Dear Parents,

In a time of great uncertainty and lockdown restrictions it is with great excitement that I announce that St. Joseph’s are state finalists in three categories for the Keep Australia Beautiful 2021 Tidy Town Awards.

Finalists for Education Excellence

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, CRIB POINT

Indigenous Culture and Perspectives: Connecting with the community around us

St Joseph’s students have been connecting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives on history through narrative play and art activities, as well as learning about permaculture to care for the Earth.

Their indigenous expert teaches Boon Wurrung language and students participate in a hands-on outdoor program. They explore difficult conversations about the impact colonisation had on the indigenous people of Australia in a safe and meaningful way.

The school has also started work on a Reconciliation Action Plan to embed indigenous culture and perspectives into school policy, engage with the parents and students, Boon Wurrung Elders and create a vision for the future.

Finalists for Environmental Excellence

Mangrove Warriors, CRIB POINT

Wall of Wings: Environmental Art Project with Kate Gorringe-Smith

Through ongoing connection with the Westernport Biosphere, the Mangrove Warriors worked alongside Melbourne print artist Kate Gorringe-Smith.With restrictions still in place for school visitors, Kate guided the students virtually to use print making techniques to each create three prints of a migratory bird.

Open for the month of March, the students’ work was on display alongside international artists at Oak Hill Gallery in Mornington. The exhibition formed part of the environmental art project, ‘The Overwintering Project’, which is aimed at promoting awareness around their most endangered group of birds, migratory shorebirds and their habitats.

The project focused on Westernport Bay as an internally significant migratory shorebirds habitat.

Finalists in Social Wellbeing Excellence

St. Joseph’s Crib Point Primary School, CRIB POINT

Wellbeing Hub

In 2020 and 2021, a whole school innovative Wellbeing Hub was designed and established. The purpose of the hub is for students to develop their social and emotional learning skills, to learn to self-regulate, and build their overall resilience and sense of wellbeing. The hub embraces and increases student’s capacity for learning by helping them to see how they see the world and themselves within it.

Keep Victoria Beautiful is one of Australia’s oldest environmental groups, with a rich history in community reward and recognition. Congratulations also goes to the significant number of finalists from our beautiful Mornington Peninsula.For more information on the range of inspirational stories visit

https://www.kvb.org.au/tidy-towns/tidy_towns2021_finalists/

These are just some of the examples of how we are soaring for excellence in 2021. Our learning design at St. Joseph’s is centred around providing a wonderful safe and creative environment where students have the opportunity to achieve excellence in all they set out to achieve. Our learning provides a myriad of opportunities for students to consolidate their skills, knowledge and attitudes in real life situations allowing for learning to be deepened and fully processed and embedded.

I trust you are all enjoying watching our amazing athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. The Olympics are a great opportunity to highlight excellence and the commitment, dedication and goal setting that individual athletes partake in to reach the highest of standards possible in the area of their strengths.

What great inspiration our children can get from observing the dispositions of our sporting heroes in action! To see the grit, determination, persistence and growth mindsets in action provides an inspirational platform for our students to gain motivation from.

Volunteers

We are currently seeking volunteers in the following areas:

Literacy and numeracy skills

Canteen volunteers

Permaculture volunteers.

If you are interested please contact the office or email ahoulihan@sjcribpoint.catholic.edu.au

Finally, I hope our families are ok in the continued lockdown and are making moments matter. This TED talk led by a 7 year old just says it all. It is never too late to be present for your children and make moments matter.

Take care, know we are here for you and let’s all get through this time together.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab

Dates to Remember