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Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,
Advent
This coming Sunday is the first week of the Advent season. This season is celebrated over the four weeks leading up to Christmas. At school each class will display an Advent wreath on their prayer table and use this as a focus each morning. The church has traditionally assigned four virtues to each of the four Sundays in Advent: hope, peace, joy, and love. These virtues will also be a focus in each classroom as we prepare for Christmas. December is a great month filled with catch ups, break ups, graduations, transitions and family get togethers. As we begin this month of celebrations I will leave you with some wise words that Fr John wrote in the Parish Bulletin this week:
“May we not crowd but give space to ourselves and to one another in these uncertain but hectic times.”
State Champions!
Congratulations to the Year 4 girls basketball team who won the state final yesterday in Melbourne. To be crowned as the best primary school team in the whole of Victoria is a remarkable achievement and our school community is proud of the team. Special thanks to Layla Monk and Matt Mc Millan for coaching and for the support of the families for coordinating the transport and accommodation of the team.
The Year 4 boys team also made the state finals which is also an achievement to be proud of. This team success follows on from our Year 6 boys and girls team who also competed in the state finals last week. Congratulations to all of our representatives. I hope that you have all enjoyed the experience of representing St Joseph’s with your friends.
Art
My office has had a new batch of art works displayed, there are photos in the newsletter. I receive lots of comments from visitors about the children's creativity and I find their artwork gives me a smile and is a good reminder of the purpose of our school in supporting children to flourish in all aspects of their lives.
In visiting the art room I have noticed that many children have had the opportunity to work with clay in this term. Like everything they have had varied levels of success. I used to enjoy clay when I was at school, I think it was because I could always just roll my mistakes up and start again. I never created a masterpiece but what I did learn was a greater appreciation of those people who can create with their hands.
Our art program (visual and performing) is so important to the development of our children. It is a time for children to create, to think outside the square and to express themselves. For some lucky ones it will become a career, for others a hobby, for the rest of us, we can learn to appreciate art and enjoy the talents of others.
Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Audrey Russell, Harrison Williams, Jaeda Willoughby, Abel Delaney, Sulli Maddern, Leilani Baulch, Levi Coates, William Saker, Vincent Uzkuraitis, Juliette Smedts, Eli Smith, Ella Down, May Shoo and Alfie Van Engelen.
If any family would like to stock up on RATs before the holiday break, or if you have family that needs them, please order them via CDFPay.
We still have a large supply that needs to be distributed before the end of the school year.
Next year PAM (Parent Access Module) will move to each parent having a seperate PAM account rather than one account per family.
All existing Parent PAM logins will be turned off on 16th January 2023. Between then and the new accounts being issued parents will not be able to access PAM for students reports, etc.
Please complete the form to update your families email addresses.
It's time to start thinking about those Christmas Gifts and what better way to do that, than by shopping for books at our local bookshop; Collins Booksellers. If there are some specific titles that you're looking for, be sure to call in this week and check how much stock they have. Collins have encouraged us to pre-order any books so that you are certain to have them in store and ready for collection during the 2 week fundraising opportunity!
You can also go online to purchase anything, https://collinsbookswarrnambool.com.au
Just mention in the 'Comments' section that you're from St Joseph's PS and all purchases will be included in the overall tally. Don't forget the Liebig Street Christmas trading day is on too, so plenty of action this Christmas! Collins Booksellers will then gift back 20% of the total 'St Joseph's' purchases in the form of a voucher for us to buy new books for the Library.
Feel free to email me with any questions about this upcoming fundraiser that starts this Friday 24th November, 2022.
Emily Lloyd, elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
We appreciate the contribution of our volunteers at our school enormously. Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers for investing such great energy and time into our school this year.
We invite all our volunteers this year to attend a thank you evening. These include committee attendees, classroom and swimming helpers, excursion and sporting volunteers, canteen volunteers, Mothers Day stall and Fathers Day breakfast volunteers, disco committee and helpers on the night, election day bakers and helpers and anyone else who has volunteered their time at our school this year.
We are looking for volunteers to help out on Saturday 26th November for our Election Day BBQ - cooking and selling split over three shifts
Shift 1 - 8:00am to 10:00pm (set up, cook and sell) FULL
Shift 2 - 10:00am - 12:00pm (cook and sell) FULL
Shift 3 - 12.00pm to 2:00pm (cook, sell and pack up) HELPERS NEEDED URGENTLY
We are also looking for people to cook cakes/muffins/slice etc to sell.
A cake box will be sent home with the eldest child in your family. Extra boxes available at the office or by completing the form below. Items can be dropped off at school on Friday 25th November.
Please complete the form below to indicate which shift/s you are available for or to request extra boxes be sent home.
Please arrive at your nominated time and bring an apron with you.
Nativity Exhibition at St Joseph’s Parish
Do you have an interesting, beautiful, old, new, small, large nativity scene to display? Perhaps you have a crib from your country of birth?
You are invited to bring it to St Joseph’s for display in Gathering Space, on 10th and 11th December.
Enquiries: 5562 2231
Memories of Maryanne - Top Secret
Maryanne, Kinder teacher from East Warrnambool Kinder is retiring after 28 years.
If you have a thank you or a memory that you wish to share, then email Carolyn Murrell on cmurrell@warrnambool.vic.gov.au and it will be included in journal to be presented to Maryanne.