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Dear families and community members,
Today is World Environment Day!!
And winter is upon us! I hope you enjoyed being snuggled up with a good book and a warm drink over the weekend. Perhaps the children were lucky enough to play in a puddle or 2! I love the quote: ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing’ Alfred Wainwright.
The students love to be in the rain and play in wet sand no matter what the weather. Being in nature brings an appreciation of our natural world and in turn a desire to care for it. On this World Environment Day, it is a great opportunity to make a change to help our planet. Begin recycling plastic, give up glad wrap or alfoil, plant a tree or make a commitment to being in the outdoors with your children.
At St Joseph’s School, we are building our commitment to becoming more environmentally aware and protectors of our Earth in our learning and in our actions.
Let’s start today… You can help us by recycling your old metal pots, pans, trays etc for us to use to play in the sand pit.
Catholic School Parents SA
This week I was excited to meet the new Executive Officer, Trish Jarvis and hear about the new website! What a great resource for parents. The Catholic School Parents SA has changed, and the ‘new organisation’ brings new opportunities especially since parents have had limited involvement since COVID. The organisation's aim is to advocate and support parents, families, and carers of children in Catholic schools. Our Parents are Friends are up and running, having great success already with the election BBQ and the disco! Thank you for Lucy and your team of parents for organising these events.
https://cspsa.catholic.edu.au/home
Uniform
A few reminders regarding our winter uniform:
- Knee-high navy winter socks or tights are to be worn with our skirt or pinafore(R-2)
- White sports socks
- Scrunchies and hair ties need to be in the same colours as our school uniform
No black tights, or coloured hair items
COVID
- Please continue to inform the school if your child has COVID. We are still required to report cases and will inform parents if there are 5 or more cases in a class.
Kindest regards,
Jodie Higgins
Principal
Hello families,
What a fun-filled night our Disco was. The kids had an absolute blast dancing the night away. Thank you to Makella Holden and Belinda Fox for ensuring the night was a huge success. The rainbow garland was a huge highlight and set the scene as the kids walked through the door.
Reconciliation Week
Reconciliation Week is an important opportunity to have open conversations about our past, present, and future. Sporting teams across Australia all celebrate a 'First Nations' round; why? Sport is a great way for people to come together. when you are part of a team it doesn't matter who you are, you are all working together to achieve the same outcome. It was great to hear from the students how they celebrated this round within their own sporting clubs and communities.
Election BBQ
Coming from a large family, that community spirit where everyone helps out is an important part of my family and our traditions. Since my first day here at St Joseph's I have felt that same community spirit. From the warm welcomes at the school gate to the conversations had with many different families, people from St Joseph's have gone out of their way to make sure I have felt welcomed and part of the St Joseph's community.
The community spirit was in full swing when with very little notice our Parents & Friends joined forces with our classroom Parent Representatives to organise enough volunteers to cook and serve at the Election Day BBQ. However, as we are St Joseph's we not only were able to have people donate their time but people from across the community also donated all the items that were for sale at the BBQ. This ensured that 100% of the profits raised went directly to the school community. To top all this off, on Monday the P & F were able to organise two special Tuck lunches that week so that the extra bread, sausages, and sweets did not go to waste. What an amazing feat. I feel so lucky to be part of such a generous and friendly community.
Have a great week.
Emma Fowler
Deputy Principal
On Thursday 2nd June our 5/6 team competed in the first round of the SAPSASA Netball Knockout carnival hosted by Clapham Primary School. The team consisted of Emily Daunt, Claire Daunt, Cashmere Lea, Lilia Warner, Asha O’Brien, Arabella Waller, Darcey Heynen, Sienna Szymaniak, Emily Cooke and Elka Sobieraj.
With fantastic wins across all three games, the team will now progress to the next round. The results were:
St Joseph’s vs. Our Lady of Grace (42-15)
St Joseph’s vs. Clapham Primary (50-8)
St Joseph’s vs. Ascot Park (54-0)
Thank you to our umpire Emily Casey and our scorer Greg Szymaniak. Thank you also to the parents who were able to come and support the girls and brave the cold! Stay tuned for the round two results in the coming months.
Mrs Stephanie McNeil
Coach
Chess is an excellent way to develop students strategic thinking skills. Every Thursday at lunch time students participate in a coaching lesson run by Chess SA. Each lesson students learn particular skills, strategies and moves to help them improve the game.
The focus being on improving thinking skills such as problem solving, memory, critical thinking, analysis, decision making, concentration, visualisation, creative thinking and more. Every week students play tournament games, matching players of equal ability to play against each other, ensuring close matches every time.
During week 4 of this term, Year 5 experienced their first excursion and camp for the year visiting Wirraway Homestead (which means ‘challenge’ in Kaurna language) in Strathalbyn. The camp provides an opportunity for students to learn new skills, build new relationships and experience a different way of life for three days and two nights.
Activities included;
- Horse riding
- Low Ropes course
- Archery
- Sheep mustering
- Shelter building
- Campfire
- Amazing race
- Bushwalking and more!
Here are some highlights from the students:
“The year 5 camp is something to remember. Picture this: 2 nights away in the country on a farm with horses, sheep, goats, and lots of activities. The camp was at Wirraway, it's the kind of camp where you stay in dorms and bunk beds. Out the window, you can see 2 friendly goats, who like a good pat, called Anchovy and little stubby Rosemary. Not to forget the stable down the path that is full of friendly horses. Each day they set up with a challenge such as horseshoe puzzles, which we could practise in our free time. One of my favourite things to do was take care of the horses. Not only did we get to ride them, but we also got to brush and feed them. Their manes are perfect for braiding and they are always so calm ready to be brushed. Although of course horse riding was also very cool. We walked around the arena on horseback and we even got to trot! They taught us some awesome skills such as a doughnut, semicircle, starting, stopping, and turning both ways. All this time with the horses made us feel comfortable and happy around them.”
By Ada Cother
“My favourite highlight would be Archery. My group (Nic’s group) had archery on our first day and as our first activity! So that’s a lot of excitement for just the start of our camp! We were introduced to one of the staff members named Hamish. He took us down to one of the many out-of-bounds gates and we walked down the hill. Once we arrived at the sight, Hamish taught us the rules of archery and how to set up a bow and arrow and showed us how to shoot. We had many rounds and competitions of shooting. Unfortunately, I didn’t shoot any targets but that’s only because I didn’t aim for the easy targets. Other people were luckier, such as Isla, who hit a target and got a “worm” (a piece of foam driven out of the target by the arrow) and it is well known that Sienna hit the can, which if hit, your instructor MUST buy you a free soft drink. Archery was extremely fun, and I would love to do it again. And all those in the younger years, you will have a brilliant time at Wirraway.”
By Emma Batley
“My favourite highlights of camp were Horse Riding and Sheep Herding. In horse riding, there is two sections one up close brushing and patting the horse, the other riding on the horse. We got to learn how to approach the horse, get on and off the horse, how to get around the horse by being safe, how to turn left and right while riding the horse, how to walk with the horse and how to trot with the horse. I liked horse riding because it was a new and exciting thing that I’ve never tried, until now! Sheep Herding was our first exciting activity at camp! We had a staff member called (Bec) to demonstrate and show us how to handle the sheep. To get the sheep in the pen we had to work together as a team. Sheep like staying as one group so we needed to find out a strategy, so we formed a wall to keep the sheep together J. Sheep herding was one of my favourite activities because it pushed our limits and challenged us to figure it out.”
By Melody Grieve
“For camp, we went to Wirraway and it was so cool! Our dorm was called the Squatters and I shared a dorm with Emma, Melody, Kiara, and Piper. Here are my 3 favourite things about camp. The first one is horse riding. I got to ride a horse called Hope and she was so cute but a bit cheeky. The second one is Archery. It was pretty hard at the start but then I hit one of the best targets and I won a foamy (which is made out of foam). The third one is sheep herding, it was my first time doing it and it was tricky but fun, all the sheep were so cute! I think camp was so fun because there were really fun activities, yummy meals, fun games we played and very kind staff. What was also very fun was the campfire we had, the campfire was so peaceful and relaxing. It was the best 2 nights ever! BTW we had the tidiest dorm and we got the most points according to those spy marks (who went into people’s dorms to see which dorm is the tidiest) and we won!”
By Isla Holden
Thank you to the staff at Wirraway for providing an unforgettable experience and many fun memories. We look forward to more excursions later this year!
Ms Sasha Khammash, Mr Josh Bennett, Ms Kirstie Wicks and Ms McNeil
Year 5/6 Teachers
Congratulations to the Emily Daunt, Claire Daunt and Arabella Waller in their selection in the City South/Southern Heights Swimming team.
The girls participated at Marion Pool and had some excellent results:
Emily Daunt
1st 50 m Butterfly
1st 50m Freestyle
2nd 50m Breastroke
3rd 200m Freestyle
Claire Daunt
13th 50m Backstroke
6th 200m Freestyle
Arabella Waller
7th 100m Freestyle
3rd 200m Freestyle
Congratulations to Emily Daunt on her selection in State 12 Years and Under Swimming team that will compete in Brisbane in August.
We wish Emily the best of luck!
What a fantastic start we have made with our brand new percussion ensemble- learning rhythms to words like ‘hot dog sausage rolls hot dog’.
Head of Music
After lots of vocal and body warm-ups on such a chilly morning, the junior choir were belting out beautiful songs such as “My Island Home” and “The Greatest Show”.
Thank you for your support in getting your child on time to choir as every minute is precious. As you can see in the photos we have many choral members who are having lots of fun.
Junior choir is open to all year 3 and year 4 students in the Multi-purpose room on Friday mornings at 8:30 am
