Principal News

Dear families,

Well done to Year 3M and Miss Matthews on their delightful assembly presentation this morning!  The (Potato) Olympic Spirit is alive and well in Year 3M. 

With our Year 6s out for Hoop Time, these Year 4s stepped up to run assembly today - well done Zoe G, Luke, Phin, Zoe M, Emma and Rhyley! 

Prep 100 Days 

Last Friday, our amazing Preps celebrated their 100th day of school with a beautiful assembly and party, supported by our generous families. Dressed up in the theme of, 'When I grow up...' we congratulate our Preps on this special milestone. A memorable day filled with joy and growth! 

We thank Miss Mclean, Miss Aloi, Mrs Quitt and Mrs Shea for their exceptional dedication in nurturing our precious junior students into school life. 

Below is a small sample of the beautiful feedback that was shared from the day: 

Thank you so much to all the team who made today so special. We’ve all had the best time and the excitement in the lead up was adorable! Happy 100 days!

Today we celebrated 100 days of prep and watched all the little St Joey’s preppies at assembly and what a beautiful experience! To see how all our children are thriving was just delightful. I am sure you get many of these emails but I just had to tell you how very lucky we feel to be part of the St Joseph’s community and to have such wonderful teachers under your leadership.

We appreciate you all and are so very very grateful that she is able to learn in such a wonderful environment.

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the assembly this morning . Miss Aloi , Miss Mclean and all the children did an outstanding job. It was an amazing celebration of their learning journey to date.  As an outsider it is so fabulous to feel the warmth and enthusiasm of the school community. Well done to you and your staff on creating a wonderful place for the children and their families.

We really are so blessed to have such a wonderful parent community. 

Olympic Spirit

The Olympic spirit is alive and well at St Joseph's, with all classes spending time watching various sporting events, talking about the athletes and their efforts, celebrating the wins, learning about the history of, and engaging in learning tasks centred around the Olympics. 

It has been such a wonderful community event, and so special for our students to share this with their classmates. I can vividly recall watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with my primary school classmates (with the teacher bringing in the TV on wheels!) and it has been equally as special to share the Paris Olympics with our St Joseph's students. I have no doubt that there are many teachers across Australia, watching their ex-students competing in Paris and being interviewed on the TV, and beaming with pride. 

One of the slogans circulating in the media, "doing your best by having a go", perfectly captures what we hope for our students at St Joseph's, and for children everywhere. This message resonates not just with the athletes competing on the world stage but also with our students, who strive to overcome challenges, build resilience, and show growth through effort and perseverance. The spirit of the Olympics—where participation and determination are celebrated as much as victory—mirrors the values we seek to instil in our students: courage, persistence, and the belief that every attempt is a step towards personal growth and achievement.

Claudia V (3D) and James B (4C) brought in some special items to share with their classes this week - sharing their respective family Olympic Torches from Sydney.  

Year 5 and 6 Hoop Time at MSAC

Today our Year 5 and 6 students headed off to MSAC for the annual Hoop Time basketball competition. Hoop Time is a 'round robin' basketball tournament, with winning teams progressing to the Regional or State finals series. We thank our staff - Mr Gately, Miss Shanahan, Miss Coldebella, Miss Dusting, Mr Cody and Ms Amanda for their wonderful support and coordination of the day. 

A special thank you to our amazing parent helpers: David W, Carlos F, Paul B, Rod S, Brahan S, Ashlee K, Krisztina W and Glenn M. The staff who attended reported that the behaviour from our students was exceptional, demonstrating wonderful respect for the opposition and grace under pressure. Nothing makes me happier - our St Joseph's students really are the best. 

Year 6 DaVinvi Decathlon

Congratulations to Flossie, Jade, Cara, Seri, Jasmine, Xavier, Harrison and Olivia on their exceptional efforts at the recent Da Vinci Decathlon competition. Competing against 10 schools, we are thrilled (and not at all surprised!) that our St Joseph's students scored so well. A special mention for their 3rd place in the area of 'Creative Producers' and 2nd place in 'Legacy'. Please see the full results table below. 

The Da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition where students compete in challenges across 10 disciplines - art and poetry, cartography, creative producers, engineering, English, science, mathematics, ideation, legacy and code breaking. 

Staff News

Mr Cody returned home from his holiday break with a lovely surprise for us all - he had proposed to his long time partner, Chloe. Congratulations, Peader and Chloe! We are absolutely thrilled for you both. 

Last week, Mr Hartney and Mrs Harrison spoke to 250+ Principals, Deputy Principals and School Leaders at a system-wide network meeting. They were discussing how we design effective professional learning for our staff to improve teacher practice and, ultimately, improve student outcomes. Facilitated by Dr Simon Breakspear (educational leadership expert), Tom and Alannah spoke so well, and we are so proud to have such strong and dynamic leadership at St Joseph's. 

Parents as Partners

It has been really lovely to welcome parent guest speakers into Year 5 and 6 as of late. Sharing their business knowledge as part of the Topic unit of work, we sincerly thank Poppy Griffiths, Chris Georgiou and Karly Champion for taking time out of their day to work with our students. Over the next fortnight we look forward to welcoming Mick Sheehy, Anna Skelton and Corey Layton. 

Little Gems

I received this email last week: 

We saw a familiar face at Mt Buller on the weekend - Mrs Doran! The kids really really wanted a photo with her. 

How cute! There is nothing quite as fun as seeing one of your teachers 'in the wild'. 

Our new auditorium in action! Special guest, Chris Anstey (Hunter, Year 3), spoke to our Year Three students about his Olympic experience playing basketball. How lucky are we to have such an array of expertise in our parent community. Thank you, Chris, for sharing your story with our lucky Year 3 cohort. 

Charlotte and Chloe (Year 2) proudly visited the office to show off their excellent writing skills. 

Our Year 5 and 6 students are busily working away on their Tournament of the Minds (T.O.M) presentations. T.O.M is a problem-solving program for primary and secondary students, designed to enhance their potential by developing diverse skills, time management, and collaborative discipline. The program challenges students to solve demanding, open-ended tasks within a competitive environment. The students will be presenting their scripts next weekend - good luck, St Joseph's!

Year 5C were delighted to be able to borrow books from our new library and are pictured here enjoying the beautiful new furniture. 

If you zoom in, you can see Miss Dusting running along with the students as they participated in the Beep Test as part of their athletics training. All students and parents from Years 3-6 are welcome at this event, which is held every Wednesday morning at Hopetoun Gardens.  

A special mention to Ned and Archie, who were still running through Level 12! 

Looking forward to seeing our families at the formal Opening and Blessing of our new school building next Friday. 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

and see you all next week. 

Claire Tobin

Principal