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Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,
National Reconciliation Week
St Joseph’s will be actively celebrating Reconciliation Week, a significant event that promotes understanding, respect, and unity among all Australians. Our school community will celebrate the rich cultures, histories, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Reconciliation Week occurs around the same time each year commemorating two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey - the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.
Reconciliation Week is a time to acknowledge and learn about the shared history of Australia, embracing the First Nations' cultures, and working towards a future based on equality and inclusivity. This year's theme, "Be a Voice for Generations," encourages us all to take meaningful steps towards building strong relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
We look forward to a week filled with learning, appreciation, and celebration.
Confirmation
Congratulations and good luck to the children who are celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation this week. Confirmation is the second of the three Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism and Eucharist being the other two). The Sacrament of Confirmation consists of the renewal of baptismal promises and the laying on of hands and anointing with the oil of Chrism. The anointing of the candidate is a sign of confirming the gift of the Spirit, and calling the candidates to use these gifts to make our world a better place.
Mackenzie Davies, Oliver Harris, Layla Kane, Edward O'Donnell, Gracie O’Grady, Jack Walker, Juliette Smedts, Evie Bushell, Jayden D'Arma, Jacky Deverall, Greta Lloyd, Poppy Main, Hugo Van Rooy, Van Walsh, Mary Fitzgerald, Esther Baulch, Rebecca Coghlan, Hudson Foster, Harvey McDowall, Milla Riordan, Ivy Sobey, Ava Toohey, Vincent Uzkuraitis, Havana Myroniuk, Olivia Finnigan, Liam Hose, Louis Johnson, Siena Keramaris, Emma Ludeman, Ivy McDonald, James Robson, Brecken Schneider, Lily Stewart, Dominic Anderson, Elise Perry, Heidi Treloar, Noah Anderson and Jake Conheady.
Eisteddfod
We have 16 children representing St Joseph's at the Eisteddfod in the Poetry for Two section. All of the Year 6 children have been participating in poetry in their classrooms and presented to their class.
The following children have been selected by their teachers or the Eisteddfod. Well done and good luck.
Bella Gubecka, Poppy O’Brien, Oscar Greenwood, Patrick Bowman, Francesca Di Cesare, Anna Robson, Charlie Lloyd, Charlie Zanos, Aila Kamath, Evie Cooper, Sam Collins, Henry Steenhuis-Young, Bethany Moran, Lexie Gleisner.
Andrew Chinn Concert, 2:45pm, Friday 2nd June
We are delighted to welcome Andrew Chinn back to St Joseph’s for his highly engaging and entertaining workshops and concert. All family members are invited to join us at the end of the day for the concert beginning at 2:45pm.
Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Doris Pham, Tilly Beechey, Edward Jeffries, Sophie Morris, Grace Densley, Herbie Neagle, Ezra Smith, Harley Advincula, Lexie Gleisner, Summer Smedts, Dia Jagad and Levi Wood.
Free Individual consultations for support available at school Thursday 8th June- bookings essential.
Helen Diamond, who is a parent educator from CatholicCare has been working closely with our school over the past two terms. Helen shares her experience and knowledge of research and supportive approaches to help parents build strong relationships with their children.
Helen will be available for FREE individual consultation this term on Thursday 8th June. This support gives parents an opportunity to chat individually with Helen to explore and understand what she can recommend for your individual circumstances.
Helen can be contacted through the Warrnambool office of CatholicCare, 142 Timor Street and by phone 5559 3000. Bookings are required for individual appointments at school or at the office.
Helen recommended a number of parenting resources which are listed below. The books have been purchased by the school and are now available for parents to borrow from the school library.
Books
- Raising a Secure Child by Kent Hoffman, Glen Cooper & Bert Powell
- Beyond Behaviours by Mona Delahooke
- The Whole Brain Child by Dr Daniel Seigal & Dr Tina Payne Bryson
- The Power of Showing Up by Daniel Siegal & Tina Payne Bryson
- Raising an Emotional Intelligent Child by John Gottman
- No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury
- Good Inside by Dr Becky Kennedy
Last week the Year Five and Six students were fortunate enough to experience an Author visit our school, Mr Scot Gardner. Let me leave it up to the students to tell you what they thought of the opportunity.
Scot Gardner - Author Visit
On Friday 26th May, we had an author come to our school for a presentation. His name was Scot Gardner and he talked to us about his career and how it all started.
His first book was "One Dead Seagull" and his latest book is called "Off the Map". Scot told us to use our imagination and take our time when writing stories. He said that the publisher won’t always want to publish your book or might not like the title and want to change it, but either way, keep writing more books. In my opinion this insight has inspired me to write more stories. It also made me think more about what might tie into the story when writing it. Our Year Five classes loved having him at our school and we hope he makes more wonderful books.
Roisin Hansford, student, F7
Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge
We have increased the number of participants by more than double this year with 82 students registered! They have started to login to their own online ‘Dashboard’ and we are pleased to announce that we already have 5 students who have completed the Challenge. This is an amazing feat and each of these students have received a badge to wear with pride around our school. All participants will receive a completion certificate for completing the challenge by September 8th, 2023.
Congratulations to:
Rex Kelly, Nina O'Kane, Maddox McDermott, India Smith, Declan McMurray and Zinzan McDermott.
The Seagull Who Soared
Dave will run sessions with each class on chasing your dreams as relentlessly as seagulls chase hot chips and the secrets to storytelling.
The Seagull Who Soares tells the tale of Stevie the seagull who lives on the beaches at Torquay and takes off on an adventure to find Stingray Bay (Warrnambool).
As a special offer for St Joseph's Primary School students - signed copies of the book can be purchased for $15 (retail $20) via the link below and given out on the day of the visit.
CLICK HERE to purchase your copy prior to the visit.
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.
Who can attend? Anyone and everyone, meetings are held at the school in Room C19 or the staffroom.
Next meeting date: Tuesday 6 June. Meetings commence at 7:30pm.
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!
Art Installation
With Arts Week coming up later this term and our plan to create a special art installation inspired by the Japanese artist,Yayoi Kusama, we are desperately seeking dot stickers of various sizes and colours. We are also after some unwanted household items that are white or could be painted white, such as a tall lamp shade, small coffee table, a few bits of crockery or a random musical instrument.
Can you run an Art sesssion?
This year in term 3 we will once again be celebrating the arts by having “Arts Week” This year the theme for Arts Week is ‘Once upon a time . . .’
Throughout arts week students will be engaged in a range of arts activities. If you can sing, dance, paint, act, design, build, create and feel like you would like to lead a session during arts week for a class or two, we would love to hear from you (you will need to have a current Working With Children Check; if you don’t already there is still plenty of time to apply for one.
Arts week activities will run from Monday 21st - Thursday 24th August. The times may differ for different year levels depending on other school programs. This will be confirmed closer to the date.
If you are interested in helping, please fill in your details via the link below:
Many thanks - The Arts Team
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.
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.