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Michael Gray, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community, welcome to another school week. Now that December is almost upon us I again share several updates about important school events leading to the celebration end of this very different year.
St. Joseph’s Church
Candle Holder: Over the years Fr. John, the church financial and liturgical teams have been working with parishioners on repairing, restoring, ensuring safety and future proofing our beautiful church. This work is governed by the building itself, community expectations, heritage overlays and importantly liturgy. A recent upgrade in this important stewardship of the parish church asset has been the installation of a new memory candle receptacle.
Mass at St. Joseph’s Church: After an amazing virtual time for mass attendance over COVID times the government, working with the Victorian Bishops, have announced a return of greater numbers to mass, funerals and weddings. This weekend people can book to attend St. Joseph’s Church. The numbers are capped at 100. All details available by contacting the parish office on 5562 2231.
Season of Advent: The church liturgical season has now entered Advent. Advent has a twofold purpose; to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s birth is remembered and to await, as forecast in the ancient scriptures, our future meeting with Christ. It is this second coming of Christ that encourages us all to live with a sense of hope and comfort.
General Updates
Details of these events have, and will continue, to be communicated via this newsletter as well as individual class and parent notes and our messaging app. With COVID-19 restrictions still in place for visitors and parents on site a short summary of activities and events is provided:
School Advisory Council and Parent Association ‘Thank-you’ Function: Our two parent groups have continued to meet and support school decision making, events and activities this year. The School Advisory Council members will join our Parent School Association for a thank you function this Tuesday 1st December, 2020. Starting at 6:30 pm we will gather in the downstairs function room at the Flying Horse Tavern. All most welcome, RSVP to our school office.
2021 Parent Foundation Information Session: A virtual meeting will be held for families of Foundation students starting in 2021 on Wednesday 2nd December starting at 7:30 pm. Details have been mailed to families.
Orientation Day for 2021: Our current students will participate in our program on Tuesday 8th December, including a sausage sizzle and drink provided by our PSA budget for lunch. All students wear normal St. Joseph’s school uniform. Our 2021 Foundation students will have their orientation day this year in the last week of the school year. These students will have their session as well as participating in their interviews.
Year 6 Graduation: A COVID-19 safe program is planned. I especially thank our parish, school and administration staff for working together on this program. Mass will be filmed and available virtually and will include a Year 6 presentation.
Final School Assembly: This event will occur in a modified format onsite for students and will again be available virtually. Full details will be shared when finalised. The program will be held on Monday 14th December from 9:30 AM.
School ‘Emergency Practice’ Sessions: Over the course of a year we practice various school emergency scenarios to ensure all students, staff and families associated with St. Joseph’s are safe and supported during actual emergencies. This Term we have been running planned awareness experiences on our school emergency sound system and ‘Lock Down’ procedures. This work is helping all to understand requirements in real emergencies and to ensure we have good practice. The ‘Lock Down’ last week was well executed with staff, students and visitors all following procedures in a safe and calm manner.
Employment Updates
St. Joseph’s recently advertised for further staff in 2021, applications closed last Friday with interviews occurring over the next week.
Welcome and congratulations to Yuichi Deguchi who will teach in our Japanese language program in a full-time capacity at St. Joseph’s Primary School. Yuichi has previously worked across the Warrnambool Catholic Network of schools.
Congratulations to Laura Dunn (current replacement teacher B1) who will continue at St. Joseph’s in 2021 as a full-time teacher. I especially thank Laura for filling the replacement position this year and offer Laura all our continued support and congratulations for 2021.
This year we have been fortunate to have the support of Ms. Rosalie Cullum in our languages program. Rosalie has especially supported the younger years with Sensei Deguchi and Emily Lloyd. Rosalie joined us under a Language Traineeship and was shared with St. John’s Dennington. Rosalie’s work has been outstanding. I wish her all the best as she takes up her University offer for 2021.
Curriculum Updates
Book Week: A brilliant program result for fundraising and book purchases over the week. A very special thanks to all involved. See note with this newsletter especially the spectacular result of the book sales.
Outdoor Experience Year 5: Good luck to our Year 5 students as they participate in our outdoor water experience this week. Great time to be in the canoes and fishing. Remember sun awareness safety.
Regards,
Michael Gray, Principal.
Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.
Chloe Bennie, Bridget Cameron, Ayla Matthews, Dayna Munro, Connor Ross, Ellie McKenzie, Max Niklaus, Vivienne Smedts, Brody Dubyna, Jessica Hovey, Riley Nunn, Naish Beechey and Jack Schrama.
NAIDOC Week celebrations are usually held each July to celebrate, history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year (due to COVID) the week was rescheduled to November 8th -15th. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life.
NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.
In NAIDOC week at St. Joseph’s we took the opportunity to participate in a range of learning tasks to support NAIDOC and to further enrich students' knowledge and understanding of Indigenous perspectives.
Here’s some of the wonderful learning students engaged in.
Louis O’Connor, Curriculum Coordinator
After a fantastic 2 weeks the results from the Book Fair are through. We have put through $8788.15 worth of sales! The support from the school community has been tremendous. We are so grateful to everyone for their financial input and the ongoing commitment to the importance of books and reading for our students.
The school will recoup approximately 25% of this total to purchase resources for the students over the next 12 months.
Also, a special thanks to Emily, Maureen, Jo and Elise for the extra time and effort they put in to help the Fair run so smoothly.
Here are some Book Week photos that were taken on Dress up day.
Lyn Hyland, Library Coordinator
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. – Elizabeth Hardwick
Room D2 have been organising the collection of bread tags at school. Each classroom at school has a jar to add their bread tags to.
The last collection for tags from classrooms will be next Friday 11th November.
Children are encouraged to keep collecting tags over the holidays and bring them to school in the new year or drop them to Bakers Delight in the Target complex.
Two bike helmets were given away as rewards for our third place in the Walk to School Day. The winners were Fletcher Monaghan from D4 and Luke Robson from F4.
Remember to keep being active. There is a $100 voucher to be won next week.
Now that the weather is improving, we would like to see everyone being active. Wouldn’t it be great if no-one drove into the loop.
Remember if you walk and ride, you can go out any exit you want!
Thanks to the Healthy Moves Ambassadors who promoted the day.
From Harper Coverdale, Micheli Sypott, Bridget Graham, Bridget Cameron and Mr El-Hage
As per the email sent to Year 6 families, could you please complete this form by Wednesday 2nd December if your Year 6 child will be attending school on Tuesday 8th December, 2020.
Raffle tickets for our school raffle have been sent home with a copy of our 2020 Fair Sponsor booklet which highlights all valuable contributions made by various businesses to our school.
There will be 3 tickets in each book to be sold for $10 each. The raffle will be drawn at 12 noon on Friday 11th December, 2020. We thank families for their support with this fundraising activity which is supported by the school's PSA.
1st Prize
Thermomix TM6 (latest model) valued at $2,268
2nd Prize
$300 voucher from the Fair Sponsor of your choice (see sponsor booklet)
3rd Price
$200 voucher from the Fair Sponsor of your choice
Warrnambool Council Vacation Care and After School Care Information pages contain information for both these programs that are run by the Warrnambool City Council.