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- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- ST JOSEPH'S PARISH
- PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS
- 2021 SCHOOL PHOTO DAYS
- UPDATE STUDENT MEDICAL INFORMATION
- SPORTS REPORT, WEEK 2
- SWIMMING TRIALS
- TENNIS TRIALS
- FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR PARENTS
- DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENTS
- FAMILY CONTACT DETAILS
- SECOND HAND UNIFORM
- SCHOOL SAFETY
- SCHOOL SPONSOR NEWS
- SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE
Michael Gray, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and the wider St. Joseph’s Primary School Community; again welcome to the 2021 school year at St. Joseph’s; our first operating under the new diocesan governance arrangements; Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited (DOBCEL).
The DOBCEL board was established by the Bishop of Ballarat and ratified by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) in 2020. Primary schools transitioned to this arrangement over the 2020 school year and the authority commenced it’s official stewardship of schools this January 2021. The new board is taking the place of the former diocesan educational advisory council and will develop and recommend diocesan education policy. Oversight of the schools, governed by the company, will be delegated to the Director of Catholic Education (Tom Sexton). Principals will continue to have the appropriate delegations to lead and manage their schools and their staff, supported by the Director of Catholic Education.
DOBCEL will own school buildings while it is a school, the school land is held in trust and owned by the parish. Fr John Fitzgerald, along with Fr. John Corrigan, will continue to be our parish priests and be responsible for the pastoral care of the school community and wider parish. These governance changes have been as a response to Victorian Government legislation, child sexual abuse royal commission recommendations, the complexity of the educational environment in today’s world and the need to ensure school communities flourish as leading learning institutions.
Following this editorial Fr. John Fitzgerald (St. Joseph’s Parish Priest) has also shared an important update regarding our parish life and the future arrangements for mass across the local Ministry District. See below for Fathers John Fitzgerald and Fr. John Corrigan’s letter.
As we start our new school year I extend a welcome to all our staff. In 2021 our staff make up four teams; administration, teaching staff, learning support officers and facilities team. I also welcome new teachers Kristan Thompson - Year 5 classroom teacher F5 and Angela Kavanagh - Year 3 Classroom teacher Mondays in D2 and every second Friday in D1 and Laura Dunn - Foundation teacher C3.
Importantly we also have two new Learning Support Officers starting this year, welcome to Simone Bell and Megan Harle. Simone joins us from the early learning sector and Megan from the legal profession.
I also welcome returning classroom teachers: Kara Ward B8 Monday - Thursday; Kristy Haberfield B6 Thursday - Friday; Camille Sargeant B7 - Wednesday and B8 – Friday and Melanie Alexander B1 Monday - Thursday. Working in education is an exciting privilege with many rewarding and challenging experiences; I congratulate all staff on their commitment to our young people and offer all our support. (Classroom Teacher allocation attached to this newsletter).
I also would like to introduce the new leadership executive of St. Joseph’s Primary School. The executive will include Principal (Michael Gray), Assistant to the Principal, Curriculum Professional Learning Co-ordinator (Candice Grant), Assistant to the Principal, Learning Diversity (Maryanne Evans), Assistant to the Principal, Daily Organiser (Patrick Allen) and School Business Manager (Cathy Duynhoven). This team will ensure a well organised school and a focus on a positive student learning environment, collaborative staff teams and results orientation.
From a parent/student perspective as an issue regarding relationships, learning or behaviour needs support then in the first instance please discuss with your child’s teacher. Teachers can then evaluate, consult and ascertain either classroom actions or onward referral. Incidents of a daily nature will be managed and followed-up by Pat Allen (Daily Organiser), on-going long term relationships and learning goals by Maryanne Evans, (Learning Diversity), fees and finance, Business Manager (Cathy Duynhoven), Curriculum, Professional Learning Co-ordinator (Candice Grant) and teacher/staff performance Principal (Michael Gray).
As I mentioned last week St. Joseph’s is committed to taking cautious, reasonable and safe actions to ensure as best we can our school stays open this term. As such all are invited to follow the following safe covid plans to ensure we all thrive.
General COVID Safe arrangements at St. Joseph’s
Health and hygiene protocols to continue, including hand washing, sanitiser, and social distancing. Classrooms will also consider hygiene protocols as established in 2020. Drinking taps are again available for all students.
If unwell or any flu like symptoms students are to stay home, consult with your doctor and get tested if advised to do so.
Any visitor on-site for longer than 15 minutes will be required to register with Vic Health via our QR code system.
The rule of no large group adult gatherings is to continue.
Programs for students that can start up again include student only assemblies, choir, sport and camping/excursions programs. Any off-site locations we visit Covid Safety plans will need to be in place.
Rescuing the boys from the cave — Richard Harris
As a staff team in preparing for 2021 we recently listened to a podcast of an interview with Richard Harris and his support to the daring team rescue of the Thailand cave boys several years ago. Medicine and diving have been twin themes of South Australian anaesthetist: Richard ‘Harry’ Harris’ adult life. He and close friend Craig Challen were about to leave on a cave diving adventure in July 2018 when they got news of a group of boys marooned in a flooded cave in Thailand. As an expert in the field Richard was asked if it would be possible to extract the boys by carrying them out under heavy sedation. Richard’s response was that it was out of the question. But by the time he got to Thailand, he realised it was the only feasible solution to bringing the boys out alive. Richard and Craig were jointly named as 2019 Australian of the Year for their roles in the rescue mission.
The reason we listened to this story was to highlight the importance of living with Joy in a world where there can be much negative chatter; the podcast also emphasised working through problems, worry and difficulties and it also challenged us as educators to see with New Eyes. As teachers it is important that we present a hopeful disposition, see the uniqueness of every person but also demand high standards of each other. Two links are listed, if you are interested; one the 50 minute podcast and the other a 30 minute Anh Do TV interview.
Podcast: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/richard-harris-cave-rescue/11737228
Conclusion
Good luck for the year; Catholic education fosters the formation of the whole person that is deeply and enduringly humanising, it recognises parents as the first educators of their children and understands the importance of schools working in authentic partnership with students to ensure high levels of learning for all. This is our aim and something I believe we all can achieve. We are stronger, together.
Michael Gray, Principal.
St Joseph's Primary School, Warrnambool
3:30pm - 5:30pm, Monday 15th February, 2021
3:30pm - 6:00pm, Tuesday 16th February, 2021
Room D1's Interviews will be Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th February, 2021.
Formal Parent Teacher Interviews are conducted twice yearly in Terms 1 and 2.
To help start the year with a clear understanding of student needs at St. Joseph’s we conduct 10 minute parent teacher interviews with all parents and guardians starting next week. The first Parent Teacher interviews 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.
Appointments with your child’s teacher can be booked online, similar to the recent literacy interviews.
Allow 10 minutes between appointments to move from one classroom to the other to ensure you get the full 10 minutes with your child/ren's teacher.
A covid safe environment will still be in place; including mask wearing at all times, social distancing and application of hand sanitizers. All families must enter the building from the school front office foyer, register via the QR code and only attend the classroom of your child. Waiting seats will be at classrooms as you wait for the previous interview to conclude. Extra cleaning of areas will also occur. Once the meeting has concluded please exit via the school foyer.
School age children are welcome to wait for their parents in the school library, staff supervision provided. Children are not permitted to play on the school playground as this is an unsupervised.
The second Parent Teacher interviews are late in Term 2 to allow the parents and teachers to discuss students’ mid year formal written reports.
This year our school photo day will once again be held in term 1 and will be held over 2 days.
Tuesday 23rd February, 2021
A - L Family photos from 8:15am - 9:00am
Individual and Class photos for Foundation to Year 4
Thursday 25th February, 2021
M - Z Family photos from 8:15am - 9:00am
Individual and Class photos for years 5 and 6
As we are preparing for offsite activities such as school camps, excursions and other school actvities, we require all families to login to PAM and update their child's Medical Information. Please take the time to check that all information is correct and reference numbers are submitted for ambulance subscription.
This information assists with our electronic permission forms that is a feature in PAM, we require you to update the Medical Profile for your child/ren. If your child has an Asthma, Anaphylactic or Allergy Plan it is important that you check that it is up to date and upload the most current copy to PAM.
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. Administration will send out reminders each term requesting you update any necessary information.
If you have any queries, please contact with the office.
Hello everyone and welcome to the 2021 school year. We are extremely hopeful that we gain many more opportunities for representative sport compared to last 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 aim to provide many opportunities for school representative sport over the year. This Term we start sending representative teams in the following sports:
Term 1 Sports: Swimming, Athletics, Lawn Bowls and Tennis:
In planning for these competitions, we ask children and parents to enter an expression of interest in representing the school in swimming and tennis events for planning and trialling purposes.
Please be aware only children who will be turning 9 and above (by 31st December 2020) are allowed to register their interest for the swimming sports and children aged 11 and 12 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 to attend trials. Only those who are exceptionally gifted in a sport should tryout as a nine year old.
District Athletics’ Trials
We will be holding some trials for the long distance running events to help alleviate the pressure of time restraints on the day of our Sports Carnival for Years 3 - 6 on Thursday 4th March. Therefore any students who believe they might qualify for these events MUST be present and participate in the following events:
- Monday 8th February; BOYS 9-12 yr olds 1500m at 11:00am.
- Wednesday 10th February; GIRLS 9 - 12 yr olds 1500m at 11:00am
- Monday 15th February; BOYS 9-12 yr olds 800m at 11:00am
- Wednesday 17th February; GIRLS 9-12 yr olds 800m at 11:00am
For any questions or concerns please email us at sport@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
Thank you.
Regards,
Mrs Emily Lloyd (Physical Education & Sport Co-ordinator).
and Mr Matthew McMillan.
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 19th February, 2021.
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 3pm, Friday 12th February, 2021. Entries will not be accepted after this date and children will therefore not be considered for selection to the division swimming finals.
Emily Lloyd, Physical Education and Sport Co-ordinator
These trials will take place at the Supergrass courts for those children wanting to compete in representative tennis. All interested students will need to wear their Sports Uniform and bring a tennis racquet to meet Mrs Lloyd/Mr McMillan in the School Hall from 1:45pm on the following days:
BOYS will trial on Friday 5th February
GIRLS will be trial on Monday 8th February.
Please be aware, children need to be at least 11 years old by 31st December 2021. Please also remember that the District Tournament will require children to be comfortable hitting and serving the ball across the full size court. Once the team of up to 8 students has been selected, we will arrange a date for another training session prior to the competition on Friday 26th February at Supergrasse Courts on Bromfield Street.
- Fortnight A to commence on Thursday 11th February, and will finish on Thursday 2nd December
- Fortnight B to commence on Thursday 18th February (not the 4th as originally advertised) and will now finish on Thursday 9th November
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.
Our 2nd Hand Uniform system allows for parents to puchase and sell items all year round with options to purchase online or in person (once COVID restrictions are lifted).
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 guide on getting your child to and from school safely.
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.