Father’s Day

What a magnificent turnout there was for last week’s school-based Father’s Day celebrations. One of the things that I am most grateful for this year is being able to return to having gatherings and events where all our families are able to join us.

The smell of the bacon cooking as you came along Union Street was absolutely enticing; the conversations and laughter heard whilst waiting in line for what looked to be the best bacon and egg rolls around was wonderful; the joy on the children’s faces when their dads leaned in to give them a hug for photos or to say goodbye was beautiful; and the sense of reverence throughout the liturgy, and connection with both our fathers here on earth and our spiritual Father, was very evident.

The story that was shared with you as part of the liturgy is one from a collection of my books that is a favourite of mine that helps us to appreciate the relationship between a father and their child. For those of you who were wondering about the story it is, ”Father and Son” by Geraldine McGaughrean.

At our ceremony, Mr Mark Van Huisstede addressed the community about being a father, and he spoke deeply and passionately of the importance of sharing meals together. For those that weren’t there he talked about how, as a family they ensure that they each share at least one meal a day together as a whole family. He spoke of how this was the most enjoyable part of his day as he got to really connect with his children over both serious and funny matters. Following the liturgy his two boys also echoed what he had been saying and said they loved to hear and talk about each other‘s days around the dinner table and that it was also a highlight for them.

As well we know, many families with lots of competing pressures have moved away from shared meals at the dinner table. Perhaps if this is your family, after hearing Mark’s words, you might be inclined to see if in your family you can manage a meal or two together each week. One of those meals might even be attendance at a Mass over a weekend, where together you are joining in a Eucharistic meal and being spiritually nourished for the week ahead.

Events like our Father’s Day celebrations could not be possible without many people working behind the scenes as well as those out front and centre. A big thank you to Katy Mooney for coordinating this event and a thank you to all the volunteers who assisted with it, including the staff. Thank you for the different roles you undertook, thank you to all those who donated prizes for our raffle and to those of you who purchased tickets.

Spelling Bee and Maths Bee

There has been a lot of buzzing around the school over the last week or so. You might be mistaken that it has come from a swarm of bees, however it has been the sound of our children participating in our school based spelling and maths bees. We have been blown away by the children’s word knowledge and mental maths skills and are proud of everyone for giving it ago.

On Thursday the regional spelling bee took place and I am immensely proud to say that our St Joseph’s students shone brightly at this event. We congratulate Harriet H, Beatrice F, Lydia H, Adelaide F, Joseph C, Hannah S, Eleonor Mc, Emma S for making it to these regional finals and we acknowledge, in particular, the great results of Harriet H, regional winner for Kindergarten, Joseph C and Eleonor Mc for being regional winners for Stage 2 and Stage 3. Next Monday sees the regional

Maths Bee final and our support goes behind our school representatives for this. We know you will do us proud!

Thanks go to Ms McCalden, Miss Slattery, Miss Flaherty, Mrs Stewart and Mrs Bruce for the organisation of our school based spelling and maths bees.

Indigenous Literacy Day

2022 is the first year of UNESCO’s Decade of Indigenous Languages. Indigenous Literacy Day celebrates and promotes the revitalisation and preservation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages now and for future generations of Indigenous children. To play our part in this, at St Joseph’s, Mrs Shaw, our Aboriginal Education teacher taught each stage the traditional song: “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes” in our local indigenous Awabakal language. No doubt a number of you have already been entertained by your children coming home and singing this for you.

On Wednesday, IL Day, our students also viewed a video of a magical story led by these children, sharing a snippet of life in remote Australia and the richness and diversity of First Nation peoples’ cultures, languages and stories.

Extra-curricular Activities

When we undertake our school tours and family conversations for the following year’s Kindergarten intake, one of the things that many parents express both surprise, and appreciation for, is the extent of our extra-curricular activities that we provide here at St Joseph’s.

Following are some comments from our students in regard to the various activities and what they mean for the children. Many of these activities are facilitated by our staff, who give of their own time for us to be able to provide these activities for your children. I am also very appreciative of the connections we have with the external providers who we work with to provide as wide a range of activities as we can.

Gardening club

I love gardening club because when I walk past every day and see the plants they make my day a little bit brighter.

Gardening club is fun and it makes me feel happy when you grow stuff.

Spinach is the best ever because we can eat it and we can make something with the spinach.

I love gardening club because we grow new things and last week, we got to plant sunflowers and it was really nice.

Gardening club is fun because you get to have a look at the new things that other people plant.

I love gardening club because you get to have fun gardening with your friends, and you can take home some veggies from some sales as well.

I love gardening club because I love all the fruit and vegetables that we get to plant, and I love eating them and they’re very yummy.

I like gardening club because you learn a lot about science like how the leaves of broccoli are hydrophobic so if water drips on to the leaf it then falls into the stem which is the best place for the water to go.

Guitar

It is a good place to learn how to play the guitar and you learn new songs to play to your friends

Guitar is a place where you can experience the fun and learning of guitar. I feel happy and excited to learn new songs.

It’s interactive and we get to learn lots of new songs and new chords.

Guitar is fun because you learn how to play an instrument and have fun at the same time.

You get to have experiences and you can become a professional and perform on stage.

Choir

It’s a fun place to be at Wednesdays and Thursdays when you just don’t want to go on the playground and you want to sing with Mrs Butler.

Choir is the best because it it helps you learn to sing and you can get a beautiful singing voice.

Choir is a great place to learn how to sing and help you improve your singing and it’s a good way to interact with people socially.

Choir is somewhere you can go to calm down or and it’s a great thing for lifetime.

Choir is a good place to be when you feel sad or you want to learn some new things about singing.

Drama

Drama is a fun place to be with a fun environment and a very, very, very good drama teacher.

Drama is really fun and you get to learn acting skills.

Drama is a fun place to learn to do fun stuff.

Band

Band is a fun place to learn many instruments and when you walk Mr Ward makes you feel welcome and likes to help you.

Band is a nice place to find new friends and learn instruments together.

Band is a fun place to learn instruments.

Ukulele

When I play ukulele it takes all the stress out of me and I have fun playing ukulele with friends.

Ukulele is a good place if you just are feeling a bit upset and you can learn a bit about how to play the ukulele.

Ukulele it is a good way to learn new songs.

When I play ukulele I just get that gentle motion of strumming.

Ukulele is a good place to go when you’re sad or if you’re feeling down and it’s a good place to learn new tunes.

Vocals

I love singing with Michael because he’s a great teacher and he helps us improve our singing skills.

I love singing with Michael because you get a good sense of community and it feels like he really cares for you.

French

I like having French here at school because if I wasn’t doing it then I wouldn’t be learning another language except for English.

I get to know different language and I have something to do on a Friday afternoon.

I like it because if you get to go to the place your learning the language from you could speak the language when you’re there.

I like to speak French because you never know French people might come to the school.

Lunch club

Lunch club does a lot for me it makes me feel happy I have got sensitive ears and it’s nice and quiet in there so I can so I can do a bit of quiet play

I love lunch club because I love drawing and using the trampoline. It is a quiet, safe place for me.

I like lunch club because I like getting out of a noisy playground, when I feel like having a quiet place to retreat to. I also like lunch club because it makes me feel relaxed and comfortable.

I love lunch club because we get to snuggle up in the corner and play with all the toys and I get to play with my friend. And I can trust the adults in there and I feel comfortable there.

In addition to these above activities, we also have two Robo Recess groups, our St Joey’s Social Justice group and Mandarin classes. Not to mention activities such as Spelling and Maths Bees and the many varied sporting events such as gala days, Futsal and trials for many varied representative sports.

As this week also included R U OK? Day let’s take the advice of the professionals and remember:

You don't need to be an expert to reach out - just a good friend and a great listener.

Aspire

Anna Kerrigan, the director of the diocesan Aspire program was very impressed with the talent of our students when she came along to the matinee performance of our musical. She strongly encouraged us to promote the Aspire program with our students and very much welcomed applications from them. Please click here for further information regarding Aspire. 

Aspire Concert Band 

Who is it for? 

The Aspire Concert Band is a Diocesan ensemble for students in Years 5-12. It is suitable for students who can at least play at a 1st grade (AMEB) level as well students of more advance ability, 4th grade (AMEB) and above. The ensemble is not suitable for beginner students. 

Instruments include: Flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, bass clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, french horn, euphonium, tuba, mallet/auxiliary percussion and drum kit. The band is not suitable for string or piano players. 

Students must know how to read traditional music notation. 

The concert band will be playing a variety of repertoire including traditional concert band music, music from television and film, rock and pop music and music specifically composed for concert bands. There will be performances and events the concert band will be part of. 

When are rehearsals? 

There will be 3 rehearsal per term (total of 11 hours per term): 

2 regional rehearsals- (Central, Lakes, Upper Hunter OR Manning)  

1 whole day rehearsal at St Pius X High School Adamstown 

Regional Rehearsal: 

You will be able to attend rehearsals at your closest school- St Pius X High School Adamstown, St Paul’s Catholic College Booragul, St Catherine’s Catholic College Singleton or St Clare’s High School Taree.  

These rehearsals will be after school hours, 4-6.30pm and will only involve the students from that area.  

Whole Day Rehearsal: 

Once per term, held at St Pius X High School Adamstown. All students are to attend this rehearsal.  

Kindergarten 2023 

We have a couple of available spaces still left for Kindergarten 2023. If you know of anyone who is looking for a spot for a school age child, please encourage them to contact us for further details.

Kind regards,

Karen

National Child Protection Week 2022 

National Child Protection Week is a campaign held annually across Australia to raise awareness of child abuse prevention. This year’s campaign will be held between 4 – 10 September. National Child Protection Week aims to engage, educate, and empower Australians to understand the complexity of child abuse and neglect, and work together to prevent it. The campaign does this through the sharing of events and resources to encourage communities to engage in conversations around children’s safety and wellbeing. 

The 2022 theme, ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’ invites each of us to look at how we can prioritise children in our lives and communities. This is the call to treat all of Australia’s children fairly, to make sure every family and community has what kids need to thrive and be healthy. 

As a school, our goal when it comes to child protection is to always recognise and uphold the dignity and rights of all children and vulnerable adults, in-line with the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s abiding commitment to their safety, welfare, and wellbeing 

This year, we invited students at St Joseph’s to contribute to the design process as part of a competition to decorate our gate, in support of this theme. This initiative contributes to the way our school shares the message with our local community about the importance of National Child Protection Week.  

Tell Them From Me Survey  

All parents/carers at St Joseph’s, Merewether are invited to contribute to a community consultation survey. The survey is now open and will close on the 7 October 2022. The survey is anonymous, voluntary and easy to use. It takes about 20 minutes to complete and covers parents’ perceptions of the school’s support for learning, positive behaviours, and the promotion of safety and inclusion. Students in Years 4–6 will also participate in the survey during class time. If you returned the non-consent note sent to you earlier this term, your child will not complete the survey.  

The insights we gain into parent and staff communication, activities and practices at home, and parent voice on the school’s support of learning, faith formation and behaviour will build an accurate and timely picture that our school can use for practical improvements.  

This is your chance to provide valuable feedback about our school and support school planning and future direction. We welcome your participation, suggestions and comments. The school community will receive findings and proposed actions for improvement following completion of the survey process. The link to the online survey is: http://tellthemfromme.com/stjosephs  

If you have any problems or queries about the survey, please contact Nicole Charnock or Karen McGinlay.

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) 

Our students are continuing to be rewarded for their positive behaviours in the classroom and on the playground, with our Dash tokens. All four Colour Houses are doing their best to be crowned winners for the second half of Term 3. Our house captains have today completed a token count and the progress results are as follows: 

Red House: 202 tokens 

Gold House: 133 tokens 

Green House: 199 tokens 

Blue House: 227 tokens 

Each house will have the remaining two weeks of this term to vie for the prize. Good luck to everyone! 

Our PBL focus area for this term continues to be Care for All: Care for belongings and equipment. As part of this focus, we have been encouraging all students to have their belongings clearly labelled. This has resulted in a huge reduction in lost property across this school.  

To further support this focus, the Student Council have this week launched a competition that will run for the remainder of Term 3, which will see the class/es with the least amount of lost property rewarded with a prize.  

Please support your children to make these positive changes by ensuring all items (hats, jackets, lunch boxes and drink bottles) are clearly labelled. If items do get lost or left at school, please encourage your children to go and collect them from our lost property boxes. 

Ode to the Light of Christ

Come, let us walk in the Light of the Lord. 

Let us not fear the past 

when our hearts were heavy. (Is. 2:5) 

Let us Shine the Light of Christ. 

Come, let us bring light from the darkness. 

Let us make evil good 

and find sweet in the bitter. (Is. 5:20) 

Let us Shine the Light of Christ. 

Come, let us weep together 

when the light grew dark with the clouds, 

from the darkness and distress. (Is. 5:30) 

Let us Shine the Light of Christ. 

Come, let us walk with our brothers and sisters, 

those who have walked in darkness. (Is. 9:2) 

Let them see the great Light of God 

and let us Shine the Light of Christ. 

Child Protection Week 

Decorate Your Gate

In recognition of National Child Protection Week 2022, Diocesan Catholic schools and St Nicholas Early Education centres have participated in the challenge to decorate their school or centre gate, fence, or alternative space in line with the theme, ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’.  

The students at St Joseph's believe all children deserve a fair go, a good education, inclusion and respect.  

We chose a rainbow to symbolise our hopes and dreams for the future.  

The leaves represent a plant growing in faith, hope and love with a strong commitment to diversity, safety and well being for all.  

We worked together to show our commitment to our community and each other. 

The students have embraced the activities for this year's theme and within our gate presentation are the hands of hope, with safe protectors included.  

We have decorated the birds to represent shining the light of hope and travelling in our community group to look out for each other. 

The faces represent a look into the artwork of local artist Mitch Revs and symbolise our longing for deep respect and acceptance of our individual skills and talents. 

The photo of students in a circle represents our circle of friends across years, grades and classes.

Perpetual Day of Remembrance 

In response to our history, through its Healing & Support Team (Office of Safeguarding), the Diocese recognises and supports community or survivor advocacy groups in acknowledging the Perpetual Day of Remembrance in their own way this year because of COVID-19 restrictions. 

Thank you for your commitment to stand with our brothers and sisters who are suffering and to shine the light of Christ in our Church and neighbourhoods. Together we can be a sign of hope. In faith and hope we pray. 

Shine the Light of Christ Vigil for families and communities  

To draw a line of continuity with National Child Protection Week, we invite you to begin our Perpetual Day of Remembrance with a Shine the Light of Christ Vigil.  

All communities are invited to turn/leave on a light on Saturday night September 11, the last day of National Child Protection Week and the Vigil Mass for Perpetual Day of Remembrance Sunday. 

This is a simple and public way to show we stand with survivors, their families and friends, and that we are committed to Shine the Light of Christ on this issue. See the Prayer for Turning on the Light of Christ below.

Prayer for turning on ‘the light of Christ’ 

If there is more than one person, pray the dialogue as usual. If you are alone, you might also say the response and omit ‘Let us pray.’ 

Person 1: The light of Christ shines in the darkness 

Response: and the darkness shall never overcome it. 

Let us pray 

God with us, 

you have made us in your image 

and filled us with the breath of your divine life. 

Through the life of Jesus 

you show us the way to live in the light of your love. 

As darkness falls may these lights remind us 

of our mission to shine the light of your love 

on the darkness of our Church and world.

Fathers Day Liturgy 

Thank you to all those who were able to join us for our Father’s Day Liturgy on Friday 2nd September. The event was such an incredible school gathering, breakfast and celebration, we had beautiful moments of prayer together. We thank our helpers in the liturgy and a special thank you to Year 5, their teachers and Mr Van Huisstede who shared his personal reflections about being a dad. 

We hope all the father’s and father figures here, away or in heaven were thanked and remembered with love on Sunday and lovely celebrations were had with your families.

Dear God, 

Thank you for all the fathers and father-figures in this world and for the many ways you use them to lovingly guide others to Your heart. I ask that you would bless them and give them great joy and peace. May they see You and know You in new ways. Show them how much you love them and care about them. Guide their steps, use their hands, and make them a blessing to others as you continue to fulfill your special purpose for their lives. 

Amen

Year 6 Religious Education Literacy Test  

In Week 9 this term, children from Year 6 will participate in the Year 6 Religious Education Test.  The assessment of Catholic Religious Literacy takes place annually across all schools in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese. This year the students will be completing the new test that has been devised by Teaching and Learning staff from the Catholic School’s Office here in our diocese. This means, the questions have been specifically designed around the RE curriculum taught here in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. It focuses on students’ knowledge and understanding of key concepts that are addressed in the Religious Education program, the achievement of the outcomes set out in the Diocesan Religious Education syllabus, and the ability of students to communicate this knowledge and understanding about the Catholic tradition.  The data produced from the various testing instruments is designed to give Religious Education teachers meaningful feedback about the students’ learning and to assist in developing effective Religious Education lessons.

Parish Bulletin

CSO Netball Gala Day 

Another wonderful day of sport was had with blue skies, lots of smiles and great fun. Six teams were entered for the gala day from Year 3 to Year 6. 52 students attended the Gala Day last Thursday, 1st September at Newcastle Netball courts, along with several other schools in the diocese. As much as St Joseph’s loves a competition and we always put up a good fight, having so much talent at our school, it was also clear that all our students simply enjoyed the opportunity to participate and have fun playing netball.  

Our Year 4 girls' team were undefeated on the day, with many of our other teams winning most of their games. Our Senior Open’s team came runners-up on the day, coming a very close second to St Catherine’s, Singleton.  

Congratulations to all players who showed great sportsmanship, always shaking hands at the end of the game, cheering each other on and celebrating each other's wins . 

A very BIG thank you to all the adult helpers: Renee Mantle, Olivia Knox, Justine Owens, Kristy Hardy, Priscilla Scanlon, Ingrid Kaczor, Amanda Vickery, Melissa Metzner, Tania Vervaart and Leesa Heron. You took time out of your day, around your busy schedules or away from work, and we really do appreciate it. I know the children also really appreciate you and the support and encouragement you gave them.  

Cricket  

Stage 1 and Stage 2 participated in a one-off cricket session with staff from Cricket NSW on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Each class in Stages 1 and 2 participated in skill-based activities and enjoyed some fun games associated with cricket.

Photography by Miller Charnock

Upcoming Events 

AFL Paul Kelly Cup State Championships 

The boys are busting at the seams to get down to The Giants Stadium in Sydney to compete for the Paul Kelly Cup State Title. This is a massive achievement and a first for St Joseph’s. We are just thrilled, and boys, the whole St Joseph’s community are right behind you, cheering you on all the way – Good Luck! 

Team: Elliot M, Mason Van H, Callum Van H, Jacob F, Max L, Theo S, Lucas V, Heath A, Gus M, Byron S, Harry H, Hugh M, Luca W, Spencer S, Sidney M, James S, Hamish S and Darcy W.  

Date: Monday, 12th September 

Time: Arrive by 8:30am 

Location: Giants Stadium, Sydney 

Supervising Teacher: Emma Cook 

Coaches: Dave Flynn and Mark Van Huisstede