Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to St Joseph's 2023

Hopefully you received my second compass post earlier this week with a welcome letter that told you a little bit about me. I do apologise this letter was sent on  Wednesday the previous week but got lost in the ether that is the internet, due to technical difficulties with getting me on the staff network here at Kilaben Bay.

If you would like to contact me directly my email address is:

brad.fuller@mn.catholic.edu.au

It has been a very busy start to the school year for us all and whilst I am still trying to learn family names and establish some connections, I am well on the way to ensuring I am in contact with every student here at St Joseph’s. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the children come back into the school with so much enthusiasm and joy. It was especially good watching our beautiful Kindergarten children begin their learning adventure.

My focus over the course of the year will be to improve the educational outcomes for all your children. As a classroom teacher I had three simple rules in the classroom:

1. Have fun!!!
2. Always strive to do better than the last time
3. Treat everyone with care and respect to help each other learn

These seem like three simple rules, but they have a lot of understanding both academic and Catholic behind them.

Have fun
This is all about student engagement. If a child is having fun they are generally happy, they feel safe and are engaged in the community and their learning. This rule is all about the wellbeing of your children. So please, if your children aren’t having fun, reach out to us.

Strive to do better
This rule focuses on a number of things but is primarily about mindset. People in general have come to a mindset that ‘I have done my best, that will have to do’. I am not after a person’s best, I am after a person’s best effort and best application. I am after people who always try to do better and hence improve. Athletes will always understand this, they strive to improve their personal best, this is what I am after. If we don’t encourage our children to do better, they will never get a glimpse of what they are capable of, they will never achieve their potential.

Treat people with care and respect
The focus here is on character. As a Catholic leader I always try to model my actions and interactions on the person of Jesus. I will always treat people with care and respect; ultimately with love. The concept of love seems ridiculous, however this is the love that is demonstrated by Jesus in the Gospels. This is a love that calls people to accountability, a love that supports, a loves that calls for more. Simply put, we should hold each other to the highest of expectations, support each other to achieve, but show extreme compassion when someone slips along the way.

I hope this gives parents a little insight to me as an educator and leader. I will expect big things of students, staff and myself. I understand that people have bad days and slip up along the way and call for us all to listen to seek understanding and support each other. For me it is about the community.

I will share more on learning over the next few newsletters. My last point for this newsletter is in regards to my expectation on you as parents and carers. I expect you to be an advocate for your child. I expect you to speak up for the wellbeing, safety and learning of your children. If you feel that something is wrong, we need to hear about it. I have been teaching for over 17 years now, 14 of these as a leader in schools and at the Diocese. The one single issue I have come across is that of communication between school and home. Communication is essential, you need to have the information you need to support the learning of your children. We provide information primarily through the Compass App, please make yourself familiar with this. If you want more communication ask, email me, call the office or get in contact with your teacher.

Don’t forget communication is a two-way process, that involves talking and listening. I will always try to make myself available to the community as much as possible.

Farewell Mrs Shanahan

I would like to thank Mrs Monica Shanahan who moved on from her role as Learning Support Teacher last year and has stepped down from her role as Gifted Education Mentor this week.  Thank you again Monica for your valuable contributions to our school.  We wish you well in your new school.

Welcome Mrs Natalie Baker

I would also like to welcome our new Learning Support Teacher, Mrs Natalie Baker, who will be with us four days per week from Week 6.  She is currently transitioning to her new role at Kilaben Bay until Week 6. 

Gifted Education Mentor

The role of Gifted Education Mentor will be filled shortly and I will provide more information about the new person and their role, in the new future.

Week 3 Activities

We experienced a very busy week this week with the Swimming Carnival, Teddy Bears' Picnic, Called to Serve Mass for staff, School Photos and much more.  Details and photos from these exciting events will feature next newsletter.

Take care, celebrate often and go gently

Brad Fuller

Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to 2023 at our beautiful school. I would like to introduce myself as the Assistant Principal for our school. My office days are Tuesdays each week and odd week Mondays. I am available for meetings on these days but am always open to receiving a phone call or email if you would like to have a conversation about your child. You can reach me on courtney.porter@mn.catholic.edu.au

I am greatly looking forward to working with Brad Fuller our new Principal, to support the continued outstanding educational opportunities provided by our school.

Our ‘Meet the teacher evening and BBQ’ is scheduled for Wednesday 15^th February. This is a great opportunity to meet your child’s teacher, receive important class information and be together as a school community. We hope you can join us!

Details of Upcoming Events

You can find details of upcoming events such as liturgies, meet the parent night and carnivals on Compass and in our school newsletter. It is important that you have Compass so that you are aware of upcoming events.

Communication

EMAIL - Teachers will often send communication to parents of a class or individual via the email address provided during enrolment. If you have recently changed your email address, please update this at our office or in Compass or send your child’s teacher an email from your new address.

PHONE – As staff are generally on class or in pre-arranged meetings, they are difficult to reach via phone without notice. Please email teachers to arrange a time for a phone or face-to-face conversation if required or contact Margaret or Susie - our clerical staff for support with this. 4959 1355

Attendance

Students are expected to attend school every day unless they are too unwell. Please notify the school asap if there are any complex circumstances we can assist with regarding attendance. You can record an absence on Compass by adding an attendance note if your child will be absent for a FULL day, phone the school or email your child’s teacher. Absence longer than 10 school days require approval from our principal.  If you are taking your child to an appointment, this is classed as a partial absence and you will be required to sign them in or out on the screen in reception.  Please ask admin staff if you need assistance.

Beginning of year notes

Last week your child should have brought home some important beginning of year notes. These include photo and media permission forms, cybersafety agreements, local walking notes and permission to view PG films. Please return these notes ASAP to your child’s teacher.

NAPLAN

All students in years 3 and 5 will be taking part in NAPLAN.  From this year NAPLAN will be moving to March.

NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. It is the only national assessment all Australian students have the opportunity to undertake.

As students progress through their school years, it’s important to check how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and numeracy.

NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through the school curriculum and allows parents/carers to see how their child is progressing against national standards and over time.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. It doesn’t replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance, but it can provide teachers with additional information about students’ educational progress.

NAPLAN also provides schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working and whether young Australians are achieving important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

I will be sending out more information in the coming weeks. Alternatively you could visit:

I am looking forward to another fantastic year working with you all at St Joseph’s!

Courtney Porter

Assistant Principal

Welcome back to a new school year!

I hope Christmas and the holiday season brought many blessings and family time together! I am looking forward to the new school year and celebrating many events throughout the year, with all our St Joseph’s community.

Our opening school liturgy will be this Thursday 16^th February at 1:30pm.

Please see invitation below. We would love for you to join us!

God Bless,

Taylor James

RE Co-ordinator

Welcome to 2023 in St Joseph’s Library.

Infants borrowing day is Mondays and began this week.
Primary borrowing is Tuesdays and will begin next week.

All students need a library bag to borrow from our Library. This helps protect our lovely books.
School Library bags are available for $14 for anyone who needs one. Kinder students do not have to buy a bag, as the school will provide them one.

Kinder will begin borrowing in week 5. They will receive a library bag from the school on their first day of borrowing.
We encourage all students to borrow from our library, as we have an amazing collection of fabulous books.

Premier's Reading Challenge

I would like to encourage all students to enter
The Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC). It will begin on Monday February 27th.
The PRC is an initiative by the NSW Government that encourages a love of reading in students from Kinder to Year 10. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read widely and enjoy reading. The PRC runs until Friday 18th August.
Students who complete the challenge will have their names displayed in the library and the newsletter. They will receive a certificate to show their achievement. At St Joey’s we also like to celebrate with a Pizza Party for those who complete the challenge.
A note will be sent home closer to the date with information for any student who would like to participate.

Sora

St Joseph’s has a subscription to SORA. Sora is an eBook and audio book Library. As part of the Australian Catholic Education Network (ACEN) member collection, your child can access eBooks and audio books through the Maitland Newcastle Diocese.  All you need to do is to download the SORA app or go to the website and sign in through the ACEN membership, then you and your child can enjoy some terrific books on your devices at home.

One of the great features of SORA is the inclusion of a Premier Reading Challenge book section. Graphic novels, Fiction and Non-Fiction books are also available.
Log in and explore today.

If you have any questions about anything in the Library, feel free to send me an email.

Happy reading,

Leah Hannan

Teacher Librarian and ER Teacher

leah.hannan@mn.catholic.edu.au

Farewell from Mrs Shanahan

Thank you to each and every student and their families who I have had the privilege of working with during my time at St Joseph's, Kilaben Bay.

As I leave Joeys, I will always remember the kindness shown and the support and trust the parent community had in me, in both of my roles as Learning Support Teacher and Gifted Education Mentor.

Your children are truly blessed to have such an amazing teaching and support staff, guiding them every day.

Wishing you all the very best for 2023 and beyond!

Monica Shanahan

Hello! Welcome back. I trust that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I hope it was relaxing and you got to do what ever it was you wanted to do.
Welcome to our new students and families! It is exciting to have you as part of our SJKB School Community.

For those that do not know me, I am Mel Dobosz the Pastoral Care Worker here at St Joseph’s Primary School. I am here Monday and Tuesday. A little bit about my role as Pastoral Care Worker- This is a Welfare/Wellbeing position. I am here to help facilitate the emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing of students, staff, and the school community. This can be done through offering support one on one to students, group work, programs, support to families, assistance or just a chat.
Pastoral care is defined in the agreement with the Commonwealth as “the practice of looking after the personal needs of students, not just their academic needs, through the provision of general, spiritual and personal advice.”
I am here to offer support to all students, their families, staff, and the wider St Joseph’s school Community.

Please feel free to contact me via email at melissa.dobosz@mn.catholic.edu.au, by phone on 4959-1355 or have a chat with your child’s class teacher about any concerns and they can get you in contact with me.
I am here to help and support your child and your family wherever possible.

Wishing you a happy and healthy week
Mel Dobosz
Pastoral Care Worker

Our Bus Timetables are available to download for your reference.  Please note that we have simplified the bus numbers so that younger children are able to remember which bus they catch.  See below for our Bus Number Table Reference:

St Anne's Playgroup is back!!  See the downloadable flyer for more information.  If you or anyone you know has children 0-5 years - all are welcome!

A big welcome from St Nicholas OOSH to all our new and existing families for 2023. We are looking forward to another fantastic year of exciting activities for both Before and After School Care and Vacation Care. For all our new families my name is Kristy and I am the Nominated Supervisor at St Nicholas OOSH Kilaben Bay. Our team also consists of 2 other permanent staff members, Matthew and Natalie and we also have a team of fantastic regular casuals including Mrs Gebhard and Mrs Hawthorne who are Learning Support Teachers here at St Josephs.

Some information regarding the OOSH service. We are open Monday to Friday from 6:30am – 8:45am for Before School Care and 2:45pm – 6:30pm for After School Care. Our Vacation Care program runs every school holidays and we are open 6:30am – 6:30pm Monday to Friday. Our Vacation Care program is released around week 6 of each term and the program consists of in centre days, incursions and excursions. The program will be available via the St Nicholas OOSH website or you can contact the service or the school office for a copy.

We provide Breakfast everyday from 6:30am – 8:15am. This consists of cereal and toast and we also provide special breakfasts which include Scrambled Eggs, Toasted Sandwiches and Pancakes. We also provide an Afternoon Tea for our After School Care children and Vacation Care. There is always a fresh fruit and vegetable platter available and our Afternoon Tea menu consists of items such as Nachos, Muffins, Sandwiches and Cheese and Crackers. All dietary requirements are also catered for.

If you are interested in enrolling your child here with us at St Nicholas OOSH Kilaben Bay please contact the service via email kilabenbay@stnicholasmn.org.au or you can call our service on 0437664070. My hours are as follows Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 11:00am – 6:30pm and Thursday and Friday 6:15am -2:00pm. My office hours are 11:00am – 2:00pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and 9:00am – 2:00pm Thursday and Friday. Please contact me at anytime if you have any questions. Matthew, Natalie and the rest of our team are always available if I am not here to assist with your enquiry.

We look forward to getting to know you all in 2023.
Kristy, Matt, Natalie and the St Nicholas OOSH Team.

Here at St Nicholas OOSH we provide a variety of activities for the children that attend OOSH including arts and crafts, construction, role play, a variety of sports activities and plenty of opportunities for your child to relax and chill out after a busy day of learning. We are still taking enrolments for 2022 and our Easter Vacation Care program will be available very soon. If you wish to enrol your child please contact the service either via email kilabenbay@stnicholasoosh.org.au or phone 0437 664 070. Alternatively you can head to the St Nicholas OOSH website https://stnicholasoosh.org.au/kilaben-bay and click on the enrol button which will take you straight to our online enrolment form.

We are also currently accepting the Service NSW Before and After School Care Vouchers. These vouchers can be applied for online via the Service NSW website and give families $500 per child toward the out of pocket costs of sending your child to Before and After School Care. If you have any questions regarding the vouchers please contact Kristy, Centre Coodinator, via email or phone.

St Nicholas OOSH Kilaben Bay Opening Hours

Before School Care: 6:30am – 9:00am Breakfast provided

After School Care: 2:45pm – 6:30pm Afternoon Tea provided

Vacation Care/Pupil Free Days: 6:30am – 6:30pm Breakfast and Afternoon Tea provided.

Pricing for 2022

Before School Care

Casual $24.00

Permanent $19.00

After School Care

Casual $30.00

Permanent $25.00

Vacation Care

Day Camp $60.00

Incursion $70.00

Excursion $80.00

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Kristy and the St Nicholas OOSH Team.

KRISTY MARNEY
NOMINATED SUPERVISOR - OOSH | ST NICHOLAS OOSH
P 0437 664 070    
| PO Box 775 Newcastle NSW 2300 

Email  Kristy.Marney@stnicholasoosh.org.au Visit us online www.stnicholasoosh.org.au