Dear Parents,

Congratulations to the students from 1/2 community who showcased their Indonesian conversational skills and our talented singers who performed at Cafe last Friday. It was wonderful to see our students shine and flourish in their strengths.

The Cafe is a wonderful place to connect with members of our community. Each Cafe we will be showcasing learning from one community. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Matt Demarte, Luke Hewitt and Kerry Colliver on the excellent work in our Joey’s Cafe.

I would also like to congratulate all of our Year 4/5/6 students and staff on the wonderful work in preparing for the upcoming Wakakirri performance. Providing opportunities for students to perform is paramount to ensuring our students can be creative, confident and expressive learners. A huge thank you to Sue Jackson our Deputy of Learning who is leading the organisation of the performance and to our past student Taz Deefholts who is teaching the students the dances.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go with our Year 6 students to the Padua production of Mamma Mia last Wednesday in the spectacular new performing arts centre at Padua Mornington. It was a brilliant performance providing such motivation for our students to see what they can achieve on the stage. A shout out to past students Callum Riddell and Jade Ross who performed.

Building positive connections with our feeder Secondary school provides opportunities for us to build a Prep- 12 education for many students. I am meeting with Padua tomorrow to further discuss ways we can ensure our students are ready for the next stage of their education.

We celebrate the growth our students made in the first Semester of 2023 and also the positive results many achieved in Naplan 2023. We continue with our main focus coming out of review in 2022 ensuring every student makes the necessary growth in Literacy and Numeracy. This includes minimising any interruptions to the learning blocks each day. Our learning design ensures students have two hours of Literacy each day and one hour of Maths. On top of this our students also have 15 minutes of Maths fluency each day providing above the expected time allocation for Maths.

We have a high priority on ensuring our students are working to the highest standard in these learning blocks and we are focussing on the learning dispositions required to be a successful learner. Don’t forget students need to sometimes squirm to learn and it is ok to feel uncomfortable in the learning zone so students are extending their zone of proximal development and achieving to their full potential.

Please keep supporting your child by ensuring all students are doing their home learning- reading every night and fluency and word work as the practice and repetition of basic facts makes a big difference to their learning growth.

We wish our Year 4 students all the best as they prepare for the Sacrament of Eucharist Sunday 30th July at 8am at St Peter's in Shoreham.

We also wish our senior students all the best as they travel to North Melbourne this week to present their Kids in Space innovations. We look forward to hearing more about their wonderful work being avid Scientists. We also hope our Foundation students enjoy their excursion to the Lume in the city.

Just a reminder students must wear full St Joseph’s uniform. This includes leather like black school shoes. Unless an arrangment has been made with myself due to sensory needs students can not wear black runners as their formal shoes. We have funds from our wonderful Parishioners to buy shoes for students so please let me know if you need support.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab

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