Week 1, Term 3

Dear families,

Welcome back, after what certainly appears to have been a wonderfully refreshing break for our students, parents and staff. Whilst some may have chased a warmer destination, it was lovely to hear others just unwound with the odd sleep-in, or day at the movies, rested and refreshed for another amazing semester ahead.

There is no doubt we have hit the ground running and are straight back into our teaching and learning program. We have so much to look forward to this term, with the Paris Olympics, Hoop Time, District Athletics, 100 Days of Prep, Feast of the Assumption, Tournament of the Minds, Book Week, St Joseph's Footy Classic, Year 6 Sacrament of Confirmation and the Swimming Program for Years 3-6 scheduled across Term 3.

Congratulations to Year 3D for the stunning assembly they presented this morning. Speaking in front of a packed audience, the students were so confident and articulate while sharing their work on biographies. Congratulations to Miss Dillon and Mrs Pepper for the wonderful work they are doing in the Year 3 space.

Our Beautiful School

We officially completed our building project on Monday, 15th July - just shy of 12 months after signing on with Spaces Australia. I am incredibly proud of what has been created, with absolutely stunning learning and shared spaces for our students. This beautiful transformation of our school will proudly serve our student, staff, and parent community for many years to come. We are indebted to our builders, Spaces Australia, and architects, Smith+Tracey, for their vision and dedication in bringing this project to life, creating a beautiful and functional environment for our school community.

I would like to acknowledge the students and staff for the manner in which they responded throughout this entire building process. They adapted to the changes and accepted that this was part of a process we had to go through to achieve the desired outcome for our new facilities. No stone was left unturned, as they say, last Monday when the staff worked tirelessly to get the school ready for the students on Tuesday morning. They were truly incredible.

Our parents, past and present, have given so generously of their time, energy and financial support. Your contributions have been invaluable, and you can be justifiably satisfied that the newly refurbished classrooms and shared spaces will serve your children well. It has indeed been worth the wait!

I thank our exceptional Parents and Friends Association, lead by Ben Gibbs and Jen Conway (present) and Mary Delahunty and Liz Veneziano (past). These co-Presidents have worked tirelessly within our community to raise funds, all the while strengthening and building community spirit. The new library, funded entirely by P&F, looks simply amazing.

Our dedicated School Advisory Council has been a driving force behind this project, which has been in the pipeline since 2018. A special thank you to our Council Chairs, both present and past, John Ferraro, Madeleine Morris, and Lisa Jones (ex-parent). Your shared vision, advice and expertise has been invaluable.

We will formally bless and open our new facilities on Friday 16th August at 3pm, with a liturgy and walk-through for all our students and families. Please RSVP via the Operoo sent out today.

NAPLAN

Last week, our school NAPLAN results were delivered, and we are thrilled to acknowledge the outstanding achievement of our Year 3 and Year 5 students across all key disciplines. We remind families that NAPLAN results add value to teacher assessment and reporting by showing how their students' achievements compare to a wider group of students across the state and Australia. At St Joseph’s we use this data to track cohorts of students over the years. It is important to remember that the results reflect each student’s performance at a single point in time. It is a snapshot of one form of assessment and should be coupled with the many forms of assessment undertaken by the school. Teachers in all schools assess their students’ learning in literacy and numeracy on a regular basis. NAPLAN testing complements, but does not replace, the information that teachers gather. Should you have any queries regarding your child’s results, please do not hesitate to contact the classroom teacher.

Division Finals Interschool Football

Recently, our winning Football Teams (Year 6 Mixed and Year 5/6 Girls) went off to play in the next round of competition that was held on Wednesday and Thursday. The competition was incredibly tough but, as always, our staff came back beaming with pride at how well the students represented our school and in the way they conducted themselves. We thank Miss Coldebella and Chris Georgiou for coaching our teams, and to all the parents who were able to make it down to watch part of the games. We are indebted to our parents for supporting our school community in these ways.

2025 Plans

It is that time of the year where we start to plan for the coming year. We politely ask all families to notify the school should your child/children not be returning to St Joseph's in 2025. We have had a number of enquiries in recent weeks and have waiting lists across most year levels. Having an accurate indication of our enrolment numbers for next year ensures we are able to plan accordingly and access appropriate funding. We thank you for your cooperation.

P-2 News

The Junior School have had plenty of visitors recently, with many parents volunteering to speak to the students about their personal history stories. Pictured below is Sloan and EJ tasting a special caramel treat from Argentina, with thanks to Goldie (Prep M) and her Mum, Carmen. Please head on over to the Junior School News page for all the details.

Little Gems

Our strong theme of 'teachers dressing like twins' continues into Term 3.

Our Year 3s have started their writing unit on biographies and are just loving it.

As the Preps prepare for their 100th day of school, Oscar (Prep M) proudly showed off the footy boots his Dad wore in his 100th AFL game.

Our Preps, 1s and 2s are reading 'The Little Refugee' by Anh Do and Suzanne Do. We received the loveliest email from one of our famlies - how lucky are we:

He was retelling us Ahn Do’s little refugee story. His recall was amazing and gosh, what an amazing story!! We’ve been so inspired to get a copy of the book to read ourselves! Thankyou so much for widening the children’s perspective on issues and sharing this with them. Such a wonderful learning experience for them!

This beautiful photo was taken one morning before school - our Preps enjoying the playground before the first bell.

On Wednesday we hosted some staff from Sacred Heart Sandringham, as they wanted to observe our expert teachers in action. We sincerely thank Miss Crawley (4C), Miss Shanahan (6S) and Miss Melissa (LSO) for opening up their classroom and learning spaces to facilitate this. Another special example of our staff leading the way in teaching and learning.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our first two weeks back such a success. We are celebrating our Preps 100th day at school next Friday with a special assembly - do not miss out! There is so much to look forward to at St Joseph's this term.

Claire Tobin

Principal

St Mary's College