Dear Families,

I would like to begin by keeping in our prayers our very special loved ones, members of our school community, and families and friends, who need our prayers at this time. Prayer is a very powerful way to find comfort and to ask God for strength in a time of need.

This week we pray...

Lord, we pray for our loved ones.

We ask for your comforting presence and your strength at our time of need.

Grant those we love peace and comfort, and may your grace surround them always.

Principal Conference and Reconciliation Week

As you know, last week I attended the South Central Catholic Principal's Network Conference in the Kimberley region, Western Australia. My time away included visiting remote primary schools in Derby and Beagle Bay, and we immersed ourselves in learning about faith, culture and community from an Indigenous perspective and within Indigenous communities. We enjoyed beautiful weather and spent the time deepening our understanding and connection to Aboriginal spirituality, cultures, languages and traditions.

We had time to be enriched and to consider how we are culturally responsive in our own lives and in our own school communities. It became obvious through beautiful experiences and meeting great people that once we know better, we do better. Integrating our cultures together in our communities is up to each one of us.

Grappling with reconciliation is so important when acknowledging the diverse ancient culture of Aboriginal people. There is much to learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through their knowledge, cultures and traditions. Not only did we learn about how the Catholic Church supported Indigenous communities in the Kimberley region, but we also heard from elders from the stolen generation and how being taken from their family impacted and still impacts their lives today and how decisions of the government at that time and today impacts lives in Australia.

We came together for prayer and learned about the relationships of the Aboriginal people, their spirituality and connectedness to the environment. An excellent way to culminate a week of learning and immersion.

Our week had an emphasis on relationships, respect and opportunities to foster connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. All our experiences had a meaningful impact toward us playing our part in Australia’s reconciliation journey.

The timing of this Principal Conference was perfect with all of this taking place as we acknowledge National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week. It certainly affirmed in each of us, a respect for the languages, cultures and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This morning I shared this special time away with the children and families at our school assembly, as we gathered to pray and recognise and reflect on Reconciliation Week. If you missed the assembly you can find our slides here:

It is my hope that my learning and experiences while I was in the Kimberleys, and the learning the children have experienced across the week, is something we can take forward to make a difference as we live out God's message to love others.

Thank you again to Dean Butler, for his leadership in my absence, and to all our staff for ensuring all continued seamlessly.

National Sorry Day Monday May 26 and National Reconciliation Week May 27- June 3 2025

National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn and reflect on our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can work towards building positive relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

The National Reconciliation Week theme for 2025 has been 'Bridging Now to Next'. It reflects the ongoing connection between past, present and future.

Reconciliation Week and Sorry Day acknowledges the hurt caused by historical injustices and seeks to build a future of justice and reconciliation. It expresses sorrow for the past, asks for forgiveness, and prays for healing and understanding.

Joining people all over Australia, we remember the hurt inflicted onto our Indigenous brothers and sisters and commit ourselves to reconciliation.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners/Custodians who have cared for this land for thousands of years. We also acknowledge their descendants who maintain spiritual connections and traditions.

Let us pray.

God of comfort

We pray for reconciliation and compassion and the grace to move forward together in peace.

In unity, God hear our prayer.

We pray that Australians act with fairness and justice towards Indigenous Australians.

We ask this prayer through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Child Safe Standards

Creating culturally safe environments is a requirement of Child Safe Standard 1. There are many ways that schools create a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal children and young people. At St Joseph's we do this by:

Displaying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, an Acknowledgement of Country and Traditional Owners of the land that our school sits on, and Aboriginal artwork and designs.
The children participate in learning, they enjoy Aboriginal literature and create art works in their classrooms which help them to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Here you can see Will (Year 4P) enjoying the book in the office that I brought back from Sacred Heart Primary School in Beagle Bay. It shares the stories and life of the families and children from the Indigenous community at Beagle Bay.

Kindliness- One of our SJM School Values

Over the last couple of weeks I have received two beautiful email (see below) from our very kind parents who have taken the time to highlight the St Joseph's spirit demonstrated by a few of our seniors students. We know our senior leaders are beautiful with our younger students at school and it is just so lovely to hear this is carried out into our community as well.

"I wanted to highlight the exemplary in school but particularly out of school behaviour of Alfred and Max in Grade 6. I see both boys regularly around Malvern and their manners, kindness and community mindedness always shines. They take the time to say hello to our family and show a great deal of maturity far beyond their years. Please do pass on my message - they should be incredibly proud of the themselves "

"I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge Lucy, Blue's big buddy. When we arrived at school this morning, Lucy was waiting in the Prep locker area with a birthday gift for Blue! It truly made Blue feel so special. You have such wonderful children at this school."

Junior Joey's Playgroup

Our amazing Ms Stacey has our Junior Joey's playgroup back up and running! 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!

Every Day is Open Day at St Joseph's

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.

Our Next Open Day - Save the Date

Our Next Open Day and Open Evening will be held on Tuesday 17th June.

We will run school tours on this day from 9am-11am and then hold a Prep 2026 Parent Information Evening from 6pm to 7pm for families who are interested in finding out more about our school. Please spread the word to any prospective families you may know. Your word of mouth is the best advertising for our school.

Planning for the 2026 School Year

In planning for 2026, we thank 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!

In addition, in planning for class structures for 2026, it is important for us to know if your child will not be continuing at St Joseph's next year. Please kindly email me directly (annabelle.marinelli@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au) so that I have this information as we begin to plan for next year.

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!

Our new website

Here is the link to our new website: www.sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au

We are so proud to showcase the excellence in learning and the exceptional care we have for our students. This is the St Joseph's difference.

"Small enough to care, big enough to excel"

Our Assembly Today

We thank our Year 4 Teacher David Prowse and Year 4P for leading our Reconciliation Week liturgy today and running the assembly. We also congratulate our STAR Awards recipients and wish our birthday children a very happy birthday for this week!

Congratulations Ms Meg Correy!

Last week our very own Year 1 Teacher Ms Meghan Correy got married! We all knew she would make a beautiful bride! Congratulations Ms Correy! We wish you a lifetime of love and joy!

School Advisory Council (SAC) Meeting

On Tuesday evening our School Advisory Council (SAC) met to discuss important school initiatives and events. I sincerely thank our SAC members for their time and valuable contributions on behalf of our school community.

Parish Priest: Fr Gallacher
Principal: Annabelle Marinelli
Deputy Principal: Dean Butler
Chair: David Stegehuis
Secretary: Courtney Jendra
P&F Reps: Laura Kay and Talia Hasset
Parent Reps: Michael Tuohey, Kate Tehan, Sascha Pausewang

This week we had the privilege of having Lexi Slaven our Business Manager (MACS) who presented on finances to the SAC. This gave SAC members the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarity around financial matters and decisions that are made by the school under the governance of MACS. Dean Butler also presented on the EBA and how the face to face teaching time will affect our families in regards to supervision before school. We also discussed our school moving towards being a 'Nut Aware' school to be aligned with policies across MACS schools. We understand the some students suffer reactions from exposure to nuts and we have policies and processes in place to protect children. We also discussed the progress our senior house captains are making with naming our Sports Houses. More information to follow from our Year 6 House Captains: Charlotte and Bekim (Yellow House), Max, Lucy and Victor (Green House) and Oscar, Pip and Alfred (Red House).

P&F- Trivia Night Major Fundraiser Event

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

Malvern Library

As our school library is out of action with some some works being completed, our students are enjoying walking across to Malvern Library. We are very lucky to have this wonderful library so close to our school. The children are loving it!

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 3 and 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. Children 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

Holiday Art Classes

Classes available for Grades 3 to 6 only.