22 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Congratulations to all the Year 12’s who graduated last week. We have been blessed by a wonderful group of young men and women who have worked hard at their studies and bonded so well over many years.

Last week’s graduation events were very special and thanks to all those who helped organise and run the events. In particular, I would like to acknowledge:

• Mrs Angelina Sims, Mrs Linda Perrett and Mr Matthew Brown for organising the Graduation Dinner
• Mrs Megan Mahoney for organising the Mass and Farewell Liturgy
• The Year 11’s and their families for helping with the Graduation Dinner
• Ms Tracey Cullinan and Ms Aimee Coulston for their assistance throughout.

All involved certainly enjoyed the experience.

We wish the Year 12’s the best for their futures and thank them for their contributions to the school over the years.

God Bless

Andrew Kendall
PRINCIPAL

LEADERSHIP NEWS

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL ADMINISTRATION-PRIMARY

As we prepared as a school to farewell the Year 12 students last week, we also welcomed into Primary the Prep students for 2019 for their first ‘Prep Practice Morning’. There were lots of smiles – and a few tears – as these children experienced the routines of a classroom. Amongst other things, they listened to the story of ‘The Rainbow Fish’, painted scales on their own fish using a stick of celery and traced and coloured a starfish. They will have the opportunity to come back next week and do some different activities as well as meet their Year 5 buddies.

Thank you to Mrs McNichol and Mrs Barker who organised these mornings so that the children – and the parents – will be more settled come January next year.

Last week, we were joined by Gennai Goodwin who is a professional golfer with the aim of competing in the 2024 Olympic Games. In an initiative set up by the Australian Olympic Committee, athletes travel to schools to share about their passion for their sport and their journey to competing on the international stage. Gennai shared her story with us and talked about moving from Port Douglas to Brisbane on her own at the age of 17 in order to train and compete and having to train 5 hours a day, 5 days a week in order to keep perfecting her skill. She does all this while studying with the Queensland Academy of Sport and working at Woolworths to support herself financially. It was a great lesson for the students, hearing that success requires hard work and determination – and cannot be guaranteed. She encouraged each student to find their own passion, set small goals to achieve and put in the effort needed to succeed at it.

Two weeks ago the Year 3 and Year 4 students recognised those citizens who have been a role model for them in their 'Celebrate a Citizen' ceremonies. Everyone spoke proudly and confidently about their chosen person and shared the advice they had been given for being a good citizen. Thank you to Mrs Angie Sims and Mrs Sue Fleming for sharing her advice with the students. Prior to this the students have been involved in identifying someone who is good citizen, interviewing them, creating a speech and making a PowerPoint slide about their person. The ceremonies were very special occasions and were enjoyed by the audience, all of whom were impressed with the way the children spoke and conducted themselves. Congratulations to all involved.

Sarah Yates
Assistant Principal Administration-Primary

SCHOOL NEWS

AWARDS NIGHT

On 1st November the Annual Awards Night was held in the Bathersby Centre and was well attended. The audience was entertained by the school choir throughout the night. Following the award presentations, the audience was treated to supper. Congratulations to all of the award-winning students and thank you to all those involved in making this night a success.

AWARDS NIGHT RECIPIENTS

PRIMARY AWARDS

SPORTS AWARDS

COMMUNITY/CULTURAL AWARDS

LEADERSHIP AWARDS

ACADEMIC AWARDS

SPECIAL AWARDS

PRIMARY FUTSAL CUP

28 primary students journeyed to Oxley to take on the Term 4 Primary Futsal Cup. Faced with some tough competition with school’s that have futsal excellence programs, everyone played with teamwork and sportsmanship. St Joseph’s entered an under 10’s, under 11’s and under 12’s boys teams into the under 12’s competition and 2 of our teams made the quarter finals. It was a great effort by the boys to play against students older than them.

The girls team battled some tough teams to make it into the big ‘dance’ but ran out of stamina in the final game. The girls were awarded with the runner’s up medal for the second time this year. Well done girls! A big thank you to Sandra Ellis, David Fleming, Andrew Kendall and Jacob Steele for taking the students.

COLOUR RUN AWARDS

The Colour Run awards for the highest fund raiser were presented at Assembly on the 8th November. Students who raised the most money in each class received their chosen prize from a selection. The highest fundraiser in the school was Kayleb Spiller. Lucas and Cooper Wren were also presented with a gift for the support offered by their family towards the Colour Run event.

Congratulations to award winners for their efforts and to all students who participated in the fund raising. Thank you also to those who sponsored our students and to those who contributed their assistance on the day. The colour fun run was an extremely fun and memorable event for students, parents and staff.

MATHS

As part of their Maths unit on Probability, the Year 8 students created a range of “carnival” games and invited the Year 5/6 classes up to play them. The Year 8 students had to design and make a game of chance, work out the theoretical probability of players winning a prize (or not), record the actual wins/losses for their game in the St Joseph’s “Carnival of Chance” and compare these to their theoretical probabilities. The Year 5/6 students also recorded how many wins and losses they achieved as part of their mathematics study – but it certainly didn’t look like a typical maths lesson!

YR 12 RETREAT

The Year 12 cohort had their last group activity with a retreat at Leslie Dam in Warwick. The group had presenters from ‘Real Talk’ to expand their knowledge on life and to ‘dive into’ hard hitting topics. The students were transported to Warwick cinemas and watched ‘A Star is Born’ with copious amounts of popcorn. Day 2 was more physical with a yoga session starting at 6:30am then followed up with a vertical challenge and archery. The students had a liturgy followed by letters from their parents. The letter from the parents touched all of the students’ hearts and it was evident that the cohort was sad about leaving school. A big thanks to Megan Mahoney, Jacob Steele, Matthew Brown and Joe Shorter for being a part of this event.

STANTHORPE MUSEUM VISIT

Students visited the Stanthorpe Museum recently to take a trip back through time. After learning about how Catholic Education has changed since Federation, the students interviewed an ‘Older Catholic’ and recounted their experience comparing it with their own experiences.

TEDDY BEAR HOSPITAL

Medical students from USQ recently visited the school to demonstrate medical procedures to our Prep students. Students dressed up in hospital attire and had fun learning about the bones in their bodies, listening to their hearts with the stethoscope and dressing injuries on their teddy bears. The Preps also observed how a plaster cast was put on and why it is used when a bone is broken.

A big thank you to Naomi Pradella for organising this activity and to Dr Dan Halliday and Amy Hill (Occupational Therapist), who offered valuable assistance on the day.

NATIVITY PLAY

Year 1 has accepted the invitation to perform The Nativity Play at our Carols Night on Wednesday 5th December commencing at 5.30pm. This special night will be held on the Secondary Campus on the outdoor stage facing the oval.

BOOK FAIR

Book Fair was held in the Library at the school from 12th – 16th November. Many parents took the opportunity to grab some quality Christmas gifts and to browse the range of books, many of which are great favourites with the students. Thank you to all those families who visited and purchased items from the Book Fair.

YR 12 GRADUATION

DANCE FEVER

St Joseph’s students from Prep to Year 6 are participating in ‘Dance Fever Multi-Sport’. ‘Dance Fever Multi-Sport’ is a program focussed on learning dance and social skills. Teachers work with students to build confidence and to learn dance routines in a fun and respectful manner. The students are building on dance skills previously learned as well as learning how to be expressive. They are currently learning Hip Hop and at the end of the term, Years 3/4 & 5/6 will be competing in partner dances including the Samba and the Waltz.

The Dance Fever teacher is Mr P who has been teaching with Dance Fever Multi-Sport for over 10 years. Although he used to compete in ballroom dancing, his passion is Hip Hop dancing which he has taught to school age children all around Australia.

Dance Fever is a Brisbane based company that has been running for more than 20 years. They have taught over 100,000 children since they were founded in 1999. They have both male and female staff who know how to make dancing “cool” and have wonderful male role models, especially for boys who are reluctant to dance. Lessons are focussed on students having fun and learning how to dance in a respectful and social manner. Students gain a sense of pride while achieving the routines for a final performance.

SPORT

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Age Champions & Runners Up -2018

SCHOOL BANKING

Thank you to all of the students who participated in School Banking this year. This week was the final week for school banking. School banking will resume in week 2 of the first term.

Thank you to the volunteers Kitty Kendall and Daniela Scalia who generously give up their time each week to ensure that the students banking is reconciled, recorded and deposited.

UPCOMING EVENTS