Matthew O'Brien, Principal

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

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mums in our school community. On Sunday I’ll be thinking of my mum, Janet, who turned 87 last month. I hope that you all get spoiled and smothered in hugs and kisses by your families.

A big thank you to the PSA for their coordination of our Mother’s Day stall and morning tea this week. We have nearly 80 mums and grandmums attending our inaugural Mother’s Day Morning Tea on Friday. These mums will be serenaded by our choir and enjoy a visit to their child’s classroom before settling down to our version of a high tea. Thanks again to the PSA for their creativity and support of this event. 

Cross Country

I am really looking forward to the cross country on Wednesday (weather permitting).  Regardless of age and fitness levels every child has the opportunity to do something that is hard and to persist when it does get hard.  I will be encouraging everyone to keep on going when they become a little puffed. 

Election Day BBQ and Cake Stall

The PSA will be running an Election Day BBQ and Cake Stall.  I urge you to support this event as a fundraiser for the school.  (The Mother’s Day stall and Morning Tea were designed purely as community building activities.) The Federal and State  Elections are an opportunity for us to fundraise. As reported in a previous newsletter the PSA is contributing $39,000 to continue to grow our school in 2022.  This support is crucial to maintaining and improving our facilities and programs. Further in this newsletter is information on how you can get involved in the Election Day BBQ and Cake Stall.

NAPLAN Testing

Looking ahead to next week students in Year 3 and 5 will be undertaking NAPLAN testing. The majority of this testing will be completed online and all Year 3 and 5 students have participated in a NAPLAN trial during Term 1 to ensure that student devices and the school network are well prepared. St Joseph’s regards NAPLAN testing as one of many sources of valuable data that provides teachers and parents with a picture of student progress, highlighting their strengths and areas for growth. As NAPLAN did not occur in 2020 students all of our students will be participating in NAPLAN for the first time. 

May Race Day

I don’t think that anybody needs a reminder that the school is closed on Thursday. Good luck to everyone who is involved in this wonderful event and to those attending.

PSA Meeting

PSA Meeting next Tuesday 10th May 7:30 in the school meeting room. All are welcome.

COVID Reminder

Household Contacts

Students who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are not required to quarantine. They may return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times during their 7-day period. They are required to notify the school that they are a household contact.

Students aged 8 years and above who are household contacts are required to wear face masks when indoors at school unless they have a valid exemption.

If a student household contact returns a positive RAT result, they must isolate for 7 days.

Also, children with COVID like symptoms should stay at home.

Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Quinn Place, Patrick Ralston, Charlie Bellman, Jed Lilley, Lily Price, Lyric Ratu, Eleanor Goodfield and Lewis Austin.

Girls as Leaders in STEM Program UPDATE!

On Thursday 28th April,  School Liaison Officer Krissy, from Deakin University came to St Joseph’s to talk to us about our proposed problem and solution using the STEM methods. Krissy helped us decide on our project idea and suggested the process towards presenting this idea to the community.  We decided as a group to take a walk to investigate the location of our environmental problem, the Russell’s Creek Bike Trail!

On Monday 2nd May , The GALS (Girls As Leaders in STEM) went on their second excursion to Deakin University, to participate in their second workshop.  We were able to interact with other schools and learnt more about the STEM program. Jenny and Heather came to talk to the group and they discussed with us, what are the good qualities of a leader.  We tested our teamwork skills by making a paper aeroplane as a small group and with only our left hand!  We spent time also talking about effective presenting methods, which will help us when we have to present our project later in June.

By Ruby Koch, Room E3

Year 2 were able to celebrate our Extended Day last Thursday 28th May. We were blessed with perfect weather to complete all our activities. 

The children were involved in four different team building activities and the positive ‘buzz’ of happiness and fun was evident as they moved around their activities.

The evening also included a family picnic, on our Passive Play area. It was wonderful to finally have our families involved in a school event again.

We finished the evening with a short performance of the Easter Story which the children had been practising in their Drama lessons with Mrs McCoy. 

Thankyou to all the Year 2 Staff and our extra Staff Helpers for making this a wonderful event to be involved in. The children are sure to have a lasting memory of their Extended Day.

We are looking for volunteers to work on the Saturday 21st May - cooking and selling split over two shifts

Shift 1 - 10:30am to 1:00pm (set up, cook and sell)

Shift 2  - 1.00pm to 3:30pm (cook, sell and pack up)

We are also looking for people to cook cakes/muffins/slice etc to sell.  Items can be dropped off at school on Friday 20th May to be priced for Saturday. 

Please complete the form below to indicate how many cake boxes your require and/or which shifts you are available for. 

Wednesday 4th May, 2022

We are looking forward to our school cross country day. Parents, carers and family members are welcome as spectators on the day. Children compete in their event at the nominated time and then return to class. 

An approximate timetable is shown below. Hopefully we will be able to stick to these times, however sometimes due the wet weather forecast it might have to be adjusted. 

Timetable (approximate times)

What to wear

Sports Uniform

• Navy Blue school logoed shorts
• House coloured Sports polo (compulsory in 2022)
• Navy Blue logoed windcheater, vest or coat
• School logoed hat
• White socks (no logos)
• Runners
• Parents may like to pack a change of socks and runners.

No hair colour, sleeveless tops or coloured zinc permitted.

Spectators

Spectators are welcome at our cross country. Enter via the gate near the school hall. Spectators are not to enter the school building (with the exception of the School Hall for toilet access)

Parking

On street and tennis court parking is available. Please obey parking rules.

Photography

Please read the St Joseph’s Primary School Photography Guidelines for Parents and Carers. 

Sign your child out

A reminder that if you are taking your child home early, they must be signed out at the office. If, by arrangement, you are taking another person's child we must receive either verbal or written permission (note in diary) from the child's parent.

Good luck to all of our cross country competitors.

The borrowing power of our students at St Joseph’s Primary School is significantly increased when they have a greater variety of Library books to choose from! This week your child will bring home a catalogue for the Scholastic Book Club. This is a fantastic fundraising opportunity where your book purchasing for your own child/children gains a percentage of rewards for our school. These rewards are then used to purchase not only new books for our Library, but also a huge variety of classroom resources and materials! 

You might even consider purchasing an early Christmas gift or birthday presents as books for your child.  The LOOP function on the App. to purchase books, offers the ‘GIFT’ option which gives us the notification to keep your purchase a secret and it will be held at the front office for your collection.  If you would like any help in book suggestions for your child then please feel free to email us;

Foundation - Year 2 students use lhyland@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Year 3 - 6 students use elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Please remember that there is NO CASH option for purchasing books through this Scholastic Book Club program. We encourage you to use the website and/or the LOOP App. to make all purchases. We are grateful for all your support in building a positive reading and learning culture in our school!

Orders close on Monday 23rd May, 2022.

A message from Fr John Fitzgerald

Year 3 children who have been baptised will have the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation in Term 2.

If you desire and are ready to support your child in his/her faith please complete the Registration Form. Parents should not feel pressured to enrol their child just because they are in Year 3. The celebration of Confirmation is a celebration of faith and needs to be seen in the context of Church and not merely as part of the school curriculum, even though the faith of the child is very much supported by the school.

Registration is available online as well as nomination for preferred family group meeting times. Payment for the program ($25.00) materials etc can be completed via CDFpay.

This is a Parish run program supported by the school.

Key Dates

Dear Parent/Guardian

The Lions Eye Health Program is offering Free Vision Screening for St Joseph’s Primary School for Foundation, Year 3 and Year 6 students.

If you would like your child to participate in this vision screening program or wish to know more about the program, please view and/or complete the linked form.

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 lemonade 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 (23), Year 3 (21), Year 4 (26), Year 5 (26) and Year 6 (25).

Warrnambool Symphony Orchestra