Project Compassion Launch Mass 

On Sunday 23rd February School Captain James Humble, Vice School Captain Lachlan Mahoney and myself attended the Caritas Project Compassion Launch Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral.  Bishop Robert McGuckin celebrated the mass where James and Lachlan, together with other school representatives of the diocese, were officially commissioned as ambassadors for Project Compassion 2020. The theme “Let’s Go Further Together” focused on coming together in solidarity to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

Pancake Tuesday 

Shrove Tuesday was celebrated last Tuesday, highlighting the last day of "fat eating" or "gorging" before the fasting period of Lent.  Families and students enjoyed pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream before the setting off for school and work.  Coffee and milkshakes sold by the Coffee Shot Box were well received by families.  

Ash Wednesday 

On Wednesday, staff and students from Yrs 3-12 gathered in the church for mass and to receive the ashes, an acknowledgement of our humanness and desire to become better people.  Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students received the ashes on Wednesday afternoon with a beautiful prayer liturgy lead by the students in the multi-purpose room.   

The Lenten Journey 

As we begin our Lenten journey here at St. Joseph’s staff and students will focus on particular activities to sustain them through their journey.  Prep to Year 3 classes have a special “Sacrifice and Good Deeds Jar” to which they add a pebble each time they offer a sacrifice or perform a good deed. Students in Year 4-7 will journey with a 40-day Lenten calendar with suggested actions to assist them in their season of Lent. Our secondary classes have a special prayer calendar for each day of Lent, so their day may begin with a focus around this special season.  This week we have also commenced a Lenten program for staff, which explores the Lenten Sunday Gospels, allowing time for reflection, contemplation and prayer. 

Megan Mahoney
Assistant to the Principal Formation & Identity

Year 12 Chemistry students have been busy working on their first mandatory prac of the year. The students have been performing redox reactions to rank the reactivity of metals. This redox prac could be the experiment they choose to refine and extend as part of their student experiment. Will they choose redox…or something else? Stay tuned to find out!

The Year 10 Science students have been investigating the rate of reaction as part of their chemistry unit this term. Students alter either surface area, temperature, concentration or add a catalyst. They then measure the rate of reaction, and present their findings in an experimental report.

Meanwhile the Year 6 students have also been busy with writing about evidence that a chemical reaction has occurred. They will super sleuth during a prac to ID if it was physical change only or a chemical change. 

The Year 4/5OB class have been exploring the Bible and learning how to find varies Scriptural Texts, with a focus on the Old Testament.  The students enjoyed becoming the experts who could share their knowledge, skills and understanding to  help others.

Recently, St Joseph's School became home to four colonies of native stingless bees. They are the first livestock for the developing Agriculture program. 

There are two colonies of Tetragonula carbonaria on each campus. In addition to being fascinating to watch, they will also be included in programs of several primary classes as well as Year 8 and 9 Agriculture Science.

The bees got straight to work gathering pollen, nectar and resin as soon as their entrances were opened. With a range of about 500 metres they will cover all of the school and the gardens of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Since winter in Stanthorpe will be too cold for the bees (they won't get out of bed until it is 18 degrees), an overwintering location has been secured. They will still be onsite for a couple of months so come and have a look. If you dare!

In Year 7, Maths students are engaging in learning around concepts relating to order of pertains, indices and integers. As a Visible learning school, students are taking responsibility for their learning and are self selecting simple through to complex activities to reinforce knowledge and address gaps in their own learning. Students are engaging in great learning conversations where they are challenging each other’s thoughts and application of mathematical sequences, and collaborating to solve a variety of problems.

As part of St. Joseph's School's "Faith in Action Program" students of Year 8 and 9 have been involved in delivering meals to members of the Stanthorpe community through the Meals on Wheels Program. Year 9 students will be involved in this wonderful service activity during Semester 1. The Year 8 students will participate in Semester 2. 

This amazing program provides an opportunity for students to offer service, dignity and compassion to people of the local community. 

Students were collected by members of our local St Joseph’s parish and volunteers to distribute meals within the area.  This program occurs one week per term, with 3-4 students delivering each day. Terms 1 and 4 will involve Year 9 students and Terms 2 and 3 Year 8 students.

Thank you to all those who support this valuable and worthwhile program at St Joseph’s School.

The Year 7 Science students have learned how to decant and then filter the resulting water this term. They have learnt the difference in results when a small or large pore size filter is used as well. They will use their filtering skills to filter dirty water in a pretend survival scenario as part of their assessment.

These students have also learnt that magnetism can be narnessed to separate metals. This forms part of their term of study in Chemistry.

Year 10 Maths students attend a lunchtime Maths Club session to learn how to use the “Analysis Toolpak” in Excel. This is part of their unit on statistics and will be applied to data collected in Science this term. What a great opportunity for cross curricular content. 

This term Year 6 have been looking at building a toolkit of strategies to solve problems across, and within, subject areas. Our aim is to build increasing independence and ownership of their learning. 

To build this toolkit we begin with lessons teaching a variety of strategies and opportunities to acquire and improve skills before comparing strategies and looking at if they suit the individual learner and if they can be used across situations. 

Students have enjoyed experimenting with different strategies to plan for a successful fictional recount. A variety of visual organisers were provided and other options discussed. Learners were allowed to interact with their learning team (green marker beside them) or to opt to work without interruption (red marker). 

Congratulations to all those who performed in the Australian National Busking Championship at the weekend and many thanks to Mrs McLucas and Mrs Barker who prepared the children for the event.

It was a very energetic performance and at the presentation ceremony held in the afternoon, St Joseph's School was awarded the Enthusiasm Award and also placed second in the People's Choice Award. Lillian Kendall, India St John and Jessica Pradella collected a certificate and a cheque for $400 on behalf of the school. Thank you to everyone for your support.

The Science Club invited students to their first dissection of bovine eyeballs last Friday. Students particulary enjoyed using the cow lens to enlarge print on a newspaper. This exciting event will occur each Friday lunchtime until the 20th of March. 

This month on SchoolTV - Happiness & Gratitude

Happiness is a term that captures a huge variety of positive emotions such as humour, serenity, optimism, joy, pride, inspiration, love and hope. Happiness means different things, to different people and is essential to your understanding of emotional literacy. Throughout history, philosophers, religious writers and poets have pondered on the meaning of happiness and how it might be achieved. In the last few decades, scientists and psychologists have researched this further by studying a field of science called positive psychology.

The result of this research suggests there is a strong correlation between gratitude and greater happiness. Practising gratitude helps you shift your focus to positive memories or experiences, noticing the good in your life. Over time, this will re-wire your brain to create new neural pathways, increasing your state of happiness and overall wellbeing.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents and care-givers will learn how to achieve happiness and the benefits of practising gratitude. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this month’s edition, and we always welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to this month's edition https://stjosephs.qld.schooltv.me/newsletter/happiness-gratitude

Reading for pleasure unlocks the power of information and imagination and helps children discover who they are. Here’s what you can do to help children develop stronger reading skills and a love for reading:

• Set the example. Let children see you read. 
• Have a collection of books in your home. Update this collection routinely to keep up with changing tastes and reading skills.
• Support our school’s Book Fair. Allow your children to choose their own books to read.

The theme of our Scholastic Book Fair is Enchanted Forest, where we hope you will let their imagination grow!

It’s a fun reading event that brings the books kids want to read right into our school. It’s a wonderful selection of engaging and affordable books for every reading level. Please make plans to visit our Book Fair and be involved in shaping your child’s reading habits.

Book Fair dates: 23-27 March
Shopping hours: 8.00am-8.30am & 3.00pm-3.30pm

We look forward to seeing you and your family at our Book Fair!

FUTSAL

Last week was extremely busy for sport as 7 teams travelled to Highfields to compete in the South West Qld Futsal Championships. Students went up against some big Toowoomba schools and also some futsal schools of excellence.The 13 Years girl's team narrowly lost in the Grand Final and were crowned Runners Up. The Opens Girls placed third overall.15 of our students were selected to represent the Qld West team at the State Titles. Congratulations to all students who participated. 

LAURA GEITZ SHIELD

On Sunday the 23rdof February, 10 students travelled to The Glennie School to compete in the Laura Geitz Shield. The Laura Geitz Shield is a Year 7-9 competition that aims to provide young adolescents from the Darling Downs with the opportunity to participate in organised sport. Our students played extremely well, coming away with 7 wins out of 9 games. A big congratulations to the girls, as for some this will be their last year playing in this competition.