-efficacy, which are important building blocks for self-esteem, compassion towards self and others, having a growth mindset, and creating plans to work towards goals. When we can identify what really is in our control, we can focus our energy to create change compared to wasting energy on things that are out of our control.

Mother's Day Breakfast

It was wonderful to celebrate all things 'Mum' at our Mother's Day Breakfast last Friday and to see so many special ladies from our St Joseph's community. Thank you to all the staff who helped set up, decorate, cook, serve and clean up on the day and to Mrs McGee and Mrs Allan for preparing 1 Teal and 5 Orange who led us in a beautiful Prayer Celebration. As Cameron said, we will charge for tissues next year!

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets in the Mother's Day Raffle to help support the ELC. A total of $1591 was raised and the money will go towards purchasing some new items for the Preschool.

School Uniform

A reminder that students are now expected to wear winter uniform. The winter uniform requirements for St Josephs are:

Boys Uniform – Maroon fleece jumper, sky blue long sleeve polo/skivvy, navy pants with zip, navy socks, black shoes

Girls Uniform – Maroon fleece jumper, sky blue long sleeve polo/skivvy/blouse, school tunic/navy pants with zip, navy socks/stockings, black shoes

Uniforms can be ordered via Qkr! and will be delivered to your child on a Thursday. Alternatively, there are many good quality second-hand items available for purchase for only $5 (payment via Qkr!). These items are available for purchase every day outside the canteen in the school hall. Please, please, please remember to label all of your child’s clothing!

Facebook

Do you know that both the school and the ELC have a Facebook page? This is another great way to see what is happening across our school and ELC.

https://www.facebook.com/StJosephsPrimarySchoolOConnor

https://www.facebook.com/StJosephsELC

I hope you have an enjoyable end to the week.

Amy Doszpot

Assistant Principal 

amy.doszpot@cg.catholic.edu.au 

St Joseph’s Sacramental Program

Sacrament of the Eucharist

Holy Communion is scheduled for Sunday 15 August. Enrolment in this Sacrament is for Year 4 students who have made their First Reconciliation, as well as any Year 5 or 6 students who were unable to make this Sacrament previously.

Date of Sacrament:                  Sunday 15 August

Time:                                      12:00pm

Registrations:                          Opening online at the end of Term 2 on the Parish

website:                                  https://www.stjosephsoconnor.org.au

Sacrament Retreat Day:         Tuesday 12 August (for all Year 4 students)

Sacrament of Confirmation

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be held on Wednesday 28 October. Enrolment for this Sacrament is offered to students in Year 6, who have made their Reconciliation and Holy Communion. Further information regarding enrolments and preparation for this Sacrament will be provided in Term 3.

Date of Sacrament:                 Thursday 28 October

Time:                                     5:30pm

Registrations:                         Opening online at the end of Term 3 on the Parish

website:                                https://www.stjosephsoconnor.org.au

Sacrament Retreat Day:         TBA

All enrolments and payments must be done via the St Joseph’s Parish Website (not the school Qkr! account). Workbooks will be provided to each student enrolled and are to be completed at home, with their parents.

Combined School & Parish Mass

This Term, on Saturday 5 June at 5pm, we will be celebrating Parish Mass as a whole school community. This will provide us with the opportunity to come together as a St Joseph’s community, and celebrate mass together.

There will be a number of opportunities for students to be actively involved in different aspects of the mass. If you are able to attend, and you would like your child to participate, could you please email me to let me know. We would love to see as many families at mass as possible.

St Joseph’s Winter Appeal

This June, we invite you to donate non-perishable food items to our St Joseph's table. These donations will be distributed by St Vincent de Paul to families less fortunate within our local community. Food items can include: canned goods (tinned vegetables, legumes, beans), pasta, rice, long-life milk, biscuits, noodles, spreads & preserves, or cereal.

Important Term 2 Dates:

For further information or any questions regarding Religious Education and events, please feel free to contact me via email: michelle.vuli@cg.catholic.edu.au

Michelle Vuli

Religious Education Coordinator

michelle.vuli@cg.catholic.edu.au

Italian News

In Italian, Year 2 students have been learning about colours and how to describe hair and eyes. Students had a go using bi-lingual dictionaries to search for new words. Here are some images of our learners hard at work.

Shakira Beale

Italian Teacher

Sustainability in Action

On Friday, Years 5 and 6 began exploring the concept of food waste. After discussing how big the problem is for Australia and the world, students began a series of cooking lessons which will help build awareness about how we can combat this waste issue in our own kitchens.

After making Greek yoghurt parfaits, Joeys were impressed by the ease of creating their treats, and also how big the food waste issue is.

“One fifth of each household’s groceries will go to food waste,” said Odette S.

“It was so easy to make!” said Zoe G.

“I loved all of the ingredients and how fresh they were,” said Lottie WB.

“You could easily swap ingredients for other things about to go off in your fruit bowl,” said Mrs. McGee.

“Respect for food is a respect for life; For who we are and what we do” - Thomas Keller

Ryan McGee

ryan.mcgee@cg.catholic.edu.au

Sally Adams

Defence School Mentor

Walk Safely To School Day - Friday 14 May

We encourage you to meet at O’Connor Shops on Friday morning at 8.15am to walk to school together as a group for National Walk Safely To School Day. We had a great turn out at the event last year and would love to see more students and parents join us.

Now in its 22nd year, National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual event when all Primary School children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment.

The aims of the event are:

• To encourage parents and carers to walk to school with primary school-age children
• To promote the health benefits of walking and create regular walking habits
• To help children develop vital road-crossing skills and ensure children up to the age of 10 years hold an adult's hand when crossing the road
• To reduce car dependency and traffic congestion
• To reduce the level of air pollution created by motor vehicles
• To promote the use of public transport

Cross Country Carnival - Tuesday 18th May

Our Cross Country Carnival is coming up next week on Tuesday 18th May. It will take place at O’Connor Oval (across the road from the school on Macarthur Avenue) from 11.45am-1.30pm. Students are to wear their sports uniform and can wear a coloured T-shirt of their house colour. Please see below for approximate timings for the day. Thank you to those parents who have already volunteered to help. Parent spectators are welcome to attend.

Koby Allan

Sports Coordinator

koby.allan@cg.catholic.edu.au

Welcome back to Term Two,

We hope that you and your family were able to find some time to share a book or two during the Easter break and enjoy the beautiful sunshine.

Thank you to all those families who worked hard to find any overdue books and have returned them. This means that the popular titles that many students wait patiently to be returned, can now be reborrowed and enjoyed by other students.

We are very busy in the Library processing and covering hundreds of new books to add to our collection. We are dedicated to allowing students access to wonderful literature through our Library and we try to keep up to date with new titles. Students are always welcome to ask for new titles that they would like to see added to our Library.

We welcome any donations of good quality books or collections that you are no longer needing at home. When donating, please send them either to the Front Office or have your child bring them to their library lesson.

Just a reminder that orders for the Scholastic Book Club close next Thursday 13 May.

Lastly, our school will be involved in the Chief Minister's Reading Challenge. Each student has been enrolled and will need to read 30 titles to complete the challenge. Students in Foundation to Year 2 will read their books during Library times. Year 3-6 will complete an individual reading log that can include readers, class novels or their own personal reading. Once each student has completed the log we then are able to be gifted vouchers to purchase new books for our Library.

Georgina and Catherine

Volunteers Needed!

The uniform shop would love to re-open to the school community for face to face service and assistance.

However we REQUIRE SOME PARENT VOLUNTEERS to do so. Our team will work with what suits your availability - morning or afternoon, any day!  We simply require approx. 30 minutes of your time once a week or fortnight.  We'll ensure you have a team member with you so you won't be doing it alone.

Be a part of the uniform team!  Get involved, meet your school parent community and make friendships along the way!

Please contact Nicole Mahar on nicole.mahar3@gmail.com

Does your child need a new

water bottle? 

The new St Joseph's water bottles have arrived, and for the first couple of weeks come with a little extra inside. The water bottles are available through the Uniform Shop on Qkr! for $12.00 and for a limited time, might have a voucher to the canteen, House Points, extra play time... or even being Principal for the day! 

St Joseph's P&F

Community BBQ

Sunday 16 May

Please sign up to help out - https://signup.com/go/jMFVyuz 

Please RSVP on Qkr! by Thursday 13 May.

There is no cost - we just need to know how many sausages to cook!

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: