Newsletter No. 7 - 6th August 2025

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

As we step into the second half of the school year, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful growth we’ve already seen across our school community—and to share some exciting updates and plans for the term ahead.

This term is shaping up to be one of our most vibrant yet, with a rich blend of sporting and creative opportunities. Our primary students will be participating in tennis and netball gala days, Stage 1 will take part in a league gala day, and all students will enjoy soccer lessons throughout the term.

On the creative front, rehearsals are well underway for our much-anticipated school musical. We’ve been fortunate to have Aspire Dance Director, Lauren, working alongside our students and teachers to choreograph energetic routines for each class. Mrs. Pockran has been coordinating stage helpers with fantastic support from our feeder high school, St Paul’s, while Mrs. Walz has been busy sourcing and creating props. More information about the performance and costuming will be shared in the coming week—please keep an eye out for updates.

Last Friday, our primary students attended the Aspire production The Rise of Bozz at the Civic Theatre—a brilliant showcase of talent nurtured within our Catholic schools. A special congratulations to Matilda D, who performed in this year’s production!

In Week 1, we also celebrated two special events: Grandparents Day—our most well-attended event of the year—and “100 Days Brighter,” marking a joyful milestone for our youngest learners.

I’d also like to thank our families for your continued support of the Building Levy. This term, your contributions have enabled several important upgrades: fencing around the mud kitchen, new signage and speed bumps along the school entry road, and pathway improvements through paver rectification. We’ve also refreshed our gardens, adding colour and life to the heart of our school. These enhancements not only improve safety and functionality but also create a more welcoming environment for our students and families.

We’re also delighted to welcome six new families to our community: the Tonks, Walsh, Simmons, Tobin, Condron, and Connelly families—we’re so glad to have you with us!

Congratulations also to the Monaghan family on the arrival of Luka & Zayd's baby sister Hallie. We welcome Hallie into her larger family here at SJKB!

Kindergarten enrolments for 2026 remain strong, and we have now moved to a waitlist. While we still have vacancies in some grades, we’re grateful for your continued recommendations to friends and family. Interested families are encouraged to apply and/or join our waitlist, which will assist us in planning for 2026 and beyond.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership as we work together to provide the very best for our students. I look forward to all that this term will bring—both in the classroom and in the many ways we continue to grow as a community.

Warmest wishes,

Nikki Norley

(Principal)

Attendance and Punctuality Matter

At St Joseph’s, we believe that every school day is a chance to learn, grow, and connect. When students arrive on time, they start the day with confidence and calm—and they don’t miss a moment of learning! 

Why Being On Time Matters 

• Ready to Learn: The first minutes of the day set the tone for success. 

• Social Connections: Arriving early gives kids time to settle in and connect with friends. 

• No Missed Moments: Lessons begin right away—don’t miss the magic! 

What Our Students Say 

“When I get to school early, I feel ready to learn and I don’t miss anything.” – Year 4 
“I like being on time because I get to talk to my friends before class starts.” – Year 6 
“It’s easier to understand the lesson when I’m there from the beginning.” – Year 3 

Top Tips for Parents 

• Set a bedtime routine to help your child wake up refreshed. 

• Pack bags and lunches the night before to avoid morning stress. 

• ⏰ Use alarms or timers to keep mornings on track. 

• Aim to arrive 10 minutes early for a calm start. 

• Talk positively about school to build excitement and motivation. 

• Reach out to us if mornings are tough—we’re here to help! 

Let’s Work Together! 

Every minute at school matters. Thank you for helping your child start each day strong, happy, and ready to learn! 

Message from the Assistant Principal

NAPLAN 2025

Results Summary: YEAR 3

We are pleased to share a summary of our school’s 2025 NAPLAN results. These assessments provide valuable insight into how our students are progressing in literacy and numeracy compared to other students across Australia.

The 2025 NAPLAN results have revealed the most outstanding growth across all domains in both Year 3 and Year 5—marking the highest improvement seen in the past decade.

Key Highlights:

• Reading: Our students performed strongly in Reading, with results above the national average. This reflects the positive impact of our whole-school focus on reading comprehension and fluency strategies.
• Writing: Our students performed strongly in writing with results above the national average. Our whole school focus on writing and the Big Write process have been two very important focusses at our school this year.  
• Spelling: Our students performed strongly in spelling with results relatively on par with the national average.
• Grammar and Punctuation: Our students performed strongly in grammar and punctuation with results above the national average.
• Numeracy: Our school's Numeracy results were above the national average, with year 3 students performing strongly in this area.

Results Summary: YEAR 5

Key Highlights:

• Reading: Our students performed strongly in Reading, with results slightly below the national average.
• Writing: Our students performed strongly in writing with results slightly below the national average. Our whole school focus on writing and the Big Write process have been two very important focusses at our school this year.  Results for year 5 writing this year were above compared to last year’s results.
• Spelling: Our students performed strongly in spelling with results slightly below the national average.
• Grammar and Punctuation: Our students performed strongly in grammar and punctuation with results slightly below the national average.
• Numeracy: Our students are developing their numeracy skills. Our results are below the national average in this area.

Our staff are using this data to guide classroom planning and to tailor support for individual student needs. We are focussing on the warmups in our Maths programs to target specific skills that need consolidating, and we continue with providing quality differentiated teaching practice. Data Monitoring also ensures the tracking of student progress in all subjects to identify learning gaps early and respond effectively.

We are proud of our students’ efforts and the progress they continue to make.

Sporting Schools

We are excited to announce that all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 will be participating in a whole-school soccer program this term for Sport.

The program is being delivered by qualified coaches from Lake Macquarie Football, providing our students with a fantastic opportunity to build their skills, stay active, and have fun through structured and inclusive soccer sessions.

This is a wonderful way to promote teamwork, coordination, and a love of physical activity across the school.

We’re looking forward to seeing our students learn, play, and grow on the field!

Curriculum Update

Our school is preparing to implement the new NSW K–6 Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) syllabus, with full implementation beginning in Term 4.

This updated curriculum is designed to better support students’ overall wellbeing, resilience, physical activity, and ability to make healthy and safe choices. It provides learning experiences that are inclusive, developmentally appropriate, and relevant to today’s world.

To ensure a smooth transition, our staff have engaged in professional learning, focusing on the new content areas, teaching strategies, and how best to support student growth and engagement. These sessions have been valuable in building confidence and consistency across our teaching teams.

We are excited about the opportunities this new syllabus presents for our students and look forward to working in partnership with families to promote health and wellbeing across our school community.

PB4L

We are proud to be a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) school. PB4L helps us create a safe, respectful and supportive learning environment where every child can thrive.

This term, we’ve continued to focus on teaching and reinforcing our school-wide behaviour expectations and values: Service, Resilience and Respect. Through regular classroom discussions, house meetings, and positive reinforcement, students are learning how to make good choices and contribute positively to our school community.

Our whole school reward system acknowledges and celebrates students demonstrating our core values. Our PB4L assemblies this term are Friday week 6 and week 10. We hope you can come along!

Term 3 Class Information and KLA Overviews

As we begin Term 3, teachers have shared the class information and KLA (Key Learning Area) overviews with you. These documents are designed to keep you informed about what your child will be learning this term and how you can support them.

The class information outlines important routines and any key expectations for the term. This helps ensure a strong partnership between home and school by giving you insight into your child’s daily learning environment.

The KLA overviews provide a clear snapshot of the key topics, skills, and outcomes being covered across subjects such as English, Mathematics, Religion, and others. They give you a better understanding of what your child is learning and how these areas connect to their overall development.

By having access to this information, you can:

• Engage in more meaningful conversations with your child about their learning.
• Help them stay organised and prepared for assessments and class activities.
• Offer additional support or enrichment at home if needed.

Message from the REC

Feast Day of Saint Mary MacKillop – Friday 8th August

On Friday 8th August, our school community will come together to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint and a woman known for her deep faith, service to others, and commitment to education for all.

To mark this special occasion, we will be joining our Parish for Mass at 9:30am. This is a significant celebration in our Catholic calendar, and we warmly invite all parents and carers to attend and share in this meaningful event with us.

Students from MacKillop House will play a special role in the Mass, assisting with readings and leading some of the songs. We are proud of their involvement and know they will represent our school beautifully.

We look forward to celebrating the legacy of Saint Mary MacKillop and reflecting on her inspiring words: "Never see a need without doing something about it."

Year 6 Religious Literacy Test

Coming up, on 1st September, our Year 6 students will be participating in the Religious Literacy Assessment.

This important diocesan assessment helps students reflect on their understanding of the Catholic faith, Scripture, prayer, and key Church teachings. It also allows teachers to celebrate student growth and identify areas for continued learning.

The test includes both multiple-choice and short-answer questions, as well as a written response where students reflect on how they live out their faith in everyday life.

We are proud of the way our Year 6 students have been preparing in class through prayer, discussion, and learning activities.

Library News

Class News -Year 1

What an exciting start to Term 3 we’ve had in 1 Maroon! This term, our class has been diving into two wonderful shared texts, ‘The Imagineer’ and ‘The Most Magnificent Thing’. These inspiring stories have sparked our imaginations and helped us explore the power of persistence, creativity, and having a growth mindset, all while supporting our narrative writing goals.

Every Tuesday afternoon, our students have been loving their time in Peer Support groups. These student-led sessions give them the chance to work closely with friends across the school, building positive relationships, resilience, and a strong sense of belonging in our school community.

In Maths, we’ve been busy exploring numbers in lots of fun and hands-on ways! The children have been:

• Using counting sequences with two-digit numbers and beyond
• Creating and continuing number patterns
• Representing numbers on a number line
• Understanding how groups of ten build our number system

Another exciting highlight this term has been musical rehearsals! Year 1 have been working incredibly hard preparing for the big performance in Week 9. There’s a real buzz in the air as the students practise their singing, dancing, and stage movements with growing confidence. They are so excited to perform on the big stage and can’t wait to share all their hard work with you. It’s shaping up to be a spectacular show!

We’re so proud of how confidently our Year 1 learners are engaging with new challenges, showing creativity, and supporting each other along the way. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the term brings!

Jessica Maleszka

Year 1 Classroom Teacher

Peer Support

Last week we commenced Peer Support lead by Year 6 Students. The whole school participates in Peer Support for 30 minutes each week for 8 weeks. 2 Peer Leaders facilitate a group of younger students, who work together on several structured activities. Each teacher supervises a group and supports the leader and students within the lesson.

We are working on a module called Keeping Friends; helping explore the concept of friendship, building relationships and developing skills in empathy and critical thinking. We encourage you to talk about Peer Support weekly as it helps reinforce concepts learned each session.

During Peer Support this week the children look at qualities their friends may have and the concept that we choose friends based on qualities we admire in them. They also explore the skills of friendship, specifically those of cooperating and listening. During the week encourage your child to show they are interested in the person they talk to by being an active listener.

Grandparents Day

100 Days of Kinder!

Diverse Learning Team News

Working Memory

Did you know that working memory is one of the brain’s most powerful learning tools?

Working memory is like a mental notepad — it helps children hold onto information just long enough to use it. For example, when a child hears a maths problem, they use their working memory to remember the numbers, work out the answer, and explain how they got it. It’s essential for following instructions, completing tasks, reading comprehension, and problem-solving.

When working memory is overloaded or not functioning well, children might:

• Forget what they’re doing halfway through a task
• Struggle to follow multi-step instructions
• Have difficulty recalling spelling rules or number facts
• Lose track of what they’ve just read

The good news is we can help build working memory, below are some quick and easy games to try at home.

 "I went to the shop…"
A classic memory game! Take turns adding an item to the shopping list and see how far you can go.
E.g., “I went to the shop and bought apples… apples and bread… apples, bread, and cheese…”

 Number Recall
Say a sequence of numbers out loud (start with 3 digits) and ask your child to repeat them back. Make it harder by asking them to repeat it backwards!

Draw What You Saw
Show your child a picture for 10 seconds, then take it away and ask them to draw as much as they remember.

These simple games don’t feel like work — but they help build the brain’s ability to hold and use information more effectively. Just 5–10 minutes a day can make a big difference over time.

Mrs. Albury starts each intervention class with a working memory game, and the children certainly love to challenge themselves to get better each session.

Enjoy the week ahead.

The Diverse Learning Team

Aboriginal Education

Our Aboriginal students in Year 6 have been learning about the traditional uses of Coolamons this term. They can be used as a type of baby-carrier, a digging tool, a basket for carrying things, a tool for smoking ceremonies and a tool for painting up.

Aylah, Henry and Xavier have learnt how to select the right tree within the right season and they have been busy cutting their own Coolamons this term. They will make their own decisions about decorating or painting their Coolamons after they have finished drying out.

Gifted Education News

We’ve been busy putting together some updated information about the GEM Program at SJKB. The following information should become available publicly in the next few days or so. I have included this information in our newsletter for your own convenience.

Our school has been acknowledged as a Gifted Education Lead School, within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland/Newcastle, for a number of years now.

We have a Gifted Education Mentor (GEM) whose role includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Co ordinating the administration and analysis of data related the Cognitive Abilities Test (CoGAT);
• Supporting the school and school system to identify High Potential & Gifted students; and
• Mentor classroom teachers in curriculum differentiation, compacting the curriculum, identifying accelerated learning opportunities & project-based approaches to learning.

In addition to supporting classroom teachers, the GEM program also includes opportunities for HPGE students to engage in:

• Coding (algorithmic thinking) challenges;
• STEM Projects (School Traffic Investigations);
• Programming and flying Drones;
• Programming and coding robots;
• Minecraft Education School Build Competitions; and
• Developing simple XBOX 360 Games using Kodu.

Congratulations to Elliot Daniels from Year 4 Maroon on his X Box Game Prototype “Shooting fish” which was developed in the Microsoft Kodu environment. A short video of the game in action may be viewed via the following link:

If you have any questions please email me on john.hession@mn.catholic.edu.au .

John Hession

Aboriginal Education Teacher / Gifted Education Mentor

Pastoral Care

Growing Self Confidence

At St Joseph’s Primary School, we know that building self-confidence is an important part of every child’s learning journey. From Kindergarten to Year 6, students are developing the courage to try new things, speak up, and believe in themselves — and that confidence helps them grow both inside and outside the classroom.

Self-confidence doesn’t mean being the loudest or always getting things right. It means feeling safe to have a go, learning from mistakes, and knowing that effort matters. Whether it’s putting their hand up in class, joining in at sport, making a new friend or working through a tricky task, each step helps students feel more capable and prouder of themselves.

Teachers and staff support this every day through encouragement, positive feedback, and creating safe, inclusive classrooms. Families play a big role too.

At home, confidence can be built by:

• Praising your child’s effort, not just results
• Allowing space to solve problems and make decisions
• Encouraging them to keep going, even when things feel tough
• Listening and showing belief in their abilities

By working together, we can help our students to believe in themselves and develop strong, healthy self-confidence that will stay with them for life.

Find all this information and more at biglifejournal.com.

I am here to offer support to all students, and their families. If you feel there is anything I can do to support your child at school, please feel free to have a chat with your child’s class teacher or our learning support teachers- Mrs Courtney Albury & Mrs Courtney Porter, and they can get you in contact with me, or you can contact me via email at melissa.dobosz@mn.catholic.edu.au or 4959-1355. 

Wishing you a lovely week

Mel Dobosz

Pastoral Care Worker

Garden Club

Our school garden is bursting with life, and the students are especially excited about the carrots they’ve been growing. Each week they eagerly check on the progress, watching the green tops get taller and stronger. After weeks of care—watering, weeding, and learning about plant growth—the first orange tips are finally peeking through the soil. The students can’t wait to harvest them and taste the results of their hard work!

Sport News

School Fees Information

The collection of school fees is crucial to our ability to effectively provide quality education for our students. The fees go directly to paying for new technology, resources for the classroom, experiences for students such as excursions, costs of buses etc.

As always, if a family is experiencing financial hardship, it is imperative that you contact the school to make an appointment to meet and discuss school fees, so that a payment plan can be arranged and families are supported.

Thanks

Susie and Gina

Volunteering at SJKB

We regularly need volunteers for various roles within our school. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at our school, please follow the instructions on the link below:

PLUS

The PLUS Second hand clothing shop has been lucky enough to receive some wonderful offers to fulfill the orders. Thank you to the beautiful ladies who have volunteered and sort out the orders once a week.

If you can send an email to admin@kilabenbay.catholic.edu.au with your request and the office will pass it on to the volunteers. If the item is in stock we will send it home with the details for Qkr payment.

We have wide selection of secondhand uniforms available.  All uniform items are $5 and jackets are available for $10, so please make use of this service. 

New hats can also be ordered through the office and paid on Qkr.

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR CHILD'S NAME AND CLASS in the message as our volunteers do not have access to the different family surnames to make connections to students - therefore use your child's name first, then your name, especially if different surname. 

Thank you!

THE PLUS TEAM

Canteen News – Including Volunteer Roster

We are seeking new volunteers to help in the canteen.  With our new lunchtime the volunteers are only required to be here between the school drop off time and 11.15am.We ask any new or current Parents or Grandparents if if they could offer a couple of hours once or twice a term in the canteen so that the children can receive this service. They will love you being here too!

Qkr cut off times have been changed recently so please ensure Qkr orders are placed before 8.00 am each day.

If you would like to volunteer please call or email admin@kilabenbay.catholic.edu.au

Term Planner

From the Parish

Good For Kids

Lost Property

Every now and again some items of lost property get handed into the office. If you think this is yours, just give us a ring on 4959 1355 or pop into the office.

Guitar Lessons

Community Notices