Principal's News
Dear Families,
What an exceptional way to end the week and lead into a long (hopefully very relaxing) weekend.
A very sincere thank you to our parent tour guides for giving up their time this morning to take prospective families on a tour of the school and after a quiet start, the parents all managed at least one tour each- and what an amazing job they did. The new families commented on the unique approach of utilising the parent community in such a way, but as I have said many times: you are our greatest advocates!
Thank you to Nisha, Jade, Claire, Heather, Kass, Letizia, Stef and Alison for sharing the parent perspective on our beautiful school. What an amazing community we have at St Joseph’s!
A special thank you to our Year 6 students and their teachers for preparing very informative expos for families, and to our staff and students across the school for their warm welcomes. Brilliant teamwork yet again!
Our next Open Day is next Tuesday (yes, back to back) and it would be fantastic to have a few parents come along as tour guides. Please email me if you are keen: principal@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au
Thank you to our exceptional Year 6 leaders:
A big thank you to Mrs Davies who ran our first running club session this morning. What a great way to start the day!
What an effort!
Congratulations to our 9 swimmers who represented our school and the Dendy District at the Beachside competition this morning.
What a fantastic showcase of talent and determination from Callum, Max, Christian, James, Alexis, Sophie, Mila, Gabriella and Gaby- well done all! A special congratulations to Alexis who came first in backstroke and will now go through to the regional competition. Superb effort Alexis!
Thank you to Mr Cleary and Mrs Davies for their organisation of the day.
Good Luck Bowlers
We wish our 26 Year 5 and 6 lawn bowlers the best of luck on Wednesday as they head to the Beachside lawn bowls competition. The bar has been set very high by the 2021 SJM teams who reached the state finals and came second in the competition. Whatever the outcome, we hope the children have ‘a ball’ and once again, thanks to Mr Cleary for his coaching and organisation of this event.
Welcome to our new Parish Priest
This week saw the arrival of Fr Greg Brett CM to our parish and although he will only be with the parish for a few months, we look forward to his visits to our school to meet staff and students. Fr Greg was PP at St Joseph’s many years ago and I know he is excited to reconnect with his old parish. The confirmation parent evening has been postponed for the time being and Mrs Jackson will stay in touch with the Year 6 families when the new date is arranged.
Berry Street Education Model (BSEM)
When I arrived at St Joseph’s in 2018 we embarked upon our training in this high impact wellbeing programme. The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) provides strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase the engagement of students and to successfully improve all students' self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement. This year we will embark upon this intensive training once again, with staff completing 2 modules of the 4 modules this year. After much 'toing and froing' with the calendars, the facilitators from Berry Street have been able to fit us in on Friday 16th September (the last day of Term 3) and Monday 3rd October (the first day of Term 4). This means that these days will now be school closures and will add an additional day to either side of the Term 3 holidays. I thank you in advance for your understanding and support of our staff with this important work. If you’d like to read information and research around the BSEM please follow this link:
Well done to the Office Team
This week we had our annual Deloitte’s audit, in line with the financial compliance regulations and requirements for schools. A huge well done to Isabelle and Priscilla, our business manager, for their professionalism and attention to detail with all things financial. A word of thanks to the lovely addition to our office staff, Lynnette Stone, who supported along the way. What a team!
What a relief to have the fees issued this week as I know it has been a source of frustration for Isabelle, who likes to run a tight ship! There have been delays with all MACS schools in this regard, so I also thank you for your patience.
Vegetable Soup Anyone?
Our students have created some very interesting recipes to serve in the village! Lovely to see our preps serving the school with their gourmet creations! Thanks to the Piva family for providing the ingredients.
The Joys!
I thoroughly enjoyed having so many visits from our outstanding Year 2 students, who came to share their creative writing with me. Miss Bascombe is doing an incredible job with our students, and I encourage you to have a read of their work later in the newsletter.
Please check out our staff profiles later in the newsletter, a great way for you to get to know a little bit about each staff member.
Also, be sure to check out Miss Chan's music page, with information about the before-school choir practice, beginning next week.
This will be my final newsletter for this term as I head back to my hometown of Liverpool to finally spend some time reconnecting with family and friends. My final day is on Thursday and I leave the school (and the newsletter) in the exceptionally capable hands of Martin Earl who will be acting principal in my absence.
I look forward to seeing you in Term 2.
Enjoy the long weekend and thank you for being a part of this incredible community.
So proud!
Michelle
