Messages from Don:

S J St Joseph’s School Renmark

Term 1 Week 6 ~ 6th March 2020

RESPECT ~ SAFETY ~ LEARNING ~ TRUST

“Ignite Your Passion & Purpose” S R

Dear Families, Friends and Students,

Lent -Choosing Kindness, Empathy and Compassion

Last Wednesday, Fr Cletus celebrated a beautiful Ash Wednesday Mass. We joined

together with parishioners, parents, staff and students to celebrate the start of the

season of Lent. I was so proud of our students who showed outstanding respect and

reverence which was acknowledged by many of the people at Mass. As a Catholic

School this is a unique opportunity to foster a sense of kindness, empathy and compassion. Building

this into our curriculum certainly adds to the extra learning experiences that we provide at St Joseph’s.

As we continue the journey through the season of Lent we continue to reflect on how we are trying to

make changes in our daily lives to become better people. As we have started the season of Autumn,

leaves fall from the trees and the weather starts to get colder. It is a season of change. Let us take this

opportunity during Lent to remind ourselves and our children about the changes we want to make for

ourselves. At school, we have asked all our students to think of two main actions during Lent:

To make a sacrifice or give something up – chocolate, computer time, iPad time, gaming, soft

drink etc

To perform a regular act of generosity and kindness - donate some spending money to Project

Compassion, help with the dishes, do chores without asking, try hard with their Home Learning,

help students at school, etc.

The challenge for us is to look deeper into our character and let go of something that might be

preventing us from truly living Christ in action. I invite all of us during this time, to choose kindness,

empathy and compassion instead of gossip, teasing, and put-downs. Let us as a community truly turn

to our faith and to welcome all with open arms, open minds and open hearts. I encourage us to let go

of the negative judgements that put a cloud over our loving hearts, and instead let us use this time to

truly shine and be beacons of God’s love.

Work Samples:

As part of our reporting and assessment focus your child’s work sample was recently sent home for you

to view and acknowledge the learning and progress shown. Parents are expected to comment if

necessary and return feedback to class teachers.

The P&F provided great support for Shrove Tuesday. Elsie & Amy presented the gifts at Ash Wednesday Mass.

Reading and Learning Journal Report:

I continue to review our Reading Journals and how this tool has

encouraged daily reading at home. Next week I will send home a

Report for your child which outlines the following information:-

Number of nights read so far this year

Percentage of nights read

Average percentage for your child’s class

Average percentage for the school

I am particularly interested in the results and will use the data to

inform future parent and student conversations. I again emphasise

the importance of reading. Studies have shown the link between

regular reading and high achieving students. Reading just 20

minutes a day has been shown to increase the vocabulary and

grades of students, and increase it dramatically.

Research has also shown that parental engagement promotes better

student outcomes. At St Joseph’s we value that parents are the first

educators for children and therefore acknowledge the responsibility

that parents/carers have on positive educational outcomes. We

believe that the Reading & Learning Journal is a simple way for

parent/carers to show interest in Home Learning. It is expected that

parents/carers check and sign the Reading & Learning Journals

every night, recording how long your child has read. We will

continue keeping a record of the number of nights all students have

read, with the aim being to increase student reading across the

whole school.

Wellbeing – Parent Survey:

Our Wellbeing Team is committed to building a mentally healthy

learning community where all our students can be supported to

achieve their best possible mental health, no matter their

developmental stage. We understand that the most effective way to

achieve the aims of promotion, prevention and early intervention is

by using a whole-school approach, where everyone is involved. As

previously outlined, we are active and engaged with the BeYou

website and platform and continue to access support for our staff,

parents and students. We have completed student surveys and are

pleased with the valuable information we collected. Today we give

details of a Parent Survey which will also be used to help direct our

future plans and actions. I strongly encourage all families to

participate and complete the survey. The link is https://

www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNCGSRD

Bullying & Harassment:

The last few weeks we have all heard the story of Quaden Bayles, a

little 9 year old boy with dwarfism being bullied at school. This was

a sad and heartbreaking story.

It has nevertheless brought the issue of bullying to the forefront

again and asked us to think what is happening in our schools.

Students completed their surveys during the week.

ST. THERESE’S RENMARK

Fr Paul Bourke 8582 1894

Fr Cletus 8588 2452

MASS TIMES

8 March Sun 9.00am

14 March Sat 6.30pm

22 March Sun 9.00am

28 March Sat 6.30pm

UPCOMING EVENTS

March:

9 Public Holiday

10 Assembly by 3/4TS class

10 Aged Care Visit 3/4TS

12 Aged Care Visit 1/2KH

17 Aged Care Visit 7RW

19 Aged Care Visit 1/2PH

20 Sports Day

23-26 Interviews

27 Harmony Day

Building progress:

At St Joseph’s we have a very proactive approach

and continue to educate our students about

bullying and harassment.

We use prevention, intervention and restorative

justice practices. We promote positive inclusive

behaviours and relationships, reflecting a culture

that enables students to develop social and self-

management skills.

In classrooms, we use our SEL lessons to explicitly

teach our students about getting along and how

to be kind and caring towards each other. It is

important that students and families are aware of

the differences between conflict, someone being

mean and bullying. We take bullying seriously

and will follow up when a claim is made.

However, many times, we discover it is a

disagreement or a mean moment rather than

bullying.

At St Joseph's we do look at bullying through the

lenses of our Child Protection Curriculum but we

also use the Bullying No Way - Program for Kids

website:

https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/ForKids

Children’s University - 2020 Launch:

Our students have the opportunity to again be

involved in an exciting program: ‘Children’s

University Australasia’ (CUA). Mrs Del Zoppo is

our Coordinator and recently had a very positive

response for our students.

CUA aims to encourage high quality ‘out of

school hours’ activities for children aged between

approx. 8 and 14 years of age, engaging the

wider community as learning partners in this

process. The most important principles of CUA are

that participation is voluntary and activities must

take place outside the normal school day, during

lunch, after school, weekends and holidays.

Students choose what activities to do and when,

and the learning always has a link to something

they could do at a ‘grown up’ university.

In partnership with The University of Adelaide, we

aim to raise aspirations and develop a love of

learning by issuing students enrolled in CUA with

a ‘Passport to Learning,’ which records their

individual learning journey. After achieving the

required hours of learning, (initially 30 hours) the

children are rewarded for their participation with

certificates at a formal graduation ceremony.

To support this very valuable learning

opportunity we subsidise the cost of registration.

We look forward to sharing many positive stories

and learning experiences.

Parent Teacher Interviews/Online Bookings:

Included today with the newsletter is information

about the upcoming Parent/Teacher interviews.

These meetings are an important element of the

range of assessment and reporting strategies we

use at school. The aim is to be proactive and at

the same time establish positive parent/teacher

relationships earlier. They are a time for you to

share any questions or concerns about your

child’s learning and wellbeing, an opportunity to

celebrate their successes and hear about their

learning progress.

This year we are again using our Online Booking

System which proved highly effective last year.

Please refer to the note for all details about

booking your time. Please see your class teacher

if you have any problems or questions.

P&F Meeting – Footy Tipping Competition:

I wish to promote our upcoming P&F Coffee and

Cake gathering on Tuesday 10th March, 7.00pm

at the Renmark Hotel Lounge area. Some

exciting events, ideas and thoughts to discuss

and prepare. All welcome. I also take this

opportunity to promote the P&F Footy Tipping

Competition. This is a free activity with excellent

prize money. See details outlined in this

newsletter.

Clean Up Australia Day:

Last Friday our whole school participated in

Clean Up Australia Day. At St Joseph’s School,

we take pride in our school and in the amazing

community our school belongs to. On this day

we showed our community spirit and respect for

the environment. The students who participated

showed our civic pride and our concern for the

removal of rubbish that can cause damage to the

wildlife found in Renmark and in the Murray

River eco-system. We thank the parents who

volunteered to help as supervisors.

Participating in Clean Up Australia Day Henry, Hugh & Ryan are excited for AFL Footy!

Parent Thank You:

Once again we have been blessed with special help

from parents in many ways:- Cooking pancakes,

P&F meeting, AGM, help with Literacy time,

reading, Discovery time, supervision, Clean Up

Australia Day and supervision at events.

I sincerely thank all our community for their

willingness to support our school and become

involved. As mentioned many times, positive staff/

parent/student relationships develop positive

learning outcomes.

Have a great long weekend. I’ll see you all at

Assembly on Tuesday at 9.00am.

Regards,

Don DePalma

Principal

Dental Health:

THRAS Parent Workshop

Parents & Friends:

Shrove Tuesday: What a great morning the P&F

had cooking and serving pancakes for all the

students and staff on Shrove Tuesday! They were

delicious! Thankyou to Sharyn, Rachel & Elish for

making the mixtures ready for us to use on the

day!

The dads had the BBQs under control, while the

mums had the plating & serving right to schedule

with only one complaint of a pancake being too

brown! Well done team!!

Thankyou to Adrian for setting up & Rob, Ben,

Brian, Todd, Belinda & Jenna for supporting.

Next meeting: Our next meeting is Tuesday 10th

March 7.00pm in the Renmark Hotel lounge area.

All welcome to attend!

AFL Footy: You are invited to join St Joseph's

Renmark P&F 2020 Footy Tips comp in Official

AFL Tipping. Go to the link below and login (or

register if you haven't already).

https://tipping.afl.com.au/tipping/index.html#/

comp/26223/about?code=XSJPJ6X7

Once again we have great prizes up for grabs!

Sports Day: Friday March 20th will be our next

big event in providing coffee, cake & drinks for all

who will attend the big day.

Kristine DePalma

President P&F

See the flyer included in this newsletter

MONDAY 16th MARCH 2020

7.00 - 8.00pm

St Joseph’s School

Renmark

Children with poor oral health are more likely to

experience pain, to miss days from school and to

perform poorly in the classroom. Untreated

tooth decay can lead to problems with speaking,

eating and learning.

SA Dental Service sees over 80,000 children for

dental care each year, but data shows that

57.5% of eligible children in SA are not using the

Medicare Child Dental Benefits Schedule.

There are no out of pocket costs for children

covered by the Medicare Child Dental Benefits

Schedule.

All children are welcome at SA Dental clinics.

Lent:

Thank you to those who were able to join us at

Ash Wednesday Mass last week. It was great to

see the support that we received. The local

parishioners were very pleased to see the

students all receiving the Ashes. We also

presented our Sacramental candidates for this

year.

In Lent we talk to the students about what

they are doing for others and how we can all

help to make the world a better place. Talk to

your children about what they are learning

and show them what we can do for others, at

home as well as at school. Maybe show them

how you regularly put in spare change from

your purse/wallet into the Project Compassion

boxes, or how you give surplus clothes to

charity. By seeing what you are doing at

home, and how this relates to what we are

doing at school, our students will grow into

people who care about justice and fairness for

all people of the world.

Project Compassion:

Project Compassion, which is run by Caritas, is

our major charity we support during Lent. It is

based on Catholic Social Teaching principles.

Each week we learn about a different person

and community that Caritas has helped.

Project Compassion boxes went home last week

with a flyer about what it is all about.

Caritas and St Vincent De Paul Society Visitors

This week we had some special visitors come to

the school to talk to our students about how

they can help with catholic charities.

Bernard Holland spoke to the Year 7s about

Caritas and the wonderful work that Project

Compassion helps raise money for. He told the

classes about how the donations we made two

years ago have made a huge difference to the

communities whose stories we are learning

about this year.

We also had Jayne Shortt from the St Vincent

De Paul Society visit. She helped (with the

support of our local Vinnies chapter) with our

Mini Vinnies induction before talking to a

number of classes about what Vinnies does and

how their help can make a difference in the

lives of those that need it.

They both reminded us about how lucky we are

and that we need to listen to our call to help

others.

Michael Slagter

APRIM

Religious Identity & Mission:

Wellbeing Team:

Paul Hooper Profile

Position: Year 1/2 Teacher

Experience: This is my 1st full year of teaching

Age: 33

Married: I have been married to Tamara for just over

6 years.

Children: Annie 4 years old, Molly 3 years old,

Charlie 1 year old, Baby Due in July

Hobbies/Interests: Spending time with my children

and wife Tamara. Love to travel and love watching

local sport.

My road to becoming a teacher: My path to

becoming a teacher was slightly different to most. I

was working in sales, selling John Deere tractors,

however, the dream was always to be a teacher. My

wife encouraged me to chase my dream and I

enrolled at Charles Darwin University. For 3 years I

studied full time online, worked full time and started

my degree with 1 child and ended it with 3 children.

What is the 5 point scale?

The 5 point scale is used to assist students in

becoming aware of their emotions. The scale can be

used with a variety of students but can be

particularly affective for children who have difficulty

with self regulation. The 5 point scale helps to

provide a common language for adults and children.

The objective of the 5 point scale is to teach social

emotional information in a concrete, systematic, and

non judging way.

Emotional regulation can be defined as the ability to

separate your emotional responses to a problem

from the thinking you must perform to resolve the

problem. The 5 point scale is a visual system that

can help to organise a person's thinking when

working through difficult moments, particularly

those that require social understanding.

What can we use it for?

Anxiety

Anger

Noise

Asking for help emotions

What is fair

Friendships

Manners

Anything

Just as some students have reading or math

difficulties, some students have difficulty selecting

and using appropriate social skills.

Have a go at home with your child/children. It may

not work the first time, keep calm and quiet – keep

your own emotions in check.

If anyone would like their own tactile laminated copy

like we use at school, please send a message via your

child's teacher and we can send one home with your

child.

Deb James

ESO/Wellbeing Coordinator

Learning in 3/4LO!

Clean Up Australia Day– making a difference!

Swimming lessons

In Maths, we made 1000 with 10 lots of 100. Exploring Base 10 on the 100 chart. In Science we are learning about

heat and how it is transferred.

Art lessons with Mr Reeks

Parent/carer to enter the following details.

Enter event code : g997k

Click on green

Email : eg. abc123@email.com

Parent’s Full Name : eg Lyn Leuders

Phone: eg 0123 456789

Book for: select

from dropdown

box how many

children you want

interviews for.

Student’s name:

eg Reeni Leuders

Click on green

Website : www.schoolinterviews.com.au

Parent & Teacher Interviews:

This screen will show the available dates

and times for each student and their teacher.

Choose one time per student.

From the dropdown

box select each

students teacher.

Click on green

A confirmation email will be sent.

Please see your class teacher if you do not

have access to the internet.

1

2

3

4

6

Click on MAKE A BOOKING

GO

GO

GO

GO

Some times will not be available or may

already be booked.

We ask that you do NOT book interviews to

be immediately one after the other, which

allows for movement from one teacher to

another.

Ensure you select Go

Parent Teacher Interviews/Online Booking Process

Below is the information about the upcoming Parent/Teacher interviews. These meetings are an

important element of the range of assessment and reporting strategies we use at school. The aim is to

be proactive and at the same time establish positive parent/teacher relationships earlier. They are a

time for you to share any questions or concerns about your child’s learning and wellbeing, an

opportunity to celebrate their successes and hear about their learning progress.

This year we are again using our Online Booking System which proved highly effective other years.

Please see your class teacher if you have any problems or questions.

Don DePalma

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