Principal's News   

Dear Families,

As Term 3 comes to a close, I invite you to take a moment to reflect and celebrate the many wonderful learning experiences, achievements and moments of connection that have made this term so special at St Joseph’s.

Across the term, our students have continued to demonstrate academic growth and sporting achievements, as well as growth through the arts, leadership opportunities, faith formation and community events – there has been so much to celebrate.

Some of the highlights from Term 3 have included our very valuable Parent-Teacher Meetings at the beginning of the term, which provided an opportunity for teachers to share the learning achievements of our students. This was followed by our NAIDOC Week celebrations and the Year 5/6 excursion to the NGV. We enjoyed our 100 Days of Prep celebration, karate presentation, Maths Olympiad, lacrosse incursion and the Year 4 visit to St Mary’s College. We have also enjoyed the HOLT Inter School Sports, our wonderful Book Week celebrations and Indigenous Literacy Day activities.

It has been lovely to welcome new students, families and staff (Ms Zara Boyadjian in Year 1) into our school community this term, adding to the richness and diversity of our St Joseph’s family. We farewelled Mrs Correy as she begins an exciting new chapter preparing to welcome her baby, and we wish her every happiness during this special time.

Our youngest members of the community have also had many opportunities to connect and learn. We welcomed new families to our Junior Joey’s Playgroup and we commenced our Pre-Prep Program for our 2027 Prep students, including the first of our Orientation sessions – our wonderful Teddy Bears Picnic. These experiences provide our youngest children and their families with an opportunity to begin building connections and becoming familiar with our school community.

We have also celebrated important community and wellbeing events, including our R U OK? Day, as well as our Father’s Day celebrations and our whole-school Footy Day, both of which have been supported by our wonderful P&F. These occasions have provided opportunities for us to recognise the importance of kindness, belonging and looking after each other, as well as enjoying lots of fun!

Faith continues to be at the heart of our school community. Across the term, students have participated in class liturgies, masses and faith formation experiences, including preparation for Confirmation. We have continued to build strong connections with our parish, welcoming our parish seminarians Anthony and Patrick into our school, where they have worked with our students, teaching them about the art of singing and learning new hymns. They have also worked with our senior students to give meaning to our House names. These moments remind us of the strong connection between our school and parish and the values that guide us as a Catholic community.

Equally important has been the way our students have lived out our school values of kindliness and strength. We have seen students supporting one another, making positive choices, showing care and compassion, and contributing to a welcoming, respectful and inclusive school community. These everyday moments are just as important as the achievements we celebrate, and reflect the kind of young people we hope our students will become as they grow. Today at assembly some of these children were acknowledged for demonstrating our school values, with a Principal’s certificate awarded for Term 3. 

As we come towards the end of the term, our students and staff have enjoyed our class liturgies and Open Book activities throughout the week, providing a wonderful opportunity to celebrate learning and share achievements. We finished the term together today with our annual Footy Colours Celebration Day, bringing our community together in a fun and joyful way.

We are incredibly proud of all that our students have achieved throughout Term 3. More importantly, we are proud of the way they continue to grow as learners, friends and members of our community.

We thank everyone in our St Joseph’s community who has contributed in big and small ways throughout the term. We are especially grateful to our families and staff for their ongoing encouragement, care and support. Your partnership plays such an important role in helping our children thrive and making these wonderful experiences and successes possible.

I would like to thank our School Advisory Council, led by Kate Tehan and Michael Tuohey, for their ongoing support of our school, providing advice to me in making decisions that will continue to drive important school initiatives. I am also grateful to our P&F and parent/carer community for continuing to support events for our children and families. From the Working Bee earlier this term to the Winter Drinks hosted by our P&F Exec Team - our P&F parents continue to support our community through events, activities and fundraisers that provide wonderful opportunities for our families to come together.

As we head into the holidays, we wish all our families a safe, happy and restful break. We hope the holidays provide an opportunity to slow down, enjoy time together and celebrate the many wonderful moments of the term.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back for an exciting Term 4, refreshed, renewed and ready for all that the final term of the year will bring.

Thank you for another wonderful term!

End of Term Prayer

Loving Father, 

As we conclude this term, we are grateful for the blessings and challenges of the past months. 

Thank You for the lessons learned, the friendships made, and the growth we've experienced. 

We ask for Your grace to rest and recharge during this holiday break. 

Keep us safe, refresh our minds and bodies, and allow us to enjoy time with our families and friends. 

Bring us back to school renewed and ready for the next term. 

In Your name, we pray.

Amen. 

Class Liturgies and Open Book

This week, each class across the school hosted their own end-of-term Class Liturgy and Open Book event, providing a wonderful opportunity for families to come together in prayer, reflection and celebration.

It was a joy to see our students leading the liturgies, confidently sharing prayers and songs with their families and classmates. These moments highlighted not only their growing confidence and sense of responsibility, but also the importance of faith and community in the life of our school.

Following the liturgies, it was so lovely to see our classrooms filled with families joining children in celebrating and exploring learning from the term. The children proudly and enthusiastically shared their learning achievements. 

We are grateful to all the families who joined us and helped make these celebrations so special. The Class Liturgies and Open Book events were a beautiful reminder of the strong partnership between home and school, and of the wonderful learning, faith and growth taking place across our school community.

Prep Class Liturgy and Open Book

Year 1 Class Liturgy and Open Book

Year 2 Class Liturgy and Open Book 

Year 3 Class Liturgy and Open Book

Year 4 Class Liturgy and Open Book

Year 5 and 6 Class Liturgy and Open Book (Postponed to Term 4)

Footy Colours Celebration Day at St Joseph's!

Today, on the last day of term, we enjoyed our annual Footy Colours Day! The school was alive with energy and team spirit as students, parents and staff, and our 2027 Preps, proudly wore the colours of their favourite football teams. 

Mr Butler and Year 3BD were busily preparing in advance for the day...

It was a beautiful sunny morning to welcome our children and families at the school gates this morning- how lovely to see everyone in their footy colours!

Everyone had a great time taking part in the parade, activities and games that brought the school community together in a lively and festive atmosphere. This was a fantastic way to end the term, and it was wonderful to see so many students and staff joining in the excitement and celebrating their love of footy! Such great St Joseph's spirit! We extend a very big thank you to Mr Butler and Ms Carman for organising such a fun filled footy colours day for our students!

It was also wonderful to have our Pre-Preps join us for the footy fun this morning! As part of their Pre-Prep experience, they came along to enjoy the excitement and energy of the day, joining in with our students and soaking up the wonderful sense of school spirit and community. It was lovely to see their enthusiasm and excitement as they participated in the parade. Their presence added an extra special touch to the morning and gave our younger students, and families, a wonderful opportunity to begin building connections with our school community.

We extend a huge thank you to our wonderful P&F for supporting our Footy Colours Day cooking a delicious sausage lunch for our children -  which were very much enjoyed by all. We thank our fabulous mums from the P&F who worked to organise the day - Angela L, Angela N and Hayley B. We sincerely thank the mums who generously came along to help on the day today - Lisa L, Liv H, Annabelle M, Sarah J, Georgina H, Kylie S, Hayley and Angela N for kindly supporting with the lunch, and to Tennille B, Ana C, Jess G, Jacqueline C, Yvonne Y, Elma C and Angela N for generously providing the pop top juices for the children. We appreciate you all so much and we thank you for making this day an extra special fun one for the children.

The children thoroughly enjoyed their sausages, juice pops and zooper doopers!

We also thank the wonderful Year 10 student leaders from De La Salle College who kindly came along to help with out with our footy activities today. It was so great to have them here at St Joseph's leading the sports rotations and building relationships with our students. We sincerely thank  - Harley, Christian, Liam, Noah M, Lachie, Noah S, Ollie, Jordan and Enzo! You were such a joy to have in our school! 

With the footy finals just around the corner, we are looking forward to seeing more thrilling matches and cheering on our favourite teams. We hope everyone continues to enjoy the season and keeps the footy spirit alive as the finals approach!

Our Year 4, 5 and 6 Students at De La Salle's Art, Design and Technology Exhibition

We were thrilled to be invited to attend De La Salle's Art, Design and Technology Exhibition, which was a celebration of artistic and technological excellence.

On Tuesday this week, our Year 4, 5 and 6 students had the exciting opportunity to visit De La Salle College for a hands-on Art, Design and Technology experience.

Students explored the specialist learning spaces, taking part in engaging activities designing and creating using the schools  Art, Design and Technology learning spaces. 

This year’s exhibition highlighted the creativity and innovation of our students from Years 7 to 12. The showcase included an exciting mix of work across various disciplines - Art, Photography, Architecture, Visual Communication Design, and STEM. It was a wonderful opportunity for our senior students to attend this celebration of the imagination, skill and effort our students have poured into their projects throughout the year.

We thank Eliza, Sandy and Stephen (Dad of Ada in Year 1) from De La Salle, for taking the time to host us and show us around.

The students were teated to a very nice surprise as well! 

Year 4 Student Comments from the Visit to De La Salle College:

Alina: It was very fun, and it was great to see how talented the De La Salle students were with their art. The teachers were very kind and polite towards us.

Lucas: The students at De La Salle are very good at art, and the staff were very kind.

Penelope: Everyone at De La Salle was very creative, and the students shared information about their artworks. They were very kind to invite us and to give us a donut and a box of juice each.

Abigail: I loved visiting De La Salle. I got to see my brother, who was kindly helping to fix someone’s artwork. The teachers have very high expectations of the students at De La Salle, and the boys were very well-mannered. The artwork was very creative, and the artworks had their own creativity and personalities.

Sensational St Joseph’s Learners! 

Our Year 1 students from 1MJ have been busy writing narratives with Ms Jackson, our Structured Literacy Leader, and I was so impressed by the creativity and quality of their work! They have written wonderfully imaginative stories using rich vocabulary, descriptive adjectives, paragraphs and clearly sequenced events. Their writing was so beautifully crafted that I could almost have mistaken their work for that of some of our much older students! A huge congratulations to all our Year 1 learners, and especially to Isabella, Henry and Max, who proudly came to share their wonderful narratives with me. 

What fantastic writers you are! We are so proud of you! 

Gardening Club 

Our Secret Garden is coming along beautifully, thanks to our wonderful team of keen little gardeners and Mr Butler through Gardening Club. This week, our students got their hands dirty as they busily and enthusiastically planted a range of vegetables in our garden beds.

It was wonderful to see their excitement as they worked together, learning about gardening, caring for our environment and watching their garden grow. We look forward to seeing the capsicum, tomatoes, lettuce, and onion plants flourish and, hopefully, enjoying the fruits of their hard work later in the season! This week they had their first little harvest of radishes! We are so grateful to Mr Butler for his enthusiasm in creating this opportunity for our children

Congratulations Hudson!

A huge congratulations to our wonderful staff member Hudson Priamo, who has helped his Baseball Club celebrate an incredible achievement as the 2026 A Grade Premiers of the Melbourne Winter Baseball League! It was wonderful to hear that Hudson’s biggest fans- Gus in Year 2 and Wolf in Year 5 were there, cheering him on and celebrating this special moment. We are so proud of Hudson and his commitment, teamwork and dedication. Well done, Hudson - what a fantastic achievement! And how lovely for two of our students Gus and Wolf, to witness his passion for their sport.

Karate Stars!

Our amazing karate stars finished the term with their grading on Thursday morning. They all did a fantastic job and showed great focus, determination and enthusiasm!

A big thank you to Andrew from All Stars Martial Arts Academy and our wonderful Year 4 and 5 karate students - Harvey, Lucas, Ari and Darci  for supporting and encouraging the younger students so kindly. What a wonderful way to finish the term!

Pictured below you will see some of our students after their grading on Thursday morning. We are so proud of their efforts and the progress they have made!

There are also some St Joseph’s students completing their grading at a Grading Day event this weekend. We wish them all the very best and look forward to celebrating their achievements!

Lovely Past Student News!

We have some lovely news to share with our St Joseph’s Malvern community!

We are absolutely delighted to celebrate the wonderful achievement of Ingrid, a past St Joseph’s Malvern student and former School Captain, who has been elected School Captain of Sacré Coeur for 2027. It is such a joy to see our former students continuing to grow, flourish and embrace leadership opportunities as they move into their high school years. Ingrid’s achievement is a wonderful reflection of the confidence, character and leadership she developed during her time at St Joseph’s. We are so proud to see one of our past students taking on this exciting new role and look forward to watching all that she achieves in 2027. Congratulations, Ingrid! We are very proud of you and wish you every success in your new leadership role. 

Today's School Assembly

Today, we enjoyed a special Footy Colours Day Assembly - our final assembly for Term 3. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the end of a busy and successful term together as a school community in such a fun way! We celebrated our STAR Award recipients and student birthdays. 

It was also lovely to acknowledge the students who received recognition for their effortswith TAG ON this term. Congratulations to the following students:

Overall Winner - Jono E (Prep)

Green House Winner - Jono E (Prep)

Red House Winner - Lara S (Prep)

Yellow House Winner - Jack M (Prep)

These students are the very well deserved recipients of vouchers to Bounce which I am sure they will enjoy!

We also congratulate Asher in Year 1 who explained so beautifully to our whole school community what 'Tag On' is!

We thank Ms Stone who works busily behind the scenes in the office to coordinate the Tag On initiative so that our school can participate. We also thank the City of Stonnington for supporting this school program.

Term 3 Principal Awards

A particular highlight of today’s assembly was the privilege of presenting the Principal’s Awards for Term 3. These awards recognise students who have demonstrated our school values of Strength and Kindliness or Excellence in Learning. Today, at our final assembly for Term 3, I had the pleasure of announcing the Principal Awards for Term 3. I proudly acknowledge and warmly congratulate the following students:

Prep 

Patrick W

Jack M

Aric S

Lara S

Year 1 

Billy Y

Max R

Winnie M

Julia N

Year 2 

Irene D

Raphael B

Sam F

Scarlett P

Year 3 

Gus D

Zach H 

Rafaela K 

Hadriell M

Year 4 

Lucy N

Ari P

Year 5/6 

Harry S 

Matilda L

What's On Next Term...

Please take a look at our Term 4 Calendar of Events on our 'Important Dates' page in this week's newsletter.

School Closure Days

Whilst it might seem like a long time away, I would just like to inform you of our school closure days next term. These dates have been marked on our family calendar, as well as in our school newsletter's calendar of events. 

Our school will be closed on:

Daylight Savings Reminder

A friendly reminder to families that Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday 4 October. Please remember to adjustyour clocks forward by one hour before we return to school on Monday, 5 October for the beginning of Term 4. 

St Joseph's Art Show - Save the Date!

More information about this very special school event on Ms Marta Cummings Art Show page in this week's newsletter!

Grandparents & Special Friends- Save the Date!

We are delighted to once again host our annual and very special Grandparents and Special Friends' Morning on Friday 23rd October. This day is always such a highlight for our community. There will be more information about this early next term, however we ask that you please let your dear loved ones know about this special event. The schedule for the morning will be shared early next term.

Year 6 Captains Term 4 Fundraiser - Crazy Sock Day for Socktober!

We are excited to announce a new fundraiser at St Joseph’s this Term 4! On Friday, 16th October (Week 2), students are invited to join in the fun by wearing their craziest and most colourful socks to school.

• When: Friday, 16th October (Term 4, Week 2)
• Dress Code: Full school uniform with your favourite crazy socks! (Note: This is not a casual clothes day).
• Donation: A gold coin donation.

All funds raised will support Socktober (Catholic Mission), helping children in need around the world. This year, the Socktober organisation is focusing on Malawi, helping to provide essential food, clean water, and educational support to children and families for a brighter future. Please find more information about this year's charity here:

Get creative with your socks and help us make a difference!

Thank you, 

Xavier and Cooper

Year 6 Captains

Term 4 Transition to Summer Uniform

At beginning of Term 4, as we head into the warmer months, our students will transition into their summer uniform.  There will be a two week period to allow the students to wear winter or summer uniform depending on the weather. By Week 3 we expect all students to be wearing their summer uniform. 

School hats and sunscreen must be worn from Day 1 of Term 4 and "No Hat, No Play" will apply. We encourage sunscreen to be applied before school, and students are responsible for reapplication throughout the day. 

At St Joseph's we encourage our students to wear their uniform with pride and we encourage all parents and carers to support us with this. There are strictly no variations to the school uniform e.g. non-school hat, alternative sock colours etc

We also ask that no nail polish or fancy jewellery is worn at school. All smart watches and phones need to be dropped in at the office at the beginning of the day and collected again at the end of the day. We thank you for your support with this.

And finally....

This is our final newsletter for Term 3, and I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to our entire school community for what has been an incredibly successful term.

I sincerely thank our students, families and staff, and I am incredibly grateful for the ongoing support, encouragement and partnership of our parents and carers.

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of our wonderful staff and leadership team at St Joseph’s. They work tirelessly for our children each and every day, ensuring that our students continue to learn, grow and, most importantly, feel safe, valued and cared for while they are at school. I am so grateful for each and every one of them and hope they enjoy a very well-deserved break.

I especially thank Dean Butler who goes above and beyond every day for our staff, families and children. He is an absolute blessing in our community and I am so grateful for his ongoing commitment and passion for our school community as our Deputy Principal.

Thank you also to our families for the kindness and appreciation you show our staff as they care for and support your children each day. Your kind words, encouragement and support mean so much to our staff and are truly appreciated.

I wish all our families a happy, restful and well-deserved break, with time to slow down, enjoy some precious family time and make some wonderful memories together. And for our families who are travelling over the holidays, I wish you safe and enjoyable travels and hope you have some very special time together. 

I look forward to seeing everyone when we return on Monday, 5 October, ready for a very full and exciting Term 4 together.

With warmest regards,

Annabelle Marinelli

Principal 

annabelle.marinelli@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au