From the Principal's Desk

Dear Members of St Joseph’s Family,

As we inch ever closer to the end of the school year, I am providing some reminders to add to your diary:
   Step Up Day – Monday 29 November Primary campus 9.00am-11.00am
   Presentation Night – Wednesday 1 December 6.00pm for Years 1-12
   Year 6 Final Assembly – Friday 3 December 9.00am
   Primary Final Christmas Assembly and Sausage Sizzle – Friday 10 December 12 noon
   Secondary Advent Assembly (2022 Student Leaders) – Friday 10 December 9.00am

Presentation Night

All students from Years 1-12 are required to attend our annual whole school Presentation Night on Wednesday 1 December being held at the Northam Recreation Centre.  This event begins at 6:00pm sharp and runs for approximately 1.5 hours and it is our opportunity to showcase the Award winners from each year level, the School Choir and the School Bands.  All students from Years 1 to 10 are to wear their summer uniform, while students in Years 11 and 12 are to wear their winter uniform, including tie.

Christmas Giving

This year we are again going to be collecting Christmas gifts for children in need at our Presentation Night event.  Families are asked to donate a gift for a child or children and bring it unwrapped but in a gift bag, labelled with the gender and approximate age of the child. These should be placed around the Christmas tree on the night.  Some of these will be passed onto Father George to distribute within the Shire of Northam and some will be distributed to other agencies to pass on to those who need them the most.

Non-perishable goods.  Primary classes and Secondary homerooms are asking for donations of non-perishable food items which will be donated to St Joseph’s Care and will be used to make food hampers for people within Northam to collect close to Christmas.  If you haven’t already, we ask you to dig deep for those in need.

Secondary Reward Day

Today, our Secondary campus emptied out as the students and staff took part in a variety of activities both in Northam and Perth, as a culmination of the points earnt this Semester.  Our highest reward, for a small group, was to spend the day at Adventure World.  The next highest was an ice skating adventure.  Another group spent the day at the pool and the Rec Centre, while a small group also spent the day taking part in games and activities at school.  Thank you to Mr Vernede for coordinating the positive reward system this year. We look forward to exciting new rewards in 2022.

Staffing news

Departing staff:  Mr Ben Hewitt, Ms Rebecca Drudi, Mr David Selvam, Ms Kelsey Siegert, Mrs Debra Palmer and Mrs Mahwish Ahmed are all leaving us at the end of the year.  Mrs Monique Ball will be leaving very early in 2022 to begin her maternity leave.

Incoming teaching staff:  Mrs Samantha Rodgers, Mrs Harpreet Kaur, Ms Mary Clark, Ms Hayley Read, Mrs Rebecca Curtis, Mrs Carroll Kowald, Ms Carol Farson, Mr Steve Rigney.  Sr Ana, Mrs Tara Ryall, Mrs Kylie Gorbig, Mrs Michelle Rensen and Mrs Melissa Hepburn are all joining us as new Education Assistants across the school.  Mrs Caroline Marriott is joining us as the new VET/Careers Advisor at Secondary and will also have a teaching role.

Mandatory Vaccinations

Adults – All staff, anyone whose work brings them to the school and regular volunteers at the school will be required to be fully vaccinated by 31 January 2022.  This is not a school decision - it is a requirement under the State Government’s Health Order.

Students – We have had several phone calls from people asking if we will be requiring students to be vaccinated.  The short answer is that there are no current health orders in place involving students, therefore there is no requirement for them to be vaccinated.  The School will be required to follow any mandated Health Orders which are passed by the Government.

God Bless

Andrea Woodgate
Principal 

Primary News                                            

Week 7

 

As we approach the end of the year, and excitement fills the air with all of the exciting events planned for our children over the next two weeks, let us not forgot that we also enter the Season of Advent this Sunday.  Advent is the time leading to Christmas that we are reminded to prepare for and remember the true meaning of Christmas – the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

Year 3 Assembly

Thank you to Year 3 Gold for the preparation and presentation of their energetic Assembly item today.  Well done!  We also congratulate all our students who received a Merit Certificate.

                            

Water Fun Day

On Tuesday, 30 November, students from Pre-Primary to Year 6 will be participating in Water Fun Day.  Water Fun Day is a day to celebrate the end of the year with our Primary students and to thank them all for their great behaviour, hard work and perseverance demonstrated throughout 2021.  Our oval will be turned into a water fun zone with water slides of all shapes and sizes.  There are some reminders for families to ensure that all students stay safe and enjoy the day:

• Students are permitted to wear free dress. Swimwear to be worn to school underneath normal clothing.  All swimwear is to be SunSmart (full-piece bathers for girls) and all students are asked to wear a rashie or t-shirt over their bathers.
• Every child must have a hat, towel and water bottle.
• Thongs or slip on shoes may be worn.
• Sun cream must be applied before school and will be reapplied throughout the day.  If your child is likely to have a reaction to the school supplied sun cream, please supply your own.
• Students will be provided with regular breaks and there will be a Chill-Out Area for any students not wishing to participate or who just need a short break from the fun.
• Students will be supplied with lunch, thanks to our generous P&F.  All children will be supplied with a sausage sizzle, juice box and icy pole.  If your child will not be eating the sausage sizzle, please pack an alternative lunch for them as there will be no canteen on this day.
• Extra snacks for the day are encouraged as children are likely to become hungry, fruit would be the best option.

May you all have a lovely weekend and if you are around Spud Shed on Saturday, pop in and say hello as staff and parents will be running a Sausage Sizzle.

Michelle Christian
Head of Primary

Class in Focus:  Year 1 Gold

In Year 1 Gold, our theme for the term has been ‘Paddock to Plate’.  We loved getting our hands dirty in the first few weeks of term planting some seeds and seedlings.  Check them out in the vegie patch near our classroom!  We can’t believe how much they have grown!  Hopefully, there’ll be some tomatoes or cucumbers to see before the end of term.

We have been very lucky to have some parent volunteers come in to show us how to make mini-pizzas on focaccia bread, brownies and scones.  We have been talking about where each of the ingredients from our cooking comes from and the best part was, of course, taste testing.  Thank you Mrs Pinto, Mrs Chipper and Mrs Battista – the tastings were all delicious!

This week we have been playing lots of games to review what we’ve learnt in Year One this year and have even started some Christmas activities.  Come in and see the decorations we have made on our Christmas tree!

Bonnie Michael
Year 1 Gold Teacher

Kindy + Year 6 Buddy Visit

The Year 6 students were eager to come and visit the Kindy classes before graduating to High School.  Our Kindy students were thrilled to hang out with their big buddies!

            

             

Jessica Morris, Lauren Everett, Cameron Watson & Ben Hewitt
Kindergarten & Year 6 Teachers

Secondary News

Learning Area in Focus:  HASS

All years are currently studying Economics and Business.  Year 7s have a focus on Entrepreneurs, Year 8s are doing a Business Case Study and 9s are learning about budgeting and consumer risk.

The Year 8s were fortunate enough to have a guest speaker this week, Mrs Wendy Parker, who spoke about how a small business operates.  She discussed how to balance the work and working for yourself; costs and resources; the values of local networks and benefits and challenges of running your own business.

We are very grateful for Mrs Parker giving of her time and sharing of her knowledge and experience in discussing small business.

Nicole Parker, Lachlan Patterson & Gerhard Vogel
Secondary HASS Teachers

Learning Area in Focus:  Mathematics

An Investigative Approach in Teaching Maths
Teaching Mathematics through an investigative approach motivates students to discover the use of mathematics in solving real life situations rather than simply memorising different formulae and different mathematics concepts.

The investigative approach (IA) is meaningful and can be very applicable to the everyday lives of students.  Using IA as a teaching strategy makes Mathematics become a problem based and inquiry-based activity that exposes students to open ended investigations. Students also develop the ability to carry out mathematical inquiries, which promotes mathematics based logical thinking.

Within IA, teachers build on the knowledge of learning as a social process and it is best learned if students construct their own ideas. Instead of rote learning, students are given the chance to apply their previous and newly learned mathematics concepts to solve open-ended problems.

                                   

For example, students use and apply their knowledge to find the length and width of a rectangle and a square to minimise or maximise a given area or perimeter.

Using IA, students can use hands-on resources to visualise problems and promotes better communication during group discussions among their peers.

Most importantly, IA makes mathematics fun and interesting to learn.

Rosendo Angeles, Daniel Vernede, Jada Yengkopiong, Mark Bundock, Justin Boccardo, Kylie Wallis, Mark Gargano
Secondary Mathematics Teachers

Upcoming Examinations

It’s only a few weeks away… Year 9 examinations.

Now, as the whole examinations things is still quite new to you, please do consider how you can best prepare for these important assessments, which in many cases are contributing 10 or 20% to overall mark and therefore grade.

Know your enemy, find out as much as you can about the examination.  You need to know how much the examination is actually worth to your overall mark in the subject and also what is the breakdown for the examination, for example, multiple choice, essay, extended response, calculations.

Don’t feel bad if you need to ask for help, everyone needs help at some point.

Before starting to review a subject, it helps to check you have all of the handouts, slideshows, find all your notes and put them in order. Spend a bit of time to read over any course outline and write your own summaries of each textbook chapter or section of the subject guide.

Staying up all night to cram will only stress you out.  It's better to just review what you've already studied and get an early night.  That way you'll be as refreshed as you can be.  On the day of the examination, don’t get psyched out by others, keep to your same routine as much as possible, don’t talk too much to other students before the examination, especially about course material and what they studied or what others think is important, this may throw you off unnecessarily.  Get to school with plenty of time to go to Homeroom and be organised with all the materials you need for the upcoming examination.  Also, very important, ensure you have a decent breakfast. You’ll need it.

Good luck Year 9 students with your preparation and the examinations.

International Chemistry Quiz Results

The results of the 2021 International Chemistry Quiz (ICQ) have been delivered to our school.  The ICQ this year involved around 600,000 students from all over the world, with about 3,300 in WA participating.  Each of our Years 9 and 10 Course A Science students sat the competition on 29 July.

                             

Due to a number of delays at various locations in completing the competition at the regular time of the year, the competition certificates were returned later than usual.  It was well worth the wait though, as all our students received a Participation Certificate, with a few students gaining various Merit awards outlined below:

High Distinction (Top 10% of Australia) :  Adrian Gargano
Distinction (Top 25% of Australia) :  Caleb Monaghan
Credit (Top 40% of Australia) :  Isaac Rutter, Isaac Childs, Elara French, Maggie Halford, Antoinette Matres, Lucy McLaughlin.

Congratulations to all these students who achieved a special award.

Mark Gargano
Acting Head of Secondary/Curriculum Coordinator (Years 7-12)

Our School

2022 School Year

Parents and caregivers are reminded that if your child/children are not returning to St Joseph’s School in 2022, please ensure you let us know as soon as possible and place your intentions in writing addressed to the Principal.  This helps us with forward planning and allows time for interviews and orientation.  We thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Andrea Woodgate

Our P&F

P&F News

The P&F recently held our AGM and it is with great pleasure that I welcome a new President, Lauren Holten and new Vice President Kate Morgan to lead the Committee in the new year.  I have held the position of President over the last 5 years and it's been a wonderful experience and together with a great team behind me, we have accomplished many goals and provided fantastic events focusing on community building, fundraising activities for the students, staff and families and many other things that have all been a positive experience.

Lauren and Kate will be a great asset to the P&F Committee, and I look forward to mentoring them along the way.

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed in some way to the P&F this year.  Look out for upcoming events early next year in the School calendar, newsletter and Facebook page.

Georgia Haddrill
President (2021)

Sincere Thanks
On behalf of the 2022 Committee, I would like to acknowledge and thank outgoing President, Georgia Haddrill, for the incredible energy and enormous contribution given throughout her 5 years on the P&F. 

Lauren Holten
President (2022)

Our Community

Northam Catholic Schools Reunion Lunch

Former Students and Staff of St Joseph’s School (including St Paul’s) are advised of the 2022 Northam Catholic Schools Reunion lunch to be held on Tuesday 22 February 2022 commencing at 11.30am.  The venue is the Graziers Steakhouse, Greenwood Tavern (cnr Warwick Road and Coolibah Drive, Greenwood).  Bring your spouse, partner or BFF along to share in the day.  For more information, please contact David Rushton (0429 999 705 or email: davidrushton2@bigpond.com) or Elizabeth Turner (0409 290 947).  RSVP required by Friday 11 February to David or Elizabeth.

Extend B&ASC - Summer Holiday Program Bookings Open

Extend offers the chance for children to learn and play in a fun, safe and supported environment.  We are now seeking enrolments into the Summer Program and have a great range of exciting, energetic and educational activities lined up.  Our programs develop and nurture young minds with science, cooking, sports and imaginative play.  So, what are you waiting for?  Enrol and book online today!

Enrolling ensures we have the right information to safely care for your child.  Once enrolled you can book into any programs - simply select your school and book sessions as required.  Book for the whole term, or just for one day right up until the last minute.  Book from anywhere, anytime, any day on your mobile or computer.  For more information, visit our Enrolments and Bookings page at extend.com.au.  Book 14 days in advance to receive the Early Bird Rate!

Extend are seeking expressions of interest for an OSHC qualified Service Assistant to work in their Northam centre over the holidays and into 2022.  Information on this position is available from the job board on the careers page at extend.com.au

Ngala Support for Country Families

Ngala supports families with children aged from birth to 8 years of age living in regional, rural and remote Western Australia.  In partnership with WA Country Health Service, we provide free child health parenting information and support to these families through a Facebook group, Live Tutorials, online ‘live chats’, individual consultations and even a Country Dad SMS service!  If you would like to learn more about what Ngala can support you with, call 9368 9342 or email: countryfamilies@ngala.com.au

VacSwim Summer Program

Enrolments are now open for VacSwim swimming lessons during the summer school holidays.  VacSwim offers fun lessons at beach or pool locations.  They are a great school holiday activity and they teach valuable safety skills to help keep your child safe in the water.

If your child is over 13 years old, you can enrol them in VacSwim so they can get their Bronze Medallion during the summer school holidays.  They’ll learn advanced survival, rescue and resuscitation skills to help keep them and others safe in the water.  Applications should be made online at; education.wa.edu.au/vacswim

What is a Meteor Shower?

The Geminids Meteor Shower is generated from asteroid 3200 Phaethon and is one of the most active and best meteor showers to see. This year, the peak of the Geminids Meteor Shower is visible from the 4th to 20th of December with the peak occurring on the 13th and 14th.  The best time to view is after 2am when the moon has set and the skies are dark.

A meteor shower is a time when you see lots of “shooting stars”.  They are the result of Earth passing through the trail of debris left by a comet or other object that has come into our Solar System and orbited around the Sun.

Meteors are caused by debris entering Earth’s atmosphere.  The debris can be as small as a grain of sand and can be travelling between 11 to 73 km/second.  Because of these speeds, as debris travels through earth’s atmosphere, it creates friction which then creates heat, causing the debris to burn up in the atmosphere, producing a bright streak of light to appear briefly in our night sky.

Find out more: https://astrotourismwa.com.au/geminids-meteor-shower/

Uniform Shop 

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

End of Year Clearance
The Uniform Shop is offering an End of Year Clearance sale on superseded uniform items.  Please note these items are not on the current Uniform Listing but may be purchased for wear at home.  A full listing of bargain-priced items and sizes is attached to the newsletter.  Be quick as clearance stock quantities are limited.

Can’t Get To The Shop?

Due to the restriction on the number of families able to access the Uniform Shop at one time, families are encouraged to continue to order uniform items via the online shop.  Please note we no longer 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 operates with the Summer Menu which will continue into Term 1, 2022.  Please check out the daily menu 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.

Our Primary Canteen Helper Roster for the last two weeks of Term 4 is below:   

Primary - Week 8  

Tuesday	30 Nov	Julie Sandrini
Wednesday	1 Dec
Thursday	2 Dec	Julie Sandrini	&  Lisa Hasson
Friday	3 Dec	Desrae Smith

Primary - Week 9

Tuesday	23 Nov	Julie Sandrini
Wednesday	24 Nov
Thursday	25 Nov	Julie Sandrini	&  Lisa Hasson
Friday	26 Nov	Desrae Smith

We continue to seek volunteers to work in the Canteen.  Anyone can volunteer; mums, dads and grandparents are all welcome and appreciated!  We are more than happy to operate with two shifts per day if this is more convenient for volunteers.   If you are able help out, please sign up online at   https://signup.com/go/LQaHAbC

We are both looking forward to working with you.  If you have any queries, you are always welcome to contact us on the number below.

Kerri & Angela
Canteen - 9621 3525