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Friday 21st August - Book Week Celebration - Theme - "Curious Creatures"
Friday 4th September - Pupil Free Day
Tuesday 15th September - Interschool Athletics Carnival @ The Red Track Townsville Sports Reserve
A Brief History of St Joseph's Catholic School
In 1872, Townsville was still only an infant settlement when St Joseph's Church was built on The Strand. It stood on a site midway between the present St Patrick's College on the Strand and the Sisters of Mercy Chapel that was in Fryer Street. The first Parish Priest, Rev.Fr Connelly applied to Mother Mary MacKillop, foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph, for teachers to help him staff a school for the children of Catholic settlers in Townsville. The sisters opened a school in 1873 and like the church, it was dedicated to St Joseph.
Some five years later this community of nuns who responded so well to local needs was recalled to Brisbane. In 1878, a request was made to Brisbane for the Sisters of Mercy to reopen the school. This was achieved in 1879 and St Joseph’s Catholic School has continued in the Mercy tradition for over the last 140 years. (School Website)
The Congregation of Sisters of Mercy, Townsville, was founded in 1878 by Sr. Benigna Desmond and five others from Brisbane. The sisters inherited St Joseph’s Primary School from the departing Josephites and Sr Benigna is credited with the establishment of the St Joseph’s school for the second time with noble zeal and charity.
The Sisters had to support themselves and pay their lay teachers without a government subsidy. Under Sister Benigna's leadership some members of the community taught music and this, with the assistance and generosity of friends, kept the school and convent going.
St Joseph’s curriculum in the early days included English, needlework, arithmetic, geography, music and model drawing. St Joseph's offered a sound education including the opportunity to begin training as a teacher from the age of fourteen. It was a valuable training ground for the pupil teachers who boarded at St Patrick’s.
There were no school uniforms and pupils were in awe of the rule of the Mercy sisters. Lunch was frequently bread with salt, pepper and dripping. The Australian culture of Catholic versus Protestants prevailed with mango fights occurring between St Joseph’s students and those at the Central State School.
The Assumption of the Blessed Mary
August 15 is the feast day of the Assumption of Mary, which is an important day on the Church calendar. On this day each year, Catholics celebrate the assumption of Mary into heaven.
The Feast of the Assumption reminds us how we must be still and quiet to hear God’s voice. We can listen to God and pray in our hearts that we may be like Mary and say yes to God’s will. With all the machines and technology in our world today, we may be tempted to think that they are more important than human beings. Yet they can’t show love or care for people the way we can. Think about Mary’s life and the times that she had to be strong and faithful. Even though she was the Mother of Jesus, she was not spared suffering.
Prayer
Father in heaven,
all creation rightly gives you praise,
for all life and all holiness come from you.
In the plan of your wisdom
she who bore the Christ in her womb
was raised body and soul in glory to be with him in heaven.
May we follow her example in reflecting your holiness
and join in her hymn of endless love and praise.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
http://bcewaystopray.weebly.com/week-25-9-15-aug.html
The Grapevine (Liturgy Ritual Prayer Newsletter) 12/8/2020
Have a wonderful week!
Take care and God Bless
Amanda
http://readiscover1.blogspot.com.au/ Click this link to see articles on reading and other educational literature, photos of library events and any upcoming competitions.
Book Club: 20 boxes arrived today. All has been handed out except one order which had no name. Thank you to Deb Innes our wonderful volunteer who helped put it all together.
Free online book: There has been a proliferation of pandemic books aimed at children and personally, I am all for books about 'the big issues' in life but there is a time and a place and some of our young people may be overwhelmed right now. If you feel a book may help I have come across one work that I think is beautiful to read and reflect on this time. 'Ginger Green, Playdate Queen' (iso edition - free download here by Kim Kane is a book which offers comfort, gentle humour and child appropriate language around what is happening in the world right now.
Transitioning to chapter books: On the link above is a great article about children reading chapter books with great suggestions on what is available for our young readers ready to make the leap. This is not to say that we leave pictures books behind. There is a range of picture books available for all ages and children should have a healthy balance.
Changed Book Week Format: Only 1 week to go? Have you sorted out what book character you are coming as?
Each class is allocated an author to inspire you if you can not think of a character to dress up as:
Prep- Fairy Tales or Cranky Bear
Year 1- Eric Carle, Small Creature Stories
Year 2 – Roald Dahl
Year 3- Wizard of Oz
Year 4 -Chronicles of Narnia
Year 5 - Greek Mythology
Year 6- Alice in Wonderland
This year we will have a different Book Week format to stay in line with Covid restrictions. This means it will not be a whole school gathering and parents cannot attend.
Children will come to school dressed in their costumes and they are welcome to wear them for the day. Please ensure they have safe footwear. Children will come down with their buddy classes in this order to show off their book characters starting at 8.45am:
- Yr 2 & 4
- Yr 1 & 6
- Prep & 5
- Yr 3 & Kindy
Litpro Certificate Achievers
Congratulations Lua Jennings, Hannah Mosch, Cheeno Schmucker, Noah Shanahan, Mykaela Crowdey and Zachariah Thomson. They are reading like professionals. Our Bronze medal winners will be rewarded with a movie and popcorn afternoon too.
Happy Reading Fun
Belinda Walker (Teacher Librarian)
Interschool Athletics 2020
A decision was made today by the committee of Townsville Primary School Sport to cancel the 2020 Interschool Athletics carnivals (Red Track). It was scheduled for Tuesday 15th September (Week 10). As you can imagine, we are disappointed in this outcome, however, it seems to be the only choice that the committee had.
The committee stated from the start that the carnivals would only go ahead should restrictions lift. At this point in time restrictions have not lifted. They are not in a position to predict what is going to happen in the coming weeks.
We acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our students at our school carnival events. Our 'honorary' 2020 Putney team is below. We congratulate all of the members of this team on their selection.
It is an outstanding team.
