Week 5 Term 1 2025

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we wrap up Week 5 of Term One, I am filled with pride as I reflect on the tremendous growth and enthusiasm our students have demonstrated. It’s hard to believe how quickly the first month of school has passed.

At St Joseph’s, we continue to emphasise the importance of learning, with opportunities linked in with living the values of our faith.  An example last week was where I was very fortunate to attend Carinya Aged Care Centre with our Year 3 students, along with Mrs Hay and Mrs Murphy.  Our students put on a beautiful liturgy for the residents, which was very moving, and then our students and the residents spent time interacting with each other.  Happy faces and conversations filled the room, and it was a great reminder of the importance of putting our faith into action.    

We come together regularly as a school community most mornings and these are beautiful occasions.  Each assembly brings a different focus, with intertwining of encouraging our students to continue to live out the virtues of kindness, respect, and responsibility. These virtues are not just words on a page, but the foundation of who we are as a Catholic school community.

Upcoming Events: We have several exciting events coming up in the next few weeks:

• St Joseph’s School Picnic - We would love to see as many families as possible at this event next Tuesday, March 4 at 6.00pm.  Pancakes will be served by the School Board to mark ‘Shrove Tuesday’ and the beginning of the special Season of Lent.  This is a wonderful opportunity to meet new families and connect with staff.
• Lent - As we enter the season of Lent, we are invited to embark on a special journey of spiritual growth, self-reflection, and renewal. This sacred time in the Church calendar, beginning on Ash Wednesday (March 5) and lasting for 40 days, calls us to deepen our relationship with God and our commitment to living out the teachings of Jesus Christ. For our school community, Lent provides an important opportunity to reflect on our faith, practice acts of charity, and embrace the spirit of conversion.
• Professional Development Day for Staff: Friday, 7 March - These are vital opportunities for our school to dedicate a day to enhancing the skills and knowledge of our teaching and support staff, ensuring they are well-equipped to continue providing high-quality education for your children. On this day, students will not be in school. We recognize that this may cause an inconvenience for some families, and we appreciate your understanding and support. We are committed to continuous growth and improvement, and we firmly believe that investing in our staff's professional development directly benefits our students’ educational experiences.Clare OSHC will be available during the day if require, please book with them directly.

As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Together, let us continue to make this year a year of growth, joy, and faith.

Wishing you all a blessed weekend.

Joe

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM 2025

The Sacramental Program in the Sevenhill Parish is run through both St Joseph’s School and the Parish.

Reconciliation, First Eucharist, Confirmation: Enrolments

Information about the 2025 Sacrament Program went out to students in Years 3 and 4 as a hard copy this week. There are also copies available in the Front Office.

An enrolment form for the Sacraments of Reconciliation (Year 3 up) and Confirmation and Communion (Yr 4 up) can be accessed at this link: https://forms.office.com/r/gMzSXz8TWh

The celebration for Confirmation and First Holy Communion will be held on Sunday July 27 at 10am at St Aloysius Church, Sevenhill. Reconciliation will be celebrated mid-week in late Term 3 at St Michael’s Church, Clare.

SHROVE TUESDAY

Shrove Tuesday, in the Christian calendar, is the day before Ash Wednesday.

“Shrove” comes from the Roman Catholic practice of confessing one’s sins and being absolved of them, or “shriven”.

Shrovetide feasts were designed to use up the food that could not be eaten during the Lenten fast.

Shrove Tuesday is also known as 'Mardi Gras' (French for 'Fat Tuesday'). Many countries around the world hold carnivals on this day. This year, Shrove Tuesday falls on Tuesday March 4.

Ash Wednesday and Beginning of Lent

Ash Wednesday will be commemorated on Wednesday 5 March.

On Ash Wednesday, ashes from the burnt leaves from the year before are placed on people’s foreheads in the sign of the cross (due to Covid, this year they will be lightly sprinkled on students heads). This shows that we are sorry for our sins and reminds us to live the way Jesus wants.

When we are marked on the forehead, Father or the leader says,

‘Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel’ or,

‘Repent and follow the Gospel’

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Church season of Lent.  Lent is a 40-day period of fasting and reflection in preparation for Easter. During this time, we focus on the promises made at baptism. All of this prepares us for celebrating Christ’s death and resurrection.

If you are visiting classrooms or the Church, you will notice that the linens and vestments are purple as a sign of penance. On the fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare) the colour is pink.

Lent is a special time when we stop and think about how we can play our part in God’s hope for a world that is fair, just and peaceful. We think about our relationship with God, and how through serving others we can grow closer to him.

During Lent, classes will learn the stories of some vulnerable people from around the world. You may hear your children talking about Caritas ‘Project Compassion’ and it’s 2025 theme to ‘Unite against Poverty.’

What is Project Compassion?

Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion invites you to Unite Against Poverty this Lent. Project Compassion mobilises Australians to raise much-needed funds to help alleviate poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity in the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in the world.

Schools, parishes and the wider Australian public participate in a diverse range of fundraising and awareness raising activities and events to support Caritas Australia’s programs both overseas and here in Australia with our First Australian partners.

Project Compassion is an extraordinary demonstration of the faith, empathy and generosity of our supporters.

Next week, your children will bring home a Project Compassion money box. During Lent, they may opt to forgo something like treats and put a small amount of money into their fundraising box instead. We will ask for these to be returned in Week 10 of this Term.

You can learn more about Project Compassion at the link below:

https://www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/

During Lent, we also think about the changes we can make in our lives, to be God’s hands, God’s love and God’s mercy in our world, ensuring justice as we ‘unite against poverty’ this Lent. 

God Bless,

Helen Hay

Assistant Principal- Religious Identity and Mission

One month into 2025, our students are settling into their new classes and we have already seen some exciting “out-of-the-classroom” learning, sporting and academic success.

Sporting success

Ms Carling, Mr Slattery and Ms Stockman were given the task of organising the Mid-North Interschool Swimming Carnival. The day was a great success; our students did the school proud, the carnival was well-organised and there was extensive parent involvement in the running of the day. Our students were highly successful in their races, it was impressive to see them competing and trying their hardest.

Lot 21

Braille Competition

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I attended a Braille Challenge in Adelaide. I went down on Sunday morning with Dad because I had blind cricket training on Sunday. We then stayed overnight to go to the Braille Challenge on Monday, at 10 am.

I was competing against other blind people from all over the state. We were put into age categories to do four challenges, there were two comprehension challenges, a spelling challenge and a proof-reading challenge. We had 25 minutes for each challenge and I came first out of the 6 other people in my age category.

The prizes I won were a mug, a $50 gift voucher to spend at different  shops, a Guide Dog teddy and a pair of Guide Dog socks.

On Monday night we all had dinner together. The best thing was when we went to get icecream from a really cool shop called 48 Flavours, I chose honey and macadamia and it was fantastic!

I had a great two days, it was good to do something different and meet up with people I haven't seen for a while.

by Patrick

These first few weeks, the Middle School students have been working hard to create leadership speeches to convince their peers to vote them in to a leadership role. Last Wednesday, the Year 8s confidently stood up in front of the Middle School (plus the Year 6s), reading out their speeches. At St Joseph’s, we use a parliamentary system in our Middle School; this allows students to have a taste of how leadership may work in the real world. Well done to the following Year 8 students for their election to ministerial positions:

On Monday, Week 4, St Joseph's hosted the Lower North Swimming Carnival at the Valleys. It consisted of 6, teams. Burra/Eudunda, Clare High, Kapunda, Riverton, Balaklava and St Joseph's. It was a beautiful day and we came away with some individual medals.

U13 boys age champion - Cody             U13 girls runner up - Tess

 U14 boys age champion - Jackson       U14 girls age champion - Alliahna

U15 girls age champion - Sophie 

Cody also broke the U13 Boys Record for 50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 25m Buterfly

Last Friday, the Year 8s and 9s traveled to Parliament House and the Art Gallery of South Australia. In Parliament, we visited both houses and discussed the pictures representing women’s rights to vote. This was displayed in tapestry, with an apron saying that “women belong in the house”, meaning Parliament House. We had a heated role-play of women’s right to vote, then headed to the Art Gallery. Here we did workshops and discovered the importance of tapestry and how things were recycled into types of protest and a way of communicating through art. The first workshop was making collages. We looked at a specific artist called Frida Las Vegas. We used bright bold colours with black bold outlines for our collages. The next workshop was floral drawings. We studied wallpaper, pictures and landscapes. There were many different pieces of art and statues. Next, we went to the exhibition downstairs, showcasing lots of different fabric art. There were many artifacts that were quite interesting and educational. Personally, my favorite was the dresses and fashion.

The bus ride home was quiet, with lots of naps taken. Thanks to our teachers, we have a different understanding of art, and the history and importance behind it.

• By Georgia 

Learning to read and becoming an independent reader is a process of incremental skill building. The act of reading involves two main processes – decoding and comprehension. Decoding is where we learn that letters represent sounds and how to blend them to make words. This is what we do in Sounds-Write lessons from Reception to Year 2.

Once your child can decode, they can read words independently. It takes a while to learn all the letters that represent sounds, but decoding means you can do exactly that – make a word from the letter code. Does that mean they can read? Not yet! From Year 3 to Year 6 we learn about morphology and etymology – how words are built and where they come from.

Comprehension is the other big part of reading and is something we can all work on for life! Understanding what you read, making connections to the text, predicting what happens next, making repairs to your reading fluency, and thinking about what the author is implying, are all comprehension strategies that take time to develop, and need to be worked on regularly. Talking about books with your child can really help to strengthen their comprehension skills. 

So, if children are doing all this at school, how can you help at home? If your child is learning to read, remember that there are “learn to read” books that are designed for purpose of teaching reading and “recreational books”, self-selected from the library. “Learn to read” books (often called decodables) are teaching tools with high-frequency words, simple sentences and graphemes the students have learned to help decode the text. The books from the library are self-selected, recreational reads and help young people develop an emotional attachment to reading and develop lifelong reading habits. Students need both – the readers for revising specific reading skills, and the library books for sharing a love of reading with an adult.

 And once your child can read, spending time discussing characters, plots, and storylines, or interpreting information and expanding knowledge is a fantastic way to develop comprehension. If you have any questions about how your child is progressing in their reading journey, please contact their classroom teacher or come and chat to me.