ENewsletter

Principal's Letter - Mrs Lesley Studans

Dear Parents,

This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, the season of preparing for Christmas. I’ve already given you a few ideas of how we prepare the children for Christmas. I shared with you the poem written by one of our students about waiting for the birth of a baby. I shared too the thought that God chose a humble family on the margins of society with a wonderful, loving, brave woman, Mary and a caring man, St Joseph, to be the family to bring up Jesus.

This week I want to write about why Christmas is so special for children. I know how much you enjoy the look on your children’s faces on Christmas morning when they open their presents. For children, the message of Christmas is also about how someone so young and vulnerable can grow up to be Jesus. The message is one of hope for the future. This is the same theme of Easter Sunday.

By coming into the world as a baby the message from God is to care for children. I think this is where the focus on children at Christmas comes from. Although we teach our children that they are special and important there is much more to the way we approach Christmas at school.

Advent is a way to learn to wait for something special, hence the Advent calendar. Its also about what we do when we wait. Just as we clean our house for visitors – we get ready for Christmas by trying hard to be good as an individual and as a community. Our school community effort is to the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal. We donate food presented at the Christmas concert. St Vincent de Paul is helping families in the dought ravaged country and those affected by bushfires as well as disadvantaged urban families. The children are taught to get ready by thinking of others, not just themselves and acting kindly and unselfishly. We want them to be worthy of their special Christmas treats.

With kind regards,

Lesley Studans

Parent Group Thank you.

A big thank you to the Parent Group who put together the Markets last Friday night. A great selection of stalls was there but unfortunately the weather was not great. It was good to see so many families there despite the weather. So we still had a great community event!

Mrs Joanna Delvecchio - Assistant Principal

St Joseph's - ‘Leap in 2 Reading’ Summer Holiday Challenge

I do believe that something very magical can happen when you read a good book. JK Rowling.

Reading is a lifelong skill as we are surrounded by print everywhere we go and we need to learn how to make sense of it and discern what is important from it all. Each day at school, students engage in reading of a variety of types of texts and conversations about what they are reading. Reading is more than just deciphering the words on the page and has so many benefits such as; helping develop imagination and empathy and teaches children about the world around them. Therefore it is important that you ensure that your children read each day, especially over the holidays as it continues to develop and consolidate vital literacy skills the children have been learning at school all year. Importantly it helps reduce the risk of ‘slide” (Children going back in their reading levels) when they return to school. Research shows that this can happen when children don’t read over the school breaks.

Over the summer holiday, keep up the reading and participate in two Summer Reading competitions - the St Joseph's Leap in2 Reading Summer Holiday Challenge and the Executive Director’s Summer Reading Challenge.

The St Joseph’s Challenge is to find yourself ‘leap in2 reading’ wherever you are during your Summer holiday. Send your photos to stjosephsevents22@gmail.com. These will be published on Facebook and a winner will be decided early Term 1 with a $100 family movie voucher to be won. Please indicate in the email if you do not wish your photo to be published on Facebook. You will still be eligible for the prize.

The Executive Director’s reading challenge information and how to enter can be found on the following webpage https://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/News-and-Events/Whats-On/EDSRC

Executive Director’s Summer Reading Challenge

School Attendance

Only three weeks of the term to go and everyone is getting tired making it very tempting to keep your children at home or to let them sleep in, in the morning and get to school late. Keep in mind that being at school contributes to your child’s learning and building relationships. Every minute missed of learning adds up. Mrs Bourke and myself are here if you need support.

If your child is away from school, it is important that you provide the classroom teacher with a note outlining the reason that your child was away within 7 days. The teachers are required to mark on the roll the reason for the student’s absence. If no note is given then no explanation can be provided for the absence.

Religious Coordinator - Mrs Anne Watson

Sports Update - Mrs Kimberley Turner

Sport News Term 4 Week 7

Our final gala day for 2019 was the gymnastics held at SGAC Rooty Hill. Our school entered a team of 20 amazing gymnasts. Everyone performed extremely well across all four events. Overall we came third in our pool and a special congratulations goes to Lincoln who secured two individual medals and an overall 3rd in the boys competition.

A great day was had by all and HUGE thank you goes to Jodie and Sheree from Riverstone Tumbling who trained and supported our team throughout the entire competition.

Finally today Mrs. Studans and I had the pleasure of handing out the age champion medals for swimming the winners were:

Congratulations again to all our super sport stars over the year who have represented our school in various gala days, events and carnivals, we are all very proud of you!

Thank you for your continued support in sport and looking forward to another great year of sport in 2020.

Kimberley Turner

From the Library - Mrs Joanne Neill

The final Book Club catalogues for 2019 have been distributed to classes, and these orders need to be lodged by 2nd December 2019.

Premier’s Reading Challenge certificates will be printed soon and awarded to those who undertook the challenge this year.

2020 school travel applications now open

Applications for student travel in 2020 opened on Friday, 11 October 2019.

Students progressing to year 3 and year 7 no longer need to re-apply if they:

· are continuing at the same school

· are residing at the same address

· have not been sent an expiry notification from Transport for NSW.

Where a student meets the new distance eligibility, the system will automatically update their entitlement. If they do not meet the new eligibility, they will receive an expiry notification via email.

Students who have an entitlement approved under a medical condition which is due to expire will receive a notification advising them to re-apply.

Term Bus Pass holders will receive a notification to re-apply.

If students need to update their information or re-apply, they should go online to https://apps.transport.nsw.gov.au/ssts/updateDetails

Applications need to be submitted before 31 December 2019 to ensure student entitlements are updated and their current entitlement/card is not cancelled. If their application is submitted after 31 December 2019, the system will automatically cancel an entitlement/card and a new one will need to be issued.

Students in the Opal network applying for a SSTS or Term Bus Pass entitlement for the first time will receive their card at their nominated postal address. Cards will be mailed out from January 2020.

Students residing in Rural and Regional (R&R) areas should receive their travel pass at the commencement of the new school year from their nominated operator, this may be distributed via the school or sent direct to their address. Note: some R&R operators do not issue travel passes. Students/Parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass.

School travel application endorsements

It is not uncommon for applicants completing the online form to make mistakes, particularly entering their name or date of birth instead of the students. This may be due to an auto-fill function on a device or just human error. We ask that school administrators pay special attention to the information supplied by applicants which come through in the school portal. If the information supplied does not match your records or the student is not yet enrolled, please do not endorse the application. By selecting ‘no’ the application will be referred back to the applicant to correct and resubmit.

In the event that school administrators endorse in error, it would be appreciated if you could advise our SSTS team as soon as possible so the application can be intercepted before an Opal card or travel pass is issued.

To contact us about an endorsement error, please go to: https://transportnsw.info/contact-us/feedback/passes-concessions-feedback and select feedback about: ‘school student transport scheme’ and then select ‘application updates’.

If school administrators require access to the school portal to endorse student applications, please request an account at https://appln.transport.nsw.gov.au/portal/requests/account/school

If you have staff that have left the school recently and had access to the school portal, please let us know at https://transportnsw.info/contact-us/feedback/passes-concessions-feedback and select ‘school/operator portal’ and then ‘remove existing user access’ so their access can be removed.

School Calendar

For the full yearly school calendar click this link Important-Dates

NEW SCHOOL BUILDINGS

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SCHOOL UNIFORM PRICE LIST & HOW TO ORDER

2020 Uniform Ordering for current students

If you are considering ordering uniforms for your child, please remember that the uniform suppliers deliver on Tuesday and that the cut-off time for ordering is now Friday before 4pm. Please consider ordering any new uniforms before week 9 so that you will receive your order prior to the office being closed for the Christmas & New Year break.

NO MORE SCHOOL PAYMENTS accepted by the office after 17th December

Please be advised that due to end of year preparations within the financial system at school, the school office will be unable to accept any form of payment after 17th December until the new school year. BPay and Direct debits are not affected by this.

St Joseph's Primary Schofields Newsletter

Term 4 Week 7