St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray”
NEWSLETTER Term 1 Week 8 16 March 2016
Dear Parents and Caregivers Catholic Schools Week was a great success. Last Monday we had over two hundred parents, grandparents and visitors to our school to join us for our celebrations. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the Liturgy and student presentations as well as visit the open classrooms. Our students have an amazing range of talents and this was very evident from the choir and dance presentations. A big thank you to the parents who assisted with Morning Tea. The Catholic Schools Week theme of “I Belong, You Belong, We Belong” was well and truly evident!
Mary MacKillop St Mary of the Cross Australia’s first Saint Born on 15 January 1842 in Melbourne Died 8 August 1909
CANONISED 17th October 2010
Thirty new families visited our school last Monday and collected enrolment packages for Kindergarten 2017. If you have a child who is ready for school next year please pick up an enrolment pack from the office as we hope to begin the interview process with siblings in the next few weeks. MORNING “DROP OFF” AND “AFTERNOON PICK UP” There have been a few incidents lately at morning drop off that have caused concern, with some parents not adhering to safe practices for dropping off their children in Littleton Street and Thurlow Street. The process for morning drop off in Littleton St is the same as afternoon pick up. You are asked to drive your car as far forward in the drop off bay as possible, not to just pull up at the school driveway, regardless of the number of cars behind you. If you wish to park your car, please do so in the parallel parking bays. No parent is to park their car in the drop off zone and take their children into school. If you use Thurlow St to drop off your children you are not to pull into the school driveway to let your children out of the car. Last week a four wheel drive was preparing to reverse out of the driveway as one of our students was walking behind the car. If you use Thurlow St in the morning please pull up on the street outside the Office building and allow your children to get out of the car safely.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
28-32 Thurlow Street Riverwood NSW 2210 Phone: 9533 3341 Fax: 9584 2672
[email protected] www.stjriverwood.catholic.edu.au
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” PRINCIPAL Cont’d
You are responsible not only for the safety of your children, but for the safety of all students at St Joseph’s so please take the utmost care when driving and pulling up outside school. No child’s safety is worth sacrificing by being impatient and irresponsible. I strongly encourage parents to inform me of anyone they see not following the correct safe procedures. We have recently noticed an increasing number of students who are leaving the school grounds without an adult and walking to meet their parents outside the Club or down at the shops. If you are caught up in traffic or there is a misunderstanding in who is picking up the children, your child is left in a very unsafe circumstance standing on the street waiting for you. Car line operates until 3:30 and after 3:20 the congestion in Littleton Street reduces dramatically. Please parents, do not put your child’s safety in danger because you do not want to spend five or ten minutes in an orderly queue of cars. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. God Bless
Kim McCue Principal
“Blessed are the merciful, for they obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray”
“Blessed are the merciful, for they obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL ASSESSMENTS Over the next few weeks teachers will be sending home assessments for you to read, discuss with your child, sign and return. Our purpose in sharing your child's work with you in this format is to allow you an opportunity to see samples of your child's work as the year progresses. These particular assessments are only a small number of the total assessment pieces that students produce and that teachers use to gather data about each child's learning journey. Each assessment outlines the Outcomes and Criteria that the teacher is judging the work against. These are in accordance with the NSW Syllabus documents that guide our teaching. Teachers make informed professional judgements, usually in consultation with their grade colleague, as to whether or not individual students have shown evidence of achieving these task specific criteria. The Grade that is given on these assessments pertains to that specific piece of work and does not, on its own, indicate the Overall Grade for the Key Learning Area that will be given on the half-yearly and yearly written reports. We would hope that you use these assessments to celebrate your child's achievements. Each assessment shows one more step in each child's learning development. They are not an end in themselves but assist teachers to plan 'where to from here'. As you discuss each sample with your child, ask them to tell you how this task fits into the other work they have been doing in class on the topic and how they think they are doing in that subject overall. Valuable conversations allow children to identify their areas of strength and to nominate areas that they would like to improve upon. A focus on the grade alone will ignore much more useful information that can be found within the assessment.
Congratulations to Gabrielle Daggar (Year 2 Penola) who landed the role of “Molly” in the Bankstown Theatre Company’s production of Annie. You can see Gabrielle perform at the Bryan Brown Theatre (Cnr Rickard Rd & Chapel Rd Bankstown) on Friday 18 March @ 8.00pm or Sunday 20 March @ 2.00pm. Bookings online at www.bankstowntheatrecompany.com. Well done Gabrielle! “Blessed are the merciful, for they obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Cont’d STUDENT LEADERS Mrs Truman and I were privileged to accompany our Year 6 student leaders to a special event at Olympic Park on Monday 29 February. The National Young Leaders Day is an annual event which aims to develop the leadership skills of students in the upper primary grades. The theme of the day was "Master the little" and, through presentations by a range of speakers, our students were encouraged to reflect on how they can exercise their leadership in small but vital ways even at their young age. The presentations were interesting and thought provoking (and provided food for thought for the not-so-young-leaders also present!). We were extremely proud of the way in which our students engaged with the themes of the day and entered whole-heartedly into the process. Some reflections from the children themselves are included below
I liked Andrew Scipione because he admired other people that he worked with even if they didn’t have a leadership role. Dylan I liked Ben (Australian Paralympian swimmer) because he dreamed of his goal and got there even though he had obstacles. Emma
The panel (TV presenter, business owner, lawyer, Google employee) was interesting because they talked about how interesting their jobs are, even though they are all different. Erini The main things we learnt were that little things add up and they all make a difference. Alanson “Blessed are the merciful, for they obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Cont’d
TOYS There has been a noticeable influx of dolls / toys / cards being brought to school by many children of late. Whilst we have no issue, in theory, with children bringing something to play with during recess and lunch breaks, we would ask all parents to make the following points clear to students before allowing them to bring toys to school:
toys are ONLY for recess breaks - they are not to be brought into classrooms, nor played with once bells have rung and children are on lines. expensive, fragile and precious toys have no place at school one toy is sufficient no dangerous toys are to be brought to school loss or damage of any toys brought to school are the sole responsibility of the child cards e.g. Pokemon are not to be traded at school
Your co-operation in ensuring that your child understands these points will help avoid unnecessary upsets. Please understand that teachers will ask children to leave toys at home if they are deemed dangerous, cause social issues on the playground or distract children from their learning or from listening to teachers' instructions.
Have a good fortnight Lynda Busuttil
COMING TOGETHER
Whole School Mass
18.03.16
Celebration Mass at 9.00am - St Joseph’s Day
Wednesday Prayer Assembly
23.03.16
Stations of the Cross - Year 6
30.03.16
Kindergarten
Wednesday Mass (9am)
06.04.16
Year 5
Wednesday Penance
23.03.16
Year 4 Penola
30.03.16
Year 3 Penola
“Blessed are the merciful, for they obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CO-ORDINATOR
We have some significant occasions coming up in our School and Church life. This coming Thursday is the feast of St Patrick and Saturday, the 19th March is the feast of St Joseph, husband of Mary. To celebrate St Joseph’s feast our whole school community will attend 9:00am Mass on Friday morning. All families are invited to join us in celebrating the feast of the patron our school. All the students will then enjoy a craft activity around the theme of St Joseph. Following morning tea our generous Parents and Friends Association will continue the tradition of providing gelato for all students, which adds to the celebratory atmosphere of St Joseph’s feast day. The season of Lent is drawing to a close and this Sunday is celebrated as Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, the beginning of Holy Week, the most important week of the Church’s year. Every grade throughout the school from Kindergarten to Year Six is learning about Lent and the significant events leading up to Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. The most important days of Holy Week are Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. As this is the most important and special time in the Church’s year we all need to make it a priority to attend the important rituals and ceremonies of Holy Week, that tell the story of the events that lead us to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Next Wednesday morning, 23rd March, our Year Six will present an open air Stations of the Cross for all our students, and families and friends are warmly invited to attend this solemn liturgy. The Stations of the Cross tell the story of the passion and death of Jesus. We will have two liturgies. The first at 9:00 am for our students in Kindergarten to Year 2 and the second at approximately 9:40 am for our students in Years 3 to 6. Please join us.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CO-ORDINATOR Cont’d
Our fundraising for Project Compassion is progressing well. Thank you to everyone who is so generously giving in order to provide education and training which will enable individuals and communities to transform their lives and create lasting change. Members of the SRC will be collecting for Project Compassion when we gather for the Stations of the Cross. I would encourage every family to take the opportunity to participate in the Holy Week and Easter celebrations. The Easter Vigil ceremony is the highlight of the Church’s year. I wish everyone a holy and peaceful Easter.
Peace and best wishes Robyn Green
Holy Week and Easter Services at St Joseph’s Riverwood: Palm Sunday:
6:00pm Vigil Mass on Saturday evening with blessing and procession with palms 7.30am Mass (including distribution of palms) 9.30am Mass (including distribution of palms)
Holy Thursday:
(Chrism Mass at Cathedral 10.30am: all welcome) 7.30pm Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Good Friday:
10:00am Stations of the Cross (followed by confessions) 3:00pm Celebration of the Lord’s Passion (followed by confessions)
Holy Saturday:
8:00pm Easter Vigil (until approximately 9.30pm)
Easter Sunday:
7.30am Easter Sunday Mass 9.30am Easter Sunday Mass
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE SPORTS CO-ORDINATOR
Congratulations to Carter See, Mitchell Woods, Finlay Whitten and Kane McCarren who came 1st in the Combined Regional Swimming Carnival. The boys have qualified for the Junior Boys Relay Team at the MacKillop Swimming Trials to be held on Thursday 31st March. A special mention to Kane McCarren who has qualified for two individual events; 50m Freestyle and Breaststroke. This is an extremely big achievement for the boys and we are all so proud of you for making it this far! We wish these students the best of luck at the MacKillop Swimming Trials. Well done boys!
Sydney Netball Trials Congratulations to Hannah Ridley who has also been selected to represent the Sydney Archdiocese at the MacKillop Netball Trials. Hannah continues to demonstrate an extremely high level of skill in Netball and will progress through to the next round. We wish her the very best of luck in the MacKillop trials. An excellent achievement Hannah. Well done! Touch Football Trials
Congratulations to Emma Harris and Claudia Nguyen who have been selected to represent the Eastern Region cluster at the Sydney Archdiocesan Touch Football Selection Trials to held on Tuesday 22nd March. These students have demonstrated a high level of skill in Touch Football and will progress through to the next round. We wish these students the best of luck in their next trial. What a fantastic achievement girls. Well done!
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” FROM THE SPORTS CO-ORDINATOR
In February, Mitchell Woods was selected to represent St George at the NSW Junior Oztag Championships in Coffs Harbour. He played extremely well scoring 11 tries over 8 games in the tournament. From the 19 teams that participated in the tournament, 16 boys were selected to represent NSW. Congratulations to Mitchell Woods who has been selected among 15 other boys and will compete in the Under 10’s NSW Oztag team. Mitchell will play a State of Origin Series at Patrician Brothers Blacktown against QLD in June. We are very proud of you Mitchell and we wish you the very best of luck! Go NSW :) Always strive to do your best in every field. Jenna O’Donnell
DIARY DATES Friday 18 March
-
St Joseph’s Day Celebrations
-
St Mary’s Cathedral College Open Day 9am-12.30pm
Fri 25 - Mon 28 March
-
Easter Break
31 March-Fri 1 April
-
Year 6 Canberra Excursion
Monday 4 April
-
Touch Football Gala Day
Friday 8 April
-
Last Day of Term 1
Monday 25 April
-
Anzac Day
Tuesday 26 April
-
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free Day)
Wednesday 27 April
-
First Day of Term 2
Thursday 28 April
-
Combined Cluster Cross Country Trial @ Heffron Park
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School
“Work and Pray” FROM THE LITERACY CO-ORDINATOR Literacy HINTS/TIPS for Week 8! COMPREHENSION: Helping your child to understand and process what they are reading To help your child with comprehension/thinking strategies, have your child: Ask a question about what he has already read (to themselves, or to you).
Infer what is going on or might happen, based on what they already know and what they have read.
Make a connection: Make a text-to-text connection where he relates this book to another he has read. Make a text-to-world connection where he relates the book to an experience going on in our world (e.g., truffula trees being chopped down and our own struggles with deforestation). Make a text-to-self connection where he relates the book to himself or an experience he has had (e.g., remembering a time he was not listened to, even when he knew better than the other person).
Evaluate: Determine the importance of characters, events, or details.
Make a prediction
Using one or more of these strategies will help assist your child with understanding what they have read and in turn will help you to see if your child has understood what they have read.
Mrs Meadley Literacy Coordinator
Has your child been absent from school this week?
Parents are required to inform their child's teacher in wri ng of the dates and reason of absence within a week of return to school or the absence will be recorded as an UNEXPLAINED absence on their file.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray”
h Marc s y a d Birth
Happy Birthday to the following children who will have a Birthday between 14 March and 27 March 2016
Adrian Kafetzis
Christina Vandarakis
Joshua Crewes
Chloe Lavery
Dion Nicou
Niamh Black
Tamara Buckley
Milana Di Stefano
Annabel Cohen
James Keeling
Elouise McMahon
Cooper Cook
Joshua Susi
Theresa Jouni
Oliver Lam
Jayden Lam
Deanna Vasiliou
Isaac Assaly
Zoe Tsaprazis 2nd Hand Uniforms The 2nd Hand Uniform shop will be open fortnightly during the year on Friday mornings before assembly. Items range from $3.00. The last day for the Uniform Shop this term is Friday 1 April. If you are unable to attend on these days you can leave a request with the School Office and we will endeavour to help you.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray”
MERIT CERTIFICATES WEEK 6 Kindergarten
Lexie Lin, Yianna Stergiopoulos, Archie West & Matthew Williams
Year 1
Diamond Kete, Jeriah Leger, Lain Martin & Liam Nolan
Year 2
Anthony Agha, Jessica Lopizzo, Klara Tadic & David Zhao
Year 3
Stella Araujo, Mikala Ferguson, Jake Gillies & Alex Ninovic
Year 4
Leanna Marta, Margaret Osyzwa, Angelina Papadopoulos & Vincent Suarez
Year 5
Dilan Ivanoski, Isabella Mandalinic, Stephanie Vostoganis & Laurel Whale
Year 6
Kayla Ingle-Olson, Katiana Laspatzis, Jessica Lo & Joshua Roy
WEEK 7 Kindergarten
Niamh Black, Andrew Bouziotis, Nicola Papaioannou & Marcus Stramandinoli
Year 1
Phillipa Finn, Peter Gereige, Eva Morcom & Lachlan Vincetic
Year 2
Juliet Apostolou, Nathan Hazari, Daniel Hellyer & Luca Bella Solomons
Year 3
Zara Bottaro, Thomas Finn, Taylah Hill & Nadia Winata
Year 4
Thomas Finn, Anna Laspatzis, Kane McCarren & Alma Moliterno
Year 5
Daniel Crimmins, Logan Hill, Cecelia Hoang & Michelle Petkovski
Year 6
Michael Antonio, Kansas Chakouch, Ella Nicou & Elena Tnokovska
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School “Work and Pray” P & F News
Dear Parents and Caregivers WE NEED YOUR HELP We are in the process of looking for sponsors for our cookbook. The more sponsors we have the more money we will raise for the kids. We need you to help us find sponsors. Businesses like to support their local community and what better way than to place an ad in a cookbook that is treasured and will last forever, unlike newspapers or magazine advertisements that end up in the bin. The local community tend to stay loyal to local businesses, who have in turn, supported their school. Sponsorship prices are as follows: Business card Half page vertical or horizontal Back cover
$125 Half page ¼ page (vertical only) $500 Full page ad $1750
$250 $1000
If you, or someone you know owns a local business please ask them to sponsor our cookbook. It only takes a minute of your time. Think about your local hairdresser or beautician, motor mechanic or smash repairer - would they be interested, the options are endless. Sponsorship forms are attached to this newsletter or you can pick hard copies up in the school office. Contact Rebecca Abel on 0414 580 132 or email
[email protected] BBQ Thanks A big thank you to Club Rivers who allowed us to run the BBQ stall at their community fair last Saturday. As a result we were able to raise over $1000 for our school. Special thanks to Hamish Solomons, Dean Ippolito, Mick Finn, Jamie Kellehear (and his Dad), Vinny (Yr6 Dad), Vihn Nguyen and all the random Joeys mums who looked after our errant children while we manned the BBQ. :-) Gelato! The P&F will be providing Gelato for the kids this Friday in celebration of St Joseph's Day. Next P&F meeting will be held in the library: 22 March 2016 @ 7.30pm Steve McMahon P & F President
Mobile: 0419 770 355 Email:
[email protected]
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7