Dear Parents and Carers

What an amazing week it has been! Catholic Education and NAIDOC week celebrations and Challenge games have certainly kept the students busy and engaged.  Add to that the wonderful experience of Strand Ephemera and it certainly has been a huge week for our students. On Wednesday I travelled to Rockhampton for the Official State Launch of Catholic Education Week and to see Bronwyn Reguson (St Joseph's P&F President) receive her Spirit of Catholic Education Award.  It was a wonderful ceremony and great to see many members of Catholic Education from across the state receive recognition for the amazing work they undertake each and every day.  Congratulations again to Bronwyn and Arlene. It was fantastic to see so many students and families attend the Challenge Games this week.  Over two amazing days, our students had fun competing, networking and building friendships with students across Townsville.  An enormous thank you to our Learning Enrichment team and teachers assistants who helped ensure the experience was memorable for our students.

As wonderful as it has been this week there is also a sadder side as we say farewell to a member of our school community.  Rachel Menkens, one of our amazing teacher assistants will leave us this week.  Rachel has been a wonderful asset to our school her work is greatly appreciated by our staff and students.  Thank you, Rachel, for sharing your time and talents with us.  I am sure you will join with me in thanking Rachel.

Have a great week.

Tim

RE in Year 1

Last week our Year 1 students took a trip back in time to explore Jesus’ hometown of Jerusalem. Using virtual reality, they explored ancient houses and pondered what life would have been like Jesus’ time.  The students also entered a Church where they saw the Stone of Anointing. It was truly an amazing experience. 

Homelessness Week

Homelessness Week is an annual awareness raising week to highlight the 116,000 Australians who are homeless on any given night. This year, in honour of Homelessness Week, St Vincent de Paul are hosting a stall at Castletown Shopping Centre to make people aware of homelessness in our community. They are hoping to raise $12000 to help fund programs in this area. Other than money, donations of nonperishable groceries, toiletries, cleaning products, and new linen are all greatly appreciated. If you can spare any of these items, please bring them into school where they will be collected by the Year 6 Mini Vinnies students. 

Sunday’s Gospel

Luke 11:1-13 - Jesus teaches the disciples about prayer.

Luke gives more attention to Jesus' teachings on prayer than any other Gospel writer. He also mentions Jesus at prayer more than the others. In this reading, from the beginning of Chapter 11 of his Gospel, Luke presents the core of Jesus' teaching on prayer. It consists of Jesus teaching a prayer to his disciples, a parable on the persistent neighbour, and assurances that God hears our prayers.

The disciples notice Jesus praying “in a certain place.” They ask him to teach them to pray just as John the Baptist had taught his disciples. Jesus teaches them a simple version of the most famous Christian prayer, the Our Father, or the Lord's Prayer. 

Having taught his disciples a simple, daily prayer, Jesus goes on to reassure them that God answers prayers. First, he tells a parable about a persistent neighbour who asks a friend for bread at midnight. The friend is already in bed and has no desire to disturb his family by opening the door. But because the neighbour is persistent, the sleeping man gets up and gives him all that he needs. If a neighbour is willing to help us if we are persistent enough, how could God not respond to our requests?

This teaching concludes with the reminder that if we seek, we will get a response. If a human father, with all his faults, knows how to give good gifts to his children, how much more will our heavenly Father give us? Instead of good gifts, however, Luke substitutes the word Holy Spirit. This foreshadows the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is central to Luke's theology and who will play an important role in the growth of the early Church after Pentecost.

The parable and the concluding teaching in this section should not lead us to think of prayer as a series of requests presented to God. Rather, as Jesus teaches in his model prayer, prayer consists of recognising God's holiness and his rule over all things.

When someone in our family is going through a hard time, we can't just sit by and watch. We try to do everything we can to let him or her know that he or she is not alone. Sometimes we even try to find a special gift for him or her—something that will help that person to understand how important he or she is to us. Talk about times in your family when this has happened.

Like a good father, God saw that his children needed help. He decided to offer his beloved children a special gift to reveal his love. What did God give us? Not a thing, but a person—the Father's beloved Son, Jesus. Jesus, in turn, taught us to approach God as we would approach a loving father. He gave us the words of a prayer that we call the Our Father, or the Lord's Prayer.

Read aloud Luke 11:1-13. Talk about how Jesus teaches us to be persistent in prayer. Think of times when family members were persistent about something until they were able to achieve a goal or receive what they sought. Talk about what it means to be persistent in prayer. Help your children understand that prayer is not like sitting on Santa Claus's lap, asking for what we want until we get it. Emphasize that prayer is a way of striving to recognize how God is reaching out to us in love and responding by presenting him with our needs.

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

https://www.pray.com.au/month/july-2019/page/3/

Have a wonderful week

Take care and God bless

Amanda

Sport@Joey's

Sport Representatives.

St. Joseph's certainly has had an incredible year for sport and for students selected in representative teams. Our latest Townsville representatives are Thomas Wilkinson (Leg Spinner/Batsman) and Logyn-John Webster (Wicketkeeper/Batsman). Both boys will compete at the North Queensland trials held in Townsville. We wish them all the very best and hope that they are not needed in our impending Ashes campaign!

This week we have six (6) St. Joey's students at Queensland Championships! Our thoughts are with Kiera Wallace and Erica Round who are in Longreach representing North Queensland Schools at the Qld Touch Football championships. Also, Anthony Roveglia, Nicholas Barr, Toby Kennedy and Orlando Lochowicz are all here in Townsville at the Queensland Schools Rugby Union championships. We are extremely proud of our students and congratulate them on their achievements. Go Joeys! 

Oztag

Our Year 3-6 students have enjoyed two weeks of learning Oztag skills. On Fridays, they were participating in clinics organised by Sharon Allen from Townsville Oztag. It was an enjoyable experience, where some new skills were developed and games were played. 

Tennis

Our Year 3 and 4 students began their 8 week Tennis program on Wednesday.

The program is conducted by renowned coach, Wayne Hannah from Tennis Townsville. Our Sporting Schools Grant covers the cost of this exciting initiative.

In the forthcoming weeks, you will be updated with some photos and information on how the lessons are progressing. Watch this space!

This week we have been very busy at OSHC, we started our very own Ephemera. The master pieces the children are creating are looking amazing.  The children are getting to show off their creative abilities through their artwork.

We are always looking for recycled materials at OSHC for collage and construction. If you have anything, we could use please drop it off at the OSHC room, we would really appreciate it.

• In the event your child is booked in and is going to be absent or is getting picked up from school by someone else please notify the service by phone, email or text or our staff will go looking for your child/ren. 

• If your child/ren is attending any after school activities for example Chior, Basketball could you please notify us or you will be charged. 

• Notice of Cancellation without charge is 48 Hours prior to your booking.

OSHC CONTACT DETAILS

Email: oshc@sjnwtsv.catholic.edu.au

Ph: (07) 47725547

Mb: 0447839549