Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Lord Jesus,

May our lives this day

bring us to a deeper

awareness of your

presence amoungst us.

May we be moved by

heartfelt mercy to take

action wherever possible

on behalf of all who suffer.

We ask that your justice

may reign in our world.

Amen.

Victorian Catholic Primary Schools Principal Association Conference

Last week I attended the VCPSPA biennial conference. The conference explored the theme of “hope” and featured a range of leaders from across many fields. I was particularly touched and inspired by the following:

Kathy Koshel has overcome several difficult challenges both physically and emotionally yet still radiates positivity. Among other things, she is the founder of the Kindness Factory.

Tim Sharp and his mother Judy have overcome domestic violence and  poverty. Tim is now a world renowned artist.  His character Lazer Beak Man has featured in galleries around the world, in animated shows, album covers and more. Aged 3 a specialist told Judy that Tim was autistic, he would never speak and that she would be best to put him in an institution and forget about him. Their story of love and determination had the audience in tears and laughter. 

Simon Griffiths founded Who Gives a Crap. A toilet roll company that donates half of its profits to developing countries for water and sanitation. His story was one of staying committed to a vision but also in being joyful in what you do.

Classroom Helpers

Thanks to all of the parents and grandparents who attended the classroom helper session this week. We will run a catch up session next Wednesday 6th April via Zoom 6:00pm - 6:45pm. All helpers must complete this session prior to commencing classroom support.

Click hear to visit form

St. Joseph’s School Beanie

Finn is modelling our new St Joseph’s beanie, available at Lowes for $12.  Finn came up with the idea and design for a school beanie and worked with Cathy and Lowes to have these ready in the store for winter.

Classroom Coordinators

Classroom Coordinators are invited along for a cuppa to meet other parents, and to explore ways that we can further develop a sense of welcome and community at St Joseph's.

Classroom Coordinators Cuppa

St. Joseph’s Primary School Hall

Wednesday 6th April at 2:30pm

Feel free to also bring another parent along!

 

Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Koa Fary, Theodore Uren, Frankie Wolff, Tyler McCosh, Austyn McInerney, Ethan Thomas, Mya Amos, Halaynah Beaver, Rebecca Coghlan, Audrey Hoy, Elouise Flett, Chelsea Kao, Ethan Alexander, Mackenzie Davies, Darcy Drummond, Harlem Field, Jackson Rogers, Isaac Raw, Great Lloyd and Chris Vu.

Congratulations to the children who are participate in Senior Reconciliation this will be held at 5:30pm, today Tuesday 29th March, 2022.

This will be held at St Joseph's Parish Church 

Our specialist staff include Yuichi Deguchi, Cara Chisholm, Lyn Hyland, Matthew McMillan, Diane Brown, Emily Lloyd and Jo Barfus McCoy.

Introducing Di Brown

I have been lucky enough to be at St. Joseph’s Primary School for 20+ years, (where has that time gone!) mostly as a Visual and Performing Arts teacher.

During this time I have taught most of the children, in what is sometimes a challenging but always rewarding area. No one day is alike and no child is the same.

I love children’s art and am continually thrilled and in awe of their creative and individual abilities. 

Our arts room mantra - “Every child is an artist”.

On Friday 1st of April, we will be holding a casual clothes day for charity.

This is to raise money for one of our school families,
the Cottee Family,
who recently have been impacted by a fire at their home.

Please support this worthy cause if you are able to.

When: Friday 1st April

Where: St. Joseph’s Primary School

Who: All students are invited to wear casual clothes and donate through CDF pay Fire Appeal

 The Warrnambool Fire Department will support us

by providing education for our students over the next

few weeks. Teachers will support implementing

education about this in their classrooms.

The Fire Truck will be onsite at St. Joseph’s for students on

Friday 1st April.

District Athletics

This week we look forward to our District Athletics at Brauerander Park on Thursday 31st March. We have quite a large Athletics team ready to represent the school. Good luck to all of the students who have qualified.

Junior School Sports

On Thursday 7th April we will hold our Foundation – Year 2 Junior School Sports here at St. Josephs. We welcome anyone who would like to volunteer to assist on the day at a station to email me sport@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au. Any help is greatly appreciated as this is quite a busy day. A program for the day will be available in next week's newsletter.

Middle/Senior Athletics Age Champions

A huge congratulations to the following students who are our age champions for 2022

Tickets to everyone's favourite Easter Raffle are now being sold in the foyer at the school.

$1 per ticket. Children can purchase tickets before and after school.

Raffle Drawn: Friday 8th April, 2022.

Thank you to our Foundation Families for a wonderful attendance for our Foundation Picnic. It was great to see so many there. 

On Tuesday 22nd March the Year 1 classes all excitedly board the bus to travel to the Lighthouse Theatre for our first excursion. We watched the performance "The 13th Storey Treehouse".

All of the students had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Once back at school the students completed a poster showing their favourite part/s of the performance.

As Mothers Day will come around very quickly after the holidays, we have opened up the online shop (via CDFpay) for children and fathers to start placing orders for their Mothers Day gift.  Each gift is $5 and students will get to personally select their own gift.

The "shop" will operate on Monday 2nd May, which means all orders need to be placed by 9:00am on that date.  As this gift purchase is optional for each family, if an order has not been placed, students will not be able to select a gift on the day; any leftover gifts will be available for purchase the following day if children would like to purchase a second gift for another important person in their life.

Mothers Day Wrappers Required

This year the PSA would like to invite any dads that would like to come along to assist with the wrapping of the Mother's Day Gifts at 6pm-7pm on Tuesday 5th April, 2022.

Contact the office if you are able to assist.

If you haven’t ridden to school this year, it’s time to dust off your wheels and head out for a practice. It will help to prepare you for this year’s Ride2School Day on Wednesday 30th March. You don’t have to scooter, skateboard or bike, you can walk to get to school on the day. You will join the thousands of students starting their day in an active way. 

Parents, if your child rides to school, you can save money on petrol and gain some extra ‘me time’ in the morning. The added benefit is less cars around St Joseph's and cleaner air. Remember if you live a long way from school, you can get dropped off and walk part of the way. There are heaps of prizes like drink bottles. 

Our PSA are once again holding a Hot Cross Bun Drive. Brown's Bakery will be supporting this event with orders now open through CDFPay. Please place your order against the eldest child in your family with orders now open.

Orders close at 3pm on Monday 4th April, 2022.

Delivery dates

Tuesday 5th April, 2022 (Years Foundation, 1 and 2)

Wednesday 6th April, 2022 (Years 3 - 6)

Temporary exemption from isolation if you have contracted COVID-19

There has been an extension to the period of time from 30 days to 8 weeks for the temporary exemption from isolation if you have contracted COVID-19.  The School Operations Guide has been updated to reflect this changed advice.

If you have recovered from COVID-19, you aren’t required to get tested or isolate/quarantine if you are re-exposed to a case within 8 weeks of ending your isolation period.

After 8 weeks, you must follow the relevant advice depending on the type of contact you are.

School Canteen Support 

Warrnambool City Council Holiday Program