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Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,
Naplan Reports
Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN reports have been mailed to families of Year 3 and Year 5 students. Please keep these reports in a safe place as a copy is required when enrolling at a secondary school.
Student achievement in NAPLAN is reported using new proficiency standards for each assessment area at each year level. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing. There are 4 proficiency levels:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
Head Knocks and Concussions
If your child has experienced concussion, it is important that you follow recommended medical advice. Returning to school can be a graduated approach with the aim of increasing tolerance to a full day, the same situation could occur with sport. It is always important to check with your doctor and seek medical treatment after a child sustains a concussion.
It is important to inform the school if your child has sustained a concussion outside of the school setting so we can monitor for ongoing symptoms and adapt activities if required.
This factsheet from the Royal Children’s Hospital is valuable to read and understand.
There is also a great evidence-based app from the Murdoch children’s research institute that walks you through what to do in the result of a concussion.
Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Stella Bell, Fraser Coughlan, James McKimmie, Annie Murrell, Rhyda Tucker, Lily Blackmore, Atticus Delaney, Myeisha Joreen Morden, Ava Dance, Mae Breen, Alison Chang, Felicity Chang, Meredith Chang and Finnian Dwyer.
Scholastic Bookclub Orders
A reminder to families wishing to place a bookclub order that they close on Friday 28th July. Orders are place via the LOOP app or the Scholastic website.
2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge
All participants will receive a completion certificate for completing the challenge by 8th September, 2023. Congratulations to the following students who have recently completed the Challenge:
- Gracie Jess
- Dhanvant Sivasankar
- Judd Coffey
- Jack Walker
- Paddy Melican
- Chelsea Kao
- Everdeen Hawkins
- Luca McSween
- Indiana McLaurin
- Henry Saker
- Hugh Wright
- Jackson Senchenko
- River McKinnon
- Hadley Boyle
- Patrick Dufty
- Maisy Lumsden
- Thisara Kumarapperuma
- Meg Colman
- Quinn McDonald
- Liam Hose
After graduating from LaTrobe University in 2003, I have had the pleasure of working as a speech pathologist in Catholic schools across different locations from Swan Hill to Portland, and more recently in child and adolescent mental health. I love working with school-age children, families and school staff to enable children to reach their full potential across all areas of communication, including speech, language, voice and fluency. As a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist, I bring a specialised knowledge of child development, assessment and intervention to the Learning Diversity Team at St Joseph’s. I am keen to work collaboratively with children, parents and school staff to create learning environments and experiences that meet the needs of each child. I can also guide teachers and families to access strategies and programs that have been shown to help children with similar needs. I am passionate about building on a child’s strengths and interests. I believe that the best support plans are made by listening to the experiences of children, families and teachers. By combining this information with targeted assessment, plans can be created that allow children to experience success with communication goals, not just academically but in all areas of school life. As well as loving my job as a speech pathologist, I also enjoy camping with my family, gardening, cooking and crochet.
I’ll be working at St Joseph’s on Fridays for the rest of the year. If you have general questions about communication or would like more information about speech, language, voice or fluency, please feel free to call me through the school office. If you think your child might have additional learning needs, I recommend that you talk with their classroom teacher or Louise Chow (Learning Diversity Leader). I feel very privileged to be part of the St Joseph’s staff and am excited to be able to share the benefits of having a school based speech pathology service with the school community.
Jen Hawkins, Speech Pathologist
Thank you to Warrnambool Foodshare
Starting this week Foodshare are providing fruit and healthy non-perishable snacks for students who do not have any fruit or snacks. If your child does not have fruit or a snack they will be sent to the office by their teacher to get one. Please let you child know this is there for them to access.
For students who have forgotten their lunch we always have jam or vegemite sandwiches available, again accessed through the office.
This service is NOT for students who do not like what they have been given, but for those in need.
We continue to highlight the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) curriculum so you are able to understand the topics that are covered.
We include an example of an activity for a particular year level so you can see how the topics aim to build on knowledge over time as students mature and develop their social and emotional learning. There are 8 topics in the learning materials.
Key Dates
| 3pm Thursday 21st July, 2023 | Registrations Close |
| 7pm, Tuesday 25th July, 2023 | Parent and Student Meeting at St. Josephs Church |
| Various Times, Monday 31st July - Thursday 24th August | Family groups |
| 8:30am, 10:30am and 6:00pm Sunday 27th August, 2023 |
Celebration of the First Eucharist Sacrament |
News
Tickets sales now open via CDFPay, 313 tickets have already been sold.
Thanks to those who have volunteered already. We really appreciate the assistance offered by our parents.
Our Junior Disco volunteer roster is now full with 9 on the backup list. The Middle/Senior Disco is in need of a few more volunteers.
There will be no choir this Thursday 27th July. Thank you.