Messages from the Principal

Tuesday 18 November 2014
Volume 37 Week 7 Term 4
Coming Events
11 Perry Street Alstonville NSW 2477 ( PO Box 265 ) Phone: 02 6628 1009 Fax: 02 6628 1508
www.alstplism.catholic.edu.au
Email: [email protected]
NOVEMBER
Messages from the Principal
Tuesday 18 November—
PSF Meeting 7.00 pm in the
Staffroom
Thursday 20 November—Disco in
McCarthy Hall @ 5.30 pm
Wednesday 26 November—Prize
bags for Tombola to be sent in to
school office
DECEMBER
Monday 1 December—End of year
Christmas Celebrations @ 5.30 pm
Wednesday 3 December—Musicorp
Concert
Monday 15 December—School
(2015) Swimming Carnival
Wednesday 17 December—Year 6
last day & Farewell Dinner
Friday 19 December —Last day of
Term 4. School finishes at noon.
Dear Parents & Carers,
On behalf of Fr Max, our Parish
Priest and the Catholic Schools Office I
have great pleasure in announcing the appointment of Mrs Renay Condon as the new
Principal of St Joseph’s Coraki beginning in
2015. This is wonderful news for Renay and
I am sure you will all join me in congratulating her on this appointment.
Calls for expressions of interest for
an acting Assistant Principal for here went
out last week to all Diocesan schools. This
will be for the 2015 school year with a permanent appointment to be made during next
year in preparation for 2016. I will keep you
informed of progress in this matter.
PARENT SATISFACTION SURVEY
A very BIG thank you to the families
who have taken the time to complete and
return the Parent Satisfaction Survey sent
out three weeks ago. We will be collating
these on Friday so please return yours this
week if you want to be included.
STAGE 3 EXCURSION
Stage 3 were at Lake Ainsworth last
Thursday for a great day of learning about
water safety, First Aid and kayaking.
again but please be assured that there will be
NO return to the playground until we are all
satisfied about the safety concerns. Safety is
paramount!
We have enclosed a copy of the letter
from Ballina Council for your consideration.
Alternatively you can view the application
online at
http://da.ballina.nsw.gov.au/Pages/
XC.Track/SearchApplication.aspx?
id=010.2014.00000583.001
CHRISTMAS DISCO
The DISCO is on this THURSDAY
night. Unfortunately we are very short on
parent helpers to supervise and work in Canteen, set up or pack up. The Disco cannot
run without parents putting up their hand to
assist. It is a parent organised activity.
Please advise if you can help prior to the
night so a roster can be organised. If you are
able to support in any way we need your
help!
SCHOOL REPORTS
School Reports for Semester 2 will be
sent home in Week 10. As this is very close
to the end of the year it is advisable, should
you wish to have an interview, to organise
this prior to Week 10.
END OF YEAR CELEBRATRION
Accompanies this
Newsletter
Copy of letter from
Fr Max to Therese
Seymour re 2015 Fees
with calculation for
weekly, fortnightly &
monthly payments on
reverse.
In Brief…
Playground Clean-up: S3
 Book Club orders are
due Friday 21 November
Our End of Year Celebration is being
held on Monday 1st December from 5.30pm
The night will start with open classrooms
for families to visit while there will be a preordered BBQ running, tombola stall and
sales of candles and glowsticks for the Hall
sing along. There is a timetabled performance in the Hall with students not in the
Hall being supervised by teachers in classes.
The night culminates in a sing along in the
Hall with all students involved. It is an expectation that all students attend the night.
TREE UPDATE
We have all been receiving replies to
the letter writing recently regarding the tree
situation. It now is up to a Development
Application currently at Council to get permission to begin work to trim the trees and
make them safe. We hope this means we
will soon be able to use our playground
LOOKING TOWARDS 2015
It is nearing the end of the year and
we are seeking to hear from any families
who may not be returning to our school in
2015. We need to know prior to the end of
the year please.
(Continued on page 2)
Page 2
On Monday 8th December from 10am until
11.50am all students will ‘move up’ to their class for
2015 for an orientation time. During this time Year 6
will practise for their roles at the end of year Mass.
Junior Joeys will conclude on Wednesday 10th December.
END OF YEAR WHOLE SCHOOL MASS
All families are invited to join us on Wednesday
17th December at 9.30am for our End of Year Mass. Following Mass there will be a Year 6 Morning Tea. We are
looking for some Year 5 parents to assist at that morning
tea or send in a plate please.
After the morning tea Year 6 will leave for Ballina Waterslides for a fun afternoon.
Year 6 will then have a family celebration that
night at the Alstonville Bowling Club.
All other students will finish school at 12 noon on
Friday 19th December . Students will need to be picked
up from school on this day. Buses will not be operating
at noon, so parents will need to arrange transport for
their children to go home.
who supported the book fair. Congratulations to Anthony Bell and
Aliyah Tamlin who both won book packs in our lucky draw. A
special thanks to Meghan and Dominic Kingsford for their assistance too!
STAGE 3 DELVE INTO DATA.
Over the last few weeks, Stage 3 have been working with
data. They survey the entire school at fruit break and have spent
the last week using this data to create tables and graphs to record
their information. They have drawn, line graphs, column graphs
and pictographs and have used excel to tabulate their information
and create pie charts.
The Pie Chart below shows the fruit eaten by the school on
Wednesday. Thanks for this interesting information Stage 3.
Therese Seymour
MUSICORP CONCERT
Musicorp Concert will be held on Wednesday 3rd
December in afternoon- more information coming from
Mr Earl next week.
ACTS OF KINDNESS AWARDS
At Assembly this Friday the last Acts of Kindness
Awards for 2014 will be awarded. The Quota ladies have
sponsored this award in 2014 and we thank them for
their support in this. The recipients have been great ambassadors for our school.
AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM SOLVING
MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIADS.
In term 3, 27 students from stage 3 competed in
the Australian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiads. The student sat five separate tests where they were
required to solve complex mathematical problems in a
given time frame.
The aim of these Olympiads is to foster flexible
thinking and develop strategies for problem solving and
working mathematically.
Sean Nicolas was the highest score in the team
and scored in the top 10%.
Molly O'Toole, Lily Delman, Ruby Parker and
Thomas Johnson scored in the top 25%.
Students who received a certificate of achievement were:
Taneisha Boonham, Megan Harris, Mia Hayes, Olivia
Mosse, Jack Condon, Zac Hipkins, Maddox Parsons,
Imogen Boyce, Andrea Chapman, Imogen Dwyer, Elise
Hatchman, Lara Leslie, Ciara O'Sullivan, Sophie Pereira,
Breanna Rhodes, Emily Wright, Sam Donatsch, Luke
Oates, Lee Pagotto, Andrew Payne and Declan Robinson.
SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR
The Scholastic Book Fair was a resounding success, we
sold over $3000 worth of books and
gifts. From this the library received
books for the general collection totalling $900. Thank you to everyone
Making Jesus Real
Ask the Big Question
Where Was Jesus in My Life Today?
We have all had thousands of days in our lives and if we are
not careful they can all melt into one another—we don’t learn
much about life unless we take time to reflect. You need to be
prepared to give a minute at the end of your day to ask yourself
the question …
Where was Jesus in my life today? Even when we have
bad days there is always some kind of highlight.
You can get twice the benefits of a day if you can get into the
habit of Reflecting on each day. Reflection is like sucking out
the goodness of each day it only takes 30-40 seconds. Another
good question to ask is:
Did I see God, or the Good in myself and others today?
Page 3
SWIMMING
NOMINATIONS
WILL CLOSE
THIS FRIDAY
21ST NOVEMBER.
Please log on to www.schoolinterviews.com.au and
nominate at least four entries for your child to swim at
the school swimming carnival. Remember that it is
one event per stroke excluding 100m Free and 200m
Individual Medley. If your child wishes to be considered for the school representative swimming team
please ensure that they are nominated in 50m events.
LAKE AINSWORTH EXCURSION—STAGE 3
On Thursday, the 13th of November, Stage 3 went
on an excursion to Lake Ainsworth.
Firstly, when we got there we were divided into
two groups, S31 and S32.
S31 went to the pool to learn CPR, what to use to
save someone in dangerous water without putting yourself in danger and how to swim out with a boogie board
or a surf board and help save someone.
When we finished we switched activities with
S32. The activity that S31 did then was kayaking. We
would of done sailing but there was not enough wind.
When we were kayaking we had to be really careful because in the lake there was blue-green algae in the
water so we had to make sure we didn’t drink it because
we would have got sick.
During kayaking we got to try to stand up in the
kayak and paddle. It was hard to keep balance. The best
part of the excursion was getting to stand up and falling
when we lost our balance!
Finally when we finished kayaking we had to get
changed, get our stuff together and get back on the bus.
Even when the bus got home late we were all
buzzing about our day. We all had a great time at Lake
Ainsworth and I hope you do too when you go there.
Elsa Brown—Stage 3
Engaging Adolescents—2 Part Parenting Course
Learn the skills for resolving teenage behaviour problems
Part 1: Sat 6 December Part 2: Sat 13 December
8.30am—12noon @ Mullumbimby High School
9 Jubilee Avenue Mullumbimby
Learn
 Some common ground shared by parents & reasonable
expectations to hold about teenagers
 New understanding of adolescent brain development
 A handy flow chart for decision-making
 Building relationship with your teenager—and making
the best of your non-crisis conversations with them
 Skills for tough conversations for handling those problems you just can’t ignore
Spaces are limited—Bookings Essential
Cost (Part 1 & Part 2 inclusive)
$59 per person or $99 for 2 people* (*Parents)
Presented by Psychologists, Michael Hawton, MAPS &
Peter Chown, MAPS in conjunction with The University
of Southern Queensland. See website for more information and to register: www.parentshop.com.au
Last Tuesday night we held a parent meeting in regards to the implementation of the new Mathematics
syllabus in 2015. Thank you to the parents who came to find
out more about the new syllabus and for their questions regarding Mathematics in our school. We will answer your
questions over the next few weeks in the school newsletter.
What is the Australian curriculum?
The Australian curriculum, assessment and reporting authority
(ACARA), in collaboration with states and territories has developed agreed curriculum for English, Mathematics, Science and
History.
Each of these learning areas includes content statements that represent essential learnings for all Australian students.
Here at St Joseph’s we believe…
Agreed curriculum - the critical skills, knowledge and dispositions each student must acquire.
Learning intentions - a statement which describes clearly what
the teacher wants the students to know, understand and be able to
do as a result of an activity.
What will my child learn at school in Mathematics?
 students develop their mathematical knowledge, skills and
understandings through a range of learning experiences across:
 number and algebra, eg. whole numbers and fractions and
decimals
 measurement and geometry, eg. length, area and time
 statistics and probability, eg. data and chance
 they develop their problem solving skills and mathematical
reasoning and communication
 students in stage 3 develop deeper understanding in statistics
and probability
Language and Terminology
For instance 
Times tables will now be called ‘multiplication facts’
A Glossary of terms is available in the support materials for the
Mathematics curriculum.
More information can be found at the Parents page on the
Board of Studies website
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/parents
Board of studies NSW syllabuses website
http://syllabuses.bos.nsw.edu.au
RAINBOW REGION KIDS
WOLLONGBAR VACATION CARE
IS NOW TAKING BOOKINGS AND
ENROLMENTS FOR THE DECEMBER-JANUARY 2014-2015
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS VACATION CARE
Come and join us in our fun filled program
with caring and fun staff
To find out more information go to www.lnci.org.au
Or phone 66217397
Enrolment forms, programs and booking sheets are available
from the
Northern Rivers Community Gateway web site www.lnci.org.au ,
Northern Rivers Community Gateway
76 Carrington St LismoreEmailing [email protected]
And Wollongbar After School Care at Lismore Public School
between 3-6pm.
Page 4
CANTEEN ROSTER
Open Wednesday & Friday
Leanne Harris Coordinator Ph 66281990
Date
Duty Starts at
9.00am
Wednesday
19 November
Volunteer Please
21 November
Cathy Simmons
Healthy Snack Donation
ASSEMBLY ROSTER
(Held @ 2.20pm in McCarthy Hall)
ALL WELCOME
Reminder: Boom gate closes at 3 pm.
Date/Week
C Simmons & Z Cluff
CANTEEN SPECIAL WEDNESDAY ONLY
Fish with Oven Baked Fries
$4
with lemon and tartare sauce
—
Four St Joseph's
Staff members are
participating
in
Movember – Mr Wilde, Mr Coyle, Mr Maslen and Mr
Murgha.
Please donate generously so these four teachers can contribute to changing the face of men's health!!!
Visit http://au.movember.com/ and type in Joey's Moey's in
the search box and this should take you to the school
team!!!
Thanking you in anticipation.
“Joey's Moey's”
Host
Week 7: 21 November
Stage 1
Week 8: 28 November
Awards & Acts of Kindness
Week 9: 5 December
Kinder
Week 10: 12 December
Final Assembly
The following children have celebrated their
birthday since our last Newsletter
Cohen Duncan & Liana Alley
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ALTAR SERVERS ROSTER
Saturday 22 November: Ethan Plunkett, Joshua McWilliam, Charlotte
Voss, Olivia Voss & Georgia Shirley
Sunday 23 November: Ellesha Lloyde, James McElligott, Alyssa Iles,
Joshua Simmons, Sebastiano Astone
23 November:
Children’s Sunday Liturgy
Luke & Lucy Hogan
Margaret Scroope
Stage 1 Christmas Bowling Afternoon!
For all stage one kids and parents- Please join us on Tuesday 9th December from 4- 6pm at Lismore Ten Pin Bowl,
Krauss Avenue, South Lismore for a Christmas bowling
extravaganza! Cost: discount deal of $5 per person, per
game (including shoe hire). Cafe available.
RSVP by 01/12/14 to Kirsty McKinley at
‘[email protected]’ or Beth Newton 0431 777 458.”
Come and try GOLF
Golf week: 17—23 November
Come and try golf at Teven Valley Golf Course with this offer
for beginner golfers:
FREE: Golf Clinic with our pro, Phil Dolby, for kids aged 10-14
years. Saturday 22 November from 3.00pm—4.00pm
Adults from 4.30pm—5.30pm.
Free sausage sizzle afterwards. Bookings essential PH6687 8386
Christmas for kids:
Come along to this fabulously Christmas themed workshop.
Fun activities will include making a citronella floating candle
in a jar, a floral cupcake arrangement and a watercolour card.
All classes are conducted by Del Strong a national multiaward winning teacher, author and artist. Guest florist from
Sydney Rae West will impart floristry skills. $25 per class
including all materials) booking essential. Saturday December 6th (10am-12 pm) or (2pm – 4pm) studio: ‘delstrongart’
at 88a Main St Alstonville, phone: 02.6628 1749, mobile:
0401447717, web: [email protected]
January art classes for children
Bees, butterflies and bugs 12th/13th/14th Jan (10am-12 noon)
All about horses encore 19th/ 20th/21st Jan (10am-12 noon).
Every day is different. All classes are conducted by Del
Strong a national multi-award winning teacher, author and
artist. $20 per class. Bookings are essential studio:
‘delstrongart’ at 88a
Main Street Alstonville, phone:
02.6628 1749, mobile: 0401447717,
web:
[email protected]