From the Principal

St Justin’s Primary School acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's First People and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which our school stands.

We pay our respects to the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, and their elders past and present, and emerging as we continue to proudly live and learn on their land.

St Justin's Primary School - Celebrating over 40 years of Catholic Education

Dear Families and Friends,

Swimming

We are pleased to announce that our Swimming Program will commence on Monday 24th February for all students in Prep to Year 4 at Paul Sadler Swimland - Paratea Drive Rowville. 

• All information for our Swimming Program was sent out via nforma notices.
• Please make sure you read all information carefully with what to bring, swimming times and parent helper information.

Existing Families - Enrolment for 2026

We are in the process of preparing our enrolments for 2026

Application are nowonline. If any current school families require an enrolment application for 2026 click on the link below:

https://www.sjwheelershill.catholic.edu.au/enrolments

Click on "Apply Now"

We would like these applications completed by March 20th 2025 so we have an idea of our numbers for 2026 before we offer places to new families.

Open Day 

Our Open Day is planned for Thursday 20th March, running from 9am-7:30pm. This is a great opportunity for new families looking for a school for their children for 2026 to come along and see what St Justin's has to offer. We would love some volunteers, parents and students, to help run this day - we require at least two parents throughout the day to meet and greet and then some volunteer students from 3:30pm - 7:30pm to help with tours.

Year 6 Camp

This week our Year 6 students, along with 7 staff members ventured down to The Portsea Camp for their annual School Camp. The camp provided a variety of exciting activities which help students build confidence, independance and teamwork. From all reports, everyone was trying lots of different activities and exciting experiences.  It was also nice to hear the bus drivers refer to the students as 'a really nice bunch' - given that they work every day with students from all over Victoria, I think that was a very nice compliment.

A special thank you to Mrs Slonim for organising the camp - a lot of work goes into organsing a three day camp. Thanks also to Mrs Braybrook, Mrs D’Angelo, Mr Johnson, Mrs Snell and Riley Snell. Thanks to the Year 5s for taking on the leadership roles and responsibilities in the absence of the Year 6s. Your support is much appreciated. Finally, thanks to the staff back at school who needed to make changes to accomodate those on camp - a real team effort.

Mazenod College Day of Excellence

On Monday Fr Andrew and I had the privilidge of attending Mazenod College Day of Excellence, an assembly acknowledging the VCE Class of 2024. It was nice to see some of our former students acknowledged for their VCE results. It was also nice to catch up with the former students, including Lucas.

School Photos – Thursday 13th March, 2025

Please note that our school photos will take place on Wednesday, 13th March. As always, please ensure that students are dressed in full school summer uniform, including school shoes and have well-groomed hair. Order forms were sent home this week and need to be returned to school on or before Wednesday.

Parents and Friends Meeting

Next Tuesday 25th February, we will hold our first Parents and Friends Meeting for 2025. We encourage you all to come along, to help with the organisiation of the events ahead. At this meeting, we also hope to finalise the executive roles for 2025 - if you would like to be involved, please let me know or come along on Tuesday. For more information, please refer to the Parents and Friends page in our newsletter.

There is no doubt that our children love seeing their parents involved with their school, as do the staff. It's also a great way for us all to get to know each other that little bit better.

School Fees 

School Fees have beeen issued to all families. Please refer to Fees and Levies.

Student Absences

We take the opportunity to remind all families that student absences should be reported to school by 8:30am by phoning the office prior to school commencing.

Student Absences are to be reported in the following way:  

1. Leave a message via Student Absence on 9561 7644

We appreciate your support with this advice.

Sacrament Dates 2025

Please refer to Education in Faith for 2025 Sacrament Dates.

School Car Parking - School Gate

We continue to have parents using the car park to drop off and pick up students. Over the last few weeks we have had at least two close calls; one involving a child and the other involving two staff members. To drive into the staff / church car park is one thing, to drove up at a careless speed is another. Both are not permitted. Parents should not enter the school grounds unless prior arrangement has been made with the office. In the next few weeks, the gate will be closed from 8:30am - 9:00am and then again from 3:00pm - 3:45pm. Anyone needed to access the school grounds will need to ring the office. In the mean time, Fr Andrew and Mr Torpey are exploring other ways to help keep our community safe. Thank you to all those who do cooperate and make choices, not necessarily the easiest choice, to keep our community safe. 

Camps Sports and Excursions Fund

 As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

All the best,

Pat

Mr Patrick Torpey

Principal