St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Wandal Newsletter

Imaging God

Well, another Mother’s Day has passed and I hope all mothers and carers reading this had a wonderful time.  But I often wonder how you hold up against the glorious images of perfect motherhood in the media.  I commend a project by photographer Roseann Hall on the ABC website that presents motherhood in all its wonderful complexity, tenderness in the midst of mess, love in the chaos.  We need good images to guide us in our lives.

Made in the image and likeness of God, we may be surprised to realise just how helpful pondering on God’s parenting might help us in hard and difficult times.  I use a personal example to explain.

A couple of years ago, I cared for my brother’s large family while he was dying. He and my sister-in-law were the best of parents.  But still, it was a steep learning curve looking after their children.  One day early in the piece, I took them to the beach, and while there, two of the teenage girls lied about their whereabouts, deliberately.  I lost the plot. G.L.O.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y.  The scene in the carpark would have made the perfect internet meme of bad, uncontrolled parenting.  But pondering on it later and asking how it held up as an image of God’s parenting, I am quite proud of what happened.  The screaming around the carpark made it clear that I was concerned about them, the slamming of the car doors said I was to be taken seriously, the pep talk said I was to know where they were, the silence on the way home let them think, the chips bought on the way said I would still look after them.  They needed to know all this for the months ahead and sweet talking, pretty gestures simply weren’t going to do that. In my fury, they knew I was there for them – just like God-with-us, Emmanuel (a name of Jesus).

We will laugh together about this incident in years to come (and they will probably tell the story at my funeral).  If I get the chance, I might even be able to tell them I felt I was imaging God in the crazy ferocity of my love. 

Loving God, you know the wide and crazy range of feelings my child/ren provoke in me.  Let me ponder on those feelings and discover how I can image your passionate, creative love in my loving. I ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you may hear me.

Sr Kym Harris osb

Congratulations to the Years 4-6 students who represented our school at the District Cross Country carnival last week. We were very proud of all of you. Of particular note was the school spirit shown by our students, congratulating their opponents and encouraging their friends across the finish line. A special congratulations to James in Year 5 who finished in third place and will now proceed onto the next round of competition.Thank you to Miss Hinz and Mrs Lau for supervising and supporting our students on this day.

Our Years 3 and 5 classes are undertaking NAPLAN testing this week. NAPLAN tests are designed to assess the skills of Australian students in literacy and numeracy. Whilst NAPLAN provides us with some useful data, we remind our students and parents that this is just one small part of the overall assessment picture. While we will encourage all of our students to do their very best work, we do not wish any of our students to feel under pressure or stressed about undertaking these tests.

The commencement of Season B sport for ALL YEARS 4, 5 AND 6 STUDENTS is Friday 21 May. Please refer to previous communications which outlined required equipment and associated costs. Friday afternoon sport is compulsory for all students except in the case of injury or illness. Our emphasis is on ‘having a go’, being part of a team, being a good sport and learning new skills rather than being overly competitive! Please ensure your children have the correct equipment for their respective sport and that the CODE OF CONDUCT FORMS have been completed. Students will not be permitted to participate without the appropriate paperwork and equipment. We do not make phone calls home on Fridays for forgotten equipment.

Reminder: As of next week Years 4 – 6 students will wear their sports uniforms on Mondays and Fridays.

 Good luck to those Rugby League players competing in this Friday's  Capras CQ Challenge! 

School Fees – Term Two fees were distributed Friday, 30 April and will be due this Friday 14 May. Please contact me should you be experiencing any difficulties in meeting your fee commitment.

We are busily taking enrolments for the 2022 school year. Our Prep Parent Information Session has been set for Thursday 15 July at 5.15pm. If you know of any families interested in a place at our school next year, please urge them to complete their online enrolment process as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. I hope to begin the interview process for existing families towards the end of this term and will start contacting existing families (who have completed their enrolment process) in the next couple of weeks.

As you are aware, Maddy Reid and Anjuli Pickering are sharing the Coordinator duties at our OSHC.  Maddy is currently on a four-week university placement, so Anj has taken on additional hours for the next month or so. Please do not hesitate to contact either of these wonderful ladies for any queries you may have relating to before or after school care, or vacation care.

Mrs Lauren Riley (6R) will be commencing her maternity leave at the end of this term. Miss Brittany Hinz will be teaching Mrs Riley’s class for the remainder of the year. Miss Hinz knows these students well and has worked with them in a variety of contexts, including being their PE teacher for the last couple of years. Therefore, I anticipate this will be a seamless transition. Further arrangements regarding the teaching of PE will be communicated as they are finalised.

I hope all of our mums and grandmothers had a lovely day on Sunday. Thanks to your support of our Mother’s Day stall, we have raised over $1700 for our school! Thank you to our P and F and many volunteers for making our stall look so enticing and for ensuring the morning ran smoothly.

Today our Year 6 students attended a retreat organised by Samara Thompson who is the Youth Co-ordinator for the St Vincent de Paul Society. Below are some take aways of the day from our students.

"We were given challenges and we had to think about how much we wanted to succeed at that challenge.  For example one challenge was to put a biscuit on our forehead, sit on our hands and try to eat the biscuit. The biscuit in this case was the reward. The important learning from this was that the 'want' of the reward (the biscuit) was so strong that we had to make the wrong decision.  Samara helped us to learn that people face injustice everyday, where their challenges are not cookies on their forehead, but their challenges are lost homes, lost income or the inability to get to school.  These people need support so that they don't have to break the rules to get their reward.  St Vincent de Paul is there to help people who face challenges and support them to succeed in life when they face challenges.

We also learned that  we cannot solve poverty and famine because that is a worldwide problem, but what we can do is to give hope to others.  When we give hope, we show love, which gives people faith.  When people have faith, they feel some peace and support."

Whether in the classroom or the workplace, teaching is all about building a relationship. In today’s world, with information at our fingertips, a quick Google search, a glance at Wikipedia, or a question posed to Siri will usually result in answers to specific questions. Teaching is different; it is really about inspiration, not information. The goal should be to spark each student’s imagination, to find a hook in their heart and mind so that they feel a curiosity to learn. Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.- Margaret Mead

Are you or your child bakers, artists, chicken farmers or photographers?  Check out the list of opportunities that can be found at the Rockhampton Show.

https://www.rockyshow.com.au/Competitions

Would you like to help us build a scarecrow or two for the scarecow competition?  Please email me if you are keen: janette_mclennan@rok.catholic.edu.au. 

With the Tokyo Olympics set to begin on Friday 23 July, we thought it would be wonderful for our school to be a part of a program called 'Olympics Unleashed'. This program brings Olympians and athletes aspiring to the Tokyo Games and beyond, into Australian schools to inspire and motivate students to be their personal best. We are very fortunate to have an athlete visit us on Friday 21 May, at 12 noon, in the Hall.

Congratulations to our students on their outstanding achievements.  Please click on the link for details.

Term Dates for 2021

Term 2      19 April - 25 June 10 weeks

Term 3       12 July - 17 September 10 weeks

Term 4      5 October - 3 December   9 weeks

Term 2 2021

MAY

14 May Year 5 M Prayer Assembly

14 May Ninja Dash - Onsite at Wandal

19 May  National Simultaneous Story Time

21 May Year 3 I Prayer Assembly

21 May Friday Sport Commences for Years 4 - 6 (Rugby, Netball & Hockey)

23 May Pentecost Sunday

26 May The Midnight Gang at The Pilbeam Theatre Years 3 & 4

27 May Questacon school visit

28 May Year 2 R Prayer Assembly - Pentecost

28 May Years 4 - 6 Friday Sport

As you are aware every year Queensland experiences an influenza or flu season. As we enter this season it is timely to remind parents and care-givers not to be complacent about flu. Queensland Health advises that where possible, people need to be vaccinated for the flu every year.

Flu is a virus more serious than the common cold and can be spread through talking, coughing and sneezing. Symptoms include sudden fever, dry cough, muscle aches and pains, fatigue, headache, sore throat and a stuffy or runny nose.

If your child has flu-like symptoms, the following is advised:

·       Keep your child home from school;

·       Ensure your child washes their hands regularly with soap and water or sanitiser gel;

·       Encourage your children when coughing or sneezing, to cover their mouth and nose with disposable tissues which should be disposed of immediately;

·       Ensure they drink plenty of fluids and get lots of rest;

·       Consult your doctor if you are concerned about their symptoms.

Queensland Health Guidelines advise that individuals displaying flu like symptoms should  stay at home until such symptoms have passed (normally 5-7 days). 

Families should also reinforce the recommended protective actions listed above.

Increased awareness and ongoing attention to prevention and control measures, such as vaccination and good hygiene, are steps that we can all promote to reduce the impact of influenza.

Pumped Sport’s new Ninja Dash event is coming to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Wandal on Friday the 14th of May starting at 3.15pm and runs for 75 minutes. Cash or credit card payments can be made on the day. Children kindy aged and older are $15 and toddlers are $10. For more information and to register head to https://pumpedsport.com.au/events/ The easiest way to share the event is to go to your school’s page, Click on events, at the top you’ll see our request to co-host, click accept and then share the event to your school's page. If possible we will also send you the link for the event on Facebook. If you have any questions about this process please call me on 0449 591 606.