Michael Gray, Principal

Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Noah McDonald, Remy Roberts, Grace McInerney, Hudson Foster, Will Johnston, Zarah Timpson, Milla Delaney, Rylan Hunter, Nyla Daffy, William Ralston and Bridget Ruane.

Casual Clothes Day

Students are invited to wear casual clothes day to celebrate the end of Term 2. This will be a simple, fun way and recognition of their efforts this term.

No donation is required.

School concludes at 2:30pm

Note the early finish time of school this Friday. Country buses run to an earlier timetable. Students who use the town bus system should check the timetable for the route that they use.

School report folders will be sent home with your child on Monday 22 June, 2020 with the report being accessible via PAM after 4pm today.

School report folders now only contain samples of the students work and tasks. The actual report needs to be downloaded from PAM. 

We are aware that parents with android phones are not able to access .PDF file format on their phone via the link to PAM from the SZapp. We are still working on a fix for this problem.

We use .PDF file formats for school reports and attachments to permission forms.

Andriod phone users have a few workaround solutions which are:

• use the direct link to PAM https://pam.sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au/
• use the link to PAM from our school website (rather than the link from the app)
• access PAM via a computer.

Contact the office if you require any assistance.

Please mark the following Term 3 School Closure Days on your calendar.

Friday 14th August, 2020

Monday 7th September, 2020

A reminder that the Term 2 School Closure Day that was previously scheduled for Tuesday 23 June, 2020 has been postponed and this will now be a normal school day.

Magic Mile Winners

The individual winners from our Remote Learning Magic Mile were Edward O'Connor, Archie Shiells, Chloe Madden and Lila Evans.  They were each presented with a movie voucher to hopefully use once the cinemas re-open! 

The winning class with the most participants was D4 and they will receive their prize this Friday 26th June from 10:30am - 11am in the Hall.  Come dressed in clothes suitable for sport!

Thanks for all your efforts.

Bat Tennis

Recently we have purchased some really awesome "bat tennis" bats, and "bat tennis" nets! Bat tennis is a game that is hugely popular in many Melbourne schools. The idea is that the net is set up across a four square court, and a game of doubles plays out! Very similar to normal tennis but with different equipment and on a smaller court.

At recess and snack we will look to have a net or two set up outside on some of our foursquare courts around the school. It would be great if kids would like to have a go at the game. 

Matthew McMillian

Emily Lloyd, Sports Co-ordinator
sport@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Over the last few months, we have been aware that some uniform items have been out of stock at Lowes and that due to "stay at home" advice some families have not had the opportunity to purchase winter uniform items. For these reason we have been lienient this term in regards to uniform.

Lowes reported late last week that they have had large volume of sales of Winter Uniform items these past few weeks, particulary navy tights and grey pants. New stock is dispatched from their warehouse to restock the store accordingly. Currently navy track pants in size 6 and 8 are out of stock throughout Australia and several stores including Lowes, Kmart and Best and Less have very limited stock. Lowes are not expecting a delivery until mid August. Foudation children are able to wear the winter grey pants (boys) or blue pants (girls) if they are unable to purchase navy blue track pants.

For Term 3 onwards we will be closely monitoring the wearing of correct school uniform. In particular we will be checking the wearing of sports uniform on designated classroom sports day only and that correct socks are being worn (white for sports day with NO LOGOS or grey (boys) and white (girls) with winter uniform.

Note: Shorts and Skorts can be worn all year round. 

We look forward to your cooperation with this matter.

A message from Father John

Thanks to the parishioners who have continued to gift to the Presbytery and to the Parish over the past weeks. Thanks for your care and generosity.

The Parish Office is open from 9:00am to 4:00pm each week day.

The Church (St Joseph’s) will open on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (10:00am to 12noon) this week for private prayer.

I believe it’s still a few weeks away before we are ready to celebrate Sunday Masses.

Thank you (Fr John)

A message from Emmanuel College Young Vinnies

Young Vinnies: If anyone has had a clean out of jumpers, coats, blankets, beanies
etc during lockdown they can be left at either campus of Emmanuel College.

Thanks to Fr John and support from St Joseph Parish we were able to film a liturgy to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart which is Sunday 28th June, 2020.

A special acknowledgement to the school leaders who took on lead roles for the liturgy – Lewis McCombe and William Furphy from E1 and Hannah O’Keefe and Sam Joseph from E5.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart celebrates the love and devotion Jesus has for humanity.

You might like to reflect on Jesus’ commandment

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Week 4 - My Pentecost

This week the Confirmation Candidates are working on Session 4 - My Pentecost. This session deals specifically with our Confirmation - the signs and the celebration. The Spirit makes us all members of the one Body of Christ. As the body of Christ we have the responsibility of introducing children and adults into the sacramental life of the Church.

To all families that park and collect children from Queens Road, a reminder that the vacant land adjacant to the creek IS PRIVATE PROPERTY and we ask school families to please NOT park there while waiting for your children to be collected.

Please remember the Aquazone car park is available as well as along Queens Road.

Congratulations to our Year 6 children on receiving their special Year 6 badge this week. Children can wear these badges on their jumper or shirt. 

Our PSA in conjunction with our Principal, Michael Gray, decided that Year 6 children would be issued with a special badge to wear to commemorate their final year at school. At St Joseph's students wear badges to indicate if they are a School Leader, in the Choir or Young Vinnies groups and if they are in Year 6.

Over the years the suggestion of a Year 6 jumper has been raised. The PSA felt that the cost involved was prohibitive. Children will grow out of them quickly at that age and the fact they couldn't be passed on to sibling or sold second hand if the jumper had names and the year on them, were all aspects considered.

Congratulations to our 2020 Young Vinnies who were officially welcomed. 

The students were presented with their badges by Mr. Gray and are looking forward to being engaged in some activities to help the community.

There has been a lot of talk about the Conveyance Allowance recently via Social Media.  This Government support program has been around for many years.  The program is reviewed every 3 years with the last review taking place in March of 2019.  Each year I monitor all of our families addresses, in line with bus routes, to check if families do qualify.

The aim of the Conveyance Allowance is to support families in rural and regional Victoria to get help with the cost of transporting their children to their nearest school or campus.  The Conveyance Allowance is a contribution towards transport costs and is not intended to cover the full cost of transporting children to and from school.   It is available to students travelling by:

• Private Car
• Private bus
• Or to students whose nearest school is not serviced by a free school bus.

To be eligible for this allowance:

• You must be attending your closest Government or Non-Government school
• Live 4.8km or more by the shortest practicable route to the school attended from the road edge (not including driveways)
• Not have access to a school bus (If a school bus is available and you choose to drive your children to/from school you are not eligible)

If you would like more information about this program and believe you may be eligible, please contact on 55611343 or via email on cduyn@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Cathy Duynhoven, Business Manager

It is wonderful to see the amazing Art Work for the Art Fundraiser that children have been working on at home.

Over the past few weeks Art Teachers have been working with Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 children at school on this project.

Years 3 - 6 are asked to bring their completed artwork into school this week.

Orders are now open via CDFPay and close at 3pm on Friday 31 July, 2020.

The Information letter and template are linked below.