St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Wandal Newsletter

Mary MacKillop’s Courage

I often wonder how courage works. Because I so often feel like a coward, I marvel at people who can take physical risks or travel through dangerous countries alone.  Too many “what if” scenarios would paralyse me. Yet when I look at the life of Mary MacKillop, I see a different courage in which all of us can share.  In fact, many people we know live that type of courage on a daily basis. 

All of us have dreams and ideals but life has a way of knocking off not only the shine off our dreams but even of dragging them through the dirt. Then we are tempted to give up.  Courage is not just keeping our dreams but also adapting them to the new circumstances.  Mary had that courage.  Through rejection by her Church, problems within her own community, tragedy in her family, illness in her life, she carried on with her belief that simple, good education into the love of God and basic skills could transform the life of the poor.  By the time she died, she and her sisters had become a force for transformation across two countries. 

Most peoples’ dreams revolve around love and making life better for the people they love.  Yet the circumstances of daily life seem to work against our ability to love.  Illness, unemployment or too much work, the stresses of caring for different people or troublesome neighbours can undermine the buoyancy of our hearts. It is then we need the courage of a Mary MacKillop which faces these cares squarely and continues the dream of love.

Ever-loving God, your Holy Spirit inspires the dreams deep in my heart, especially the ones to love deeply my family.  May Mary MacKillop’s example inspire me us into the ways of faithful love, especially when life gets tough.  We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

After much discussion, data gathering and discernment, the Catholic Education Office has announced that Before School Care will commence at St Joseph's Wandal in Term 4, 2019. Before School Care will operate much the same as After School Care and Vacation Care, and will operate Monday - Friday 6.30am-8.30am.  We have determined that many families have a need to be at work before 8.15am and this necessitates dropping their children off before the supervised time of 8.15am. We are pleased to be able to offer this service to our school community. Once operational, any students arriving early will be expected to be at Before School Care where formal supervision will be provided. Our OSHC coordinator, Hailey Svensen, can answer any questions you may have and can be reached on 0429316543.

In preparation for their increased hours of operation, the OSHC will move to the Performing Arts Room (the classroom near the stage, under the big shed). This will allow the service to remain permanently set up.

As of next week, School Secretary, Mrs Suzanne Fisher, will be dropping back to three days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Suzanne is returning to study and will no doubt be kept very busy with her study commitments on her days 'off.' Mrs Rachel Ganter will be working in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mr Stuart Douglas will be taking on Mrs Ganter's Thursday classroom support hours for the remainder of the year. 

 A reminder that tomorrow, 8 August, we celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross. As the foundress of the Josephite Sisters, Mary MacKillop and her story play an important part in the charism, history and identity of our school. Every second year, the entire school spends the day at the Rockhampton Heritage Village, celebrating mass and joining in a variety of activities to experience life as the early pioneering Sisters of Saint Joseph did. Thanks to our generous P and F, this excursion, and all associated costs, are free of charge to our families. The bus will leave school at 8.45am and will return at approximately 2.45pm. Sport Uniforms or house-coloured shirts may be worn with school hats. Pizza orders closed midday yesterday and unfortunately late orders can not be taken. Parents are welcome to join us for Mass and the ball games, before we move onto our activities.

Our school already has guidelines in place around the use of devices such as phones, however this is a constantly changing environment. The school board met to discuss the school’s position on wearable technology (for example smart watches). A number of concerns were discussed, including issues stemming from privacy breaches, as well as the distraction they pose to students in the learning environment.

 Therefore, we have decided that wearable technology devices are not appropriate for students at St Joseph’s Wandal to wear. If students present at school wearing with these devices, they will be confiscated and returned home at the end of the school day.

 We thank you for your cooperation. As always, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask.

 Our Year 6 camp is only 6 more sleeps away. Supervision on the camp will be provided by school staff, Mrs Lauren Riley, Mrs Andrea Rutherford and OSHC staff member Mr Jourdan Novak. Additional supervision of activities is also provided by the qualified and trained Chaverim staff. Bunk allocations and another copy of the packing list will be distributed, via the school app, today.

Reminder: Any medication which you send on camp must be accompanied by an Administration of Medication to Student Form and MUST have a pharmacy label attached. These forms should have been handed in last Friday. It would be appreciated if all medications were handed in by Friday 9 August.

Camp payments are due for finalisation. If you are experiencing difficulty meeting this payment  please contact either myself or Kathy Fishburn in the school office as soon as possible.

Reminder: As of this week, only a small number of items will be available on Wednesdays from the tuckshop. This is due to the shortage of helpers on Wednesdays. The full tuckshop menu will still be available, as per normal, on Fridays.

If you would like to offer your assistance, please call Mrs Gail Brady on 49362421.

This year, Father’s Day will be on Sunday, 1 September. On Friday, 30 August we will have our Father’s Day gift stall. Between now and then please donate a gift to the value to $5-$10 for the stall. On the day, a special gift may be purchased for dad, or other significant person in your child’s life for $5. If your child wishes to purchase two gifts, you will be required to donate two gifts please. 

We are trialing a new way to  organise volunteers for school activities and events. Please click on the following web link (or copy it into your web browser if clicking doesn't work) to go to the signup sheet:

volunteersignup.org/7A44F

To sign up, just follow the instructions on the page. It only takes a few seconds to do.

Thank you for volunteering! (If you have any queries about this, please email P and F Executive member, Emma Singleton at wandalhightea@gmail.com)

Have courage and patience and God will help you in all things.

Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop 1899

 Next Thursday, 15 August, Years Four and Five students will be travelling to St Joseph’s Cathedral to celebrate mass. Bishop Michael McCarthy will be presiding. We will be joined by students of the other South-side Catholic primary schools as well as the Year 7 students from The Cathedral College.  Students will depart school at 9 am on Thursday and return to school by bus at approximately 12 midday.

If you would like to carry a flag in the Multicultural Mass on Sunday 25 August at 9.30am please let Mrs Starr know.  

On Thursday 8 August no instrumental lessons will occur as we depart school at 8.35 am in preparation for St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Feast Day.

A reminder that Children’s Liturgy is held most Sundays at St Joseph’s Cathedral at 9.30am during the school term.   Please click on the link to access Mass times.

10 – 18 August

The theme this year is ‘Destination Moon’.  This theme is a way for teachers and their students to discover past missions to the Moon and space programs that have solved some of the seemingly unsolvable problems—and current and future space programs, operations and missions. Many of these use big picture thinking in science to solve problems, and technology, engineering and mathematics to design new solutions. This will help forge our future paths in the areas of space operations, space science, Earth observations, positioning systems and communications.  Watch for news from classrooms celebrating this important week.

Join us next week at our Book Week Character Parade on Monday during assembly.  We look forward to seeing our students celebrate their favourite books with inexpensive, homemade costumes (and hopefully a copy of the book that can be shared in classrooms).   

Congratulations to our Award Winners. Follow this link details 

Please follow this link for term dates.

Please see follow link for this week's draw.

As Kellie has mentioned already, OSHC are very excited to be announcing that over the September school holidays, we will be relocating from the Hall to the Performing Arts room allowing us to have a permanent, set up space to begin Before School Care (BSC) at the beginning of Term 4!

BSC will operate from 6:30am – 8:30am each morning, Monday to Friday. Our mornings will consist of inside play, outside play, painting, construction and more! Your children will have the option to have breakfast upon arrival at BSC with toast and a variety of cereals available each morning until 8am. At 8am OSHC staff will begin to prepare children for the day ahead, ensuring they have everything packed in their bags. At approximately 8:15am, one staff member will take year students in Years1-6 to their classroom and assist them with the unpacking of bags or carrying of items if required, the other staff member will take the preps to their classrooms at 8:20am, assisting them with unpacking their bags and checking students in with their teachers.

If you require BSC for your child/children, please be sure to fill out a BSC booking form.  These are being emailed out to current OSHC families this week, with hard copies able to be collected from OSHC staff at the hall of an afternoon.

REMINDERS:

·         This Thursday (8th August 2019) is our ‘Pumped Sports’ incursion. Please ensure you have filled out the permission form that was emailed to you, and hand back to OSHC staff by midday, Thursday the 8th of August at the latest (this can also be scanned and emailed). OSHC staff will accompany the children to the incursion before heading back up to the room for afternoon tea at 4pm.

·         If your child does not attend the service on a regular basis, please remember that with the new CCS system, enrolments are now ceased after eight weeks of non-attendance and you will receive a letter from Centrelink. This is nothing to be concerned about as when your child attends after this has occurred, their enrolment is re-activated by OSHC staff and all you are required to do is to re-confirm their enrolments on your MyGov accounts for your CCS to be applied to your fees.

If you require further information or have any concerns regarding any of the above information, please contact the service coordinator to discuss.

Hailey Svensen

OSHC Coordinator 

Please see attached link 

Please be advised there will be no Netball training next week.

Just a short note to let you know that we are once again experiencing difficulties with head lice.  They have spread throughout your child’s year level so it is timely to check your children’s hair thoroughly and apply the appropriate treatment if necessary.

If all families carry out this task within the next day, we may have some hope of eradicating the head lice.

Many thanks for your assistance in this matter.

A helpful resource on treatment:

http://www.health.qld.gov.au/headlice/