Stage Three have been working hard to showcase their talents and the skills they are developing in class this year. We have entered three competitions to test ourselves this year and so far we have the results of two. The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition results will be announced next month.

The University of New England School Acquisitive Art Prize (UNESAP) and Let’s Hang It! Exhibition

Each student had the opportunity to submit an entry of their own artwork. The risk was if they won they would not get to keep the artwork as it would be hung in the University and become a permanent part of their collection. This year Jace Southern from yr 6 was selected as a finalist. With over 500 entries across 4 categories this is an admirable achievement. His work was hung at NERAM along with all the other finalists. It was an amazing exhibition.

NERAM Lets Hang it exhibition

Thank you to everyone who voted online for the people's choice award which we advertised in a newsletter earlier this term.

Unfortunately, Jace did not walk away with a prize but he is an absolute winner in our eyes.

Jace Southern (2024) Scavenger of the skies

The Australian Catholics 2024 Young Voices Awards.

The topic for this years writing competition was “Do good, be good, spread the good news” and this made it very easy for Stage Three students to access and write to the topic and there are so many good things to share about Glen Innes. Students wrote about the Westpac Rescue helicopter, Junior Rugby League fundraising and the local St Vincent de Paul branch to name a few. Alice Myers received highly commended in the Junior Article category for her entry titled ‘Easter at St Joseph’s’. Alice attended a Zoom gathering and was able to talk about why she chose her topic. The audience included other winners and officials from the Australian Catholic Magazine. Michele Frankeni, Assistant Editor of Australian Catholics Magazine said the judges were blown away by the excellent quality, authentic writing and the winners and Highly commended really stood out from the pack.

Please enjoy Alice’s entry below..

Easter At St Joseph's

St Joseph’s is really talented at encouraging people to get more involved in the Easter spirit with the raffle tickets they offer (the prizes that come with it are amazing) and costumes are worn by staff. There are also things that the children that go to the school can join in with such as decorated hats and parades. Mini vinnies (at St Joseph’s) create the ideas but the two school captains and the SRC from each year handles out the raffles.

Now, let’s talk about the raffles. The raffles encourage kids and family members to buy tickets because guess what the prizes are… chocolate! I don’t think there are many people that don’t like this delicious year round treat. Did you know that $ 1, 026 was raised from the raffles this year in 2024! Here’s another cool fact; all of the money that was raised goes to Caritas. Caritas is an organization that helps the poor.

Who doesn’t love to create their own hat at home? Isn’t it so much fun showing our friends and staff what we’ve made? Another plus to this is that our principal dresses up as the easter bunny while hopping around the undercroft and it makes everyone laugh and giggle.

Hmmm? Let's see, what happens next? Oh, yeah we have a parade to show our decorative hats on stage. Showing our hats on stage is such a fun time; and how do I know this? I know this because even the Little Joeys come up to show the hats and crowns they have made. But who are the Little Joey’s? The Little Joeys are the babies and toddlers and their parents are thinking of coming to St Joseph’s, and they come every Thursday until lunch break is over. Miss Core supervises the Little Joey’s while they’re here.

While it’s all well and good to love the easter bunny and the chocolate eggs, however we must remember that we wouldn’t even have easter if Jesus didn’t sacrifice himself when he was crucified on the cross. Easter is all about the four main days of holy week, from Palm Sunday when Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with palm leaves, to when he resurrected from the dead. So now we can all see that the real reason Easter is celebrated today is because of the sacrifice of love Jesus made for us.

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