PRINCIPAL'S NEWS

Miss Jaclyn is always busy keeping abreast of our socials and sharing the terrific things that are happening at our school.  

Here's a snippet of our Socials this week - hear what HARVEY in Prep V has to say about Bookweek - and check out his amazing reading skills... 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1996393547442928

BOOK WEEK

Book Week is upon us!!  This year's theme is 'READING IS MAGIC'.

Last week, in preparation for this wonderful event we had a visiting author - Nicky Johnston.  Nicky is an author / illustrator and shared her talents with our students - encouraging their creativity and engaging them in the writing process.

Throughout this week we will be running a few different activities.  Teachers will be reading a selection of the Shortlisted Books to their class and on Thursday 22nd of August we will be running a Book Week craft session in our house groups. 

On Friday 23rd of August, the Book Week Parade will be held on the basketball courts at 8:45am. Following the parade, the children will participate in a partner year-level reading activity.  Senior students will pair up with the Juniors, and the Middles will pair up with the Preps to read some story books together. 

There will also be the opportunity to 'Read to Archie', our school therapy dog!!  I have no doubt this will be an enjoyable experience for both the 'reader' and the 'audience'.

Father's Day / Special Friends Celebrations

This Sunday, 25 August, we will be celebrating Father's Day at the 11am parish Mass.  The Junior children are hosting this celebration and have been busy preparing a special gift to present to all the Dads at Mass on Sunday.  We hope to see as many families as possible, from prep to grade six on Sunday to help celebrate 'Our Dads'.

Please also SAVE THE DATE  for our annual Father's Day Breakfast.  This will be held on Friday, 30th August in the Parish Centre at the Courts.  Breakfast will be served from 7:45am.  Milo and toast will be available for children, and a hearty Breakfast Roll will be available for Dads.

A note will come home later this week asking you to indicate your attendance. Grandparents, Uncles or Special Friends are also most welcome!!

SO MUCH has been happening of late... special events this past fortnight...

PREP 100 DAYS OF SCHOOL

On August 08 our Prep students celebrated a very special milestone – 100 days of Prep! On this special day, they participated in many different and fun learning activities that related to the number 100. 

Students came dressed up as if they were 100 years old.  It was wonderful to see some grey hair, walking sticks and glasses. Thank you to all the Prep families for your support and for ensuring all the children 'looked the part' and shared a wonderful lunch together. They all looked absolutely fantastic - as did the teachers.  

Not only did Kate and Myanna look the part, but they have been outstanding in their support, guidance, nurturing, and preparation leading up to this special milestone. They have truly laid an extraordinary foundation for the 2,500 school days to follow.

PREP & JUNIOR OLYMPICS

On top of their 100 days of school celebration, our Preppies, together with the Junior students participated in a Mini Olympics Day.  

It was an extraordinary day filled with energy, enthusiasm, and outstanding achievements, all thanks to our incredible junior students.  Thanks also to the Junior teachers for preparing such a fun and engaging day for our students.

AUSBIKE ROADSHOW

On August 8 we had the team from Ausbike Roadshow visit.  

Here's a report of the day from Hamish Rogers in Senior B....

We had to bring our own bike to school.  The Ausbike Roadshow team taught us how to get on our bikes properly and brake properly with hand-brakes, and they explained what to do if your brakes aren't working - for example slowing down by using your foot.  

They taught us how to turn properly and when you're going fast or downhill, most of your turning is done with your momentum, not just your handlebars.

Then we did a few races where we went in and out of the cones, and the winner received a little chocolate.  We did a challenge at the end where they got ramps out and we had to select one person from each team to make it over the two ramps without stumbling or falling.

It was great because we had a lot of fun with the team, we learnt a lot and have good memories of the day.  Everything was fun!!

TECH OLYMPICS

On 9th of August, four of our students Charlie Jamieson, Jacob Rajab, Sophia Kanellakis and Max Hall represented St Josephs in the Tech Olympics at Our Lady of the Pines, Donvale. The students and teachers engaged in a range of tech-related activities including coding, engineering and robotics. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day for all involved and the students did an outstanding job representing St. Joseph’s. We even won a silver medal in one of the activities, what an achievement!

CHARLIE

My favourite activity was the airdrop relay, which was a relay where we had two iPads and you would speed walk to the frame (that said Tech Olympics) take a photo and then airdrop to the next person on the way back. Jacob was second last on our team and had to airdrop it to me. Then I had to take a photo and show the host and they wrote our name on the digital whiteboard. Miss O'Flynn, Jacob, Max, Sophia and I all waited on our table to see if we had placed. They announced 3rd place and then “For second place St Josephs Northcote” one of the hosts yelled into the microphone. We all let out a big cheer, we were over the moon. Jacob, Max, Sophia and I huddled on the podium and received our silver medals.

JACOB

In the Tech Olympics, my favourite activity was the broken bridges activity. This activity required us to use engineering skills as well as teamwork to find the best way to build the strongest bridge. The materials that we used included: string, sticks, a roll of masking tape, and some old newspaper. After we had constructed our bridges, they were tested using  93 beanbags! Myself, Charlie, Miss O'Flynn, Max, and Sophia designed and constructed a bridge that held up 29 beanbags. Unfortunately, we did not win a medal and came fourth place, but we probably would have come first if we had made our bridge wider. It would have helped with stacking more beanbags. Overall this was definitely my favourite event.

DISTRICT ATHLETICS

CONGRATULATIONS to the 34 children who competed in the District Athletics.  Everyone demonstrated excellent sportsmanship and, as always, cheered on their team. 

We are so proud of you all! 

Special congratulations to the following place-getters!

3rd Place-

Noah- 1500m

Neve- 80m Hurdles

2nd Place-

Saskia- 1500m

Leo- 200m

Amelia- Long Jump and Hurdles

School Uniform

We have noticed some confusion regarding the winter school uniform.  Recently, some students have been wearing tracksuit pants as part of the academic uniform. Please note that the correct winter academic uniform includes navy blue tailored pants.  Tracksuit pants should only be worn on sports days as part of the sports uniform.

I appreciate your cooperation in ensuring that all students adhere to the correct school uniform requirements.

Thank you for your understanding.

Toys at school

I wanted to kindly remind everyone that children should not be bringing toys to school. This policy is in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all students.

We have noticed that toys can lead to several issues, including:

• Safety concerns: Toys can be easily broken or damaged during the school day, which could lead to accidents or hurt feelings.
• Sharing and conflict: While sharing is encouraged, bringing personal toys to school can sometimes lead to disagreements or misunderstandings between children.
• Lost or expensive items: We want to avoid the stress of having valuable or sentimental toys go missing, which can be upsetting for both the children and their families.

School Fete

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to the WONDERFUL parents who attended our first FETE ZOOM MEETING last night.

The conversation was extremely productive and your ideas I'm sure will ensure the success of the event.

PLEASE REMEMBER - it's not too late to volunteer to help, there are PLENTY of opportunities to contribute in some way!!

If you are interested in contributing your time and skills, please contact Olivia Triandos on 0408 369 184 or oliviatriandos@gmail.com,  or contact the school office.

HOOPTIME

In the last newsletter I shared dates for Senior and Middle Hooptime.  Unfortunately this year we are unable to offer Hooptime to our Middle students as the competition, at our level, was fully booked.  The senior competition will be going ahead on September 10.  We will be calling out for volunteers to help with coaching and scoring in the very near future. Please save the date if you think you'll be able to help.

Note change of date Graduation Mass

Please note that the date for our Graduation Mass has moved to Friday December 13 (previously scheduled for Monday December 16).