Dear Parents,

Last Friday was a really special day at St Joseph’s celebrating Open Day. The student leaders who led the tours were simply inspirational. I feel extremely fortunate and proud of the way our students can articulate their learning and show just how proud they are of our beautiful school.

Our students strive for excellence in all that they do and this was evident on Friday both in the learning that was evident in all classrooms, in the strength of the relationships and positive culture in our school and in the many practical applications of our academic learning experiences evident in our Cafe and outside learning spaces.

Friday was a celebration and an opportunity to highlight the many models of exemplary practise we have in our school resulting in high quality learning experiences for all and striving for excellence in all that we do.

Last Wednesday we held our Year 4 community dinner in the hall. It was a wonderful evening and a great reflection of our faith in action with families gathering and sharing a special meal together highlighting the importance of celebrations. Throughout the night we learnt about the Sacrament of First Eucharist and the special meal we all shared was similar to the one Jesus held with his disciples at the Last Supper. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter Whyte our faith leader and our senior teachers and all other staff who supported us on the night. I would also like to thank Matt Demarte for cooking and the Year 6 students who served.

Congratulations to the students who ran in the District Cross Country last Thursday. At a Tier 1 level all students in our school experience a broad range of learning experiences. At St. Joseph’s we then provide students with further opportunities to shine with many wide and varied learning opportunities where they can set goals and strive for excellence in the area of their strength. We congratulate all students who represented our school in the District event and congratulate Lily and Ryder who will now go on to represent our school in the next level of competition.

Our theme for week 6 of Term 2 is around the theme of being of service using the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are guided by the many gifts of the Holy Spirit such as knowledge, understanding, courage, wonder and awe, right judgement and wisdom in our daily lives. This week we are highlighting the social emotional capability of using resilience, grit and stamina to achieve great things by using a growth mindset.

Click above to view slideshow

Next Friday 27th is the beginning of Reconciliation week for 2022. The theme is ‘Be Brave. Make Change’. I will be away this week on our Peninsula Principal Zone Conference. The conference is focussed on Indigenous Education and Culture. We will be experiencing the Indigenous culture through a connection with nature as we explore Gunai Kurnai country in East Gippsland. I am passionate about ensuring our Indigenous culture and education is of utmost priority in our school and look forward to sharing all of the wonderful insights I will gather this week.

Click above to view slideshow

Over the next few weeks we will be focussing on communicating the excellent learning experiences we provide at St. Joseph’s.

Staff are focussing on communicating learning through See Saw and on ensuring our home learning site is being used for home learning each week. This is leading up to our end of Semester school reports and learning conferences where we celebrate all of the growth and success our students have achieved throughout this year.

We ask that students read every night along with learning automatic recall through high quality Maths fluency activities and a focus on word work each week.

Please make sure you are visiting the home learning site each week to see what the learning communities are doing for the week and accessing the home learning activities for your children to do at home.

Please see our home learning policy in the link below

St. Joseph's Home learning policy

Finally, we have a number of infections at the moment including COVID, the flu and gastro. This has impacted significantly on staff and students and there fore we may experience interruptions to our normal routine as we are faced with a shortage of staff and limited access to any casual replacement staff. We will keep interruptions to a minimum and ask that if your child is the slightest bit unwell that you please keep them home to ensure we are stopping the spread of these illnesses in our community.

If you child is away on any day please ring the office on 59839374 by 8.30am in the morning and leave a message on the absentee line explaining the reason for their absence.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab Espenschied

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