St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Wandal Newsletter

The Open Classroom afternoon was very well supported by our families. Many students proudly showed off their new learning experiences, the learning spaces and their teachers. If you were unable to visit yesterday, families are welcome to classrooms from 8:15 to 8:35 am and again in the afternoons to 3:20 pm. 

This Friday, our Parents and Friends Association is hosting their first family event for the year. The Movie Night will be held on the lower school oval. Gates are open from 5:00pm for families to set up picnic rugs and the food vendors will be onsite. The movie will commence screening close to 6:30 pm. 

The school tuckshop will be closed for the next three weeks, while we are still establishing effective staffing to cater for our students when the coordinator is absent. Volunteer support would be greatly appreciated after this closure to ensure the service runs to its full potential. If you, or any grandparents are available to assist in the tuckshop, even if on the odd occasion, Mrs Elise Wadsworth would welcome your help. The new menu has been very well received, with orders over 200 on some days. Keep a close watch on Skoolbag posts in the next three weeks for some alternate food days.

Have a great week

Bernadette Brennan

Rheanna Starr

Lent is fast approaching, the season in the Church when Catholics prepare for Jesus’ death and resurrection at Easter. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent.  You may be wondering where the Ashes come from. Palm fronds are gathered from Palm Sunday of the previous year and burned. Palm Sunday is celebrated the Sunday before Easter Sunday, the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem. Traditionally Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of fasting leading to Easter.

The day before Ash Wednesday is Shrove Tuesday, a day customarily of feasting before Lent. This year we will again hold ‘Pancake Day’ on Shrove Tuesday. St Joseph’s Wandal Staff will donate the pancakes for students to enjoy. There will be a Gluten Free option as well.  Students are asked to make a gold coin donation on Shrove Tuesday. All money raised from pancakes will be donated to Project Compassion. 

All classes have been identifying the Catholic Social Teaching Principles and describing what that looks like in their classroom.  The Catholic Social Teaching Principles are:

Dignity for the Human Person

Care for our Common Home

Subsidiarity and Participation

The Common Good

Solidarity

Preferential Option for the Poor

Year One has created class covenants or expectations using the Catholic Social Teaching Principles.  Year Six created a photo collage to visually represent how they live by the Catholic Social Teachings in their classroom, and Year Three has brainstormed examples of how they can model these principles.

Janette McLennan

Welcome to Week 3!  Our focus this week continues to be being a reflective learner.  This week I have been exploring the work of James Anderson, Expert in Growth Mindset, Learnership,

Learner Agency and Habits of Mind.  His recent writing has concentrated on ‘learnership’.  I really value the way that he put together the ideas of response and dispositions into the characteristics that make a learner engaged.  He proposes that ‘learnership’ is about:

How the learner responds when faced with a learning challenge

What characteristics or dispositions they bring to learning

How the learner responds to a mistake

How they engage with feedback

And how much time and energy they are spending on learning (and how productive that time is)

I found this to be really interesting reading.  It left me with the big question – How do we promote learnership?

https://www.jamesanderson.com.au/learnership