are affected.

Our thoughts are also focused on the Holy Lands.

Violence is rapidly deepening in Gaza and the suffering

of civilians caught in the conflict is unimaginable. As a

whole community we also pray for peace in Gaza.

Sacraments: One of our greatest

celebrations during the school year is

the time we celebrate receiving of

sacraments for a number of our

students. Over the next two weeks I

have the privilege of seeing the Year

7 students prepare to receive the sacrament of

Confirmation with Fr Medard and Bishop Greg. These

children were baptised as babies and now they have

reached an age of reason and wish to make the next

step into becoming a fully initiated Catholic person. I

wish them, their sponsors and their families all the

best as they prepare for this very special occasion.

Welcome: Last week we welcomed a new family to our

community. We wish Rebecca and Jeremy Smith along

with their children, Jye and Chloe, all the best as they

begin their time with us at St Joseph’s School. They

were proudly acknowledged at our welcome assembly

and were presented with a special Bible from Parents

and Friends.

SRC News: Our SRC program is a valued component of

our school which promotes students leadership and

provides students with opportunities to share opinions,

ideas and activities. Semester 2 SRCs have been

selected and will be formally inducted at next week’s

Mass on Monday 4th August. Semester 1 SRCs will

Messages From Don

St Joseph’s School Renmark Term 3 Week 2 ~ 1 August 2014

www.sjsr.catholic.edu.au

Respect Safety Learning Trust

Dear Parents, Friends and Students,

Staff and students have had a great start to the

term and it has been pleasing to see classes engaged

in a variety of creative and stimulating learning

experiences. We have a very busy term ahead of us

with many events and activities including:-

Confirmation, St Mary MacKillop Feast Day, Book

Week, Open Day, Camps and Excursions, Riverland

Music Festival, SAPSASA Athletics and ongoing

learning activities in classrooms.

Term 3 is an opportunity for all of us to renew our

focus on learning and development. After receiving

Semester 1 reports, we all have had time to reflect on

the information they contain and to set clear and

achievable goals for the weeks ahead. It is now

imperative that we endeavour to put those well laid

plans and goals into action.

Social Justice: As a Catholic community, we highlight

many social justice issues and make our students

aware of those in need around the world. As we

began this term we discussed and outlined the recent

events in the Middle East and also the tragedy with

Malaysian Airlines.

At this time we offer our prayers and thoughts to the

families whose loved ones fell victim to

the MH17 tragedy. We pray that the

disaster site and victims are treated

with dignity, the leaders find answers

quickly and that in time, peace and

healing are found by the relatives who

Ray, Chloe, Sarah & Tayla pray the Rosary Jye & Chloe Smith Year 7 Confirmation students

COMMUNICATE COOPERATE CONSOLIDATE

COMUNICARE COOPERARE CONSOLAZIONE

continue to have input and will certainly be

recognised for their positive contribution at the end

of the year.

We congratulate the following students who have

been elected SRC for Semester 2.:

R/1AT: April McDonald & Arshvir Bhangoo

R/1DP: Arielle Milich & Con Demou

1/2LP: Katherine Tran & Torren Frawley

1/2MC: Mia DePalma & Abishake Sutharsan

3/4GR: Oviya Sutharsan & Kyeton Frawley

3/4DF: Teresa Levak & Harrison Binder

5/6JA: Gemma Petty-Zimmermann & Lachlan Strelan

5/6TL: Taneesha Venables & Brock Rover

7MS: Eleni Nikas & Mitchell Forsyth

Riverland Festival Choir: Eleven of our students

have been practicing for the Riverland Festival Choir

over the past months under the guidance of Mrs

Daws. They performed during the week at the

Chaffey Theatre with students from other Primary

Schools. It was wonderful to listen to the songs and

watch as they represented our school with pride,

commitment and determination to do their best. We

congratulate Josh Crook and Gemma Petty-

Zimmermann for their excellent commentary and to

Jacob Siviour for his outstanding individual solo

performance. A special thank you to Mrs Daws and

Mrs Pick for all of their support, time and

commitment to the Choir.

Road Safety: We recently had a very close call with

one of our students. Connor Blackwell was involved in

an accident where he was hit by a car close to our

school. Luckily he escaped with minor injuries but

was very fortunate he was wearing a helmet. This

was a total accident but provides us with a very

important message about safety. A repeated

reminder to all parents and road users to drive

safely, especially around schools, for both their own

children’s safety and others. As outlined in a recent

article in the Murray Pioneer we encourage all

parents and students to be mindful, diligent and

extremely conscious of the safety rules when

around our school.

2015 Enrolments: We have been overwhelmed with

the number of applications which has resulted in a

process being followed and a waiting list created. I

have concluded interviews with all prospective new

families and am currently meeting existing families.

With more than 40 families to meet, this has been

very demanding but extremely rewarding. All the

families have been very impressed with our learning

environment and are very complimentary about our

school and the children. This gives us great

confidence for a sustainable future at St Joseph’s.

Fund My Idea Project ‘Active Learning Space’:

I would like to think Amy Martinson for her

initiative which enabled us to participate in a unique

way to receive government funding. It is based on

an application which invites the community to have

input into decision making. The successful

application will be approved based on how many

votes the idea receives. We continue to ask for

support for our idea at St Joseph’s School

Renmark. With grants very hard to come by we

hope this may be one way we can improve the

learning opportunities for our children.

We are currently 4th out of 60 but need to finish

in the top three. Voting is only open for one more

week. Please find below a link to log on to and vote

for St Joseph's grant to improve our front

entrance by making an Active Learning Space and

also the art/mural project.

This is a competition with other Riverland Grant

Applicants, so get all your friends (facebook or

other social media) and family to follow the link and

vote. Please follow this Link:

http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/fundmyidea/riverland

Students of the Riverland Music Festival Choir Students at our School Crossing

RESPECT SAFETY LEARNING TRUST

RISPETTO SALVEZZA IMPARARE FIDUCIA

Facebook Link:

https://www.facebook.com/YourFutureSA

Please pass this on to as many people as you can to

help the school maximise its chances for success!!

Congratulations: We wish to congratulate James

and Kerry Robertson for their recent positive

story about the Chowilla Station on Today Tonight.

This provided outstanding publicity for our region.

We also acknowledge the families and students who

participated in the unique TV experience Bing Unit

that was also publicised on Today Tonight. Some

fantastic acting with some future movie stars on

display. Well done to the following who were

involved:- Sue Lyon and Holly Teare, Jacob and

Luke Siviour.

Book Week: Book Week commences August 18 and

the theme this year is ‘Connect to Reading’. During

this week students will be involved in a variety of

reading activities, Public Library visits and of

course the very popular Book Week parade on

Wednesday 20th August. Please encourage your

child to dress up for the parade. It would be

fabulous to have all students participate in some

way.

P&F Community – Pamper Night for all our mums:

Our P&F team recently met and had another very

productive meeting. Many items and events were

discussed. I wish to promote the upcoming Pamper

Night, Wednesday 20th August, and encourage as

many mums to come and have a wonderful night of

indulgence, relaxation and fun.

Maintenance During The Holidays: We sincerely

thank all parents, staff, students and friends who

attended the recent Building, Grounds &

Maintenance Busy Bee on the last Sunday of the

recent holidays. Together with the Programmed

Maintenance Team and Andy Gaylard, we achieved

the following: Girls toilets painted, painting two

classrooms and touch ups throughout the school,

soft-fall raked and levelled, all roses pruned, bag

racks cleaned, shelter swept, down pipes on

Josephite shelter installed and general tidy-up

throughout the whole school. We take pride in our

school and value the ongoing maintenance required

to keep it a beautiful and safe environment for

staff, parents and the students. A tremendous

effort from everyone.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Feast Day: We

will celebrate this special day next Thursday,

August 7th. St Mary MacKillop, together with Fr

Julian Tenison Woods began the Sisters of St

Joseph, an order of religious Sisters, whose vision

was to provide a Catholic education for children of

the poor and disadvantaged. The sisters took a vow

of poverty. They dedicated their life to helping the

poor, the homeless, the lonely, the sick, prisoners

and anyone who was in need. The sisters went

without so that they could provide for others. They

were, and still are, true disciples of Jesus. We will

celebrate this important feast day with a variety of

class activities.

Staff News: I am pleased to announce that Mrs

Fiona Kupke will be replacing Mrs Leah Pilla in term

4 as Mrs Pilla will be taking maternity leave.

We have also been working on Mrs Giula Del Zoppo’s

Italian position. We were not able to receive

enough suitable applicants for the advertised

position and therefore reviewed the position. We

are pleased to announce that Mr Tom Knauer will

replace Mrs Del Zoppo starting in Week 5. He will

continue to cover the Italian content and will also

have one day in the Year 7 Room.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and

encouragement last semester and we look forward

to an equally positive and productive Term 3.

Don DePalma

Alex & Regan assisting at our recent working bee. Parental support is always appreciated, thank you!

Religious Education

Parish Connections Parish Priest ~ Fr Medard Kunambi

Mass: Saturday 6.30pm Sunday 9.00am

St Mary MacKillop of the

Cross Feast Day: Friday 8th

August is the Feast Day of

St Mary of the Cross

MacKillop. St Mary MacKillop

is our first Australian Saint.

She received her strength

and direction from her faith in God and lived her

life sharing the love of God with all people,

especially those who needed it the most. She co-

founded the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph

with Fr Julian Tenison Woods and together they

worked to give children who were isolated or

disadvantaged a Catholic Education. Her motto

for life was ‘never see a need without doing

something about it’. St Mary MacKillop’s feast

day will be celebrated on Thursday 7th August

with a whole school liturgy at 11:40am under the

shelter. All families are welcome to attend.

R e l i g i o u s E d u c a t i o n

Assessment Tool (ReLAT):

All Year 4 students will be

p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n a n

assessment in Religious

Education. This assessment

has been developed by the

Catholic Education Office. Religious Education is

a core learning area in all Catholic schools. It is a

foundation for all learning and is integrated into

the life of the school through prayer, liturgy and

social justice programs. ReLAT is designed to

assess some of the basic knowledge taught in

Visitor: Ray Hartigan, a parishioner from St

Therese Parish, visited the year 7 class to discuss

and pray the Rosary. Thank you Ray for your kind

donation of Rosary Cards to every year 7 student.

Religious Education lessons. Please note that the

assessment is not a measure of a child’s faith or

their participation in the broader life of the

Catholic community. Rather it is an assessment

strategy used to further develop a comprehensive

picture of their progress and understanding in

Religious Education. Pre-test is Week 4 & test

week is Week 7. Confirmation Students for 2014:

St Joseph’s School and the Parish of

St Therese are pleased to introduce

o u r C o n f i r m a t i o n s t u d e n t s .

Confirmation Mass will be held with

Bishop Greg O’Kelly, SJ on Saturday

16th August at 6:30pm. Those receiving their

Confirmation are Regan Binder, Lily Bright,

Emmerson Brown, Riley Byrne, Anastacia Festa,

Tom Fewster, Demi Johnson, Isabella Leonard,

Callum Rover, Brooke Sadlier, Benny Schuetze,

Abbey Siviour and Sarah Valente.

Prayer for Confirmation Candidates Father,

we bring before you those about to be confirmed. We ask that the power of the Holy Spirit may be in their lives so that they may live fully with his gifts

of wisdom and understanding, of knowledge and good judgment, of courage and reverence, and of

wonder and awe in your Presence. Inspire them to live their faith in a genuine and

credible way, and grow as the people you call them to be. Amen.

Susan Frawley

Christian Grapevine Bookshop: Looking for

confirmation card or gift? Call into the Christian

Grapevine Book and Gift Shop at 54 Ral Ral Ave

Renmark. Best wishes to all the candidates.

.

We’re ALL a part of Parents & Friends Community

Footy Update: With only five rounds left in the season things are

hotting up on the leaderboard. Round 18 was a

shocker for many tippers, but for Mr DePalma it was

a great round. He ended up getting six right which

catapulted him to 108 points, only one point behind

Mr Luxton at the top of the leaderboard. Equal

second is Todd. Coming in equal fourth with 107

points, only two behind the leader, are Derek,

Tate and Abbie. It will all come down to who can

pick the upsets from here as a point won or lost

makes all the

difference.

Happy tipping!

Pamper Night: It’s on again!!

Wednesday 20th August.

All Mums, Grandmas, Aunts, Sisters and female

friends are welcome to attend this special night of

pampering. Some of the businesses that will be

providing special services and products are The

Beauty Spot Skin & Body Clinic, Envy Jewellery,

Wellness Pilates, Amanda's Bowen Clinic & Little

Birdie Candles. Please keep an eye out for your

invitation from the students. Looking forward to a

wonderful evening.

P&F Community

Our major focus for our SEL lessons this term has

been ’20 Things That We Should Say More’. Each

class has come up with their own personal lists of

things they should say more. These can include

simple phrases such as please, thankyou, excuse me

but will also include things such as positive

greetings, encouraging and caring words. By doing

this the school will be focusing on talking in a more

positive, friendly and welcoming manner. All classes

will be presenting their list of 20 things to say on

posters, which will be displayed around the school

and in classrooms.

Numeracy Challenge Junior Primary (R-2): Anna's team scored 5 runs

in the first inning of the baseball game. They

scored 6 more runs in the second inning and 3 runs

in the last inning. How many runs did Anna's team

score overall?

Middle Primary (3-5): Ricky has a magic money

box. Every day, the box doubles the number of coins

Next assembly we will be introducing a

KidsMatter champion award. This is an award for

the students that is nominated by the students.

There will only be a small number of winners

which will be presented every three weeks at

assembly. This is an initiative designed to

highlight the positive behaviours that our

students are demonstrating and to teach

students to recognise the positive behaviours

being shown by their peers.

Tony Luxton & The KidsMatter Team

placed inside of it. Ricky put 3 coins in

the box on Monday. He looked inside

his box on Friday. How many coins did

Ricky see?

Upper Primary (6/7):

Alex and Kyle made 27 paper

planes. Kyle made half as

many as Alex. How many

planes did Kyle make?

21st Century Learning—In Action

such as black box and red gums.

The first stage of the project involved the

Renmark-Paringa Council filling up Johnson’s Water

Hole with water as part of the ‘Water for Nature’

Program. The second stage was the tree planting.

The aim of the project is to create a whole habitat

teaming with native plants, animals and birds. This

is part of the long-term plan to revive the Ral Ral

floodplain. This worthwhile and meaningful project

is allowing our students to play a major role in

changing their local environment for the better.

This ties in with the theme of ‘Sustainability’ which

the students are focused on with their inquiry-

based learning this term.

Changing Our Local Environment:

The Year 3-4 classes were invited by Teagan

McKillop, the Environmental Officer for the

Renmark-Paringa Council, to plant trees at

Johnson’s Waterhole for National Tree Day.

The 42 students, 2 teachers and 6 mums and dads

equipped themselves with shovels, hand spades

and gloves and went out and planted 229 trees.

They were helped by 30 volunteers and workers

from the Renmark Irrigation Trust, Renmark to

the Border Local Action Planning (LAP) group,

Renmark Paringa Council, National Resources SA

Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and the Nature

Foundation SA. They planted ruby saltbush or

bush tomato and other types of eucalyptus trees

Garden Club Today all students received a packet of seeds that

have been kindly donated by Morris & Sally from

Go Potti on Plants. Children are encouraged to go

home and plant, nurture and grow their plant or

vegetable. This links with the Australian

Curriculum priority of Sustainability.

We hope you enjoy getting your hands dirty with

your child!

Thank you—Garden Club Members

For Science we made slime as part of our inquiry-

based learning investigations. We are learning

about materials and how heat can change them.

We used a simple formula for making slime being

cornflour, food colouring and water. We heated up

our concoctions in a microwave oven. This made

the substance change from a liquid to a solid and

become slimey, meaning it could stretch and be

flexible but stay together.

We also looked at using a powdered fibre

supplement like Metamucil.

We love these experiments because we learn a lot ,

have fun and it is gooey. 3/4 students

3/4 Slimey Science

Reception / Year 1 Discovery Time Learning

KIDSMATTER NEWSLETTER WEEK 2

Term 3

Our major focus for our SEL lessons this

We welcome Jye Smith and his

family to our class this term.

We have changed some of the

areas in the classroom for

Discovery Time. Some of the new

activities are the Light Box, Farm

and growing things, I Spy, Fine

Motor/Sensory/Coloured Rice,

Musical Instruments, Coloured

W a t e r / P a i n t d r o p p e r

paintings, Writing Table/

Letter and Card writing as well

as continuing with old

favourites like box making,

playdough and Lego.

In Mathematics we have been

learning about fractions, length,

counting to 100, sorting money,

area and capacity.

We have so much fun in the R/1

classes, learning lots in many

different ways.

We have been learning how to do yoga

and meditation to help us to focus and

concentrate.

We also have been sharing our family

celebrations posters.

Congratulations to Mrs Thompson’s, Mrs Pick’s, Mr

Luxton’s and Miss Armes’ classes who have all

completed the challenge. So far 102 students have

completed. The challenge finishes on 5th

September so set yourself the challenge and read,

read, read!!

Mikayla represented Rachel

McLeod Dance Studios at

the Riverland Primary

Schools Music Festival at

the Chaffey Theatre on

Tuesday, Wednesday and

Thursday night, along with

other Renmark dancers

from her Dance Studio.

They danced to one of the

opening songs that the choir

were singing.

Well done Mikayla!

FREE workshops

6&7 August

Relationships Aust

85824122

For more information

see the poster in our

notice board at the

entrance to our school.

$10 Gift Voucher for all new BankSA Accounts

For the start of Term 3, BankSA

is offering all students who open a

new Incentive Saver Account via

the School a $10 Gift Voucher,

which will be deposited into your

child’s account once opened.

This offer is available until 26

Sept. 2014 and is for new

customers only. For more details or to collect a

BankSA Application Pack, please call Bank SA

Renmark 8586 6671

Renmark High School ~ Future Planning Expo:

We would like to invite you to attend the first event of

our transition program, the Future Planning Expo, which

will be held on Wednesday, August 13, from 5:30-

7:30pm. The evening will include a parent information

session at 6pm, advice from current Year 8 parents and

students and an opportunity to ask any questions about

our school. During the expo you will can take a tour of

our facilities, learn about our innovative learning

program and speak to our teachers. There will also be

demonstrations of some of our specialty subjects. For

more information, please contact Principal Orio Denti

or David Crouch at the school on 8586 6974.

WE NEED YOUR HELP PLEASE!: We all know that you’re supposed to reduce, reuse and recycle, but for

artists, reuse and recycle often have totally different meanings than they do for the rest of us. This term,

all classes will be looking at recyclable art and creating our very own recycled masterpieces. To do this

successfully, we need help with collecting a wide range of recycled materials and resources. Donations can be

brought to school and placed in the bins marked ‘recycled materials for art’ located near the front gate.

There will also be containers to place various smaller items such as bottle caps, materials, pegs and jewellery

etc. We are looking for donations of the following recyclable materials: Boxes of all shapes and sizes, old

washing up sponges (clean), ribbons, shoelaces, hair elastics, onion skins and egg shells, old clothes, tinfoil,

coloured paper, wrapping paper, newspaper, magazines, bottle caps, old cards, book and postcards, buttons,

wool, egg cartons, fabrics and felts, toilet or paper towel rolls, straws, old lego, puzzle and game pieces,

washed meat trays, pegs, plastic bottles, jewellery and beads. We thank you for your support. We look

forward to creating some imaginative and unique art pieces.

Fund my idea: Please help us gain this funding by voting for our

“Active Learning Space” at

yoursay.sa.gov.au/ideas/activelearningspace

Log-in, register, receive a confirmation email,

activate and vote for US!!

Then share with all your friends and family please.

In a spirit of deep joy and gratitude, Bishop Greg O’Kelly, along with

The Riverland Regional Council and School Communities of the Riverland

invite

All families and friends of the St Joseph’s School Community

to the Mass celebrating the Proclamation of

Our Lady of the River Catholic Parish

incorporating the communities of

St Francis Xavier’s in Barmera, St. Mary’s in Berri, St. Albert’s in Loxton,

St. Ursula’s in Morgan, St. Therese in Renmark and St. Thomas More’s in Waikerie

on

Friday 15th August 2014

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

at

Our Lady of the River School Hall

Crawford Terrace, Berri S.A.

RSVP: 8th August 2014

St Joseph’s

School

Renmark

No high heels to be worn in

the school hall please.