Dear Parents and Carers,

Sacrament of Confirmation

I would like to congratulate our Westernport Parish Year 6 students on receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation at St Brendan’s Somerville. It was such a beautiful service with the heartfelt message from Father Andrew to reach out and make a difference to the lives of people by being kind and generous. By using the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit we can live spirit filled lives and have a positive impact on others. Congratulations to Grace.

Parish Sports

Last Thursday our students from years 3, 4, 5, and 6 participated in the Parish sports at Westernport Athletics Track. What a brilliant day full of collaboration, resilience and everyone trying their very best. I would like to thank Our Phys Ed and Sports leader Emily Reed for her excellent organisation.

MACS schools

Currently, all Catholic schools are working through planning and budgeting activities for 2027 to ensure we are well placed to support our staff, students and school communities in the coming year. This includes looking at how we can accommodate the changes likely to flow from a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) with school staff.

We recognise the significant financial pressures many households are facing, and we are making a conscious effort to ensure these costs are not passed on through significant fee increases.

We will continue to keep our parent community informed throughout this process. As always, our focus remains on maintaining strong school communities and continuing to deliver a high-quality Catholic education for every student.

Joeys Club

The transition from preschool to Foundation (Prep) is a foundational milestone that sets the tone for a child’s entire educational journey. Moving from early childhood settings to formal schooling requires children to adapt to structured routines, longer periods of focused attention, and new social dynamics with peers and teachers.

Early transition support helps children build essential emotional self-regulation, social confidence, and foundational literacy and numeracy skills in a safe environment. When families and educators collaborate to make this shift positive and predictable, it reduces anxiety, fosters a strong sense of belonging, and instills a lifelong enthusiasm for learning.

We can’t wait to meet all of our Joey’s this Thursday and look forward to a wonderful transition program from now to the end of the year. Joey’s club is a comprehensive program running every second Thursday afternoon from this week and we love seeing our newest little St Joseph’s students in action.

Please drop into our multi purpose room this week for our Book Fair. This is a wonderful way to promote reading and also raise funds for books in our school.

This week we are also celebrating Science Week. At St Joseph’s school we aim to develop the whole child through real life learningexperiences that build the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed for successful lifelong learners.

Students need to acquire core subject knowledge as well as the skills of collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and problem solving – and Science education has a crucial role in achieving this. Our 3/4 community went to the Museum today and there will be lots of other Science activities throughout the week.

Finally, I remind parents of our parent action plan for solving an issue. I highlight that it is against MACS parent code of conduct for any parent to approach another parent or student to discuss an issue that has occurred at school.

Please approach a staff member and they will assist you in solving the issue.

Our school theme reminds us: "Every footprint matters—Our footprints, our choices, our future."

Yours in Partnership,

Gab

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