Matthew O'Brien, Principal

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

Help us to open our hearts to others
even when it is challenging.

A line from our school prayer

Mini-Vinnies

On Monday I was fortunate to take a crew from our Mini-Vinnies team down to the Archie Graham centre to participate in Meals on Wheels. We picked up our meals and a trolley to walk around Heatherlie dropping off the meals to people in our community. Such a simple yet important service. Each week a different group will head down and support the Meals on Wheels program under the leadership of Di Brown.  This opportunity is an expression of our students “opening their hearts to others”. 

School Cross Country

Good luck to all of the children for the big Cross Country run next Monday (details below).  I really enjoy barracking for the children in cross country because it is hard.  Regardless of natural ability and fitness levels the event gets everyone puffed. I will particularly be looking out for those kids who are not naturals, middle of the pack somewhere who are giving it their all. These kids inspire me as they just get on with it and do their best. Good Luck. 

Anzac Day

Thanks to Mrs Lee and Mrs O’Brien for organising our students for the ANZAC Day ceremonies and to our leaders for their respectful participation.  

Mother’s Day Gifts

Thanks to the dad’s who came along last night to wrap the Mother’s Day gifts and to Mrs Saywell for organising the gifts and the wrapping system which was in her words was "ïdiot proof”.

Assembly

No Assembly this Week 

Finally, enjoy race week.  We are lucky to have such a great event in our town. 

Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Isabelle Densley, Jessica Happ, Henry Lloyd, Mason McArthur, Leo Oakley, Hudson Crowley, Quinn Place, Patrick Ralston, Charlie Bellman, Jed Lilley, Lily Price, Lyric Ratu, Eleanor Goodfield and Lewis Austin.

Hi everyone and welcome back to term two! This term is another busy one at St. Josephs in the Physical Education and Sports side of things. 

On Friday 5th May, 16 of our students will head to Brauerander park for the Division athletics. Congratulations to all students who represented our school at the District athletics, and good luck to those who have qualified and are competing on Friday.

Next Monday 8th May we have our school cross country taking place on the school grounds. More details in this newsletter.

Monday 8th May, 2023

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. 

Timetable

Hopefully we will be able to stick to these times, however sometimes due the wet weather forecast it might have to be adjusted. 

What to wear

Sports Uniform

• Navy Blue school logoed shorts
• House coloured Sports polo (compulsory in 2023)
• 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.

Mr O’Brien’s Great Wall of ART

This year Mr O’Brien is creating ‘The Great Wall of Art’ in his office. One or two students’ work from each art experience will be selected to hang for a period of time on this wall.

Wednesday 24th May, 2023

A - L Family photos (8:15am - 9:00am)

Individual and Class photos for Foundation to Year 3 (9:00am onwards)

Thursday 25th May, 2023

M - Z Family photos (8:15am - 9:00am)

Individual and Class photos for Years 4 to 6 (9:00am onwards)

Uniform - What to wear

• School logoed blue polo
• Navy School jumper
  
  
• No Sports polos
• No jackets or vests
  
  
• A small supply of spare blue polos will be available on the day for children who do not have one.

Hair

Hair longer than collar length must be tied back as per school uniform policy.

A navy blue or white hair band/clip/ribbons may be worn. 

Classroom Sport Day

If your child has Sport or Sport tryouts/practice on photo day they are to bring their sports uniform and runners in their bag. 

Queries regarding uniform and school organisation

Contact the school office if you have any queries regarding the uniform requirements and organisational aspects of school photo day.

All students have their photo taken

All students will have their individual photo taken on the day regardless of whether an order has been placed.

Class Photos

Class Photos are taken in the traditional format with all children present on the day included in the photo. 

Family Photos

Commence at 8:15am, children are able to go straight to the hall foyer. There will be reminder announcements.

Ordering Sibling (family) photos will close at Midday Tuesday 23rd May.

Order of Classrooms on Photo Days

The order of photos will be starting from Foundation to Year 3 on day 1 and Years 4 to 6 on day 2.

Unwell Children

If your child is unwell please keep them at home.

School Photo Ordering Information

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 Wednesday 10th 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.

We have an overflowing supply of lost property. There are lots of school jumpers and jackets. 

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.

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 (22), Year 1 (23), Year 2 (22), Year 3 (24), Year 4 (27), Year 5 (26) and Year 6 (26).

A reminder that we require all families to login to PAM and update their child's Medical Information if their child's medical details have changed. 

This information assists with our electronic permission forms. 

Please follow the instructions below to update a medical profile for each of your children by:

1. Click on link to PAM (found on our webpage or SZapp)
2. Click on student (if more than 1 child, this will need to be done individually)
3. Click on Medical Profile (blue writing to the left of screen)
4. Check all questions and select Edit Details for updates to be made.
5. Once you get to the end of the questions please confirm by clicking on the Green “Update Details” Box found at the bottom right of screen.

As a parent/guardian you are able to access your child/rens medical profile on PAM at any time to update as needed.

If you have any queries or require your PAM login details, please do not hesitate to get in contact with the office.  

Please notify the school by phone or by using the Update Contact Details in our SZApp if you have any updates to home address, contact phone numbers and email addresses. Parents are encouraged to have two alternate contacts for their child in the event that parents cannot be contacted.

Be aware that email addresses are used in several of our systems which we need to change each of these manually.

School Canteen Support