Volume 41 Week 11 Term 4Volume 41 Week 11 Term 4Volume 41 Week 11 Term 4

Tuesday 16 December 2014Tuesday 16 December 2014Tuesday 16 December 2014

11 Perry Street Alstonville NSW 2477 ( PO Box 265 ) Phone: 02 6628 1009 Fax: 02 6628 1508 www.alstplism.catholic.edu.au Email: sjpalst@lism.catholic.edu.au

In Brief…

Playground Clean-up: S3

A reminder … Students are to be collected at 12 noon on the last day of school, Friday 19 December

DECEMBER

Wednesday 17 December—Whole

School Mass @ 9.30am in McCarthy Hall. All Welcome

Wednesday 17 December—Year 6

last day & Farewell Dinner

Friday 19 December —Last day of

Term 4. School finishes at noon.

2015

JANUARY

Wednesday 21 January—Uniform

Shop open from 10am to noon

Friday 23 January—Uniform Shop

open from 10am to noon

Wednesday 28 January—School

resumes for Years 1—6

Wednesday 28 January—Best Start

Kinder by appointment

Thursday 29 January—Best Start

Kinder by appointment

Friday 30 January—Best Start

Kinder by appointment

FEBRUARY

Tuesday 3 February—Kinder start

Tuesday 3 February—Morning Tea

for parents @ 9.15am

Friday 6 February—Polding

Summer Trials

Coming Events

Messages from the Principal

Dear Parents & Carers,

ALWAYS REMEMBER:

The greatest gift you’ll ever own is

not found in the shops or under your

Christmas tree. It is found in the

hearts of your

family and true

friends.

Happy Christmas

from all of the

staff of St Jo-

seph’s Alstonville.

We thank each

and every one of

you for entrusting

us with the care

and education of

your precious

children.

Have a safe and happy holiday.

We will see you in 2015.

To those families who are leaving us

we wish you good luck in your new school.

A special goodbye to the following Year 6

students as they journey to High School:

Imogen Boyce

Elsa Brown

Andrea Chapman

Coby Cook

Sam Donatsch

Imogen Dwyer

Elise Hatchman

Stella Hayes

Thomas Johnson

Lara Leslie

Luke Oates

Ciara O’Sullivan

Lee Pagotto

Andrew Payne

Sophie Pereira

Breanna Rhodes

Declan Robinson

Joshua Simmons

Joseph Todd

Nicholas Veldhuis-Reid

Emily Williams

Emily Wright

The Catholic Schools Office will be

moving all student email in the holidays to

a new domain. In order for the CSO to

implement Google Classroom across the

Diocese the current Google Apps for Edu-

cations must be combined into one do-

main. The student’s domain of

username.25@lismstu.catholic.edu.au

will be merged into a single domain

of username.25@lism.catholic.edu.au .

It is important to note that this will be a

new account for students.

So this week we have asked senior stu-

dents to check they do not need to keep

any emails and if so, to email them to an-

other account.

KINDER 2015 Best Start letters have been mailed

to all our Kinder 2015 students this week.

I SEE YOU

Its a time of badges, certificates, med-

als, trophies, recognition, awards,

prizes and 'seeing' of high achieve-

ment. I love seeing the kids that shine

at this time of year - a big high heart-

felt round of applause to you. You so

deserve it for the effort you have put

in. But this message is for the kids

that didn't get called up for any of the

above….I SEE YOU.

To the child that conquered their fear

of heights, or sleeping in the dark, or

riding without training wheels or

sleeping out for the night for the first

time this year, I SEE YOU

To the child that managed to resolve

more conflict than they started this

year, to the child that learnt to say the

impossible; "I'm sorry", and to the

child that walked away from the

fighting instead of getting involved, I

SEE YOU

To the child for whom school is a huge

struggle, you get up everyday and you

go, I SEE YOU

To the child that battled all year with

Christmas Mass Times Wednesday, 24 December

Christmas Eve 5.00 pm

Children's Mass - in

McCarthy Hall

Wednesday, 24 December

Christmas Eve 7.00 pm

Vigil in the church

Wednesday, 25 December

Christmas Day 8.30 am—

in the church

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the maths, or reading, or concentration, or speaking

out in class, or learning their words, but persevered

anyway, I SEE YOU

To the child that found the kindness in their heart

reach out in anyway to another person or to an animal

in need or in pain, I SEE YOU

To the child that learnt to give and to share for the

first time this year and even found joy in these, I SEE

YOU

To the child that battles to make friends and to be so-

cial, you made new friends this year and for that, I

SEE YOU

To the child who wanted so much to please, but was

just out of sight of an adult who perhaps was too busy

or too distracted, I SEE YOU

To the child who lost a friend or a loved one this year,

but carried on everyday bravely even though their

heart ached, I SEE YOU

To the brave parents that try everyday to do the best

for their kids, I SEE YOU.

May you and your children revel in small but significant

victories that you have both experienced this year, as I

will with my beautiful children. For every year there is

progress and growth, we don't need a podium or hand-

shake or a hall of applause to be seen.

I SEE YOU……..Author Unknown

And may we as a school continue to

see you, encourage you and support

you as you get on with it!

THANK YOU:

To Father Max for his continual

support of our school, taking time to attend PSF meetings,

visit and chat to classes, going out of his way to plan for lit-

urgies with staff and being around every day.

To Deb Howe for her guidance as Parish School Fo-

rum (PSF) Co-ordinator throughout 2014. I am sure if Deb

has one wish for 2015 it would be to see many, many more

people involved in PSF as we plan, fundraise for and support

our students at Joeys. Thanks to all the members of PSF this

year. With a few people we have achieved a great deal! Look

forward to seeing you all (& more) next year.

Thank you to the staff for their commitment to your

children. They put in long hours and a great deal of planning

to offer the best they can for each and every child. This

makes them all a top bunch!!

To the students for their hard work this year. It has

been heartening to see the ownership of learning occurring,

the responsibility taken on and the sense of achievement they

celebrate. Enjoy your break and stay safe all of you.

Thank you to our families for choosing this school for

your children and working with us to achieve the best we can

for them. May the spirit of Christmas be with you all.

To our departing families we wish you good luck in

your new adventures and new surroundings. Thank you for

having made the journey with us.

Stage 2 have been playing Scrabble in recent weeks.

Thought we could share some photos of the fun.

Thank you for your generosity

in donating to the St Vincent

de Paul Society Hamper Ap-

peal. The hampers were hand-

ed over to SVdP members,

Mrs Margaret Goulding and

Mrs Carol Sharpe (both former

staff members of St Joseph’s

School) last Friday at the

assembly.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL Thank you to Renay Condon for her superb organisa-

tion of our carnival yesterday. It was a great day with lots of

opportunities for all to get wet. Sadly we had a number of

students who did not attend. This is disappointing.

Thank you to Michael Thompson for starting the races,

to the many parents who gave up their day to time races and

to the staff for their supervision of students. It was great to

see our Year 6 students assisting in many areas too.

Thanks everyone

for a terrific day!

The results will be

shared at After-

noon Assembly

today.

Congratulations to

Zoe, Anzac, Zan-

na & Zara Cork-

ery on their bap-

tism last Sunday.

Therese Seymour

Page 3

What a fantastic day! We were certainly blessed with

beautiful weather. Our swimmers did an amazing job,

with many swimmers challenging themselves to do more

difficult events than they would usually do! They set

themselves a challenge and that sense of achievement

when you succeed will never be forgotten. Well done to

all our swimmers for participating with an enthusiasm and

admirable sportsmanship.

The carnival can never be successful without the work of

many people. So I would like to sincerely thank all the

parents and staff who helped set up & pack up, timekeep-

ers, starter, judges, novelty event organisers, recorders

and house supervisors. This year we had an enormous

amount of help and that made for the smooth running of

the day.

As mentioned our students did very well but I am very

proud to announce our age champions as follows:

Age Champions

8yrs Ella Brombal Lewis Trim

9yrs Niamh Thompson Teo Astone & Lucas Woolven

10yrs Harry Condon Teila Bednall

11yrs Jack Condon Olivia Mosse

12yrs Patrick Thompson Zoe McInnes

House Results

1st place Dara 981

2nd place McCarthy 830

3rd place Cawley 684

Again many thanks everyone for a terrific carnival,

Renay Condon

January Opening Dates Wednesday 21 January 10.00am—12.00pm

Friday 23 January 10.00am – 12.00pm

Polo shirts should be delivered before the end of term, paid for or-

ders will be sent home. If there is a delay, stock will be available

for the January opening dates.

Making Jesus Real

Forgiveness

This is one attitude or special quality that really makes a Christian. Jesus was quite keen on it. “How many times must I forgive people?”, he was asked and he replied “70 times 7”, which really means all the time. It is one of the hardest things we are faced with in life—forgiving others for the wrongs ei-ther real or imaginary that happen to us. Haven’t we all seen the body language of people of people who haven’t forgiven one another. They have these enormous negative feelings that come out of them and that really eat them inside. It takes courage to forgive and it is achieved in the mind first and then we go out to the other person. If they don’t take our apologies then they have the problem—not you.

FORGIVENESS IS A DECISION NOT A FEELING

The following children have celebrated their birth-day since our last Newsletter

Andrew Payne, & Campbell McKinley.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYHAPPY BIRTHDAYHAPPY BIRTHDAY The following students will be celebrating

their birthdays in December;

Ruby McCarthy, Danny O’Toole, Lee Pagotto, Lily Delman, Maddox Parsons & Chloe Vinall,

ALTAR SERVERS ROSTER Saturday 20 December: Gianna Blenkhorn, Nicholas Blenkhorn, Lavinai Blenkhorn, Anysia Blenkhorn & Elias Blenkhorn Sunday 21 December: Matthew Benecke, Maddelyn Benecke, Jack O’Toole, Stella Hayes & Danny O’Toole Christmas Eve 5.00 pm Children’s Mass: Blake Penhey, Matthew Oates, Rachael Oates, Luke Rowling & Tom Rowling Christmas Eve 7.00 pm Vigil: Volunteer for MC please, Erin Hunt, Blair Hunt, Declan Robinson & Ainsleigh Woolven Christmas Day 8.30am Ellesha Lloyde, Cara Feain-Ryan, Lee Pagotto, Joshua Simmons Volunteer for Book please

CANTEEN ROSTER Open Wednesday & Friday

Leanne Harris Coordinator Ph 66281990

Date Duty Starts at 9.00am

Healthy Snack Donation

Wednesday 17 December

Volunteer please!

Page 4

Our Australian curriculum in NSW page is

now live on our school Moodle site. Within

this you will find information on the new

Mathematics syllabus which will be implemented in 2015.

To access the Australian curriculum in NSW information go

to: www.alstplism.catholic.edu.au – information –

curriculum – mathematics.

Within this you will find: The Parent’s guide to the new

syllabus, helpful links (Glossary, Board of Studies, Maths A-Z)

and a link to Mathletics.

Let us know what you think…we look forward to your feedback,

ideas and thoughts around this site.

Kasey Miles

Ethan Robb (Kinder)– The First Christmas The Angel Gabriel said ―You are going to have a child,

Mary and his name is Jesus.‖

So Mary and Joseph hopped on the donkey and went to

see the Innkeeper. He said the only thing left was a cold

stable with animals and itchy hay.

The baby finally came out,

then Kings and the Shepherds came to them.

They celebrated Jesus.

Tilly Howard (Kinder)– Song about Jesus I love you Jesus.

You are birth at Christmas and you are special

for to decorate the World.

You are God and Jesus and you are

love and love and love.

You are special.

2015 Stationery Requirements for 2015

Stage 1 3 x HN Learner’s Writing Pemcils

3 x 35g glue sticks

1 set of 12 coloured pencils

1 small sized zippered pencil case

A paint shirt

A hard plastic /wire book box

A fabric library bag

A box of tissues

A roll of paper towel

Stage 2 SOFT Pencil Case (approx. size 30cm x 20cm)-not wooden or

metal

Pens – 2 blue, 2 red (ballpoint)

Pencils – 6 x HB

Eraser – x 2

Glue Stick – x 2

Pencil Sharpener with shaving catcher base

4 highlighters (different colours)

1 pair of scissors (small student size)

Wooden Ruler (30cm)

Set 12 coloured pencils

Set 12 coloured textas

(if buying new textas - NO CONNECTOR TEXTAS PLEASE)

Australian Primary Dictionary (recommended – Oxford Aus-

tralian School Dictionary or Collins Australian School Diction-

ary)

Tissues (I box per semester)

Stage 3 Pencil Case (No bigger than size 30cm x 20cm)

Pens –6 blue, 6 red (ballpoint, no gel or liquid pens)

Pencils – 6 x HB

Erasers – 2x

Glue Stick – 4x (2 kept at home ready to go)

Pencil Sharpener with shaving catcher base

4 highlighters (different colours)

1 pair of scissors (small student size)

Ruler (30cm with cm/mm increments – wooden only)

Set 12 coloured pencils

2 x 2B Pencil (drawing only)

A4 Visual Art Drawing Book (plain paper)

Australian Primary Dictionary (recommended – publishers:

Oxford or MacMillan - Australian School Dictionary or Dic-

tionary/Thesaurus combination )

Tissues ( 2 boxes per school year)