21st November, Week 6, Term 4

From Our Principal - Mr Brendan Moloney

Dear Families,

As communicated this week, I have been appointed as the Acting Principal for Our Lady Help of Christians, South Lismore for the 2025 school year. We are very fortunate to have Mrs Kristie Coster who has been appointed as Acting Principal of St Joseph’s during this time. Kristie has joined us today and will spend the remainder of this year with us as part of her preparation for next year, getting to know our school and its community. Please take the opportunity to introduce yourself to Kristie.

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. Jesus, our King, will tell us how he would like us to live. Today Jesus tells us that he is a King and that he is also a Shepherd. The Feast of Christ the King concludes the Church's liturgical year. The year ends on a real high point and celebrates the Kingdom of God in all its richness before beginning the new Liturgical year with the reflective and penitential season of Advent.

We invite you to join us for our Mass for the feast of Christ the King on Friday at 9.30am. This Mass is being led by our Kindergarten students.

2025 Enrolments K-6

Class numbers are an important component of this planning process for 2025. If you know of families who are considering enrolling at St Joseph’s, we ask you to get them to come in and have a look. This will provide them the opportunity to look around, ask questions and get a feel for the wonderfully supportive learning environment that we have here. Currently, we have availability in all our classes.

Water Safety Day

Tuesday afternoon we had a visit from Surf Life Saving NSW who talked to our students about water safety. Next week we will be holding our Water Safety Day at Evan’s Head. Living in a rural community it is so important to educate our children of the hazards of water areas, not just the beach but rivers and dams etc… We encourage all our children to stop and think before they enter any water to ensure their safety and to never swim alone.

End of Year Dates

Please be aware of the dates that we have in our calendar and published in the newsletter. The last day for students for the 2024 school year will be Wednesday 18^th December.

OSHC Service

We have made the difficult decision not to continue to provide care for pre-school-age children. This decision has been made considering a number of factors including, the difficulty of staffing our service with the appropriately qualified Early Childhood Staff. We hope that families understand this decision.

Keep an eye out for the flyer with dates and activities for our OSHC Vacation Care period. The service will be available throughout the holidays except the two-week closed period over Christmas and New Years, from Monday 23^rd Dec to Friday 3^rd Jan.

God Bless,

Brendan Moloney

Mission News

Gospel Reflection

This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year. On this Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Each year we set aside this Sunday to reflect upon this title that we have given to Jesus. In John’s Gospel, Pilate is shown in a more favourable light than in the other Gospels. In today’s reading, we hear one of two dialogues between Jesus and Pilate that are reported in John’s Gospel. Pilate questions Jesus about the charges brought against him. Caiaphas and the high priests have charged Jesus with a political crime, one that would require a punishment of death. Pilate distances himself from the Jewish leaders who accuse Jesus; he is not a Jew, and he seems to want little to do with this Jewish affair.

https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/liturgical-year/sunday-connection/ 

Prayer

In the next fortnight we also enter the Season of Advent. 

Dear Lord, 

please allow me to embrace Advent in the way the Church intends: 

as a way to prepare for Your arrival. 

May everything I do–

every gift I send, 

every party I attend, 

every meal I share–

remind me to prepare space in my heart for You. 

Amen.

St Vinnies Christmas Appeal

St Vincent de Paul have agin launched their Christmas Appeal. We have a couple of different strategies this year to support. Information about the Ice Block fundraiser and hamper drive are attached. 

Save the Date

Friday November 22, 9:30am- Mass for the Feast of Christ the King

Monday December 9, 9:30am- End of Year Mass

Monday December 16, 5:30pm- Year 6 Graduation Mass

Sports News

Diocesan Touch Football trials
Congratulations to Kyden Bolt from Stage 3 for being selected in the Richmond Zone Touch Football squad. Kyden performed brilliantly in a highly competitive trial to gain selection. He will now participate in the Lismore Diocesan trials at Hepburn Park on Thursday of Week 8. We wish Kyden the best of luck at these trials.

Water Safety Day - Thursday 28th November Evans Head 

Children will be transported by bus to and from Each Student will need to bring their swimmers, rashie, towel etc to change into at the pool.  Students will be grouped based upon their swimming experience and teachers will lead them in appropriate water safety activities for their swimming level. Permission and $10 payment can be made via Compass.

On Tuesday we had a visit from Surf Life Saving to talk to the students about water safety at the beach.

Library News

Christmas is coming! Books will be on display next week to begin borrowing and just a reminder, library days are as follows:

Monday -Stage 1/Stage 2          Wednesday - Kinder         Thursday - Stage 3    

Enjoy your week!     

                                                  Mrs Verrall

General Business

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

Tokobi Tucker

P&F & Canteen News

Christmas Carol Night, Thursday 12th December

We will be holding a raffle as part of our upcoming Carols evening and we are requesting donations of items to be used for the raffle. If you know of any businesses that would like to help out, please reach out and a letter can be provided to support the donation request. 

Raffle tickets are attached to the newsletter and need to be returned Monday 9th Dec. Tickets will also be available to purchase on the night. 

Mango Fundraiser

The crops have matured earlier than expected, which will bring forward our Mango delivery to the week commencing 2nd December.  Communication will be sent once the mangoes have been dispatched.