Michael Gray, Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and our Wider School Community

“The power of the pen!” is an old saying many of us would be aware of; this truism exploded into action recently here at St. Joseph’s. Students of E3 focusing on improving their writing recently wrote to the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Their writing beautifully and compassionately expressed their concern for the plight of drought affected farmers. The students were particularly concerned for the farming families of outback NSW. They were conscious of the impact on livestock, community, young people and the local environment.

Gemma Jones, the new sub-editor of the Daily Telegraph in Sydney responded by announcing six of our students as the winners of “The Adopt A Farmer” support program. Gemma has offered to fly the six students published to Dubbo to visit farms and the local primary school.  Qantas and News Corp will fund the trip and visit. Our students; Sophie Jellie, Nicholas Russell, Hannah Van de Camp, Daisy Shiells, Amelia Harris and Neave Black will fly with Qantas, stay overnight at St. Vincent’s Girls Boarding College in Potts Point Sydney and then fly to Dubbo for the day to visit farms and tour areas devastated by the conditions. The students will then share a BBQ with a local school and return to Warrnambool. Quite an adventure for all involved. Staff George El-Hage and Catherine Lee will be supporting the travellers.

To support this endeavour, the students from E3 are coordinating a casual clothes day this Friday with a gold coin donation. Family, student and community support will then be presented to the local school to help with their program of buying items for farming families. These items include shoes, clothes, food and other daily essential items.

Student Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

As per many updates the midyear Parent Teacher Interviews commenced this week. Student reports were also available from last Friday via our new Parent Access Module. A big thanks to all for your support of these two important aspects of helping young people grow and learn. A special thanks also to our teaching staff for their work in preparing the documentation. Thank you also to our ICT and Administration Teams for their work supporting learning and communication with an electronic option. The real heroes of St. Joseph’s are our students; they work hard, always do their best and believe in themselves.

Andrew Fuller (Geelong based Parent Educator visiting St. Joseph’s later this year) says the three things every parent wants for their child, every teacher wants for their students, and every community wants for its young people is for children and teens to have: Safe, Healthy and Fulfilling lives. Learning is crucial to this objective; a report or interview today is one of the many steps designed to support the learner, inform parents and help direct teacher future work.

Michael Carr-Gregg (Parent Educator) also gives good advice; he constantly reminds us as parents to have “high aspirations and realistic expectations.” The best way to do this is to notice young people’s strengths, deal with areas of concern through listening, dialogue and small steps of action.

Confirmation

This week students from St. Joseph’s will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. Please keep these children and their families in your prayers and thoughts.

Student and School Safety

As mentioned in previous newsletters we are replacing the old fencing around the school, this includes the full property perimeter, appropriate access gates for foot traffic and managed vehicle access. The works are planned for the Term Two break.

 Yours sincerely, Michael Gray, Principal

Learning Experiences Term 2

 The Royal Flying Doctors Incursion

This Term students in the Grade 1/2 area were visited by Tom and Campbell from the Royal Flying Doctors Service. They spoke to students about the rich history and critical importance of the service for Australians. They brought along with them an interactive plane for students to have a hands on learning experience.

Students got to sit in the pilots seat, be an air traffic controller and become either a nurse or doctor while they listened for heart beats. They also spoke of the importance of both doctors and nurses roles being filled by girls and boys.

Connor Greening

Poppy O'Brien, Indy Henry and Lila Gommers

"Captain" Cooper McCosh

Levi Coats and Jasmine Cox

Grade 1/2 students learning about the history of the Royal Flying Doctors

Mrs McCoy's Gardening Class

Throughout the year Grade 2 students are provided the opportunity to experience a cooking and gardening workshop in small group with Mrs. McCoy. They plant and harvest both fruit and vegetables from our school garden.

Students also experience cooking using the produce they have grown or collected in a recipe. During the lesson students are taught about kitchen safety, food handling and the importance of healthy eating. 

Students from B3

Student from B5

Francesca Di Cesare

Gardeners enjoying their baking

Division Winter Sports Finals

Congratulations to all our teams who competed last Friday.  Great sportsmanship on display once again.  Our Football and Soccer teams have advanced to the Regional Finals in Ballarat this Friday.

Our winning Tee Ball Girls Team have advanced through to the state finals to be held on Wednesday 11th September. Congratulations to all involved.  

Girls Footy Training

Due to the Winter Sports Finals in Ballarat this Friday, there will be no Girls Football Training this week.   Training for Girls Footy will resume next week.

5/6 Hockey Tryouts

This Tuesday at lunchtime there will be hockey training session for those interested in playing Hockey early next term.  Please bring mouthguards and shin pads if you have them.  Details of further training sessions will be outlined at this training session. 

Hooptime Years 3/4 and 5/6

Registrations have now closed for these clinics.  We had a wonderful turnout for the first session and a big thankyou to all the parents who transported their child/ren to the training session.  If you are still interested in coming you will need to contact the school office for further details.  The times for this week will remain the same and it will once again be held in the school hall. 

Andrew McCombe, Physical Education and Sport Co-ordinator

Sacred Heart, also called Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Roman Catholicism, the mystical-physical heart of Jesus as an object of devotion. In addition to a feast, now celebrated on the Friday of the third week after Pentecost, devotion includes acts of consecration and honour given to the image of the Sacred Heart.

The Catholic Archidiocese of Melbourne have an informative article you may like to read for more information about this special day.

Whole School Mass

On Friday 28th June our school will celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart with a whole school Mass at St Joseph's Church at 10:00 am. All are welcome to attend. There will be no assembly this day and Teacher Awards and Birthday Certificates will be presented at the conclusion of the Mass.

Prayer

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Community Donation

Our school supports our community as part of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. As well as praying for the poor, children are invited to take action by bringing to school warm blankets, toiletries e.g. toothbrush, toothpaste, handwash, hairbush, deodorant, socks, hair ties, crayons and colouring books. Children may also bring non-perishable food items. 

The Soup Kitchen provide warm meals to those in need on Monday nights between 5:30pm and 7:00pm in the Parish Hall.

Donations can be sent to the school with your child and/or placed in the collections tubs in the school foyer. Our St. Joseph's Parish soup kitchen will collect these donated items and use them to support people in need in our local area.

Please keep the Grade 3 children and the parents in your prayers as they prepare to receive the Sacrement of Confirmation. May we be models of faith for these children.

Upcoming important dates

Celebration following Mass

Families are asked to bring a plate of food to share in the Gathering Space of St Joseph's Church at the conclusion of the Mass.

Please name any plates/containers as they are often left behind.

Stole

Parents will have received an iron on Confirmation transfer for their child. The photograph below is an indication of a suggested placement of the next three Sacraments - Confirmation, Eucharist and Reconciliation. Wear the stole with the Baptism and Diocese transfers on the right side.

This Friday 21st June, we will have a whole school casual clothes dress up day to support the Adopt-A-Farmer Campaign that Mr El-Hage and the E3 students have raised awareness about.

All students are invited to bring along a monetary donation, and funds raised will be presented as a cheque when staff and students from our school visit Dubbo next week. Daisy, Amelia, Hannah, Neave, Sophie, and Nicholas from E3 will provide classes with an activity to do on Friday to highlight the importance of aid relief to drought-affected areas.

4North Project

Assembly Report from Sam and Sophie

Sam: Hi my name is Sam and I’m Sophie we are talking to you today on behalf of the school leadership team. We are here to talk to you about the 4 North project which we are going to undertake as part of our Leadership project this year.

Sophie:  Last term we had a visit from Matt Gewitz the 4 North project who talked to us about the non-profit charity that helps kids in developing countries. Matt is an amazing person who travels to all sorts of interesting countries, but very underdeveloped, parts of the world. Here he helps the people in these countries in many different ways.  Boxes for bracelets is one of the fundraisers he has started that help kids get to school with clothes, food and stationery.

Sophie:  Here is a short video that will tell you some more.

Sophie: On Monday in the newsletter, there will be a chance for everyone to purchase a bracelet that is made up of cereal boxes.

Sam: The project has enough boxes at the moment so we don’t need to collect them. Senior leaders will visit your rooms to remind you and tell you more about the project. Information and order details will be in next week’s newsletters if you want to help us help others who aren't as lucky as us.

Sophie: So as you can see from the picture they look pretty impressive. So get onto next week’s newsletter and show mum or dad so they can help you purchase one. It's a great chance to help those less fortunate than us ... as well as looking cool yourself.

Thank you Sophie Jellie and Sam Smith on behalf of the St Joseph's Primary School leadership team.

Bracelets can be purchased via CDFPay. Thank you for your support of this project.

Thursday 27 June, 2019, Orders close 3pm Tuesday 25 June

Once per term the PSA run a Pizza Day as a "special occasion" lunch option and to raise money for the PSA.

Children can choose from either Garlic or Hawaiian pizza (Gluten Free options available) which are ordered via CDFPay (Canteen ordering system) and provided by Pinkie’s Pizza who are one of our major school sponsors.

There are no canteen orders on Pizza Days and children not wanting to order pizza should bring their lunch from home.

Please note that there has been an increase of .25c per slice of pizza in line with a price increase from our supplier.

Sorry, no late orders can be accepted.

The Catholic Development Fund (CDF) have produced a handy Parent Guide for CDFPay.

Public Library - Holiday Activity

Basketball with Jaz and Issie