Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Reeve Shields, Pippa Van Zelst, Jack Breen, Bridget Cameron, Ayla Matthews, Dayna Munro, Ellie McKenzie, Max Niklaus, Vivienne Smedts, Cody Crooks, Brody Dubyna and Riley Nunn.

District Cricket Competition - Friday 26th November

Last Friday we made a final attempt at some inter-school sporting competition for our Year 6 students. And who would have thought that it would be the weather - and not another Lockdown that would prevent this day making it through to completion. We took 44 students to the Brierly Reserve to put their recent P.E lessons into full swing by competing in a ‘Super 8’ style of modified game. Unfortunately, due to steady rain and strong winds, our teams could only compete in 2 rounds. Regardless of the shortened day, all students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to socialise with other Year 6 students from schools in our local network, in addition to playing some cricket! I would like to thank Mr McCombe, Michelle Nicolson, Sophie Wrigley and Mrs Cooper for also enduring the weather whilst scoring and umpiring!

We look forward to 2022 where the students will hopefully return to a more ‘normal’ sporting event calendar.

Last reminder for ALL Sporting uniforms to be returned to the School Office ASAP. This will enable us to complete a full stocktake of all the uniforms before the beginning of next year.

Thanks again for all your support of our sporting program in 2021.

Mrs Emily Lloyd

With the end of the 2021 school year looming Mrs Lloyd, Maureen and myself would like to thank everyone for their support and borrowing over this “Covid” interrupted year. We are particularly grateful for all the families who purchased books through the Scholastic Book Club program. We were able to purchase a huge number of new books with the rewards that are reciprocated from your purchases.

There are overdue notices coming out on Monday 29th November, please check these. If you have returned these books or cannot find them at home please send us a note in a diary or an email to let us know so we can do a shelf check.

Email Mrs Hyland

Friday 3rd December will be the last borrowing day for the students so various end of year administrative tasks can be completed in the Library. This will allow these borrowers to still read their book for 2 weeks before ALL books must be returned by Thursday December 16th.

ALL Year 6 students are reminded to check their school desks, rooms etc for any resources/books belonging to the school before the end of the year. As usual if any book or resources are found over the holidays or next year please just drop them back in.

We love to see lost books!

Have an enjoyable Christmas and school holidays. 

Mrs Hyland and L.R.C Staff.

Gary Ablett Book Report

Hi, my name is Toby Hellessey. I am a Year 6 student in room E2 and I have recently finished reading the autobiography on Gary Ablett Jr. This book is great for anyone who is wishing to learn about what life is like being an AFL footballer on and off the oval.

I would say this is not a book for younger people, but for older people as it is an autobiography, not a story, and not super exciting. This autobiography is great because you do not have to read the whole book but you can just skip to the different chapters or look at the subheadings and pictures on the different pages.

In this book, I learned lots of new things about AFL that have definitely changed my perspective on what it's like playing footy.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this autobiography. I would rate it 9/10 overall and I would recommend it to any of my friends or family who are interested in football.

So, if you ever get the chance to read the Gary Ablett autobiography -then take that chance.

The Year Six students have been examining quality writers and using their techniques in their own writing. In particular they explored “Fox” by Margaret Wild, a story about friendship, trust and acceptance. Our Year 6 students wrote their own stories and added pictures to enhance their text. We hope that you enjoy these stories over the next few weeks.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

The Young Vinnies are hoping to make a Christmas donation of non perishable food to Food Share. We are asking if children could bring in some non perishable food (eg tinned soup, rice, biscuits, etc).

The food can be left at the front office and will be taken to Food Share during the last week of school.

On the recent Walk and Ride to School Day, Allansford Primary had the highest percentage of active travellers with everyone walking or riding. Their school won a bike for their efforts. Woodford Primary were second with 95% participation. St Josephs had 73% of our school as active travellers. This result was lower than usual.

In better news, there was a random draw for another bike from all students out of all the school in the district. Amazingly this was won by Chelsea Finneran in F7. Here she is with her new mountain bike. As Chelsea knows, walking and riding to school is important because it keeps you fit and healthy.

Mr El-Hage, Healthy Moves Coordinator

Pizza Day: Thursday 2nd December, 2021
Orders Close: 3pm Tuesday 30th November, 2021

NOTE: Year 6 students will be offsite all day at an excursion that day. Please do not order pizza for your Year 6 student. 

Once per term the PSA run a Pizza Day as a "special occasion" lunch option and to raise money for the PSA.

Children can choose from either Garlic or Hawaiian pizza (Gluten Free options available) which are provided by Pinkie’s Pizza who are one of our major school sponsors.

Orders are now open via CDFPay (Canteen ordering system)

There are no canteen orders on Pizza Days and children not wanting to order pizza should bring their lunch from home.

Sorry, no late orders can be accepted.

Sharing of food items in the classroom

As our school community grows we have more students enrolled who have been diagnosed as having food allergies or intolerances. To support all needs we have procedures for the sharing of food items in the classroom.  At times some classrooms will have a shared morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea. This is a supervised event and all families are advised of this via a letter sent from the classroom teacher.

This ensures all children's individual needs are met and catered for.

To ensure the inclusion of all students please adhere to the routine for the sharing of food items within the classroom.

Celebration of Birthdays

At St Joseph's we celebrate children's birthdays as a school by presenting the child with a Birthday Certificate at our whole school assembly. Each classroom celebrates birthdays in different ways. Some classes have a special chair for the day or a badge to wear, most classrooms have birthdays displayed in the room.

For the purpose of an individual child’s celebration or birthday we are now advising an icy pole or Zooper Dooper be a recommended option for these occasions.  It is not compulsory to celebrate all birthdays through the classroom.

Icy poles can be dropped into the school office. Please label with child's name and room number and let the classroom teacher know. Average classroom numbers are Foundation (23), Year 1 (21), Year 2 (22), Year 3 (21), Year 4 (25), Year 5 (25) and Year 6 (24).

It is lovely that children at times choose to give Christmas cards to their friends at Christmas time.

We encourage students to NOT include chocolates or candy canes with their cards in line with this sharing of food guidelines.

Take a look through these lost property items. Many of the jumpers and coats do not have names, many are 2nd hand and are named with children who are no longer at the school.

At the end of the year all lost property is either donated or thrown out.

Volunteers Needed

We rely on our volunteers and are also in need of more parents to assist. Canteen can only run 5 days a week if we have sufficient volunteers. Can you help?

Training is arranged by our Canteen Co-ordinator Tanya Hughes. Please consider volunteering, even if only once per term, all help most appreciated.

Raspberry Focus Water out of stock

Our supplier is unable to supply us with Raspberry Focus Water for the remainder of the year.

The Library, Warrnambool