Dear Families,

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and I’ve received very positive feedback on the much-needed circuit breaker for our students. Of course, the staff were busy with professional development on Thursday and Friday. We completed day 3 of our Berry Street training, completed our annual mandatory reporting training and certification, and then began our work on the new school vision statement for St Joseph’s.

I thank you for your understanding and support during this professional learning time.

To find out more about the work we have done with the Berry Street Education Model, please have a read:

The staff hard at work:

Parental Involvement at St Joseph's

A sincere thank you for your continued participation in the life of our school.

One of our key strategic actions in this year’s annual action plan is to build in as many opportunities as possible for parents to engage with the life of the school, particularly important following the ‘disconnect’ that interrupted the flow of normal school life in ‘20 and ‘21. We are acutely aware that many parents face the pressures of a busy life, but we encourage you to try and become involved in any way you can.

Research clearly shows the benefit of parental involvement in school life and a direct correlation with improved student academic achievement, behaviour and attendance (O'Connor and McCartney, 2007). We are very fortunate to have such a supportive parent community so please keep an eye out for information about all the ways you can be involved in school life.

On that note, thank you for the following:

To our working bee volunteers who gathered on Saturday 4th March for a morning of cleaning and lots of leaf blowing! The school looked immaculate in time for our Open Day on the 6th. From our working bee coordinator, Adrian (Hamish Y6): From Adrian, our working bee coordinator:

“Thank you to everyone who turned up for Saturday’s working bee. It was the largest turnout for years. We had an early start and had planned to be finished by 10am however the enthusiasm of the parents to completely tidy the school grounds meant we were there until after 11am. The school looked fabulous when we left. Thanks again for your efforts.“

Thank you to those parents who volunteered to accompany prospective families on tours during our Open Day. Your assistance and insight was greatly appreciated by visiting parents.
Thank you to our Year 2 parent cohort for making the Kennedy family feel so very welcome in our school community- it's like Emilio has been here forever!
Thank you to those parents who are able to assist/ contribute in some way for our Harmony Day celebrations. Your child can wear casual clothes with a touch of orange (Harmony Day colours) or alternatively, add in a hint of traditional costume or something to do with their cultural heritage...(do I get the Liverpool kit out or opt for something ocker Aussie??). Thank you to Frederica (prep) for setting the example:

To find out more about Harmony Day, click here: https://www.harmony.gov.au/stories/story?storyId=209 and thanks to Georgie Carman and the team for organising this cultural celebration at St Joseph's.

Some Reminders for the next couple of weeks:

Final Naplan for Years 3 and 5 on Monday with the Numeracy test
P+F Meeting Tuesday evening at Essie Wine bar, Station Street, Malvern. We plan on pushing ahead with the BIG SOCIAL EVENT so please come along to add your ideas/ opinions
Harmony Day on Tuesday 21st, all day
Camp Rumbug Wednesday 22nd to Friday 24th Years 5 and 6
School Photographs Tuesday 28th March
SAC meeting 28th March 7pm online
Georgina Manning's 5 secrets Parent Seminar on Wednesday 29th March. We strongly encourage every parent to come along. Baby sitting provided by our staff.

From Monsignor Stuart Hall

As communicated with your prior to the long weekend, please see the invitation and request for help from Monsignor:

Dear Parent and Friends of St Joseph’s School,

As part of the parish community I’m seeking your assistance on Sunday 30th April 2023.

The parish will be holding an ‘open house’ activity that will encourage parishioners to walk through the Presbytery / Parish Office areas.

I’m looking for 10 volunteers to be marshals / safety personnel. These volunteers will be located around and, in the presbytery, to assist elderly parishioners to navigate the various levels and to ensure that we minimize any potential hazards.

The ‘Open House’ activity will be held between 11am until 12.30pm.

I look forward to a positive response!

Yours sincerely,

Monsignor Stuart Hall

Parish Priest

The Leukaemia Foundation

Still a couple of days to go if you'd like to make a donation:

One of our Year 4 students, Max Lally, is participating in the World’s Greatest Shave to support the Leukaemia Foundation and is shaving his head on March 18th.

Max would love your support!http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/maxlally

Well done Max!

Auditions for Finding Nemo Jr.

Our Year 5s and 6s are working hard 'behind the scenes' learning their lines and songs for the forthcoming auditions for the big 2023 musical production, Finding Nemo Jr!

The process involves an open invitation to all Y5 and Y6 students to audition and the students nominate their top 4 preferred roles and whether they would prefer an ensemble singing role or solo etc.

We expect all of our 40+ 5s and 6s to audition, so there will be lots of competition for the lead roles. The beauty of Finding Nemo Jr is that there are 34 speaking roles and enough 'named' roles for all of our seniors.

Our auditions take place on Friday 31st March, with myself and Ms Cleere co-reading with the students. The children also have to learn one of the show's songs if they would like a lead role.

We will announce the cast in the final newsletter and assembly of the term on Thursday 6th April.

All grades from Prep to Grade 4 will also have their ensemble roles announced at the same time.

Our show will be held at Malvern Town Hall on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd November at 7pm.

All children from Prep to 6 will be performing in both nights of the show.

How exciting!!

Wishing you all a lovely (sunny) weekend ahead!

Michelle

Art with Year 1W