Newsletter Term 1, Week 8 2021

Dear SJC Families and Friends

Whilst I am always proud of, and continuously amazed by the skills, personalities and acts of kindness that are displayed by our students, there are some moments that rise above others. I experienced two such moments over the last fortnight. 

Firstly, we were honoured to have two distinguished guests visit our school; they being Tweed Valley Councillor James Owen and Senator the Hon. Marise Payne. Senator Payne, our nation's Foreign Minister, Minister for Women and at that point, the Acting Minister for Defence, was visiting the far north coast and decided to find out why so many good things were being said about SJC for herself. She and Councillor Owen visited and spent time with our Year 12 Hospitality class before the Senator addressed the entire Stage 6 cohort. 

As the visiting party entered the College COLA, all 230 students in Year 11 and 12 quickly showed the respect our guests deserved and then listened intently to the relevant and affirming message that Senator Payne delivered. She was then asked a number of thought-provoking and intelligent questions by our students. It was a very proud moment for our College as she, and Councillor Owen were both thoroughly impressed by the display of our students. 

The second reason that delivered a higher than usual sense of pride in our students occurred when the same cohort of students gathered to hear Melissa McGuinness from You Choose speak of the life of her son, Jordan, and the tragedy in which it suddenly ended. This was Melissa's second visit to the College having spoken to your then Year 11 and 12 students in 2018. 

Her story is confronting and for our Year 12 students, it was very raw given the recent event that affected many of them. To our students' credit, they all remained in the venue and paid Melissa the ultimate level of respect by staying with her until the end of the presentation. Her story is such that one finds it difficult to contain emotions of sorry and sympathy, be it staff or student. Our students were exceptional in the way they received the message and my hope is that they engaged with each of their parents on Friday evening and discussed the content covered. 

We have a lot to be proud of at SJC. The two examples I have shared above are two of but many. Whilst there are always 'speed bumps' along the way, our task is to educate in the low moments and celebrate the moments of growth and learning. Thank you Year 11 and 12 for providing these moments to me. 

SEAA Reports

All families and students have now received their first SEAA reports for the year. These were generated using new software, our student management system Schoolworx. Whilst there were some coding errors that became apparent, we are pleased to be moving forward into the second round for the term in Week 10. Please ensure you have viewed your child's SEAA (student engagement and application) report and discussed the outcomes with them. 

Communication with Home

I would like to remind families of two important issues relating to communication between the home and school. Firstly, it is important that all families have downloaded the Schoolzine app. The College uses this to disseminate information to families. Our Facebook site is used to promote the good things happening in the College and this newsletter provides a fortnightly recap of what is and has occurred in the College. Our app will provide real-time reminders and notes that are required for students. Please follow the directions provided on the website.

The second area I would like to touch on involves the use of digital communication between parents and students whilst they are at school. There have been a number of instances in the last few weeks where students have not followed instructions are given or clearly articulated College expectations, they have been reprimanded for doing so and within minutes, parents or carers have contacted the College to discuss the matter.

This type of involvement is not helpful and often involves two-way communication which is contrary to the expectations outlined. If your child contacts you using any number of apps that are accessible through computers, watches or phones, I ask that you do not reciprocate. If you require a message to be delivered to your child, please do this by contacting the College office. 

Student/Parent/Teacher Interviews (March 23 and 29)

Following the feedback received by families at the end of 2020 relating to Zoom interviews, the College will again complete our S/P/T Interviews via Zoom. Information will be shared later this week and bookings will be made on-line. We will again assess the success of this method of interviewing before the end of the term. 

Running Club

Due to COVID restrictions lifting further, we will, for the first time in nearly a year, be in a position to resume Running Club. It was hoped that this would occur this Thursday but given the current and predicted weather, it will now commence next Thursday. Information will be shared through the app. I look forward to seeing runners of all ability come along to gain fitness ahead of next term's College Cross Country (Week 1, Term 2). 

Kind regards

Mr Scott Thomson
Principal

Student learning is in full swing as we move towards the end of this term. We hope that your child has settled into the daily routine for their learning and is enjoying the challenge of the classroom. The recent SEEA Reports will have provided an indication of how your child is progressing with their application to their learning and we encourage all parents to spend time discussing this report with their child. It can at times be difficult to feel part of your child’s learning as they move through secondary school, however the SEEA report provides an opportunity to ask questions of your child in regards to their learning. Some questions that can facilitate these discussions include:

• What are you learning in …. at the moment?
• What learning are you finding challenging at the moment?
• How can I help you with your learning?

Additionally, ask to see some samples of your child’s work in their workbooks or on their computer. This will provide you with a clear indication of what they have been learning and also how they have been progressing. 

The student diary is also an important link between school and home. I would encourage all parents/caregivers to check their students' diaries once a week and sign it for the HR teacher. The diary may include communication from classroom teachers and also shows homework for students to be completing.

This Tuesday the College will be hosting our Open Evening. This is a wonderful night for our school to welcome both current and interested families to our community. If you have friends who are looking for a secondary school for their child, please encourage them to attend this evening.

Last week, eight members of our school attended two professional learning days as part of a Learning Collaborative with the Catholic Schools Office. The two days were facilitated by Dr Lyn Sharratt, a world renowned author and academic who works with schools to improve learning outcomes for students. These days involved deep thinking for the Learning Collaborative Team as they worked through Lyn Sharratt’s 14 parameters for improvement. The team was certainly in the learning pit throughout, and now will take this work back to the staff, so collectively we can continue to help every student achieve growth with their learning. We look forward to sharing this journey with parents throughout the year.

We thank you for your ongoing support of our College and if we can assist in any way please do not hesitate to contact us.

Mr Ryan Campbell
Assistant Principal – Learning and Teaching

We are pleased to welcome everyone to our College Open Evening, commencing at 6:00pm on Tuesday 16 March:

We continue our annual Lenten Project Compassion journey. In this newsletter, we share with you two video stories from the third and fourth week of the Project Compassion campaign.

Week 3 - Olivia from Tanzania

We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Oliva, a 22-year-old woman from Tanzania. She did not have the opportunity to go to school and was embarrassed that she was unable to read, write or count. As an adult, her business was losing money because she couldn’t add up her money and give the right change to customers.

Then Oliva enrolled in Caritas Australia’s literacy and numeracy classes. She also set up a home classroom to teach her neighbours, for free, because they were too shy to attend larger classes.

Oliva has now graduated, attendance at her classes are growing, her kiosk is thriving and she is helping her children with their homework. She aims to become a pastor and run for leadership in the next local election - to help her community to ‘Be More.’

• Approximately 260 million children don’t have the chance to go to school

Week 4 - Arsad from Indonesia

In Week 4, we hear the story of Arsad, an Indonesian farmer, who had no toilet in his house, so always had to walk into the forest to the open defecation area. His family was often sick and open defecation caused many neighbourhood disputes. With the support of Caritas Australia and its partner agency, Laz Harfa, Arsad took part in hygiene, sanitation and financial management training. He then funded the building of a toilet in his house and helped other community members to save money to construct their own toilet.

Now, Arsad’s family is healthier, their community no longer practices open defecation and is more harmonious. Arsad inspired his community to ‘Be More.’

• Around 17 percent of Indonesia’s rural population, or 45 million people, practice open defecation – going to the toilet outdoors in fields, forests and other open spaces.

“Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au. By seeing the 'faces' of the appeal, we get to see the human side to our collections and what a difference we can all make by supporting this appeal.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs Hannah Ardrey
Leader of School Evangelisation

In 2021, we will be celebrating Catholic Schools Week in Week 8 of this term, from Monday 15 to Friday 19 March.

The week is an opportunity to celebrate our community and identity as a Catholic school.  Students are also encouraged to be really thinking about thanking. It is an opportunity to show heartfelt gratitude to others and respect for what others do to help us grow and be better people.

We will have five Appreciation Days where specific groups of the St Joseph’s College community are highlighted. Students and staff can write letters of appreciation and/or help the highlighted group out in some way.

The idea of attaching a year group to a group within the community is to ensure that as many members of the community as possible receive at least one letter of appreciation and an act of help or assistance in some way if at all possible. Students from the Year 11 Catholic Faith in Action will be actively involved in leading student involvement as part of community service.

Monday 15 March – Support Staff Appreciation Day
Students from Years 11 and 12 are asked to take the lead by writing letters of thanks and volunteering their services to assist: office, library, canteen, learning support, IT support, counsellors, ancillary and grounds staff. Also included with this group are Danny Shaw and Bianca McInnes, our Youth Ministry Officers, Waina Pene, school support officer, PE trainee Tanah Kemp and IT trainee Sunny Lindsay. If students are able to assist at break time, support staff might have the opportunity to have morning tea together.

Tuesday 16 March – Parent Appreciation Day
Students from Years 7 and 8 are asked to take the lead by making this day their focus. Letters of thanks can be written to parents and acts of service to parents are to be the focus that day for everyone. It would be great to see heaps of Years 7 and 8 students, for example, volunteering to help with Open Evening.

Wednesday 17 March – Parish Staff and Community Support Appreciation Day
Students from Year 9 will be going to the Wednesday Mass in the Holy Family Chapel and then they are asked to present Fr Wilber, Fr Rego or Fr Michael with notes of thanks for all the parish staff. As well as thanking the priests, there are other parish staff to consider: Mrs Kathy Twohill (Pastoral Associate), Mrs Donna Neal, Mr Jack Klein, Mrs Kym Lockley, Mr Paul Crouch, Mr John Klein, Mrs Pam Harlock, Mr Algis Budzinauskas (maintenance) and John Lee (You have a Friend). It is important that because these people work behind the scenes, we show our appreciation of them.

Thursday 18 March – Teacher Appreciation Day
Students from Year 10 are asked to take the lead by writing notes of thanks to all the teachers and present them to the teachers on this day. All students can be involved by making a super special effort to be on time to class, have the right equipment, and be really well behaved.

Friday 19 March – Student Appreciation Day (St Joseph’s Day)
The Staff are going to be the facilitators of the St Joseph’s Day Liturgy. SRC students run the show with activities after lunch. It is still very important that students realise that their behaviour on this day still needs to be exemplary. We would like to show that they are appreciated for their good work and actions.

It is hoped that the activities staged during this week will provide an opportunity for the whole community to be involved and appreciate others.

Miss Helen Gooley
Leader of Catechesis

We celebrated International Women's Day at the College with a Ladies Lunch - the first time ever! We were all very grateful for this opportunity.

The Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize is back!

Calling all kids with a knack for science or a passion for filmmaking! The Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize is back in 2021, and we’ve made a few small changes.

All films must be two minutes in duration and based on this year’s theme, ‘Big’.

The theme has been selected for its wide scope of interpretation – encouraging students to follow their curiosity and get creative!

The prize is open to primary and secondary school students in Australia, with homeschooled children also eligible to enter. There’s a prize pool of $10,000 to be shared between the finalists and their schools, and representatives from finalist teams win a trip to Sydney for the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes Award Dinner.

Sponsored by the University of Sydney, the Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize is delivered as part of the prestigious Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, which raises the profile of science in the community by celebrating outstanding achievements.

Entries open Wednesday 24 March. LEARN MORE

Recycling 

A CIRCULAR RESPONSE

The creation and consumption of ever more and diverse technologies is a wonder of our age. But these tech products must have an inbuilt reuse and recycling regime that never stops – a circular economy – that our Earth can sustain.

As you read this, perhaps even on a smartphone, it’s pretty likely you have a spare smartphone somewhere in your home. Maybe even two. I know this because a recent survey revealed there are 24.5 million mobile phones across the country. For nearly half of us – and in full disclosure I’m one of these people – that spare phone exists just in case our main device fails. From gold, palladium, copper, silver, and more, these devices are treasure troves of precious resources that could find reuse in the community, or could be recycled into the economy as part of new devices.

There’s a revolutionary concept that goes beyond simply recycling the odd handset however, and instead embraces the ideal that everything we produce should be designed for ease of reuse, repair or recycling. A concept to create a circular economy, in which nothing is wasted and our current levels of consumption are made more sustainable. If you’d like to know more about circular economy, take a look at the Royal Institution’s Bragg Fellow and UNSW Professor Veena Sahajwalla’s work in the even larger scale green ceramics field, which featured in a recent Australian Story on ABC.

Beginning that circular economy – a never-ending journey for our resources – is a step each of has to make, and even the longest of such circular journeys begins with a single step, to paraphrase Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.

Let’s go back to the smartphones. I understand the desire to have a spare, I really do. But that survey showed there are nearly 5 million broken phones in Australian homes. Beyond being an expensive doorstop, they really have no use, unless we release their resources to become something new. Which is why this month I have joined MobileMuster as their Ambassador to encourage Australians to send in all 5 million broken phones to be recycled. We’ve even got a catchy little slogan: Go For Zero in March.

It’s easy to get this done. Go online and fill in your address. A prepaid envelope will be sent for your phone to go in and join the circular economy. By this simple action you’ll have saved 2kg of precious metals and other minerals – as well as the energy equivalent in making it akin to you running a half marathon. In terms of avoiding carbon release, it’s as good as if you planted a tree… all from just posting that old phone to MobileMuster. To see how much we could do if all 5 million broken phones were recycled check out the online calculator.

Alongside this wonderful initiative we had an exceptionally interesting discussion in the latest Cosmos Briefing on Space about how to support the growth of Australia’s space industry, and the role we can play in driving responsible behaviours and utilisation at the “final frontier”.

The Briefing featured the Australian Space Agency Chief Technology Officer, Aude Vignelles; Adam Gilmour, CEO and co-founder of Gilmour Space Technologies (which aims to launch their Australian-made rockets in 2022!); and noted space lawyer Dr Cassandra Steer, Mission Specialist with the ANU’s Institute of Space (InSpace), and a Senior Lecturer at the ANU’s College of Law. I am of course biased as Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne, but this was one of my favourite Briefings, and I encourage you all to watch if you didn’t catch it live.

While we discussed the role of government and defence in supporting the nascent space industry, I was particularly struck by the unique position Australia finds itself in, as our panellists explained. Aude and Adam noted that we have decades-long partnerships with the main space agencies worldwide, but we’re unencumbered by legacy space technologies so we can adopt the very latest techniques of this small satellite era. Cassandra highlighted how we are the only nation to have signed both the Moon Treaty, on how to use that world’s resources for all, as well as the Artemis Accords, which support the US’s return to the Moon and beyond. This allows our industry-focussed space agency to demonstrate to the world a governance framework that’s innovative yet responsible. And the world is paying attention – as all three panellists clearly and compellingly explained – due to our position in the southern hemisphere.

I hope that these short takeaways only encourage you to view the full Briefing, and to attend the next Cosmos Briefing, which covers a topic that will only grow in importance in this century: hydrogen. This new fuel offers a chance to decarbonise our world, and thus goes hand in hand with the circular economy revolution. Make sure not to miss it!

Until then, send in those broken phones for recycling. Let’s Go for Zero in March.

Alan Duffy, Lead Scientist at The Royal Institution of Australia

I have included this article for you to read as it ties in with the Mobile Muster campaign currently advertised to our students.

Mobile Muster is a company that people can send their old phones to get recycled, so the valuable materials can be reused. Items that can be recycled include: mobile phones, chargers, batteries and other accessories.

In an effort to encourage users to recycle their mobile phones (and accessories), Mobile Muster will award the following to the top three collecting schools in each state and territory: Gold:  $1,500 JB Hi-Fi Voucher; or Silver: $750 JB Hi-Fi Voucher; or Bronze: $500 Officeworks Voucher.

There are also $250 Officeworks voucher randomly awarded to 10 participating schools.

Mr Matthew Hall
Leader of Learning - Science

NAPLAN Online Practice Tests

Students in Years 7 and 9 will be completing NAPLAN Practice Tests in Week 9, in preparation for NAPLAN Online later in the year.  The Practice tests will include a Writing Test and an Omnibus Test (combination of Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy questions), each 45 minutes in length.  The practice tests will allow for students to become familiar with the types of questions they will experience in NAPLAN Online, and will allow staff and students to familiarise themselves with the functions of the online assessment platform. 

The schedule will be as follows:

Monday, 22 March - Year 7 Writing Test

Tuesday, 23 March - Year 7 Omnibus Test

Wednesday, 24 March- Year 9 Omnibus Test

Thursday, 25 March - Year 9 Writing Test

The actual NAPLAN Online tests will take place in Term 2, between 11 and 21 May. 

An email has been sent home with further information about NAPLAN Online. Any questions or concerns can be directed to myself.

Mrs Antonia Pratt
Leader of Literacy and Numeracy

Remember those carnival dagwood dog stalls, surrounding twinkling lights and a looped tape blaring: Making Baking Cooking all the while..? That’s what the library feels like at the moment - with a continual succession of projects and activities ensuring a revolving series of opportunities for student interest and involvement. We created a display to celebrate International Women’s Day on Monday 8 March with its 2021 theme of: Choose to Challenge, featuring inspiring Australian women who’ve chosen to challenge the status quo for the good of themselves and others, only to swiftly bump out and in with a Harmony Week Display and a lunchtime event themed around food and festivity to celebrate diversity and inclusivity and embrace the rich tapestry of our school’s own cultural make-up.

In the meantime, weekly creative writing sessions with St James and St Joseph’s students are further strengthening connections, and there’s been an avid response to our newest collection of Manga. Part of the excitement about the manga is that we have some brand new display shelving that now enables us to display books cover outward so students can actually see some of the wonderful collection we house here and we’re noticing an increase in book borrowing. That’s also very likely contributed to by the sheer volume of students who are now spending time in the library. Our morning and lunch numbers have quadrupled and on the whole the library feels like a hub of activity and possibility.

We’re excited to announce that the bestselling (and very funny presenter) author - Tristan Bancks - will be visiting our school in June and we’ll be holding our Write a Book in a Day event the week later. We’ve also been awarded a $10,000 Creative Arts Partnership Grant from the Catholic Schools Office to bring a professional filmmaker into the school to mentor our students in creating short films themed around social justice issues and to bring about positive change. There’s more making potentially on the boil (think performance poetry) but that can come for a future newsletter… watch this space!

Ms Melaina Faranda
Acting Teacher-Librarian

The last couple of weeks have been very busy at the College with many representative sporting teams out across the weeks but also a number of events unfortunately called off due to the weather.

Diocesan Swimming Carnival

Thursday 4 March saw 15 students make their way to Lismore for the Diocesan Swimming Carnival where they each competed in their individual races. We had many students place in the top 10 for their events. A special mention goes to three students who had top placings in multiple events.

Kye Thompson also claimed the title of 14's Boys Age Champion which is a major achievement at Diocesan Carnival. We wish these boys all the best when competing at the Combined Catholic Colleges Carnival at Homebush later this term.

Queensland AFL School’s Cup

Our senior boys and girls teams travelled to Byron Bay after a busy morning with school photos. Both teams had a tough start in their first matches but as the day went on their teamwork and cohesion improved, with a little bit of junk food motivation resulting in a win at the end for the boys.

Diocesan Tennis

On Tuesday 9 March saw the Diocesan Tennis Championships hosted in Tweed Heads where we had six students represent the College. Our open’s boys team consisting of Zane Blundell, Dylan Philip, Cooper Levy and Patrick Simmons finished up 5th overall. Our junior boys pairing of George Boyle and Sebastian Thomson had many tough matches all day with very some very close score lines, falling just short of the wins.

Diocesan Winter Sports Trials

Also on Tuesday 9 March we had a number of students travel down to Lismore to trial for the Diocesan teams in Rugby League and Soccer. Congratulations to Jack Field (Year 12), Blake Forder (Year 11) and Ashley Watts (Year 8) who were selected in the Diocesan Rugby League teams for their age groups. Congratulations also to Hayden Pirlo (Year 11) who was selected into the Diocesan Open’s Soccer team. Good luck for the next stages of competition.

Rescheduled Sport

Due to the very wet weather that we have had over the last couple of weeks a number of events had to be cancelled. The Diocesan Touch Trials has now been rescheduled to March 17. We are waiting to hear as to when the Girls League Tag Carnival will be rescheduled, as soon as a date is confirmed we will let all involved know.

Ms Madeline Ilic
Leader of Sport