4th July, Week 10, Term 2

From Our Principal - Mr Brendan Moloney

Dear Families,

Thank you for your wonderful support of our school community as we have navigated Term 2. This term it has been pleasing to see the improved school attendance figures, I pray that this improvement continues next term. School attendance is compulsory with all students aiming for an attendance percentage of 95% or above, many of our students are below this target! We need to continue to work hard to achieve this and acknowledge the wonderful effort of those students who have also reached this target. Congratulations to the following students who have an attendance percentage for the year of 95% or above.

Kaitlyn, Blake, Braxton, Paige

William, Philippa, Noah, Jack

Kelsi, Alia, Indie, Leo & Ashar

Welcome Mr Irvine

It was wonderful to welcome Mr Irvine on Monday of this week, he will be Acting Principal while I am on leave. He had the opportunity to spend some time in our classrooms and start to get to know our students. I am sure you will all make him feel very welcome, I encourage you to take the time to come up and introduce yourselves. Following is a welcome introduction from Mr. Irvine telling us a little about him and his family.

Dear St Joseph's Community,

I am thrilled to introduce myself as your Acting Principal for Term 3 of 2024. My name is Sam Irvine, and I am very excited to be joining your wonderful community in a few weeks. I am deeply passionate about helping all students achieve their Fullness of Life. Whether it's through academic support, social-emotional growth, sports, wellbeing, or faith development, my goal is to ensure every student feels valued and empowered. I believe in the strength of community collaboration and am dedicated to working closely with parents and local organisations to create the best possible outcomes for our students. In my role, I truly value the input and feedback from parents and am passionate about working alongside you to help your children achieve and prosper.

I have been a part of the St Mary's Primary Casino family for the past 14 years, serving as Assistant Principal for the last five years, with four of those years as Assistant Principal Mission. Having grown up in Casino and lived in the Richmond Valley area all my life, I feel a strong connection to this community. I am supported by my wonderful wife Kristie and our two boys, Finn and Nash. In my spare time, I enjoy cheering for the Parramatta Eels and NSW in rugby league (not much cheering recently to be honest), fishing, and camping. 

My goal for my time at St Joseph's is to build on the strong foundation already in place and to continue to maintain a supportive and thriving environment where every child can excel. I would love to get to know as many families as possible and would warmly invite you to reach out or come and have a chat when you get the chance. I am very excited to meet all of the students, staff and parents next term and continue to work together to make this a wonderful experience for the kids at St Joseph’s. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences and School Reports

TERM 3

Please note that first day of Term 3 is a Staff Development Day, this being Monday 22^nd July. Students will return for the start of the new school term on Tuesday 23^rd July.

Should you require care for your child/ren our OSHC service will be available. Please contact us on the OSHC mobile 0438 469 354 to make a booking.

COLA

After what seems to have been a very long time our Covered Outdoor Learning Area is booked in to be constructed during the first week of the holidays. This will provide additional shade over our synthetic grass area.

This project is due to the support of our P&F and families who have been supporting our fund raising efforts to enable this to be completed. We thank our P&F and all our families who have contributed via our fundraising efforts to this project.

NAIDOC Events Term 3

As communicated to you the planned NAIDOC events for this week had to be postponed due to the unfavourable weather. We will keep you up to date with the adjusted plans early next term.

NAIDIC Week will take place during the upcoming school holidays. Plans are in place for us to come together with Coraki Public School and the Coraki CWA Preschool to celebrate this event. It is fantastic that we are able to come together to acknowledge such events as a community. We will have more information regarding these events soon. I encourage families to come along and join in.

School Athletics Carnival Friday 28^th

Congratulations to all our students for their wonderful participation at our Athletics Carnival. Everyone had a fantastic day, it was also great that we had a strong showing of families present to support this event.

We must thank St Joseph’s Alstonville for hosting this event as well as Mr Maslen & Miss MacDonald for their hard work in organising the event, along with all those who helped to make it successful.

Zone Athletics

This is to be held on the 1^st of August, those students who have made the school team for this event will be provided the necessary information soon. If you have any questions please contact Mr Maslen.

God Bless,

Brendan Moloney

Mission News

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

In this week’s Gospel, we learn some interesting details about Jesus and his early life. Jesus’ kinfolk know him to be a carpenter, an artisan who works in wood, stone, and metal. He probably learned this trade from his father. Family members of Jesus are also named. Mark describes Jesus as the son of Mary, which is an unusual designation. Adult males were more typically identified with the name of their fathers. 

Sacrament of First Eucharist 2024

Next Term we will begin to prepare for eligible students to receive the Sacrament of First Eucharist. This is the final Sacrament of initiation in the Catholic Church. Students who have completed the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Reconciliation are able to participate. Keep an eye out for information at the beginning of next Term!

Save the Date

July 5th 930 Whole school Mass lead by Stage 3

15th August Feast of the Assumption

29th August Father’s Day Liturgy

15th September Sacrament of First Eucharist

20th September End of Term Mass

Sports News

Athletics Carnival 

On Friday the 28/6/24 our school went to Geoff Watt Oval, Alstonville to join St Joeys Alstonville at their athletics carnival, on a bus. 

There was 7 groups (one for every year level), and each group had one teacher to walk them around. There was also 7 events, High jump, Long jump, 100m, 200m, Indigenous games, shot put, Novelty relays and relays. For the Indigenous games we did a bean bag toss and bull rush but you can only walk. For the novelty relays we did a sack race, jumping over hurdles and then crawling back under them, normal relays and just jumping over the hurdles. For the relays we had 4 teams, a Junior Girls, Junior Boys, Senior Girls and Senior boys. There were 4 people on each team and they each ran 100m. They picked the top 4 speeds for the 100m sprints to pick the teams.

My favourite was probably the long jump because we got heaps of turns and my least favourite was high jump. In the 100m I came third and in the 200m I came tied for third. The order my group did the events was, Indigenous games, shot put, 100m, 200m, high jump, break, long jump, novelty relays and relays.

I thought that the athletics carnival was really fun because we got to make new friends and compete against each other. Lastly, a big thanks to all the teachers who helped with the events, and St Joseph’s Alstonville for inviting us to do the athletics carnival with them. 

By Maddy

On Friday 28/6/24 

On Friday we went to Alstonville and had a great day. Where we went was Geoff Watt Oval and joined in with St Joseph’s Alstonville.

We were organised into our age groups and waited for instructions. When they told us to move to our activity we went with Alstonville to our first activity. The first activity was Indigenous games. There were lots of fun games like walking bullrush and bean bag toss.

Next we did shot put but it wasn't competitive and then we did 100m and then we did high jump and then 200m and then we had a break. When we had a break we just sat down and had a little something to eat. After we had something to eat we did novelty relays in which we did sack races, relays and hurdle races. Then we did long jumps and then at the end of the day we did relays which was really fun. I didn't get to go in it but I was still cheering on the people who were running.

In my opinion high jump was my favourite. The rest were good but the high jump just stood out to me. The bus ride home was very loud but I just looked out of the window and tried to go to sleep. When we got back to school we went and lined up in my home line with my brothers then I went home and had a little nap.

It was really fun to hang out with the Alstonville kids and to get to know them better we better give a huge thanks to St Joseph's Alstonville for letting us come and to Will for being our leader for that day. 

By Paige

Kinder News

Kinders dress up for Science 
To conclude our study of the seasons, Kinder was tasked with designing and making winter clothing.  Students used butchers paper and tape to ‘dress’ their friends in warm, comfortable clothing, which could prevent frost bite in the Antarctic.  Students enjoyed the task and could clearly describe the features of their garments. Watch out Gucci and Dior as Kinder Fashions are the next big thing in Vogue. 

 Mr Farr

Library News

BOOK WEEK IS COMING! 

 Book Week Parade date is 21 August 10am.

Book Fair is always a great way for us to buy books for our library so if your child is able to purchase a book,         it would be appreciated.

Start thinking of your costumes!

Have a wonderful Holiday

Mrs Verrall

General Business

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

Katie Eastwood, Maddy Eastwood, Indie Verrall

P&F & Canteen News

There will be no Canteen tomorrow, Friday 5th July.

We are seeking Canteen Volunteers for Term 3, mainly for a Wednesday. If you are able to help out please contact the school office 66 832248