Dear parents and carers

A huge thank you to the students and families that represented our school at the ANZAC march last Thursday.  It was a slightly smaller contingent this year but still a wonderful turnout.  The parade is always terrific and this year was no different.  So wonderful to see our service men and women remembered and honoured by out younger generations.  Once again our students were fantastic.  Again, my sincere thanks to all who were able to march on the day.

You may have noticed over the break the hall has had a make over with a coat of fresh paint.  The colours reflect those of our school logo and uniforms.  I think it looks great and finishes off some significant renovations to the hall over the last 12 months.  A huge thank you to Supreme Paintworks for an amazing job.  As the year progresses we plan to continue renewing the exterior of the school.  If you walk your children into school via Oxley street you will also have noticed some work taking place near the Kindy.  A small but relatively unused space is also undergoing a transformation to create a more appealing and useable area for our students.  This small change will help us facilitate some larger changes to our lunch and hall area in the near future.  We are again very grateful to Build North for their work in making this happen.  

Prep interviews for 2020 began this week and will run over the coming 2 weeks.  If you have a Prep age child for 2020 and have not yet completed your enrolment please do so as soon as possible.  This will ensure no one is disappointed and we can plan for the coming year as well as finalise places for those families new to our school community.

Next week will be another busy week for our school community.  A public holiday Monday, Interschool Cross Country and P&F meeting Tuesday and a class Mass on Friday will certainly Keep everyone busy.  On Wednesday the 7th the Strategic Leadership Team from Townsville Catholic Education will also visit St. Josephs to finalise the school validation process from 2018.  The Executive Director, Jacqui Francis will make a presentation to the school at a special assembly at 11am.  If you are able to attend it would be great to see you there.  The team will spend the remainder of the day speaking with members of the staff, students and parent representative groups about our school community and what the strategic future plans for the school entail.  We are looking to the team visiting and to formally completing the validation process.

A final reminder about our next P&F meeting Tuesday 7th May at 6pm in the staffroom.  All are welcome to attend.

Have a great week.

Tim

Save the Date

Sunday’s Gospel

John 20:19-31 - Thomas believes because he sees Jesus.

Sunday of Divine Mercy

Last Sunday was the feast of Divine Mercy.  Our family life would no doubt be enhanced if we were able to transform Jesus’ greeting into a central feature in our family’s interactions. After his Resurrection, “Peace be with you” is the first thing that Jesus says to his disciples. This could be our daily family prayer for one another. In Sunday’s Gospel, we also heard that Jesus next breathed on his disciples and gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism, each of us has received the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as the forgiveness of sins. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our Baptism, then, invites us to share in the peace that Christ gave to his disciples and commissions us to share that peace of Christ by generously forgiving others as Jesus taught.

As you gather as a family, think about gifts that you might receive together such as a coloring book and crayons, a book and bookmark, or an electronic item and batteries. Observe that Jesus also paired two gifts together in this Gospel: peace and the Holy Spirit.  Ask: What were the disciples to do with these gifts? (They were sent as Jesus was sent by the Father to forgive sins.) Recall that we have each received Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit at our Baptism and that peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Observe that since we also have received these gifts from Christ, we are also sent to be people who forgive others as Jesus taught. Determine an action that your family can do to share peace and forgiveness with one another.

https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/liturgical-year/sunday-connection

Mother's Day Liturgy

Next Wednesday at 2pm we will be celebrating Mother's Day with a very special Prayer celebration hosted by 1D.  We hope that you are able to join us.

Class Mass

Each semester every class attends a class Mass with Fr Joseph.  Next Friday Year 1 and Year 6 will be attending Mass in the Church at 9am.  You are more than welcome to join us for this Mass.

Sacramental Program

For those children who are participating in the Sacramental Program just a reminder that the program kicks back into gear this term.  Please see the flyer below for dates and times for both Confirmation and First Eucharist.

https://www.pray.com.au/gospel_reflection/thursday-2-may-2019/

Have a good week

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

SJS PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

In many ways, the last of our SJS 5Rs is the teaching and learning value that sits above all of the others.

Right relationships are founded on mutual respect for each other, being responsible, showing resilience when things don’t go well  and showing rigour by striving to live our school motto “Love God, Love each other”.

Young SpeechMakers Competition

The annual Speechmaker competition for students in Years 4-6 will be held at Southern Cross Catholic School on Thursday, May 30th. This competition allows students to showcase their public

speaking skills. Our St Joseph’s team has been selected and they are busily writing their speeches and meeting regularly to practise performance skills. The team for 2019 is

Year 6 - Meg Burbidge and Thomas Wilkinson

Year 5  - Mikayla Baynes and Aria Bennett.

Year 4 - Greta Ramsey and Julia Richardson.  

Our SpeechMakers demonstrating their passion for performance
                                                  

NAPLAN

In 2019, NAPLAN tests will be conducted from Tuesday 14 May to Thursday 16 May.

Schools must schedule the tests on the dates agreed to by NAPLAN authorities.

NAPLAN tests the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to progress through

school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy. It is important to remember that NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but about assessing learning

Progress.

At the classroom level, it is one of a number of important tools used by teachers to measure student progress. Data from these tests is used by SJS to track student

performance and to identify students requiring support or extension.

Authorities provide parents with the opportunity to withdraw their sons and daughters from the NAPLAN tests. If you do not wish your child to participate or if they will be absent during these times, please contact class teachers.

For more information, please refer to the NAPLAN Parent Information attached to this

newsletter and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel most welcome to contact us here at SJS.

Jan Oram

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

A school reading challenge this Friday.  What is the challenge?  To have as many parents possible in our school reading to children.  Please come up this Friday to your child’s class at 8.35 am for half an hour of reading fun. 

Details

After teachers have marked the roll, we will invite parents to visit their child’s classroom and select a book they would like to read.  The books will be in boxes outside the rooms.

At 9.00 am students will resume class lessons.

Reading Presentation: Prep parents are invited to come to the library for a presentation on ‘Helping your child become an keen reader” after the Reading Challenge at 9.00 am 

Read more in May Challenge: A little family challenge can be found here. http://www.scholastic.com.au/nfrm

Junior Librarian Awards:  The following students have done an outstanding job with running our library lunch time program and received an award on assembly.  Congratulations Mahalia Boyd, Bridget Boyle, Zahra Bligh, Violet Seri, Caitlyn Wiltshire, Emma Robinson, Julia Richardson and Sera Torrisi. The next level is to earn their Junior Librarian Badge.

Book Club: We order book club once a term.  It will go out this week.  Please have a look through the brochure for some quality books to have in your home library.  Avoid the gimmicks!! Please order online by May 15^th.  Cash orders can be handed into the office.

Happy Reading   Belinda Walker (Teacher Librarian)

Townsville Hockey

Congratulations to our students who participated this week in the North Queensland Schools Under 12 Hockey trials. Hamish Barry was selected to represent NQ at the Queensland championships. They will be held in Townsville this year and we wish Hamish all the very best. Well done!

NQ Netball Cup

Last Friday, some Year 6 students participated in the annual NQ Netball Cup at Murray Netball courts. This year saw a record 53 teams participate in this growing event. Our team acquitted themselves admirably, demonstrating development of skills, wonderful encouragement of each other and continuing to  enhance St. Joey's reputation of great sportsmanship. The team played games against St Francis (Ayr), Ingham SS, Good Shepherd Catholic School, Blackheath Thornburgh (Charters Towers) and Cathedral School. Improvement was evidenced in each game and a pleasing aspect was that the girls gave their best effort and never gave up throughout the day. A huge congratulations and thanks to our dedicated coach Donna Bloxsom, who trained the girls superbly and marshalled them throughout the day. The team thoroughly enjoyed the event and the many memories that were made. Go Joey's!

Tennis Coaching

Conducted at Tennis Townsville Centre North Ward:

Tuesday afternoons:  3:45 to 4:45 beginners

                                      4:45 to 6:15 intermediate 

Saturday mornings:  8:30 to 9:30 3 years + beginners. All levels and ages.  

                                     8:30 to 10:30 intermediate to advanced.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday classes for advanced and tournament players.

Discounts are offered for more than one sibling.

Enrol on-line at www.tennistownsville.org  under Juniors. 

Direct Questions to Wayne on 0417 600 591 the Head Coach.

Enquiries also at the office on M: 0407 186 153.