21st March, Week 8, Term 1

From Our Principal - Mr Brendan Moloney

Dear Families,

We had a fantastic celebration for St Joseph’s Day on Tuesday. The celebrations started with our Mass before we returned to school for lunch followed by lots of fun with dancing and water activities.

It was also wonderful for us to welcome St Joseph’s, Woodburn for the celebrations, looking at the photos everyone had a BLAST!

Thank you to all those who worked so hard to make this the enjoyable day that it was.

Reconciliation

Congratulations to Jack, Blake, Sam, Chase & Maxx who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation earlier this week. These chilsren will now look forward to completing their final Sacrament of Inititiation, First Eucharist.

NAPLAN

Congratulations to our Year 3 and Year 5 students who have undertaken their NAPLAN assessments over the last week or so. The teachers have been very impressed with the focus of these students as they listened carefully to instructions and completed each of the assessments (Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy), carefully reading instructions and answering all the questions. WELL DONE!

EASTER Celebrations

As we move closer to the Easter Weekend we look forward to our school Easter celebrations. These will include our Holy Week activities as well as our annual Easter Hat Parade where we will welcome the Pre-school and the Play Group for the parade. We would love for you to join us for this event.

School Cross Country

Friday 5^th April will see us complete our School Cross Country event. We look forward to welcoming St Joseph’s Alstonville who will join us for this event. We again welcome you to join us for this day.

God Bless,

Brendan Moloney

Student Awards Week 7

Mission News

Lent- Gospel Reflection

As we approach the beginning of Holy week, it is important to take some time to reflect on Lent and our preparation for Easter. 

Palm Sunday is the sixth Sunday of Lent and marks Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, Holy Week, is the most sacred time of year. During this special time, we enter into the passion of Christ — his crucifixion, death and resurrection — through liturgical celebration and personal conversion. While the season of Lent is a very important time in the Church, it is helpful to remember that our Lenten practices (prayer, fasting and almsgiving) are meant as preparation for the three days of the Triduum.

The three days of the Triduum are counted as the Hebrews counted their days, from dusk to dusk. Lent officially ends and the Triduum begins at dusk on Holy Thursday and continues through dusk on Easter Sunday. Because we cannot separate Jesus’ death from his resurrection, the Church teaches that the Triduum is really one celebration that lasts for three days. However, in the liturgy, each day has its unique qualities and different focuses.

Saint Joseph’s Day

We gathered together with Saint Joseph’s School Woodburn on March 19th to celebrate Saint Joseph’s Day. Joseph is the Patron Saint of our schools. We had a wonderful day beginning with Mass and then students participated in some fun activities to build the relationship between our two schools. We thank our friends from Saint Joseph’s Woodburn for joining us for a wonderful day of prayer and fun. We thank our Regional Ministry Officers Oliver and Eliza for their fantastic work in organising one of our group activities. Thank you also to Mrs Verrall and Mrs Ianna for their hard work in preparing lunch for the students and adults for this day. 

Joseph is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days. The month of March is dedicated to Saint Joseph. Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. 

Shoe Drive

In line with our preparation for Lent, we are currently running a shoe drive! If you have any shoes at home that you have grown out of that are still in good condition please bring them into the school office. These will be donated to St Vinnies to support their wonderful work. 

Sacrament of Confirmation

Students who have been Baptised and are in year 3 or above are eligible to begin preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Please let Mrs Campbell know if you wish for your child to participate. 

Sacrament of Penance

Congratulations Jack, Blake, Sam, Chase and Maxx ion the reception of  the Sacrament of Reconciliation on March 18th.

Save the Date

Palm Sunday Mass 9:15 March 24th @ St Joseph’s Church Coraki

Holy Thursday Mass 5:30pm March 28th @ St Joseph’s Church Coraki

Good Friday Service 3pm @ Evans Head

Easter Saturday Vigil 5 pm @ Evans Head

Easter Sunday Mass 9:15am @ St Joseph’s Church Coraki

Catholic Schools Week Celebration Friday April 12

Sacrament of Confirmation Monday May 20th 6pm

St Joseph's Day 2024

St Joseph’s Woodburn school came on St Joseph’s day.

The activities were a disco party, games with Ollie and Eliza, slip and slide,water guns and water balloons. My favourite part of the day was the water guns.

I felt happy about the day.

Sam 

St Joseph’s day was so fun especially because we had St  Joseph’s Woodburn to spend it with. Thank you to all the teachers from St Joseph’s Coraki and St Joseph’s Woodburn. At the start of the day we went to mass and then we came back and started our rotations. We played some fun games that Oliver and Eliza organised.We played 3 fun games called whoop, carpenter clump and rock paper scissors and we also did a big disco in the handball squares and we had Mr Brad who did some water related activities then we did a big water slide down the soccer field. 

Philippa 

I had fun on the water slide, disco party, water gun fight  and water balloons. It was fun having  St Joseph’s  Woodburn here.

Taylor

The slide was fun and the water gun was fun too. The dance party was fun too.

Tye 

My favourite thing about St Joseph’s day was the slip and slide

AJ

My favourite thing about St Joseph’s day was the slide because I got to do it with lots of other kids and I like sliding.

Alia

Sports News

Cross Country Friday 5th April.

Alstonville arrival approximately 10am. (Windsor Park, Coraki).

Walk the course / set up school areas and fruit break.

10.40am - 10 years*

11.00am - 9 years

11.20am - 8 years

11.40am - 11 years

12.10pm - 12 years

Return to St Joseph’s Coraki for lunch and play. (Approximately 12.45pm)

Alstonville depart approximately 1.30pm.

5 -7 year olds (to be held at school).

Alstonville arrival approximately 10am.

Fruit break - 10-10.20am

10.20am - 7 years 

10.50am - 6 years

11.20am - 5 years

11.40am - lunch and play in the school playground.

12.20pm - return to classrooms.

Stage 3 News

In Stage 3 we are currently learning about our solar system as part of our science unit. On Friday we began a design and make task where we are building a solar oven to conduct tests on the power of the Sun - providing heat. This Friday we will test our designs by measuring the internal temperature of the ovens with a thermometer and will attempt to melt things like chocolate and marshmallows. The students will get the chance to alter their design and re-test if they wish too to see if they can improve their results. We will include some photos and a report of our testing in the next newsletter.

General Business

Happy Birthday to the following who have celebrated their birthday since our last newsletter: 

Aialah Kapeen, Taylor Williams

P&F & Canteen News

P& F Easter Raffle

Raffle Tickets need to be returned ASAP. Easter Raffle will be drawn following the Easter Hat Parade on Thursday 28th March.

Hot Dog Lunch Packs are available to order for $5.00. These must be pre ordered and orders need to be placed by Monday 25th March. This is a special canteen menu and no other canteen items will be available.