Matthew O'Brien, Principal

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

Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Thursday 15th August

Artwork “Assumption” by Patricia Brintle

Please join us to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption (one day late) at St Joseph’s Church, 10am Friday 16th August.

Disco Thanks

Thanks to all of our Parent Support Association members for their leadership and support in organising the disco Friday night.

It was a great success and as always a highlight of the year for the children.

Thanks also to the staff who supported the night to ensure a safe and happy night for everyone.

An interesting observation was that “Who Let The Dogs Out” was the loudest song at both the senior and junior events.

Insight SRC Surveys - Reminder

Each Year we undertake surveys of staff, students (Year 3-6) and parents to gauge organisational health of our school. Our leadership team (along with DOBCEL staff) analyse this data along with our teaching and learning data and wellbeing data to ascertain the effectiveness of our programs and to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. These areas then form the basis of our Annual Action Plan.

Last week 50 families were randomly selected to participate in the survey. These families were given an envelope which contained log in details.  The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete.  If you were selected I urge you to complete the survey as a large sample of families provides more meaningful data.  It might just be worth checking school bags as children have lost the habit of handing over notes in this digital age. The survey will close at the end of the week.

Matthew O'Brien, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Zac Beaton, Harrison Baker, Cooper McCosh, Tom Clifford, Madison Finnigan, Jack Haynes, Frankie Jones and Maisy Lumsden.

Wednesday 21st August, 2024

As we know, Term 3 is a busy one for PE at St. Josephs with lots of team sport opportunities. Below is an update on some of the recent and upcoming events.

Lawn Bowls Team Success

Last Friday, our Lawn Bowls team competed in the Division Competition, representing our school with outstanding sportsmanship. We are incredibly proud of their effort and dedication. The team faced strong competition and demonstrated resilience and teamwork throughout the day. Congratulations to all participants on the day.

Upcoming Basketball Competitions

We have some important dates to mark on your calendars for the upcoming basketball competitions:

Year 4 Basketball Competition: Monday 19th August

Year 6 Basketball Competition: Friday 23rd August

Our basketball teams will be finalised and announced to the students later this week. We are looking forward to seeing our teams in action and encourage all students to continue practicing and preparing for the competition.

Matt McMillan
Sports Coordinator and PE Teacher

Congratulations to all the Year 5 and 6 children who entered the latest CAT Maths competition in May. The Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) competition gives students the opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills through algorithmic thinking.

Congratulations to:

Year 5

• Dominic Anderson
• Elijah Bishop
• Jaxson Byron
• Ella Carlin
• Ella Down
• Harrison Farrelly
• Jaxon Green
• Matilda Houston
• Chelsea Kao
• Cooper McDonald
• Nina O'Kane
• Sophie Parker
• Elise Perry
• Leo Rees
• Milla Rentsch
• Reeve Shields
• Chris Vu
• Alfie Woonton
• Abbie Wrightson

Year 6

• Charlie Bellman
• Isaac Brown
• Joshua Coghlan
• Darcy Drummond
• Rhiana Gibbons
• Connor Greening
• Zoe Ierodiaconou
• Spencer Kenna
• Neve Lyons
• Blair MacDougall
• Quinn Madigan
• Billy Main
• Mackenzie Marshall
• Cooper McCosh
• Quinn McDonald
• Molly McNeil
• Stella Monigatti
• Zavier Nelson
• Doris Pham
• Remy Roberts
• Oscar Saywell

You should all be very proud of your achievements and for challenging yourself to have a go. Congratulations.

Virtual Author Workshop

On Thursday 8th August, the Year 6 students had the chance to participate in a Zoom meeting with Andy Griffiths to discuss his new book, "The Land of Lost Things." During the session, Andy led an interactive adventure, presenting the students with different options and allowing them to use emojis to vote. Depending on the options selected, the adventure could either conclude or continue.

He introduced us to his new illustrator, Bill Hope. Bill shared a bit about himself, mentioning that at just 19 years of age, he's already making a name for himself in the artist world. After our adventure, our teachers handed out a worksheet that began with "Hey! Remember when we..." and we were tasked with completing the sentence and drawing an additional picture. We had the freedom to make the sentence as wild as we liked, and we all let our imaginations run wild.

Andy mentioned that his readers often asked to be featured in his books, so he targeted his new book with them in mind. He created a costume to hide our identities and demonstrated how to create personalised helmets to hide our identities if we wished. It was an enjoyable experience overall. He also announced that the book would be officially released on Tuesday 13th August.

Andy Griffiths ‘Zooms’ into Year 6 classrooms
By Quinn McDonald and Emelia Kelly E1 

If you wish to watch the recorded Zoom session at home, click on the following link.

Cyber Safety

• Warrnambool Police Student Sessions Monday 2nd September
• Parent and Student Session: 6pm, Tuesday 3rd September

To further support and educate our children we have partnered with the Warrnambool Police to run information sessions focussing on Cyber Safety for Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.

They will also run a parent and student night at 6pm on Tuesday 3rd September.

Please note that this session is designed for both parents and students and is designed to open up conversations that can continue at home. I strongly encourage all parents of students from Year 4 and beyond to attend this important session.

On Thursdays, the Foundation classes sometimes share the Hall for other classes to have their P.E lessons. 

This week we combined forces and students participated in a range of 'Olympic' style events together.  These included hockey, soccer, basketball, Ring Toss, Foam Javelin, discus and Bean-Bag Shot-put! 

Each group represented a country and we kept a tally of their scores. We even held an Opening Ceremony whereby students had to keep their Olympic Torch lit to complete the relay!

Wear Orange on Friday

We will be having a WOOF - Wear Orange On Friday 23rd August when students will be able to wear a touch or ALL 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. 

7:00am - 9:00am
Friday 30th August, 2024

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 NOW OPEN. Orders close 2pm Tuesday 27th August. 

Sorry, no late orders accepted.

Volunteer

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.

$10,000 Playground Raffle

$10,000 Playground Raffle This week every family will receive 4 x $25 raffle tickets. Every dollar from every ticket is profit for our Parents School Association. This year all of the profit will go towards our new middle and senior school playground.

The raffle works like this: Our sponsoring businesses have donated $15,100.

Our winner receives $10,000 as credit to be spent on one or more of our sponsors.

Also, the winning ticket seller gets their 2025 Family Fee credited for 2025 (or that amount credited to a secondary school for Year 6 families)

Room with the Most Tickets Sold - New Leader!

Room C2 has taken the lead! They are closely followed by Rooms D2, F4 and B1. Rooms B3, C3, B5, D5 and C4 are all not far behind.

From Moday 2nd September, children are required to wear their hats at school whilst outside at recess, lunch and sport.

No Hat = No Play

Children without hats will have to stay in the undercover area during lunch and recess. We do NOT have a grace period, hats must be worn from the 1st September.

Hats are available at Lowes, Gateway Plaza.

As per our Sun Protection policy:

Please ensure your child has adequate sun protection during the months of September to May. You child will require the following:

• their own sunscreen SPF 30+ or higher,
• St Joseph's Primary School sun hat,
• rash vest (if they are going swimming).

The above items are all to be labelled with their name and room number please.

Classrooms all have a supply of sunscreen available.

Thank you to the Australian Red Cross Warrnambool Branch for donating a big bag of beautiful handmade teddies to our school.

Pizza Day: Tuesday 27th August, 2024

Orders Close: 3pm Thursday 22nd August, 2024

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

This term the Pizza Day is set to coincide with the school's St Joseph's Feast Day Celebrations.

Children can choose from either Garlic or Hawaiian pizza (Gluten Free options available) which are provided by Pepper's Pizza (formerly Pinkies 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.

School Canteen Support