Principal's News

We warmly welcome the following families to the St Joseph's Community:

Alston, Bothelo, Lobo, Baker, Chan, Chinnick-Simeonidis, Dennis, Garvey, Gunaratham, Hapuarchchi, Haviaridis, Karanicolas, Kisnorbo, Konieczny, McBride, Menezes, Moens, Natale, Nicolai, O'Connor, Pietsch, Prasad, Purcell, Reeves, Reynoldson, Ryan, Schmidt, Siong, Taranto, Von Schrenk, Dimitrovici, O'Mara

Wishing you many happy years as part of the St Joseph's community!

Welcome to the new St Joseph's babies!

Congratulations to Siobhan O'Dwyer and Jarrod on the birth of baby Louis, who came into the world on the 22nd of January:

Just one day later on the 23rd of January, Jess Chan and Danny welcomed baby Bowie:

I am desperate for baby cuddles and we can't wait to meet these beautiful boys! We wish both families a lifetime of love and happiness with their new bundles of joy.

A huge thank you to:

• Adrian Beedell (Hamish Y6) for his work over the holidays fitting the new fancy bin surrounds and also installing the new bricks along the main pathway.  I also popped into school near the end of the holidays to 'catch' Adrian cleaning the drink tap units, whilst Hamish brushed the leaves from the playground. Thank you so much to you both.
• Tennille Baré for organising the named bricks. A special memory for our families and a great fundraiser for our school. Thanks Tennille.
• Tennille, Jade, Stacey and Niamh for organising the morning tea on the first day of school. What a lovely welcome for our families.
• Courtney, Ash, Jane, Michael and all those who have helped organise volunteers/ meetings/ events for our SAC and P+F in 2023. Many (enthusiastic) hands make light work.
• Simone, Mel, Bianca and the team for being responsive to the needs of our community and providing a very early in the year Sustainable Uniform Shop. Thank you!

Week 3 Invitations and Reminders:

• As part of our Term 1 History and Geography topic, "On This Land", the students will be learning all about Indigenous culture, past and present. On Monday 13th January, we will start the topic with a special incursion from 'Cultural Infusion', who will provide Indigenous workshops for our students related to Aboriginal art, dance and games/ sports.
• To begin the day, we are thrilled to welcome Barama, who is a member of the Cultural Infusion team, who will perform the 'Welcome to Country' and 'Smoking Ceremony' to begin our school year at 9am on the playground next to the hall.

We encourage all families to stay after drop-off and join us for these ceremonies.

• School Advisory Council Meeting #1 2023: Our SAC will meet on Monday 13th February (we couldn't clash with Valentine's Day), at 7pm in the staffroom. We are grateful to Monsignor Stuart, Peter Piasente (Chair), Courtney Jendra (Secretary), Kerry Cockburn, Sascha Pausewang, David Stegehuis, Martin Earl and Michael Hazell (P+F rep) for giving so generously of their time and energy to support our school this year.
• Parent/ Teacher Information Sharing: Thursday 16th February, 1 pm until 7.30 pm. This is an important session to begin the year and during which you will have the opportunity to share pertinent information about your child with the classroom teacher. The link for your booking is:    https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/t8mj6
• Please note that school finishes at the normal time of 3.30 pm on this day.

Prayers and Condolences

We send our heartfelt condolences to the St Mary's East Malvern school community on the passing of their school secretary, Therese Cambareri. We offer our prayers and support at this difficult time.

We also send our deepest sympathy to the St Michael's Ashburton school community as their Principal, Meredith Bennett, passed away on the weekend after a long illness.  We offer our prayers for Meredith's family and the Ashburton community.

And finally,

This newsletter is chockablock full of (hopefully) useful information and dates etc. for the remainder of the term and 2023.

Please look out for the teachers' class information videos on dojo, in conjunction with the term newsletters. You should feel well and truly in the loop!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend of sunshine and relaxation,

Michelle