St Joseph's, Tara - Term 1 Week 4 2025 Newsletter!

Our Vision & Mission Statements

From the Principal

Welcome to the Term 1 Week 4 Newsletter!

Parent Portal

Please ensure that you have and can access the Parent Portal. There are numerous notifications being sent out that are being missed by some families.  

Please contact Monica via the office if you need support with accessing the portal again or need your log in keys resent to you.  

Strategic Plan

The Strategic Plan focus for this fortnight comes from the Valuing our People domain.  

• Seek to understand the needs and motivations of families in the education of their children so that the staff can promote and encourage parents to be actively involved in the development of their children as lifelong learners, living the St Joseph’s Way. 

Parents and families are a valued part of our school community. It is important that both school and home work together to help with the development of the individual child academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. Given the complexities of life there can no longer be a mindframe that school deals with anything connected with “learning” or the academics and parents deal with “all the rest”. Life has simply become too complicated for the separation of both these key areas in a child’s world.   

At St Joseph’s, we pride ourselves on knowing each individual child and supporting them in all areas of development. This is made easier for us when parents become actively involved in the life of the school and work alongside the staff to promote a shared unity for the child. 

Becoming involved in the life of the school can sound daunting and perhaps even time consuming, as we all know how busy life can become. Here are a few ways parents or families can be actively involved in a child’s education and help them to develop them as lifelong learners:- 

• Support and encourage your child to attend school events such as swimming carnivals, athletics days, ANZAC Day marches etc 

• Attend assemblies (even when your child is not receiving recognition) 

• Stay at drop off and participate in morning circle time 

• Come in a little earlier for pick up and sit in the undercover area and chat with other parents or staff who are there 

• Attend parent nights such as the Meet ‘n’ Greet BBQs, parent/teacher interviews etc 

• Attend liturgies for the special days we celebrate 

• Volunteer once a term at tuckshop 

• Offer to provide some homebake or goodies for the tuckshop once a term 

• Offer to put your name on a roster when the school is looking for volunteers to man a stall at a community event 

• Make contact with your child’s classroom teacher to check in and see how things are going 

This list is certainly not the only ways to become actively involved in your child’s education or school life. There are many more. Our staff are keen to see you all in and around the school over 2025 school year.  

Meet 'n' Greet BBQ

Thank you to the staff and families who attend our very first Meet ‘n’ Greet BBQ. It was a lovely informal evening to get to know new staff and families to our school community. A special thank you to Ben Aylott for cooking the sausages for us. We look forward to having a few more social gatherings for parents across the year.  

2025 Student Leaders

Today we announced our 2025 School and House Captains and MacKillop Leaders. A big congratulations to the following students who have committed themselves to serving the St Joseph’s School community in their various roles.  

School Captain and Vice Captain 

Nate Callaghan and Victoria Evan 

MacKillop House Captain and Vice Captain 

Braxton McGill and Azriel Velez 

Penola House Captain 

Bentley Tucker 

MacKillop Leaders 

Nateesha Laird, Jason French, Elzia Adhikary and Jaxson Deboeck 

The St Joseph’s students and staff, along with their families, are proud of the commitment they have made for 2025 and we wish them well in their leadership positions.  

Tara Community Expo

Tomorrow (Saturday 22 February), the Tara Futures Group is holding a Tara Community Expo. This is an opportunity for community groups to display and promote what they do in their organisations. St Joseph’s will be having a stall at this event to promote the wonderful community we have created. Please pop in and say hi if you are attending this event. The Year 4-6 camp fundraising parents will also be having a bake sale during this time (right beside the school stall) so let’s support them as well as they begin their fundraising initiatives to support their children to attend camp this year.  

Tara Show

St Joseph’s will be having a showbag stall at the up and coming Tara Show. As this is a fundraising event for the school, it would be wonderful to have some parents or family members support this initiative and offer some time to sell the showbags on the day. Even a half hour slot of time would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Monica via the office if you can support us in this.  

God bless,

Kylie Williams

APMI

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

Before our next newsletter we will commemorate Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday – Tuesday 4 March and Wednesday 5 March. These days begin our Lenten season in our church and the preparation for Jesus’ dying on the cross. 

Students and staff will be involved in having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and then attending an Ash Wednesday liturgy on the Wednesday. Parents and families are more than welcomed to attend the liturgy on the Wednesday.  

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues until the Easter weekend. In the past it was a time for Christians to “give up something”, similar to Jesus “giving up” his life to save us. These days actions through Lent is wide and varied. Some still “give up something”, others “promise to do something”. Whichever way, our students are always encouraged to reflect on how they can improve on being the best versions of themselves.  

Lent is also our time to raise money for Caritas Australia. This is an initiative that all Toowoomba Catholic Schools are involved in and promote. Each class will take on a fundraising venture during the final few weeks of Term 1. Please keep your eyes and ears out for when these events are advertised.  

Learning at St Joeys

From the Year 2 - 3 Classroom

English and Literacy

In Term 1, Year 2 students will identify how texts are organised differently and use language features dependent on the purpose. They will identify text features and how language is used to represent these features in different ways. Students will identify and discuss the characters and settings in a range of texts and provide a reason for their personal preference. They will create and edit a recount through diary entries for a familiar audience, adapting structures appropriate to purpose, using time connectives and language features of a familiar text and including simple sentences, noun and verb groups and topic-specific vocabulary. Students will use comprehension strategies such as connecting, summarising, and questioning to build literal meaning and background knowledge.  

Students will continue to practice unjoined letters that are accurately formed and consistently sized. They will improve writing outcomes by using regular spelling patterns, phonic and morphemic knowledge and attempt to spell less common spelling patterns.  

In Year 3, students will describe how texts across the curriculum use language features and structure relevant to their purpose. They will discuss the connections between the experiences of characters in literary texts and their personal experiences and share personal preferences. Students will discuss how the author portrays characters and settings and explore how settings and events influence mood. They will use comprehensions strategies when listening and viewing to build meaning and drawing on their growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features to evaluate texts. Students will plan, create, edit and publish a recount through diary entries, using appropriate form and layout. They will group ideas mostly using correct tense, topic-specific vocabulary and correct spelling of high-frequency and phonetically regular words. 

Students will continue to practice using letters that are accurately formed and consistently sized. They will improve writing outcomes by spelling multisyllabic words using phonic and morphemic knowledge with high-frequency words. 

Religion

Students will express their ideas about God’s presence and action in daily life experiences by selecting and using information, ideas and events about order and harmony in God’s creation. They will recognise how the scriptures provide a foundation for living a moral life. Students will identify respect for basic human rights and acknowledge responsibility, in particular for the poor and disadvantaged, as part of living a moral life. They will locate and use information about cultural contexts in which the Gospels were written.  

 Mathematics

In Term 1, Year 2 students will learn to recognise, represent and order numbers to 1000 using a variety of strategies. They will partition, rearrange, regroup and rename two- and three- digit numbers using standard and non-standard groupings and recognise the role of zero in place value. Students will recognise, describe and create patterns that increase and decrease by a constant amount. They will identify the date and uses a calendar to recognise the number of days between events. Students will locate positions in two-dimensional representations and move positions by following directions.  

In Year 3, students will recognise represent and order numbers to 10 000 using naming and writing conventions. They will identify which metric units are used to measure everyday items, measure familiar items and use known units to make estimates. Students will recognise and use the relationship between formal units of time including days, hours, minutes and seconds to estimate and compare the duration of events.  They will interpret and create two dimensional representations of familiar environments, locating key landmarks and objects relative to each other.  

Science

In Term 1, students will identify ways to change materials without changing their material composition. They will pose questions to explore observed patterns or relationships and make predictions based on experience and observations. Students will suggest and plan steps to be followed in an investigation, follow safe procedures to make and record observations. They will use provided tables and organisers to sort and order data and represent patterns in data. With guidance, students will compare their observations with those of others, identify whether their investigation was fair and identify further questions. They will use every day and scientific vocabulary to communicate observations, and ideas.  

HaSS  

In Term 1, students will develop understanding of how places can be spatially represented in geographical divisions from local to regional to state/territory, and how people and places are interconnected across those scales. They will build knowledge of the interconnectedness of First Nations Australians to a local Country or place. Students will develop questions about places and will collect, sort and record and interpret information and data from sources provided, including labelled maps. They will discuss perspectives related to people and places, draw conclusions and make proposals and share observations, using sources, and subject-specific terms.  

The Arts - Dance

This term, students will identify where they experience dance. They will describe where, why and/or how people across cultures, communities and/or other contexts experience dance. Students will use the elements of dance to structure dance sequences. They will demonstrate fundamental movement skills and safe dance practice. Students will assist to choreograph and perform a dance in an informal setting.  

The GOSSIP - Student Newspaper

From the PEN

From the Parish

St Mary Of The Angels - Tara

Mass Times

Tara: Sunday: 9am

on the 1st & 3rd Sunday of the month

Meandarra: Sunday: 11am

on the 3rd Sunday of the month

St Joseph's Student Recognition

Certificates of Recognition

Week 3 - Jaycob deBoeck, Dekota Walker, Charlotte Partridge and Pattrick Walsh

Week 4 - No assembly due to Leadership speeches being presented.

From the Administration Officers

Term 1 fees have been added to your customer accounts, and statements have been distributed. (Please check your junk folder).

If you need any financial assistance, be sure to come in and see myself or Kylie to see how we can help. It is completely confidential!

HOW TO PAY YOUR SCHOOL FEES:

*Cash / Cheque, at the office.

*BPoint, in person at the office or over the phone.

*Direct Deposit:
Bank: ADF
Name: St Joseph’s School
BSB: 064-786
ACC: 100-025-583
Reference: Your Name/Customer Code eg. TRA1234             

*Centrelink Centrepay Deduction Payments can be made fortnightly or monthly.

The School’s CRN: 555075545A 

*Direct Debit: Forms are available in the office. Please see me or call the office.

Not Sure how it’s done?  Ask at the office for assistance.

Term Dates

2025

Term 1 2025 – Wed 29 Jan (Public Hol 26 Jan) - Fri 04 April

Term 2 2025 – (Easter Monday, 21 Apr) Wed 23 Apr - Fri 27 Jun

Term 3 2025 - Tue 15 Jul - Fri 19 Sep

Term 4 2025 - Tue 07 Oct (Kings B'day 06 OCT) - Fri 05 Dec

Professional Development and Planning Days (previously called Pupil Free Days)

• Wednesday, 22 January - Friday, 24 January 2025 - Professional Development
• Tuesday, 28 January 2025 - Planning Day
• Tuesday, 22 April 2025 - Planning Day
• Monday, 14 July 2025 - Planning Day
  
• Wednesday, 30 July 2025 - Bishops Inservice Day (BID)
  
• Friday, 5 September 2025 - Consistency of Teacher Judgement (CTJ)

Public holidays

• Australia Day public holiday – Monday, 27 January 2025
• Easter – Friday, 18 April – Monday, 21 April 2025
• Anzac Day – Friday, 25 April 2025
• Labour Day – Monday, 5 May 2025
• King’s Birthday – Monday, 6 October 2025

Wellbeing Matters

Student Safety

EVERY CHILD HAS THE RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE

It is a legislative requirement that all non-state schools have at least two nominated staff members to whom a student can report the behaviour of another staff member that the student considers inappropriate.  We call these specially trained staff members School Student Protection Contacts, or SSPCs.  Each SSPC has been nominated by the principal in recognition of their integrity, approachability and knowledge in the area of student protection.  Whilst students are encouraged to speak up to any trusted adult in the school community, it is important that they know they can access these specific staff members at any time should they have worries, queries or concerns. You will have noticed posters throughout the school depicting our current SSPCs.  The SSPCs are also published on our school website along with information about our student protection processes.  In everything we do at St Joseph's Tara student safety is our highest priority, therefore the SSPCs at our school are key personnel in our overall safeguarding processes.  Please see the poster below depicting our current SSPC team.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT