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Sleeping St Joseph by MIKAYLA RUTH KOBLE
St Joseph’s Feast Day (19th March)
“The Sleeping St Joseph” is a beautiful image that captures a scene from Matthew’s Gospel (1:18-20). You might remember the story. Joseph has learnt that Mary is pregnant. They are engaged. He knows that the child is not his. Being faithful to the Jewish law and with respect to Mary’s reputation he decides to divorce her quietly. The story continues, that as he sleeps an angel appears in a dream and tells him that the child is from the Holy Spirit and not to be afraid to take her as his wife. And, well, the rest is history.
I find this story particularly interesting and challenging because it reminds me that when I am confronted by a highly charged, emotional situation to metaphorically “sleep on it”. To take a moment. Take some time. Think before acting or reacting.
St Joseph’s initial response was to divorce Mary but after “sleeping on it” he realised that in fact he loved Mary and that the child was, like us all “made in the image of God”.
Our new school prayer concludes with:
“As we try our best in everything we do,
May we be inspired by St. Joseph to be caring, honest and brave.”
As a father, husband, teacher and school principal I am inspired by St Joseph and to be reflective, to take a breath and think before I act. Or to put it plainly:
“Sleep on it”
Rest well.
Enhancing Catholic Schools Identity Survey
Earlier this term many of our families were invited to participate in a survey to support us in understanding our community and our Catholic identity. This information informs our professional development and School Improvement Plan. The survey closes at the end of this term and at the moment we have only 50% of the survey completed. If you were invited to respond please log in and answer the survey as everyone’s opinions are important.
Twilight Sports Feedback
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Twilight Sports feedback. We had 152 responses which represents about one third of our community. I will take all of this feedback to the PSA tonight, share it with our School Advisory Council and the School Leadership Team who will all contribute to how this event will look in 2024 and beyond.
I would especially like to thank those families for whom the Twilight Sports was an inconvenience for the gracious courtesy in which you worded your feedback. Your polite honesty has been heard and is appreciated.
Early Arrival At School (Before 8:30am)
We have made contact with the council (who provide our After School Care) in regards to Before School Care who have responded with the following very clear and unambiguous response:
“Council’s Outside School Hours Care Service won’t be considering a before school care program at this time.”
Supervision for children at St Joseph’s does not begin until 8:30 am. So please do not drop children off prior to this time.
Reframing Teaching and Learning Environments (ReLATE)
Yesterday we continued our professional development with MacKillop Family Services ReLATE - Reframing Learning and Teaching Environments.
This is our 4th day with MacKillop over the past three years.The focus of the days was: Disability and Inclusion
The key topics were:
- Legislation and definitions
- Mental health and disability
- Prevention vs intervention
- Inclusive cultures
The simple take home message from the day was that in drawing on neuroscience, staff are encouraged to use repeated and supported actions that enhance learning for all students.
Staffing Update
Pat Allen is heading off on long service leave at the end of this week. Catherine Lee will be acting as Assistant Principal in Pat’s absence and Louis O’Connor will be teaching in F4.
Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Emelia Kelly, Cooper Shields, Connor Greening, Layla Hooper, Patrick McGennan, Eli Ludeman, Lettie Nuske, Paddy Bellman, Fiona Adhikary, Lyla Smith, Theodore Smith, Paddy Ward, Teddy Dabernig and Chase Jones.
This week is Harmony Week so check out the following website for some suggested books to share at home. You could encourage your child to look up some of these books during their LRC lesson this week.
Another way you can access some of these great resources is by becoming a Parent Borrower. Please fill in the following online form to gain a barcode number and start borrowing books from our library. These might include some teacher resources, picture books or senior fiction books! I strongly encourage parents of Yr 5/6 students to come and borrow some books that you can then provide your children with a positive reading role model at home.
Parent borrowing time is on Mondays after 10am and every weekday from 3:30pm - 4pm. (Insert image attached.)
Mrs Emily Lloyd, LRC Coordinator
Registrations closing on Wednesday 5th April.
Are you up for the Challenge? This year we are hoping to increase the number of participants in the Premier's Reading Challenge.
Foundation - Year 2 students have to 'experience' 30 books by September.
Year 3 - 6 students have to read 15 books by September. Some of these books have to be from the official list and some of them can be free choice. This year we are including some spine labels on the books that are on the 'official' list to make it even easier for students to locate the books. (Insert image here.)
If your children are interested in challenging themselves and using this as a motivational tool to read more - then fill out the online registration and consent form by Wednesday 5th April, 2023.
For more details please email elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.
On Thursday 16th March, Year 1 students stayed at school for an Extended Day until 6pm, as part of our school camp program.
Students enjoyed a delicious fruit platter and a play on the playground before completing the following rotations in small groups: Hip Hop Dancing, PMP, Mindfulness Colouring and Team Building activities.
During March, Mini Vinnies are walking for Caritas in the Caritas K’s fundraising initiative.
Starting on Tuesday 14th March, Mini Vinnies students will be walking laps at school, during their recess and lunch to get their ‘K’s’ up. They will carry rice, wood and water in recognition of the long walks that many people take to get these things to their homes, in underprivileged communities. The last day will be Friday 24th March where the whole school is invited to walk. This is part of our St. Joseph’s Day celebration.
“Every day, thousands of individuals around the world need to cover many kilometres to fetch water, obtain food, get to school or market, or simply to survive.” Caritas
On Friday 24th March, we will begin our St. Joseph’s Day celebration by joining for mass at 10:00am.
We will return to school by around 11:30am.
After a late recess, year levels are invited to get their steps up, by walking at, or nearby our school.
Years Foundation, Year 1 and 2 will walk laps of their junior oval.
Years 3 and 4 will walk laps of the middle and senior oval and bike path behind the school.
Years 5 and 6 will walk laps of the gardens.
Students are encouraged to wear their sports uniform for comfort.
After lunch, students will enjoy some activities organised by their teachers that focus on St. Joseph, as well as the purpose of our fundraising efforts, Caritas.
Donations via CDF Pay
We invite all families to provide a donation through CDF pay available via SZApp. The funds raised will go to Caritas to support their work in helping underprivileged communities.
Do you have a hotmail or outlook email address?
We have found, this year particularly, that any correspondence being sent from school to any hotmail or outlook email addresses is ending up in your junk/spam folder. This will include your fee statements for this year, and any letters sent out from the teachers.
If you could please check your junk/spam folder for any school emails that would be great.
To stop emails going to junk/spam from happening follow the relevant instructions.
Hotmail users
- Login
- Click the "settings" icon at the upper right-hand corner of the page
- Choose the "More Mail Settings" option
- Under "Preventing junk email" section, click "Domain to mark as safe"
The domain name is sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
Outlook users
Option 1
- Open the Junk email folder
- Go to the home tab
- Select Junk
- Select Not Junk from the list that appears
- A window labelled Mark as Not Junk will appear
- Tick the Always trust emails from ****@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
Option 2
- Open the Junk email folder
- Select the email
- Right click it, then select Junk > Never block sender from the menu that appears
- A new window with the message "The sender ****@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au has been added to your safe senders list" will appear.
- Click OK.
Online Enrolment
Online enrolments are now available and can be completed and submitted electronically.
For this process go to our school website and select the Enrolment tab. Complete the Enrolment Enquiry to add your details for reminders and updates.
Under the Enrolment Tab you will also notice an Online Enrolment Form - select this and away you go. A tip with this one is do not use a phone or ipad to complete the form, any laptop or desktop computer will work fine.
You will also need to make sure you have your child's documentation (birth, immunisation, baptism certificates and any specialist reports) loaded onto your device, either by taking a photo or scanning and uploading as you will be able to upload all of that as well.
Our PSA is once again holding a Hot Cross Bun Drive. Baker's Delight Norfolk Plaza 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.
Buns available to order are:
- Traditional Hot Cross Bun - 6 Pack,
- Choc Chip Hot Cross Bun - 6 Pack,
- Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns - 6 Pack,
- Fruitless Hot Cross Buns - 6 Pack.
Orders close: 3:00pm, Thursday 30 March, 2023
Delivery date: Tuesday 4th April, 2023
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 21st March, 2023.