Week 6, Term 2 2023

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We are now half way through Term 2 and there are still so many amazing things to look forward to before the term ends.

Sacramental Program

Recently, a number of our Year 4 students have undertaken their Sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. The Sacramental program provides a very special opportunity for students to help nourish, strengthen and express their faith. On behalf of the school, I would like to thank Father Chris, the Norwood Parish Sacramental team and our APRIM Mrs Vassallo-Wakefield for their incredible leadership of the students through the Sacramental program.

Scholastic Book Fair

This week our whole school has been immersed in the return of the school Book Fair. The children have enjoyed the opportunities to look at and purchase a range of new books. Thank you to our school Librarian Mrs Moore who has organised the event for the school.

Lacrosse Carnival

Last Thursday, 58 of our students from years 4-6 participated in the SACPSSA Lacrosse Carnival. The students had a wonderful day playing games against schools with great success and teamwork. Thank you to the teachers who organised the event and for the parent volunteers who assisted in making the day successful for all the students.

Mid-Year Reception Transition

Thursday, we held the first transition morning for students who will be commencing in Term 3 of this year. Their teacher, Mrs Cathy Haddad, was delighted to meet the students and families. We are looking forward to seeing the students return for their next two visits in the coming weeks.

School Reports

As you know we are moving to a new Student Reporting System that will be somewhat consistent across CESA. The new report will provide an A-E grade for the nine subject areas. The school reports will be emailed to parents, so please ensure you have provided the your updated email addresses to the school.

Each of nine subject areas will also indicate a student’s “Approach to Learning” (Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Inconsistent).

The next section will indicate a student’s “Learner disposition” (Resilience, Leadership, Organisation, Persistence and Collaboration).

Extra-curricular activities that the student has been involved in will be listed.

The report will conclude with a general comment from the teacher.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the school.

Thank you,

Adam Slater

Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers

On Sunday we celebrated the Feast of The Holy Trinity.

God is a love relationship!

The Father loves the Son and Jesus loves the Father and from their love the Holy Spirit bursts forth to give life to the world.  The love between them is so strong, even though each is a unique and individual divine person, they act as one.

Trinity Prayer:

Try praying to each person of the Trinity…

Give praise and thanks to the Father; ask forgiveness for your wrong doings from the Son; request help from the Holy Spirit, the source of grace.

Sacraments of Initiation

Over the past week, students from St Joseph’s Memorial School celebrated and became fully initiated members of our Catholic Community.

Fr Chris Jenkins officiated at the Confirmation on Thursday night and then the following Sunday afternoon when students received Communion for the very first time. This completed the initiation process which began when most of the students were presented to the be baptised by their parents when they were babies.

Pope Francis refers to the Eucharist as a gift.  He reminds us about how important the Eucharist is to our faith journey.  He encourages us to receive the Eucharist as a family as often as possible if we are so disposed and in the state of grace.

Congratulations to:

Aidan, Max, Sam, Henry, Christian, Maddison, Morrison, Valerie, Harriet, Olivia, Mila and Brooke.

Over the past 2 years, Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) schools have been transitioning to a new online platform for teaching and learning purposes called SEQTA. This new platform has allowed teachers to collaborate with each other and with CESA curriculum leaders to develop teaching and learning experiences that allow all students to achieve success and be assessed authentically against the Australian Curriculum. This new platform will also be utilised for reporting purposes across all CESA schools this year. 

The information that will be contained in the report is a summary of your child’s achievements to date. Formal reports will be provided twice a year, once after the first semester to reflect achievements from Semester 1, and again at the end of the year to reflect achievements across the year. These reports are one of a number of ways in which we communicate your child’s achievements and approaches to learning across different curriculum areas. Reporting provides an opportunity for students, families, and teachers to maintain authentic learning conversations and partnership. 

Students will be graded on an A – E scale for each of the eight Australian Curriculum learning areas, in addition to Religious Education, on their achievement against the achievement standard for their year level. In some cases, students may be assessed against an alternative achievement standard if they have been identified with diverse learning needs. The A – E grading scale are as follows:

Students in Reception do not receive A – E grading and therefore will have their achievements assessed and reported on differently. Reception students will be reported as Working Towards Achievement Standard, Working At Achievement Standard, or Working Beyond Achievement Standard.

A copy of what the reports will look like has been attached below:

These reports will be send out electronically to the email addresses you have provided to the school. Please ensure your contact email is up to date and will allow emails to be received from the school. Paper copy reporting can be provided upon request. After the reporting cycle, parents can ask the school to provide you with information that clearly shows your child’s achievement in the subject studied in comparison to that of other children in the same peer group at the school. This information will show the number of students achieving in each of the achievement levels A – E for a specified subject.

If you have any questions about our new format of assessing and reporting, please speak to your child’s classroom teacher or a member of the Leadership Team.

The start of this term has been going well. As the school's Student Leaders, we have a couple things to share with you about what we have been doing in each subject:

Performing Arts

This term we stated performing arts this term we will be acting out Mary Mackillop’s early life. We had recently written a script in English about her early life which will be acting out. Mrs Williams will take some information from each of our scripts and put it in a play to the whole school musical. The students are very excited about this.

Humanities and Social Sciences

In HASS We have an assignment about why should Western Australia join Federation. One of the questions was, “Why was Western Australia reluctant to join Federation?' We had to research reasons and put them in our words. We also had to design two mini posters about Western Australia joining the federation.

Science

We have started learning about our earth and our solar system. We have watched a video about our solar system and we had to write down notes about what we learnt about in that video. We wrote down important information such as 'How the sun was made, how many kilometres it Is away from earth and what are the ice and gas giants'.

Physical Education

We have started learning and playing badminton. We get to partner up with a friend and try to get a rally. We also had a lacrosse carnival in week 5 which we practiced in term 1.

Mathematics

We have been learning about solving fraction problems. We have had to add and subtract and get an answer to the equations. We had to get the lowest common denominator and times the numerator to get the answer.

Sports day banner and chants

In preparation for sports day this year, all of year 6 students have been working on banners and chants. The main characters in each team are Winnie the Pooh for Tappiener, Luigi for Joseph, Red Toad for Mackillop and Blue Toad for Woods.

Book Fair

This week Mrs Moore has opened a shop for the school Book Fair. There are lots of things to buy including posters, Rubix cubes, books stationary etc. She opened it to make kids more interested in books and too raise money for the school to purchase more books for the students to read.

Our Vacation Care program has been finalised.

It is wonderful that we have booked an excursion to the Hahndorf Farm Barn.

If you would like to book your child in, please contact the service on 0432 829 979 or email oshc@sjms.catholic.edu.au

Here is the program:

It is a government requirement for all schools to participate annually in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).

The NCCD collects data about school students with disability who are receiving adjustments across Australia in a consistent, reliable and systematic way. It enables schools, education authorities and governments to better understand the needs of students with disability and how they can be best supported at school (www.nccd.edu.au).

Information gathered is used:

• as an evidence base, to give teachers, schools and sectors information about students with disability and the level of educational adjustment being provided
• to inform policy development and future planning to better equip schools and education authorities to support students with disability
• to improve understanding of the requirements and responsibilities of school teams and the broader community under the DDA and the Standards
• to capture the work of schools under the obligations of the DDA and the Standards, allowing students with disability to access and participate in education on the same basis as other students
• to highlight the individual needs of each student with disability by focusing on the level of educational support provided to them at school (www.nccd.edu.au).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive

Students’ personal details are de-identified as a part of the data collection. Please contact Inclusive Education Coordinator Toni Benci (tonib@sjms.catholic.edu.au) if you have any questions about the NCCD.

More information is available on the following website: https://www.nccd.edu.au/ 

Congratulations Liam Harris winning the Under 11 Baseball Grand Final with Kensington. Best and Fairest, 2nd in League medal, and now selected in the Adelaide Marlins Charter Development Team for Under 13.  Well Done!

We would like to inform you of the dates for Pupil Free Days (PFD) for this year. Please note that OSHC will be available for families that require this service on these days.

• Friday 7 July 2023
• Monday 24 July 2023
• Monday 16 October 2023
• Thursday 14 December 2023
• Friday 15 December 2023

We are trialing a new Assembly format for the year.

In Term 1 to Term 3 we will have 3 Assemblies per term and in Term 4, 2 Assemblies. All Assemblies will be held in the Performing Arts Studio at William St on Friday afternoons at 2pm.

Students from Bridge Street will walk across to William Street to participate in Assemblies, face to face.

Term 2

9 June - Year 1B Assembly
30 June - Year 4B Assembly

Term 3
11 August - Preschool Assembly
1 September - Reception Assembly
22 September - Year 2/3B Assembly

Term 4
10 November - Year 2/3G Assembly
1 December - Mid-Year Reception Assembly

We will ask for help from our wonderful parents and caregivers to help walk the Bridge Street students across on these dates. Please look out for the form on Skoolbag, next week.

Please remember to check the school calendar regularly for any updates.

Come see our Preschool in action, contact us for a tour or enrolment information.

St Joseph's Memorial School provides a safe environment for all while valuing the partnership between school and home.

As a Catholic community, we welcome and value volunteers. To be able to volunteer, and/or attend at other times throughout the school year, we ask that you hold the following:

1. A current Catholic Police Check (parents/caregivers attending excursions, reading in class, helping in class, attending community events);
2. A current Responding to Abuse and Neglect in Education and Care for Volunteers certificate (please click here to view how to complete this requirement);
3. Completed the volunteers application.

A Catholic Police Check for volunteers at SJMS are free for our current parents and caregivers. Application Forms are available to download here or at either school office.

We ask that you present your completed form with verification ID to the front office, and we will submit the application on your behalf. You will then receive an email link to complete the process online. Once all cleared you will receive a Catholic Police Check ID card in the post, please bring this in to the front office and we will take a copy of your clearance.

This process ensures we maintain a child safe environment. To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to apply for a Catholic Police Check through either school office as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at either office.

Thanking you
The SJMS Admin Team
info@sjms.catholic.edu.au

For more information on how Catholic Education SA provides a safe environment for all, please click here.

Summary of what is needed to volunteer at SJMS:
Valid Catholic Police Check
Responding to Abuse and Neglect Education and Care Volunteer Certificate
Completed application form