St Joseph's School, Tara eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear parents and carers,

Graduation and Awards Night

2021 has seemed to fly by as the school community has worked together on the needs of the students. Wednesday evening saw the school community gather together for the 2021 Graduation Liturgy of the Word, Awards Night, P & F multidraw, supper and disco.

Congratulations to our graduating year six students: Pippa McDonald, Kandice Nystrom, Tyzah Phillips and Braydon Clark. It has been wonderful to see you learn and mature over the years. You have the potential to make a positive difference in society. Thank you for sharing your unique gifts with our community. You are always welcome here. God's richest blessings on your life's journey.

Well done to all students for their concert item presentation. You presented beautifully.

We are proud of each and every student; those who received an award and those students who did not receive an award but who are aspiring for excellence and achieving to the best of their ability. Our school community greatly values the efforts of our students who are demonstrating growth with both their learning behaviours and achievements. Congratulations to our students. Each student adds depth to our community and makes St. Joseph's Tara the most wonderful place of learning and wellbeing.

The school community warmly thanks Janine Bailey (WHS & Groundsperson) for her hard work and care for us and grounds and working hard to keep us safe. We will miss you greatly and we wish you all the best in NSW.

To all students, caregivers, members of the P & F, staff and Fr. Jack, thank you giving your best to support the St. Joseph's students and community in 2021. It has been greatly appreciated.

Year 5 & 6 Personal Development Day

I was most fortunate to take the year 5 & 6s to the Small Schools Personal Development Day recently. The students were mature, engaged and very responsible as they learned about the changes that occur during puberty. The curriculum content and presentation was of a high quality.

Camp

Unfortunately wet weather and flooding in the local area prevented the students from going on Camp to Coolum this week. Fortunately, camp has been rescheduled for the 28-30 March next year. As the year sixes will have progressed on to high school by then, they will participate in fun filled activities in down town, Tara!

Fee Support Funding

All families have received a large and early Christmas present to help with your school fees. Please pay any outstanding fees by the 2nd December.

Yarning Circle

Last Friday we officially opened the new yarning circle and story poles with a Barrungam language acknowledgement to country, cultural activities and a delicious wattle seed damper and St. Joeys grown bush tucker food items e.g. sea purslane and native thyme. A special thank you to the many hands overtime who contributed to the creation of the yarning circle. If you missed the opening, why not check in at the office and enjoy a quiet moment or conversation in the yarning space, a place where every voice can be heard and valued.

Upgrades

The newly resurfaced and line marked basketball court was celebrated with a DISCO. P-6 enjoyed gymnastics and lunch time activities on the court. New airconditioners have just been installed and you won't recognise the school after it is painted over the holidays. It will look amazing. More improvements to come next year so watch this space!

Day Excursion

Three students shared a special Gold Award Day with Mrs Smith in Toowoomba. Keira Furniss, Ella Sinclair & Rubie Warwick have demonstrated the St. Joseph's expectations for behaviour, learning and interacting with others and they have done so with self respect and responsibility. Well done!

Learning Super Powers

In 2022 we will teach and reteach the St. Joseph's Learning Super Powers to embed them into our ways of learning and being. A growth mindset is such a powerful thing.

Report Cards

Please read through your child's report card together to celebrate their learning strengths. Please ask them about their learning goals and then discuss ways you can work with them and the school for further success.

I pray that you have a happy and safe preparation (Advent) for Christmas and return to school on Tuesday 25th January ready for another great year. God bless.

Mary Porter
Principal

'God will carry you through every struggle.' Mary MacKillop 1870

We welcome with love, Miss Molly Mae Bennetts, to our St Joseph's family.

From the APRE

ADVENT

The season of Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. It is a time of pondering and allowing the gift of love that is Jesus' birth become part of our heart, mind and soul.

You might like to make your own Advent wreath over the holidays.

The wreath is a circle and tells us that the circle is like God’s love for us. It is never ending.

The circle of greenery represent the life and hope that Jesus brings to the world.

Traditionally purple is a ‘getting ready’ colour and we see lots of purple here in the candles and the ribbons.

Each week we light one more candle – as the light gets brighter we know that Christmas is getting closer.

The large, white candle in the centre is lit on Christmas Day to mark the birth of Jesus.

The message of the Advent wreath is the coming of light into the world. Jesus said: ‘I am the light of the world’, the light of the Advent wreath represents the truth and hope that Jesus brings.

A prayer for you…

May happiness be present in your family during the holidays.

May you know God’s love today and for forever.

May all your holiday activities be blessed.

May you be surrounded by love.

May you experience warm hospitality

And enduring friendship

Throughout all of your lives.

Amen.

3-6 Liturgy Of The Word: Mary, Jesus' Mother

From the Learning Environment

It has a been a busy term for P-2. It has been fantastic to see how well students have adapted to their new teacher. We have continued to consolidate our literacy and numeracy learning through a range of classroom activities. P-2 also showed excellent persistence during our swimming and gymnastic lessons.

This Term, P-2 explored the differences between fiction and non-fiction texts. Students thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Wombat Stew’ and ‘The Three Little Pigs’. They used the characters from the stories to create factual descriptions. The descriptions that were produced were informative and demonstrated excellent writing skills.

We have had a great term and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all of the students in P-2. I am very excited to welcome our new 2022 Preps. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays!

Ashley Stoker

P-2 teacher

From the Parish

St Mary Of The Angels - Tara
Mass Times

Tara: Friday: 9am
Saturday: 6pm

Moonie: Sunday: 9:30am
on the 1st, 2nd & 3rd Sunday of the Month

Meandarra: Sunday: 7:30am
on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the Month

Glenmorgan: Sunday: 9am
on the 4th Sunday of the Month

Parish Priest: Fr Jack MacGinley
Presbytery: 4665 3401 (Tara)

Father Jack's Message

The school year is ending, I guess you are already thinking and making plans as to how you are going to spend your holidays. Hopefully, these plans are not leaving out how you can be of help to other members of the family.

Are you going to be a person that is of great value and a pleasure to have your at home? Don't ask 'What can my family do for me but what can I do for my family'.

We all should be positive because of what happened with Jesus' birth. We cannot but reflect on the importance of Jesus Christ, and the love of God that He has shown - the truth of what life is about - the hope that we now have. It comes because Jesus is Our God who created us and loves us.

So we now celebrate the joy, peace and love that only God can give.

Shalom,

Father Jack MacGinley

From the Administration Officer

SCHOOL FEES

Updated statements were sent out this week. We have been very fortunate in receiving funding to help our families financially. As a result, every family has received a credit of $200 off their account, enough to cover one bookpack for each family. We were also able to give some extra financial assistance (credited to your account) calculated on a needs basis, helping to reduce account balances.

Please review your statement and I encourage all families to take advantage of this good fortune and carefully check and plan their budget so their account can stay on track throughout next year. We ask that your reduced outstanding account balances be paid by 2 December at the latest.

Continuing to make regular fee payments over the Christmas school holidays will certainly go a long way in helping acheive this goal.

2022 Term fees will increase by $5 per term, bringing the annual school fee total from $800 to $820. Please note this is the first fee increase in five years.

Book Packs ($200 per student) and uniforms will be available for purchase and collection from Friday 20 January 2022.

You are most welcome to make instalments or make a full payment via Direct Deposit (see below) over the holidays to relieve any financial burden.

If paying for your children's book pack via Direct Deposit please include 'Bookpack' in your reference along with your surname.

HOW TO PAY YOUR SCHOOL FEES:

*Cash

*Direct Deposit:
Bank: ADF
Name: St Joseph’s School
BSB: 064-786
ACC: 100025583
Reference: Your Name.

*Centrelink Centrepay Deduction Payments can be made fortnightly or monthly. The School’s CRN: 555075545A

Not Sure how it’s done? Ask at the office for Assistance.

Fees_2022.pdf

Thank you to those making regular payments and/or have their account up to date. Could I please ask everyone to check how their account is travelling. If it doesn’t seem to be reducing as quickly as you would like, I recommend increasing or begin making regular fortnightly payments via cash, direct deposit or Centrepay deductions to help manage the fees more comfortably.

Bus Notification Reminder: Please notify the school if your child's bus travel arrangements change by 2:30pm each afternoon.

If your child is being picked up instead of catching the bus home or is required to catch the bus instead of being picked up then the school needs to know before 2:30pm. Our staff have a duty of care to ensure your children get home safely, in accordance to the arrangements you have advised.

ABSENCES: Please notify the school whenever your child is absent.

Could I please ask those families who received an Unexplained Absences Explanation Request Form and have not returned them or notified the office to do so asap. These forms will now be sent out on a fortnightly basis and are to be returned by the Friday of that week please.

We understand that there are valid reasons for your child not to attend school e.g. They are sick. Please be aware that the following examples are not acceptable reasons for keeping them home from school.

If your child:

Doesn't feel like coming to school
Thinks it's too wet, cold, hot or the work is too hard or too easy
Stays home when another sibling is sick or a family member has an appointment or is going shopping out of town
Had a disagreement with their best friend
Got into trouble or thinks they might get into trouble at school
Is embarrassed about something that happened the day before
Has an activity or subject on that day they don't like

Wellbeing

Have fun with the daily activities on our Happiness Calendar. See how many you can achieve. We will also be focusing on a different Key to Happiness (below) each fortnight.

Our Sixth Key to Happiness is - Direction.

Have Goals For The Future

Feeling good about the future is important for our happiness. We all need goals to motivate us and these need to be challenging enough to excite us, but also achievable. If we try to attempt the impossible this brings unnecessary stress. Choosing ambitious but realistic goals gives our lives direction and brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when we achieve them.

Goals are the way we can turn our values and dreams into reality. Happiness doesn't just happen - it comes from thinking, planning and pursuing things that are important to us. Scientific research shows that setting and working towards goals can contribute to happiness in various ways, including:

Being a source of interest, engagement or pleasure
Giving us a sense of meaning and purpose
Bringing a sense of accomplishment when we achieve what we set out to (or milestones along the way) - this also builds our confidence and belief in what we can do in the future

Goals help focus our attention. Actively working towards them appears to be as important for our well-being as achieving the end results we are aiming for.

Goals are most successful when they're something we really want to achieve and when we set them for ourselves - rather than being something someone else wants us to do.

St. Joseph's Awards

Silver Award Recipients

Kandice Nystrom, Jorjah Furniss, John Chottu

Gold Award Recipients

Keira Furniss, Ella Sinclair, Rubie Warwick

Students Of The Week

Havoc McLuckie, Braydon Clark, Keira Furniss

Student Safety

THE 2021 STUDENT PROTECTION CONTACTS: Sue Whelan Mary Porter Susan Rodd (Counsellor)

STUDENT SAFETY INFORMATION

EVERY CHILD HAS THE RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE

Term Dates

2021

*Term 4 2021 – Wed 6 Oct - Thurs 2 Dec

2022

*Term 1 2022 – Tue 25 Jan (Public Hol 26 Jan) - Fri 1 Apr

*Term 2 2022 – Wed 20 Apr - Fri 24 Jun

*Term 3 2022 – Tue 12 Jul - Fri 16 Sep

*Term 4 2022 – Tue 4 Oct - Thurs 1 Dec

P & F News

Tuckshop

There will be a special gold coin Christmas Menu this week to celebrate everyone's hardwork and a successful school year.

ROSTER

Term 4

Wk 9 - 2 Dec: Sara Shields, Craig Riddiford & Anne Furniss- Christmas Tuck Shop Menu

Term 1 2022

Wk 1 -27 Jan: Craig Riddiford & Annie Stapleton

Wk 2 - 3 Feb: Monica Moran & Dan Cole

Wk 3 - 10 Feb: Anne Furniss & Lesley Truebody

Wk 4 - 17 Feb: Sara Shields & Craig Riddiford

We are in urgent need of helpers for tuckshop duty on Thursdays. We would love to see everyone joining in. It usually works out that you're rostered on twice a term. But with 'More hands making light work' it would certainly be less.

If you are unable to attend on your rostered tuckshop day please contact another person on the roster to arrange a swap of days or contact the office.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Containers_For_Cash_update.pdf

dental_service_poster.pdf

Christmas at Tarcoola

Monday 6 December, 5 – 7pm
In front of Tarcoola Aged Care
Lot 206 Sara St, Tara

Enjoy an evening of Christmas cheer for the whole family!

Switching on our festive lights
Sing along to Christmas carols
Sausage sizzle & drinks with all proceeds supporting the Apex Club
FREE face painting

…and even a visit from Santa!

St Joseph's, Tara - Term 4 Week 9 2021 Newsletter