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Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,
Parent Teachers Interviews and Reports
On Friday 16th June, Semester 1 reports will be released via the Parent Access Module (PAM) accessible from the SZApp and our website. These reports provide families with information about children’s progress socially, academically and behaviorally. The written report will be accompanied by each child’s “Work Sample Folder”. This folder will contain examples of the children’s work across the semester. It may include a range of subjects, assessment pieces, unedited work and published pieces.
Following the reports we will be conducting the mid-year Parent Teacher Conversations. These conversations are designed for two way communication between parents and teachers to further discuss children’s progress.
Parent Teacher Conversations can be booked via PAM. Parents are welcome to book a phone call or come into school for a face to face meeting. Please note that some parents have participated in a PSG in the past few weeks and this meeting will take the place of the Parent Teacher Conversation.
Confirmation
Congratulations to all of the children who celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation last week. Fr John gave a great analogy in his homily. He made the observation that we cannot see electricity but can see what it does e.g. boil a kettle, turn on a light. The Holy Spirit is similar in that we cannot see it; we can only see what it does.
Eisteddfod
Congratulations to all of the children who participated in the Warrnambool Eisteddfod poetry recitals last week. A special mention to Evie Cooper and Aila Kamath who came first in their division and to Francesca Di Cesare and Anna Robson who placed second.
Andrew Chinn Concert and Workshops
Andrew Chinn entertained our whole school with his highly energetic and engaging music and dance routines. Throughout the day Andrew met with different groups for workshops where he taught songs and actions or the concert later in the day. The highlight of the concert was the enthusiasm and joy that everyone participated in the singing and dance moves.
FYI - Andrew let us know that his music can be found on Spotify if you want a family singalong on your next car trip!
Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Sophie Dubyna, Hudson Gale, Noah Daffy, Neve Edwards, Tessa Eagleson, Bethany Moran, Xavier Smith, Hannah Beaumont, Mae Flett, Bodhi Harman, Daisy Martin, Harry Walsh, Bel Wiese, Sibella Evans, Jack Kitto and Tommy Stuart.
We are very excited to have Story Dogs as part of our school Community. St. Joseph’s has joined Story Dogs as part of a National Story Dogs program that reaches over 390 schools nationally.
Story dogs involves a reading session of 20 minutes for 4 year 2 students each week with our Volunteer Deb, and her dog Sadie. Susie Alexander is the coordinator for our school program.
The Dog team visits on the same day each week (Thursday 9:15-10:45 for the school year working with the same target students.
The books are chosen to suit the reading level of the students - the team supplies the books and books can be also from the classroom if a child has a book they would like to read to the dog.
During the session the handler often speaks through the dog- for eg- Sadie doesn’t quite understand what is happening in this part could you help her out? The child becomes the teacher; and confidence soars.
The program is free with a commitment to run a fundraiser where the students may wear a touch of orange and donate a gold coin or such. This will be done in term 3. In time we may be able to source a sponsor for Story Dogs.
We look forward to a long and successful partnership with Story Dogs.
Story dogs are on social media and they would like as many people from our school community to know they are on Instagram and Facebook. The more follows, likes and shares of their posts the more we can help to raise awareness of the program.
Mr O’Brien’s Great Wall of ART
‘The Great Wall of Art’ is located in Mr O’Brien’s office. One or two pieces from each art experience will be selected to hang for a period of time on this wall.
These pieces of art from some of our Year 5 students are inspired by the Artist Pete Cromer.
Cross Country
Well done to all of our students who competed at the Regional Cross Country on Monday 29th May. We had Hugh Wright, Noah Anderson, Molly McNeil, Sibella Evans, Milla Rentsch, Lottie Wilkinson, and Ethan Alexander. All students ran well and represented our school with the utmost respect to their competitors and themselves.
Good luck to Molly McNeil, Noah Anderson, Hugh Wright and Lottie Wilkinson who progress to State Cross country in Melbourne in July.
Winter Sports
The Year 6 teams all enjoyed a good day on Friday participating in the winter sports with the local district schools.
Our netball team finished on top of their ladder undefeated and progressed to the Divisional event this Friday. Thanks to Layla Nicholson for helping with the coaching.
Our football team also finished on top of their ladder undefeated and also progress to the Divisional event this Friday.
Our soccer team finished third and showed great improvement across the day.
Our Tee Ball team also finished third.
Tennis
Congratulations to Noah Anderson who represented our school in State Tennis last month.
We are celebrating a school mass on the last day of term, Friday 23rd June. We will be celebrating the Mass for the Community. The mass is an opportunity to remember the more vulnerable members of our community, and gives us the opportunity to reflect on how we respond to the Gospel message of being “Good News to the Poor and vulnerable”.
As part of Mass for the Community, the Mini Vinnies will be helping to run a pyjama and movie day on Thursday 22nd June. The children will be encouraged to wear their pyjamas and make a small donation via CDF Pay. Monies raised will go to St Vincent de Paul.
Please ensure your children bring a warm jumper or coat and wear sensible shoes. Slippers and dressing gowns can be worn in the classroom.
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.
NCCD is the National Collection of data for Children with Disability. This body collects information from St Joseph's about the levels of disability funding that a child may be eligible to access in a school environment.
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: