Prayer for Artists (and for the artist in all of us)

God of creation,

Bless the artists, who by their gifts make the world more joyful and beautiful.

Through their creativity they teach us to see more clearly the truth around us.

They inspire in us the gift of wonder and awe.

Through their hope and vision, they remind us that life is full of surprise and joy.

Bless all who create in your image.

God of creation.

Let us all be artists so that our hearts may sing and our lives be fulfilling.

Amen

Change to End of Year Arrangements

Please find the attached letter regarding a change to the end of year arrangements for students in Catholic Primary Schools in the Star of the Sea Parish.

• Year 6 Graduation Mass remains at 6pm on Thursday 14th December
• Final whole school assembly will now be 11:30am on Friday 15th December
• The last day of school for students in 2023 will be Friday 15th December
• Staff will conclude on Monday 18th December, this is a staff meeting day, and no student supervision is available.  

This change has come as a result of changes to the Catholic Education Enterprise Agreement, in particular the provision of Time In Lieu for staff members undertaking school directed tasks outside of school hours. Just for your information and as an example the following events have/will attract/ed Time In Lieu (TIL) for staff over the last few weeks:

• School Disco
• Year 5 Camp
• Art’s Week Night Walk
• First Eucharist Celebrations
• Year 6 Personal Development Parent Session
• Father’s Day Breakfast
• PSA Meeting

Many of our staff have asked to forgo their Time In Lieu entitlements as they consider their out of ours activities as their contribution to the life of our school.  Arrangements such as this are in breach of the award and can be considered wage theft and as such cannot be entered into. During Term 4 there will be more activities which will accrue Time In Lieu e.g. camps, graduation etc. 

As this change occurred late in the year, schools were unable to budget for this expense.  As a result DOBCEL has approved two days at the end of the year to acquit TIL balances.

Moving forward - As a result of this change in conditions our school will need to be prudent with expectations of teachers beyond normal school hours. 

There has been much talk in the media of schools cancelling or reducing camps for children.   Having just returned from the Year 5 camp I have experienced firsthand the benefits for children in heading away for an extended time with their classmates and teachers.  The relationships, resilience, fun and excitement of an extended camp far outweigh the cost to the school in TIL entitlements.

At St Joseph’s we have a well thought out camps program that begins with extended days and culminates in the three day Melbourne experience for Year 6s. We are committed to maintaining this program for the foreseeable future and will seek creative ways to offset added expenses.

Term 4 Business Raffle

2023 $10,000 Business Raffle

The raffle will be drawn this Friday at the Father’s Day Breakfast.  Please return your tickets to the office ASAP.

This is our major fundraiser for the year and we are aiming to raise in excess of $30,000.

At this stage there are many tickets outstanding and we ask that you return the tickets sold or unsold. 

Eucharist

Congratulations to these children who celebrated their First Eucharist on Sunday.  Special thanks to Fr John and the Star of the Sea Parish team for their ongoing support and care. 

Art’s Week continued

The fun continues this week with our Night Walk.  The choir will perform at 6pm and the gates open at 6:30pm.  Make sure that you detour into the hall to see the children’s artwork on display and wander into the school foyer to add your “dot” to the White Room. 

A massive thanks to all of our staff particularly the Art Team of Cara Chisolm, Di Brown and Jo Barfus for their creativity, vision, support and leadership of this event.

Nicole Wood at Assembly

Nicole Wood the Warrnambool City Council Travel Smart  Project Manager will set up a display at this week’s assembly to gather feedback around the Botanic Road Traffic Management plan.