Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,

I hope that everyone is well-rested and eager for the adventures that lie ahead, as we step into a brand-new school year. It is with great pleasure that I extend a warm welcome to both our returning families and those who are joining the St Joseph’s community for the first time.

As we embark on the upcoming school year, there is an unmistakable sense of enthusiasm and anticipation in the air. Our dedicated staff have been working diligently to create an environment that is conducive to learning, growth, and, most importantly, joy.

To our returning students, welcome back! We look forward to the energy, creativity, and the vibrancy you bring to our school community. Your achievements and contributions continue to inspire us, and we look forward to sharing in your continued success this year.

To our new students and families, a heartfelt welcome! We are thrilled to have you as part of St Joseph’s and I hope that you enjoy it here as much as I do. As you settle in, please know that you have a community of supportive teachers, staff, and fellow students ready to welcome you with open arms.

This year promises to be one filled with exciting opportunities, challenges, and personal growth. Our commitment to providing a safe, nurturing, and inclusive learning environment remains unwavering. We are dedicated to fostering a love for learning, critical thinking skills, and the values that will shape our students into well-rounded individuals.

Communication is key to a successful partnership between the school and our families. Throughout the year, we will keep you informed about important events, school updates, and opportunities for involvement through regular newsletters, our school website and various communication channels. Please make yourself known to your child’s teacher via popping in before or after school or via an email.  Our first formal opportunity will occur during the parent and teacher conversations Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th February.

As we embark on this new school year together, let us embrace the journey ahead with optimism, resilience, and a commitment to excellence. Thank you for entrusting us with the education and well-being of your children. I am confident that, with your support, we will make this school year one of growth, achievement, and lasting memories.

Wishing everyone a fantastic start to the school year!

Welcome Families Morning Tea

To begin our school year together all parents and carers are invited to morning tea on Thursday 8th February at 9am (or just after drop off) in the hall.

I would especially like to welcome all of our Foundation families and those families new to St Joseph’s.

Welcome to our New Staff Members

Bridie Moloney, Daisy Loft, Chloe McKenzie and Joshua Hales our new trainees.

Kate Foster, Isobel Everall and Heidi McSween who join our LSO team.

Katherine Howard (D3) and Rachel Creely (Foundation Drama).

Welcome back Clare Stacey who was on leave last year.

2024 Staff

2024 Staff St Joseph's Primary School

Term 1 Staff Professional Development Days

Friday 9th February - Digest Your Class Day

This day will focus on Understanding the Autism Spectrum and other Neurodivergence facilitated by Dr Wenn Lawson and Jen Hawkins. Further time will be devoted to staff sharing information about children in a formal handover as well as preparing for necessary adjustments for inclusion for all children.

Thursday 22nd February - Structured Literacy

This year we are focussing our improvement around Literacy teaching and learning which is facilitated by DOBCEL staff. More information to follow.

Storm Damage

Our school was severely damaged by the storm in early January. The C5 classroom was extensively flooded, the ceiling and walls were damaged and water flowed into adjoining classrooms and offices affecting walls, flooring and cabinetry. 

I would like to pass on my thanks and appreciation to Mark Evans, Sharyn O’Bray, Pat Allen and Cathy Duynhoven who managed the clean up and coordinated the repair works. Also to our trades people who were extremely efficient and understanding of our need to have the Foundation classrooms ready for day 1 of the school year. 

Our staff (particularly the teachers of the classrooms affected) have been very understanding and flexible in altering their plans to organise their rooms.

Regional Parenting Forum “Bring Back the Fun”

The St Joseph’s school community is pleased to be hosting Andy McNeilly for a FREE regional parenting forum.

Andy McNeilly is an author, educator, family coach, and most importantly a parent of three kids. He has recently taken on the role of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader at a school on the Bellarine and understands the challenges parents face in this current climate. For many years, Andy has been running simple and fun webinars and workshops to help parents create more connection with their children given the challenges of modern-day busy lives. He is passionate about helping others to build connected and loving families. He has written two books; Connecting with Your Kids and Connecting with Your Teens.

More information and booking information for this FREE event can be on the brochure below.

Andy McNeilly Parenting 101 Bringing back the Fun

Assembly

Our first assembly this week will be led by our 2024 student leaders who will receive their badges and introduce themselves to our school community. All welcome.

2024 Student Leaders

Isaac Brown, Sibella Evans, Ava Gleeson Templeton, Rhianna Gibbons, Connor Greening, Roisin Hansford, Archie Harle, Logan Jones, Paddy McKane, Billy Main, Molly McNeil, Indiana Smedts and Vivienne Smedts

Chromebook Procedure

Following feedback from parents we have made an adjustment to our student Chromebook procedures. Families will have the option of taking the Chromebook home or leaving it at school in Year 5 and Year 6.  The ICT User Agreement will be sent home shortly which will include a field for families to indicate whether they want the Chromebook taken home or left at school.  All of the devices will remain at school until these agreements have been signed.

The children will be doing several activities on the safe and appropriate use of ICT at school and beyond. 

We also plan to run some family nights later in the year with the support of the Warrnambool Police with a focus on cyber safety. 

Regards
Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday during January.

Max Burns, Poppy Logan, Eliza Vagg, Emerson Chambers, Neve Lyons, Evie Bushell, Violet Greening, Lachlan Johnstone, Milla Rentsch, Nicholas Senchenko, Laila Brooks, Cohen White, Patrick Kerr, Alvie Maher, Henry McKinley, Estelle Schrama, Charlotte Newbury, Tom Farley, Annabel Hatton, Anna  Nguyen, Desi Ratu, Jack Gladki, Eden Tran, Max McCosh, Lennie Bell, Theodora McCaskill, Lillian Visinoni, Jack Harris, Aria De Haas, Maverick De Haas, Alexander Triance, Vincent Visinoni, Neve Croker, Harry Kardas, Darcy Schrama, Maxim Shepeliuk, Boh Vardy, Elliot Smock, Charlotte Brennan, Julia Resk Wilson, Lucas Resk Wilson, Theo Arms, Rhiana Gibbons, Amali Greene, Harry Ryan, Rory Suringa, Noah Toohey, Paddy McKane, Daisy McKinnon and Oscar McKinnon.

Our school calendar an be accessed via our SZApp or website and is regularly updated.

Parents are encouraged to refer to this for important school dates including many 2024 dates including:

• term dates
• school closures
• public holidays
• sacramental dates
• school camps
• excursions
• PSA meetings
• School Advisory Council meetings
• Mother's Day morning tea
• Father's Day breakfast
• year level swimming dates
• classroom assembly dates
• orientation day
• graduation mass
• final assembly
• last school day.

In Term 1 we have the following pupil free school closure days:

Friday 9th February, 2024

Thursday 22nd February, 2024

4pm - 6pm
Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th February, 2024

These initial meetings are designed as an information sharing between parents and teachers. It is an opportunity for teachers to learn more about the students in their care.

Bookings are now open via Parent Access Module (PAM) on the school app or website. 

The CASEA program has been designed to assist schools and families to support children with their social, emotional and behavioural development. It has been developed to help children in Foundation to grade 3 to understand and express emotions more effectively and to enhance problem solving and relationship skills.  CASEA is a free program and is not compulsory.  

The CASEA program will be offered at St. Joseph’s Primary School during Term 1, 2024. The program runs over an 8 week period and consists of a weekly children’s group (1.5 hours), a parent/guardian group (1.5 hours) and teacher consultation.    

If you have any questions or would like further information regarding the program please contact: Megan Hyland, CASEA Clinician, South West Healthcare CAMHS.  Telephone 1800 808 284. 

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

  

We are very happy to continue our partnership with Catholic Care and have Helen Diamond share her expertise with our parents again this year. A parent meeting will be held with Helen on:

• 2pm at Tuesday 13th February (Cancelled)
• 7pm at Tuesday 13th February.

Child minding will be available.

This is Helen’s introduction: 

Hello! My name is Helen Diamond and I am delighted to be doing some work with your community.

I am a Parent Educator who has the joy and privilege of working with parents for over 25 years. I’m also a parent of three adult children and a grandparent.

One thing I know for certain is that every parent wants to be the best parent they can for their child/ren. The problem is that there is so much information around advising parents how to go about this, that it can be really confusing and confidence deflating.  Each generation of parents puts their own spin on parenting and new research overrides the messages of previous “experts” which can sometimes leave us not knowing where to turn when we hit a roadblock in our parenting journey.

I’m looking forward to facilitating a couple of parenting sessions where we will explore the latest research on building strong relationships with our children and why this is so important and what we can be doing to support our children to feel “safe, seen and secure”.

The information I’ll be drawing on will be from evidence based parenting programs: “Circle of Security Parenting”, “Bringing up Great Kids” by the Australian Childhood Foundation and “Turning into Kids” as well as the observations and experiences of parents I’ve met along the way.

Looking forward to meeting you and hearing your parenting stories.

Helen Diamond
CatholicCare Victoria

Greetings to all our families and students

We extend a warm welcome as we embark on another exciting year in Physical Education and Sport at St. Joseph's. Term one unfolds with lots of exciting sport opportunities, promising an engaging and active journey for everyone involved. Keep an eye on the newsletter for tryout days and upcoming events, as there will be quite a few this term. Please note that event dates are occasionally subject to change.

Year 6 Tennis Trials - Friday 2nd February

This Friday marks the commencement of our tennis trials. We enthusiastically invite all Year 6 students interested in trying out for the school tennis team. Girls' tryouts will occur during recess, while boys' tryouts are scheduled for lunchtime. Students are welcome to bring their own racquets; otherwise, the school provides spares.

Important Dates

• District Tennis – Friday 23rd February
• Division Swimming – Thursday 29th February
• District Athletics – Monday 25th March.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful 2024.

Matt McMillan P.E Teacher and Sports Coordinator

Swimming trials are for those children who are competent swimmers in Years 3 - 6 wanting to compete in swimming.  

Once the trials are completed swimmers will be selected to represent the school. 

Closing date for submitting this form is strictly 3pm, Wednesday 14th February, 2024. Entries will not be accepted after this date and children will therefore not be considered for selection.

Trials for registered competent swimmers will be held on a Monday 19th February for the District Swimming to be held on Thursday 29th February, 2024.

If any parents are available to assist with time keeping on the day please indicate on the form. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Matthew McMillian, Physical Education and Sport Co-ordinator

In September 2024, we hope to take a group of Year 6 students on a Cultural and Study Tour to Japan for approximately 8-10 days. Students from across the Warrnambool and District Network are invited to come. In November last year, we held an information meeting for parents at St. Joseph's in Warrnambool, giving an overview of what students could expect on the trip. Parents then submitted a deposit and confirmed their interest in December 2023. 

This is the last call for any parents who might be interested in their child taking part in the Japan Trip in 2024. Please fill out the attached form by Friday 9th February. You will then be sent information (including pricing) to help you in your decision. You can also email Catherine Lee  (St. Joseph's PS)  clee@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au for further information.

Confirmation of interest and a deposit, would then need to be submitted by Friday 16th February, so that bookings can commence. 

A reminder that we require all families to login to PAM and update their child's Medical Information if their child's medical details have changed. 

This information assists with our electronic permission forms. 

Please follow the instructions below to update a medical profile for each of your children by:

1. Click on link to PAM (found on our webpage or SZapp)
2. Click on student (if more than 1 child, this will need to be done individually)
3. Click on Medical Profile (blue writing to the left of screen)
4. Check all questions and select Edit Details for updates to be made.
5. Once you get to the end of the questions please confirm by clicking on the Green “Update Details” Box found at the bottom right of screen.

As a parent/guardian you are able to access your child/rens medical profile on PAM at any time to update as needed.

If you have any queries or require your PAM login details, please do not hesitate to get in contact with the office.  

The Permission to Administer Medication form needs to be completed for short term and long term medication that children may require at school. This form can be completed electronically from the app SZApp from the tile Permission Medication.

In regards to times of medication, it is easier on the staff and most importantly your child to coincide with a bell at either recess/lunch times. We have found that the bell is a prompt for your child and staff and has less interruptions to the day. These times also maintain the children's confidentiality, with less disruptions to the child in regards to being called or required to leave the classroom.

Recommended times are:

• 11:20am - End of recess
  
• 1:00pm - Start of eating time/lunch
• 2:35pm - Between session 5 and 6

Sharing of food items in the classroom

As our school community grows we have more students enrolled who have been diagnosed as having food allergies or intolerances. To support all needs we have procedures for the sharing of food items in the classroom. At times some classrooms will have a shared morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea. This is a supervised event and all families are advised of this via a letter sent from the classroom teacher.

This ensures all children's individual needs are met and catered for.

To ensure the inclusion of all students please adhere to the routine for the sharing of food items within the classroom.

Celebration of Birthdays

At St Joseph's we celebrate children's birthdays as a school by presenting the child with a Birthday Certificate at our whole school assembly. Each classroom celebrates birthdays in different ways. Some classes have a special chair for the day or a badge to wear, most classrooms have birthdays displayed in the room.

For the purpose of an individual child’s celebration or birthday the school permits an lemonade icypole or frozen Zooper Doopers as recommended options for these occasions.  It is not compulsory to celebrate all birthdays through the classroom.

Icy poles can be dropped into the school office. Please label with child's name and room number and let the classroom teacher know.

Numbers required

• Lemonade Icypoles - 3 boxes of 8
• Zooper Doopers - 1 bag of 24 (allow 2 days for freezing)

Uncollected left over icypoles/zooper doopers will be redistributed.

Our 2nd Hand Uniform system allows for parents to puchase and sell items all year round with options to purchase online.

Items for second hand sale can now be dropped into the school office at any time of the year.  

Uniform items MUST be:

• current uniform items only
• very good to excellent quality
• washed and free of stains
• have any naming labels crossed out
• labelled with either the printable Pricing Label template or similar.

Items that are NOT suitable are:

• school bags more than 2 years old
• library/book bags
• stained or torn clothing
• non-current school uniform
• sports shorts without the school logo
• shoes
• secondary school uniform items.

Unsuitable items will be returned to the seller/donator.

Pricing of Uniform Items

Price uniform items accordingly and receive 70% of the amount (when the item is sold) with 30% of your sale going to the school’s PSA.

Items are kept in the second hand uniform shop until they are sold. We will notify via text of any monies to be collected, this may be after a family has left the school.

Alternatively you can donate items to be sold. We will label and price donated items. 100% of these sales go to the school's PSA.

Refer to suggested pricing guide linked below.

Purchasing of Uniform Items

Parents are able to complete an online form indicating the uniform item and size required and it will then be sent home with your child or made available for collection.

Payment to be made in cash the following day. Items can be returned if they aren't the correct size or quality.

School Canteen Support 

St Joseph’s Primary School has been very fortunate to be able to maintain our canteen being available 5 days per week.  This has been due to having Tanya Hughes as a canteen coordinator but also because we have maintained such a strong base of canteen volunteers.  

We would love to continue to be able to offer our canteen services each school day, however, today our most pressing need is to increase the number of volunteers we have to help keep our canteen running at its current high standard and for 5 days per week.

We can work around your work roster or family commitments. You can do as many or as few 'shifts' as you would like. A daily shift will commence from 11:00am and you will be finished by 1:15pm. 

Training is offered. A Working With Children check is required. This can be applied for through the Department of Justice website. 

If you can help out please click the link to fill in your details and availability.

We really hope this request being sent out to all families will increase the number of volunteers, if not, the next step will be to look at changes we would have to make to keep it running which would more than likely mean either less days of operation or more paid time, both of which will have a massive impact on the costs and potential profits made. 

Our Parent School Association has very strong support for maintaining the canteen as a service to families, available daily if possible and quality healthy food at reasonable prices. The small profit from the canteen is spent directly on our school grounds program, including play-ground equipment and student facilities. Voluntary help is critical to achieving this outcome for everyone’s benefit.

School Canteen Support 

St Joseph's Recycling Centre

St Joseph's Recycling Centre is now available for Bottle Tops, Bread Tags, Home Printer Catridges and Batteries.

Children can place items in the recycling centre in the school foyer before and after school.

Families are encouraged to subscribe to our newsletter in order to be informed on school, student and parent related topics. Both parents/guardians can subscribe and grandparents too. Newsletters are sent on a Monday each week with a Principal column in every second newsletter. Reminder emails are often sent towards the end of a busy calendar week.

For families no longer wishing to receive the newsletter they can unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of any newsletter.