Dear Parents and Carers

With only a week to go until the end of the term I wanted to thank you for your support and patience throughout what has been a disrupted and, at times, difficult beginning to our school year.  Over the last week we have seen another small increase in Covid cases in the school.  Covid has made staffing difficult throughout the term and I appreciate that this too has made for an unsettled environment.  I am very grateful for the many relief staff that have supported our school community during this time and for Mrs Neilson who has performed miracles to ensure that our students have had replacement staff to support them.  At this stage of the year I am pretty sure she has a doctorate in timetabling!   Thank you to all for your efforts throughout the term.

If you haven't had the chance to look at some of our Year 5 and Year 3 writing over the last few weeks you are truly missing out on something special.  Our students have been working incredibly hard to produce engaging and highly entertaining stories, while also working to improve their spelling, grammar and structure.  I have thoroughly enjoyed their efforts and look forward to many more entertaining additions.  Congratulations to our amazing Yr 3 and Yr 5 teachers and Mrs Wallace for supporting and engaging our students.  

This week all families will have received a link to a Catholic Identity Survey.  This survey takes place every 5 years and forms part of the schools plan moving forward.  It allows us to set goals and respond to the needs of our school community with specific reference to our catholic identity.  I know families are busy and surveys are time consuming but would greatly appreciate your assistance.  For our results to be considered valid we need a significant response from our parent/carer community.  Thank you in advance for your support.

Finally I hope that this Easter break is a safe and relaxing one for your family.  Again, I greatly appreciate your support throughout the term and am looking forward to an even better one after the holidays.

Take care and Happy Easter.

Kind regards

Tim 

Parent Help Needed

Enhancing School Catholic Identity

Every few years, we ask families to complete a survey that shows how we are going on our Catholic Identity journey. Our Catholic Identity is not just about the symbols and logos around our school but how we live out our values. 

Whilst this is not a quick survey, it does provide our school community with very valuable information to develop and grow the future direction of our school. Please take some time over the next few weeks to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee or tea and complete the survey.

St Joseph's The Strand_ECSI How to Fact Sheet

St Joseph's The Strand_ECSI How to Fact Sheet 382.47 KB

ECSI_Survey_Instructions.pdf

ECSI_Survey_Instructions _pdf 215.68 KB

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. 

Holy Week

This year, our school will mark the events of Holy Week with in classroom prayers. We will come together on Friday, 1st April at 11:15am to celebrate Easter Sunday. 

Project Compassion

Our Year 6 Faith and Service Pastoral group have been busily making icy cups over the past few weeks. They proudly poured their 1500 cup on Wednesday and are excited to continue to sell icy cups over the last two weeks of term. 

These students have also organised a 'Guess how many Easter Eggs in the Jar?' competition. Each guess is 50c and on sale each morning before school. The winner will be announced next Friday, 1st April. 

Project Compassion Collection Boxes

Please begin to return project compassion boxes back to school. All boxes are to be returned by Friday, 1st April, please. 

Thank you for your generous donations during Project Compassion 2022. 

Hope all have a wonderful, safe and happy holiday and Easter break, 

Trina

WRITING WALL

Forget the Great Wall of China. We have the Great Wall of Writing. Measuring seven meters and displaying voluntary samples of Flash Fiction from Year 5, these writing samples are impressive. Stayed tuned for Yr 3...coming soon.

The Feedback Fairy located in our administration building (AKA Mr Ham) wasn't required this week as we had the Feedback Superstars of Year 5 sharing stories with our Yr 3 Writing Warriors. During this purposeful sharing session, the level of engagement amongst the Year 3 and Year 5 students was a great example of 'Kids Can' lead at Joey's.

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. All students in these year levels are expected to participate in tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. 

The Public Demonstration Site is a great way to explore NAPLAN online along with assisting students to navigate using the online tools. Our teaching teams have been working with students to ensure they are well prepared. Yesterday we held a Naplan 'like' test to check our technology and provide students with a sample of the format of NAPLAN testing.

Authorities provide parents with the opportunity to withdraw their children from the NAPLAN tests. If you do not wish your child to participate or if your child will be absent for the below dates, please contact your child's teacher.

Schedule for NAPLAN 2022 St. Joseph's (Timetable will vary if you have students at other schools).  

NAPLAN Test Administration rules are very strict. If your child is away for a NAPLAN test, he/she will need to sit the test on the day he/she returns to school. Your child will sit the test in another room and won't be able to complete the same test as his/her classmates until he/she has caught up with missed tests.  

If your child is late for the NAPLAN test, he/she will need to sit the test in a different room (school starts at 8:30 am).  Click here for more information regarding NAPLAN.

PARENT-TEACHER INTERVIEWS 

Given our interrupted term due to COVID, Parent-Teacher Interviews will be held in Term Two Week 2. We strongly encourage parents/carers to meet with teachers to gain an insight into your child's learning at school. Students in Yr1-6 set goals with their teachers and this information alongside samples of work are viewed during these meetings.

Interviews will be held in the hall for 15 minutes on the below dates:

        Tuesday, April 26th, 3.15 pm -7:15 pm

        Wednesday, April 27th 3:15 pm -7:15 pm

Julie Wallace

Learning and Teacher Adviser

This week, our school captains, Daniel, Audrey, Indiana and Oskar led us for our first assembly of 2022. At each of our assemblies, we celebrate students within our school community who espouse our values of Love, Community and Excellence. 

We were very proud to recognise the efforts of these students. 

Sacramental Mass

Prayers and blessings for our students who are making their Confirmation and First Eucharist this Sunday, 27th March with Bishop Tim. 

Thank you to the teachers, Mrs Martin and Mrs Sloan who prepared our students for this important day. Thank you also to the families. 

Dear Parents and Carers

It is my pleasure to let you know that registrations are now open for students to take part in Mulkadee 2022 - Into the Unknown.

The Mulkadee Youth Arts Festival is the only event of its kind in Australia and offers students from across the Townsville Diocese the opportunity to participate in a week-long program of artistic workshops in choir, dance, drama, band, guitar, and strings.

Students in Year 5 - 6 can register for Choir, Band, or Guitar. Students in Year 4 can register for Choir only. Instrumental Music students should check with their tutor regarding ability level before registering their interest.

Students can register at this link. Registrations are now open and will close on the 1st of April 2022. No late registrations will be accepted.

I am looking forward to a wonderful Mulkadee this year and I hope to see St Joseph's Catholic School The Strand well represented. Please reach out to me via email jbennett3@sjnwtsv.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions.

Kind Regards
Jason Bennett
St Joseph's Catholic School The Strand's Mulkadee Coordinator

Interschool Swimming Carnival 2022

Congratulations on another outstanding performance by our St Joseph's Putney Interschool Swimming Team who competed in the A Schools Carnival at Long Tan Pool on Wednesday 16th March.  We managed to continue our outstanding performances in recent years, by winning both the Overall Aggregate and Average Trophies.  The Cathedral School were in second place followed by Townsville Grammar.  Our staff representatives Miss O'Connor, Mr Meekin and Miss Kathy were delighted with the team spirit and behaviour of our squad.  Our year 6 leaders did an outstanding job in leading the war cries.  The effort demonstrated by the Putney team was amazing.  A sincere thanks to parents who managed to get their children to the pool for the early starts and our dedicated staff for their support with training.  A special thanks to Mrs Reid, Mrs Wheeler, Mrs De Jongh, Mrs Neilson, Ms Higgins and our lucky charm, Miss O'Connor.  Children who placed in Division 1 events will receive their Townsville Primary School certificates next week.  Bring on 2023!

"Townsville2Cairns Challenge - 2022

As part of our warm up for the annual Cross Country Carnival (Yrs 3-6) and Fun Run (P-2), our Townsville2Cairns Challenge has begun. Each year level tally the number of circuits they do each day on our school oval course. The combined totals are used to see which year level can get to Cairns first. Whilst it is a fun event designed to promote stamina, there is a Townsville2Cairns Challenge trophy up for grabs. Rumour has it that a year level was spotted very close to Cardwell!

http://readiscover1.blogspot.com.au/

Holiday Reading

I have allowed children to borrow extra books this holiday BUT if they run out here is
another option. We have a big range of wonderful ebooks children can have access to
from home especially if you are reading chapter books.
Accessing Ebooks from Home: On the student intranet there is a drop-down menu
called library links. On Destiny search there is a link to sora ebooks. You can read
from here or you can Download the App SORA to any devise.
Here are the instructions for logging in.
Click Find my school. Our school is not on the first list so click Can’t find my school.
In the box a drop-down, menu appears select ACEN Member collection.
Next sign in using ACEN member collection.
Click continue and a CEnet log on box will appear. Students then can use their normal computer login.
Make sure you select Townsville diocese. Enjoy

Junior librarians in the spotlight

All our wonderful students were acknowledged on assembly for their
dedication to being library embassadors. They will be meeting next Friday to organise activities for term 2.

Book Club

Students received their book club today.  Thanks for supporting your child’s reading.  Enjoy reading to your child aloud.  All ages enjoy it.