Dear Parents and Carers,

What a massive term we have had at St Joey’s.  Athletics Carnivals, Quest for Knowledge, Young Speechmakers, Readers Cup, Crazy Hat Day, Questacon Science, Sacramental Program, Under 8’s Week, Naplan, Instrumental Music concert, Cross Country (I’m sure I have forgotten something) as well as our normal day to day events has made for a busy but incredibly successful term for our Joey’s community.  Tomorrow it all comes to a conclusion with our much anticipated Race for Space Beachathon. A massive thank you to Sandy Simmonds our amazing Beachathon Coordinator who has done an outstanding job in organising this event. Thank you also to Sally Gracie, Edwina Kennedy, Donna Humphries and Jason Bennett for their tireless efforts in helping Sandy throughout the lead up to the event.  Thank you to all of our parents who have helped count money each week. Without these volunteers, Beachathon wouldn’t be the success that it has been.

This week we say goodbye to several of our Joey’s family.  We say goodbye to Cidney and Jared Cole, Claudia Woods, Bianca Najdovski and Jack, Emilia and Josh Menkens.  Last week we said goodbye to Henry Mokrzecki. We wish them all the very best at their new schools. We are also saying goodbye to Brooke Colahan who is going on maternity leave and Johnathon Greer who has accepted a position at St Patrick’s College.  We are incredibly grateful to Brooke and Johnathon for everything that they have done for our school community and wish them both nothing but happiness as they begin their new journeys. We look forward to hearing Brooke’s happy news in August and meeting baby Colahan.  Ms Bridgette Offermans will be teaching 5MC of a Wednesday and Thursday for Semester 2 and Mrs Tracey Sloan will be teaching 4G for the remainder of the year. Both of these ladies are experienced teachers and already familiar with the St Joseph’s community. We are excited to formally welcome them to St Joey’s and I am sure you will make them feel welcome when you meet them.  

As we head into the holidays I would like to thank you all for your support over this past term.  I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable break. May it be a relaxing time where your family can enjoy each other’s company, take time to recharge and make many lasting memories.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

In Religion our Year 6 students have been learning about the Holy Spirit.  They have explored Scripture passages that describe the Holy Spirit and were required to come up with an abstract artistic interpretation of the Holy Spirit.  They then had to write a reflection to describe their art piece.  Check out some of their work below.

Holy Spirit Art Reflection - Gemma Morris

According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit comforts us, helps us, guides us, reminds us, teaches us, comes alongside us, counsels us and intercedes and advocates for us. My artwork reflects on the guiding aspect of the Holy Spirit, being a light in the dark. The Holy Spirit is centre on the page, showing its connection with everything. It is red and orange to show its association with fire and Pentecost, with yellow around the edges to compare it to the Sun, as it plays a similar role in our lives. There is no area of life in which we do not need the help of the Holy Spirit. However, since the Holy Spirit is light, then there must be dark. ‘This is the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him’ (John 14: 17). This inability to receive the Holy Spirit is the darkness, the opposition to the light. In my art, the dark isn’t just black, but a variety of colours to show how different dark can be, and how it tries so hard in so many different ways to obscure the light. Yet the Holy Spirit is there because the other part of John 14: 17 is that ‘... you do know him because he remains with you and will be in you’. This shows how the Holy Spirit is always there to remind us and guide us. In the lower right of my art, you will see a blue sky with stars or our galaxy. This represents how the Holy Spirit is part of our everyday lives and influences us every day. In the upper left corner, you will notice red shapes, which represents the Holy Spirit inside us. They are all different shapes to show how the Holy Spirit is different from each of us. The green lines connect the red, showing how the Holy Spirit connects us all through the joy of life. When I finished my art  I smeared over the whole thing, colours blending and smudging. I did this to show that sometimes everything is hard to distinguish from one another and that the Holy Spirit is the one that guides us through this time and helps us make sense of life. At the baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit could be seen in the material form of a dove, however, since the Holy Spirit is a guiding force in my art I chose to not give the Holy Spirit a form, because more often than not the joy of going in the right direction is worth more than the physical knowledge that you are.

Holy Spirit Reflection - Ruby Robins

I had a Blue Spirit wolf howling in the front with a cross behind it and in the 3 squares shone beside the cross is the immaculate heart, dove and stained glass. My artwork represents the Holy Spirit or different ways to portray the Holy Spirit. For instance, the immaculate heart is something Mary has in a lot of pictures.  The stained glass represents goodness and happiness, it has blue which signifies hope and good health. Purple signifies fasting, faith, patience and trust. Yellow is the symbol of light and purity it speaks of youth and happiness. Orange is the symbol of endurance and strength while red signifies the joy of life and love.  Green signifies bountifulness, hope and victory. The dove signifies the Holy Spirit. I also put in a cross as it is the most known symbol and is what Jesus died on so I thought it would be good for the background. Last but not least the main thing the wolf. I put the wolf in as I think it is a good way to portray the Holy Spirit.  I thought of it as a spirit wolf as wolves are brave, ambitious and smart. The scripture that supports my ideas is Revelation 22:17, it talks about what traits the Holy Spirit has such as it comforts us, helps us, guides us, reminds us, teaches us, comes alongside us etc.

Have a wonderful holiday.

Amanda

Report Cards

Report Cards for Semester 1 will be available for parent access on COMPASS on Friday, June 28th from 12pm.

If you have not yet logged in to our COMPASS Portal or are having any isssues with logging in, please contact our office staff as soon as possible.

Information on how to access Semester 1 Reports can be found here

Can families please check the lost property table at the end of the breezeway, anything not collected by Beachathon Friday will be donated to St Vincent De Paul. 

The very popular butter chicken with rice and pappadams will be back on Tasty Thursday in Term 3 for $4.50 (contains almonds). Second break only.

Thank you and have a wonderful break.

Arlene Curley

Tuckshop Convenor 

Term 2 - Sport@Joey's

Our term got off to a wonderful start with our Year 6 girls participating in the NQ Netball Cup. This growing event saw 53 teams compete and we played games against St Francis (Ayr), Ingham SS, Good Shepherd Catholic School, Blackheath Thornburgh (Charters Towers) and the Cathedral School.  

Interschool Cross Country came around quickly after some training runs on The Strand. Our school excelled at this carnival, with each competitor giving it their all on the long Bicentennial Park Course in steamy conditions. We had six top ten finishes from our strong Putney team: Charli Russell (2^nd), Quinn Pascoe (4^th), Sophie Hannay (5^th), Milla Hannay (7^th), Nicholas Barr (7^th) and Estella Smith (8^th). These competitors went through to the North Queensland Trials on 28^th May. 

Next up in sport was our annual St. Joseph’s Athletics Carnival. The carnival, held at the Townsville Sports Reserve, involved all children from prep to Year 6 in a full program of ball games, sprints, 200 metres, 800 metres, long jump and shot put events. The cheering this year was again unbelievable. Faulkner were worthy overall carnival Aggregate champions with Ryan lifting the Spirit Trophy in a close contest with Benjamin. The parent/teacher/Year 6 relay was a highlight with the teacher/parents narrowly holding off the fast finishing Year 6 teams.

We fielded two St. Joey’s Rugby Union teams in the annual Rugby TDRU Gala Day. 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. 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. 

The icing on the Joey's sporting cake came with the Interschool Athletics Carnival. Our Putney team were triumphant again this year, winning an unprecedented four trophies that were on offer. The team managed to collect the Aggregate, Boys, Girls and  Average Trophies. Our team managed to hold off The Cathedral School (2^nd) and  Wulguru State School (3^rd). 

We again had students selected to attend the North Queensland Athletics trials this year. Our representatives were; Jy Gasa (100m,200m), Charli Russell High Jump, 100m, 200m), Thomas Griffiths (Shot Put) and Harper Ryan (100m). Congratulations to Jy and Charli who were selected in the NQ Athletics team to compete in the Queensland championships.

A number of talented students from St. Joey's have been selected in Townsville and NQ teams this term. We wish them all the very best at their respective carnivals.

Sporting Schools Grant

It is with great pleasure that we can announce St. Joseph's School has been successful with an application for the Federal Government's Sporting Schools Grant. Tennis Townsville will provide clinics in term 3 and more information will be provided as it becomes available.