Filter Content
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,
15th August - Feast of the Assumption of Mary
Dear Jesus
May we do all things in the way of your Mother Mary
And give of ourselves totally in the service of each other
Especially those who are most in need.
May our actions be marked by compassion and love
And bring about justice and peace in the world.
Inspire us with the courage we need to always say ‘yes’
And continuously bring your message of hope and goodness
To those struggling in the difficult terrain of the hill country of life.
Amen
(Assumption College Kilmore)
There is so much going on at school at the moment. Arts, sports, excursions, plays, Book Week preparation and sacraments have added further life and learning to the already bustling classroom programs.
Everyone is busy getting organised for celebrating Arts’ Week over the next two weeks. St Joe’s Got Talent and the Night Walk on Wednesday 30th August are some of the highlights to look forward to. Anyone who has entered the school foyer will notice the transformation that has begun.
Good luck to the Year 5 team as they head off to Ballarat for camp tomorrow.
Also, our Boys Football Team heads to Melbourne on Wednesday to play in the State Finals - Good luck to everyone involved.
We welcome Mark Evans to our staff as our new Grounds and Maintenance Manager.
Catholic Social Learning
Our staff spent Monday exploring the Principles Catholic Social Teaching:
- Preferential Option for the Poor
- Human Dignity
- Care for our Common Home
- Subsidiarity and Participation
- The Common Good
- Solidarity
We unpacked these principles from a personal and school perspective. We reflected on how the principles are alive in our school and identified further opportunities to bring them to life.
Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Cooper McCosh, Sienna Johnson, Tom Clifford, Madison Finnigan, Daisy Greening, Jack Haynes, Frankie Jones, Maisy Lumsden, Lexie Keane, Daisy Brown, Georgia Hope and Eli Oakley.
The Power of Gratitude
Gratitude refers to noticing and appreciating the good things that happened. It’s very easy to notice and focus on all the bad things happening, which can add to feelings of sadness and worry. Purposely looking for things that are good and right helps shift our perspective. Each day may not be good, but goodness can be found in each day.
There are lots of ways of practicing gratitude, such as reflecting on what went well or hunting for the good things in the day.
With your children you can help them create Gratitude Scraps. Take a bowl and create scraps of paper. During the day, look for things that you can be grateful for. Add to the bowl. At the end of day/ week, read through and appreciate the positive things that you experienced during the day/week.
We know from our work with the Resilience Project in the past that practicing gratitude for 21 days actually makes a difference and you will start to see positives before a negative thing.
The Resilience Project taught us the values referred to as GEM. G-Gratitude E-Empathy M-Mindfulness
Practicing these values daily will make a big difference and help develop resilience in yourself and your children.
Gratitude Questions you can use:
What was the best thing that happened to me today?
Who am I most grateful for and why?
What am I looking forward to most about tomorrow?
Wear Orange on Friday
SAVE THE DATE
We will be having an WOOF - wear orange on Friday 15th September when students will be able to wear a touch or more of orange for Story Dogs. We will be raising funds for Story Dogs and you can donate via CDFPAY, now open.
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 each, for 4, year 2 students, each week with our Volunteer Deb, and her dog Sadie. Susie Alexander is the coordinator for our school program.
Please see the Story Dogs website at www.storydogs.org.au for more information and read about the success of the program.
Foodshare
Thank you to Warrnambool Foodshare.
Foodshare is now providing a basket of fruit each week for students who do not have any fruit for fruit time or just an extra snack for after they have finished their lunch.
It’s only one more week to prepare the character you intend to be in this upcoming Book Week Parade on Friday 25th August! This year’s theme lends itself to just about anything and anyone. We have been talking to the students about what it means to be inspired by someone, and that this year is the opportunity to come dressed as that person - even if they haven’t appeared in a book!
Here are just a few websites listed below to help make your kids’ ideas come to life! You are welcome to attend our Parade from 9:05am in the School Hall. Our usual Assembly will be held later in the day, led by the class E4 where our Arts Week will be celebrated from 2:30 pm.
https://mumsgrapevine.com.au/2020/09/book-week-costume-ideas/
https://www.familiesmagazine.com.au/childrens-book-week-costume-ideas/
https://fb.watch/moxrP7jrzp/?mibextid=cr9u03
The LRC also has some dress-up costumes and accessories available for any students to borrow for the parade. Just email me at elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
Thank You.
2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge
Quick! The Challenge closes on Friday 8th September!
Please login using your details at https://vprc.eduweb.vic.gov.au/home
And contact us ASAP if you or your child needs some extra assistance to access the Dashboard and start adding books to your list.
Contact with Mr George El Hage at gelhage@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au or Mrs Emily Lloyd at elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
All participants will receive a completion certificate for completing the challenge, hopefully by the final Assembly this term. Congratulations to the following students who have recently completed the Challenge:
- Sophia Furphy
- Roisin Hansford
- Euan McRae
Some big sporting events have happened over the past couple of weeks at St. Joseph’s and some more are just around the corner!
Hockey
On Friday 11th August our Year 6 girl’s hockey team travelled via 12 seater bus to Hamilton for the Regional Hockey competition. The weather wasn’t so different from the weather we’ve been having here lately, icy!
Our girls played two warm up games against boys/mixed teams from Camperdown and Hamilton, before playing off in the Grand Final against the Hamilton girl’s team. The girls put up a great fight but unfortunately went down in a tightly fought contest.
Well done to all the girls who played and represented the school so well.
Basketball - Year 4
On Monday 14th August our Year 4 girls and boys basketball teams headed to the Emmanuel Centre for a day of District Basketball against the other schools in our district. Both teams displayed excellent sportsmanship and teamwork in order to finish the day on top of their respective ladders. Well done to our boys and girls Year 4 basketball teams!
Volleyball
Volleyball is quickly approaching, with the date for our district competition scheduled as Friday 1st September. Trials have been postponed and will now be held for the following teams this Monday 21st August
- Year 5 boys
- Year 5 girls
- Year 6 boys
- Year 6 girls
Boys Football
A huge congratulations to our Year 6 boys football team, who will represent our school at the State Finals in Melbourne on Wednesday. The boys have been training for months and are eagerly awaiting their chance to take on some of the state's best talent tomorrow. Good luck to the whole team on what is already a massive achievement.
Pizza Day: Tuesday 22nd August, 2023
Orders Close: 3pm Friday 18th August, 2023
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 provided by Pinkie’s Pizza who are one of our school sponsors.
Orders are now open via CDFPay (Canteen ordering system)
There are no canteen orders on Pizza Days and children not wanting to order pizza should bring their lunch from home.
Sorry, no late orders can be accepted.
7:00am - 9:00am
Friday 1st September
Our PSA is once again holding a Father's Day Breakfast for our school Dads (or special person).
Children arrive at school early with their dad and enjoy a breakfast of egg sandwiches, egg and bacon sandwiches or sausages in bread. The PSA will provide some fruit, juice and hot drinks, gluten free bread available. After the breakfast dads can walk their child/ren to the classroom for a visit.
Orders made via CDFPay
Orders will open on Monday 7th August and close on 28th August at 2:00 pm. Sorry no late orders.
Volunteers
We rely on the assistance for volunteers on this day and the afternoon prior.
Please complete the volunteer form if you are able to assist with setup on Thursday after school or on the Friday morning for cooking, serving or cleanup.
Arts Week Activity
The Arts team would like donations of glass jars with their labels removed for an Arts Week activity.
Please remove the label and drop them into the school office.
2023 $10,000 Business Raffle
A big thanks to Cathy Duynhoven who has attracted 41 sponsors who have all contributed towards our raffle for this year. Each family will have received their 4 x 25 tickets.Spare books are available at the office.
This is our major fundraiser for the year and we are aiming to raise in excess of $30,000.
As the sponsors' donations have contributed to the raffle costs the price of every ticket sold creates 100% profit for our school. We are planning on using the funds raised in upgrading the senior playground in the space where the spider frame once stood.
The other positive in this raffle is that the $10,000 is spent back with our sponsors thus giving back to those who are supporting us.
But Wait! There’s More! The seller of the winning ticket gets their family fee paid for next year. Wow! Good luck and thanks for your support.