Dear Parents and Carers,

This week is National Reconciliation Week, an important time for all Australians to remember the injustices done to the Stolen Generations and the sadness and damage the events from the past have had on Australia’s First Peoples.  In order to move forward and create a nation that is strengthened by respectful relationships then Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australian’s. The theme for this year’s Reconciliation Week is Grounded in Truth: Walk Together with Courage.  Yesterday on Assembly Year 3JF did an amazing job of educating us of the importance to speak the truth about Australia’s Aboriginal history with a historical narrative that they composed as a class. Please take a few minutes to read their incredibly moving and powerful narrative below.

I encourage you to think about what you can do to make a difference in order to strengthen relationships so that they are built on respect, love, hope and courage.

Have a wonderful week

Amanda

Parish Dinner

Sacramental Program

This coming Sunday sees the conclusion of our Sacramental Program for 2019 with the children making their First Eucharist.  Please keep them in your prayers as they take their final step into full initiation into the Catholic Church.

Sunday’s Gospel

John 14:23-29 - Jesus promises his disciples that the Father will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

Parents are always helping their children prepare for something, whether that consists of getting ready for school, preparing for an exam, or making preparations to go on holidays. In last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus prepared his disciples for his Passion, death, and Resurrection. He promised his Holy Spirit, gave them the gift of his peace, and told them not to be troubled.

In the Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples in advance for his absence so that they will continue to believe in him and not feel all alone after his return to the Father. After the initial excitement of his Easter appearances, Jesus will remain with his followers in a very different way throughout the centuries.

As our celebration of the Easter season is coming to an end, the liturgy reminds us that Jesus remains with us through the Holy Spirit, who teaches us everything we need to know, reminds us of all that Jesus taught, and brings us peace.

As a family, talk about the kinds of events that you have prepared for together; surgeries, funerals, vacations, and first days of school are some examples. Talk about why it is important to prepare for important events in our lives. Then read aloud this Sunday's Gospel: John 14:23-29. Talk about how Jesus prepared his disciples for his Death and Resurrection and how he wanted them to be prepared for what would happen so that they would be able to believe.

https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/liturgical-year/sunday-connection/sixth-sunday-of-easter-cycle-c-sunday-connection

Have a wonderful week

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Readers cup Our 2 teams are busily re-reading the 5 books for our competition coming up on June 12 at St Anthony’s.The students have a speciality book which they are writing up questions on to quiz each other during first break. These students are working hard to keep our winning streak happening. Go the reading Knights of St Joeys. 

Read more in May Challenge: We have had a wonderful month of reading. Have you managed to squeeze in a new reading routine at home?  Our reading Month began with our reading challenge which was an awesome success with so many parents and extended family popping into the school to read with their children.  This week we culminated our month with National Simultaneous Story time. All our children read Alpacas with Maracas by Matt Cosgrove. This story had no age boundaries and was enjoyed by all. The year ones made some alpaca hand puppets.  Our awesome junior librarians did a re-enactment of the story on assembly which was lots of fun.

Book Club: Children have received book club this week.

Library books:  Check your emails to see if your child has an overdue book.  Emails were sent out last week.

Junior Librarian Awards: All our junior librarians have received their special library award. Next week Greta and Elise will receive their library awards for working in the library.  The students are now aiming to receive their library badges.

Happy Reading

Belinda Walker

(Teacher Librarian)

Beachathon Fundraiser

The Race For Space is on!

Fundraising is sky rocketing so far! 

Thanks to those families who are helping their child/ren with fundraising. 

We are now into our second week already.

Fundraising forms:

Please continue to use your child’s fundraising form to record all fundraising monies – either cash or online.  Monies for online deposits will be recorded into the weekly tallies for your child when the school has received your online payment.

Next counting day for fundraising is Tuesday 4 June.

Congratulations to Class 1M for being the highest fundraising class this week!

All students receive a Zooper Dooper and their teacher gets a coffee voucher.

Weekly Incentive prizes:

Great prizes have already been donated from sponsors for assembly.

There will be a number of prize draws each week for students who have raised over $20.

Names are drawn and each lucky student can pull out their prize from the ‘Rocket Ship’.

Congratulations to 8 students yesterday who received prizes including:

• Tennis racquets, sweat bands (thanks to Tennis Townsville)
• Movie Tickets (thanks to Event Cinemas)
• Meal vouchers (thanks to McDonalds and Rock, Paper Scissors)

**Special Prize Announcement**

Next week on Assembly there will be an additional “special prize” draw.

 For every student who has raised more than $20 to date, they go into the draw to win:

Cowboys V Tigers Package (4 X people)
4 x Diamond Tickets to Cowboys V Tigers
1 x Eastern Car Park Pass
Friday June 14^th 2019 @ 7.55PM 

Thanks to the Beetham Family and SSAF Sheet Metal for this fantastic prize!

Barometers:

Each class designed their own barometer to record fundraising totals, and presented these on assembly yesterday. The designs were absolutely fantastic!  It was a tough decision for us to judge a winner, we couldn’t decide on one class, and so every class won a zooper dooper to have on Friday.  These barometers will be on display in the breezeway near the school office from next week.

Sponsorship:

Local businesses and families at the school have generously donated fantastic silent auction prizes and financial donations as well – THANK YOU!

Thanks to our major sponsors to date: Crank’D Cycles, The Marketing Factory, Gracie Signs, Performance Physio Group, Jason’s Air & Electrical, Supreme Paintworks, Townsville Equipment Hire, NQ Hydroponics and Grill’d Healthy Burgers Townsville.

For further information about Beachathon, please email the Sub-Committee at:  info@joeysbeachathon.com

Thank you for your support. 

Regards,

Beachathon Sub-Committee

2019 Rugby Gala Day

Congratulations to both St. Joey’s Rugby Union teams who participated in the annual Rugby Gala Day at Hugh Street last Friday. The event certainly achieved its goal of providing an enjoyable and safe carnival for students, teachers and parents. St. Joseph’s School - The Strand, capped off a very successful day with both of our teams being undefeated in pool games and semi-finals. Our mighty juniors were narrowly defeated in the final by Currajong State School (15-5). The seniors played a magnificent final, with St Clare’s proving to be worthy winners in a ‘nail-biting’ 10-5 victory. All players in both teams deserve credit for the way they conducted themselves, showing great team spirit and sportsmanship. Joshua Menkens and Toby Kennedy were awarded prizes as 'team players' for their respective teams. A big thanks to our senior coach Mr. Barr and junior coach Mr. Kennedy who did a superb job in marshalling their troops. Their efforts were greatly appreciated by our teams. A special thanks goes to Miss Donna for her tireless work during the day. This wonderful day has become a feature on the Townsville Primary School Sport calendar and the TDRU are to be congratulated on conducting this event. Bring on 2020!