Welcome Tom Wormald and Mark Riddle to the St Joes staff as our Grounds and Maintenance Team (Just in time for Arts’ Week!)

Welcome back Marlie and Melanie after your breaks. Hope it all went well. 

Review Documentation is completed and will be sent to DOBCEL on Monday. Thanks everyone for your considered participation in the process. The external validation team will be here in Week 6 (Mon & Tues). They will meet with staff, students and parents to add an external point of view for us.   

I have a busy couple of weeks as I am in Horsham Wed-Fri for DOBCEL meetings (back in time for the disco though!) then heading to Cairns on the following Monday for the NCEC Conference. 

There is a lot going on over the remainder of the term and many moving pieces to coordinate.  We are doing our best to keep everyone in the loop without overwhelming you with irrelevant details. If you are unsure of anything please ask and don’t be afraid to lend a hand to those organising the extra bits and pieces. 

Promotional Video Filming:  A video team will be on site on Monday to film a promotional video for the school.  They might pop into your room to film kids at work. If so we are asked to continue as normal and not to look at the camera.  So I'll be wearing a nice shirt and will have my office looking smick! 

At a recent leadership meeting, we addressed the concern of the number of students in the LRC during recess and lunch and the amount of time it takes to restore the LRC to its correct level of cleanliness after each break. We have decided that we will move the location from the LRC to the Hall for a trial basis. The activities that students have had access to in the LRC will be moved to a trolley that will have a selection of tasks on it and will rotate the tasks over time. Note that ththe LRC will not have any students in there during recess and lunch time from this week on during the trial. Students are to gather outside the hall and use outside methods to access the hall. Furthermore the LRC duty will now take place in the hall. Students using the hall for this purpose will be in the half of the hall closest to the stage.

Wellbeing (SIMON Recording Majors & Minors)

No whole school assembly - due to School Disco

Please read in conjunction with the Upcoming events list.

Week 4:

Wednesday 13th August:  Foundation 100 days of School

Thursday 14th August:  Matt at Principals Conference 

Friday 15th August:   Matt at Principals Conference, Feast of Assumption Mass 10am

Sunday 17th August:  2026 Foundation Interviews

Week 5:

Matt attending the NCEC (Education) Conference all week

Monday 18th August:  RE School Closre Day

Tuesday 19th August:  Dental van onsite for the remainder of this week, 3/4 District Basketball

Thursday 21st August:  Birthday Morning Tea

Friday 22nd August:  5/6 District Basketball

ReLATE: Please remember to incorporate some for of Relate into your weekly program. This may be an explicit lesson OR a quick conversation with your class

SIMON notes:  Thank you for adding notes on SIMON from LSO Feedback books. Don't forget to tag Gabe & Liz when adding notes that need Wellbeing follow up. 

Presentation of Eucharist Candidates Mass - St Joseph’s students preparing to make their first Eucharist have been invited to come along to mass this sunday evening 6:00 at St Joseph’s church.  The choir will be singing.  We would love to see you there. 

Mass for the Feast of the Assumption – Updated Arrangements

After consultation with our Catholic School Culture team and leadership, we have decided to trial a new seating arrangement for this year's Feast of the Assumption Mass.

Seating Arrangements

• Students will remain in year levels — there will be no buddy classes.
  
  
• Foundation students will be seated at the front of the church, followed by Year 1, then Year 2, continuing up through the church to Grade 6, who will be seated at the back.
  
  
• Two Grade 2 classes will be invited to sit on the seats on either side of the altar.
  
  
• Grade 3 will be seated in the gathering space.
  

• As you arrive at the church, Marlie and Gab will be there to greet you and help usher classes to their designated seats.

Transport

• Foundation, Year 1, and Year 2 students will travel by bus to and from the church.
  
  
• Buses will arrive at 9:30 AM.
  
  
• Pat will instruct classes when to leave for the buses.
  
  
• Grades 3–6 will walk to the church, weather permitting.
  
  
• Classes will be called to leave starting at 9:30 AM.
  
  
• Grade 3 will be the last group called, as they are seated in the gathering space.
  
  

Thank you for your support as we trial this new arrangement. 

Co created Prayer - School closure day - This will be held on Monday the 18th  August and will be held in E block.  We have Catherine Connors - The creator of co created prayer flying in from Brisbane to work with us for the day.  I hope it to be a very hands-on day that will leave you ready to take co created prayer to your classrooms.  Teachers who do not work Monday are invited to join the day and will be paid for the day.  LSO’s who work Monday will be invited to join the day. REL’s from other schools have also been invited to join us for this day.  

Where:  E block

What to bring:  - Morning tea will be provided please bring your own lunch.  

•  A device (charged) to work on
•  Any musicians who have an instrument and are prepared to play please bring it along. (Macca has volunteered to bring his guitar but is keen for others to join him)

Teachers who do not work Monday but would like to come please fill your name on the doc below:

LSO’s who work Monday are invited to join the day.

Trainees - You will be working through a list of jobs for the arts team for the day getting things organised for arts week.  

A rough agenda for the day is: 

Morning Session

9am - Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country

9.15am - Introduction of the Co-created Prayer model

10.15am - Invitation to co-create prayer together and scaffolding

10.30am - Morning Tea

Middle Session

11am - Create and Prepare time

11.45am - Share time

12.15pm - Reflection

12.30pm - How can I use this model in my classroom, in my lessons, in my contribution to our school community?

12.45pm - 1.30pm Planning time

Afternoon Session

2pm - 2.30pm - Continued planning time

2.30pm - Sharing of planning progress, reflection and close

3pm - End of day

DISCO

On Friday evening, 15th August are the Junior and Senior discos. A list has been sent around to classrooms, for students to add their favourite dance song. Could you please discuss this with students and display for them to add to. (Remind students that their favourite song mightn’t be a good dancing song)

We will require some staff to attend and supervise. I have attached a roster asking for help, if you could please consider your availability for the night.

Here is an updated list of your class totals for the Premier’s Reading Challenge.  I will also print it off and put a copy in your pigeon holes so that you can chat to your individual students about their progress.  

Junior classes - Please note that you/the parents can even add their Little Learner Readers to their Dashboard of registered books!  Access to the Challenge website actually finishes on September 5th - so they don’t have long to get these class totals up the ladder!

BOOK WEEK Competition:  So I have asked our current Yr 6 LRC leaders to help with some ideas for a fun and engaging competition to run in the lead-up to Book Week.  Have a look at the following video clip and then fill in the attached Google Doc. if you would like to be one of our very own…. Masked Reader!

Anaphylaxis Training:  All Victorian school staff are to undertake the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) e‐training for Victorian schools once every 2 years.  

All of our staff are due to complete this training this year.  There will be the same online component, followed by a verification (in person) part with Alecia.  For teaching Alecia will visit the PLT time to do this as a group, and will create time for the part time staff members.  For LSO's Alecia will attend one each of your fortnightly meetings. 

The link for the online component is below, it will take about one hour.  EVERYONE will need to select CREATE NEW ACCOUNT at the bottom to access the site.

Essential Safety Measures: Twice per year we have a company come into our school to conduct an inspection of our school grounds and buildings.  For each visit we receive a report on recommendations.  In our last visit the the main issues that were raised were:

• Paths of travel and exit doors.  It was noted that there are classroom exit doors that have obstructions and clutter in front of them, not making them easy to exit in a hurry if needed.  All doorways must have a clearance of any obstruction or clutter of at least 1 metre.
• Power boards and sub boards:  These also need to be clear of all obstructions and clutter, also by at least 1 metre.  Most of these, except one, are in hallways; these are now also required to be locked so students and unathourised personnel cannot access them.
• Fire extinguishers:  These are also to be free of any obstructions and not hidden by coats, hats, rubbish bins etc

While these are issues that we need to address, this is actually a very good report considering the size of our buildings and grounds.

Staff Name Badges: If anyone needs a new name badge please let me know by Friday.  I will be placing an order for later next week for the staff commencing in term 4.

2025 Business Raffle:  This raffle is our major fundraiser for the year, with books going out to families next week.  A raffle book will be placed in the pigeon holes of all staff members (except those who are already getting one as a school parent).  You can buy as a many or as few as you would like, but if you do't want them at all, please return the books to the office so they can be re-distributed.

Staff CAN win this raffle, just ask Gabe Ewing who won it last year and had $10,000 to spend!!

Staff Reimbursements:  I have created a new form for staff to use when needing to lodge a claim for reimbursements.  I have added the link here, but I have also added it under School lInks on SIMON for future use.  Please complete this and upload photos of the receipts.

Refer to the newsletter or PAM for further details on all these events.

Week 3

Wear Green For Farmers: Friday 8th August

Whole School Assembly, Room D3: 2:40pm, Friday 8th August

Week 4

Foundation 100 Days of School: Wednesday 13th August

Feast of Assumption Mass: 10:00am, Friday 15th August

School Disco Tickets Close: 12pm, Friday 15th August

No School Assembly: Friday 15th August

School Disco - Junior (F-2): 5:30pm - 6:45pm, Friday 15th August

School Disco - Middle/Senior (3-6): 7:00pm-8:30pm, Friday 15th August

Week 5

School Closures Day: Monday 18th August

Whole School Assembly, Room B5: 2:40pm, Friday 22nd August

Converge International is a free and confidential support service for staff and their families.   Ph 1300 687 327

• Jeff Vizon - Tuesday 12th August