Dear Families,

Next week, I will be offsite joining principals from the South Central Network at a Principal's Conference in Broome.

The purpose of this conference is to take part in an immersion experience in the Kimberley region visiting Indigenous schools and communities to deepen our appreciation and understanding of Indigenous culture and develop a stronger sense of our Catholic Identity.

Our wonderful Deputy Principal Dean Butler wilI be your point of contact in my absence. Dean can be contacted through the school office on 9597 6300 or his email dean.butler@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au

Please feel free to email me if needed. l will be checking my email from time to time, but given much of the trip will be visiting remote Indigenous communities and schools, I may not be able to get back to you as quickly as I would like.

I will miss all of you next week, especially the beautiful children, and I look forward to sharing these rich experiences with our school community when I return.

National Family Week- 12 – 18 May 2025

Family Week is a great time to reflect on the role of all families, in whatever form they take. It is a time to celebrate and strengthen family relationships.

This is a time to celebrate with your family, make contact with your extended family and share in the enjoyment of family activities within the wider community. It is a time to celebrate the meaning of family and to make the most of family life.

This week, we will celebrated Family Week at school. This is a special time for students to reflect on the importance of family, love, and kindness. The theme for this year is: “Building thriving communities, where everyone belongs.”

Families have a very significant role in teaching, supporting and nurturing children especially as they grow.

You will see more information, reflections and photos about Family Week at St Joseph's on Ms Donnella DeVisser's Catholic Identity page this week.

A Blessing for Families

Heavenly Father,

Please bless our families with Your everlasting love.

Give our families strength to overcome hardship and difficulties.

Give our families courage to admit our faults and forgive others.

Give our families joy to live life to the full and spread our joy to others.

May all families find comfort, support and guidance under Your loving care.

Amen.

Mary the Mother of God

We end the month of May – traditionally dedicated to Mary the mother of God.

A prayer to Mary, as the mother of the Holy Family:

Mary, Mother of the Holy Family, we humbly come before you, entrusting our children to your loving care. As you watched over Jesus, your son, with love and wisdom, we ask that you guide and protect our children, too. May they grow in faith, love, and knowledge, just as Jesus did.

Help them to be kind, compassionate, and understanding, reflecting the love of Christ in all they do. Protect them from harm and temptation, and guide them towards a life of goodness and holiness.

Holy Family of Nazareth, be our model and inspiration. May our family, like yours, be a source of peace, joy, and unity. We ask for your blessings and intercession, that our children may know and love God, and may be a blessing to others.

Launching of our new St Joseph's School Website

We are so excited to announce that our brand new website has officially launched!

A huge thank you to our amazing P&F for their support in making it happen.

Thank you also to Dean Bulter who worked tirelessly with the support of the leadership team and closely with Tserlin and Mark at 'School Presence'.

We are so excited to share it with you — take a look around! https://www.sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au

(If you are having trouble accessing this off your laptop try clearing your cache history)

Click on the link below to view the video:

Every Day is Open Day at St Joseph's

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 around our beautiful school.

We will be planning a couple of Open Nights across the next few months for families who are interested in finding out more about our school. Please spread the word to any prospective families you may know to keep an eye out for upcoming dates.

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!

Prep Fire Ed Session

This week our Preps enjoyed a visit from our local firefighters. They will have another visit again next week which I believe will be a very exciting one!

Year 1 and 2 Police Visit

Our 1/2s also had a visit from two sergeants at the Malvern Police Station. The students learnt about their job and how they can seek help from the police.

Eucharist Commitment Mass

This coming Sunday the Year 4 children who will be making the Sacrament of their first Eucharist will be taking part in the Eucharist Commitment Mass at St Joseph's Church. We will continue to pray for the children over the coming weeks as they prepare for this sacrament.

Our Assembly Today

We congratulate our STAR award recipients who have demonstrated our STAR values across the week. We also wish each of our birthday children Tanti Auguri for this week!

At assembly today we had the pleasure of showing off the beautiful artwork that Hanna (mum of Oscar in Year 6) worked on with the students across the school for Harmony Day. Once again we thank Hanna for her work with our children. I'm sure you all agree it looks so fantastic framed. Now we need to find a home for it!

Today we also had a very nice surprise for Ms Meg Correy who will be taking some leave next week as she prepares for her very exciting wedding day. We wish Ms Correy all the best for this very special day. We all know you will make the most beautiful bride and we can’t wait to see the photos of her in her wedding dress!

One very happy Prep student...

It is always a pleasure when children come to visit me when they experience success in some way. Sometimes it is for their learning achievements, sometimes for kindness they have shown others, and other times it is because they have achieved something that they have been working really hard on. Chloe in PrepL is proudly wearing her principal sticker! Congratulations Chloe!

School Improvement Network (SIN) for School Leaders

This week a few members of our school Leadership Team - Dean, Amanda and myself, participated in the 'School Improvement Network' for school leaders across the Southern Region. It was wonderful to listen to leaders from the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools speak about MACS' 2030 Vision and to once again listen to Dr Simon Breakspear as he led nearly 300 school leaders in school improvement work related to learning and teaching. It is always great to work with leaders from other schools, to share stories of best practice and success, and to reflect on our own practice to improve what we do. It is also very pleasing to say that at St Joseph's we are well on our way with embedding the latest research and best practice.

MACS Principal's Forum

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the principal's forum at the Catholic Leadership Centre with hundred of principals across the archdiocese of Melbourne. This forum brought school leaders together with a shared commitment: to shape schools that are student-centred, faith-filled, and focused on helping every learner flourish. Grounded in the vision of MACS 2030, the forum was a moment to connect, reflect and look ahead - strengthening our collective dedication to Catholic education and the communities we serve. It is an exciting time to be in Catholic education and we’re proud to walk this path together.

Parents and Friends Association - Thank You

From the P&F:

Many thanks to everyone who played a part in the Mother’s Day Lunch - we couldn’t have done it without you.

Fleur D’Altera - Fleur Creative

Stef Brunetti- Fleischers

Nicole Andrews

Kylie Stanney

Laura Kay

Annie Konieczny

Narelle & Bec from Cubbyhouse Canteen

Thank you!

P&F- Major Fundraiser Event

The major fundraiser for the year will be the SJM Trivia Night.

SAVE THE DATE:

June 14th at 6:30pm

We would like to have as many of our SJM parents/carers attend this major event as it is a great way to be part of our wonderful community. If you would like to come along but for whatever reason have challenges around this ie babysitting, finances etc, please come and have a confidential chat with Annabelle Marinelli.

Winter Uniform

As we transition 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
Shorts may be worn by all students if this is preferred

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

School Closure Day - Friday 6th June

On Friday 6th June we will be having a school closure day.

The purpose of this school closure is for the staff to work on school review which will take place in Term 4.

This is quite a lengthy and rigorous process which all staff will be involved in. We look forward to reviewing our practices and engaging with the reviewer to determine goals for our next 4 year school improvement cycle.

This date is timely as it affords families an extra long weekend with the King's Birthday on Monday 9th June.

King's Birthday Public Holiday- Monday 9th June

There will be no school for children on Monday 9th June as it it is the King's Birthday Public Holiday. Childen will return to school on Tuesday 10th June.

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.

With warmest regards,

Annabelle Marinelli

Principal

annabelle.marinelli@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au

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