19 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Jim Guinan, Acting Principal

As you know Michael Gray, Principal is on enrichment leave for the next few weeks. Michael has been sending emails to staff while he has been gone, describing some of the amazing sights and experiences he is having during his stay in Jerusalem.

Michael is studying at Notre Dame University and within this opportunity travels to significant sites within the life of Jesus. The sense of history would be amazing. These sites include many landmarks mentioned in the New Testament like the site of Jesus’ birth, now a church in Bethlehem, the Shepherds’ Fields of Nazareth, site of the announcement of Jesus birth and all the while living amongst three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Muslim. He will certainly be richer for the experience and look forward to his return.

Last Thursday Dan Tehan, member for Wannon, visited our school to present to Matthew Gome, one of our School Leaders, an ambassador pack. Matthew is travelling to Japan as a selected member of the International Children’s Congress taking place later this year. Senator Tehan also presented an Australian Flag to the Grade 5 and 6 students.

Matthew Gome and Dan Tehan, Member of the Australian House of Representatives

Parent Teacher Interviews will be taking place on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th June. These are an important chance to communicate with your child’s teacher and know exactly how your child is progressing with their formal learning. Please take the opportunity to book a time with your child’s teacher on PTO online which is now open for bookings. If you need assistance booking, please contact the office. Interviews take place from 3:30pm to 6:00pm on the Monday and 3:30pm to 5:30pm on the Tuesday.

We had many Grade 3 children taking the next major step in their journey of faith on the weekend. These children celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation with their family and friends at Masses last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We wish them all the best as they continue to grow in faith with the love and support of their family.

Regards,

Jim Guinan, Acting Principal.

Teacher Awards

Week 8

Gold Box Winner

Congratulations to Gold Box winner Jack Dunphy for walking his scooter into school. Jack and a friend get to go for a swim at the pool. Congratulations to Gold Box winners Meg McGrath and Grace Schrama for very responsible work in the office on school photo day. Also congratulations to Gold Box winner Zaine Atkins for being an amazing buddy to C2 at Mass.

2019 Enrolments

Enrolments close this Friday 22 June

2019 St Joseph’s Primary School enrolment forms are now available for collection from 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.

The Resilience Project

7:00pm, Thursday 23rd August, 2018

Please register your interest in attending this FREE parent Information

Parent Teacher Interviews

Monday 25 June and Tuesday 26 June

Parent Teacher interviews are scheduled to be held at St Joseph’s on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th June. These interviews go for ten minutes each and are an opportunity for parents to gain knowledge on their child’s progress. You are required to have a 10 minute gap between individual interviews to allow time to move between classrooms.

Bookings are made through parent teacher online where each parent has an individual code to access to make a booking. Bookings are now open so access early to ensure you get a time that suits you.

Forgotten your password? If you have previously registered your email address you can simply click on Obtain PIN/Password from the PTO main page.

Parents are encouraged to make bookings using their provided login details. Contact the office if you have any difficulties.

School Reports

School Reports will be sent home this Friday with your child/ren.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Last week a number of our children received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Fr John placed this message in the parish bulletin.

Congratulations to the 59 young parishioners who were confirmed during the past week. May this celebration of faith be a further step in their initiation into the life of the Church. May their parents, sponsors and indeed the whole parish be models of faith for these children

The Sacrament of Confirmation celebrates the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us the mysteries of God and draws us to Jesus Christ. For the early Christians, the coming of the Holy Spirit changed their lives. They were able to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and they knew that the Spirit of God was with them.

As Christians, we believe that the Spirit of God is working in our lives. When we are Confirmed, we believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit will be made stronger in us and God’s Spirit, given to us at Baptism, will be made stronger in our hearts.

Congratulations on your Confirmation

The Parish is encouraging families to return their feedback sheets to assist the Parish with improvements to how they run this program.

Sacrament of First Eucharist

Term 3 will see our Grade 4 children participate in the First Eucharist program. More details on the program will be in our next newsletter.

Mass for the Poor

Thank you for those who donated non-perishable food items for the Mass for the Poor. These items have been donated for the St Joseph’s Community Soup Kitchen. The Soup Kitchen provides warm meals to those in need on Monday nights between 5:30pm and 7:00pm in the Parish Hall.

Some of the Mass for the Poor donations.

Japanese Host Families Required

Can you help?

Once again we have visitors from Doshisha Elementary School in Kyoto, coming to visit St. Joseph’s in August. We are looking for host families to care for these students over a period of two weeks. Sunday 5th - Sunday 19th August.

There will be six students coming. They will firstly be visiting St. Patricks in Port Fairy and staying with host families there for one week prior. Then they will come to St. Joseph’s on 5th August.

Could you please email Catherine Lee to indicate your interest about being a host family, clee@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

PSA Meeting Dates

Our Term 3 meeting dates for our PSA are to be held on Tuesday 24 July (week 2) and Tuesday 28 August (Week 7). These meetings are held in the school staffroom commencing at 7:30pm. All welcome.

Term 2 Pizza Day

Wednesday 20 June, 2018

Thank to Melissa Walsh and Mel Addinsall and their team from the PSA for their volunteer work with Pizza Day. Orders are now closed. Sorry, no late orders can be accepted.

School Disco

Friday 3 August

Ticket Sales, Open Wednesday 4 July, Close Thursday 2 August

Ticket sales for the Disco are made via CDFPay (online ordering).

Sports News

Mark Gercovich, Sports Coordinator

District Football and Netball Lightning Premiership

On 6 June some St. Joseph’s Primary School students participated in the Warrnambool District SSV football/netball lightning premiership. In the football, the Boys A team progressed through their games undefeated, culminating in a final game against the only other unbeaten team, Warrnambool Primary School. St. Joseph's won this game 29 to 2 making them District champions for the 17th year in a row. The B team also performed well against the best teams from the other schools, they managed to win one game and were highly competitive in all the others.

In the netball the Girls A team won 3 games easily but went down by one point to the eventual winner's Warrnambool Primary School in a pool game thus missing the finals. The B team also performed well against winning one game and being highly competitive in all the others.

The Football team will now progress to the Division finals to be held on Friday 15 June.

Boys A Team Football Team

Boys B Team Football Team

Girls A Team Netball Team

Girls B Team Netball Team

Girls Footy Team

On Thursday 14 June the St Joseph's girls football team played in the SSV Regional Girls football competition. After remaining undefeated in the pool stage the girls played St Francis Xavier College, Ballarat in the semi-final. The girls won 31 to 1 putting them into the final against Warrnambool Primary School. The girls continued to play magnificently, defeating Warrnambool Primary School 34 to 0 thus crowning them Regional champions. The girls now progress to the state finals to be held in Term 3.

St Joseph’s PS Girls Football Team

Dress up day - Superhero Day

Thursday 28 June, 2018

After attending the Student leaders congress in Term 1 the St Joseph’s School Leaders have decided on the following ideas for our 2018 Leadership project. We have come up with some fundraising ideas for this year, to help all the families who lost their houses in the South West Bushfires. Blazeaid is the organisation we are going to raise money for, they assist local property owners with rebuilding things like fences and other structures after the fire.

Come and join all the school leaders in a superhero dress up day for to raise money for Blazeaid. Every student at St Joseph's can dress up as their favourite Superhero. This would promote all the Firefighters who put their lives at risk to save the family’s and their houses, because they were true Superheroes. All students are encouraged to bring along as many 5c pieces as they can. The class who has bought in the most 5c’s coins will receive a prize. There will be a location set up on the day to make your classes 5c line. Start collecting now!

Raffle - Drawn June Friday 29th (Last school Assembly)

We encourage all the students to bring along money for a raffle to win special prizes including sports equipment, Daiwa Fishing Rod, signed cricket shirt (Brad Haddin former Australian wicket keeper) and Japanese clothing.

$1 dollar a ticket or 3 tickets for $2. Student Leaders will come around classes selling tickets. Thank you.

Canteen News

We always need more volunteers so please consider if you have time, even if it’s only one shift per term. Training is provided and you can pick the day that suits you and even elect to be with a friend. A current Working with Children Check is required.