St Jude’s Catholic Primary School

What a way to end the term. The weather was amazing and the students had an absolute splash as they were splashed with Colour, hosed by our local volunteer fire brigade and made foam angels in our foam pit made from the industrial foam machine. This year saw the introduction of slime which added to the fun and excitement. This year’s Colour SplatacularTM run brought a smile to everyone’s face, especially during the explosion of colour in the grand finale!

What a wonderful way to celebrate our Fathers and Father figures at our school. This year, we had a special Father’s Day Brekky with freshly made ‘egg and bacon rolls’. They were delicious! It was great to see the amount of children and their Father’s, Grandad’s and Father figures attend our special brekky. Thank you to all who organised and helped with the preparation for the day!

During Term 3, students from Years 1-6 took part in swimming lessons as part of their Physical Education program. This year, students attended lessons in the afternoon over a couple of weeks. Students learnt many skills over the two weeks from developing confidence in the water, to and refining their swimming strokes and learning new strokes, to a number of survival skills which included water safety and rescue techniques.

To celebrate ‘Book Week’, we saw an awesome display of creativity and imagination as students and staff took to the stage and modelled their costumes and the book in which they got their inspiration from. Later, we were excited to have ‘Perform Education’ come to our school and engage all students from Kindy to Year 6 in an incursion titled ‘Dreaming with eyes open…!’

Our St Jude’s Athletics Carnival took place in Term 3. It was a fun day where students from Pre Primary to Year 6 participated in a number of games and races and banded together to cheer for their factions. It was great to see such great sportsmanship and our families always come along to cheer and enjoy the day! This year Foley topped the leader board and took out the win.

Students from across the school had a blast as they danced the night away at our Term 3 School Disco. This year saw two discos with our Kindy to Year 1 students at our earlier time slot and our Year 2 – Year 6 students at the later time slot. During the night, there were several competitions from best dancer, to musical bobs, four corners and limbo. A huge thank goes to our FOSJ for organising such an awesome event!

To celebrate Maths Week, students in Years 1-6 took part in an awesome ‘World of Maths’ incursion where students worked together to solve a number of challenging maths problems. These problems covered all aspects of maths from shape and symmetry to collecting and analysing data, to measurement, mental computation and problem solving. The students were thoroughly engaged throughout the incursion as they were given the choice to choose activities that best appealed to them whilst challenging themselves along the way. Even the teachers had a go at solving some of these problems.

Students from Kindy to Year 6 had an awesome time with Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn! The student often sing a variety of Andrew Chinn songs during Liturgical Singing and school masses with some of our favourites being ‘The Rainbow Song’ and ‘These Hands’. Students attended short workshops throughout the day as they learnt some new songs which was later used when the whole school came together for an afternoon concert.

Students from Pre Primary to Year 6 have been working tirelessly throughout the term in preparation for our annual Edu-Dance concert. It was such an entertaining afternoon as students from across the school moved and grooved to the rhythms of their specially chosen Edu-Dance song. It was awesome to see the turnout from the many parents and friends that came to watch one of our biggest events of the year.

What a night! Following on from our annual Edu-Dance concert, students from across the school showcased the fantastic work happening in their classes with our 2022 Open Night. Parents and students filled the classrooms as they participated in a special ‘Open Night Amazing Race’ where students found clues along the way and entered the draw to win a special prize! The quality of work from across the school was amazing and the classrooms looked outstanding! Well done to all the students on their efforts across the term.

One of our Catholic Social Teachings remind us the importance to help those in need. Students took part in our annual Crazy Hair, Pyjama and Rice Day this week. During the day, students were reminded of those without food or those in the world that live on only one bowl of rice a day if they are lucky. Grumbling tummies were a reminder of this throughout the day. All money raised will go towards helping St Vincent de Paul and the Archbishop’s LifeLink agencies.

Our Year 4-6 students took part in an Interschool Lightning Carnival comprising of Football, Soccer and Netball. All students represented the school with pride and demonstrated great sportsmanship. It was great to see the marked improvement in skill during the term as students took part in training. Well done to all our students!

A number of our students recently received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is am important Sacrament in the faith life of our students and focuses on the ability to make good moral choices and building strong relationships with others. This Sacrament also reminds us that we all make mistakes and the importance of restoring relationships when we make a wrong choices.

Students from across the school came together in support of Caritas’ Project Compassion by coming to school dressed in their favourite AFL team jerseys or accessories or dressed in sports attire from other sporting teams of their choice.

Our Year 6 Leaders led us in a most special tableau dramatisation titled ‘Walk with Jesus’, retelling the final events in the life of Jesus. This year, the tableau was streamed into each classroom due to a number of restrictions that were in place. It was a wonderful way to end the term with the whole school reflecting on ‘Jesus’ Journey to the Cross’ as they participated in a very different way.

To celebrate Harmony Day in a special way, Mrs Waghorn (our Japanese Teacher) organised an awesome Taiko Drumming incursion. ‘Taiko’ is a word used specifically to refer to a variety of Japanese drums. Taiko drumming is a traditional style of drumming in Japan. Thank you to our friends at Taiko On for this awesome display of Japanese Culture and Taiko Drumming.

What a day! Students from across the school took part in our Harmony Day celebrations today. We began the day with a special liturgy broadcasted through the PA for all classes to participate in. This was followed by cultural activities throughout the day centred on the cultures of the students in each classroom.

What a wonderful way to celebrate our Mothers and Mother figures at our school. We began the day coming together to celebrate our first Mass since restrictions lifted. This was followed by a special morning tea. Our Pastoral Committee did a fantastic job ensuring that all our Mums and mother figures were looked after. It was great to see the amount of children and their Mother’s, Grandmum’s and mother figures attend our special morning tea. Thank you to all who organised and helped with the preparation for the day!

What a way to end the year! Our Carols by Twilight Christmas Concert was well attended with hundreds of family and friends coming along as they enjoyed a picnic under the stars before being entertained by our Kindy to Year 6 classes at this year’s concert.

Our End of Year Excursion was a wonderful way for our Year 1-6 students to celebrate the 2021 school year. Students had a blast and enjoyed their sausage sizzle lunch that was prepared by some of our teachers and parent volunteers. Last week our Kindy and Pre Primary students also celebrated with an excursion of their own.