20 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Michael Gray, Principal

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff and Students of our wider St. Joseph’s School Community,

Important Updates

St. Joseph’s School Parking Access and Student Safety

Summary Overview: Safely parking and/or access for families across all schools in Australia is a common concern and an issue that needs constant review. Getting the balance right between access, safety and reasonable convenience is something we at St. Joseph’s are constantly monitoring. The following is an update of actions and support to all families and staff in this area.

A few years ago we engaged with the Warrnambool City Council “Healthy Moves Program” (Funded by the Warrnambool City Council) to support student safety and wellbeing. The program aligned with our school’s values of safety, activity, fitness and looking after our environment. Its key aim has been to encourage families and students to think differently about getting to and from school.

Passionate student leaders (Healthy Moves Co-ordinators), led by staff organiser George El Hage and Tanya Hughes; as well as the support of local bike stores, our Parent School Association (finding an excellent winter coat to support activity getting to school in the winter) and Nicole Wood from the Warrnambool City Council have all had a dramatic, positive impact in achieving its aims.

St. Joseph’s now has a stunning average daily group of bike riders, scooters, walkers and skaters arriving to school and home daily, safely. Car traffic has been reduced helping those who only have this option. The city/country bus system is well utilised with Public Transport Victoria spending well over $120,000.00 installing two leading bus drop off facilities in Botanic Road. VicRoads have listened to school communities and we now have a restricted 40 kph speed zone around all schools. This slowing down of traffic is an excellent pre-emptive safety strategy. The Council also provide three fully funded crossing supervisors daily to ensure our children can cross all our busy roads. Another pleasing development was the success of our parent petition last year so that we now have an appropriate barrier protecting families as they cross at the Botanic/Queens Road roundabout.

St. Joseph’s has also contributed financially. We have a brilliant practical and reliable loop drop off area and we have opened up the Tennis facility area as another option supporting families. Currently we are doing minor works in this area to also improve the access. Depending on weather and whole school activities we also use the ovals and the school grounds for extended parking and bus collecting for camps etc. Supporting all this work is a large contingency of school staff supervising these areas. Before and after school we can have up to 10 staff daily covering supervision.

Moving forward and actions for us all, school included, from the above summary.

• Thanks to parents, staff and students for your constant co-operation with travel around school.
• We have re-opened both Allen Oval/Tennis Courts to help with congestion. These two areas will now be supervised.
• School, classrooms and home to remind students of traffic safety; LOOK, & LISTEN, use correct areas to cross and traverse around schools.

Important Safety Tips and Rules Regarding Traffic Movement around St. Joseph’s

• Always leave time as often rushing/impatience will cause poor decision making around road rules. It is every parent’s responsibility to model correct traffic behaviours and to think of the other. If we rush and put ourselves first we raise the likelihood of impatience, loss of concentration and possible breaking of road rules.
• School Car Park is not a Drop Off Zone. It is for visitors working at St. Joseph’s, parents helping with school programs, staff, disability access, (especially if a child is on crutches or wheelchairs), our after school program team, school cleaners who arrive at various times over the day, canteen deliveries and Hall users. We need this parking facility to support your child’s learning. Parents may need to use it to drop off special project works, this is fine. If, however we are using it to drop a child close to the school front door this is selfish and not thinking of our community. Our community need to see fairness in operation; this supports student learning and family equity. For example, if a late canteen delivery is held up because a car is in the drop off zone, the parent helping in the canteen is very much inconvenienced and the lunches will be late to the classroom.
• Street Parking is available on south side of Botanic Road, both sides of Queens Road, (Not in the free space near the House Units). Note some restrictions are now in place in Barbers Lane.
• No right hand turns in to our Loop. No right hand turns into the school car park. (Double lines in both cases).
• Aqua Zone Car Park; this area is also available for school families.
• Families of students walking down from Emmanuel College to the Allen Oval area may just need to check that your young people are crossing at either the roundabout or supervised crossing. Last week when I was over there I spoke to both St. Joseph’s students and some from the College about crossing at designated safe places.

PSA (Parent School Association), on tonight, all welcome

Our PSA contributed $50,000s to our school budget helping with literacy, numeracy, language study, parent education and resourcing. This is a stunning effort and appreciated by everyone. Essentially this keeps fees down, helps all students and provides some great fun experiences for our students.

At our last meeting we:

• Reviewed our class grouping arrangements.
• Discussed curriculum including Heath, Sport and PE.
• Evaluated our PSA budget.
• Received principal and staff reports.
• Celebrated the fantastic results of the Art Mug program.
• Planned Orientation Day and
• Discussed our AGM and Christmas meetings.

If you are interested in joining this team all are welcome. It is not a select group, it is parents supporting and helping each other to support learning, friendship and fun. Adrian Benson (Parent) is our Chairperson and is always keen to support anyone getting involved.

Regards Michael Gray
Principal

Teacher Awards

Week 5

Week 6

Gold Box Winner

Congratulations to Gold Box winners Nick Watson and Hugh Attrill for excellent attention at assembly and Daisy Advincula for helping another student to find someone to play with.

Congratulations to Gold Box winners Cienna Boyle for Working hard at lunchtime activities. Maya Cameron, Tash Barker, Ashlee Pavletich, Olivia Uren – Excellent readiness

Winners of our Gold Box get to go for a swim at the pool.

Healthy Moves

Congratulations to Rielle Murfett, Milly Beckham, Rupert Jenkins and Jemima Steenhuis-Young who all won bike accessories as prizes for walking or riding to school.

Congratulations to Henry Jones who won a bike from Crichton’s Bicycle Centre as part of the Healthy Moves program.

Numeracy and Literacy Interviews

Monica Currer, Literacy Co-ordinator

At this time of the year, teachers begin to assess what their students have learnt during the year and it is this growth in each student’s learning, that gives a sense of achievement to students, teachers and parents. The assessments we use at the end of the year are summative assessments, as they ‘sum up’ the students’ knowledge and skills. These assessments can also be used as formative assessments, in that they inform us of what students need to learn next. Assessment and monitoring of students, is of course, an ongoing process throughout the year.

In our Catholic School we have two formal designated Assessment Periods. At the moment we are beginning Assessment Period Two, which runs during October and November. All students from Foundation to Year 6 will be completing a PAT Reading (Progressive Achievement Test) and PAT Maths. These are completed online. Students in Year 2 to 6 complete a spelling assessment and a writing task. There is a full 12 months between each assessment, so we expect to see each student achieve at least 12 months’ growth.

Our Foundation, Year One and Year Two students have an individual time with their teacher to complete some reading and writing tasks. Teachers are released from their classroom to assess each student.

The Numeracy Interviews in December and the Literacy interviews in January are formative assessments, which makes them very valuable for informing us, as teacher, what each child needs to learn and therefore what we need to teach.

Numeracy Interview Dates

• Tuesday 18 December
• Wednesday 19 December
• Thursday 20 December

Literacy Interview Dates

• Tuesday 29 January
• Wednesday 30 January
• Thursday 31 January

You need to book a time for Numeracy for one day in December and on one day in January for your children.

Booking open via PTO Online on Wednesday 12 December at 9am. Contact the office if you need your login details.

Please mark on your calendar the dates for these interviews as they play an important part in your children’s education and please watch future newsletters for information about booking times online.

Please contact the office or your classroom teacher if your child will be unable to attend either of these interviews.

Library News

Lyn Hyland, Librarian

Term 4 is a very busy term this year in the Library.

The Foundation students are looking at the characters in stories, the Juniors are using Non Fiction and fiction books to learn more about celebrations, the Middles have been doing research on habitats and the Seniors have been researching inventions and innovations.

We welcome and thank Cara Watts who has been teaching in the Library while Mrs King has been on leave.

As it is the last term for this year an Overdue list has been sent out. We will continue to send these out over the next few weeks. As usual return any found books, and let us know if you have returned any or some of the books on the list or have lost any. If, at any time, you find books from the school please bring them back as we are happy to welcome back any ‘lost ones’!

New books have arrived this term and we offer big, big thanks to our helpers who have covered books for us this year; Sharon Wallace, Michelle Hynes and Sandy Killen. We are very grateful for their support.

An early reminder that borrowing will be finishing up around Friday 30 November, but until then - keep borrowing and reading!

Lyn, Cara and Maureen

PSA AGM

7:30pm, Tuesday 20 November, 2018

Our final meeting for the PSA is our AGM at 7:30pm tonight, Tuesday 20 November, in the staffroom at school. All welcome to attend and thank our outgoing committee and receive nominations for our 2019 Committee.

Parish News - Nativity Exhibition

Saturday 1 December – Monday 3 December 2018

This is the fourth year of our local exhibition. Do you have a nativity scene we could display? Any size, any shape, any age … we will take great care of it. Do you have some time to spare? Volunteers needed to help set up on Friday 30 November and to assist during the exhibition. Sign-up sheets in Gathering Space or contact the Parish Office.

Orientation Day BBQ Helpers

Tuesday 11 December, 2018

2018 Orientation Day BBQ Helpers Request

This form is not active

Grade 6 Farewell Evening

7:30pm - 9:30pm, Thursday 13 December 2018

Invitations to the Grade 6 Farewell Evening at the Flying Horse have been sent home with all Grade 6 students. Spare copies of the invitation are available from the school office.

Payment for this evening needs to be made through CDFPay (Online ordering) by Friday 7 December 2018. All students must have one parent/guardian in attendance due to licensing regulations. Gluten Free food options will be available for parents and Grade 6 children.

Thank You Morning Tea

10:30 am, Monday 17 December 2018

2018 Volunteers Thank You Morning Tea

This form is not active

Art Fundraiser – Mugs

The Art Fundraiser mugs have been dispatched from the supplier and due to arrive at the school early this week. Art teachers will then coordinate the distribution of the mugs. Families with more than one child may find that their children bring their mugs home on different days.

Sport and Representative Photos

Our school photographers, MSP Photography, have indicated that order forms for Sports Teams and School Representation Groups will be sent home around Monday 26 November. Orders are completed online and will be delivered to the school prior to the end of the school year.

Makeup Photos – Athletics, Maths, Spelling and Volleyball

As a results of the catchup photo day these teams/groups will have the option of ordering either version of the photos. The version taken on Thursday 25 October will be labelled with a 1 and the version taken on Thursday 8 November will be labelled with a 2, eg Athletics 1 and Athletics 2. Please be aware that neither version has all children in it as different children were absent from both versions of the photos. You may like to check with your child which photo they would prefer.

Musical Instrument Sale

The school has a drumkit and a piano for sale for $100 each. Please contact the school if you are interested in purchasing either of these items. The purchaser would need to arrange for the instrument to be transported at their own cost.

Update: The drumkit has now been SOLD.
Update: The piano has now been SOLD.

Canteen News

Due to the end of the year stock levels in the canteen not all flavours of Zopper Doopers and Drinks may be available and children may get a different flavour.