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Dear Parents,
Over the last fortnight we have celebrated two remarkable women – Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint and founder of the Sisters of St Joseph, whose feast day was on August 8th; and then yesterday, August 15th we attended Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrating the entry of Mary into heaven, body and soul. Their places in history were so very different however their roles in life were very similar – neither refused anything to God’s love.
“We tended in the past to put Mary, the Mother of Jesus, beyond reach, almost on a par with God, but not quite! Her image was idealised, so that she seemed to be set apart from the rest of us. Her ‘’Yes!!” to the Angel Gabriel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” reveals a different person. She was a real woman, ready to respond, in complete trust, to whatever God asked. That “Yes” was to lead her to share the company of the poor and oppressed, and eventually to become the homeless mother of a crucified criminal. Another Mary, who could refuse nothing to God’s love, also found herself in the company of the poor and the oppressed, offering her life, in total trust, to God and God alone. ( MMK 1873). Mary MacKillop’s “YES” was complete … ‘”We are in God’s hands” (MMK 1866)”
'The Little Brown Book’ by Sue & Leo Kane
How are we managing with those little challenges our Good God asks of us each day? Mary often expressed how the little crosses are often harder to bear than the glaringly big crosses.
We pray that we too can be like Mary MacKillop and Mary, the mother of Jesus, having the strength and courage to bear our crosses and to be servants of the Lord, just as they were.
Book Week and Grandparents Day
Next week is Book Week and we have great plans to celebrate books and the joy and power reading can bring us. We will kick start the week with a special assembly and presentation on Monday and then throughout the week there will be quizzes, outdoor reading in ‘powerful ’places, guest speakers and our annual Book Sale. This will all be topped off on Friday morning by a special assembly for all grandparents and those who fill the role of grandparents in our children’s lives, followed by our Character Parade. All parents, grandparents, toddlers and visitors are also very welcome to dress up as a book character and join us in our parade.
Following the parade we invite grandparents to join the children and to listen to them read as well as to share a favourite book or story with the children.
This will then be followed by a morning tea for all our grandparents. We look forward
to celebrating how much reading and books mean to us.
Trivia Night
Anyone walking past the hall on Saturday night would have been most envious of the scene playing out before them - Singing and dancing nuns from Sister Act, pink ladies strutting their stuff from Grease, Men in Black ensuring the night was free of aliens and some very flashy flappers and spiffy gentlemen from the Great Gatsby enjoying one another’s company. A great time was had by all the parents, staff and friends of our community who came along to the movie themed trivia night. The costumes, table decorations and entertainment were all fabulous. The night was brilliantly organised by Katie Mooney who most definitely deserves an Academy award for Best Producer. Thank you to all those who helped Katie, who came along on the night and to those who supported the raffle. We look forward to next year’s trivia night and encourage you all to come along to it.
Playground Project
Voting for our green space playground community grant has now closed. We now must sit and wait patiently for the next month until the successful project is announced on September 15th. The support we have had from our parent community has been amazing as well as that from the staff, the diocese and local businesses. We can’t thank you enough for getting behind this project and we ask that you also pass on our thanks to your friends and acquaintances who have supported us. I’d also like to acknowledge Vanessa Shrewsbury, Sarah Rees, Alana Dagwell and Donna McMillan for the incredible work that has been undertaken in regards to the voting campaigning. There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes work with this and these ladies have been the drivers of it.
Stay tuned for the results of the voting and let’s hope we will be celebrating soon.
Class Parents
Thank you to those parents who have expressed interest in taking on the role of class parents. There are a number of classes where we have not received any expressions of interest from at this stage. Please see the Class Parent network form that is attached with this newsletter and consider nominating for this role. It is only until the end of the year and it is a role that does not require much time or effort. As we have previously said, the idea of the class parent network is to be a link between home and school for pastoral matters. Once we have nominations for all classes the class parents will meet together and we can clarify any queries about the role and begin to move forward and shape the network in a way that is best for our school community.
Important Dates
16 August | Water Safety Talks | Incursion |
20 August | Book Week - Book Fair | Library |
21 August | NPBS Maths Competition | Years 5 & 6 |
22 August | Year 4 Grade Sharing Assembly | School Hall @ 2.15pm |
23 August | Book Week Parade & Festivities | |
26 August | Regional Debating Competition | |
27 August | Kindergarten Library Excursion | |
30 August | Father's Day Breakfast & Liturgy | |
30 August | Kindergarten Blackbutt Excursion |
Curriculum Corner - Renata Powell
Science Week
August 10-18, 2019 celebrates National Science Week. This year the theme is Destination Moon: more missions, more science. National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology and thousands of individuals – from students, to scientists to chefs and musicians – get involved, taking part in more than 1000 science events across the nation. It provides an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of Australian scientists’ to the world of knowledge. It also aims to encourage an interest in science pursuits among the general public, and to encourage younger people to become fascinated by the world we live in.
This theme is a way for all to discover past missions to the Moon and space programs that have solved some of the seemingly unsolvable problems—and current and future space programs, operations and missions. Many of these use big picture thinking in science to solve problems, and technology, engineering and mathematics to design new solutions. This will help forge our future paths in the areas of space operations, space science, Earth observations, positioning systems and communications. For more information, or for ideas of different activities that children can complete at home, please visit https://www.scienceweek.net.au/
To celebrate National Science Week, on Saturday 17 August, the Faculty of Science at the University of Newcastle are hosting a day of fun and exciting interactive activities and presentations for the whole community. To secure free tickets they can register online at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/science-in-practice-developing-our-world-tickets-64292408324
Young Journalist Award
In our last school newsletter I was able to share the wonderful news of Jack Webber winning the junior category in the Australian Catholics Young Journalist Award and Molly Boyle and Ali Hayes being Highly Commended for their articles. Over the last fortnight these three talented writers were presented with their certificates and prizes. Congratulations once again to all Year 6 for participating in the competition and particularly to Jack, Ali and Molly. Well done!
Celebrating our Faith - Stephanie Colvin
Prayer
Mary, our Mother, your total giving of yourself reminds us that we hold in trust from God our Father all our accomplishments and talents and gifts - trusted as we are to offer them in his service, and bring happiness and well-being to our brothers and sisters. Your “Yes” to God’s invitation to be the mother of his Son reminds us that prayer is not just words but is from the heart. We ask you to pray to Jesus for us that the Holy Spirit may live fully in us, too, so that we may pray in the way that each of us finds best. So may we be prepared to join you in saying “Yes” to God our Father, that Jesus may be born anew in our hearts. Amen.
Thank you to the school and parish community who came together today to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, Holy Day of Obligation.
Feast of the Assumption
August 15 is the day that Catholics have long celebrated what is called the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The Feast of the Assumption celebrates both the happy departure of Mary from this life by her natural death, and her assumption bodily into heaven. The Assumption is a principal feast of the Blessed Virgin and a Holy Day of Obligation -- one of the most important feasts of the Church year and why we attend Mass on this day. There is an important difference, of course, between the ascension of Jesus into Heaven after His Resurrection, and the assumption of Mary. The Assumption signals the end of Mary's earthly life and marks her return to heaven to be reunited with Jesus. While the bodies of both Jesus and Mary are now in heaven, there is a difference between the Assumption and the Resurrection. Where Jesus arose from the tomb and ascended into heaven by his own power, Mary's body was taken up to heaven by the power of her Son. For this reason, we use different words to describe each event. One is the Ascension of Christ and the other, the Assumption of Mary. The Assumption is a source of great hope for us, too, for it points the way for all followers of Christ who imitate her fidelity and obedience to God's will.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, your people, now and at the hour of our death. Amen”
Feast of St Mary of the CrossMacKillop
Last Thursday 8th August we came together to celebrate the Solemnity of Australia’s first saint, Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Thank you to those family members who joined us and Year 1 for leading us in liturgy in the church. Your artworks of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop were wonderful.
Father’s Day Liturgy
This year we will be joining in liturgy to celebrate Father’s Day. After the Father’s Day Breakfast on Friday 30th August, we encourage all fathers and family members to stay for the Father’s Day Liturgy to be held at 8:50am at the morning assembly under the COLA.
Parish Bulletin News:
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Catholic Care Community Kitchen
Catholic Care’s Community Kitchens provide hot, nutritious meals to vulnerable people in local communities across the Diocese of Maitland‐Newcastle. The success of Catholic Care’s Community Kitchens is underpinned by the generous support of local volunteers who cook and serve meals each week. It also relies on the generosity of local businesses, which donate groceries and the produce needed to provide the meals. Catholic Care is partnering with City Pastoral Region to establish a Community Kitchen. It will operate from the St Benedict’s Regional Centre at The Junction (25 Farquhar St), providing an evening meal one night a week. We are currently looking for people from the three parishes of the City Pastoral Region who might be interested in volunteering and who would like to attend an information session to learn more. Please RSVP your interest to Rebecca Swan at rswan@catholiccare.org.au
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Mini Vinnies at St Joseph’s
Annual Special Needs Mass
Term 3 Class Mass Timetable
Parents and family are warmly invited to join Parish Mass each Friday at 10:15am. The timetable below indicates when each grade will attend Parish Mass this term.
Date | Class |
30 August | Year 4 attending Mass |
6 September | Year 3 attending Mass |
13 September | Year 2 attending Mass |
20 September | Year 1 attending Mass |
27 September | Kindergarten attending Mass |
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Newcastle Inner City Catholic Community - Weekend Mass times
Sacred Heart Cathedral – Vigil Saturday 5:30pm, Sunday 9:30am and 5:00pm
St Joseph’s, The Junction – Sunday 9:00am
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Tighes Hill – Sunday 8:00am
St Mary’s, Newcastle – Sunday 7:30am
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Sporting Highlights - Nicole Charnock
Gala Days
This week is a busy week for our St Joseph’s Sports stars!
Nine teams of soccer-loving boys braved the wind last week to participate in the Soccer Gala Day at Speers Point Park. The boys showed great sportsmanship in each of their games and all teams experienced success. We had a junior team and a senior boys team who were undefeated, and some teams who did not concede a goal all day! The senior boys team1 went on to play against a team from St Therese’s New Lambton in the final and won that game comfortably.
The players were great ambassadors for our school and should be proud of how they conducted themselves. Thank you to the coaches of the junior teams: Paul Langworthy, Tim Ford, Jimmy Duffy, Lauren and Ryan Griffiths, Julian Morton, Mark Van Huisstede and to the coaches of the senior teams: Michael McGready & Maria Gindstfeld, Steven Pavlovsky and Peter Harvey. Without your assistance the gala day would not have been possible, and the teams greatly appreciated your leadership.
This Thursday, Ms McCalden took two Senior and two Junior team to the Girls Soccer Gala Day at Speers Point Park Soccer Complex, while on Friday Mr Nolan and Miss Parish are attending the Senior Touch Football Gala Day with two Senior Boys team and 2 Senior girls teams.
We wish all of our competitors well and look forward to hearing about their experiences in our next newsletter.
Diocesan Athletics
On Wednesday 7th of August, a team of 22 students attended the Diocesan Athletic Carnival at the Glendale Sports Centre. It was a great day of competition, with each of our students participating with great pride, enthusiasm and sportsmanship.
We wish to congratulate the following students who have successfully qualified for the Polding Championships, to be held on Friday 16th October at Sydney Olympic Park:
Harriet Saunders – Senior Girls Shot Put
Nina Amidy – 11 years 200 m
Angelique Douglas - 13 years 100m
Rajbir Gujral – Junior Shot Put
Leo Langworthy – Junior Long Jump
Harry Green – Senior Boys 800m
Upcoming Dates
Netball Gala Day: Tuesday 3rd September
NSW/PSSA Boys Softball: 10th-12th September
Polding Athletics: Friday 16th October
St Joseph’s Sports Committee
Book Week 2019 – Secret Powers
A fantastic celebration of books and reading
We have a great week planed for Book Week, starting with the launch of Book Week at Monday’s assembly.
Book Fair
The book fair will be set up in the library and each class will visit the fair on Monday to create a wish list that they will take home to discuss with you, or possibly grandparents, and decide on books to be purchased on Tuesday.
The fair will be opened to parents for shopping from 2pm to 3.30 pm on Monday and from 8.30am to 9.30am on Tuesday morning.
If your child is coming into the book fair during these times, please ensure they leave any bags outside as it can get very crowded.
Book Character parade
Friday is the big day and we are praying for good weather. The parade will start at 9.15am under the COLA and each student is encouraged to dress up as a favourite character from a book.
After the parade, there will be time for the students to read a book with their parents and grandparents. The morning will conclude with a morning tea for the grandparents.
Please join us.
Borrowing
Students are to return books as usual on Monday, however borrowing will not happen until Wednesday due to the book fair.
Premier’s Reading Challenge: Only 2 WEEKS to go!
2 WEEKS to complete your Reading log.
The challenge finishes on the 30th August.
These children have recently completed their challenge: Tom Alexander, Gabriel Farrow, Sunny Haywood, James Shrewsbury, Ella Wilson, Alexis Turkovic, Daniel Stone, Yasmin Fogarty, Liam Hartnett, Mia Stanger, Harriet Morton, Claudia Stapleton, Aria Ford, Mansour Haakon, Adelaide Morton, Max Stapleton, Isabelle Emmett, Domenic Papichio, Meera Sinha, Lachlan Mooney, Thomas Mooney and Myles Vickery. Great work. Well done everyone.
Happy reading
Trivia Night
On behalf of the P&F Committee, I would like to thank those who joined the blockbuster trivia night fun on Saturday 10 August 2019. Yet again the standard of costuming, theming of table decorations and the improv dance scenes were outstanding, and at times surprising! The night had movie magic, Hollywood glamour and even a spiritual awakening with Sister Act taking top honours, closely followed by Grease Lightning! It was also wonderful to have a team of teachers bringing home the Logies.
Thank you to our marvellous master of ceremonies Liam Jackson and to our super sponsor Automatic Transmission Services.
The night raised $1,901 for our school playground project. The lucky raffle winners were:
- Whale watch family cruise – Sophie Maher
- Ultimate gold class movie experience – the Chaston family
- Beerhaus (Rockpool Dining Group) voucher – Megan Williams
- Westfield Voucher – Abby Booth
Closing credits
Rebecca and Ian Vickery - stage and set design
Thomas and Lachlan Mooney – visual effects and technical support
Traci Flynn - cinematography
Cheree Flanagan - production management
Thanks team!
Katy Mooney
Thank you
The P & F Committee and the parents of St Joseph's would like to thank Katy Mooney for another successful Trivia Night. You're commitment and expertese is greatly appreciated.
Term Planner - Term 3
St Joseph's Primary School Fundraising Ball
Entertainment Book
Uniform Price List
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