Around the School  

 

Around The School - Mr O'Toole, Assistant Principal

"The standard you walk past is the standard you accept." Lieutenant General David Morrison (OA)

What a fantastic and busy start to 2021! I have been very impressed with how quickly the students have settled back into classroom routines and daily school life. I have also enjoyed visiting the classrooms over the past two weeks and hearing about everyone’s holiday stories. It has been a privilege to witness our Year 6 students embrace their leadership responsibilities to commence the year. They have approached the beginning of their senior year with a great deal of positivity and enthusiasm and have been outstanding role models in all facets of school life. This was clearly evident at our opening school Mass last week. It was particularly heartwarming to see their interactions with their Kinder buddies last Friday. The relationship between a Year 6 student and their kinder buddy is unique and special, the smiles on their faces and the buzz of excitement was wonderful to see. Well done Year 6 on a fantastic start to the year! 

This year our Stage 1 students are a part of an Armidale Diocesan Mathematics Initiative known as the MaST Project. This is the second year of this program and St Joseph’s is one of six schools joining the initiative in 2021. This is a very exciting opportunity for our staff and students. I would like to commend our Stage 1 teachers for their hard work and diligence to ensure this initiative enhances the learning experiences for their students. We are so lucky to have such dedicated professionals at St Joseph’s. Please see the information below to assist your child at home.

Counting Tips:

Count stairs, letter boxes, or objects in two, threes, fives and tens whenever opportunities arise;

Put out the number of knives and forks needed for dinner and ask your child to count them in sets of two;

Talk about numbers whenever opportunities arise. Ask questions such as “Which is bigger/smaller/the same/different?”, house numbers on long streets;

Take note of larger numbers as they occur (e.g. house numbers, page numbers in books).

Encourage your child to read the numbers and talk about other ways they could have been written.

Talk about the order in which you complete everyday activities such as preparing a meal, setting the table. Use words such as first, next, last, third, to describe the sequence of actions.

Give your child directions using the language of order eg “First put the rubbish in the bin and then go and do your homework”.

Ask your child to arrange objects in order, eg the family’s shoes. Talk about the order using words like first, second, third, last.

"Coming together is the beginning, staying together is progress,

and working together is success". - Henry Ford

Have a great week!

Greg