Term 2 Week 2 - 5th May 2023

Year 7 2024

As part of Catholic Schools Week, on Monday evening, we extended an invitation to Year 7 2024 students and families to join us for an Information and Open Evening. The evening was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our amazing College. I would like to thank and acknowledge the staff of St Joseph's Regional College, who enthusiastically and professionally contributed to the positivity of the evening; from handing information packs, the beautifully set up hall and grounds, the welcoming committee in the car parks and on the walkways, for showcasing learning spaces and presentations by our Leadership Team.

Thank you to our 50 student tour leaders for the excellent way in which they conducted themselves while being tour guides to our visitors. Thank you to Year 7 students Noah Joyce and Haylee Vos for their well-prepared address about their experiences at the College so far. To Mrs Sharon Green for preparing students in the College Jazz Band to play welcoming music, to Mckinley Halls and Dominic Matheson on saxophone, for providing a calm ambience in the hall as our visitors concluded their tour. These students are true ambassadors for our College, and I must say how very proud I was to witness their commitment and their College spirit. 

This week, the College Leadership team commence enrolment interviews. It's not too late to apply! If you are aware of friends or siblings wishing to enrol for Year 7 2024, please ask them to either contact our Enrolment Officer, Mrs Michelle Reynolds or visit our website for information about how to enrol at St Joseph's Regional College. 

Enrolment Enquiries
https://www.pmreglism.catholic.edu.au/enrolment-enquiries

How to enrol at SJRC
  https://www.pmreglism.catholic.edu.au/how-to-enrol

Online Applications are now open

ANZAC Day 

As mentioned in last week's News in Brief, St Joseph's Regional College had over 150 students and staff involved in the ANZAC services and marches. The College was well-represented at the Port Macquarie, Wauchope and Laurieton services. We are very proud of all our students who were involved and supported ANZAC Day, as we recognise the sacrifice so many have made, and are continuing to make, on behalf of our country and ourselves. We are truly giving witness and respect to our Mission of Service.

Below are a small selection of images from the march, however, more images are available to view via our College Facebook page - www.facebook.com/SJRCPort/

ANZAC College Commemorative Service

As a College community, students and staff attended a special ANZAC commemorative Service last Wednesday, organised by the Leader of HSIE, Mr Jason Warneken. During the service, our College band, ably led by Mrs Sharon Green provided the music for our singers Alannah Steele, who sang the solo opening song, Abide With Me, who was then joined by Georgia McMahon and Lauren Johnson for the National Anthem, and I still call Australia Home. A special mention to Jonah Garven for playing the Last Post and to Lauren Johnston who laid the wreath at the makeshift memorial (Catafalque) on stage and also raised the Australian flag during the playing of the Rouse. Thank you to Esther Cummins for offering the Acknowledgment of Country, which is included below:

As we travel through our lives, we acknowledge and connect with the original custodians of this land, the Birpai people.

We acknowledge the ongoing belief systems of all First Nations people of this continent, past and present, who live, love and learn on Country, guided by Elders and shaped by spirit.

As students and staff of St. Joseph’s Regional College, we thank the Birpai people and surrounding communities for sharing with us the privilege to walk alongside them on Country as we are the original custodians and protectors of this land.

I would also like to acknowledge the tens of thousands of First Nations people who died fighting against the invasion and settlement of their Country’s during the Frontier Wars, the first wars fought by people of this continent.

In addition to this, I would like to recognise the sacrifice made by so many First Nations servicemen and women who fought so bravely in wars for Australia. In both World Wars, First Nations people had the highest rate of military participation as a proportion of their population. For many years their service was not equally recognised, and they were not supported as veterans. They were not given access to government schemes, they were not given military funerals, and they were denied the participation in ANZAC marches.

Each year, there is growing recognition of the bravery and courage of our First Nations servicemen and women and their contributions to our military. It is my hope that in the near future, every ANZAC ceremony across Australia will commemorate the service and contributions of both First Nations and non-First Nations people alike.

We welcomed special guest, Major Robyn Davis, from the Port Macquarie Sub Branch of the Returned and Services League; I thank Major Davis for the generosity of her time and her address to our College. Major Davis spoke about the tradition of the ANZAC and how the qualities are evident throughout subsequent wars, in today's Australian Defence Force (ADF) and in everyday life for all Australians. Major Davis' address focused on the Vietnam War and the ANZAC Spirit and I would like to include some extracts from her address.

Regional Beastman

This week, at the College, a giant wall mural is unfolding; sparking students' curiosity. The mural has been designed and painted by Sydney-based multidisciplinary artist, Bradley Eastman aka 'Beastman',

The mural has come to fruition through the insights of Visual Arts teacher, Mrs Tracy Pares, when an opportunity arose to apply for an Arts Partnership Grant, provided through the Catholic Schools Office Lismore. Tracy put together an extensive application and meticulously planned every detail. The grant required the successful applicants to organise an artist in residency program, complete a large-scale work and provide educational workshops for students. Tracy then contacted Bradley Eastman who was really keen to support our project.

We are absolutely thrilled to have Bradley's artwork adorn, what was a blank end wall on C Block. The wall will be unveiled on Friday. Photos of the final work will be available through our Facebook page and in the week 4 newsletter.

About Bradley - Influenced by the biodiversity, symbolism and design aesthetics behind nature’s growth patterns and organic landscapes, Bradley’s paintings, digital illustration, commercial projects and public murals explore a unique visual language, depicting future environments of abstracted geometric landscapes, potential new life forms and human intervention with nature.

Bradley is one of the most distinctive and prolific contemporary Australian artists. Bradley has exhibited his artworks extensively around the world, has curated and organised numerous international art exhibitions and projects, and has created artwork for clients such as Facebook, Vivid Sydney, Mini, Hyundai, Apple, Westfield, Adidas, Tennis Australia, Red Bull, Stockland, GPT, Vicinity, The Star Sydney, Merivale and more. His artwork has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, and his large solo and collaborative mural and installation works can be found all over Australia and around the world.

For more information about Bradley and to view his work, please visit his webpage -  https://beastman.com.au

Mrs Tanya Daley
Principal

The safety of our students, families and staff is our highest priority. In order to best ensure this, the [school name] leadership and staff, supported by the Catholic Schools Office, plan for a number of possible incidents, emergencies or natural disasters that could take place at school or during the school term. The events of recent years have reinforced how important this planning is and we all have a role to play when it comes to emergency management, including families.
Our students participate in various safety drills and staff participate through training and safety drills. We’d like to share with you the role of parents and families in emergency management.

School Lockdown
A number of the situations we plan for include a school lockdown as one of the immediate safety actions to ensure the safety of our students and staff. We understand that some may understand the word ‘lockdown’ to mean there is an immediate safety risk to all students. It is important to understand that when a school initiates a lockdown this may not be the case.

Depending on the situation, the purpose of a school lockdown will differ. A school lockdown may be a preparation step for an evacuation, or a school lockdown may allow emergency services access to an area of the school without having to navigate past students. Regardless of the purpose of a school lockdown, no one can be admitted to the school grounds other than emergency services.

Should we initiate a school lockdown, parents and families will be informed via text message and [insert name of app] notification. We will also inform parents and families as soon as the school lockdown has been lifted or if there are any actions required of parents and families. It is important that you do not attempt to attend the school during a school lockdown. We understand that you may be concerned however attending the school may also add risk to a possible emergency situation, block emergency services or impede an evacuation.

Natural Disaster
In the event of a natural disaster, such as flood or bushfire, the school leadership, supported by the Catholic Schools Office, will determine if it is safe for the school to open. If there is a probability the school may have to close part way through the day, the school will not open for that day as it is extremely difficult to evacuate a school site and ensure all students are able to go directly home safely.

In a bush fire or flood event it is important that parents and families have a plan to get your child/ren home from school, or into your care, at short notice. Please be aware that school buses may not be running and the school can not allow your child/ren to go home to an empty house or home with another parent without your permission.

Family Preparedness
How can you help us prepare for emergency situations? Please ensure that:

• You have downloaded [app] and have allowed notifications.
• Any changes to your contact details or custodial arrangements have been updated with the school.
• [for schools in bush fire or flood prone regions] You have a bush fire/flood plan in place that all members of your family understand.
• In the event of a school lockdown or evacuation, directions in the parent notifications are followed.

It is always our hope that these measures will never be needed but it is also our responsibility to ensure our school community is prepared and informed should the need arise. We thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

Principal, Mrs Tanya Daley and Nigel McIntyre, Work Health and Safety Manager, Catholic Schools Office

St Joseph's Feast Day

What a marvellous day we had today for our St Joseph the Worker Feast Day celebrations. The day began with a beautiful reverent celebration of Mass with Fr Paul Gooley, our parish priest. He spoke about St Joseph as a role model and the dignity of work. We then had a truly exciting experience as we were blessed to witness the awesome talents of some of our students through the Talent Quest. Mrs Fiona Jenson guided us in bringing out the true spirit of St Joseph's Regional College. There was a lot of love in the hall as the crowd cheered for each and every performer. We all learnt some new facts about our school, our staff and our area through the highly competitive trivia. PCs each shared lunch together before heading out to compete in some novelty activities on the oval. We are very proud of the way in which students conducted themselves throughout the day.

We also had aged care residents from St Agnes' Hostel join us for the Mass and then shared a morning tea hosted by Pastoral Care group H05. Amongst the guests was Sr. Colleen, who worked at St Joseph's Regional College in the early 90s, teaching many of our current and past staff.

Fun fact: Sr. Colleen was our English Teacher, Mrs Donna Smith's, PC teacher in the late 70s/early 80s.

Feast Day Mass 

Feast Day Aged Care Morning Tea

Year 12 Mid-Year Award Ceremony

Congratulations to our Year 12 students on their reports and academic awards. At the end of the awards ceremony, I spoke to Year 12 about the academic pathway they have chosen and the challenges of that pathway. I asked them to reflect on the messages contained within their reports and the insightful comments their teachers have written. I challenged them to take these lessons into the second half of their assessment journey and continue to strengthen the gaps in their knowledge and skills and take heart in the many strengths identified in their reports. Finally, I asked them to continue on the fantastic platform they have laid both individually and as a cohort and continue to grow as young men and women, and to maximise their opportunities as they prepare to move on to the next phase of their life. Well done Year 12 on a superb performance so far.

Congratulations to all our award recipients, and we look forward to a continuation of the effort that has very obviously been made up to date.

Outstanding Achievement

Madi Bloomfield Siena Cooper Giordano Dionigi Lorena Dionigi

Emily Edmed Jeffrey Keena Ellouise Kirkman

Findlay Marshall Briella Meyers Luke Squire

Outstanding Applications

Harrison Brown Mitchell Bruce Tomas Bush Jett Cherry Lila Chuwen Toby Colless Isabella Dragos Dakota Fitzgerald Emma Freeman Jack Friend Sarah Garrett Rohan Gibson April Glew

Mckinley Halls Sienna Heaton Madeline Hele Tayla Hopper Ella Juric Bella Kilmurray Isabel Krige Chelsea Lewis Ned McRae Juniper Mea Monica Murphy Aaron Nguyen

Kohan Pepper Liam Ross Jemima Scott-Branagan Emersyn Smith Ethan Smith Ethan Smith Lilly Snook Jacob Somers Ellyra Squires Franjayla Tyson Jasmine Van Der Houven Eve Walker Josie Yardley

Community Service

Madi Bloomfield Tomas Bush Emma Freeman Sarah Garrett Mckinley Halls

Hannah Jennings Jeffrey Keena Isabel Krige Dina Mihalopoulos Liam Ross

Jemima Scott-Branagan Dylan Sheehy Luke Squire Brendan Walsh Josie Yardley

Year 12 Reports

Year 12 Reports are now viewable on the St Joseph's Regional College Parent Portal -http://parent.lism.catholic.edu.au Further information and instructions about our Parent Portal can be found on the College website.  

Parent-Teacher Interviews - Years 8, 9 & 10

Monday, 15th May 2023
4:00pm- 7:00pm

Bookings are now open and will close on Monday, 15th May at 10:00am

On Monday, 15th May, we will be holding Parent/Teacher interviews for students in Years 8, 9 & 10 in the College hall, starting at 4:00pm and concluding at 7:00pm. These interviews are an important opportunity for parents to discuss the progress of their sons/daughters with teachers and to help formulate strategies to assist their children in their educational journey.

• As many teachers have a full programme of interviews through the night, I would ask that parents respect the 5-minute time allocation for interviews (if an extended discussion is needed, a separate time should be booked through the College office to see the teacher).
• Also, I would ask that parents adhere to the allocated time slots – if a teacher appears to be “free” it may be the only break they have all night

Year 7, 11 & 12 Parents have recently had interviews, however, if there is anything you wish to discuss with your child’s class teacher/s, please contact the College. There will be another opportunity for parents of students in Years 7-12 to meet with teachers again on 21st August 2023. 

Booking an Interview

Before you log in to book an interview, please have a copy of your child’s timetable with subjects and teachers' names for each subject.

To book your interviews (5 minutes per teacher)

1. Access the School Interviews website by clicking directly on the link below or scanning the QR code. 
2. Follow the below instructions

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/gyqp5

Enter the School Event Code from the box below
and then follow steps 1, 2 and 3.

Don't forget to click finish. Your interview timetable will then be emailed to you automatically – check your junk mail folder if you do not receive your email immediately.  

You can return to the site at any time and change your interviews – until bookings close.

Please REMEMBER to bring the confirmation email with your interview times on it to the evening.

Parents who do not have access to the internet at home, at work, at a friend’s house, or on their phones, may send a note in with the approximate times they require or phone the College on 5525 4100.

We look forward to meeting with you.

Ian Lutton
Assistant Principal - Learning & Teaching

Acknowledgement of Country Plaque

Recently we had Mr Jamie Donovan create an Acknowledgement of Country plaque that now takes pride of place in our reception area of the school. The plaque is a beautiful piece of art capturing Jamie’s words and artwork featuring our local Birpai totems.

Strong Spirit Aboriginal Services Cultural Activity Day

On Tuesday, 4th April Tristram and Jess from Strong Spirit Aboriginal Service attend the College to run some cultural activities with our Year 9 & 10 Indigenous students. Tristram showed the students how to make a damper recipe that has been in his family for generations whilst sharing some of his own family stories. The students got to throw Tristram’s handmade boomerangs and share lunch whilst making some jewellery items together.

We thank Strong Spirits Aboriginal Services for sharing their know knowledge and spending time with us.

Carly Taylor
Indigenous Education Worker

2023 A4Art Prize Finalists Announced

The 2023 A4Art Prize has seen a creativity explosion across our six St Agnes’ Parish Schools with more than 450 entrants (over 10% of the student population), almost double last year's entries.

The standard of artwork in this year’s competition is truly remarkable. We have seen a range of genres including painting, drawing, origami, textiles, digital art, as well as 3D artworks supported by thoughtful artist statements. It is incredible to see such a broad spectrum of creativity from a simple A4 piece of paper.

125 finalists were selected by expert judges across 14 categories including Kindergarten to Year 12, as well as the St Agnes’ Education Staff category.

A further 35 artworks were chosen as Packing Room Finalists. The ‘Packing Room Prize’ is a new category created for those artworks that may not have been chosen as a finalist by our Judges, or did not meet the criteria/terms and conditions of the A4Art competition, but have been chosen by Creative Arts Nest Team as standout artwork.

All finalist artworks will be featured in the A4Art Pop-Up Exhibition, touring each of the St Agnes’ Parish Schools in the coming weeks, where visitors can vote for the People's Choice Award. They will also appear at ArtWalk 2023, June 9th in the Creative Arts Nest Tent on PMQ Town Green.

Over 400 artworks have been shortlisted and are available to view online and are now open for voting for the Community Choice Award at www.artsnest.com.au.
Category and award winners will be announced at the Finalist Event on the 22nd June, with all winners to be displayed at the Wauchope Creative Hub Art Gallery after the Finalist Event!

Congratulations to all artists.

Recently our Year 8 and 10 English students have had the opportunity to attend various engaging presentations and performances to assist them in their classroom learning, and to see parts of their learning in the world.

Year 10 English

Year 8 English

This month, Year 8 students were treated to an engaging performance by Poetry in Action, a touring performance group who shed light on the power of poetry. This term, Year 8 students study Australian Poetry in their English classes, so this performance was a wonderful introduction and reminder of some of the important elements of poetry.

Chelsea Roulstone
Leader of English

This week's Alumni is Josh Wright, Class of 2018

Former student, Josh Wright, has returned to St Joseph's Regional College as an Aboriginal Education Worker in 2023. Along the way, his post-HSC journey has included being nominated for a TAFE NSW Excellence Award in the category of Health, Wellbeing and Community Services Student of the Year, Trainee of the Year, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year, and he received a TAFE NSW Community Services Commitment Award.

#wherearetheynow #aHSC4opportunity

The Hastings Education Fund was established to provide much needed financial assistance and support to local youth to help them achieve their post high school education, training and vocation aspirations. We recognise that the cost of regional students pursuing their post high school goals is often much greater than those of their metropolitan counterparts and that sometimes these costs can be prohibitive.

With this in mind, the Hastings Education Fund fundraises throughout the year and accepts donations from local residents and businesses in order to provide financial grants to students who need an extra helping hand. The funds come directly from your local community – none of it is government funded – celebrating the aspirations of local youth and working to help them achieve these aspirations. It’s our way of saying “we believe in you and want to support your goals.”

Each year the Hastings Education Fund arrange a charity golf day at the Port Macquarie Golf Club on Sunday the 4th June. For further information, please see the flyer below or visit their website https://cef.org.au/foundations/hastings/ or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hastingseducationfund

Volunteers Wanted

We cannot run the canteen without you; as the saying goes:

"Many Hands Make Light Work".

If you are able to spare an hour or so of your time, we would
love for you to join us.

Please contact Breeanna Stone through the College Office on 5525 4100.

The Canteen opens at 8.00 am every school day.

CLICK HERE for the Canteen's everyday menu.

Breeanna Stone
Food Services Manager

St Joseph's Regional College has a number of different social media platforms. We would love for you to follow us.

St Joseph's Regional College

Website - https://www.pmreglism.catholic.edu.au/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SJRCPort

Instagram - @sjrcport

St Joseph's Regional College - 50 year Celebrations

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SJRC50years

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sjr50years/

Digital Ministry

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sjrcdigitalministry

Library

Website - https://pmreglism.libguides.com/home

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sjrcexchange

Instagram - Instagram - @sjrcexchange

Careers

Website - https://www.sjrcportcareers.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sjrcportcareers

College Uniform