Principal's News

Dear Families,

It’s hard to believe we are almost halfway through the school year, with holidays just around the corner. Since our last newsletter, we have been very productive preparing reports, attending the staff conference, preparing for the BIG social event, coordinating sacramental programs, prep interviews, enjoying incursions and interschool lightning premierships, and of course, the usual teaching timetable! Hopefully, the additional two days prior to the long weekend gave our students a much-needed circuit breaker as we head towards the holidays, particularly with the various illnesses circulating in the school community. I thank the staff for supporting one another this week as many teachers and learning support officers have been ill; fingers are crossed for good health in the final week of term.

Staff working hard with Georgina Manning (Peaceful Kids) on the 'Peaceful Classrooms' wellbeing program during day 1, and working on the new Child Safe Standards on day 2:

Congratulations to our Year 4,5 and 6 students who have participated in three lightning premierships this week in soccer, netball and football. Whilst the weather has not been ideal, our students should be commended for their have-a-go attitudes and excellent behaviour. Well done! A special thanks to Liam Cleary (inter-school sports coordinator) for organising the events and who made his debut as soccer coordinator for the Dendy District. Liam also stepped into the Year 6 role this week, replacing Mrs Callinan, so it has been quite a busy week for our impressive graduate teacher! Thanks also to other staff who have supported each event.

Speaking of Sport…

Congratulations to Callum W in Year 3 for competing in the regional cross country championships earlier in the week, being placed an impressive 25th in the competition. Well done Callum, we are so very proud of your efforts.

Sacrament  News

Congratulations to Sienna in Year 3, who was baptised at St Joseph’s Church last week. By all accounts it was a very special occasion as Sienna was warmly welcomed into our faith community.

Our Year 3 students will be receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation next Tuesday evening, and I thank Ms Huebner and Mrs Jackson for their preparation of the students.

Cyber Safety Night

What an eye-opener!  I certainly don’t envy parents in this day and age! We received wonderful feedback from parents about the night, with lots of practical tips to help navigate parenting in the cyber world. Regardless of attendance, all parents at St Joseph’s are able to access the parent toolkit and on-demand video here: https://www.informandempower.com.au/sj-replay and the password is Empower0806

Thank you to Ms Williamson and Mrs O’Dwyer (and dog Toby) for providing the babysitting service during the evening and thank you to Mr Earl for organising the information session.

Sport for All

Thank you to Mrs Davies for organising the inclusive sport sessions this week, provided by Stonnington Council through their Sport4All program. Our Year 3 to 6 children learnt so much from the session, led by organiser Jeremy and Paralympian, Jonty O'Callaghan.

Sport4All is a pilot program funded by the Australian Government to support mainstream clubs and schools build awareness around disability inclusion. The City of Stonnington is one of five Local Government Areas that have partnered with Get Skilled Access, (developer of Sport4All) to support the confidence and capability of clubs and schools with welcoming and including more people with disability in every aspect of their club, culturally and socially.  The motto 'any sport, anywhere for anyone' guides Sport4All's vision of giving people with disability the opportunity to participate in grassroots and school sports when, where and how they choose. 

This program is not just about ramps and rails, but building better awareness of disability inclusion across all forms of sport from playing to coaching, umpiring to spectating.

Thanks Mrs Davies!

Ready, Prep, Go!

It is with great excitement that we announce the new St Joseph’s playgroup which will begin in August of this year. ‘Ready, Prep, Go!’ is aimed specifically at our 2023 preps and younger siblings, this will be a valuable opportunity for our newest students to build connections to their school and foster engagement early in their ‘big’ school journey.

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Stacey Farrell (ex-St Joseph’s parent, Oscar ‘18 and Niamh ‘20) as our new transition coordinator. This is a new role at St Joseph’s, and Stacey will focus on facilitating the transition from pre-school to primary school, and she will also run the new pre-prep playgroup. We also have Y1 parent, Olivia Healy, assisting in establishing and running the playgroup. If there are any other parents who would be interested in helping out, please drop me an email. 

Exciting times for our community!

Looking ahead to the final week…

We are SUPER excited for our first big social event in a long time, with our Comedy night tomorrow in the school hall. There’s still time to buy your tickets to come and join us for what will be a hoot!

Thank you to the organising team of Michael Hazell, James Noonan, Tennille Bare, Talia Hasset, Kate Fitzgerald and Laura Piva. Thanks also to Isabelle for her admin assistance.

Ceres Excursion

Our juniors are certainly making up for lost time with their numerous excursions this year! Next Tuesday the children and staff will spend the day at CERES, with a focus on the following learning outcomes:

• Understand that each Aboriginal person confides with their culture and is responsible for caring for the land
• Identify and connect with elements of Aboriginal cultures
• Explore ways of keeping ancient knowledge and tradition alive
• Identify ways to embed the Aboriginal cultures into their school

Thank you to Ms Williamson and Marta Cummings for organising this valuable excursion to support this term’s Geography unit of work.

Friendship Fair 2022

As is the tradition at St Joseph’s, Term 2 will end with the much-loved Friendship Fair. Ably led by our SRC students, the children will come together in support of St Jude’s Tanzania, and raise funds through their stalls and activities.

The day will begin with our Instrumental Music Concert and school assembly in the hall at 9 am, and all parents are welcome to join us. Following this, the children will set up and run, their stalls- assisted (but not micromanaged) by the staff. The day will conclude with the St Joseph’s Annual Talent Show, which will be held in the De La Salle performing arts centre behind our school. (no parents at the fair or talent show)

We will have the children return to school for our usual pick-up time of 3.30 pm.

Reminder for the day: casual clothes and spending money of up to $10

Thanks to our SRC, Mrs Carman and Mrs O’Dwyer for organising the day and what a lovely way to end the term.

And finally, some words of wisdom from Pia in Year 1, who wrote a little book called ‘Kind Deeds’, which she was happy for me to share:

“When you do a kind deed you can also make other people happy as well as yourself.

So please do as many kind deeds as you can.

So be kind. Be loving.

Love is often in a kind deed.

Because love is kind, it can make you happier than you were before.”

Thank you for sharing your beautiful words, Pia!

Wishing you all a relaxing weekend ahead and I look forward to some fun on Saturday evening!

Michelle