Principal's News

Dear Families,

It is such a pleasure to be at the gate each morning and afternoon, spending time getting to know each of you and your families. It is so lovely to see the children greeting each other and the staff at the gate, walking in with big smiles and wearing their school uniform with pride. It is also truly beautiful to see our older children looking after their younger siblings, their buddies and friends. What a blessing to be part of a community where belonging and care for each other is the essence of life at St Joseph's.

It is hard to believe the term is flying by so quickly and we are already at the end of Week 4! It is full steam ahead a St Joseph's with routines in classrooms now established and all classes in the rhythm of school life, engaging in rigorous learning. It has been a very busy and exciting week at St Joseph's!

Prayer

Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope

For the 2025 Jubilee Year, Pope Francis invites us to reflect on what it means to be Pilgrims of Hope. He tells us that “with the Jubilee, we start a new life, a new phase… we begin again.”

Let us Pray...

Loving God, who knows our weaknesses and failings and loves us anyway, create a new heart in us, so that we may begin again, to become loving and compassionate people.

May God’s peace be with us.

May God’s love cover us.

May God’s mercy fill us.

May God’s generosity bless us with good things and keep us safe in his care.

May God guide us on our journey as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Commitment Mass for our Year 3 Children

Last Sunday, there was a Commitment Mass for our Year 3 children during the Parish Mass at St Joseph’s Church. It was lovely to see so many of our families at Mass to support these children and to pray for them. As a community, let us pray for these children as they prepare for their Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday 26th March.

Welcome Picnic

WOW! What a community! And what a beautiful afternoon we had for our beginning of the year Welcome Picnic. It was so great to see so many families. It was a wonderful opportunity for families to come together and enjoy a beautiful afternoon. The weather was perfect, and it was nice to see so many happy faces enjoying the sausages! It really highlighted the strong sense of community we have here at St. Joseph’s, where everyone comes together to make events like this so special.

A HUGE thank you to our amazing P&F for working together to organise the Welcome Picnic! A very special thank you to our amazing P&F Presidents Laura and Talia for leading the organisation of this event. Special thanks also to the parents who volunteered, offering their time to cook the BBQ and manage the drinks and icy poles, your efforts made the day extra special for all of us! What a great way to begin our school year, coming together as a community and building new friendships. This is the sense of community that makes St. Joseph’s so great!

David Prowse's Wedding

We congratulate our Year 4 teacher David Prowse on his wedding today. What a beautiful day for a wedding! We wish them all the very best for a beautiful life together.

Fr Gallacher Visits Year 2

This week Fr Gallacher came in to visit our Year 2 classes to talk about the 'Church and Community'. The children asked him many thoughtful questions about the Sacraments and how he knows so many things about God. We always love it when Fr Gallacher visits and I know the children in Year 2 loved having him in their classrooms.

NAPLAN - Years 3 and 5

Later this term the students in Years 3 and 5 will have the opportunity to participate in NAPLAN. NAPLAN is a National Literacy and Numeracy assessment that students undertake across the country. NAPLAN assesses the students essential skills in Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation, and Numeracy.

Students at St Joseph's are involved in many ongoing assessments which inform teachers as to what students know and what they need to learn next. NAPLAN is just one way that students' learning and progress is assessed. NAPLAN allows parents and carers to see how their child is performing over time and against the national standards.

This year the NAPLAN tests will be held online, except for the Year 3 Writing Test which is still a pen and paper test. One of the main benefits to an online test is that the tests are 'adaptive' which means the questions can become increasingly more challenging, or easier, depending on the students responses during the test.

Students do not need to study for NAPLAN. We know that for some students NAPLAN can cause some anxiety, however we will do everything at school to reassure students that NAPLAN is just part of their school program. They will be encouraged just to do their best. At school students will be given the opportunity to access practice tests and we will spend time working through the kinds of questions, problems and writing tasks that they might experience.

There are some students who may require some adjustments when completing the NAPLAN tests. Over the next few weeks Stacey, our Learning Diversity Leader, will be making contact with some families regarding additional support for some students.

For more information about NAPLAN please see the link below and feel free to chat with your child's teacher or myself if you have any questions or concerns.

The NAPLAN Test Schedule at St Joseph's will run from Friday 14th March to Tuesday 18th March

Beginning of Year Testing

The beginning of the year is an exciting time for teachers and children as they get to know each other. Over the last few weeks the children at St Joseph's have been working hard to complete beginning of the year assesments so that teachers get to know the students and their learning needs. Teachers then sit with learning leaders and their year level teacher teams to have 'data conversations' to plan future learning for the children at their point of need. Here you can see the Prep teachers completing MACS' mandatory Maths Online Interviews (MOI) with the students. Our Preps are superstars!

Literacy Learning at St Joseph's

Students engage in literacy learning in our daily, two-hour literacy block which focuses explicitly on the learning areas of Reading, Writing, and Speaking and Listening. Here you can see our expert Literacy Leader Amanda Jackson and classroom teachers delivering explicit instruction using the Multisensory Structured Language (MSL) approach. It is very impressive to see the children fully engaged and participating in learning that is structured explicit and differentiated to meet the range of learning needs.

Visual Arts

This week our very inspiring Art Teacher Marta Cummings has provided opportunities for students to be creative and expressive using water colours to create self portraits. Here are some of the self portraits from our amazing artists in Year 1 and Year 2. I'm sure you will agree that they are very talented!

Student Representatives (SRC)

Our wonderful SRC's have been working with our Wellbeing Leader Georgie Carman during their SRC Meeting. They bring a lot of great ideas and enthusiasm to these meetings!

Coding Club

It is so great to see some of our children at St Joseph's enjoying coding club. They are thoroughly enjoying the new learning, and are challenging themselves with the coding.

Dendy Swimming Carnival

A huge congratulations to our SJM Swim Team who competed on Monday at the Dendy Swim Carnival. This was a huge effort by all the students.

Congratulations to the students who are progressing to the next round: Evelyn, Milana, Matilda, Lucy, Spencer, Callum, Max, Victor, and Nicholas. The Beachside Division Competition will be held on Friday 7th March at Oakleigh Pool.

And a special mention to Callum who I believe broke one of the swimming records! What a superstar!

A special thank you to our Sports Teacher Christie Birch for all the work in organising this event, to the teachers who supported with the training and to the teachers who encouraged our students on the day, as well as the wonderful parent helpers who assisted on the day. What a great team event - this is the SJM school spirit! More information on the 5/6 Reflections Page.

Cross Country

Congratulations to the children from Years 3 -6 who participated in Cross Country this week. You should be so proud of your efforts. You should be most proud of the way you cheered and encouraged others on who were struggling to finish. You are the real champions! More information on the 5/6 Reflections Page.

Leadership Learning

Earlier this week our learning leaders Dean Butler, Amanda Jackson and myself attended SWIF - the 'School Wide Improvement Forum' for Catholic school leaders in the Southern region. Around 300 leaders attended. It was an exciting day of learning, working with colleagues from other Catholic schools and listening to MACS' 2030 Vision. As a team we had the opportunity to work on our school improvement goals for 2025. We had the pleasure of listening to Dr Mary Oski - Director Education Excellence, and Debra Egan - General Manager Southern Region, as well Education Consultant Simon Breakspear who lead the learning for leaders across the Southern Region. We are excited to bring this learning back to our school community.

Catholic Schools Leading the Way!

Many of you may have seen and read the article in The Age this week about Catholic Schools leading the way with explicit instruction, and the impact it is having on student learning outcomes and achievement. This is the same 'structured literacy' approach which we proudly implement from Prep to Year 6 here at St Joseph's. We are proud to say that our approach to Reading and Writing instruction is aligned with the latest research.

Read the full article here:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/catholic-schools-reap-the-benefits-of-back-to-basics-overhaul-20250204-p5l9d6.html

School Assembly

Congratulations to our school leaders who do a wonderful job of leading our school at our weekly assembly. You speak so proudly and so articulately. What great leaders you are! It was also a great opportunity today to congratulate our cross country students and our swimmers!

Sustainable Uniform Shop

This morning our wonderful parents Angela Nicolai and Simone Dabbs ran the Sustainable Uniform Pop-Up Shop. We had a beautiful morning for it. Many thanks to all the families who have donated to the shop - this helps many families in our school community.

St Joseph's 2025 Concession Fee Policy

In line with our Concessional Fee Policy (which is available on the school website), discounted fees are available for families experiencing financial difficulty (including those on an eligible HCC). Any families who are experiencing difficulties in meeting their financial commitments or wishing to discuss alternate fee payment arrangements for 2025, are asked to arrange an appointment with the principal. Please do not hesitate to make a time to see me if this applies to you.

Reminders

Important Road Safety Reminder

Unfortunately we have had a few passers-by alerting us to some unsafe behaviours at school drop off and pick up. Just a reminder, for the safety of our children, that there should be no double parking, no U -Turns on Stanhope St, and please observe the parking signs. This is very important for the safety of our whole school community as well as other local people using Stanhope St.

Being SunSmart

As the very warm weather continues and the UV levels are very high, our school is committed to implementing SunSmart awareness. It is timely to remind everyone that hats must be worn during the warmer months. It is helpful for the children to apply their sunscreen before school and again before going out to play. It is important that we all remember to be SunSmart. For useful ideas and more information about sun protection, see the SunSmart website www.sunsmart.com.au.

Parking

A friendly reminder that the carpark between the Parish House and School is for Parish and School Staff only. You may have noticed the new Parish signage. Please do not use this for drop off and pick up on school days as there is not enough parking for school staff or Parish staff. Additionally, children, parents, and families should not be entering or exiting through the side gate. This is also for staff only. Use of the carpark and gate is a safety concern as this area is not supervised by staff and is not safe for children to be moving in and out of this space. Thanks everyone for your understanding. The safety of our children is our highest priority.

Staying connected...

We are partners in the education of your children and we invite you to be involved by sharing your thoughts and any concerns you may have with us. In this way, we are able to provide the best possible learning environment for your child and we can work together to inspire in each student a sense of confidence, resilience, and responsibility to be the best they can be.

If, at any time, you have any concerns or worries about your child's wellbeing, learning, or friendships, please do not hesitate to have a chat with your child's teacher as your first point of contact. If you have other concerns, please feel free to touch base with our wonderful admin team, a member of school leadership, or myself. For more serious concerns, please contact the office to make an appointment to see me, alternatively, you can contact me directly via email.

With warmest regards and blessings to you all,

Annabelle Marinelli

Principal

annabelle.marinelli@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au

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