From the Principal's Desk

Dear Members of St Joseph’s Family,

Founders’ Day

For the first time this year, we came together as whole school as we celebrated Founders’ Day.  As we no longer all fit in any of the school buildings, we needed to hold the day at the Rec Centre.  Congratulations to Tully Speyer (Year 12) who made his First Holy Communion as part our School Mass.  It was very special to be a part of his faith journey.  My favourite element of the day was listening to the Founders' Day Awards.  These are given to students who with consistently demonstrate the qualities of our Founders in their interactions with others.  Our recipients this year were all very worthy winners, and we congratulate the following students:

Pre Primary	Hayley Hoffman  and  Kobe James-Stewart
Year 1	Nell Johnston  and  Chase Manners
Year 2	Emma Chipper  and  James Gunter
Year 3	Amelia Joubert  and  Hartleigh Rodgers
Year 4	Annabelle Kreplins  and  Khamirul Orford
Year 5	Xavier Joy  and  Caris Wood
Year 6	Aliza John  and  Rigby Paynter

Year 7	Chance Ducat  and  Ava Jones
Year 8	Alan John  and  Emily Street
Year 9	Nate Blackhurst  and  Zoe Martin
Year 10	Zackary Bowles
Year 11	Kate Gentle  and  Hannah Morrison
Year 12	Jordi Smith  and  Tully Speyer

Thank you also to the parents who were patient in the pick-up line at the end of the day.

Quiz Night

On Friday evening, the P&F Quiz Night was held and was a roaring success.  We were blessed to have incredibly generous sponsors from around the Shire of Northam and we thank them for their support of the School.  Those who attended had great fun and while we are still waiting for a final tally, we are estimating that approximately $6000 will have been raised.  Particular thanks to Amanda McLaughlin and Annette Fox for their organisation of the event and also to all those who assisted on the night.

Year 3 Reconciliation

Many of our Year 3 students made their First Reconciliation last week.  We extend our congratulations to all of those students.

School Photos

School photos were taken on Monday and Tuesday this week.  Orders can now be made online using the shoot key that was on the photo envelope your child should have brought home with them.  Those wishing to pay with cash should return the envelope to school. Full details on payment and orders is provided under Our School section of this newsletter.

Students' Success

As mentioned in an earlier edition of the newsletter, Year 9 student Nathan Collins has been selected to represent Australia in the World Curling Federation Youth Camp in Norway later this year.  On Wednesday this week, Nathan was lucky enough to meet with Mark McGowan and Darren West to discuss the upcoming opportunities for Nathan and the other Australian competitors.

                          

Congratulations to students from Years 6 and 7 who represented ‘Avon’ in the Midlands Regional Development Carnival in Moora over the weekend.  They won 3 out of 4 of their games and ended up winning the shield by percentage - with a win of over 90 points in their last game!  Congratulations to all for doing so well in such wet and windy weather!

Have a wonderful weekend.

God Bless

Andrea Woodgate
Principal 

Faith in Action

Year 8 Camino Cabagniol

On Wednesday 8 May, the Year 8's embarked on their leg of the 'Camino Cabagniol'.  The Year 8 cohort took part in their second leg of the whole Pilgrimage as they continue the entire journey from the town centre of Northam to Fremantle.

The students enjoyed their 18km walk titled 'Like St Joseph', named after the wonderful legacy of our Patron Saint.

Along the way students developed an appreciation of the qualities of St Joseph and the reason why St Emilie deVialar named her Religious Order after the great man.

Our Year 8's arrived at Wooroloo full of pride and they look forward to continuing their Camino journey in 2023.

Parish Soup Kitchen Support

The yearly Soup Kitchen run by St Joseph's Care and the Servite Sisters has kicked off for the winter.  Once again, our Food students have contributed a variety of soups for the needy in our community. 

                                        

We thank the Year 12's, Ms Farson, Mrs O'Driscoll and the Year 10's for the preparation and delivery of the Soup for this worthy cause.

Staff Retreat Day

On Friday 3 June, staff engaged in our Annual Faith PD at the Northam Country Club.  Throughout the day we explored the Marist Theme of 'Known and Loved' in more depth.  Staff engaged in Keynote presentations and a Forum on the effects of the 'digital age.'

We thank Paul Harris from the Marist Faith Formation Team for facilitating the day, along with Nicholette Chew for providing us with an afternoon of Worship Music entertainment.

               

Congratulations is extended to Cherie Trinder and Tim Natkanski for winning the day’s golf challenges!

Lloyd Reidy
Religious Education Coordinator

Parish Sacramental Program

The Parish Sacramental Program Coordinator, Mrs Kathy Pollard, wishes to advise families that the Parish is considering holding the Commitment Ceremony for each Sacrament prior to or at the first parent/student workshop.  If you have any queries regarding the Sacramental Program, please contact Kathy on 0429 685 632.

From the Heads of School

Over the last three days, both Mrs Michelle Christian and Ms Sharon Cusack were invited to join Lloyd Reidy, Cameron Watson and the Year 12s on their Retreat.  We have some incredibly special and very strong students we will shortly be sending out into the world and seeing their strength and resilience gives us confidence in our future.

                                                                       

We would like to thank everyone involved in the wonderful activities at our School over the past two weeks.

Michelle Christian and Sharon Cusack
Head of Primary & Head of Secondary

Primary News                                            

A Busy Few Weeks

We have had so many events taking place over the last two weeks with enthusiastic participation and cooperation by all our students.

Thank you to Ms Carrie Frost for your amazing organisation and flexibility in the rescheduling of the Primary Cross-country events.  Thank you to all of the students for trying your absolute best and we wish everyone who qualified for our Interschool Carnival the best of luck for next week’s interschool event. 

Thank you to Year 5 Gold for their entertaining Assembly this morning.  It was lots of fun!  We congratulate our Merit Award winners for all their hard work in class so far - keep it up!  We also presented medals to those students who placed in each year division in our cross-country events this week.

Bread Bag Collection

A reminder is given to our community that we are participating in the bread bag recycling competition for Primary schools.  Wonder is asking schools to collect empty bread bags.  These cannot be recycled in your normal household recycling but can be recycled as part of this drive.  Collection boxes have been set up at the Canteen, PAC and outside our Kindy and Pre-Primary classrooms.  For every bag that is collected, our School will earn credit points to receive free sporting equipment.  We will be collecting bags from now until September.  Thank you for your support.

I wish you all a safe and relaxing weekend.  

Michelle Christian
Head of Primary

Class in Focus:  Pre Kindergarten

This term we have been learning all about Farm animals and what happens on a Farm.  We have made animal crafts, learnt about how each animal lives on a farm, animal families and what an important role a Farmer has in running a farm.  We have looked at the different machines that farmers use, the types of farms there are and what each animal gives us such as food, transport, and materials.  We have learnt the names of the different animals, mothers, fathers, and babies and what their group is called.  We have practiced their sounds and movements, built our own farms using animals and fences and played games together to work as a team such as "duck, duck goose" and "What’s the time, Mr Wolf?"

                         

We have also had the experience of looking at the big playground and going on the tree swing, climbing the fort, and playing in the large sandpit.  The children have enjoyed visiting the bigger playground and playing together on the climbing steps, tractor, and fort.  We have been practising lining up and counting how many we have in the line and just recently tried moving from one area to another by linking in a line to form a train.

                    

We enjoyed Founders’ Day at School with hot dogs delivered, cupcakes and juice and having the whole school to ourselves!

We are settling in beautifully and making many new friends along the way as well as welcoming new members to our classes.  It has been a wonderful Term 2 for both Pre Kindy Gold and Pre Kindy Blue!

Mary Clark
Pre Kindergarten Teacher

Class in Focus:  Year 4 Gold

At the beginning of the term, we entered the classroom to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song.  This term our focus has been on Pirates, where we have linked this theme across all our Learning Areas.

In English, we developed a greater understanding in writing detailed narratives, where we have investigated extending our sentences and using dialogue correctly.  We learnt how to include more information to our ideas so that our simple sentences would be turned into compound and complex sentences.  We did role plays on our model text ‘Pirate Captain’, practising our use of dialogue prior to writing them down, using descriptive language to describe our characters emotion and actions.  Over the past week, we have learnt about explanation texts, discussing their purpose, and breaking down the structure into our hamburger model.

                    

In Mathematics we have been practising our times tables, multiplication, and division.  We have learnt strategies, such as doubling and halving, to assist us in completing more difficult equations.  We complete a speed test each day on our times tables to improve our fluency.  We love doing our speed tests and trying to best our scores each day!

In HASS, we have explored the connection of land and how the land is utilised by Indigenous communities.  We have watched videos and discussed and compared their ways of survival to our own in modern day.

In Technology, we have been learning about simple machines where we have explored and found the different forces around the classroom and school.  We have looked at the pulley, wheel and axle, lever, wedge, and the inclined plane.  From this, we had a task to build a Pirate ship using only natural materials.  But, there were certain criteria that we needed to include.  Our Pirate ships needed to float as well as include two simple machines.

In Science this term, we have investigated the different types of forces, such as, push and pull, friction, gravity, and air resistance.  Over the term, we have completed a range of experiments putting each of the forces to test.  We completed a friction experiment, measuring the amount of friction needed for a shoe to be pulled along a surface and compared this to other surfaces.  We have also explored air resistance, by dropping our eggs that have tried to be protected, over the balcony.

                    

In Religion, we looked at what makes a healthy relationship and the different types of relationships we have in our lives.  We have explored different strategies to assist us in resolving conflicts within these relationships.  We have begun our Prayer unit, looking into the different ways we learn as well as identifying what type of learner we are.

We are very excited that the term is almost over, and holidays are near!

Nadia Golding
Year 4 Gold Teacher

Primary Cross-country Event

This week, the Primary Cross-country events were held during excellent weather for running.  Thank you to all our students who participated in either the NSSA trial or the 'have a go' race.  It was lovely to see so many joining in and collection points for their respective House.  Especially pleasing was the wonderful display of genuine sportsmanship with spontaneous encouragement for some students who really did find the event challenging.  Medals were presented at the Primary Assembly this morning.

The individual results are:

	Year 1 Boys	Year 1 Girls
1st	Chase Manners	Imogen Smith
2nd	Charlie Elkington	Amber Dempster
3rd	Logan Sandrini	Dempsey Smith
	Year 2 Boys	Year 2 Girls
1st	Caleb Battista	Evie Sharples
2nd	Raylan White	Maia Parker
3rd	Toban Buttersfield	Samantha Ferguson
	Year 3 Boys	Year 3 Girls
1st	Jackson Byfield	Charli Wallis
2nd	Oscar O'Brien	Mia Parker
3rd	Kobe Winch-Buist	Shayla Don
	Year 4 Boys	Year 4 Girls
1st	Liam Ryall	Imogen Wesley
2nd	Jax Don	Evie Retallack
3rd	Kurtis Della	Sophie Oldfield  Indiah de Blecourt
	Year 5 Boys	Year 5 Girls
1st	Logan Collins	Mackenzie Miller
2nd	Cooper Marris	Elise De Barros
3rd	Abel White	Makayla Dymnicki
	Year 6 Boys	Year 6 Girls
1st	Parker Byfield	Maddison Haddrill
2nd	Macus De Barros	Marley Ferguson
3rd	Toby Della	Karis Beaton

We wish our Primary students all the best as they represent our School at the NSSA Cross country carnival this coming Monday.

Carrie Frost
Primary Health & PE Coordinator

Secondary News

Busy Weeks

The past few weeks have been very busy on the Secondary Campus and a brief run-down is provided below.

ViSN Revision Seminars.  Thank you to Mr Gerhard Vogel for taking our Year 12 ViSN students to Aranmore Catholic College in Leederville last Saturday for their examination revision seminars.

West Coast Eagles Football Cup.  A group of Year 9 and Year 10 students took part in a competition on today.  It is wonderful to feel that life is starting to return to normal, especially for our students.

This week, we welcomed back our General students who have been in work placements or in the workforce during the examination break.  Mrs Caroline Marriott, our incredible Career’s Coordinator, has found some wonderful opportunities for our students and it is much appreciated by our students and parents.

The 2023 Year 11 Information Evening will be held in Week 10, 29 June at 6.30pm on Secondary Campus and we are hoping for a big turnout of parents, guardians and their Year 10 students to hear about the wonderful courses and opportunities they will be able to engage in next year.

Sharon Cusack
Head of Secondary

Learning Area in Focus:  Mathematics

Semester Two has seen many classes working on the area of probability.  Essentially, probability is how likely an event is to happen.  The event could be rain on a particular day or a medication treating an ailment.  Predications of these events after often made by simulations or checking previous records.

The Year 8s recently completed an investigation on statistics and probability.  Students had their own randomly generated numbers that corresponded to car colours.  They tabulated and graphed their numbers.  Then they determined the probability of their colour occurring based on their data.

The Year 10s have learnt many concepts including independent events.  An example of an event being independent is when a coin is flipped twice, the second outcome is not influenced by the first outcome.  Often known as the Monte Carlo fallacy.  Year 11s have worked on counting techniques to deal with probability problems that are too large to draw as a tree or a grid.  This would include all the possible arrangements for a four-digit lock code.  Finally, the Year 12s used binomial distributions to solve such problems as the expected number of defective items on an assembly line.

                                        

Examinations have been completed with many students giving a good account of themselves.  Next step is reports, so below is a grid to remind parents and guardians about how our Years 7 to 10 Mathematics courses are named and graded.

Course Name	Course Grading
Year 7 Mathematics	Western Australian curriculum grade equals course grade
Year 8 Mathematics	Western Australian curriculum grade equals course grade
Year 9 Mathematics Course B	Course grade awarded A to E  Western Australian curriculum grade E
Year 9 Mathematics	Western Australian curriculum grade equals course grade
Year 9 Mathematics Course A	Western Australian curriculum grade equals one grade higher than the course grade
Year 10 Mathematics Course B	Course grade awarded A to E  Western Australian curriculum grade E
Year 10 Mathematics	Western Australian curriculum grade equals course grade
Year 10 Mathematics Course A	Western Australian curriculum grade equals one grade higher than the course grade

Daniel Vernede, Kylie Wallis, Syona Fernandez, Sharon Cusack, Justin Boccardo, Jada Yengkopiong and Mike Hillyer (HoLA)
Mathematics Learning Area Staff

Learning Area in Focus:  Technologies

In Design and Technology, the students have been working on various woodwork projects.  These include a toddler’s toys, knife blocks, tool caddies, bedside and coffee tables.  Many students have produced high quality projects.  This is extra impressive given it has happened in a backdrop of supply chain issues for many building products.  The Design and Technology team is happy to see the arrival of the new panel saw.  This will help increase the speed of timber cutting, further improving the supply of materials to the students.

Food Science and Technologies have seen students produce many dishes including finger foods, burgers, and lasagne.  A variety of techniques have been utilised in their creation.  Caramelisation, baking, and pasta making to just to list a few.  The finished food have been beautifully presented as a smorgasbord or a high tea.  Soups have also been made for the Parish soup kitchen, helping those in need in our community.

In Digital Technology, the Year 7s have just completed their animations in Scratch.  Many of them developed good products.  This was enhanced by the students learning the skills provided by the video tuition.  The Years 9 and 10 new option of Digital Technology have now started using Arduinos.  These microcontrollers can be used to make many electronic devices such as a light sensor, tilt detector and a windscreen wiper.

Carol Farson, Nicki Parker, Steve Rigney, Ryan Sinclair and Mike Hillyer (HoLA)
Technologies Learning Area Staff

Secondary da Vinci Club

The Secondary da Vinci Club is back into the swing of things after the two-week break due to examinations.  The Years 7 to 10 students are now working through activities and exercises relating to each of the ten separate academic challenges that will be required to be completed at the competition.

A part of these practice sessions leading up to next term’s event, which means these weeks are crucial in getting the team dynamics right and learning how to work in a group of eight, delegating tasks, assisting and checking each other’s progress, identifying each other’s academic strengths and offering support when it is needed.  This means for those students who have been offered a place in our da Vinci Club, attendance is important!  In fact, we expect you to be there every week.  If we think of the club like a sporting team, you need to train, often no attendance at training means no play on the weekend.

We look forward to a full contingent in upcoming weeks training for the annual da Vinci Decathlon events.

Examinations

All Years 9 to 12 students have now completed all examination requirements and have received their results.  Viewing the score is the first part of the review process, identifying why it does not say 100% is the next part.  For those that achieved some measure of success, enjoy the feeling and celebrate the victory.  If you did not receive what you were expecting, or possibly what is seen as an appropriate score, then going deeper to find out why, is what needs to happen.

Analyse and be critical.  All teachers and classes will have or are about to review these important assessments, you need to examine closely the areas that let you down.  Often these areas will be further developed throughout the year, requiring a greater depth of understanding.  Sorting out any misunderstandings now is vital to this ongoing process, please do not just leave it and hope that it goes away.

If you spent time preparing notes and studying for the examinations and did not quite achieve your hopes and dreams, having a plan to attain those hopes and dreams is required, improvement will not just happen by itself.

For those that achieved great scores and for those that truly achieved at their personal best, well done, but there are always little opportunities to improve, search these out and aim for continued success, highlighting all your gifts and talents.

Mark Gargano
Years 7-12 Teaching & Learning Coordinator

Student Success

Congratulations to Oscar Webster for successful completion of his Work placement.  Oscar completed 55 hours in the workplace, working 1 day a week for 10 weeks, and completed his skills journal following his placement.  These hours will be banked and converted to WACE equivalent units and reported when Oscar is in Year 11.

                                                                                     

Many thanks to Trevor Wibberley at Frameswest for supporting this valuable program.

Caroline Marriott
VET Coordinator

Eagles School Boys Cup

On Thursday of Week 8, a group of Years 8, 9 and 10 boys travelled to Northam Rec Centre to compete in the Eagles School Boys Cup. This team had a very successful performance and brought back the Eagles Cup!

                                            

Congratulations to Morgan Davis who was awarded Best on Ground for the tournament.  A big thank you to Ryan Sinclair and Michelle O’Driscoll for their assistance in making it all possible.

Sports Achievement Award Winners

Congratulations to Lily Parker for becoming the first recipient of the Sports Achievement Award for 2022.  Lily competed at the ACC Cross Country competition on 2 June at Perry Lakes Reserve.  Lily set herself the goal of finishing in the top 30 students for her age category, not only did she run a massive Personal Best completing the 4km run in 16 minutes 30 seconds, Lily also placed 5th and won herself a spot on the ACC All-Stars representative team.  Congratulations, Lily!  

                                        

Week 8’s Sports Achievement Award goes to Seth Clark.  Seth scored eight of his team’s 9 goals in the U16’s Toodyay team.  He was instrumental in his team’s 10 point win against Merredin.  Seth also plays for the Toodyay League team weekly and has been awarded Best on Ground on numerous occasions this week.  Well done, Seth!

                                                          

 

Adrienne Suckling
Head of Learning Area:  Health & Physical Education

Our School

School Photographs - Payment Options

Fotomakers Australia apologises for the inconvenience surrounding the delayed delivery and issue of their pre-order envelopes and now advise our families of the following options available to pay for your photos:

1. For individual and/or sibling photos, ring 1300 876 920 and quote St Joseph’s School Northam, your children’s name and year group.
    This method will require payment by Credit Card.
2. Return your pre-order envelope to the School by Monday 27 June including payment – cash or credit card details.
3. Any Sibling photos not paid for by Friday 1 July will receive a ‘Second Chance to Order’ form.  This form will have an icon sized image
    for you to view prior to placing an order.  Photos ordered using this option will be posted directly to your nominated address and not
    returned to the School.  Fotomakers Australia will cover the cost of postage and handling for these orders.

Fotomakers Australia
1300 876 920

School Calendar

We advise the school community that the 2022 School Calendar has temporarily gone missing from our website and we are investigating the reason for this.  In the meantime, a PDF version of the 2022 term by term calendar is available from the Class Information page and also attached to the newsletter.  There have been several events updated so please do check this for upcoming events that may involve your family - in particular, the 2023 Year 11 Information Evening is now being held on 29 June at 6.30pm.

Andrea Woodgate

Uniform Shop

Opening Times:                             Mondays - 3.15pm to 4.45pm       
                                                      Thursdays - 2.45pm to 4.15pm    

Families wishing to access the Uniform Shop are advised that the online shop is the preferred method of ordering uniforms.  If items are required to be tried on, then an appointment should be made by contacting the Primary Admin on 9621 3500.  We are continuing to limit numbers in the Uniform Shop so an appointment is preferred.  Please note we can not accept email or telephone orders.

Please also keep in mind when ordering, that your items will go home Tuesday and Friday of each week, as Monday and Thursday are the days the Shop is open.  When placing an order via the Online Shop, it will appear on a report the following day.  For example; if you place your order on Monday, the report issues on Tuesday which means it will not be organised until Thursday and so go home on Friday.

Michelle James 
Primary - 9621 3524

Canteen News 

Canteen Support - Volunteers Required

The Primary Canteen has available to families the easy 'birthday treat' for your child's class.  We are offering a choice of a birthday bucket of icy poles (value is $30), bucket of chocolate frogs (value is $30) or a bucket of lollypops (value is $20).  Each bucket contains a birthday badge, two balloons for the birthday child and enough icy poles, chocolate frogs or lollypops for the children in that particular classroom.  These birthday treats should be ordered at least two days in advance and can be ordered through the Online Shop.  (Please note that the bucket will need to be returned to Canteen and is not included in the price) 

The Canteen is now operating with the Winter Menu with Soup back on Friday's menu.  You are encouraged to check out the daily options before ordering lunches.  If we experience connectivity issues with the online ordering, please revert to using lunch bags to place orders for that day. 

Recess or snack items ordered online are available for students to collect from the Canteen at their Recess break.  Milo pops and icypoles can be collected from the Canteen following the second lunch bell.  

As our School grows so does the number of lunches that we supply daily.  Due to high demand on our quality food and service we need helpers to ensure that our kids get their lunches on time.  In order to function to our highest potential, we ideally need 2 or more  volunteers a day.  Volunteering is a great way to teach your kids about giving, modelling them for the future.  Also, every shift you do at our School helps you towards qualifying for a Parent Participation discount on your annual fees.  We would love to welcome you into our fun, and busy environment and see the smiles on your children’s faces when they see you in their school.  This year is a busy year and we would love to have some new faces in our canteen.  If you are able help, please sign up online at   https://signup.com/go/LQaHAbC

Our Primary Canteen Helper Roster for the next two weeks of Term 2 is below.  Volunteers are urgently needed so please consider offering an hour or two one morning.   

Primary - Week 9  

Tuesday	21 Jun	Lisa Hasson
Wednesday	22 Jun	no volunteer
Thursday	23 Jun	no volunteer
Friday	24 Jun	no volunteer	Soup of the day:  Minestrone

Primary - Week 10

Tuesday	28 Jun	Lisa Hasson
Wednesday	29 Jun	no volunteer
Thursday	30 Jun	no volunteer
Friday	1 Jul	no volunteer	Soup of the day:  Chicken & Sweet Corn

I look forward to working with you.  If you have any queries, you are always welcome to contact the Canteen on the number below.

Angela
Canteen - 9621 3525 

Our P&F

Quiz Night

Last Friday night, the P&F held a Quiz Night at the Rec Centre.  It was a sold-out event, with everyone having a fantastic time laughing, playing games and challenging their general knowledge.  Our community is amazing – with so many prizes and silent auction items donated to help us fundraise for our school.  Special thanks to Amanda McLaughlin and Annette Fox for all their hard work in organising the event and running the scoring table on the night.  Also, our sincere thanks go to Tim Natkanski, Sharon Cusack, Esther Bliss, and everyone else who contributed to make the night a success.

We have recently made some purchases for the school, which we are excited to share with you.  The Committee have purchased four new 3m x 6m gazebos, with the roof covers being in the House colours.  These will be great for additional shade for carnivals/sporting events for our school.  We have also purchased a Thermomix for our Primary Canteen, to help Angela Sandrini with her amazing menu choices.

If parents have an hour to spare after dropping off their kids, or between 11.30am and 12.50pm, Angela would appreciate any help you can offer her.  The number of lunch orders coming in is the highest it's ever been, which means more food to get ready.  You can also have these volunteer hours marked off on your Parent Participation Card, which deducts $100.00 from your school fees.  Your kids will also love seeing their parents at School!

Our next meeting is this coming Monday 20 June at 6.00pm and will be held in the Secondary Campus Board Room, located in the new Administration building.

See our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1764507137145087/?ref=share for more updates.

Lauren Holten
President

Our Community 

Extend B&ASC

Extend offers after-school care during term time.  During Term 2, we have a number of fun activities on offer including arts and craft, cooking, a talent show and fun games.  Check out these by visiting: www.extend.com.au/families/initiatives/.  Enrolling is easy and ensures we have the information to safely care for your child so enrol now and book via extend.com.au.