Term 3 Week 5 - 21st August 2020

I would like to thank families for their cooperation in what has been an ever-changing and challenging time. We have received information from the Catholic Education Commission addressing guidelines for families in relation to COVID-19 in schools. Please peruse the following link -

13._Advice_to_Families.pdf

13 Advice_to_Families _pdf 1.16 MB

HSC Trials

Our Year 12 students commenced their Trial HSC exams this week, and from all accounts, they have taken this step towards achieving their HSC in their stride. The staff of St Joseph's Regional College wish Year 12 all the very best for next week's exams and I ask that you keep them in your prayers.

Leadership Formation Day

Last week, I acknowledged the 31 students who delivered their Student Leadership speeches, this week, those 31 students attended a Leadership Formation Day. I once again, congratulate this team of very worthy leaders.

I would like to thank Year 11 Leader of Pastoral Care, Ms Heidi Flanagan, Student Leadership Team Coordinators, Ms Heidi O'Reilly and Mr Tom Inatey for preparing our future College student leaders. I refer you to the below report by Mrs Heidi O'Reilly.

On Tuesday, 18th August, 31 Year 11 students attended the Student Leadership Formation Day at the Port Macquarie Youth Hub. Throughout the day, students engaged in a variety of activities that fostered teamwork and leadership skills, while considering how they can make St Joseph’s College a more inclusive, joyful and productive environment. All students present demonstrated a willingness to connect, converse, and collaborate with their peers, confirming their ability to be Student Leaders in 2020-2021.

I would also like to thank Ms Flanagan, Mr Inatey and Mrs Daley for their organisation, support and attendance on the day.

Heidi O’Reilly
Leader of the Student Leadership Team

Keeghan Grande

During COVID Lockdown Year 10 student, Keeghan Grande, entered a competition run by Port Macquarie Hastings Council to build a useful item from easily obtainable recycled materials.

Keeghan cleverly used the many skills he gained by studying Industrial Technology-METAL to repurpose an old surfboard, hardwood pallet and a couple of skateboards to produce a sensational lounge chair. Keeghan was awarded $1000 for his winning design in which Keeghan received $500 for himself and $500 for the College. 

I am pleased to announce that Keeghan decided that the College's money should go to the Metal faculty as an old metal linishing machine was needing replacement after many years of service. The machine has been installed, complete with a plaque, and is now up and running. Keeghan will always be remembered for his generosity and skills.

Well done Keeghan!

God Bless

Jim Dempsey
Principal

Year 9 Visual Arts

Year 9 Visual Arts students have been creating Lino Prints which are inspired by the theme of "Coastal/Country/Urban/Suburban-Investigating Local Environments".

Thank you to Taylor Pead, Bella Kilmurray, Emma Marchant, Isabelle Leslight, Makayla Cook, Franjayla Tyson and Abbey Slater for creating the great artwork that now hangs on my office walls; transforming them into a delightful visual space.

Kindness Challenge

Thank you to Ms Mooney for initiating the Kindness Challenge this week in your PC. By definition, 'Kindness' is a type of behaviour marked by acts of generosity, consideration, or concern for others, without having an expectation of praise or reward. It is considered a virtue. I invite you to read Ms Mooney's report below.

Hastings PC05 were issued a challenge this week. Our aim was to be ‘kinder’ people. Students chose via a ‘lucky dip’, an activity that they would try to incorporate into their week, in the aim of making someone else’s day a little brighter. Some of the activities included:

• talking to someone who looked like they may need a friend,
• smiling at five people outside their friendship groups during the school day,
• helping a teacher without being asked,
• thanking their bus driver,
• picking up rubbish – both in the playground or in the classroom just to name a few.

The kindness activities were issued on the back of a Kit Kat. A little kindness for the students before they even started!

With the help of our Practicum Mr Andrew King, the ‘lucky dip’ commenced. Brody Lewis choosing his activity for the week. Jasmine Hurley and Grace King receiving their Kindness challenge.

We hope PC05 managed to spread some kindness this week.

Ms Karyn Mooney
Teacher

Tanya Daley
Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care and Staff Support

Trial HSC Exams

All the best to our Year 12 students as they continue their Trial HSC exams next week. 

Hastings Education Fund

Applications are now open for HEF grants for 16-25 year olds from the Port Macquarie, Hastings area who will struggle with starting post-school study in 2021 due to financial or circumstantial needs.

You can apply online and find more info here. We encourage you to share the following link and also make a donation if you are able to. 

https://cef.org.au/foundations/hastings/

Mr Tim McCosker
Assistant Principal - Curriculum & Administration

Ph) 5525 4100

Rations for Year 9 History Students

Last week, a number of Year 9 History students took the opportunity to participate in a POW Rice Challenge. Students who elected to be involved collected their boiled rice rations at the beginning of the school day and were required to eat only the rations throughout the school day. The rations consisted of ¾ cup of plain, cold boiled rice. Students were challenged to last as long as they could without eating other food.

The aim of the Rice Challenge was for students to gain a small understanding of how difficult survival would have been for Australian POW’s held in Japanese camps during WWII. These men were starved, being given rations of this size or smaller for the entire duration of the period of their internment. They also had to complete hard, physical labour during their internment. Some of these men endured the starvation and physical punishment and torture in the Japanese POW camps for up to four years.

The students participating in the challenge did extremely well, with more than half completing the six-hour challenge, and some even forcing themselves to endure the hunger for 12 hours. Students reported feeling very food-obsessed and even stories of extreme ‘Hanger’. They said concentration during classes was extremely difficult and they all experienced a severe lack of energy through the day.

While this activity only gave a small glimpse of the challenges our soldiers experienced during their internment, students were able to recognize the difficulties they faced with the lack of food to sustain them. All students who participated deserve congratulations for challenging themselves physically to try to gain a deeper understanding of this event in our history.

Year 9 Food Technology 

Year 9 Food Technology students demonstrated their icing and piping skills by creating some amazing cupcake decorations. A range of themes were presented such as Wedding, Baby Reveal, Graduation, cupcakes themes for boys and girls birthday parties. We invite you to take a look at their marvellous creations.

Year 11 Food Technology

Year 11 Food Technology students have been undertaking a wide variety of practical lessons which relate to the properties of food. These practical lessons have enabled students to apply emulsification, denaturation, coagulation and aerating to a number of dishes including lemon meringue pie, honeycomb, and sticky date pudding. Students have been focussing on safe food preparation and hygiene whilst preparing these dishes.

Well done to all Year 11 Food Tech students; your skills and knowledge have put you in good stead as you shortly move into your final senior year. 

Mrs Diana Walsh
Assistant Leader of TAS

Rehearsals Cancelled

Due to new COVID-19 Regulations in schools, we have had to reassess our Instrumental Ensembles until the end of this term. There are two issues that we need to consider: the playing of woodwind instruments in groups (flutes, clarinets and saxophones), and the combining of different age groups.

Research has proven that Brass instruments actually release fewer particles than woodwind instruments. Choirs are known to be the worst, which is why the College hasn’t recommenced Vocal Group rehearsals this year.

Cancellations:

• The Drumline/Marching Band has been cancelled because of these two reasons, as well as the fact that we cannot do any activities with another school for the time being.
• All College Band rehearsals have been cancelled as well as the two Saxophone Ensembles for the rest of the term. 

Exceptions: The two percussion Ensembles that rehearse on Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes are allowed to continue as well as all private music lessons.

We will re-evaluate and adjust as we are advised of any regulation change.

Instrumental Lessons

Cello lessons are now available at the College. Lessons will cost $30 per half hour. Please see or email Mrs Green in the Music Room if you are interested in cello lessons.

Victoria Stanmore is available for violin lessons. Interested students should contact Victoria on 0412 719 747. Victoria is happy to come to your home or do the lessons at the College. Lessons will cost $35 per half hour.

Sharon Green
Leader of Co-Curricular Music

sharon.green@lism.catholic.edu.au

Positive Partnerships has a new project to support families to learn about autism through a FREE text-based service. The service will support families to:

• learn more about their child’s strengths and interests, sensory processing and communication needs,
• connect to resources that are evidence-based,
• consider ways of working with their child’s school and other professionals,
• understand the importance of looking after themselves.

The service is suitable for all families of school-aged children on the autism spectrum that would benefit from receiving informative and supportive text messages, directly to their phones.

Horror Genre

Last week, Ms Flanagan's and Ms Lewis’ Year 7 English classes were met at the Library by two rather unusual looking characters. Students enjoyed this lesson as an introduction to our horror unit and participated in a variety of activities to get them thinking about this unique literary genre. With some slithery snakes (lollies) as prizes, the classes brainstormed scary places, fiction, sounds and movies; listened to a short extract from a scary story; and participated in the ‘Thriller’ dance. A great time was had by all (including the witches)!

Library Spaces

The Library has a few different spaces within its ‘shell’, used for many different purposes. Mr Redfern uses one of the small seminar rooms to teach his small cohort of Year 12 Mathematics Extension 2 students.

Significant Literary dates

Mary Shelley wrote the classic Gothic tale “Frankenstein”, a novel still being studied in English syllabi today. She was born on August 30, 1797, and was to eventually marry the renowned poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was a forward thinker, a political radical, and a prolific writer. Happy birthday Mary Shelley.

Premier’s Reading Challenge 2020

The Challenge is drawing to a close with 28th August being the final date for students to add their books to their log to be verified and signed off on. Some of our participating students have completed the Challenge, while others are yet to do this. We will follow up on students again around mid-August to make sure they are on track to complete.

Raising Readers

Megan is a teacher-librarian at St Aidan's Anglican Girls School and was recently awarded the Queensland Teacher Librarian of the Year by the School Library Association of Queensland, as well as the national Dromkeen Librarians Award, presented by the State Library of Victoria. She is passionate about books and reading and growing a love for literature in young people.

Use the details below to register for this free webinar.

Megan_Daley_A4.pdf

Megan_Daley_A4 _pdf 8.70 MB

We love catching up with past students and following their journeys since graduating from St Joseph's Regional College. The breadth and variety of career paths and life choices are amazing and make for such interesting reading. Our current students will find inspiration in these stories.

This week, we shine the spotlight on Sami Bayly, a graduate of the 'Class of 2013'. Sami was a guest earlier this year as we celebrated International Women's Day.

Examinations

Meaning: A formal test of a person's knowledge or proficiency in a subject or skill.

Our students are doing the HSC Trials and we wish them all the best and good luck.

If You Are Aged 16 and over, You Need to Read This:

Be the voice of regional Australia and send in a story to ABC’s Heywire in any format you like:

1. It's about you
   Heywire is about giving Australia a window on your life and/or your community. You are unique and the place where you live is unique, and that makes your story fascinating. Personal stories are the most compelling.
2. But not everything about you
   We're not asking you to tell your WHOLE life story. Focus on one important or interesting aspect of your life. It could be one hobby that's important to you, or one issue that you are passionate about, or one challenge you've overcome, or an interesting thing that has happened to you, or one thing that irritates you about where you live, or what makes your town unique.
3. Then do this:
   Visit the Heywire website for further details and inspiration.
   https://www.abc.net.au/heywire/competition/
   Competition closes Wednesday 16 September 2020 
4. And you’ll feel like this:
   Pretty excited about an all-expenses paid trip to the Heywire Summit in Canberra, to develop ideas to make regional Australia a better place for young people! https://youtu.be/FXpDIbVLShM

Debating

SJRC v Mackillop Debating next Thursday, 27th August 2020. Good luck competitors!

In the SJRC Literacy Enrichment Spotlight

Books That Have Changed Me

This week we’re sharing stories about the stories that have changed us. These might be books from our childhood, our youth or simply last week! Enjoy the fifth and final part of our series from our very own librarian Mrs Karen Bale:

Karen Bale Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

This book resonated with me when I first read it quite a few years ago. The story of the two families, both damaged in their own ways and victims of their own backgrounds made me consider differently people whom I had encountered along the way who were victims of chance too. I felt secure immersed in the Australian vernacular. And the little character Oriel Lamb - bossy and the wearer of sturdy button-up shoes - I felt that I knew her, and that I had seen women in those shoes when I was a child. I found it so relatable. "He believed deeply in luck, the old man, though he was careful never to say the word. He called it the shifty shadow of God."

And over to you: 

We welcome the whole SJRC community to be a part of conversations on books and reading in general. Have you read something that changed your perspective, or a story from your younger days that still resonates with you?

Please share with us the story about a story that may have impacted your story!

Prayer through Music

Check out some of the great music featured this week on the SJRC Digital Ministry Blog https://sjrcministry.wixsite.com/digitalministry

Featured Music

Digital Ministry

We invite you to click on the links below to see the great resources on the SJRC Digital Ministry Blog and Instagram Page put together by our Youth Ministry Officers, Chloe Nash and Amelia Stennett.

SJRC Digital Ministry Blog https://sjrcministry.wixsite.com/digitalministry

SJRC Digital Ministry Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/sjrcdigitalministry/

Timo Gobius
Leader of Evangelisation

Weekly Lunch Specials

The canteen opens at 8.00am every school day.

Volunteering in our Canteen

In the current climate, Canteen volunteers will not be required until further notice.

Thank you for your understanding and take care.

Ms Donna Hamlin
Food Services Manager