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,
Year3/4 Camp Toolangi Excursion and Camp
Our Year 3 and Year 4 students have returned from their exciting adventures at Camp Toolangi! Set on 12 acres of beautiful natural bushland adjoining Toolangi State Forest in the Yarra Valley, the camp provided the perfect setting for students to learn, explore and challenge themselves outside the classroom.
By all reports, our students had a fantastic time and embraced the many experiences camp had to offer. It was a wonderful opportunity for our Middle School students to build independence and confidence, strengthen friendships, try new things and create lasting memories together.
A huge thank you to all the staff who gave their time to make both camp experiences possible. In particular, we thank Mrs Pitt and Mr Mosele for coordinating the camps. An enormous amount of planning, organisation and paperwork takes place behind the scenes for many months, and we are very grateful for their hard work and commitment.
We also extend our sincere thanks to Mrs Wegmann, Mr Snell, Mrs McGrath, Mrs Wickens, Miss Dalach, Mrs Rowlings and Mrs Delillo for their time, care and support throughout the camps.
We hope our Year 3 and Year 4 students have returned home with plenty of great stories to share and wonderful memories of their Camp Toolangi adventures!
Important Dates
Whilst we have most dates in the calendar, some dates include:
- Tuesday 15th September - P&F Mini Pie & Sausage Roll Lunch
- Friday 18th September - Footy Colours Day
Friday 18th September - Last Day of Term 3 - 1:00pm finish
Please refer to Dates Ahead for more dates. Please note that dates do change from time to time.
R U OK Day?
R U OK? Day is held on the second Thursday of September each year. Today our school community came together to take part in this important initiative.
Have you ever felt that someone you know or care about isn’t behaving as they normally would? Maybe they seem out of sorts? Showing signs of agitation or withdrawing? Perhaps they’re just not themselves. Trust that gut instinct and act on it. Follow the link to learn about the signs and when it's time to ask R U OK?.
By starting a conversation and commenting on the changes you’ve noticed, you could help that person open up. If they say they are not OK, you can follow the R U OK? conversation steps to show them they’re supported and help them find strategies to better manage the load. If they are OK, that person will know you’re someone who cares enough to ask.
Footy Colours Day - Friday 18th September
We’re getting behind Fight Cancer Foundation’s Footy Colours Day to help support Australian kids and families affected by cancer.
On Friday 18th September, students are invited to come to school dressed in their favourite footy colours! Wear your team’s jumper, scarf, beanie, colours or other footy gear and help us fill the school with team spirit for an important cause.
Every day, 3 Aussie kids are diagnosed with cancer, and many families need to travel long distances from home for treatment. Money raised through Footy Colours Day helps Fight Cancer Foundation provide accommodation and support for families during this challenging time.
How can you help?
Come dressed in your favourite footy colours on Friday 18th September.
Please make a donation to support Fight Cancer Foundation.
Click the link below to make a donation:
Every donation, big or small, helps make a difference for kids with cancer and their families.
Get your footy colours ready and help us kick goals for kids with cancer!
Holiday Hen Helpers
The holidays are coming, and while our students and staff are getting ready for a break, there’s one little group at St Justin’s who will still be clocking in every day… our chickens!
From Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October, we’re looking for families who might be able to pop into school and help care for our feathered friends and veggie patch.
It’s a quick and easy job, simply check and refill their food and water, collect any eggs and give the veggie patch some love while you’re there.
And there is a little bonus… any freshly laid eggs you collect are yours to take home! We can’t promise how productive the girls will be, but hopefully they’ll make it worth your visit.
Holiday Care Dates: Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 OctoberWhere: St Justin’s Chicken Coop & Veggie Patch.
If your family can help, please use the link below to choose a day (or a few!) that suits you.
When signing up, please include your phone number and email address. This allows families to contact one another if plans change or days need to be swapped.
Every family who volunteers helps us make sure our chickens are well cared for and our veggie patch stays happy while school is quiet. We really appreciate you giving up a little bit of your holiday time to help.
The chickens have assured us they’ll be on their best behaviour… although we can’t make any promises.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GgLCwf5sYEzlNteJtnx3ZHx619dMl2Kk4ilZqC539W0/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you for helping keep our little St Justin’s farmyard running!
PE Donations
If any families have sports equipment they no longer need and would like to donate, we would be very grateful! You can drop equipment off at the office, or send it in with your child to pass on to Mrs Slonim. We are particularly looking for balls that kids can use at playtimes (basketballs, soccer balls, footballs).
Thank you
We would like to thanks to all the parents that kindly gave up their time to assist with Prep and Year 1 PMP. This program has been a huge success and we couldn’t have done it without the support from our community of volunteers!
VPASS
We had planned to smoothly transition to a new sign in/out system across the school holidays and communicate to you this change and how it would affect you all before the end of this term, however our old provider has accidentally cut us off early so....We have now unexpectedly gone live with our new sign in/out system called VPass.
We have been cleaning up the previous systems database for volunteers and visitors and unfortunately it has had to be done rather quickly today so that we can get your invitations out to you so that you can signup.
VPass has some bonus features which we think you'll love.
- When you sign your child in or out, it automatically updates the roll so there is no more manual intervention required and less chance of an unexplained absence sms.
- You can download the VPass App for easy sign in.
- You can save your QR code to your digital wallet and signing in gets even easier for you
- It automatically checks every VIT/WWCC as people sign in and this helps us to keep the children in our care safer
We are awaiting VPass to upload the relevant data and then the VPass Welcome Letter will be issued in the course of the next couple of days. See attached below for what it will look similar to.
In the meantime, please ensure that you have your WWCC or VIT with you when you visit so that we can make the login process a bit smoother for all.
We kindly ask that you are patient with us as we work through this expedited process, the timing is much earlier than we would have liked and we are doing our very best to play catch up and try to minimise the angst for all.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and we look forward to sharing more of the benefits of VPass with you all soon.
St Justin’s Art Show
Our St Justin's Art Show is fast approaching and will be held from Wednesday Oct 21st – Fri October 23rd. The opening for the Art Show will be Wednesday 21st October at 5.00pm.
The students have been creating some fantastic artwork during Visual Arts lessons
and we are excited to showcase their creativity, imagination and hard work.
MACSIS Survey
Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys (MACSSIS): Surveys (MACSSIS): Monday 31 August –18 September 2026
Throughout each year, we pause to listen to our students, families and staff to gauge how our learning community is travelling. This feedback is invaluable to our progress as effective school communities and is backed by evidence-based research and best practices.
A significant and formal way in which we engage and gather data is through MACSSIS, the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys.
Thank you to the 33 families who have already taken the time to complete the survey. It would be great if we could have more families fill in the survey as your feedback is very important to us.
2026 P&F MONSTAR FUN RUN
The Colour Run is coming back to St Justin's on the 16th October 2026 and we cannot wait to see our Colour Runners passing each station looking like they just ran through a rainbow!
Flyers are going home in the class buckets today and all students need to create a profile for this event and to do so, click on the link: http://www.australianfundraising.com.au/
To find out more about "MONTY THE MONSTAR FUN RUN" Fundraiser see the attached and stay tuned for more details to follow next term!
Colour Run Newsletter Entry.png
We're excited, and we hope you are too. So save the date in your calendar and we'll keep you posted.
Parents and Friends
A big thank you to the Parent and Friends who generously gave their time to run the Pie Drive and Second-Hand Uniform Sale.
We greatly appreciate your time and support into making these opportunities available to our school community.
Fair on the Hill
Our Fair on the Hill will be held on Saturday 7th November 2026 (the weekend after the Melbourne Cup - lock it in). Please refer to the Fair on the Hill page for more details.
Next week, families will receive information packs inviting families to contribute in various ways. The information packs will include:
- Lucky Jar & Choc toss donation/free dress day
- Cake stall donation details
- Family Sponsorship opportunity
- Invitation to Volunteer (the more the merrier)
As always, we are extremely grateful for the amazing amount of work which has already gone into organising this community every - much appreciated. We would love everyone to get behind our volunteers and support them when and where we can.
2027 Prep Enrolments
If you have a child starting Prep in 2027, please be sure to continue to check your emails for updated information and for any outstanding items that may need to be sent to the office.
We are looking forward to seeing all the children and their parents as part of our Prep Transition program throughout Term 4.
Dates for these are as follows:
- Thurs 22nd October 2026 - 7:30pm - 9:30pm - Information Evening (Parents only)
Thurs 5th November 2026 - 9:15am – 10:45am - Transition Session 1
(Students & Parent School Readiness Session in the PAC)
Thurs 12th November 2026 - 9:15am - 10:15am - Transition Session 2
(Students & Parent Mathematics and Literacy Session)
- Friday 27th November 2026 - 9:15am-10:15am - Transition Session 3 (Students)
- Friday 4th December 2026 - 9:15am-12:00 noon - Prep 2027 Students Orientation
- Tuesday 2nd March 2027 - 7:30pm - 8:30pm - Managing Big Feelings Webinar (Parents only)
Privacy policy, students and parent updated
OurAdministration of Medication Policyhas changed.
The updated documents are available on the MACS policies webpage in the ‘Governance’ tab.
All the best
Pat
Mr Patrick Torpey
Principal