Michael Gray, Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and our wider School Community

As we start a new school year, and a new decade, I recognise that it has been an extremely difficult holiday period for many of our school communities, particularly those in a bushfire or drought-affected area.

In October this year, we will celebrate 200 years since the opening of the very first Catholic school by lay teacher, George Morley, in Parramatta, New South Wales. The celebrations provide an opportunity to recognise the wonderful contribution of Catholic Education to Australian society across the diverse settings of the different dioceses of Australia.

While preparations are underway, the official launch of the celebrations will be at our National Catholic Education Conference in September, and will continue until October 2021.

During the course of the year, the organising committee will be providing a range of resources and materials to support local and diocesan celebrations, and there will be a number of national events to mark this significant milestone.

Looking forward to the year ahead

I take this opportunity to welcome new staff, students and families to our St. Joseph’s Catholic educational community and welcome back those who are already members of our school. With our school team I look forward to serving and supporting you in the year ahead. 

Student Charlotte Boshier starting school with her guardian angel! “Support is important to helping us all".

Regards
Michael Gray, Principal

In Terms 1 and 2 we have three school closure days:

• Friday 6th March, 2020 (School Review)
• Friday 29th May, 2020 (Network Religious Education)
• Tuesday 23rd June, 2020 (Parent Teacher Interviews and Religious Education)

Other important dates can be found on our SZapp which is updated on a regular basis.

At St Joseph's your child’s safety is a top priority for us. We conduct various safety drills throughout the school year so that all students and staff know what to do in case of an emergency does occur. You probably remember fire drills from your time in school. In addition, we have developed plans to become better prepared to respond to a variety of other emergencies. We believe that by establishing, communicating, and then practising the plans, we will be able to manage difficult situations effectively.

Over 2020 we will be having various emergency drills to help prepare our students and staff. We will practice for a fire, emergency evacuation and lock-down, as is customary.
Part of the fire drill will involve an emergency evacuation which will involve leaving the school and going to one of our nominated alternate sites. We will also practice a drill in which we stay in our classrooms to ensure the safety of all. 

As much as possible, please discuss these events/drills with your children in an age appropriate way.

I hope this information helps you better understand our desire to keep your children and our school community safe in all circumstances. While we do not like the idea of having to be prepared for these kinds of unfortunate situations, we want to be ready to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe.

Shared with families today is an electronic Emergency Excursion Permission form for 2020. It is a requirement for families to complete for each child. Please read the permission form carefully by Thursday 6th February, 2020.  

If you have any questions about this matter, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Thanks for your help in this matter.   Michael Gray.  Principal

On enrolment all parents sign a Standard Collection Notice for Student Information. Attached is a document Privacy - Information for Parents.

This is our Annual Privacy Reminder. Please call the school office if you have any questioins. 

Privacy for Parents

A reminder to parents that the Staff Carpark is NOT a drop off and collection point for children. It becomes an unsafe place for our students when cars are reversing and students are walking through the carpark.

We understand that in the early weeks of term many parents like to walk their children into the school and ask that you park on the gardens side of Botanic Road, Queens Road, Aquazone or nearby.

Children should be entering their classroom via the external classroom door.

3:30pm - 6:00pm, Monday 17th February and Tuesday 18th February.

Formal Parent Teacher Interviews are conducted twice yearly in Terms 1 and 2.

The first Parent Teacher interviews are held early in Term 1 to allow parents to formally meet their child’s classroom teacher, discuss their child’s needs and to allow the teacher to gain information pertinent to the student having a successful year of learning.

The second Parent Teacher interviews are late in Term 2 to allow the parents and teachers to discuss students’ mid year formal written reports.

Bookings are made via PAM and will open closer to the date.

Our school photo day will be held on Thursday 13th February for all students in all year levels. This date is at an earlier time of the year than previous years.

Online orders through our school photographer, Glen Watson Photography, are now open. Individual shoot key details will be sent home with children today.

Follow the link below for a flyer showing the various photo packages available.

There will be a backup photo day held on Tuesday 18th February, 2020.

Photos of School Representative teams will be taken later in the year on Thursday 22 October, 2020.

Senior Reconciliation is a Sacramental Program for Grade 6 students who have completed their Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist Sacraments. 

Please complete this form and make $20 payment through CDFpay (our online ordering system).

At least one parent is required to attend the Parent Information meeting at the church.

Contact Leanne at the Parish on 5562 2231 with any queries.

Key Dates

Friday 21st February 2020 - Registration and payment closes

7:30pm, Tuesday 25th February 2020 - Parent information meeting

5:30pm, Tuesday 24th March 2019 - Sacrament of Reconciliation

Hello everyone and welcome to the 2020 school year.  As you are aware, sport makes a great addition to school life and builds on students' skills and fitness. School representative sport enhances these elements of sport and provides practical experiences of competitiveness, teamwork and sportsmanship. For these reasons St. Joseph’s will again provide many opportunities for school representative sport over the year.

This Term we start sending representative teams in the following sports: 

• Swimming
• Athletics
• Lawn Bowls
• Tennis.

Age Groups - Individual Sports

Ages are calculated as of December 31st in the year of competition. School Sports Victoria age groups are listed below.

• If a child turns 9 or 10 during the year he/she will be in the 9-10 Years age group.
• If a child turns 11 during the year he/she will be in the 11 Years age group.
• If a child turns 12 or 13 during the year he/she will be in the 12-13 Years age group.

Please be aware only children who will be turning 9 and above this year are allowed to register their interest for the swimming sports and children turning age 11 and 12 this year can try out for the upcoming tennis tournament.  

Please also note that 9 year olds aiming to qualify for district sports are also competing against 10 year olds and are therefore strongly encouraged to wait until they are in this age group. Only those who are exceptionally gifted in a sport should try out as a nine year old.

Swimming Trials

Swimming trials are for those children wanting to compete in swimming. You will only qualify for the next stage if you participate in the scheduled swimming trials to be held on Friday 14th February.  

You will not qualify by submitting a form as in previous years.  Once the trials are completed swimmers will be selected to represent the school at Division Swimming and notified. 

Closing date for submitting this form is strictly Friday 7th February, 2020. Entries will not be accepted after this date and children will therefore not be considered for selection to the division swimming finals.

Tennis Trials

Tennis Trials are for those children wanting to compete in tennis.  Please be aware, only children turning age 11 and 12 and above can try out for this event.

Please also remember that the District Tournament will require children to be comfortable hitting and serving the ball across the full size court. 

800m

800m trials for students turning nine in 2020 or older will be held on Friday 7th February. Participants need to bring runners/sport clothes to change into. 

Emily Lloyd, Physical Education and Sport Co-ordinator

For the past few years we have gone to 2 school sports days as our school grows in students numbers. This has proven to be very successful. It allows children to participate in all events and not to be rushed through them. 

This year's school sport dates are:

District Athletics

Students will have the opportunity to tryout to represent the school at Disctrict level for the 800m event (Years 3-6) 1,500 events (Years 5-6). These tryouts will be held over the next few weeks. District Athletics are held at Brauerander on Wednesday 25th March.

School Cross Country

Our whole school cross country day will be Friday 17th April. An approximate year level timetable will be available closer to the time. Please note with all sporting events times may change at short notice. 

This event is used to select students for District Cross Country which will be held on Wednesday 20 May, 2020.

What does PSA stand for?

Primary School Association.

What is the role of the PSA?

It is a forum for all parents to become involved in the life of the School. It’s where we work to provide, improve and maintain the amenities available for the school students, including equipment and maintenance of School Buildings and grounds.

To provide opportunities for social meetings between parents, and promote a spirit of union and good fellowship. The PSA runs and supports several events throughout the year to raise money for the school and to support our school community.

What do we do?

• Annual Fair
• Mother’s Day Stall
• Hot Cross Bun Drive
• Father’s Day Breakfast
• Second-Hand Uniform Sale
• Pizza Days
• Art Activities
• Canteen support

Who can attend?

Anyone and everyone.

How often do they meet?

Tuesday evening, Week 3 and 7 of each term.  8 meetings per year! In Term 1 this year we will only have a meeting in Week 3 due to Annual Fair meetings and preparations.

• Tuesday 11 February, 2020
• Tuesday 28 April, 2020
• Tuesday 26 May, 2020
• Tuesday 28 July, 2020
• Tuesday 25 August, 2020
• Tuesday 20 October, 2020
• Tuesday 17 November, 2020
• Tuesday 1 December, 2020 (6:30am, Parent Committee Thank you evening)

How can I help?

Come along to the meetings, contribute to the discussion, share ideas, support events that enrich the school community.

We really need our school families to support this group.  

It’s only 7 meetings per year!

Hope to see you there, better still bring a friend!

Please find attached information in regards to the recent Coronavirus.

Contact the school office if you have any queries.

Please notify the office if you have any updates to home address, contact phone numbers and email addresses. Parents are encouraged to have two alternate contacts for their child in the event that parents can not be contacted.

Be aware that email addresses are used in several of our systems and unfortunatley we need to change each of these manually.

The Warrnambool City Council have advised us that a section of Russell’s Creek walking track will be closed until Wednesday 5th February between Moonah and La-Bella Court. There will be alternative routes down Evelyn Crescent/La-Bella Court or Moore street.

The Warrnambool City Council have advised us that a section of Russell’s Creek walking track will be closed until Monday 10 February between Moonah and La-Bella Court. There will be alternative routes down Evelyn Crescent/La-Bella Court or Moore street.

Delays have been caused by the weather.

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. Classroom celebrate birthdays in different ways. Some classes have a special chair for the day or a badge to wear, most classrooms have students birthdays displayed in the room.

For the purpose of an individual child’s celebration or birthday a lemonade icy pole or Zooper Dooper are a recommended option for these occasions.  It is not compulsory to celebrate all birthdays through the classroom.

Icy poles can be placed by the parent directly into the freezer in canteen. Please label with child's name and room number and let the classroom teacher know. Average classroom numbers are Foundation (22), Year 1 (19), Years 2 (24) Years 3/4 (25) and Year 5 (23) and Year 6 (23).

Welcome to our canteen for 2020

Today is the first day of canteen orders and you will notice some minor price changes when placing an order.

Throughout the year we trial new items and we inform parents of these via the newsletter and you will also notice them appear in CDF Pay (online ordering).

Only 1 icypole/ice cream

A reminder that we have a policy that children are only allowed to order one icypole/ice cream per day. 

Volunteers

We reply on our volunteers and are also in need of more parents to assist. Training is arranged by our Canteen Co-ordinator Tania Hughes. Please consider volunteering, even if only once per term, all help most appreciated.

Click to Volunteer for canteen duty

Term 1 Roster

A full Term Roster will be available shortly once we have received updated volunteer availability, in the interium a two week roster is available.

Supergrasse Tennis Complex

Warrnambool Rangers Football Club

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.