Messages from Mrs Trewick

Dear Parents and Carers

Our school has made a very important decision lately and that is to become a Restorative School.  Using Restorative Practices isn’t something we take lightly.  We’ve been watching what’s been happening in the world of education when it comes to creating a strong school culture, to building effective relationships, to resolving conflict and to improving student behaviour and bullying.  The bottom line is that we think there’s a better way.

Restorative Practices is that way.  Working restoratively is really all about asking the right questions to students when things go wrong.  You see, most approaches have us putting our detective hats on and focusing everything in the past.  It really doesn’t get us very far because we never get to the present or the future.  

Put simply, we’ll be asking your children questions like:

• What happened?
• How has that made people feel?
• And what action needs to be taken to make that better?

It’s all about teaching responsibility for your actions and knowing that nobody is going to do it for you.  Our job is to help them do just that … better and better and better.

There’s a LOT more to Restorative Practices and we’re going to ensure you find out all of it.  Our ongoing Partnership with Real Schools is supporting and resourcing us to make this change and you have access to all the resources too.  Just head to the Member Login tab at www.realschools.com.au and use the login/password stjosephsps to have a look at all that we’re working on at school.

Stay tuned for more information on this exciting development for our school.

The Pupil Free Day on Wednesday 7th June is a launch day for all staff at our school. We will meet our facilitator Paul Blinkoff and spend the day working with him to learn more about Restorative Practices.

In time there will be an opportunity to gather as a parent community and learn more about Real Schools and Restorative Practices.

Enrolments

Our school community is invited to make an appointment for a tour of the school by ringing the school office on 5484 1797. We are looking forward to discussing the programs and curriculum that our students at St Joseph's School enjoy. 

Transition Opportunities:

Monday 5 June @ 11.45am: Maths Learning Walk

Monday 5 June @ 2.30pm: Assembly followed by Open School

Wednesday 14 June @ 2.20pm: Visual Arts with Mrs Carmichael & the Foundation Class

Building Update

Work will start on the Kildare Centre shortly. The costs associated with a concrete slab in that space were too great so the decision has been made to restore the Kildare Centre as is. 

• Thank you to the PnF working party that have helped with the kitchen design.
• Thank you to Catholic Education Sandhurst and CCI insurance for their support and guidance in these decisions.

New Staff

Next week we welcome Bianca Robins to St Joseph's. Bianca is joining us in a student support role. Please make Bianca feel welcome if you see her in the yard.

Football

In a couple of weeks there are two opportunities for our students to play football with and against other students.

Monday 19th June @ Kyabram (AFLX rules)

Tuesday 20th June @ Moama (School Sports Victoria - SSV - rules) COACH needed! 

• Both of these events are modified rules to their usual weekend football. We are trying to work with the students to understand the variation of rules as we play football during break times at school

A few weeks ago we (footballers and myself) sat and worked on some rules for school football together, trying to find a balance between SSV rules, weekend rules and playing with a wide age/size bracket of players at school. We have revised these twice already.

We understand that the students would like to play tougher football, this is not possible when we have a variety of skills in the players.  If you or your child has any suggestions that would help this be a more enjoyable time for players and supervising teachers, we would be grateful. 

This is a great example of working together and including everyone in play. 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Take care and stay in touch.