Dear Lord

Thank you for the gift of the staff at St Joseph's. May they continue to be safe and well and may they continue to care for and teach the children at our school.

Amen

Bayside Catholic Mission

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Dear Families

Welcome back to 2022 at St Joseph's!

This is officially Week 5 beginning Monday 21st Feb.

It's been a great start to the term and I would like to thank all our students, parents and staff for such a positive start. It is such a privilege to watch our students using their Heads, Hearts and Hands as learning and playing take centre stage here at school. Last Friday we had an amazing day and it is a reminder of how we hope things will be in the near future as the COVID restrictions lessen. We had our Year 3 class at Mass in the morning, our swimming team won and we ended the day with a well earned sausage sizzle fundraiser with our wonderful Parents and Friends (P&F).

The P&F warmly invite you to our first social event of 2022. As our Welcome Morning Tea was postponed, we thought we’d make the first social event of 2022 a family affair. Please join us for St. Joseph’s Family Night in the school grounds

We were successful winning the percentage trophy at the HOLT Swimming Carnival with children ranging from Year 3 to 6. Some of our swimmers were representing school for the very first time and it was also the first time swimming in a 50m outdoor pool! Congratulations to all the team and to Ms Sullivan for being a great coach! It was great competing against the other 7 schools in the HOLT District.

All students who qualified for Beachside Swimming will be notified.

Heads, Hearts & Hands

Wellbeing & Curriculum snapshot

As we settle into 2022 and our first few weeks of learning I would like to outline what your child/ren will be learning during an average week here at St Joseph's. The time allocation for each subject area is inline with the recommended time's as set out by MACS and our own Curriculum and Learning Policy. Each class has a morning literacy block which is generally 2 hours and encompasses reading, writing, grammar, spelling and oral language. There will be approx. 10 hours of literacy per week per student. Maths is at least 5 hours per week and generally occurs between 12 - 1pm. We prioritise these learning areas along with RE which is approx. 2.5 hours per week. Other curriculum areas such as Science and the Humanities are allocated 2.25 hours per week as is Health and Physical Education. The Arts (via our Wednesday Specialist program) are allocated 1 hour per week.

Across the week students will receive 25 hours learning based on the Victorian Curriculum and our RE curriculum.

Please note that these curriculum areas are always our priority and we plan and audit accordingly. We deliver the learning with our students in ways that we believe will be engaging and we will often combine subjects such as the humanities through the lens of what we call 'inquiry'. This lends a common thread to connect the learning for the students rather than learning knowledge and skills in isolation. Please chat to the teachers if you have questions about 'what we do' in the classrooms. Our Wellbeing Classes, Yoga and meditation are aspects of the Health/PE curriculum or the Personal and Social Capabilities from the Victorian Curriculum. These elements of our weekly learning and teaching are an essential part of our students explicitly learning about their wellbeing and are part of our Heads, Hearts & Hands approach to supporting the students and their learning.

Twosday!

Today is 22022022

Today in Year 1/2 the students were exploring the number 2 and palindromes. We also looked at the story of Noah and the Ark and the students drew some of the animals that would have lined up '2 by 2'

PSGs

Parent Support Group (PSG) meeting will be held on 23rd and 24th March which is Week 9 of the term. You will receive an Operoo soon with appointment times.

Junior Joeys

We are back!!

We are inviting parents and pre-schoolers to visit St Joseph's on Wednesday afternoons on the following dates between 2.30pm - 3.30pm:

Please let friends and neighbours know if they are looking for a school for 2023.

It's an informal and fun way to visit St Joseph's and meet some staff and children.

Junior Joeys
Wednesday March 9th
Wednesday March16th
Wednesday March 23rd

COVID

Masks are required for students 3 - 6 and recommended for students F-2. Rapid Antigen Tests will be sent home again this week to ensure you have enough. We are hoping to avoid any class closures by monitoring all students and staff during the next couple of weeks. We have been directed by MACS to minimise opportunities for the spread of COVID which essentially means that we won't be having community events or assemblies for a couple more weeks.

Tennis has returned to our mornings:

link here if you are interested.

https://www.setacademy.com.au/

School Sport Victoria (SSV)

Website: https://www.ssv.vic.edu.au

If you believe your child is outstanding in a particular sport, check out the SSV website for the sports that they host trials for. Students need to be a high stand to be considered and please consult with me (Liam) before applying directly to SSV.

Save the date:

Week 5
Twosday 22/02/22
Wednesday 23/02	Specialist program for students School Advisory Council 6.30pm
Thursday 25/02
Friday 26/02	Mass Year 4 9.15am School assembly outdoors School Leaders 3.00pm

Other dates:

Sacraments
Reconciliation	Wednesday May 11th (10am after parish Mass)
First Communion	Wednesday 20th July 6pm
Confirmation	Friday August 19th 5.30pm

Karate

Check out the website for bookings if you are interested.

linkhttps://www.allstarsdefence.com.au/st-josephs-blackrock

Term 1	Students return: Mon 31 Jan - Friday 8th April (Easter 15 April – 18 April)
Term 2	Tuesday 26 April – Friday 24 June
Term 3	Monday 11 July – Friday 16 September
Term 4	Monday 3 October – Tuesday 20 December

Diary Dates

What to look forward to in the coming months