Dear Parents,

Welcome back to a new term of learning at St Joseph’s. We trust you have had a wonderful break with your families making moments matter by spending valuable time together.

We thank all of our community for supporting our staff to attend the annual staff conference at the end of last term. The theme of the conference was focussed on 'Be Kind! Be You!- Care for self, others and the world'. We were delighted to welcome Skylah from Living Cultures and Ange Virgona who both led us on an inquiry into caring for creation. We also inquired into care for self on the Thursday.

We live in such a beautiful area where the environment is of the utmost importance. We strive to ensure our students are stewards of the earth and are passionate advocates for Westernport Bay. Below are two examples of our schools involvement and partnerships with other groups highlighting our bay.

Western-Port-Biosphere-SHORT-16-9.mov - Google Drive

Western-Port-Biosphere-FINAL-V2.mov - Google Drive

A huge thank you to Dom Taylor and family, Kate Huon, Antoine and Mindi Power for attending the Crib Point Community Market on Saturday. We held a stall promoting our work and selling our produce. Connecting and partnering with local community is pivotal in building a village around our school.

This term is set to be an exciting term of learning at St. Joseph's. With Eucharist, Mother's Day celebrations along with many sporting events and other things on the calendar it will be an action packed term for all.

The faith and wellbeing theme for the first two weeks is centred around belonging, listening and respecting each other's stories- what a great way to start the term by honoring and championing each other and allowing everyone in our school to be themselves and flourish on a daily basis.

Please continue to watch the wellbeing slideshow and the faith slide shows to deepen your understanding of the themes.

A huge thanks to Sue Jackson and Kate Huon on all of their work with the recent wellbeing boost we were given. We have been able to buy some wonderful resources for engagement at playtime so watch this space as our new equipment and resources are put into action providing great play opportunities for our students.

We have a wonderful learning model in our school focussing on the explicit teaching of important skills and allowing our students opportunities to use these skills in practical ways embedding learning in schemas in their long term memories and allowing them to flourish and shine in their work.

Next week we celebrate Anzac Day and invite all of our community to attend the Anzac Day parade leaving at 10.40am from the Crib Point RSL. The assembly this Friday will focus on the theme of Anzac Day as we thank and remember all of our wonderful service members who fought so gallantly to protect our wonderful country.

Just a reminder we have a pupil free day on Friday 26th April.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab Espenschied

Ritchies Community Benefits Program...