St Joseph's Primary School South Grafton eNewsletter

From our Leadership

Welcome

Dear St Joseph's Community,

St Joseph's Celebration Day

What a wonderful celebration our Patron Saints Day was.

St Joseph’s Feast Day celebrated on 19 March is especially important to us because our school was named after him. This week we pray that St Joseph, who protected and cared for the Holy Family will kindly keep us all united in the love of Christ.

St. Joseph, watch over us and care for us just as you cared for the child Jesus;

and by your help, may we come to know your Son,

and so grow in strength and wisdom and the favour of God.

Amen.

St Joseph's Feast Day

Lent and Project Compassion

Like Joseph who supported Mary and baby Jesus, we too are working towards helping and supporting those in need in our local and global community through our Project Compassion appeal.

What we are doing:

Collecting cans/bottles so we can claim the funds and donate it to Project Compassion [there is a collection crate in front of the office for family donations also]
Donation of small change on canteen days

Seasons for Growth

This is a great program run by our School Counsellor for students who have grief in their lives. Please see the information sheet in the School Notes section of this newsletter. If interested or you would like more information Catherine Collopy can be contacted via email. catherine.collopy@lism.catholic.edu.au

Counselling Session

On occasion our children need a chance to talk through issues, problem solve and build resilience. Our school counsellor Catherine Collopy may just be that person. If you think your child would benefit from this service please contact the school for more information and some referral forms.

Parent Forum

The parent forum met last week. At the meeting those present were given a brief explanation of the governance model for Lismore Diocesan Schools including St Joseph's.

The assembly then walked Pascal Ponds so that ideas for renewal/maintenance could be gathered.

Parent Communication

Developing healthy parent-teacher relationships is a great way to improve your child's performance both academically and personally. This is both in a formal and informal setting. Establishing strong positive parent-teacher communication throughout the year creates a collaborative approach to solving problems and leads to happy, productive parent-teacher-child experiences. Please don't let problems or incidents fester or overwhelm you or your child. We always have our students' best interests at heart and want to create a safe, happy learning environment for all.

Parent Teacher meetings will occur during weeks 9 & 10. Your interview time slots are available through Compass. Please make sure you are all on Compass and it is functional. If you are having trouble with Compass, please contact the Office.

If you can't make any of the given time slots, please contact your child's teacher via email and you can negotiate a time that suits both parties.

End of Term

Given week 10 is the end of term our final newsletter for the term will be next week and will include Easter Celebration details and end of term details. The final day for students will be Wednesday, 5 April .

Thumbs Up

This is a new section for our newsletter. It is to congratulate students of St Joseph's who have represented our community beyond the city limits.

This week we congratulate Lara for her efforts at Highland Dancing in Brisbane and Callum for his efforts at Futsal in the Solomon Islands.

Teaching and Learning

Cognitive load theory provides support for explicit models of instruction.

Cognitive load theory is supported by many randomised controlled trials (RCTs). This large body of evidence indicates that instruction is most effective when designed according to working memory's limitations.

What is cognitive load theory?
Cognitive load theory is built upon two commonly accepted ideas. The first is that there is a limit to how much new information the human brain can process at one time. The second is that there are no known limits to how much stored information can be processed at one time. The aim of cognitive load research is therefore to develop instructional techniques and recommendations that fit within the characteristics of working memory, in order to maximise learning.

If working memory is overloaded, there is a greater risk that the content being taught will not be understood by the learner, will be misinterpreted or confused, will not be effectively encoded in long-term memory, and that learning will be slowed down.

The automation of schemas (repeated behaviours or actions) reduces the burden on working memory because when information can be accessed automatically, the working memory is freed up to process new information

What does cognitive load theory mean for teaching practice?

Explicit teaching: Cognitive load theory provides evidence and theoretical support for explicit models of instruction, where teachers are more effective when they provide explicit guidance accompanied by practice and feedback. When teaching students new content and skills, explicit models of teaching tend to support how human brains learn most effectively. Explicit instruction involves teachers clearly showing students what to do and how to do it, rather than having students discover or construct information for themselves.

There is some research to suggest that managing the cognitive load of learners through explicit instruction may also contribute to higher levels of motivation and engagement.

Cognitive load theory has produced a number of recommendations regarding instructional techniques that are directly transferable to the classroom. A selection of these have been described below, to illustrate how we use this evidence-based cognitive load research in our classroom practice:

The ‘worked example effect’: We provide students with examples of the task or problem, with every step fully explained, annotated and clearly shown. You will see this in our classrooms as ‘anchor charts’ or on our ‘bump it up walls’ which are based on the learning intention which is de-constructed and the success criteria which is co-constructed with the students.

The ‘redundancy effect’: This occurs when learners are provided with additional information that is not directly related to the learning. As you may have read in earlier newsletters this year, in our school we use ‘InitiaLit’ which is a phonics approach which has a script that has precise wording used that is focused on the key learning. We have also reduced the ‘busyness’ of our classroom walls so our students have a clear target for instruction within our anchor chart walls, also known as ‘the third teacher’.

The ‘split attention effect’: This is where learners are required to process two or more separate sources of information (for example, a diagram that cannot be understood without reading an additional piece of text) simultaneously in order to understand the material. In our classrooms, we use PowerPoint presentations that include all sources of information when needed.

The ‘modality effect’: This is associated with the split attention effect, but offers an alternative method of using more than one mode of communication - both visual and auditory. In our classrooms, particularly during InitiaLit, PowerPoint presentations are used that include all sources of information when required. For example, the teacher will verbalise the letter sound being learnt, while showing the symbol of the letter on the Powerpoint.

This is why inventions (such as reading) have to be taught explicitly and systematically.

I hope this explains why we have a large focus on explicit teaching and why our successes are growing.

Principal-Danny Rankin

Assistant Principal-Anne Forwell

Leader of Learning - Brooke Donoghue

Sport Coordinator - Caitlin Crispin

Last week we had students attend the Winter Sports Trials for both soccer and rugby league. Well done to all students who attended, you all showed great sportsmanship throughought the day.

Congratulations to Callum and Jackson G who made it into the Lismore Diocesan Soccer Team. They will be heading to Tamworth next month and we wish them the best of luck.

Families are invited to attend our School Cross Country to be held on Wednesday, 29 March. Please gather at our school on the bottom oval where the start and finish line will be located. The schedule for the day is as follows:

9.30am-1050am - 8/9 & 10 years age group event
10.50am 11.40am - Lunch
11.50am - 1.30pm - 11 year & Seniors (12/13years) age group event
1.40pm - 2.10pm - Recess
2.15pm 3.00pm - 5,6,7 years age group event

Age champion medals, place ribbons and zone notes will be handed out at the School Assembly on Monday 3 April.

Gumbaynggirr Language - Liz Hegedus

Ginnagay Ngujawiny -Hello You Mob,

On Tuesday, 14 March I attended a 'Flag Raising' event at the Grafton Police Station.

The event was about acknowledging the Aboriginal Flag and raising it so it flys high with the Australian flag outside of the Grafton Police Station. The main reason is to bring the community together and work as one. Aunty Jo Randall spoke on behalf of our community in saying we all need to work together, show respect and make sure our young ones are on the right track.

I had the pleasure of being a part of a smoking ceremony by Ken Gordon. The smoking ceremony is to help cleanse you of any bad vibes or feelings and to help you move into a better place.

I also had the pleasure of watching the 'Garimaa Ngahri' dance group who consists of all ages and are a part of many different Aboriginal Tribes along the North Coast. The didgeridoo player was Mr Michael Woods who happens to be Eli and Ruby Woods' grandfather.

The special guest was Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna APM, Region Commander, Northern. Mr McKenna spoke about his life as a police officer and how his first job was here in Grafton over 25 years ago. He also spoke about the need to work as a community and earn respect, trust and make sure our young ones are on the right track.

It was a beautiful ceremony and it brought not only the Indigenous community but everyone who is involved in making our community a special safe place together. After speaking to the police officers, other workers, students and elders we have all agreed that it comes down to us as parents, Indigenous workers, teachers, community workers, elders and all the mob (Indigenous and non Indigenous) to try our hardest to make sure our children have a safe and happy childhood and a beautiful place to live in.

Darrundang Ngiinda - Thankyou

Miss Liz Hegedus

IEW Indigenous Educational Worker

School Notes

SCHOOL FEES

Thank you to those families who have made the change from Direct Debit to BPay for fee payments. BPay is the preferred payment method for school fees. Scheduled payments can also be set up using BPay, the Biller Code and your personal reference number can be found on your Fee Statement.

Paying through BPay ensures that your payment goes directly to your account. Any enquireies please contact the School Office.

ABSENCES

Only full day absences are to be entered into Compass, for partial absences - arriving late or leaving early please phone the School Office to notify.

Change to afternoon travel arrangements may be emailed to the school if before 12.00pm sjpgraf@lism.catholic.edu.au After 12.00pm please phone the School Office with any changes.

REMINDER

Parents & Caregivers are reminded when dropping off or picking students up, the Staff Carpark is not a designated zone. Exception if you require use of a disabled parking space.

Please note the speed limit coming into this carpark at other times is 10 klms. Please be mindful of the school speed zones.

Cool_Kids_Anxiety_Program.pdf

Seasons_for_Growth.pdf

MCC_Open_Night_Year_7_2024.pdf

MCC_Save_the_Dates_for_2023.pdf

OOSH_Vacation_Care_Program.pdf