Principal's News
Dear Families,
What an amazing week we have had, once again, showing our incredible sense of community at St Joseph's.
We began the week with our Election Day event last weekend and showed how community is at the heart of our school. It's the connections between students, families, staff and friends that make our school feel like home. We saw this in action on Election Day - our community came together in the most incredible way and created such a joyful and positive atmosphere,. We worked together to support our school and creating a wonderful sense of community spirit for our children, families and for the wider community. With the smell of the sausages, the sound of live jazz, a visit from everyone's favourite Bluey and a bake sale full of treats, the day was filled with the St Joseph community spirit.
This strong sense of community continued into our Open Day and again today with our Mother's Day breakfast, liturgy and lunch.
Take the time to enjoy the photos in this week's newsletter which really highlight the joy of being part of St Joseph's community. Whether you are a student, parent, staff member, extended family member, everyone is valued and loved in this wonderful community.
Thank you to everyone for your support, and love for our school.
We Welcome Pope Leo XIV - A Message of Joy and Unity
The Catholic Church and Catholic school communities across Australia have greeted the election of Pope Leo XIV with great joy. The Pope's call for peace, and his reminder the light of Christ is with us, will inspire school leaders, teachers, students and families across our country just as Pope Francis did. Pope Leo XIV opened his pontificate with greetings of peace, telling the crowds who waited in St Peter's Square "Peace be with you". He shared beautiful words about our mission and the task of building bridges.
The beautiful reaction from those in St. Peter's Square the moment Pope Leo XIV came to the balcony: https://x.com/colmflynnire/status/1920608783010578497
Archbishop Peter A Comensoli of Melbourne released a statement on 9 May, offering congratulations on behalf of the local Church.
‘With profound joy, I extend heartfelt congratulations to our newly elected Holy Father, and Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XIV,’ Archbishop Comensoli wrote.
To read more about our new Pope Leo XIV visit this link: https://melbournecatholic.org/news/habemus-papam-australian-catholics-welcome-pope-leo-xiv
Prayer for Pope Leo XIV
We pray for Pope Leo XIV, for his wisdom and guidance as he assumes the leadership of our Catholic Church.
Faithful God,
You guide us on the path of life and your goodness is our constant companion.
Be with our new Shepherd, Pope Leo XIV, in his service of the Church.
Fill him with the power of your Spirit, the peace of your presence and the compassion of Christ.
May he walk with you, in wisdom and humility, and lead us, together with all God’s people, to embody your love for the world.
Amen.
Prayer for Mums
Heavenly Father
We thank You for the gift of motherhood.
On Mother's Day, we celebrate the loving sacrifice of mothers who nurture and guide us in Your ways.
Bless them with joy, strength, and love to continue their selfless devotion.
May they feel deeply appreciated, loved and honoured not just on Mother's Day, but every day.
Amen
Mother's Day Breakfast & Liturgy
Today we had our annual St Joseph's Mother's Day Breakfast and our very special Mother's Day Liturgy run by our beautiful Preps. The liturgy was so beautiful that I don't think there was a dry eye in the hall! Our gorgeous Preps stole the show as they led us in prayer and then handed their Mums a flower. The love in the room was so beautiful to see.
Thank you to the amazing Dads who came to school at 7:30am to set up for the Mother's Day breakfast and serve our Mums. We appreciate you helping out and giving our Mums, who we love so much, a very special morning!
Here are some photos from the Mother's Day Breakfast...
Our Mothers Day liturgy led by our gorgeous Preps...
Thank you to one of our mums Fleur (Mum of Andre) for providing the gorgeous flowers for our Prep children to give to their mums.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing mums, grandmas, special women and carers in our community. We thank God for the love, care and strength you show every day. This morning at our liturgy, we shared a special video to celebrate you.
Thank you to Ms DeVisser, Ms La Rosa and Ms Liolios for preparing the liturgy and the gorgeous slideshow of our Preps sharing what they love about their mums and the slideshow of the family photos. If you missed it or would like to watch it again, you can find it below:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NuAbBnZVURMai_qx1FLLmsXccK4m06wJIUmkQdppPaA/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLi0jcoW1tU&list=PL4iEuorr8INV3JpMwhpAFRlPmPPMZVCB3&index=6
Parents and Friends Mother's Day Lunch
A huge thank you to Claire and Liv who put on a very special Mother's Day lunch today. And whilst they had a last minute emergency, they managed to re-organise the whole event in less than 30 minutes! St Joey's mums can do anything!
Our mums enjoyed a very well deserved afternoon making new friends, and gathering with old friends. We wish them all a very happy Mother's Day!
Our Assembly Today
Although we didn't have a full assembly today we still celebrated children's birthdays and Mr Butler's birthdays too! Billy in Prep also made a special request at the beginning of the school day to lead the school in praying our school prayer as a Mother's Day gift to his mum (Claire).
We wish each of our birthday children and Mr Butler Tanti Auguri for this week!
Election Day - A Massive Thank You!
The most heartfelt thank you to all the wonderful members of our school community who supported us with our Election Day on Saturday.
For the tremendous help (often for many hours) on the BBQ or bake sale:Jess Purcell, Claire Yelland, Tash Godakanda, Kate Tehan, Petrina Stewart, Stef Brunetti, Zac Ryan, Liv Healy, James Dennis, Lukas Konieczny, Jess Dennis, Natasha Lapthorne, Deb Vukovic, Simon Hulett, Jane Pausewang, Bryony Ross, Sally Fiddes, Courtney Jendra, James Yelland, Angelo Hatzis, Stephen Plunkett, Tim Pietsch, Jared Lapthorne, Mary Stafford, Adriana Adamopoulous, Rachel Wilson, Elma Casco, Sarah Shergold, Michael Tuohey, Rashida Peri, Sami Clarke, Angelo Hatzis, Hanna Rose and Caz McBride.
To all the families who contributed financially towards the day. We appreciate your generosity and support of our school.
A huge shout out to Narelle Thompson for her support through Cubbyhouse Canteen, supplying us with her delicious gingerbread for the bake sale and promoting us through her instagram.
Thank you to Liv Healy for dropping flyers to letterboxes in our local community - so many people said they found out about the event because of this letterbox drop. Thank you, Liv!
To all parents who baked goods: we were overwhelmed! Life is busy and people generously gave their time. We are grateful. And we sold out! It's no surprise as they looked and smelt so good!
To Angela Nicolai who led the bake sale. Ange organised and distributed the baking kits, wrote the pamphlet, organised very professional labels and tags, packaged goods the night before the big day, arrived super early to make sure our stall looked beautiful and baked (and baked and baked). We couldn’t have done it without her!
To Nathan and Jessica Presley, parents of Blue in Prep, for their generous help negotiating the purchase of 1,300 sausages.
A huge thank you to our P&F Exec Team: Laura Kay, Talia Hassett, Jane Pausewang and Fatima Sampayo for the behind the scenes planning and so much hard work on the day. Your work ethic and commitment to our school was in full force.
Thank you to our parents who supported us with tours on the day- Liv Healy and Claire Yelland for taking the time to talk to prospective families about our great school and great community.
Of course, thanks to our community who shared our event on their socials and encouraged friends and family to come along.
And a special thank you to our staff who attended on the day, giving up part of their weekend to support our community and join in the fun! Thank you to our leadership team for supporting with the school tours. This was a great opportunity to welcome new families to our community. Thank you also to Dean for all the creative marketing on our socials for this event. Special thanks to Lynnette who organised the AEC last year to run a polling booth at St Joseph's, for fielding many requests in the lead up, and for supporting tremendously on the day. And to our amazing Isabelle who managed all of the finances behind the scenes.
Sincere apologies if I have missed anyone here and I thank you on behalf of our community for your contributions, prior to, and on the day.
And last, but absolutely not least, to Kate Tehan for supporting with liaising with the AEC and behind the scenes running around to make an event like this happen. We thank you for your initiative, drive and relentless hard work to make this such a success!
The Election Day event raised a huge $8182.50! What an amazing team effort led by our amazing P&F and supported by our community! We thank the P&F for their ongoing support of the school in organising events to raise funds that will directly benefit the children at our school.
A few fun photos from our Election Day on Saturday!
It was so great to see the joy in our community coming together. Connections between students, families, staff and friends is what makes our school feel like home.Thank you again for your wonderful support in helping to make this event such a success for our school community. This is the St Joseph's spirit in action.
Children's Voting at St Joseph's on Election Day
For all the children who took part in the children's voting on Saturday at our Election Day, the winner was Bluey! Thank you to Ms Stacey for kindly counting all the votes!
Open Day at St Joseph's this week
This week we had the last of our more formal Open Days for 2026. A very special thank you to Narelle from Cubbyhouse Canteen who made these gorgeous cookies for our Open Day. Not only did they look fantastic but we heard they tasted delicious too!
A couple of our gorgeous boys Gus and Wolf thought the cookies looked pretty good too!
Whilst we have completed our more formal Open Days for 2026 we encourage prospective families to book a tour with us at any time. Please encourage any families you know who are looking for a school for 2026 and beyond to be in touch with us. We would love to show them our beautiful school.
Enrolments for 2026
It is always very exciting when we begin to look forward to our enrolments for the next year. As we begin to plan for 2026 we thank you to the families who have been in touch with our office to let us know that your child will be commencing Prep in 2026. If you have not done so as yet, we request that you please make contact with the office as soon as possible to make sure we have your child enrolled for next year. It is very important that we have this information as soon as possible. Thank you!
Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram
Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook: Search 'St Joseph's Primary School, Malvern'
Instagram: Search 'stjosephsmalvern'
The more you like, comment and share, the more we raise the profile of our amazing school!
Junior Joey's Playgroup
Our amazing Ms Stacey has our Junior Joey's playgroup back up and running! What a wonderful start we had on Monday. Junior Joeys will run each Monday from 9am to 10am in our multipurpose room. If you have a young child from 0-5 years please come and join us. It is a great way to make friends and help your children make connections in a supportive and welcoming environment. We look forward to seeing you there!
Eucharist Parent Information Night
Thank you to our children and families who attended the Eucharist Parent Information Night on Thursday night. Thank you also to the Year 4 teachers, Grace Harrick and David Prowse and our Religious Education Leader Ms De Visser. The children and families had the opportunity to talk about their experience of Eucharist and listen to Fr Gallacher who provided a meaningful opportunity to deepen the children's understanding of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. We appreciate Father Gallacher spending this time with us and sharing so much detail about receiving the Eucharist with the families. We will continue to pray for the children over the coming weeks as they prepare for this sacrament.
Chess Club Commences at St Joseph's
This week the St Joseph's Chess Club began once again. Chess Club will run every Tuesday at the second break. Thanks to Alfred in Year 6 who supported younger students, teaching them how to play!
Winter Uniform From Next Week
From next week (Week 4), the children will be expected to wear their Winter uniform.
As we change to our Winter Uniform it is timely to communicate a few gentle reminders:-
- Please ensure your child is wearing the correct uniform on the appropriate days
- Correct shoes should be worn with the correct uniform (ie school shoes with academic uniform, runners with sports uniform)
- Hair accessories in the school colours
- Jewellery should be simple and appropriate for school
- No nail polish or fake tattoos
- No other jackets, hoodies, etc other than the school uniform
It is so wonderful to see our students wearing their uniform with pride. Thank you to parents for supporting this so that we can continue to maintain our high standards.
Family School Calendar
Here is the link to our family school calendar so that you can keep up to date with school events across the year.
https://www.sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au/mevents
Staying connected...
If, at any time, you have any concerns or worries about your child's wellbeing, learning, or friendships, please do not hesitate to have a chat with your child's teacher as your first point of contact. If you have other concerns, please feel free to touch base with our wonderful admin team, a member of school leadership, or myself. For more serious concerns, I encourage you to please reach out by either making an appointment through the office to see me, or contacting me directly via email.
Wishing all the wonderful Mum's in our school community a very Happy Mother's Day!
With warmest regards,
Annabelle Marinelli
Principal