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- TERM 4 SCHOOL CLOSURE
- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY
- TEACHER AWARDS
- 2025 TRANSITION AND CLASSROOM PLACEMENT
- 2025 CLASSROOM PLACEMENT
- SPORTS NEWS
- 2024 ART FUNDRAISER
- GRANDPARENTS DAY
- CLASSROOM CELEBRATIONS
- PERMISSION TO ADMINISTER MEDICATION
- STUDENT MEDICAL INFORMATION
- SECOND HAND UNIFORM
- COUNTRY BUS INFORMATION
- CENTREPAY FEE PAYMENT OPTION
- STUDENTS TRAVELLING WITH STAFF MEMBERS
- TERM 4 CANTEEN NEWS
- SUPERGRASSE TENNIS WARRNAMBOOL
- COMMUNITY NEWS
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community,
As we begin our new term together, the final term of 2024, I offer this prayer that I came across as a reminder (for myself really) to stay present to joys of school life in the business of life.
Help Us To Be There
Holy, Life-Giving Spirit,
Infuse in us your ability to remain present to Your people.
Help us to be there,
To be right there,
For the people who need us.
There for young people,
There for the elderly,
There for our colleagues
There for the brokenhearted;
Fire our hearts with your life-changing presence.
Even though we know you to be everywhere and in everything,
Give us the ability to be fully in one place at a time,
Open and ready to love.
Amen
Author Unknown
Netball
Congratulations to our Netball team who won the School Sports Victoria State Championship in the last week of term. I pass on the congratulations of our whole community to all of the players involved.
This is an amazing achievement from a very talented team. There are over 1,500 primary schools in Victoria who are eligible to compete in the championships. Our team won through, District (around Warrnambool), Regional (Portland - Colac), Divisional (Ballarat to Border and South) and finally State level.
Winning at State level is a very rare achievement as the competition at that level is of a particularly high standard.
I would like to pass on my thanks and also congratulations to Candice Grant and Marie-Claire Smedts for coaching the team across the four tournaments.
The team and their coaches will be celebrated at assembly on Friday 25th October.
Holiday Works
Over the holidays we took the opportunity without students on site to complete some ongoing maintenance. The flood damage in the Foundation classes was finally patched up.
The shade sail structure over the sandpit was deemed unsafe and removed. The Allen Oval clubrooms have had asbestos removed, electricity upgraded and ceiling replaced. It has also been cleaned up so that our students can access it as an alternative learning centre.
Cyber Safety
The Cyber Safety sessions for Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 students run by Warrnambool Police have been rescheduled to Monday 4th November. The Parent and student session will be held on Tuesday 6th November at 6pm.
Please note that families will need to register their attendance at the Tuesday evening session.
Matthew O'Brien, Principal
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday during the holidays and this week.
Jim Kenna, Harvey Umbers, Nash Anderson, Jack Boyd, Aster McDonald, Alexis Burns, Louis Johnson, Nellie Foster, Josephine Kao, Iris Foster, Zinzan McDermott, Hugh Wright, Miles Boyle, Matilda Goldson, Elsie Gynes, River McKinnon, Leonard Rope, George Van Engelen, Cole Burleigh, Jaxon Green, Bradley Crooks, Regi Sobey, Bobby Jackson, Archie Gardner, Ella Carlin, Quinn McDonald, Ryan Pedro Hicks, Isla Priebbenow, Maya Molan, Estella Roberts, Esther Baulch, Georgia Finneran, Gracie O'Grady and Van Myroniuk.
In Week 2 of Term 4 we will be asking students to write four "good fit working partners" for 2025 classroom placements.
We ask that parents start having conversations with their child/ren regarding who these partners may be.
Be mindful that a "good fit working partner" does not always mean their best friend.
Athletics
Congratulations to our students who will be representing the school at this Friday’s Regional athletics in Ballarat. Making it all the way to this level is an achievement to be proud of. Good luck to all.
Netball
Congratulations to our Year 6 Girls' Netball team for an outstanding achievement! On the last day of term the girls competed in the State Championships in Melbourne. After a very successful day, they found themselves in the Grand Final, which ultimately went to overtime.
Our girls stood up to the pressure and displayed some excellent netball to be crowned STATE CHAMPIONS!
Well done girls, we are all so proud of you. A special mention to our coaches, Marie-Clare Smedts and Candice Grant - Thank you both for all you've done for the girls.
Cricket
With the warmer weather comes the summer sports. Next Monday and Tuesday cricket team trials for Year 6 students will be held during lunchtime.
Basketball
Our Year 6 Boys and Girls Basketball teams will be competing in the Regional championships on Thursday 31st October in Colac. Best of luck to both teams, let’s keep up the great momentum!
Matt McMillan - Sports coordinator
The PSA will be running their annual fundraiser to raise additional funds for the Art Department.
This year your child's artwork will be available on Ribbon and Clay.
Ribbon and Clay
Ordering Details
Orders are now open via CDFPay at a cost of $18.00 and close at 3pm on Tuesday 15th October.
Orders will be delivered in plenty of time to use these items as Christmas presents.
Note: Our Art teachers will endeavour to ensure your child has completed the necessary artwork. However, if your child has been absent for an extended period of time for holidays or sickness they may not have completed their artwork.
This year we will celebrate Grandparents Day at St Joseph's
on the morning of Thursday 24th October.
9:30am - 10:30am
Classroom Visits
10:30am - 11:00am
Performance by Year 2 drama and music classes
11:00am - 11:30am
Morning tea in the Hall
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.
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
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:
- Click on link to PAM (found on our webpage or SZapp)
- Click on student (if more than 1 child, this will need to be done individually)
- Click on Medical Profile (blue writing to the left of screen)
- Check all questions and select Edit Details for updates to be made.
- 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.
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.
A reminder that only students that are registered to travel on specific country buses can use this service.
The service is not to be used for sports training/work/social purposes.
Parent/Carers are to make their own arrangements in this regard.
With the strengthening of The Child Safety Standards, we need to be mindful of students travelling in private cars with staff members. With this in mind, if you are friends, or family, of any staff members at St Josephs Primary School, and you require them to drive your child/ren home from school we will need to get written permission from you.
This can be done by completing this online form at any time https://form.jotform.