Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week, our school community joyfully celebrated the Jubilee Year. Inspired by the Pope's call to become Pilgrims of Hope, we embraced hope, deepened our faith, and drew closer to God.

We were thrilled to welcome Andrew Chinn for a concert. Andrew was a classroom teacher prior to becoming a full-time musician.  He has released 12 albums, 5 DVDs and 6 picture books. Our Year 6 students had a special session with Andrew, becoming his enthusiastic back-up singers and dancers. The joy on our students' faces, from Kindergarten to Year 6, throughout the concert was simply wonderful.

After the concert, our students enjoyed a sausage sizzle before heading to the Colour Run. The smiles and laughter throughout the afternoon, along with the rainbow of colours everyone was covered in by the end of the day, showed how much fun was had by all. A special thank you to Mrs. Lapi-an, the Wingham RFS, and our parent helpers for their assistance.

Our celebrations concluded with our School and Parish Mass on Sunday evening. Our children participated in various ministries during the Mass, including singing some of the Andrew Chinn songs that they heard on Friday, and enjoyed another sausage sizzle afterward. Thank you to Mr. Buchtmann for coordinating and ensuring our children were well-prepared.

School Crossing Supervisor

I am incredibly pleased to be able to let you know that our School Crossing Supervisor will be starting at the beginning of Term 2. Please make sure you are using the crossing to cross the road with your children.

Cooking with Mrs Hunt

We have had many children who have enjoyed cooking with Mrs Hunt as their PB4L reward. We have had lots of fun making Easter Biscuits and pancakes. Congratulations to Ava, Zoe, Juniper, Max, Ella, Arlo, Alex and Kade who made some delicious treats for their class.

Student Led Conferences Parent Feedback Form

Thank you to all parents and carers who have provided us with their valuable feedback of our student led conferences. Your feedback allows us to make changes to continue to improve in our practice.

The survey is open until 4pm Wednesday, please consider taking 5 minutes to give us your feedback.

Young people today are growing up in an increasingly connected world where technology is part of their everyday lives –– for learning, socialising, and entertainment. While the digital world offers enormous benefits, it also comes with serious risks. From cyberbullying and online predators to inappropriate content and screen time concerns, navigating the online environment can be challenging for young people and their families.

Cybersafety is not just about blocking access –– it's about empowering young people with the knowledge and skills they need to use technology responsibly and safely. This includes understanding privacy settings, recognising scams, and developing healthy digital habits. At the same time, it's important for parents and caregivers to stay informed, have open and judgement-free conversations with their children, and lead by example through positive online behaviour.

In today's digital age, safeguarding a child's wellbeing must also include protecting their online life. This edition of SchoolTV will help you better understand the digital landscape your child is navigating and offer practical strategies to help them stay safe, confident and in control online.

Here is the link to your Edition: https://wingham.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/cybersafety-au

On Thursday, our school will participate in our Holy Week Liturgy. As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, please join me in a prayer for Holy Week.

May Holy Week be a time of spiritual renewal and a deepening of faith. I pray for peace and joy in my heart, and for the strength to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, both in his suffering and his triumph.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

God Bless

Mel Hunt

Prime Minister Award

‘Being a steward of creation’, ‘Trying your best’, ‘Speaking with kindness’ and ‘Being a responsible learner’ are some of the qualities that teachers consider when awarding ‘Prime Minister’ at our weekly assembly. It is an acknowledgement of the student’s efforts and they have the privilege of wearing the badge with honour, of suggesting a focus the school can work on, award Gotchas to other students at lunch time as well as earning Gotchas for themselves. Congratulations goes to Sharmaine Clarke (Week 9) & Thomas Marshall (Week 10)

MJR Awards

As part of our MJR system, we acknowledge that the following students; Meesha, Ella, Ava, Lincoln, Arlo & Sione  - 100 Gotchas. Joe, Alex, Max, Juniper & Kade - 200 Gotchas Well Done!

Mary MacKillop Award - Term 1

This award is presented to one student each term that consistently goes above and beyond to put the needs of others first. This award is founded on one of the most motivating and known sayings of Saint Mary MacKillop “never see a need without doing something about it” (1871). We present this award to someone who follows in Saint Mary’s footsteps by reaching out to the most needy and vulnerable in our school community. Congratulations goes to Kaii MacMillan. 

DIO Winter Sports Trials

On Tuesday 25^th students attended the Diocesan winter Sports trials at Newcastle. This is the most represented across all the offered trials that St Joseph's Wingham has had.

Congratulations to Roman Falzon who trialled for soccer, Samual Ungaro and Colebee Harris who trialled for Rugby League and to Ashlea Linehan, Savannah Hagarty and Eleanor Healy who trialled for Hockey. Ashlea, Savannah and Eleanor were all successful in making the Diocesan Team and progress onto the Polding trial. We are thrilled to offer this sporting opportunity and it is wonderful to see so many of our students doing well in their respective sports. 

Mr Mark Knoke 
Year 2 Teacher 
Sports Coordinator

Students have enjoyed doing Artworks with Natasha during lunch time Art Club. They based their art work on an animal of their choice and used acrylic paint on canvas to create it! 

Colour Run Wrap Up

Our Colour Fun Run was a bright and busy way to celebrate the Jubilee Year! With your support, we were able to raise $250 for Project Compassion and $250 for the Year 6 end of year gift to the school. Special thanks to our Year 6 students, who modelled accessories during the week and sold them on the day and to Ms Monkley for taking photos.

Thank you to our parent helpers; Michaela O’Toole, David Hunt, Teagan Eggins, Ebony Jennings, Jade Badger, Lucy Robinson, Kristy Campbell and Ian Lapi-an who assisted with spraying colour powder.

It was a fantastic school community event with many parents and toddlers watching and joining in the fun. A huge thank you to our local firies from Wingham Fire and Rescue who supported us with water for the event to ensure our students got extra messy and colourful!

Shae Lapi-an and Grace Fraser

RE FOCUS: The different Types of Prayer.....

All prayer, no matter it’s form, as written in an earlier focus, is seen as ‘expressing a relationship with God.’ But it is important to remember that when we pray, we pray for a specific purpose or reason. There are many different reasons we can pray such as:

Prayers of Praise – These are prayers that express the goodness and wonder of God. Often, we see these added into many common prayers we share such as in the Our Father where we say “Hallowed be Thy name….”

Prayers of Thanksgiving – These are prayers where we give thanks to God for all the wonderous things He has done for us to show our gratitude. Our school afternoon prayer is great example of this when we say “Thank you God for a lovely day…..”

Prayers of Blessing – These are prayers where we ask for God’s blessing for people, events or places. Often, we will ask God to watch over such things or to be with us during such a time.

Prayers of Petition – These are prayers where we ask for God for something, for ourselves or for others.

Prayers of Sorrow and Forgiveness – These are prayers where we are saying sorry to God when we have turned away from God and are asking to be forgiven.

With young children (and even sometimes older ones…), it is often common for prayer to always take the form of petition – asking for material things or for other intentions – but at school we always aim to pray for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways. It is really rewarding, in my role as REC, when I see our students come together to pray for other less obvious reasons, to share in prayers of praise when we sing a hymn to God, or a prayer of thanks when we share together when someone has made Jesus real for us in the classroom that day.

Whatever the intentions, prayer is an important part of our Catholic identity and school life here at St Joseph’s Wingham.

RE Focus:  Andrew Chinn Concert

Andrew Chinn, a renowned musician and performer, visited our school on Friday 28^th March to perform for our students as a form of formation for our students. Andrew’s music is used in schools across Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Ireland and he has visited nearly 1200 different schools around those countries.

As you can see from these photos, our students had a great time with Andrew, singing and dancing along with him and his support crew of Year 6 students. A big thank you to Father Kevin for his support in organising this visit.

RE Focus: School / Parish Mass – Term 1

On Sunday 30th March, many of our staff, students and families joined with our local Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish to celebrate mass. Our students did an amazing job leading the church in singing and actions to songs we have learnt throughout the year. This is a great way for our school and parish to come together and afterwards we had a sausage sizzle and play for the kids. I know that Fr Kevin and all the parishoners were amazed at how wonderful the students were and their knowledge and attentiveness throughout mass.

This is something we are going to do once a term in 2025 so look out and save the date in terms 2 - 4 because we would love to see all of our community there.