Week 9 and Journeying towards the Easter Holidays

Dear Families,

Here we are nearing the end of term and entering into one of the most important weeks in our Church calendar: Holy week. Yesterday, as the students entered the school grounds excited for school photographs (how smart they all looked) we cursed the rain which meant the photographs had to be taken indoors. However, I had a moment of gratitude when I remembered that exactly a year ago we went into hard lockdown and the remote learning period began. How wonderful that a year on we could go ahead with something as simple as school photographs! You can see the joy on the faces of our Year 6 students (above)!

As we enter Holy Week, our students and teachers have been preparing liturgies to mark each of the special days, leading up to and including Easter Sunday.

It is with great joy that a year on from our lockdown we are finally able to welcome smaller groups of parents to our daily liturgies in the hall.

You are warmly invited to attend in grade groups to avoid overcrowding as follows:

Monday at 3.10 pm: Prep B and Prep M presenting Palm Sunday; Prep families only

Tuesday at 3.10pm: Holy Thursday, Grade 3 and Grade 4 families only

Wednesday at 3.10 pm: Good Friday, Grade 5 and 6 families only

Thursday at 2.45 pm: The Resurrection, Grade 1 and Grade 2 families only

All Liturgies will take place in the hall and we are so excited to welcome you back for our school gatherings, albeit in smaller groups!

What is Holy Week?

You may hear the words ‘Easter Triduum’ spoken about when we refer to Holy Week and the Easter period. The Easter Triduum is the proper name for the three-day season that concludes Lent and introduces Easter. Technically speaking, a triduum refers simply to any three-day period of prayer.

The three 24-hour periods of the triduum include the major feasts for all four days at the heart of the Easter celebration: the evening feast of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.

The Easter Triduum memorialises the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On Holy Thursday, the Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. The Mass of the Lord's Supper includes a ritual washing of feet in most Catholic congregations. The altars are stripped of ornamentation, leaving only the cross and candlesticks behind. Communion will not be distributed until Holy Saturday evening mass.

Good Friday marks the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The service does not include Communion on this day. This is also the day the Stations of the Cross that commemorates the journey of Jesus from the trial to his death on the cross. After nightfall on Holy Saturday is the Easter vigil service, which represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his burial. This service includes a ceremony of light and darkness, in which a paschal candle is lit to represent the resurrection of Christ; members of the congregation form a solemn procession to the altar.

The Easter Vigil is considered the pinnacle of the Easter Triduum, and is usually celebrated with a devotion equal to that bestowed on Easter itself.

Easter Sunday marks the end of the Triduum and the beginning of the seven-week Easter season that will end with Pentecost Sunday.

Please remember that school concludes for the term on Thursday at 3.30pm, following our final liturgy.

Staffing News- Another 'Joey's' baby!

A huge congratulations to Christie Birch, our sports teacher, and her partner Josh on the news of baby number two, due at the end of September! We wish Christie, Josh and toddler Mackenzie, all the best as they prepare for another bundle of joy!

We wish Siobhan O'Dwyer (Miss O) and her partner Jarrod a lifetime of love, health and happiness as they celebrate their wedding on April 17th. Siobhan and Jarrod are relieved to be able to go ahead with their plans without restrictions and we look forward to lots of photographs of their special day. Congratulations Miss O and Jarrod!

Unbelievabowl!!

Our spectacular St Joseph’s Lawn Bowling team have just been crowned victors in the regional championship!! In a closely fought grand final against St Mary’s East Malvern, we powered through and won 8 to 7. Now off to state championships! So proud of our team and thanks to Ms Huebner!

A special acknowledgement to Gaby N, who went along as sub and helped out with another school team when they were a player down. Well done Gaby!

The Secret Garden and a Secret Makeover!

During the Easter holidays, our secret garden will be undergoing a significant make-over; unfortunately, I can't fully let the cat out the bag, but we have been chosen as one of two schools nationwide to have an area of the school transformed into a 'mindful space'. We will still be growing veggies (Miss Nancy and her team of gardeners can relax!) but the area will also be a space where classes of children can learn in nature. Thanks to Courtney J, Miss Hyde and Miss O for supporting the project in the background. A HUGE thank you to Andrew Webb (Alexis, Y3) for coming along this afternoon to prepare the garden for the project. Thank you Andrew and we look forward to the 'big reveal' after the Easter holidays.

A Quieter Week?

Although our school captains, Ingrid and Hugo, described this week as a 'quieter one', the children have enjoyed a few 'extras' throughout the week. Thank you to Miss O and our Prep to 6 SRC for organising today's special Harmony Day assembly, and thank you to Mrs Forbes for organising the 'Backflips Against Bullying'.

Both occasions delivered important messages to our students about equity, inclusivity and positive relationships with others. It may be worthwhile for families to have a follow-up chat at home about what the children have learnt this week.

Farewells Next Week

At the end of term we farewell the Phibbs family as the boys (Kai and Taj) move to their new school in Wheelers Hill. Liz, Ben and the boys have been valued members of our community for nearly five years, and we will miss having them at our school. We wish the boys the best of luck in their new school.

Education Advisory Board

What a thrill to actually meet in person this week, after a year of online EAB meetings.

I sincerely thank all board members for their support of our school and this week we went through a number of important agenda items:

New MACs policies: The newly formed Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (formerly Catholic Education Melbourne) have taken over the governance of all Catholic Primary schools, which were previously governed at a local level by Parish Priests. With this change, MACs are streamlining all school policies, and this includes replacing the Education Advisory Boards with School Advisory Councils (SACs).
Child Safety: The board went through the new guidelines for SACs and also the updated MACs Child Safety policies and codes of conduct. These policies are available on our website and in the coming weeks we will be replacing all of our old policies with the updated details

The Term Ahead

As we count down the days to the holidays, the staff are busy in the background organising a wonderful sustainability topic for Term 2: "Head, Heart and Hands for a Sustainable World". This unit of work focuses specifically on Biological Science (ecosystems, life cycles, habitats etc) and Geography (earth, land use, human impact on land) and also engages the children on a faith level as Stewards of God's Creation. We are always seeking parental input into these topics, so if you have a passion for, or experience in, the area of sustainability, please contact myself or your child's teacher.

Term 2 will begin with our Year 5 and 6 auditions for 'Mary Poppins Jr" on the 19th and 20th April. All children from Prep to 6 will be participating in the musical and Ms Sinker and I can't wait for the auditions at the beginning of the term. We hope that all roles will be announced by Friday 23rd April, so the students can begin the exciting phase of rehearsals. Watch this space!

This is the last newsletter of the term, and as mentioned, Term 1 will conclude on Thursday 1st April. On this day our Year 3-6 students will be heading to Spring Street Park to participate in our annual cross country event. Thanks to Christie and Tanya for organising this end of term event.

Term Two begins on Monday 19th April and although the students are expected to transition to winter uniform in Term 2, we usually have a few weeks with summer uniform, especially if the weather is still warm.

I look forward to welcoming families to assembly next week and also celebrating Holy Week with our students and staff.

Wishing you all a happy and holy holiday,

Michelle

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