New Principal Announcement:  Andrew Watson (new Education Consultant for Southern Zone) will be at St Joes on Monday at 11:00am to announce the new principal for our school. This announcement will take place at 11:00am in the staff room. 

POSITIONS OF LEADERSHIP 2026

I am seeking expressions of interest for each of these roles (see link) by next

Friday, October 24th, 4pm.  

Please email me (mobrien@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au) with a short email identifying your desired position/s.

At this stage there are no requirements for letters, CVs etc.

If two or more people apply for one position then we will move to a formal interview process.  Please discuss any questions with me if anything needs clarification. 

This leadership structure has been recommended by our Consultative Committee to best support the priorities identified through our recent review. 

Positions of Leadership 2026

Yard Duty

Please be aware that there have been several instances of behaviour needing attention in the space under the trees behind/near the water tanks. Could staff on the b’ball courts make i thyour business to specifically walk through this space as you move around the designated area. In particular, any ball activity should be occurring on the appropriate ovals and not in this space.

Class Solver and 2026 Class Groupings:  This process is starting now! I hope to be with your team for a session to look at class solver. I do have kinder visits in between, so you will hear from me IF the first session of PLT does not work. Thanks everyone!    

PAT DATA - will be uploaded Monday.

Week 2 Staff Meeting Minutes Recontextualisating Scripture through Art

SIT Teams

There will be no whole school assemblies at the moment due to the hall not being available

Please read in conjunction with the Upcoming events list.

Week 3:

Monday 20th October:  Year 3 swimming continues

Tuesday 21st:  LSO ARM's

Thursday 23rd:  Grandparents Day; District Cricket

Friday 24th: Regional BAsketabll (Ballarat)

Week 4:

Monday 27th October:  Year 2 swimming commences; MAI testing in C19

Wednesday 29th:  Leadership Team meeting

Thursday 30th:  Matt at Principals Meeting in Horsham

Friday 31st:  Matt at Principals Meeting in Horsham

MHiPS Survey. You would have received an email during the week about this survey. As part of this evaluation, all school staff are invited to take part in an optional online survey. To access the survey and consent form, refer to https://redcap.link/mhips2025_sws 

SAS program-Students have finished the nine sessions and will have a 3 month catch up in December and final catch up next year in Term 1.

Junior Joeys Social Skills program-Students in the Year 3 group will finish in the next few weeks and the students in the Year 2 group will begin next week. Students in the Year 2 group will finish their group next year in Term 1.

Safety Plan and Behaviour plan reviews-Classroom teachers will be released in Weeks 5 & 6 to meet with Gabe to review and update these plans. LSOs will then be updated with any changes.

TAP - We are almost there.  Thankyou to everyone for your time in filling in your hours.  For those of you who are in need of extra hours please find attached the details for 13 online sessions from Catholic Theological College which may be claimed for accreditation hours on TAP. The sessions are held over the month of October. There is a small cost involved for those teachers wanting to use the PD for accreditation purposes. There are some very good theologians involved in the presentation of these sessions.

If you are yet to log your hours.  I can sit down with you and help you get this done. 

Engaging Your Faith Online Series

Book Week Dress Up and Parade

Friday 7th November - will be an optional ‘Book Week’ Dress-Up Parade and short Assembly prepared by our Year 6 Library Leaders.  We will use this occasion to celebrate the conclusion of the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge and present awards to those who finished the Challenge and to announce the Class Winners who read the most books during the Challenge! You are more than welcome to join us in the School Hall from 9am, for a 9:15am start.

Please email me with any questions you might have about these two events to: elloyd@sjwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

LSO's for excursions etc

As we head in to this final term and there will be many excursions and end of year activites taking place.  If you have an extensive funded child in your room, you will be given an LSO to support you in this, but other than this it will be dependant on who is available so please do not count on the LSO support in your planning.

Please keep in mind to ask parents for help when you can and if do need LSO or trainee support please email me well in advance so we can let you know exactly what we can and cannot do.

Grandparents Day:  

A reminder that this is happening on Thursday 23rd October.

We will ask all staff to avoid parking in the staff carpark on this morning to leave it free for the grandaprents.  The Allen Oval is NOT FREE for parking as it is still drying out and we need it in pristine condition for the moving trucks.  On Wedneday Cathy will email all staff to let everyone know of other options for parking (potentially the middle oval or across the creek).

Update on Building Program:

Braith for Nunn Haulage has now pencilled Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th (Week 5) of November to move the portables.  This will take them the two days, and then we will need a couple of days to ahe all of the services reconnected.  If this all goes to plan we will be able to move the classrooms back late in week 6 (keep praying).

Playground update:

The parent playground committee are holding their working bee on Saturday 25th October to remove the current senior playground and clear the site in readiness for the installation team.  

On Friday 7th November (week 7) the pre-installation team will arrive and set up the temporary fencing and start setting up the site.  On Monday 10th November the installation will commence, this will take approximately two weeks.  After this the parents will be working on the new edging etc and replacing the softfall mulch.

Music Lessons:  Mick the music man is going to be holding the music lessons in the Allen Oval clubrooms (HoL space) on a Tuesday, Thursday & Friday for the foreseeable future, or at least while we are waiting for the portables to be relocated and then set up.

2026 Staff Diaries:  As you all start to hold your  2026 planning days etc, and you want to start purchasing your diaries, you can purchase them from Office national (old Tobins) and they will book them to the school account (please use your name as the purchase reference) or if you purchase one from anywhere else, please use the reimbursement link below uploading a copy of your receipt and I will reimburse you.

2026 Leave Application:  2026 Leave Application Form link

How to look up your leave balances:  In case you are wanitng to check your LSL balances, or your personal leave balances at any time, here is the instructions I had created for staff to use.  For TIL balances you will need to actually come and see, or send me an email.  

How to look up leave balances on CEVN

Maintenance Request Link:  This has now been added under school links in SIMON  

Copies of previous memos:  If you are looking for a copy of a previous memo, they in SIMON under the school links tab /  staff communication / Staff Memo Archives (for the new system memos)

For all Staff Reimbursements, please use this link:  Staff Reimbursement Form

St Joseph’s Christmas Party

Warrnambool Golf Club Function  Room

Friday 19th December (last day of work for 2025) 

5.00pm - 11.00pm 

$30 per staff member

$60 per CRT or partners

Please pay Cathy at the office by December 1st, and

Please add your name to this doc if you can attend

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

Week 3

Year 3 Swimming Continues: Monday 20th October

PSA Meeting: 7pm, Tuesday 21st October

Grandparents Day: 9:30am - 11:30am, Thursday 23rd October

No Whole School Assembly

Week 4

Year 2 Swimming Commences: Monday 27th October

WOOF (Wear Orange On Friday): Friday 31st October

No Whole School Assembly

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

• Keenan Hotker - 24th October
• Lisa Heffernan - 26th October