Principal's Message

(Heads, Hearts & Hands)

Dear Lord

We welcome our new staff (Sam, Sarah and Sharon) and pray that they find collegiality, friendship and warmth. As we gather here, let us be aware of all that unites us, while at the same time, honouring the diversity among us.

Amen

Dear Families

Welcome back to 2022 at St Joseph's!

This is officially Week 3 beginning today Monday 7th Feb. 

Last week was fantastic!

We welcomed new children and new staff and the sun shone brightly for the week. It was wonderful to see you all and welcome you at the gate with your amazing children. We look forward to hosting some community events soon along with the P&F and we hope the restrictions will be lifted.

As you know we farewelled some staff members last year as well as students and we wish them the very best. We have three new staff members who have settled in over the first few days. Sam Sullivan is our Year 4 teacher and PE teacher, Sharon Portelli is the Learning Support Officer in Year 4 and Sarah Fuller is our Wellbeing teacher and she also joins Year 1/2 on Friday. We also welcome all our new Foundation and other students to school.

'Heads, Hearts & Hands'

The staff have done a lot of preparation over the summer and we are excited to have a new school-wide focus for the way we design and think about learning and teaching here at St Joseph's. The Victorian Curriculum outlines the content, skills and capabilities that we teach for Foundation to Year 6. We interpret the curriculum to make it 'make sense' in the way we deliver it especially through the lens of a Catholic school. This year we are planning and designing learning under the banner of 'Heads, Hearts and Hands'. 

We hope this captures our desire for students at St Joseph's to learn more than just the curriculum. As our school Vision Statement outlines, we want 'our young people to have the skills and understanding, compassion and sense of belonging to be informed and active global citizens'. We are designing learning experiences in line with the vision and we hope that students will think, feel and act in ways that active and informed citizens would. You will be seeing and hearing more about Heads, Hearts and Hands during the year. 

Under this banner we have purposely employed a specialist Wellbeing teacher, Mrs Sarah Fuller.

Sarah will be teaching Wellbeing lessons on a weekly basis (Thursday) to all the classes. (Hear more form Sarah on Wellbeing page). We have designed our own Wellbeing scope and sequence that we believe will support and explicitly teach students' strategies and skills to help them develop their personal and social capabilities. 

We believe that all children have had a very disrupted couple of years and we need to support them holistically and not simply trying to 'catch them up' with learning. The pandemic and remote learning took a huge toll on all of us. It is with this in mind that we also believe that 'Head, Hearts and Hands' and our Wellbeing program will offer students authentic opportunities to develop their emotional literacy, resilience and social skills. We will also be offering 'Parent Wellbeing' sessions in the very near future (we will let you know). 

Meet the Teacher

This Wednesday 9th you are invited to join the Google Meet for 20 - 30mins to meet and chat with your teacher(s) for 2022. The invitation links will be Operoo'd to you today.

Communication

On Friday you should have received a pack of policies from school to read and sign and return. Please assist us by returning the permission forms and Code of Conduct for parents and students. These are important documents that protect students, parents and staff. In the pack was a Communication Channel document outlining the preferred ways of comms occurring. 

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/ 

Yoga

Yoga will be every Friday for all students for Term 1 and Term 3. Sophie will alternate Yoga with Dance and Performing Arts for Term 2 and 4.  

We believe that a combination of Yoga and dance across the year will be beneficial for the mental and physical health of our students as well as lots of great fun. 

Swimming 

Swimming trials and training is underway for the HOLT District Carnival on Friday 18th Feb.

Life Ed 

Harold the giraffe and his team will be visiting the school next week and the following week to deliver some important health messages and learning experiences for the children.

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:

Karate 

Great to see Andrew and Anthony from Allstars back onsite each Wednesday morning with our karate students. Here we see the students who received their Yellow Belt after the grading session.

Check out the website for bookings if you are interested.

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