Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Alexia O'Grady, Jacob Dufty, Millie Hughson, Hamish O'Kane, Leo Rees, Mack Rees, James Robson, Leo Van Ginneken, Ari Coolahan, Greta Farley, India/Indy Smith, Moses McCann and Ava O'Connor.

3:30pm - 6:00pm
Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd February, 2023

These initial meetings are designed as an information sharing between parents and teachers. It is an opportunity for teachers to learn more about the students in their care. Booking for the meetings will be available through Parent Access Module (PAM) on the school app or website.

Student Safety

As a follow up to ensuring the safety of all of our students please ensure that your child follows our school uniform guidelines.

Jewellery

• No jewellery is to be worn to school, except for one set of earrings, studs/sleepers only.
• A watch may be worn.
• For any students wearing a smartwatch it is a requirement that they must see the Assistant Principal to clarify its operation during school hours. 

Hair

• A navy blue hair band/clip may be worn.
• Navy blue or white ribbons may be worn.
• Any students that have hair longer than shoulder length is required to tie it up.

2023 Wellbeing Team at St Joseph’s

This year we are excited to announce that the wellbeing team is available over each day and we welcome Liz Noonan who joins Maryanne Evans in the team. In this complex and busy world we live in, the needs of students have developed over time and being able to support them through our Wellbeing team is very important. Students can seek support for themselves or they can be referred by their teacher or a parent can contact the team directly or via email.

Typically, students seek support for friendship, personal or social situations. The support can be in small group or individual, one to one meetings or pastoral chats.

Maryanne Evans

Maryanne has been working in wellbeing for the past 10 years following a 20 year career in nursing and a move to education in 2006 led to working at St. Joe’s as a classroom teacher for over 12 years. She has completed a Masters in Student Wellbeing and has studied counselling and Clinical Pastoral Care education. She brings enthusiasm and passion and a genuine interest in the wellbeing of children and families.  She has raised a family of three and enjoys her 6 grandchildren.

Maryanne Evans email: mevans@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Liz Noonan

Liz has been in teaching for 25 years 15 years of this time at St Joseph’s, teaching across all year levels. She has a particular interest in the wellbeing of students and is very excited to be involved in this area. Liz has had substantial experience working with students in all year levels. She has a passion for the wellbeing of students and looks forward to working with students and their families. Liz is looking forward to further developing her knowledge in these area by completing more study this year. She comes from a large family base, having 4 sisters who all have children. She has 3 adult children.

Liz Noonan email: lnoonan@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

CatholicCare

Our partnership with CatholicCare will support parents and caregivers. The information night is at 7:30pm - 9:00pm on Tuesday 28th February or 1:30pm-3:00pm on Wednesday 1st March at school.

Senior Reconciliation is a Sacramental Program for Year 6 students who have completed their Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist Sacraments. 

Complete the registration form if your child would like to participate in this program. Please make $20 payment through CDFpay.

The Student and Parent Information meeting is held at St Joseph's church.

This is a Parish run program supported by the school. Please contact Leanne at the Parish on 5562 2231 with any queries.

Key Dates

3pm, Wednesday 15th February, 2023 - Registration and payment closes

7:00pm, Tuesday 21st February, 2023 - Student and Parent Information meeting 

*New confirmed time* 5pm, Tuesday 28th March, 2023 - Sacrament of Reconciliation

Lawn Bowls

Lawn Bowls trials will be held at the Warrnambool Bowls Club on 17th February. Mr. McMillan and Mr Guinan will be in attendance. Students will catch a bus to and from the event.

Swimming

Swimming trials for registered participants are now being held on Tuesday 22nd February between 10:30AM and 1:00PM.

Geelong Cats visit

Well done to our Junior school who yesterday had the opportunity to meet and take part in a session run by some Geelong Cats footballers. We were lucky enough to have Mark Blicavs, Jed Bews, Phoenix Foster, Toby Conway, and Georgie Rankin join us here at St. Josephs. 

Lawn Bowls trials for Year 6 students are occuring on Friday 17th February from approx 9:15AM till 1:00PM.  

Once the trial is completed approximately 12 students will be selected to represent the school at Divisional level on Monday 6th March. 

Closing date for submitting this form is strictly 4pm, Monday 13th February, 2023. 

Swimming trials are for those children in Years 3 - 6 wanting to compete in swimming.  

Once the trials are completed swimmers will be selected to represent the school. 

Closing date for submitting this form is strictly 3pm, Wednesday 15th February, 2023. Entries will not be accepted after this date and children will therefore not be considered for selection.

Trials for registered swimmers will be held on a Wednesday 22nd February for the District Swimming to be held on Thursday 2nd March, 2023.

Matthew McMillian, Physical Education and Sport Co-ordinator

Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement

Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement for Students have been sent electronically via PAM for all parents to discuss with their children before signing and submitting. A student version of this agreement has also been printed for the Year 3-6 students to discuss further during class time in the LRC and with their classroom teachers. These students are encouraged to sign this agreement in their class with specific statements that will be referred to each week and the Agreement will be revisited each term. Please contact us if you need any further information around this updated Cyber Safety Agreement.

New shelving

At the end of last year, the PSA agreed to contribute towards the purchasing of new Book Boxes to house our Picture Fiction Books. This new look will give students greater access to their favourite titles and ease of finding books and re-shelving them too! We would like to extend our gratitude to all St Joseph’s families who contributed to fundraising last year and could make this purchase for our Library.

New Books

I have become a little guilty of finding book treasures in my school holidays and purchasing them for our library. I then become so excited when I promote them to our students, that I forget that we need time to add these titles to our Library Computer System and then we need to cover these books before we can loan them out with confidence. If you think you could spare some time to cover some of these books, either on-site, or at home, then please email me with your interest;

elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

The students would be most grateful to get their hands on these great new books as soon as possible!

New Staff

As you will be aware, our Library leader for many years, Mrs Lyn Hyland retired last year. However, she has already returned to volunteer in the LRC! We welcome Mr George El-Hage into the Junior LRC classes this year. We remind all the students in Foundation up to Year 2 that they can borrow 4 books at a time and they can keep these for 2 weeks before renewing them. Students in Year 3- 6 can borrow up to 6 books at one time and they can also keep these for up to 2 weeks.

Library Monitors (Year 6)

We will be seeking responsible, mature and great leaders in literature to fulfil the role of ‘Library Monitor’ this year. A role description will come to classrooms this week, so we encourage all Year 6 students to consider this great opportunity within our school.

Year 5 students will be given an opporunity to be a library monitor in Term 4.

Safer Internet Day is a global event on Tuesday 7th Feburary, 2023 that brings together communities, families, schools and organisations from more than 200 countries to help create safer online spaces.

Safer Internet Day takes place next week and classrooms will be working through activities to highlight safety with students.

Free eSafety parent and carer webinars

In accordance with St Joseph's Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement, it is a requirement for parents/guardians to discuss the agreement with their child/ren and accept the terms.

This agreement is to ensure that all students that have access to the school’s digital resources are aware of their responsibilities and agree to abide by the school’s Acceptable Use and Cybersafety Agreement.

The agreement covers the student’s use of technology equipment (such as computers, hand held devices, cameras, printers), and digital platforms (such as Internet, networks and email. social media, apps, and software).

Permission is required for each child in your family from Foundation to Year 6.

To access this agreement:

1. Login into your PAM account
2. Select the red bell icon in the top right corner (you will then see the agreement)
3. Download, read and discuss this agreement with each of your children.
4. Select YES for your child to agree to abide by the Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement and Use Technology Equipment at St. Joseph's Primary School for the 2023 school year.

This is required to be accepted by Friday 10th February, 2023.

The Camps, Sports Excursion Fund is provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.  If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF.  An allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

The annual CSEF amount per primary aged student is $125 per year.

If you qualify for CSEF support, you are also eligible to apply for the Family Fee Assistance Program funded by DOBCEL.  The FFA is to help families with the Annual Family Fee by reducing this amount to $520 for the year; this means in 2023 the FFA support is $860 per family.

Both funds are to be applied for through the school (with both forms included here).  These need to be submitted at the school office along with a copy of your current Health Care Card, or Veterans Affairs Card.

If you have applied for this before you do not need to submit this form each year, however if you have become eligible over the past 6 months or are a new family, please lodge your application.  To be eligible your card must be valid on Friday 27th January 2023. 

In accordance with the DOBCEL Digital Technology Policy and the St Joseph's Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement, it is it is a requirement that mobile phones and personal electronic device must be signed into the school office.

We understand that from time to time students may bring a device for use before or after school. If your child brings a phone or device they are required to sign them into the school office prior to school and collected at the end of the day. These items are stored securley in the office area.

For any students wearing a smartwatch it is a requirement that they must see the Assistant Principal to clarify its operation during school hours.

Please remind your child of this process.

The PSA (Primary School Association) is a forum for all parents to become involved in the life of the School. It’s where we work to provide, improve and maintain the amenities available for the school students, including equipment and maintenance of School Buildings and grounds.

To provide opportunities for social meetings between parents, and promote a spirit of union and good fellowship. The PSA runs and supports several events throughout the year to raise money for the school and to support our school community.

What do we do? Mother’s Day Stall, Hot Cross Bun Drive, Father’s Day Breakfast, Pizza Days, Art Activities and Canteen support

Who can attend? Anyone and everyone, meetings are held at the school in Room C19 or the staffroom.

How often do they meet? Tuesday evening, Week 3 and Week 7 of each term. 8 meetings per year! Meetings commence at 7:30pm.

• Tuesday 14 February and Tuesday 21 March
• Tuesday 9 May and Tuesday 6 June
• Tuesday 25 July and Tuesday 22 August
• Tuesday 17 October and Tuesday 14 November
• Date TBA: Parent Committee Thank you evening

How can I help? Come along to the meetings, contribute to the discussion, share ideas, support events that enrich the school community.

We really need our school families to support this group.  It’s only 8 meetings per year! Hope to see you there, better still bring a friend!

We will be holding a Classroom Helpers information session at 9:15am - 10:45am on Tuesday 21st February on for all parents and carers in Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 who would like to help with literacy activities in their child’s classroom. 

Please complete this registration form to indicate:

• attendance at the Information Session
• when and where you are able to volunteer (new and previous volunteers)

Please note: All school volunteers must hold a current Working With Children Check. These can be obtained free of charge at https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/

With many new families joining our school it is timely to refer all parents to our "Getting to School Safely" webpage.

To all families that park and collect children from Queens Road, a reminder that the vacant land adjacant to the creek IS PRIVATE PROPERTY and we ask school families to please NOT park there while waiting for your children to be collected.

Please remember the Aquazone car park is available as well as along Queens Road.

School Canteen Support 

St Joseph’s Primary School has been very fortunate to be able to maintain our canteen being available 5 days per week.  This has been due to having Tanya Hughes as a canteen coordinator but also because we have maintained such a strong base of canteen volunteers.  

We would love to continue to be able to offer our canteen services each school day, however, today our most pressing need is to increase the number of volunteers we have to help keep our canteen running at its current high standard and for 5 days per week.

We can work around your work roster or family commitments. You can do as many or as few 'shifts' as you would like. A daily shift will commence from 11:00am and you will be finished by 1:15pm. 

Training is offered. A Working With Children check is required. This can be applied for through the Department of Justice website. 

If you can help out please click the link to fill in your details and availability.

We really hope this request being sent out to all families will increase the number of volunteers, if not, the next step will be to look at changes we would have to make to keep it running which would more than likely mean either less days of operation or more paid time, both of which will have a massive impact on the costs and potential profits made. 

Our Parent School Association has very strong support for maintaining the canteen as a service to families, available daily if possible and quality healthy food at reasonable prices. The small profit from the canteen is spent directly on our school grounds program, including play-ground equipment and student facilities. Voluntary help is critical to achieving this outcome for everyone’s benefit.

It is recommended that rapid antigen tests (RATs) are used by students and staff if they:

• have symptoms of COVID-19 infection, no matter how mild
• are a household or close contact of someone who has COVID-19
• are a social contact of someone who has COVID-19.

The Department of Health recommends that all Victorians report their positive RAT result via the online form or by calling 1800 675 398.

RATs are available for all Victorians from council sites. Individuals can obtain two free packs (10 tests) for themselves and two free packs (10 tests) for each household member. People with disability and their carers can get up to four free packs (20 tests) in line with existing RAT distribution for people with disability.

All Girls Blasters Program to be held at St Joseph’s Primary School, (this is not a school run event) which will not only allow girls the opportunity to try/play our great game but a chance for local cricket clubs such as Nestles Cricket Club to connect with new aspiring female cricketers! The registration link for the program is now officially live and ready for parents or guardians to begin signing up their child. A discount code has been created so that participants will be encouraged to join the program at an extremely low cost. 

Details: Wednesdays from 3:45 PM - 4:45 PM, Starts Wednesday 22nd February 2023,  4 Sessions, Ages: All years except Foundation.