Dear Families,

Easter Blessings to you all. I hope you all enjoyed a happy, holy and blessed Easter. On Sunday we celebrated Easter Sunday and the Resurrection of the Lord. Easter is the celebration of the Paschal mystery which is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is what we believe as Christians. To the faithful, Easter is the celebration of hope and renewal. May the hope and renewal that this season brings continue to inspire our shared commitment and partnership in supporting the children at St Joseph's. I extend my warmest wishes to you and your loved ones for a joyful and peaceful Easter season.

Easter Message from Archbishop Peter A Comensoli

In his Easter message for 2025, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli focusses on the moment the risen Christ appears to his disciples and shows him the marks of his wounds. All of us, he says, carry wounds that ‘can feel like the end of our story. They threaten to define us, to trap us. They try to tell us there is no way ahead.’ But Easter, he says, tells us that ‘our wounds are not where the story ends. Easter shows us there is a path to healing, and a vista onto a new dawn.’

See the Archbishop's full Easter message here:

https://melbournecatholic.org/news/by-his-wounds-we-are-healed

Mourning our Holy Father Pope Francis

It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. on Easter Monday earlier this week.

His Holiness was a beacon of hope and compassion, whose teachings and actions profoundly impacted individuals, families, and communities across the world. Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis walked in the footsteps of Jesus, extending compassion and dignity to the poor, the homeless, refugees and asylum seekers, the sick, those in prison, and all who were marginalised. His deep empathy and commitment to social justice inspired people of all faiths and backgrounds. He consistently demonstrated a profound respect for the dignity of every individual, embracing people from diverse backgrounds. As Catholics we honour his legacy and strive to continue his mission of love, compassion, and service.

Pope Francis inspired every teacher with his commitment to the human dignity of each person and the rights of every child to find love and freedom and for each of us to grown and flourish in wisdom.

May we carry his message of hope, love and care for all people in our lives, in our school community and in our world.

Eternal rest grant upon him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Responding to news of the death of Pope Francis on the evening of Easter Monday, 21 April, Australian time, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli wrote to the people in Melbourne, sharing his sorrow, paying tribute to the Holy Father as ‘a witness of joy and hope’ and calling on all the faithful to pray for the eternal rest of his soul.

More information can be found through this link:

https://melbournecatholic.org/news/statement-on-the-death-of-his-holiness-pope-francis

The Vatican has announced the funeral Mass of Pope Francis will be celebrated on Saturday, 26 April in St Peter’s Square.

Remembering Pope Francis

On Tuesday morning, our senior students attended the Parish Mass with Fr Gallacher and the Parish community, where we prayed for the soul of Pope Francis. Our Year 5 and 6 students were beautifully prayerful and reverent.

The staff and children at St Joseph's have reflected on the life of Pope Francis across the week and as a school we have continued to pray for him in our classes and at our whole school assembly this afternoon.

Welcome back to Term 2

I warmly welcome you back to Term 2! It was so lovely to be at the gate welcoming back our students on Tuesday morning after the holidays. It was so heartwarming to see so many children so happy and excited to be back at school, running through our gates, excitedly greeting their friends in the playground, and warmly greeting their teachers.

Over school holidays, it was a nice surprise for me running into a few of our beautiful school families. Will (Year 4) , Valentina (Year 2) and Jimmy (Prep) were also enjoying the holidays with their families in Sydney and making the most of the warm weather and the pool!

I look forward to hearing more holiday stories over the coming weeks. I'm sure you all had a chance to enjoy the warm weather that we had in Melbourne and in other parts of our beautiful state and country, if you were travelling. We welcome back Mr Butler who enjoyed a wonderful holiday in Japan and all of our teachers who have enjoyed a restful break and are now excited to be back at school with the children. After a bit of sunshine and rest, we are all ready to head into Term 2.

Term 2 is always a great term for focused learning, now that students are well and truly settled into their classes, having built strong relationships with their teachers and peers. Our teachers know our students and their learning needs so well and can focus on supporting and challenging students throughout the term. Our structured literacy and numeracy instruction continues to be a daily focus and a highlight of the teaching and learning here at St Joseph's. Our dedicated teachers and school leaders have a real passion, drive and belief that together we can help students feel positive about being at school, achieve academically, and flourish as young people. As we launch into another busy term of learning, and extra-curricular opportunities for the students to excel, we look forward to working with families across this term to care for the children at St Joseph's.

Prayer for Easter

Gracious God, give us hearts of faith so we too may see and believe, especially in challenging times. May our hearts be full of the hope and joy this Easter season promises, and may we journey forward in peace.

Today, my heart is full of gratitude.

Thank you for your love, and for the hope you give through your resurrection.

Because of you, I am free, forgiven, and never alone.

Help me to carry the joy of Easter with me—not just today, but every day.

Fill my heart with Your peace, my mind with Your truth, and my life with Your love.

Let me be a reflection of Your grace to those around me.

May the joy of the risen Christ fill our hearts with peace, hope, and love.

May His victory over death remind you that nothing is impossible with God.

May we walk in His light, live in His grace, and rejoice in His endless mercy.

And may this Easter bring us and our loved ones renewed faith, deep joy, and everlasting peace.

Amen.

Let us go forth this Easter sharing the light of hope and the message of God’s love in all that we say and do.

ANZAC Day Prayer

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" - John 15:13"

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, a day we remember and honour all those who have served in Australia and New Zealand’s armed forces. It is a national day of remembrance for victims of war and a time to reflect on the sacrifices of those who served and their families who have supported them. As we remember those who served, we pray for peace and an end to all war and conflict that continue to disrupt communities across the world.

We pray for those men and women who have died protecting Australia. Lord, grant eternal rest to those who have sacrificed their lives for the good of us all. May their gift of life not be in vain.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the families of those who have died. Lord, grant comfort and hope to the families of those who have died defending us. May your love heal the hurt and bring peace to their lives.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for our country. Lord, grant our leaders the wisdom and strength to avoid wars in the future. May they guide us in the ways of peace and justice.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for our Church. Lord, may the Church be to all an example of peace and co-operation. May it bring love where there is strife, and healing where there is hurt.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for our school. Lord, send your healing love to rest on us all: students who are struggling, parents who are hurting, teachers who must persevere.

Lord, hear our prayer.

God our Father, may those who have died for freedom, be granted eternal comfort and peace. Bring love where there is war, and may war never again shatter our world. We offer our prayers for all communities that are affected by war at present. Fill us with your love, and grant us your peace. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

ANZAC Day Public Holiday Tomorrow -Friday 25th April

ANZAC Day is our national day of commemoration. ANZAC Day is a public holiday and our school will be closed on Friday, 25th of April. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. On the 25th of April 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula. These became known as Anzacs, and the pride they took in that name continues to this day.

Today we commemorated ANZAC Day as a school in preparation for ANZAC Day tomorrow, Friday 25th April. As we commemorate ANZAC Day, we honour the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of the brave men and women who served and continue to serve our nation. ANZAC Day is a time to reflect on the profound significance of their contributions, both on the battlefield and on the home front.

Today, we paid tribute to the ANZAC spirit – a spirit forged in the face of adversity, characterised by mateship, courage, and selflessness. It is a spirit that has shaped our nation's identity and continues to inspire generations.

Here are a few photos from our ANZAC ceremony this afternoon:

We thank our senior students for leading us in this ceremony today and we thank Luke Reynoldson father of George, Isabelle and Luke, for being part of our ceremony.

As we pause to remember the sacrifices made by those who served, let us also reflect on the values they upheld – values of freedom, democracy, and equality. Let us strive to uphold these values in our own lives and work towards creating a world where peace and justice prevail.

Here you can see Jack (Year 2) who brought in his grandfather's medals to share with the class and Oscar (Year 6) who is proudly wearing his grandfather's medals.

On this ANZAC Day, let us honour the past by building a brighter future.

Lest we forget.

ANZAC Commemoration Service for our Senior Students at the Shrine of Remembrance

Next Monday, 28th April, our senior students will join hundreds of other primary and secondary school students from around Victoria for the ANZAC Commemoration Service at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Our Year 5's and 6's will help keep the Anzac spirit alive by commemorating the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who have served our country.

Honorary guests and dignitaries will be in attendance to address the students, and the ceremony will include Defence Force Cadets, school bands and choirs, and a RAAF fly-over.

After this special service, teachers and their students are invited inside the Shrine of Remembrance to view the Shrine Crypt and Galleries of Remembrance. They will be invited to lay a poppy at the Shrine of Remembrance in the Sanctuary, and as a school, they are invited to lay a floral tribute during the ceremony.

We will share more about this in next week's newsletter.

Term 2 Learning Overviews- Class Dojo Week 2

The Term 2 Learning Overviews for each class will be posted on the Class Dojos on Friday at the end of Week 2. Please look out for these and have a good read of them so that you are familiar with the learning that will take place for the term as well as any events particular to that class. If at any time you have individual questions or concerns about your child, their wellbeing or their learning, we are here to support, so please reach out to the teachers in person or via their email.

Easter Raffle! A very Big Thank You to our Parents and Friends!

We have had a very successful St Joseph's Easter Raffle this year!

A huge thank you to Kate Tehan and the wonderful families from our school community who ran the Easter raffle in our local community over the holidays at Coles in Glenferrie Rd. Across the middle weekend of the holidays, we had a wonderful turnout from families, and our students and parents were wonderful ambassadors for our school.

A very special thank you to the following families who volunteered their time and helped across the weekend:

Jacqueline (mum of Annabelle), Felicity (mum of Grace) Charlotte and Luke (parents of Isabelle, Luke and George), Bryony (mum of Edmund), Elma (mum of Ivan), Shannon (mum of Oliver), Slany (mum of Chloe), Jess and Simon (parents of Holly), Angela (mum of Harvey), Angela (mum of Eliott), Mary (mum of Frankie) and Kate (mum of Alice).

A very special thank you also to Kate (mum of Alice in Prep) for all her time and effort in organising this weekend fundraiser! It takes a lot of time and work to organise a fundraiser and we really appreciate you doing this so enthusiastically for our school.

And a big shout out to the wonderful students from our school community, for your enthusiasm selling tickets and talking so positively and with pride about our beautiful school. You were absolute superstars and stole the show in our local community! Your service will be recognised at our first school assembly in Week 2.

We also thank all the families who came along across the weekend to support the volunteers, saying hello and buying tickets. Your time and generosity in supporting our school is very much appreciated.

A huge thank you also to Laura, Jess and Tennille who sold tickets for our school Easter raffle at the end of Term 1. We are so grateful for your time and generosity of spirit.

Across the weekend we raised $1235 over the two days and an additional $900 from our school Easter raffle at the end of Term 1. That is a profit of over $2000! This amazing result is wonderful for our school and the community effort behind it speaks to the great culture of contribution we have at St Joseph’s.

Here are some great pics from the Community Easter Raffle... Such great images of school spirit!

Principal Awards for Service

It is with great pleasure and privilege that I honour the students who attended the Easter raffle with their families at Coles to raise money for our school. I thank the following students for the way they greeted members of our local community so politely, encouraged them to purchase raffle tickets, they spoke so enthusiastically about our school. I thank you for your commitment and for raising money for our school.

Holly, Alice, Harvey, Annabelle, Grace, Isabelle, Luke, George, Edmund, Ivan, Oliver, Chloe, Eliott and Frankie!

These children will be presented with certificates at our first school assembly for the term which will be held on Friday in Week 2.

Open Day at St Joseph's- TODAY

Please encourage any families you know who are looking at a school for 2026 and beyond to book a tour with us at any time or to attend one of our upcoming Open Days....

Our Next Open Days for 2025

Tuesday 6th May - 9am - 11am

What a beautiful sunny day to showcase our gorgeous school for our Open Day today. We had an overwhelming number of families tour our school. It is always so heartwarming to show potential new families around our school and for them to experience the high standards we have with learning and the care that is shown to each child. Many parents commented on how impressed they were with the explicit teaching and structured learning, the calm classrooms and how beautiful our children were. Our dedicated teachers showcased high quality teaching and learning which were impressive to the visiting families. We are very proud of our wonderful school and it is always a pleasure to show new families how great we are!

A very special thank you to our wonderful parents Kate (Mum of Alice), Annie (Mum of Felix and Rafaela), Jess (Mum of Holly) and Evelyn (Mum of Oscar) for helping with our Open Day this morning. You warmly welcomed the many new families who visited our school and supported with the tours, answering many questions and sharing your love for our school. This is the St Joseph's difference! Many parents commented on how helpful it was to be able to chat with you. You were very generous with your time and we really appreciate you! Thank you!

Enrolments for 2026

It is always very exciting when we begin to look forward to our enrolments for the next year. With our Open Days running over the next few weeks, we are beginning to plan for 2026.

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!

Parents and Friends Update

Mother's Day Lunch - Save the Date

Meeting Update

On Wednesday evening we had a roomful of very enthusiastic Parents and Friends members who are super keen to lead and organise some very exciting upcoming events and fundraisers. If you would like to be involved your support would be very much appreciated. Please reach out to Laura or Talia (P and F Presidents).

Our next big event is Election Day where voting will be held at St Joseph's.

Election Date: May 3rd- Save the date and vote at St Joseph's Parish Hall

On Saturday the 3rd of May our school will be hosting the AEC and voting will take place in the Parish Hall. On this day we will be holding some special events within our school grounds. Some highlights of the day will include:

Sausage BBQ and Drinks Stall
Bake Sale
Coffee Cart
Cubbyhouse Canteen- thank you Narelle (Navy's Mum)
Face Painting
Petting Zoo
Children's entertainment- A visit from everyone's favourite blue heeler!
A St Joseph's Information Stand
School Tours
Live Music

Please bring your families along to vote at St Joseph's. Please invite your extended family and friends. This will be a great opportunity to have some fun and to support and promote our school!

We need lots of support. Please sign up vis this link to help on the day:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FABAC22A6FAC07-56486693-2025

This will be promoted widely in our community and via our socials. Flyers coming soon!

Congratulations Wolf! What an achievement!

Over the holidays Wolf (Year 4) played in a 3 day Baseball Tournament and made the State Baseball Team! This is a wonderful achievement! Wolf was chosen to be the leading pitcher in the Under 13 Team which is a huge accomplishment for his age. The team played 6 games over 3 days and placed incredibly well overall. The photo below says it all... have a look at Wolf in action!

Footy Clinic at St Joseph's

This week our students participated in a Footy Clinic. We thank our PE teacher Ms Christie Birch for organising these clinics for our students. These opportunities enrich our children's experience of sport at school.

Harmony Day Art Work- Thank you Hanna Rose!

Over the holidays I had the pleasure of visiting Hanna Rose (parent of Oscar in Year 6) at her amazing art studio.

At St Joseph's we celebrated Harmony Day on Friday March 21st to recognise our country's cultural diversity and to promote respect and inclusion. Hanna worked with our children on Harmony Day to create this beautiful piece of art which reflects the creativity and diversity within our school community.

Hanna is kindly organising to have this art work framed so that we can display this at school for all to enjoy. We thank Hanna for sharing her talents and her love for our school with our students. We are so grateful to Hanna for her inspiration and for working with our students to create this beautiful piece of art.

Shared Stories Anthology

For the first time students from St Joseph's will take part in 'Shared Stories'. This is an anthology of students' writing and art work from many Catholic primary and secondary schools across Melbourne. This is an extraordinary publication with over 500 pages of students' work. It is an honour for the children at St Joseph's to be part of this publication. As 'Shared Stories' celebrate 20 years of publication this year it is a year of celebration and therefore this year's theme is 'Celebrate'. The children at St Joseph's will be involved in creating inspiring pieces of writing and/or art work around the theme ‘celebrate’ which will be sublitted to this publication. The children will take part in this across this term.

For more information about Shared Stories you can access this link:

https://www.sharedstoriesanthology.org/

Child Safety- New Security Entrance

I am very pleased to give you an update on our new security gate at our main entrance. This is ver close to being finished. We are hopeful that this will be complete over the next week. In the meantime the front gate will continue to be locked. Please conatct the office during school hours for access. Once again this is a great example of the way we prioritise the safety of the children in our school community. A HUGE thank you to our P and F for your support with this.

Sewerage Works

You will all be pleased to know that the sewerage works have been undertaken and completed over the holidays. The leakage was due to tennis balls down the pipes and as a result the blockage occurred and pipes were damaged. We have now covered the access to the pipes so this cannot happen again. You will see that the area is still fenced off as the re surfacing needs to be completed. Thank you for your patience as these works are completed.

Photos from the works at school over the holidays...

Parent/Carer Code of Conduct

As we begin a new term it is a timely reminder to revisit our Parent Code of Conduct. This is an important document for you to re-familiarise yourself with so that we can all work together in a positive way for the benefit of all children at St Joseph's. I thank everyone for your support in maintaining the high standards we have of each other as we continue to engage in a positive and respectful way.

Parent/Carer WhatsApp Groups

The Parent WhatsApp Groups are a helpful way of staying connected and being involved in our school community. We thank our Parent Reps for all of your communication through the WhatsApp groups. This is a very helpful way of communicating at a grade level and is valued by parents and staff as a way of staying in the know, being involved and supporting our school. It is helpful when the communication on this forum is supportive and builds positive relationships and connections across our school. If you have any questions, worries or concerns, I encourage you to please direct them via the appropriate channels - your child's teacher, a member of the leadership team or myself, not via the WhatsApp groups.

Uniform Reminder

As the weather is still looking quite nice we will have a transition period where children can wear either their Summer or Winter uniform for the first 2 weeks of Term 2. From Week 3, children will be expected to wear their Winter uniform. It is so wonderful to see our students wearing their uniform with pride.

As we begin a new term it is timely to communicate a few gentle reminders:-

Pease 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
No other jackets, hoodies etc other than school uniform

Thank you to parents for supporting with this so that we can continue to maintain our high standards.

Here are a few of our students wearing our uniform beautifully...

Car Park Reminder

This is a reminder that the Parish car park is an out of bounds area for driving through and parking at both mornings and afternoons for school pick up and drop off.

There are two reasons this is not available to families for parking. Firstly, this is a Parish car park and only some of the car spaces are allocated for teaching staff, the rest are parish car spaces. Secondly, this car park is not safe for students to be coming and going as this area is not supervised. We do not need children walking through this area as cars from the Parish and school move in an out of here. Please remind any family member who may be collecting children to avoid using this car park.

The side gate is also unavailable for access to the school. This is for staff only. Please do not ask children to open this gate as they have been advised, for child safety reasons, not to open this gate to any adult.

Over the next few weeks we will have staff monitoring the use of this area. We thank you for your support and understanding that this is a child safety concern for all children at St Joseph's.

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

Upcoming Dates and Events

Term 2 Commences - Tuesday 22nd April
Parents and Friends Meeting - Wednesday 23rd April at 6:30pm- All Welcome
Open Day - Thursday 24th April
ANZAC Day Liturgy - Thursday 24th April at 3pm
ANZAC Day Public Holiday - Friday 25th April
ANZAC Commemoration at the Shrine for Year 5 and 6 students - Monday 28th April
Dendy District Cross Country - Thursday 1st May
Election Day Voting at St Joseph's - Saturday 3rd May
Open Day - Tuesday 6th May
Sacrament of First Eucharist (Year 4) - Family Information Night - Thursday 8th May at 6pm
Mother's Day Breakfast - Friday 9th May at 8am
Mother's Day Lunch (P&F Event) - Friday 9th May
National Reconciliation Week - Monday 26th May to Friday May 30th

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.

We look forward to an exciting Term 2 at St Joseph's.

With warmest regards and wishing you all an enjoyable long weekend.

Safe travels if you are on the road this weekend.

Annabelle Marinelli

Principal

annabelle.marinelli@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au

Extend Before & After School Care.