Dear Lord,

We ask you to bless St Joseph's School Community.

We pray that you guide us to be just and to see,

listen, speak and act like St Joseph.

May we be inspired by our Founders

to be the best that we can be.

May we always keep Jesus at the centre of all we do.

St Emilie          Pray for us

St Marcellin      Pray for us

St Joseph         Pray for us 

And may we always remember to pray for one another.

AMEN

Inter-House Carnival 

Congratulations to all those who took part in the Year 4-12 Interhouse Carnival on Friday. We were blessed with fine weather and the day was a great success. I was particularly proud of the House Spirit demonstrated throughout the day – the cheering, the encouragement and the good sportsmanship. A particular thank you to Ms Adrienne Suckling and MS Carrie Frost for the enormous amount of work which went into organising such a huge event. As always, it went off without a hitch.  A whole school assembly will be held this Wednesday at 2.30pm on the Primary Campus to annouce the winners and present the medals.

Bilya Festival Street Parade

Thank you to all those who joined us on Friday night to take part in the Northam Bilya Festival to mark the start of the Avon Decent. We had great fun embracing our love of Book Week as students paraded in either a Book Week costume or their pyjamas and their favourite book.  

Catholic Performing Arts Festival 

Over the last several weeks, many of our students have had the opportunity to perform in the Catholic Performing Arts Festival in Perth. Students in Years 3 & 4 took part in the Choral Speaking section and were fabulous. The Year 3’s received a Certificate of Merit and the Year 4s received a Certificate of Excellence. Congratulations to Mrs Sullivan and Mrs Curtis who were working with these students. 

All five of our bands, under the masterful direction of Mr Kitt Byfield, performed at Corpus Christi College. Each of these bands was outstanding and we are very proud of all of them.  The following bands received a Certificate of Merit – Lime ‘n’ Soda and Slamm while the Funky Bunch were outstanding and received a Certificate of Excellence. 

School based procedures and Parent Handbook 

We have finally finished rolling over our old school policies into what are now school-based procedures. These are in line with CEWA’s Executive Directives which are the policy statements we are bound by. These can all be found on our school website. 

The Parent Handbook has also been updated to reflect the changes. This document can be found on our website at the following link: https://sjsnortham.wa.edu.au/images/2022_Parent_Handbook.pdf  

Transition to a new Website and new look Newsletter

Over the coming weeks, we will be transitioning to a new website.  This platform will sync with our Schoolzine App and have greater functionality.  Included in the new features will be the ability to easily provide us with feedback, a complaint or a compliment.

If there is anything in particular you feel is missing from our current website and would like to see included in the new one, please email your idea to Jocelyn.Spadaccini@cewa.edu.au for us to consider.        

School Advisory Council

We are searching for new members to the School Advisory Council.  We are particularly looking for people who have an interest in building/maintenance to help work on a sub-committee with the Principal and the Business Manager.  These people do not have to be a parent at the school, they can be a grandparent, relative or friend.  If you or someone you know has an interest in finding out more about the role, please email Andrea Woodgate at andrea.woodgate@cewa.edu.au or Andrew O’Sullivan at hostautos@westnet.com.au

2023 Planning

We are planning now for the 2023 school year and as we do this, we take into account our class size numbers when allocating staff to subjects and classes.  This is also the time when we would like to let those on our waiting lists know whether they are likely to have a place for the following year.

If you are planning to withdraw your child at the end of this year and place them into another school, we ask that you complete the attached form so that we can factor these students into our planning.  If your child is staying at St Joseph's School then you DO NOT need to complete the form.

It is a requirement that you let the School know, in writing, that you will be withdrawing your child.  By completing this form, you will not need to send another form of notification - 2023 Destination Form.

Dates for your diary

15 August – Pupil Free Day
16 August – Pupil Free Day 
22 August - Book Week Parade

God Bless

Andrea Woodgate
Principal 

Parish Sacramental Program

The Parish Sacramental Program Coordinator, Mrs Kathy Pollard, wishes to advise families that the Parish is considering holding the Commitment Ceremony for each Sacrament prior to or at the first parent/student workshop.  If you have any queries regarding the Sacramental Program, please contact Kathy on 0429 685 632.

Dear Families & Friends, 

I am always proud of the outstanding effort that our students put into all that they do, and the past two-weeks was no exception. Our Year 3 & 4 students entered the Choral Speech Section of Catholic School’s Performing Arts Festival and dazzled the crowd with their performances of All Monkey’s Love Bananas (Year 3) and Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave (Year 4). The Year 3 students were awarded a Certificate of Merit & our Year 4 students were awarded a Certificate of Excellence. Thank you to Mrs Sullivan, Mrs Curtis and the Year 3 & 4 staff for supporting our students in Choral Speech. 

Our Primary Bands also entered the Performing Arts Festival and under the talented direction of Mr Byfield, our bands amazed the audience at Corpus Christi College with their energetic performances. Lime & Soda were awarded a Certificate of Merit and The Funky Bunch were awarded a Certificate of Excellence. 

We also had a group of students from our Gifted & Talented Program enter the da Vinci Decathlon at UWA. I am proud to let you know that the group came Second Place in the Code Breaking Section of the decathlon. Thank you to Mr James for working with our Gifted & Talented students weekly and preparing them so well for this event.  

Book Week 

On Monday, 22 August we will be holding our Book Week Assembly at 9:00am in the Undercover Area, families are welcome to attend. Our Year 3 & 4 students will be performing their Choral Speech items and our Staff also have a special surprise. Students and staff are invited to come in Book Week Free Dress on this day. Students can come dressed as their favourite book character or use their imagination to come dressed as the Book Week Theme of Dreaming with Eyes Open.

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead. 

Michelle Christian 

Head of Primary 

Class in Focus:  Year 5 Blue

 Year Five Blue have started this term off learning about what ‘mindfulness’ is and why it is important to include it in their day.  We made ‘calm down’ bottles by filling a water bottle with water and adding glitter and water beads.  When our minds are busy, it is like glitter floating around in water and when we practice mindfulness meditations our minds are given the chance to settle, like the glitter settling in the bottom of our ‘calm down’ bottles.  The class are really enjoying closing their eyes, focusing on their breathing and resetting their minds.

This term we are focusing on our solar system and space.  In line with this theme, our Talk for Writing text has been a passage from Star Wars.  The text includes a battle scene between a hero and villain.  We can’t wait to share our epic tales about good conquering over evil!  We’ve also written informative posters about objects seen in space.  Some fun facts that we’ve found out have included:

NASA has landed on an asteroid. (Grace)

Comets are also known as ‘dirty snowballs’. (Harry)

The sun is fifty astronomical units from the Earth. (Abel)

Hayley’s comet passes the Earth every 75-76 years. (Seth)

Dwarf planets have red snow because it is so cold there. (Khloe)

Jupiter is only made of gases. (Seb)

We are looking forward to the Athletics Carnival at the end of this week and the long weekend.  When we come back for Week Five, we have our BTN segments about the Eucharist to complete, our food technologies projects about pizza to start and much more.  There is never a dull moment in Year Five Blue.

Michelle Smith
Year 5 Blue Teacher

Kindy Gold

This term we have be learning all about Gods wonderful creation and how we can care for it.  To do this we have been focusing on THE GARDEN and what lives and grows in it.  We have planted a variety of seeds and hopefully will see them sprout soon.  We plan to eat the vegetables once they have grown, hopefully as carrot soup and potato chips!!  We have set up a worm farm to use our food scraps to make food to give the plants to help them grow.  We have learnt that plants need air, water, soil, sunlight, and space for them to grow.

In the world of creepy crawlies, we have explored the world of spiders. We have been learning about how they make webs, what they eat and counting their legs.  We made spiders and painted webs, we even turned our classroom into a big spider web.  Next we learnt about ladybirds and put lots of spots on them and have discovered that bees are very good at making honey, which is yummy on crumpets and in our porridge.

Here are some of our thoughts about our learning.

Planting Seeds

Addisen: Flowers need water and sunshine.

Audrey: Plants nee water, sunshine, leaves and soil.

Ayah: Plants need water.

Tia: We are making flowers.

Hagen: Plants are carrots, flowers, and vegetables. Trees are so high and beautiful.

Lenny: I like to grow plants.

Leo: Bees get honey from the flowers.

Maison: We planted some flowers.

Mia: Plants need a seed.

Natalia: Plants need rain. It is important for plants to grow.

Tomas: I like the flowers smell.

Exploring worms.

David: I think they are sleeping.  I think they have zero bones.

Blair: they’re all so slippery I can’t even pick it up! 

Devin: worms are very important to the garden. They help the plants eat. They feel like jelly! 

Hannah: I’m holding one. They wriggle and move  

Ella: Oooh, they’re slimy and really, really, really cute! 

Akira: worms help plants make food.

Steve: Where’s the worms? Oooh there they are! Look, this one is going fast! Worms are cute.

Cooper: the worm escaped the hens. 

Quinnley: I’ve seen earthworms before. These are earthworms! 

Holly: I’m scared of worms. Actually, I’m not. I’m scared of bugs. 

Rhonda Oliver
Kindy Gold Teacher

Thursday, 4 August, I was so lucky to be able to go to Corpus Christi College to watch five of our school bands rock the stage at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival – Contemporary Band Concert. Lime ‘n’ Soda, Funky Bunch, ABCD, The Soundsmiths and Slamm, all played incredible sets and really got the audience grooving. A massive thank you to Mr Kitt Byfield for his extraordinary talent and vision for our talented students.

I would also like to thank Mr Gerhard Vogel for all his hard work getting our Year 12 FlexiTrack students to where they are now with this year’s inaugural Murdoch program. The coordinators of this program at Murdoch University told me that our students were well ahead of most of the other schools when we attended the FlexiTrack High Taster Day Tuesday, 2 August.

In between these two fabulous days we were a sea of blue to celebrate Marcellin House Day. Thank you to Mr Ryan Sinclair and the Student Leadership Team for a well-run and coordinated day. 

Unfortunately, the Year 9 Camino Cabagniol had to be cancelled due to the heavy rainfall last Tuesday. Though there were a number of students who told me that the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition would have still walked in the rain and hail. I’m not quite sure their mothers and fathers would have appreciated that.

The Year 11 and 12 ATAR Mathematics students had Mr Chris Simpson deliver some valuable Cassio Classpad Training throughout the day on Tuesday 9 August. Hopefully they were all able to get some extra information that they can use in future examinations and assessments. 

A reminder that there is no school for our students on Monday – Tuesday (15 – 16 August) due to Staff Professional Development and Staff Service Day. 

Warm regards 

Sharon Cusack
Head of Secondary

Learning Areas in Focus:  

Secondary da Vinci Club 

On August 4 and 5, the secondary teams competed in the annual da Vinci Decathlon held at the University of Western Australia. This event tests a team of students in a range of academic disciplines, with tasks that go above and beyond the standard curriculum content. Thank you to our staff supervisors; Mr Hillyer, Mr Matthys and Mr Vernede, who helped prepare our teams and spent the day assisting with marking. At this stage no final results, but a few words from the students involved. 

The Year 10 Decathlon had ups and downs. Some tasks were extremely challenging, such as the mathematics task, which involved applying year 12 content and the thematic approach in art and poetry. Other tasks felt more reasonable, such as code breaking, ideation, and legacy. The entire team thought the Decathlon was extremely enjoyable, a great experience, and recommends da Vinci Club and the Decathlon for those that are offered the opportunity.  

The Year 9 Decathlon team this year participated in many tasks and activities throughout the day such as science, cartography, creative producers, mathematics, art and poetry, legacy, code breaking, English, ideation and engineering. These tasks were constructed around a general theme of patterns, such as the science mentioning natural patterns and the cartography task involving patterns of maps. These challenged us immensely, however we tried our hardest and hope to have positive results of this high-pressure completion. We enjoyed this event and look forward to it once again for next year. 

The year 8 group enjoyed the da Vinci Decathlon and found the tasks challenging but from the experience, have improved our time management to make sure the tasks were completed. The experience from previous Decathlons helped us understand how the day was laid out and helped us to plan how to answer the questions in the different tasks. We enjoyed socialising with other schools at the break times and talking to a few different students throughout the day. The whole day improved our overall work ethic and developed several different team skills. 

The Year 7 da Vinci Decathlon was fun and we all worked as a team throughout the day. Session One was probably our highest performing, as the tasks did not get any easier as we went throughout the day. Session Two mathematics was very hard but with teamwork, we got through it in the end. Session Three was the most difficult of all the sessions as even we only had six people in total to do legacy and code breaking. It was a great experience and hopefully we will all attend next year and develop further from this opportunity.  

The students in our da Vinci Club are now involved in some academic extension rotations, where they will be able to research and develop skills in areas such as DNA and Biobarcoding, Debating, Advanced coding and Robotics and Astronomy and Astrophotography.  

Mark Gargano 

Teaching & Learning Coordinator 

Years 7-12 

Humanities and Social Sciences

Students engaged in their own mini archaeological dig and discussed what the artefacts revealed about early settlers on farms in the Avon valley (see photo). Students concluded that they had some luxury items and were dependent on sheep for food! 

Year 8 HASS

This term, Year 8 students have been learning about the fascinating history of Medieval Europe. They have explored topics such as the feudal system, crime and punishment, castles, churches, Charlemagne, the Battle of Hastings, and the worst jobs in the medieval period. Students did a fantastic job of creating a 3D display on one of the topics studied and presenting their displays to the class.

Next week, we will move on to investigate the causes, effects and spread of the deadly plague known as the Black Death which spread across Asia, Europe, and Africa during medieval times.

Year 9 and 1O HASS

Both year 9 and 10 have started looking at the world of Geography and will start to explore more physical geography to start and then will move on to looking at Human Geography and the impacts that are taking place at a local and global scale.

Mr Gerard Vogel & HASS Team

Secondary Sporting News

Week 3 & 4’s Sports Achievement Winner Tayah Joy 

Tayah competed in the U25’s Pony Club Eventing competition in the 65 cm class. Tayah placed 2^nd out of 40 competitors. Congratulations Tayah for your outstanding achievement in your eventing competition.

2022 Year 4 – 12 Interhouse Athletics Carnival

The annual Year 4 - 12 Interhouse Athletics Carnival was held at Bert Hawke Oval on Friday August 12. Although the last few weeks have been dark, wet and gloomy we were blessed with gorgeous, warm and sunny weather for our carnival. The day started cold and foggy as the teachers and helpers got soggy socks setting up the carnival. As the students and the house spirit arrived the fog lifted and the sun shone bright on the oval. The day started with 100m and 200m sprints while the Year 11 and 12 students jumped to new heights on the High Jump site. The students then split into their year groups and participated in the field events, all trying the throw or jump a 'Personal Best' and win points for their house. We finished the day cheering on the 400 m sprints and 4x 100 m relay teams. Congratulations to all the students who participated and put in their best effort at the carnival, there were records broken, lots of personal bests and lots of smile and laughter to be seen.

We would like to give a massive thank you to the staff and parent/family helpers who jumped in on the day to help the event run smoothly, without the help of everyone carnival days cannot run. We are truly grateful for your contribution to our school community.

As we had such amazing participation this year and our school numbers have grown presentations were not able to be done on the day, we have set up a whole school assembly for this Wednesday August 17 at 2.30pm at the Primary campus.

Adrienne Suckling
Secondary Sports Coordinator

School Calendar

We advise the school community that the 2022 School Calendar on the website is still a work in progress.  In the meantime, a PDF version of the 2022 Term by Term calendar is available from the Class Information page and also attached to the newsletter. https://sjsnortham.schoolzineplus.com/calendar

There have been several events updated since Term 3 commenced, and you are encouraged to check this for upcoming events that may involve your family.

Andrea Woodgate

Opening Times:                             Mondays -   3.15pm to 4.45pm       
                                                      Thursdays - 2.45pm to 4.15pm    

Families wishing to access the Uniform Shop are advised that the online shop is the preferred method of ordering uniforms.  If items are required to be tried on, then an appointment should be made by contacting the Primary Admin on 9621 3500.  We are continuing to limit numbers in the Uniform Shop so an appointment is preferred.  Please note we can not accept email or telephone orders.

Please also keep in mind when ordering, that your items will go home Tuesday and Friday of each week, as Monday and Thursday are the days the Shop is open.  When placing an order via the Online Shop, it will appear on a report the following day.  For example; if you place your order on Monday, the report issues on Tuesday which means it will not be organised until Thursday, and will go home on Friday.

Michelle James 
Primary - 9621 3524

Canteen Support - Volunteers Required

The Primary Canteen continues to operate with the Winter Menu with Soup added to the Friday options.  You are encouraged to check out the daily options before ordering lunches.  If we experience connectivity issues with the online ordering, please revert to using lunch bags to place orders for that day. 

Recess or snack items ordered online are available for students to collect from the Canteen at their Recess break.  Milo pops and icypoles can be collected from the Canteen following the second lunch bell.  

Due to high demand on our quality food and service (we recently had 125 lunch orders on one day!) we need helpers to ensure that our kids get their lunches on time.   In order to function to our highest potential, we ideally need 2 or more  volunteers a day.  Volunteering is a great way to teach your kids about giving, modelling them for the future.  Also, every shift you do at our School helps you towards qualifying for a Parent Participation discount on your annual fees.  We would love to welcome you into our fun, and busy environment and see the smiles on your children’s faces when they see you in their school.  This year is a busy year and we would love to have some new faces in our canteen.  If you are able help, please sign up online at https://signup.com/go/xTdBXsh

Our Primary Canteen Helper Roster for the next two weeks of Term 3 is below.  Volunteers are urgently needed so please consider offering an hour or two one morning.   

Primary - Week 3  

Primary - Week 4

I look forward to working with you.  If you have any queries, you are always welcome to contact the Canteen on the number below.

Angela
Canteen - 9621 3525 

Term 3 Activities

A School Community Movie Night is planned for Friday 16 September - anyone interested in joining our sub-committee to help with the organisation is welcome to contact us.  

Please contact the Primary Admin or message us on our Facebook page leaving your name and contact details and the event/s you are happy to assist with.  We will be in touch with you to provide more information on what is required.

Canteen Assistance

A reminder about Canteen assistance - if parents have an hour to spare after dropping off their kids, or between 11.30am and 12.50pm, Angela would appreciate any help you can offer her.  The number of lunch orders coming in is the highest it's ever been, which means more food to get ready.  You can also have these volunteer hours marked off on your Parent Participation Card, which deducts $100.00 from your school fees.  Your kids will also love seeing their parents at School!

See our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1764507137145087/?ref=share for more updates.

Lauren Holten
President

Parish Priest - Fr George James

Assistant Priest - Fr Konrad Gagatek

Mass Times ~ Saturday Vigil @ 5.30pm

                   ~ Sunday Mass @ 8.00am  

Presbytery Phone: 08 9622 5411
Email: northamcatholicchurch@iinet.net.au
Website:  www.northamchurch.com

Parish News ~ Children's Liturgy 
Children’s Liturgy sessions are held during the 8.00am Sunday Mass.

Positive Partners ~ 1 day Autism Workshop

Parents and carers are invited to attend a free one-day Autism Workshop on 18 August 2022, 9.15am to 3.00pm, at the Northam Town Hall.  Join other local families to learn more about autism and ways to strengthen the home-school partnership.  Learn about the diversity of autism; understanding behaviour and working together with your child's school. 

Morning tea and a light lunch will be provided.  For more information, and to register, please visit:  positivepartnerships.com.au or contact Rebecca Wahlsten on rwahlsten@positivepartnerships.com.au.  For help, call 1300 881 971 - intrepreters are available.

Kidsafe WA - Free Child Safety Workshop

KEEPING KIDS INJURY FREE IN THE WHEATBELT REGION
Presented by Kidsafe WA
SESSION DETAILS
Attend the Keeping Kids Safe Presentation for tips on how to keep your children injury free at home, during play and on the road. This session provides practical steps on how to reduce the risk of injuries covering topics such as poisoning, falls, burns, child car restraints and driveway safety.
WHO ARE THE SESSIONS TARGETED AT?
Parents, carers, grandparents.
WHERE
St Marcellin Performing Arts Centre

St Joseph’s Primary Campus
1 Lance Street, Northam, 6401
WHEN
Tuesday 30th of August at 9.00am

Any queries to Michelle Johnson on 96213565

Cunderdin's Super Science Show

Science week is approaching soon, Cunderdins Super Science Show may appeal to our students who love science