8 May 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Welcome once again to our school newsletter. Today’s newsletter is our Term 2, 2nd Edition, published for Tuesday 8th May, 2018.

Amazing to think we are here already but May does bring us in to the end of autumn and to enrolment for next year! Our Senior School students are all reflecting on secondary school opportunities and pre-school students are also invited to register for school. Open days, tours and information nights help inform parents and students about schools. If these two issues affect your family life dates, times and procedures are now being published. See Secondary Colleges for their information and our Foundation (Prep) students can now collect their applications. Please see either Kellie or Alecia at our school front office for forms.

Starting school, or moving to a new secondary school involves a big change for young people and their families. It can be a time of great excitement, but also a time of potential challenge and stress. Your child has most likely already experienced several transitions in their life. These may include starting preschool, going on holiday, moving house or welcoming the addition of a new brother or sister. These experiences can help children develop skills for managing new situations. Families, schools, pre-school settings and your new school all play an important role in supporting the transition to new settings. The first step is completing the various administration task. Please look out for this information and seek help as needed.

Funding to supporting students in schools is provided by both State and Federal governments. Supporting general student education in Australia is funding based on school enrolment. A new school policy to support students with a disability is commencing formally in 2019 with 2018 as a preparation. The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) will count the number of students who receive additional adjustments or ‘help’ at school because of a disability. Further detailed information about this funding approach is included with this newsletter. This funding will cover four types of disability; sensory, cognitive, social-emotional and physical. Schools will complete this work with the support of education authorities. Full details are included with a flyer in this newsletter.

Principal Enrichment Leave

After periods of ten years of service, principals in Catholic primary schools across Victoria are supported for further learning via an extensive professional development program. This year, after applying in 2017, I have been granted leave to study at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, University of Notre Dame, Israel The course starts on Monday 2nd July and will focus on Religious Education and the contemporary existence in the Holy Land of Jewish, Muslim and Christian peoples. I am privileged to be offered this wonderful learning opportunity. I am very excited by this opportunity to improve my leadership of our wonderful school community. I thank Fr. John Fitzgerald PP, the Catholic Education Office, Ballarat Diocese and our school for this support. While I am on leave for this 10 weeks Mr. Jim Guinan will be Principal. Senior Staff will also support Jim over this period. The institute is live-in and is located outside of Jerusalem and can be found at http://tantur.org/ This program will be extremely challenging and I look forward to learning, new experiences and the opportunity to share this work on my return.

Regards,
Michael Gray, Principal.

Teacher Awards

Week 2

Gold Box Winner

Congratulations to this week’s gold box winner Isabelle Jenkins for Great goal work and achievement. Our gold box winners get to go to the pool for a swim with a friend.

2019 Enrolments

2019 enrolment forms are now available for collection from the school office.

Naplan 2018

Tuesday 15 May – Thursday 17 May

NAPLAN is a national assessment program that children in Grades 3 and 5 at St Joseph’s Primary School participate in each year.

Please see the attached flyer for more information if required. Children in Grades 3 and 5 have also been given a hard copy of the same information.

Children are exempt from NAPLAN if the child has an intellectual disability or have been learning English for less than twelve months.

Parents can withdraw their child from the tests if they prefer that their child not sit the tests. However, parents need to sign a form to withdraw their children. Children absent on tests days have the test made up on Friday 18th May wherever possible.

Student Health

We have had several cases of Chicken Pox within our school over the past weeks. If your child is presenting with any signs or symptoms of Chicken Pox please assist by keeping them at home until they are well.

Newsletter Subscription

At the start of the year we automatically subscribed everyone who had a registered email with us to our Newsletter Subscription. Additional subscriptions, eg other family members such as grandparents, can be made by selecting the Subscribe to Newsletter button at the top of the Newsletter or by contacting the school office.

Classroom Celebrations

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 reviewed our 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 we have amended our routine for the sharing of food items within the classroom.

Celebration of Birthdays

For the purpose of an individual child’s celebration or birthday we are now advising an icy pole or Zooper Dooper be a recommended option for these occasions.

It is not compulsory to celebrate all birthdays through the classroom.

Library News

Kath, Maureen and Lyn, Librarian/Library Staff

Hello to everyone from the Library for Term 2.

Many thanks to all the lovely people who covered books during Term 1. We are still waiting for the next load of Lexile books to arrive to be catalogued and covered – we will keep you informed!

Our Library Assistants have started their work each morning from 8:50 am - 9:15 am. They scan books in, re-shelve and generally help out.

They are doing a great job.

As usual continue to return any books found that belong to the library – it doesn’t matter how late they are! And, as usual if you have any queries about books please feel free to see us.

The Book Week theme for this year is: Find Your Treasure!

We hope you are finding and reading many book treasures!

Senior School Geography Quiz

Mark Gercovich, Senior School Co-ordinator

After our unit "Around the world in 60 days" the senior school held the 2018 Geography quiz. Each student completed a quiz in their room with the best-performed students taking part in the competition in front of the senior school.

Congratulations to Matthew Gome 1st, Hamish Alexander 2nd, Xavier Gercovich and Jeff Collins equal 3rd.

Congratulations to the other finalists Sebastian Sony-Thazhath, Joseph Brown, Hannah Van De Camp, Moses Stromvall O’Brien, Will Callaghan, Cooper Brown, Hugh Atrill (absent) and Jameson Mueglitz.

2018 Geography Quiz

School Photo Day

Return Forms by: Wednesday 30 May 2018

Photo Day: Thursday 31 May 2018

Photo Order Forms: School photo order forms with child’s name and room number have been sent home with your child. We encourage you to return the envelopes to school as soon as possible. Please return by Wednesday 30 May. A surcharge of $20 may be applied by MSP Photography to late orders.

Family Photos: Families will have also received a personalised family photo envelope. Spare family photo order envelopes can be collected from the office.

Uniform: Children are required to wear full Winter Uniform; boys are reminded to wear their long grey school pants. All children are required to wear their school jumper for their photos. It may be timely to check lost property if your child has lost their jumper

Class Sports Day: If it is your child’s regular sports day they should bring their runners in their bags.

All students will have their individual photo taken and be in a class photo on the day regardless of whether an order has been placed.

MSP photography can be contacted on (03) 5222 6747

Sports News

Mark Gercovich, Sports Coordinator

Regional Tennis

After their efforts at the division stage of the competition, Toby Gedye and Tess Worrall qualified for the SSV Regional tennis finals. The event was held in Ballarat with Tess playing in the group stage where she finished 4th in her group. Toby won his way through the group stage, then won his semi-final before losing the final. However, by making the final Toby has qualified for the State finals to be held in June, we wish him all the best.

Toby Gedye and Tess Worrall

Mother’s Day Stall

Wednesday 9 May 2018

To celebrate Mother’s Day our PSA provides a Mother’s Day Stall. Penny Walsh from the PSA organises a wide variety of gifts ranging from Candles, Mugs, Gardening Tools, Photo Frames and novelty items. Children then attend the stall and select a gift that they know their mothers or special person will love.

On the day after the stall children can come to the school office if they wish to purchase a second gift for a grandma or special person. This is subject to availability.

Gifts are $5.00 per student. Orders are still open via CDFpay (online ordering system) and will remain open to just prior to the stall. The stall will be held at school on Wednesday 9 May.

Remember this is a secret for Mum.

Classroom Helpers Program

7:00pm – 8:30pm, Thursday 24th May

The Classroom Helpers Program will take place on Thursday 24th May 7:00 pm – 8:30pm. Thank you to the parents who have already indicated that they are going to attend. A fabulous response!

The program aims to inform parents of Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 students, about the teaching and learning of Reading and writing and how you can help in the learning process at home. It is an expectation that you participate in this program if you wish to help in the classroom now or in the future. We also invite you to ask others e.g. grandparents, who may like to help in the classroom. Remember everyone who does help out in the classroom needs a working with children’s check.

Sacramental Program – Confirmation

This Sacramental Program is now underway with registrations closed and the Parent Meeting being run tonight at St Joseph’s Parish.

At tonight’s meeting parents will be given a form to indicate which Mass their family would like to attend for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Key Dates

2nd Hand Uniform Sale

The PSA conducted a very successful 2nd Hand Uniform Sale on Friday 27 April. The sale is a great opportunity for parents to buy and sell uniform items and for the PSA to raise money which is put towards the purchase of various items including spare underwear for sickbay use and school team sporting uniform items such as Tops, Shorts and Netball dresses.

A reminder to please re-label any items that you purchase at the sale. Cross out the seller’s name and clearly write the new owners name.

Commission payments are still being processed and if any items of yours were sold at the recent sale you will receive a text message notifying you when it is available for collection.

Thanks to Jenny Callaghan and her team of helpers for their time and effort.

Coles Sports for Schools

Thank you to families who have been bringing in the vouchers for the Coles Sports for Schools promotion. It is not too late to drop vouchers into the school’s office.