Newsletter Term 2, Week 2 2022

Dear SJC Families and Friends

A very warm welcome to Term 2, one that (and I reluctantly write this) is hopefully very predictable and consistent in comparison to the previous eight terms that have been adversely affected. 

I really look forward to the start of each new term. It provides all of us with the opportunity to experience a fresh beginning. The start of Term 2 is particularly poignant given we have just experienced the Easter season. Easter coincides with the northern hemisphere commencement of spring, the season of birth. As we know, Easter is the time of Jesus' resurrection and in a way, the birth of our Church. I look forward to seeing students make the most of this new term over the next few weeks and strive to be the best they can be. 

Student Awards at the College

In our AWC classes this week, teachers have been speaking with students about what they can do to attain any of the many College awards that are on offer. It is always important that when setting goals, a person knows where the goalposts are if they are to attain and achieve what they aspire to. These awards are presented at the end of every year during our annual Awards Assembly. Please take a moment to read through this document so you understand how these are assigned, and you can encourage your child to achieve one, some or many of these. 

Year 7 2023 Enrolments

Our enrolments for 2023 have now closed (April 29). We are very pleased with the response we have had and now turn our attention to the upcoming interviews that will occur on May 16 - 18. It is always a very exciting time in the school year and I can only imagine the feeling amongst all of our prospective students and new families. If you have friends or family who require any information about this next phase in the enrolment process, please encourage them to contact one of our friendly office staff. 

Staffing Announcements

I am pleased to announce that a number of new staff members are commencing this term. I offer a very warm welcome to each of them. You can read about them below:

Mrs Natalie Esterhuizen: Nat joins us after working in the Queensland system for a number of years. She will be working in the TAS area with our Year 7 and 8 students, as well as Year 10 STEM. Nat is an experienced and innovative teacher across a number of areas in the TAS learning area. 

Mrs Jackie Matthews: Jackie has been working with the College as a casual teacher since halfway through Term 1. She has worked in schools in NZ for the last 15 years or so years and is happy to recommence her teaching career in Australia. She will be working in two jobshares, one with Nat Esterhuizen and the other with Sara Reynolds in the PDHPE area. 

Ms Alissa Green: Alissa is a new scheme teacher and will be taking over from Gabby Yager as she commences her maternity leave. Alissa is a former College Captain of SJC and is looking forward to working at the school that provided her with so much. 

Ms Kayla Ellery: Kayla will be working in place of Mr Matthew Hall and Mr Mathew Lynch with their junior science classes until the end of Week 5. Both gentlemen have been overloaded with their teaching in 2022 and Kayla has been able to assume some of their teaching load for the first five weeks of this term. 

Ms Stephanie Anderson: Steph has previously worked at the College for a number of years, and like Alissa, is a past student of SJC. Steph will be in a job share with Charmaine Vella and will work one day per fortnight. 

I am also sad to announce that Mrs Priscilla Price (Mathematics) has decided to resign from her position. Priscilla will concentrate on family life for a while and we thank her for providing her knowledge and skill during her one term with us at SJC. I wish her all the best for the future. As we continue to seek a replacement for Priscilla, Mrs Coleen Dempsey will be taking her classes.

Congratulations 

I would like to publically acknowledge and congratulate a number of students who have attained some great results in the pursuit of excellence recently.

• Scarlett Sadler (Year 10) recently represented the Queensland U16 Hockey Team at the national titles in Newcastle where she was the keeper for the winning team. Well done Scarlett, National Champion!! It is also worth noting Mr Ryan Campbell (AP Learning and Teaching) was the manager of the U16 Boys team and also won a gold medal at the titles. 
• Max Liles (Year 12) has been selected in a raft of representative teams over the last month for Rugby League, including the Northern NSW Catholic Schools team. 
• Aidan Watts and Cameron Williams (both Year 11) have been selected for the Lismore Diocese Open Football team to complete in Sydney in May.
• Jayden Wilson (Year 12) was again selected for the Lismore Diocese Touch Football team. Jayden has represented the diocese during nearly all of his years at the College. 

It is wonderful to hear about students aspiring to do their best and following their passion. If you have stories about your children who are doing great things, please feel free to share this news with the school. 

Kind regards

Mr Scott Thomson
Principal

This week (Term 2, Week 2) schools across the Lismore Diocese will celebrate 'Catholic Schools Week'.  We celebrate what makes our culture and schools unique by the way we embrace Christ-centred learning, pastoral care and strive to accompany students to the 'fullness of life'.  We hope that the way students are known and valued during their time with us is enhanced because our culture is inspired by the person of Jesus Christ.  The theme of Catholic School Week for 2022 is 'Community, Care, Compassion'.

A part of our week ahead will involve our Years 9 and 10 ministry students attending Parish Mass and providing and serving morning tea to Parishioners.  We wish to continue to strengthen the connection with our parish community.  The Mass will take place this Wednesday 4 May at 9:10am at St Joseph’s Catholic Church (56 Frances Street, Tweed Head).

Our parents and carers are also warmly invited to attend Mass on Wednesday with our parishioners and students, and share in a morning tea together.  It would be great to see some of you there.

Mr Eamon Brown
Assistant Principal - Mission

Welcome back to Term 2!  I hope that you had an enjoyable Easter break with your family and friends. It is a beautiful time of the year. It was wonderful to welcome the students back to school for this term with reduced COVID restrictions.  We look forward to a wonderful term ahead and fingers crossed we are able to get through the next nine weeks with very little disruption to student learning.

This term a number of information evenings will be held for parents and students.  Our first two evenings relate to:

• Year 11 & 12 - Tuesday 3 May at 6:00pm via zoom
• Year 7 Family/School Partnership Evening - Tuesday 24 May at 6:00pm at the College

Information for the Year 7 evening will be sent out shortly, but please book this date into your calendar.

Also throughout this term, students will be completing a range of assessments as we collect data to complete Academic Reports.  We encourage parents to discuss upcoming assessments and tasks with their children and support them to meet all the required deadlines and produce learning of a high standard.  If, at any time parents are unsure of any elements of their child's learning, please contact the classroom teacher for clarification. 

Week 3 and 4 will see Year 7 and 9 students participating in the annual NAPLAN tests.  Students are not required to prepare for these tests, however we ask parents to encourage their children to do their best. 

We look forward to another wonderful term!

Mr Ryan Campbell
Assistant Principal – Learning & Teaching

From Tuesday 10 May to Friday 20 May, students in Years 7 and 9 will complete NAPLAN tests for Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. Further information has been sent by email to all families involved.  Students who missed the practice tests can find sample tests in each of the domains using this LINK. 

The schedule for the test can be accessed through: NAPLAN TEST SCHEDULE.

Any questions or concerns can be directed to the NAPLAN Coordinator, Antonia Pratt.

Mrs Antonia Pratt
Literacy Coach

The ANZAC Tradition Honoured

St Joseph’s College was well represented at the Twin Towns ANZAC Day commemorations.  

A contingent of students and staff marched, with families attending in support both here and at commemorations throughout the district.  Several students were able to honour a family member by wearing their Service Medals.  College Captains Lucy Boyle and Hugh Holt ably led the Twin Towns march as flag bearers and laid a wreath on behalf of our school.

Staff member Mr Jordan Attenborough-Doyle was a member of the Catafalque Party representing 41 Royal NSW Regiment.  Harrison Davies of Year 12 addressed the gathered community, giving a moving recount of the WWII service and valour of Victoria Cross recipient Flight Lieutenant William Newton in Papua New Guinea against the Japanese during 1943.  

At our School ANZAC Day commemoration, Bethany Knightley of Year 12 delivered The Ode of Remembrance and Mr Bryson Coverdale recounted the life and service of WWI soldier Private Patrick Bugden who received a Victoria Cross for valour in the 1917 Battle of Polygon Wood, in Belgium.

Thanks are extended to all members of the St Joseph’s College community for the way in which the ANZAC tradition was honoured.

Mr Bryson Coverdale
Teacher of History

All government and non-government schools across Australia are required to participate annually in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).

The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with a disability.  These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 in line with NCCD Guidlines (2019).

This collection of data will assist us in ensuring that all students take part in all school activities on an equitable basis.  St Joseph's College is committed to ensuring all students have differentiated learning opportunities to help each student reach their personal best.

For further information, please contact Amie Nugent or Molly Furtchman

English News

Year 12 Advanced English students have studied 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and William Shakespeare's play 'King Richard III.'  As a result, they were asked to write a discursive piece on what they have learnt about power and how this is relevant to our 21st Century.  In the coming weeks I would like to share with you some of their opinion pieces as we continue to focus on developing our writing and crafting a sense of voice.

Ms Charmaine Vella
Leader of Learning – English 

In the end, when we ‘all become stories’ (Margaret Atwood, 2006), who will narrate yours?

We, as humans, exist upon the face of an ageless clock; constantly plagued by the relentless hand of ticking time, sprinting to outrun the inevitable advancement of history – to which most are lost in a nameless tapestry of forgotten stories.  The struggle for power as a means to triumph over the ephemeral, fleeting actualities of human existence constitutes an undeniably timeless thread – connecting each individual to the ancient and yet intricate fabric of our own, fragile humanity.  To the universal, ceaseless pursuit of a legacy worth celebrating, a story capable of defying the tyranny of time.  To the same, perpetual questions: 

How will I be remembered? 

                                           Who will remember me? 

Quite simply, to be human means to be… well, quite un-simple.  To be human means to want to be more than human.  It means to want to stop the clock entirely.  To borrow the pen.  Ultimately, the meaning of humanity is synonymously and inextricably bound to the neverending, unfaltering grip of power. 

Abused, 

              pursued, 

                           wielded, 

                                          corrupted. 

                                                            Power. 

A challenge in equal parts inspiring and disastrous: paradoxically constituting both the very best and the very worst aspects of our humanity. 

Power is the pen.  It is the clock.  And it is everything in between. Quite tempting, is it not? 

Frighteningly, the classic tale of moral surrender to the seductive allure of authority is consistently retold within political discourse – a notably cyclical global narrative.  I find I need only look to our own backyards to find some particularly relevant examples.  By this, I mean Scott Morrison’s manifest failure to address the immense severity of climate change.  I mean horrifically raging bushfires.  Burning skies.  I mean those rendered powerless by the very hand of power.  This extraordinarily inadequate and unsurprisingly inactive approach to one of the most defining and consequential concerns of our contemporary zeitgeist simply represents the selfish and commodified nature of political morality.  And yet it is the innocent citizens – whose homes are rendered uninhabitable by the ruthless hand of nature’s retributive retaliation – who pay.  It is the future generations.  Your children.  And mine.  All for an exceptionally ruinous legacy; as modern politicians attempt to defy the steadily advancing grip of time, by robbing subsequent generations of theirs.

These undeniable threads of corrupt deceit and utter disregard for environmental wellbeing evidently stem from the overwhelming, egocentric desire for individual gain, as those in power attempt to garner more, and more… with the hope that they will be remembered in their desperate sprint to outrun the time.  It is this incessant, arrogant yearning to leave a fragment of oneself on the earth that can be identified as a predominant cause of unrest throughout history: 

Responsible for catalysing Hitler’s dictatorial rule. 

For Putin’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine.

As well as the exceptionally suppressive rule of Kim Jong-Un.

All as an answer to the one, resounding question:
How will I be remembered?

Nonetheless, there remains empowering notions of influence, in the form of leading feminist figures such as Grace Tame, named Australian of the Year in 2021.  Tame has constructively and emphatically wielded her power as a sexual abuse survivor to combat the stigmatisation of such a significant – and yet largely avoided – topic of social concern.  Through her work in deconstructing barriers to justice and stressing the importance of legislative reform, Tame has made remarkable steps towards attributing a voice to those silenced.  Those who have been marginalised by the power of abusers – forgotten in the race to the finish line.  Even as I write of Tame, her potent rallying cry reverberates throughout my mind:

‘Well hear me now.’ 

This ringing demand embodies the positive facets of power, as Tame and a growing chorus of previously voiceless individuals reclaim their stories, no longer lost to oppressive metanarratives of shame, of disempowerment.

Thus, in the 21st century, new notions of power – or lack thereof – continually appear, contributing to the timeless tapestry of human history.  To me, power is a remarkably versatile, complex mechanism, absolutely essential to the healthy functioning of human society.  Yet, it is when this crucial tool is abused – in desperate attempts to immortalise our own humanity – that it has exceptionally detrimental repercussions, particularly upon those subject to its influence.  Therefore, when considering your own legacy, one must consider not only the how and the who, but also the why. 

Why are you worth remembering? 

By India Reed

Study Skills Tips for May: Writing Assignments

Southern Cross University Research Opportunity for Students

Southern Cross University researchers are offering students the opportunity to join a research project where they will be guided and supported to become student researchers.  The goal is to find out what young people have to say about the career development learning and experiences they have during high school.

Career development is the process of managing life, learning and work over the lifespan.  It usually begins at school and it incorporates everything we do in life – from what we learn at school or in formal training, in sports, hobbies, cultural activities, or through both voluntary and paid work experiences.  All the roles and activities of life and work build a person’s career development across their lifetime.

Career development is important because we know that there are lots of benefits for each person.  It helps people to look to the future, set realistic goals, and work out a plan to help them achieve their goals and manage their work and life.  Having a sense of direction and purpose is motivating and exciting, it makes us work hard and achieve more, and gives us a sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction.  It can make a difference to how students view school, engage with their learning and can influence what they are able to achieve.  So it’s important for students while at school but as the world and the nature of work changes it is even more important now than ever before.

This project is developed from the idea that young people are the experts on their own lives.  That they can contribute valuable perspectives and ideas that can influence future career learning and experiences at school so that they, and future students, get the career development that best prepares them, now and into the future.

The project is built on two concepts:

• Student Agency– the power to think for yourself and act in ways that shape your experiences and life path.
• Student Voice– having the presence, the power and the agency to take the opportunity to speak your mind, be heard and counted by others, and perhaps, to have an influence on outcomes.

The project offers students the opportunity to exercise agency and voice by conducting research from the student's perspective.  By becoming a project researcher, students have the potential to be agents of change on a matter that directly affects them and their friends.

The project is spread out over the next three terms so that students will be able to balance project, academic, personal and family commitments.  As Year 12 will be busy with HSC course completion, the researcher opportunity is only available to students from Year 7 to Year 11 (see attached flyer).

The opportunity will be open for a couple of weeks for students to think it over.  A meeting will be held in Room 202 on Monday 2 May at lunchtime to provide students with further details.  I am also available in the Careers Room for students to come and have a chat or they can send an expression of interest by email.

Pathways to Medicine webinar

Date: Thursday 5 May 2022

Time: 5:30 – 6:30pm (AEST)

Join the webinar on Thursday 5 May and find out about the various entry pathways into Griffith’s Doctor of Medicine.

Griffith’s study experts will share insights and answer questions about the admission criteria and selection process, including important application deadlines, the Griffith University Multiple Stations Admissions Assessment (GUMSAA) and the Graduate Entry Medical School Admissions System (GEMSAS).

You'll also hear about our accelerated program for high achievers, the Bachelor of Medical Science, which provides a guaranteed pathway to the Doctor of Medicine for those who meet the GPA threshold.  Register here. 

Gold Coast Careers Festival

The Gold Coast Careers Festival is on this week from 9:00am to 3:00pm from Thursday 5 May until Saturday 7 May at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre at Carrara.  Students from all year levels and parents/carers are encouraged to attend as the festival is a great opportunity for students to discover and explore the many career pathways and opportunities available to them.  Exhibitors include leading education and training providers in the region as well as employer groups, Australian Defence Force and emergency services.

This event marks the launch of our Year 10 Career and Future Pathways programme.  An excursion has been arranged for all Year 10 students and our Year 12 Work Readiness Pathway students.  If your child is yet to return their signed permission note, please ensure that they do so no later than Wednesday 4 May.  Students will leave the College at 9:00am and return by 1:00pm.  They will then attend normal classes for Period 4 and 5.  They will be able to purchase refreshments at the (cashless) venue.

Ms Frances Mason
Leader of Careers and EVET

Last term, in an integrated English Studies and Work Studies unit, Year 11 Work Readiness Pathway students learnt how to prepare a formal job application and nail a job interview. Students were required to find an entry-level job advertisement, write a cover letter, tailor their resume to the job advertisement and prepare for a formal job interview.

“In English and Work Studies, we have been practising how to get a job and preparing for a job interview.  This unit of work teaches you a lot of great life skills and offers many learning opportunities that help you to get a sense of what a real-life job interview is going to be like.  I really enjoyed this unit of work because it made me get out of my comfort zone and I had to really apply myself.  The assessment for this unit was to have a mock job interview which is the same as a usual interview but you are just acting like you are going for a real job interview.” Blake Nelson

“I really enjoyed this unit because it helps you with real-life job situations and gives you an insight into what job interviews are like.  I personally have never experienced a job interview so I was a bit nervous, but I had done my practice and the interview was really fun.  This job interview really takes you out of your comfort zone but the good thing about the assessment was you were able to have the day off and only come in for your interview and you get to dress up for it!” Chloe Loubet

“My interview was nerve-wracking because it was my first time being interviewed.  I was nervous about messing up my interview by saying the wrong thing, but I practised with my dad and that helped me. From this experience, I learned that it can be stressful.” Layla Wellings

The College would like to thank the following members of our community who volunteered their time and expertise to interview our students: Chris Holt, McGrath Real Estate Coolangatta/Tweed Heads; Johnathon Keating, Keating Law; Leanne Noble, Aveo Group; Gregory Lidbetter, Liddy's Lawn Care; Doug Cook, 3 Carrots Mortgage Brokers; Monica and Karen, ETC Employment; Janita Thomson, Catholic Schools Office Lismore and Dennis Pfitzner, NSW Health.

A huge thank you to our Work Readiness Pathway teachers, Ms Caitlin Lidbetter and Mr Lewis Morosini who organised this fantastic learning experience for our students. 

Ms Hannah Lindschau
Leader of Learning – Work Readiness Pathways

Homework Hub will continue in Term 2 Monday to Thursday from 3:15 to 5:00pm in the College Library.  It is a great opportunity for students to catch up on schoolwork, study, reading, or assignments.  Please note that it can also be used if a parent is running late for pickup, late buses, etc.  If a student requires help with their homework this is also available.

Homework Hub is supervised and provided by the school free of charge. Everyone is welcome.

Mrs Fin & Mrs Williams

The uniform shop hours are as follows: 

Every Tuesday during the school term: 12:00pm – 3:30pm
Every Thursday during the school term: 8:00am – 12:00pm**
(**please note the exception below for this week only)

During shop hours: (07) 5523 9300
This shop is managed by Lowes staff only

Payments: Cash and EFTPOS Only
NO CHEQUES ACCEPTED

Or, if you'd like to make an online purchase, you can use this handy link.

!STOP THE PRESSES!

Lowes has advised they are hosting another 20% off sale event, which is happening for two days - Thursday 5 and Friday 6 May (this week!).  Please see the attached flyer for more information.

**On both Thursday 5 May and Friday 6 May the On-Campus Uniform Shop will be open from 8:00am until 3:30pm for the 20% off promotion.