Dear Parents and Guardians

Thank you to all families for their great support in following our COVID safe guidelines to ensure that our community remains safe. I will continue to provide you with any updates and will alert you if there has been a positive case in your child's class. Please remain vigilant keeping an eye out for any symptoms. Please do not send your child to school if they are unwell. If they test positive, notify the office immediately.

Staff Update

It is with sadness that l inform our community that Cathy Edwards, our music teacher, has resigned. On behalf of our community l thank Cathy for all her wonderful work at St Joseph the Worker and for sharing her passion and love of music with our students. We wish Cathy well as she relocates back to her hometown of New Zealand. We are currently interviewing a new teacher for Music and will update the community as soon as this is finalised.

Tutor Program

We have been busy assessing all students in reading from Years 1 – 4 to ascertain their edibility for our Mini Lit and Mac Lit tutor programs. Students who participate in these programs are a highest risk of poor reading development. We have received a government grant of $25,000 again this year and Rosanna and Gina will continue to deliver this program daily to our selected. Parents will be contacted in the coming week to meet with Rosanna if their child is part of this program.

Application for government grant to improve our administration building

I am currently preparing an application for a grant from the state and federal governments. Whilst we were unlucky with our application last year, we are hopeful that we may be successful this year. If successful we will be refurbishing our administration building.

Rapid antigen tests

Special thanks to everyone in our community for working together to ensure that our school is as safe as it can be for everyone. This rapid antigen screening process is working well, and again thank you for your support in testing your child. Rapid antigen testing is voluntary, however we strongly recommend that all parents test their children on Sunday evenings and Tuesday evenings.

Please remember that if students receive a positive test result at any time, they must report it to the school (this can be done on the SkoolBag app - Absentee eForm) and through the Department of Health system website or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398. This is so the school can support you, record that your child will be absent while in 7-day isolation and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms.

Drop off and pick up

Please be very careful when dropping off and collecting your child/ren each day. This week we have had traffic backed up along Wilson Blvd and this was frustrating for many families who would like to stop, drop and move on quickly. In the spirit of working together, it is important that everyone follows this simple request: if you need to get out of your car to assist your child at drop off time, please park in the car parks to do this.

Learning time

A friendly reminder to all families that students need to be on time to begin learning each day at 8.45am. A number of students are consistently late and this does not support them in being ready to start their learning on time. Please ensure that outside school appointments are kept to a minimum as this also disrupts learning time. If you are picking up your child early, you are required to visit the office and sign them out via the ipad. After two years of interrupted learning, we prefer students to be onsite as much as possible with minimal disruptions to their learning.

CSEF Applications

If you have a Health Care Card, please fill in the attached CSEF application form and email it to the school on marisa.paras@sjwreservoirnth.catholic.edu.au

Link to CSEF Application Form https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/programs/health/CSEF-Application-Form-2020.pdf

If you have already submitted a CSEF form for 2021, you do not need to resubmit this form.

Ash Wednesday

Due to current restrictions all students will gather in classrooms to receive the blessed ashes next Wednesday.

Prep Enrolment 2023

At this stage, we are awaiting further advice regarding school tours from Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS). We will update everyone with tours dates when we are able to proceed with our tours.

If you are interested in attending a tour, please contact the front office on 9469 7800 or anna.amerena@sjwreservointh.catholic.edu.au

Child Safety

As a matter of child safety, parents are reminded that the school’s duty of care regarding supervision of students begins at 8.30am and concludes at 3.30pm. No child should ever be left unattended outside the school outside of these times. If parents need to drop their children at school early, they will need to book their child into our out of school hours program run by Theircare. Theircare offers both before and after care and parents can register online and make bookings via their website https://theircare.com.au.

Communicating with teachers

Parents should also note that if sending an email to staff, teachers may not be able to respond immediately as they will be busy with their teaching duties. Parents should expect an answer to their email within a 24-hour timeframe and only within business hours. Teachers will not respond to emails before 8.30am and after 5.00pm.

Anaphylaxis

It is important that l remind parents that we have students in our school who are at risk of having an anaphylactic reaction. Anaphylaxis is a severe, rapidly progressive allergic reaction that is essentially life threatening. The most common allergens in school aged children are peanuts, eggs, tree nuts (e.g. cashews), cow’s milk, fish and shell fish, wheat, soy, sesame, latex, certain animal stings and medication.

The key to prevention of anaphylaxis in schools is knowledge of those students who have been diagnosed at risk, awareness of triggers (allergens) and prevention of exposure to these triggers. Partnership between schools and parents is important in ensuring that we remain up to date with medical management requirements of all students.

Students who are at risk of anaphylaxis must have an updated medical plan each year. Can parents please contact Anna to review and update their their child/ren’s management plan as soon as possible.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend

St Joseph the Worker bless and watch over after our community

Maria Barnes

Today l give thanks

For life and love and beauty

My heart is full of gratitude

For faith and hope and wholeness

My life overflows

With abundance and generosity

Today l give thanks to God

For all he has given to me

Skoolbag