St Joseph's School, Tara eNewsletter

Our Vision & Mission Statements

From the Principal

Welcome to the Term 1 Week 10 Newsletter!

End of Term

Wow! Can you believe that we are at the end of Term 1 and coming into Easter holidays already? Where has the past 10 weeks gone. It has certainly been a busy time. There has been many highlights and some wonderful learning that has been occurring. We are very proud of our students for all the qualities they have been displaying over the past 10 weeks. We cannot wait to see what Term 2 will bring.

St Joseph's Cross Country

What a wonderful time we had yesterday seeing everyone attend and participate in the 2025 school cross country. Congratulations to Penola House for taking home the trophy this year, winning with 129 points. MacKillop followed close behind with 122.

A big thank you to Mr Coman and Mrs Ash for taking on the responsibility of organising and running the day and making it so enjoyable for everyone.

House Cup Points Update

As of the final day of Term 1, House Cup Points stand at

MacKillop 622

Penola 599

The students and staff have taken on this cup challenge with gusto, and it is proving to be very competitive indeed. All friendly of course.

2026 Prep Enrolment Interviews

We are currently in the process of organising interviews for our 2026 Prep enrolment applications. Places are filling fast, not only in Prep but also other year levels. If you are aware of families who may be considering St Joseph’s as their school of choice for their children, please encourage them to submit an application by visiting the school office or hoping on our website so that an interview can be arranged for them. We would not like anyone missing out on a place.

Strategic Plan Focus

A Culture of Learning

Embed the Diocesan Approach to Reading approach consistently in all classrooms using evidence-based pedagogy in reading, writing and oral language.

In 2024, Toowoomba Catholic Schools introduced the Diocesan Approach to Reading (DAR) model. This model has been slowly rolled out across the Diocese and has been developed to create expert teachers who provide quality instruction which in turn produces successful readers and academic success for all.

The development of DAR has been informed by contemporary research, evidence-based high impact instruction and effective and expected practices which together creates a safe, supported and successful learning environment.

DAR aligns with the Australian curriculum and provides clarity of student learning and evidence of success where learning is designed to align the processes to plan for diverse needs of all students. It provides the opportunity to plan units of work based on quality literature which balances and integrates the three curriculum strands, Language, Literature and Literacy. It also reflects an awareness of the contextual framework within which language operates.

For the teaching staff, the DAR model provides an opportunity to expand on their pedagogical approaches used to deliver the English curriculum. Approaches such as Explicit Teaching, Low Variance Routines, Modelled, Shared & Guided Reading routines and rigorous independent reading promoted within a rich text environment and across other learning areas.

For the students, The DAR model provides opportunities to learn and practice oral language, systematic phonological & phonemic awareness, systematic synthetic phonics connected with reading and spelling, automaticity and fluency in reading, morphology and etymology for word study and comprehension through building background knowledge, vocabulary instruction and deep exploration of content.

Our goal as a whole school is to ensure that this model is implemented and consistent across all classrooms so that students, no matter who is teaching them or what classroom they enter understand the routines and approaches required to be a successful learner.

God bless,

Kylie Williams

APMI

Holy Week

This final week of Term 1 saw us celebrate Holy Week. Even though this year it is very early to be celebrating Holy Week it is one of the most sacred times in our Church’s liturgical calendar. Holy Week is a time where we will commemorate and remember the last days of Jesus’ life on this earth.

The “week” begins with Palm Sunday and goes through until Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday is when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. A time to celebrate as he was greeted like a rock star.

Holy Thursday is to commemorate The Last Supper where Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and shared his last meal with them. We, as Jesus’ disciples, participate in a meal together (Eucharist) each time we attend Mass. Good Friday is the day Jesus was crucified on the cross and died for our sins. He was then taken down and buried in a tomb. Holy Saturday is the last day of Lent and a day of vigil where we are waiting for the resurrection.

A huge thank you to Miss Taylor and the Year 4-6 class for leading us through a liturgical play to share this story and remind us of the importance of this week. They did a wonderful job at presenting the play with many positive comments from community and parish members.

We will celebrate Easter Sunday with a liturgy presented by leadership and the school captains on our first day in Term 2.

Project Compassion

Thank you to all our St Joseph’s staff, students and parents for their wonderful support in all the fundraising events held for Project Compassion 2025.

A special thank you to the Year 2/3 class who kindly made a group decision to donate their winnings from “Joey the Scarecrow” entry into the Tara Show this year. Such a gift of love and compassion from this group of children.

The amount we raised was a mighty effort:

Year 4-6 Colouring Competition - $106

Year 2/3 Ice Cream Stall - $112

Prep/1 Cupcake Stall - $94.50

MacKillop Leaders - $181.35

Parish donation - $17.70

Winnings from Year 2/3 show display - $30

Grand total - $541.55

Learning at St Joeys

From Miss Fisher

Learning Support

This term some of our students received intervention to help develop their understanding of the phonic codes and skills needed to segment and manipulate words when needed. As the Learning Support Teacher (LST), it is my job to create activities and monitor our intervention groups to ensure we are having positive impact on the student’s learning. The students worked with our amazing school officers 4 times a week for 20 minutes per session. Each session focussed on two or three phonic codes with games and activities included to help practise the use of these. They worked on sentences and recognised when the phonic codes were in various words. The students have worked incredibly hard this term and we have seen growth from all students in this area which is amazing! These sessions will continue into next term with similar routines so that we can keep seeing the great work that has already been happening.

Jump into Joeys

Jump into Joeys is our pre-prep program held every Tuesday from 9am-10:30am. It is open to all children who are starting Prep in 2026 and 2027. We currently have 15 children who come and attend regularly with their parents. Each week we read a story, then break up into groups for various activities which are connected to our story. This helps develop their fine and gross motor skills, all while having lots of fun! I think our highlight this term was our frog egg slime, cloud dough making and doing our mini easter egg hunt! Below are some photos from our sessions of our little Joey’s having a blast! If you are interested, please ring our office to see if there is a spot for you.

Jumpin' in Term 1 with our Joey's!

From the PEN

From the Parish

**Parish Priest**: Fr Rod MacGinley **Presbytery**: 4662 7031 (Dalby)

St Mary Of The Angels - Tara

Mass Times

Tara: Sunday: 9am

on the 1st & 3rd Sunday of the month

Meandarra: Sunday: 11am

on the 3rd Sunday of the month

St Joseph's Student Recognition

Certificates of Recognition

Week 9 - Riley Nystrom, Delilah Alonso Field, Craig Kerr, Elijah Velez, Loretta Kerr and Alayah Laird

Week 10 - Brett Allen, Raymond Stinson, Lorenzo Welldon-Taylor, Cash Hawkins and Evelyn Allen

From the Administration Officers

Monthly customer statements have been emailed out. Please check your junk mail. If you did not receive one, then your balance is NIL. I am unsure why this has happened this month and hope to have it rectified next month.

If you need any financial assistance, be sure to come in and see myself or Kylie to see how we can help. It is completely confidential!

HOW TO PAY YOUR SCHOOL FEES:

*Cash / Cheque, at the office.

*BPoint, in person at the office or over the phone.

*Direct Deposit:
Bank: ADF
Name: St Joseph’s School
BSB: 064-786
ACC: 100-025-583
Reference: Your Name/Customer Code eg. TRA1234

*Centrelink Centrepay Deduction Payments can be made fortnightly or monthly.

The School’s CRN: 555075545A

*Direct Debit: Forms are available in the office. Please see me or call the office.

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

Term Dates

2025

Term 1 2025 – Wed 29 Jan (Public Hol 26 Jan) - Fri 04 April

Term 2 2025 – (Easter Monday, 21 Apr) Wed 23 Apr - Fri 27 Jun

Term 3 2025 - Tue 15 Jul - Fri 19 Sep

Term 4 2025 - Tue 07 Oct (Kings B'day 06 OCT) - Fri 05 Dec

Professional Development and Planning Days (previously called Pupil Free Days)

Wednesday, 22 January - Friday, 24 January 2025 - Professional Development
Tuesday, 28 January 2025 - Planning Day
Tuesday, 22 April 2025 - Planning Day
Monday, 14 July 2025 - Planning Day
Wednesday, 30 July 2025 - Bishops Inservice Day (BID)
Friday, 5 September 2025 - Consistency of Teacher Judgement (CTJ)

Public holidays

Australia Day public holiday – Monday, 27 January 2025
Easter – Friday, 18 April – Monday, 21 April 2025
Anzac Day – Friday, 25 April 2025
Labour Day – Monday, 5 May 2025
King’s Birthday – Monday, 6 October 2025

Wellbeing Matters

Student Safety

EVERY CHILD HAS THE RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE

It is a legislative requirement that all non-state schools have at least two nominated staff members to whom a student can report the behaviour of another staff member that the student considers inappropriate. We call these specially trained staff members School Student Protection Contacts, or SSPCs. Each SSPC has been nominated by the principal in recognition of their integrity, approachability and knowledge in the area of student protection. Whilst students are encouraged to speak up to any trusted adult in the school community, it is important that they know they can access these specific staff members at any time should they have worries, queries or concerns. You will have noticed posters throughout the school depicting our current SSPCs. The SSPCs are also published on our school website along with information about our student protection processes. In everything we do at St Joseph's Tara student safety is our highest priority, therefore the SSPCs at our school are key personnel in our overall safeguarding processes. Please see the poster below depicting our current SSPC team.