Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to a very special year for our school and parish.  This year we celebrate our 150th Anniversary as the oldest operational school in the Townsville Diocese.  We are joining our Parish this year as they too celebrate 150 years in the Townsville Diocese.  We have a number of very special events taking place this year to mark this tremendous milestone beginning with our opening school mass on Wednesday 8th February.  Please stay in touch with events taking place this year via our newsletter, social media, class communications, digital signage and school website.

New Logo

Last week you would have received an email launching our new school logo.  It is an exciting time for our community and having the new logo launching in our 150th year is fortuitous. It will take some time for our new logo to appear everywhere however you will see it more and more as the year progresses.  Thank you again to our TCE Executive Leadership team for their support and Pam Griffiths and the Marketing and Communications team for making our logo a reality.  We are very appreciative.  I have attached the logo explanation again this week.  

New Staff

This year we welcome a number of new staff to our Joeys community.  

Jeni Gillman - Prep Teacher

Kayleigh Farrell - Year 4 Teacher

Jason Bennett - Digital Technologies/ Year 6 Teacher

Chloe Glare - Teacher Assistant

Chelsea Olsen - Teacher Assistant

Sharon Green - Teacher Assistant

Annalise Wilkinson - Teacher Assistant

Lyllie Cowling - Instrumental Music Tutor

You will see these wonderful staff members around our school over the coming weeks and I am certain that you and our students will make them feel very welcome.  

Happy News

Mrs Reid ( Yr 3 teacher) has finally given birth to a healthy baby girl.  Charlotte Jane Reid.  Mitch, Rachel and Charlotte are all well.  We look forward to meeting Charlotte later in the year.  Congratulations!

I am looking forward to another terrific year at St Joseph's and to sharing in the celebrations of our achievements with you and with all those who have been a part of our school community at St Joseph's.

Have a great week

Tim

Welcome back to the 2023 school year -our 150th Anniversary Year. We look forward to celebrating our strengths and our achievements, proudly reflecting on all those who have come before us and appreciating the wealth of possibilities we share ahead.

During the January PD Week, our classroom teachers were fortunate to deepen thier understanding of the customs, traditions and culture from the time of Jesus. Fr Damien McGrath from the Ingham Catholic Parish led us in breaking apart Scripture. These new and refreshed knowledges will be implemented within the Religious Education curriculum. We are grateful and thankful to Fr Damien for his time. 

Over the first few weeks of the school year, each class will be learning about and reflecting upon the school's Mercy Values of Love, Community and Excellence. These three values were first introduced to the school in 2020 and speak to the wisdom of the Venerable Mother Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy.

These values underpin our school motto of 'Love God, Love one another' and provide a moral way of being. As Pope Francis said:  ‘People today…need us to bear witness to the mercy and tenderness of the Lord which warms the heart, rekindles hope, and attracts people towards the good.’ 

On Wednesday, 8th February our school community will gather to celebrate to the Beginning of the 150th Year with a whole Mass. Our Year 6 student leaders will be acknowledged following the Mass. All Year 6 students play a very important role in developing school spirit as leaders and role models to the younger students. The Mass begins at 8:45am in the Michael Putney Hall. 

It was lovely to see so many smiling faces on Monday as our families returned to school. A special welcome to those families and students that are new to our school. I look forward to getting to know you as the year rolls on. 

Hope all have a wonderful week ahead, 

Trina

Welcome back to an exciting and 'normal' start to 2023 at our amazing school.  While this has been the first week for students, last week teachers and school officers spent the week learning and revising our approaches to Teaching and Learning at Joey's.

Highlights:

• Teachers explored the 'new' version of the Australian English curriculum. 
• Learning data was shared with teachers to assist them with creating plans to assist your child in 2023
• School officers were involved in a tour of Sounds-Write our Systematic Synthetic Phonics Program

2023 will see some changes to class organisation with specialist teachers and timetabling changes due to NAPLAN occurring in Term 1. 

We are fortunate to have secured specialist teachers to teach the below learning areas in 2023, ensuring quality learning experiences:

• The Arts (Media Arts, Visual Arts, Drama and Dance) - Mrs Martin
• Technologies (Design Technologies and Digital Technologies) - Mr Bennett
• Health and Physical Education - Miss O'Connor and Miss Linda (Health Yr 5/6)
• Japanese - Yrs 4-6 - Sensei Weir
• Gross Motor Skills -P/1 Mrs Jones.

NAPLAN Moved to Term 1 (Year and Year 5)

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. NAPLAN testing has moved to Term 1 for Year 3 and Year 5 students.

All students in these year levels participate in tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. 

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 as soon as possible.

Schedule for NAPLAN 2023 St Joseph's (Timetable will vary if you have students at other schools).

Compass - email communications and Parent Login Letters

Communications from our school are sent via a system called 'Compass'. Compass is a student management system used throughout the Townsville Catholic Education Diocese. Please check your junk/spam to ensure 'Compass' school communications are not being missed (compass@compass.email). If an email lands in your spam folder, mark it as 'not spam' and this should fix subsequent emails received.

Each parent has a login to Compass and this is required to access your child's Semester Report (Term 2) and book parent-teacher interviews (Term 2). Please see the office to collect your login information. 

Parent Information Evening - Tuesday 7th February

We are looking forward to meeting parents and carers at our Parent Information Evening on Tuesday 7th February. This is a great opportunity to meet your child's teacher/other families and be informed of curriculum matters, school events and other important information.  

5:45 pm Principal's address and introduction to teaching staff

6:00 pm - 6:25 pm  Session 1 in your child's classroom.

6:30 pm - 6:55 pm Session 2 in your child's classroom (Repeat of session 1)

Have a lovely weekend, 

Julie Wallace

Learning and Teaching Advisor

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

Welcome to our library to both past and new parents. As Teacher Librarian in your school I’m here to foster your child’s reading journey.  My aim is to connect your children to books and reading for pleasure as a life long journey. Part of my program is to encourage your child to borrow and read regularly. 

The following is your child’s designated borrowing day.  Please ensure they have a library bag.

Library Borrowing Days:

Library email: Once a term you will receive an email to see what books your child has out. If they have books out this is good news.  You are getting the email because they either need returning or renewing. 

Library Before school:  Children and parents can pop in before school every Friday to read or borrow.

Book Club: 3 times a year your child will have the opportunity to buy books for their home library. This must be done online.  The first time you order books online you will have to set up your child’s details. Please ensure you put your child into the correct class. The first Book Club is due to be back on the 9th February. 

Author Visit:  During the year, we endeavor to invite an author to our school to talk to children about the craft of writing and publishing books.  Children get to talk to the authors and ask questions during the workshops.  Last year we had Boori Monty Pryor, a local indigenous author.

Junior Librarians:  Each year I give an opportunity for students in years 4- 6 to apply to be a junior librarian.  Their role is to assist teachers with looking after books in the classroom, to assist their peers with borrowing and shelving and to run lunch time activities.  Each class will have 3-4 students employed in this position. 

Blogspot: Check out my library blog.  Here I put latest books released and articles about reading which may be of interest, competition links, etc.

Search our library:  A link can be found on the school home page under students. When they log into the student intranet they will find a library link.

Has your child had their serve of reading aloud today?

Happy Reading

Belinda Walker (Teacher Librarian)

Before School

Supervision for our students is provided from 8am. All students and families are asked to sit on the seating around the handball courts and near the hall entry. No families are to wait by classroom doors, including families of Prep children. 

At 8:15am, classroom doors open and students are to place their belongings away before heading gathering to play on the handball courts (Monday to Friday) or the oval (Tuesday to Friday) or early morning in the library on Friday only. 

These requests are made to ensure that students remain safe and that our supervision guidelines are compliant. 

After School

Supervision for our students is provided at the Church pick up only. Children in Years 1 to 6 are to be collected from the church pick up. Children in Prep are to be collected from their classroom in Semester One. 

After school supervision is not provided in other areas of the school, including the tree near the kindy gates. 

If your family requires Before or After School Care, please contact Gloria or Narelle - 47725547 or Mary Mackillop Childcare NQ website.

Church Pick Up Signs for Cars

If your family requires a new or updated sign for church pick up, please use the link below. 

Pick Up Signs

Please complete this form by Thursday, 9th February. New signs will be handed to the eldest child in each family. 

As the year begins, here is a timetable about which uniforms to be worn each day for Term One. 

Uniform Expectations

Prep Uniforms

Royal blue & white school prep shirt

For further information, please see our school website. 

Click here to purchase tickets

Mary Help of Christians Parish is seeking interest for altar servers.

Fr Jan will conduct a short training session with interested students where they will be walked through the role of Altar Server.  I will be attending this training session with the students.

Children must be a fully initatied Catholic, that is have completed their Sacraments of Initation- First Eucharist and Confirmation and be able to attend either Saturday evening Mass or Sunday morning Mass at the local parish. In the past, a roster for altar serving has been organised to allow all children to participate as an altar server 

Dates and times for these sessions are yet to be finalised, most likely a few afternoons after school. 

Please complete this form to indicate your child's interest. 

Kind regards, 

Trina

Sacramental Program 2023

Mary Help of Christians Parish is accepting enrolment of children who wish to partake in the Sacaraments of Initiation. 

Please contact Joanne at the Parish Office for further information;

47213765 or stjoeys@tsv.catholic.org.au