Principal's News

A 'Fruitful' Week!

Dear Families,

It’s been another busy and eventful week at St. Joseph’s, with the completion of the much anticipated Cook Book, delivery of the graduation jumpers to our very excited Year 6 students and finishing with a glorious school photograph day! With the sun shining, we decided to take the opportunity to have a whole school photograph, which should be a stunning addition to our 2019 portfolio.

Thankfully, Jen’s pasta sauce was not evident in any of the photographs- by all accounts, so delicious that not a drop was left over! Thank you to all the parents who helped distribute hot lunches, working around the photograph schedule.

Working Bee #1

This coming Sunday we have our first working bee of the year organised by Adrian Beedell. We need as many people as possible to lend a hand, with plans for library organisation, clearing away of old furniture and a thorough clean of the hall storage amongst the urgent jobs. We’d love to see as many of you there as possible from 11am onwards. Lending a hand, even for just half an hour, will be much appreciated. Children also welcome to come along!

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

Excitement is building for our first Grandparents/ Special Friends’ Day, with over 200 guests expected on the day. A huge thank you to Cathy Fonti (James A Y4) who is coordinating the morning tea element of the day and this is no mean feat! Thank you to everyone who has offered to help on the day or offered to provide aspects of the morning tea. Grades 4F and 2O are working hard to ensure a beautiful liturgy to celebrate the special people in the lives of our students. Please note that parents are warmly invited to come along. The timetable for the day is as follows, with some flexibility needed for timing with morning tea and ending time:

9.15am: Mass in Church

Following Mass, children will return to class and guests will be invited to the hall for morning tea.

Once morning tea is under way (Approx 10.15am) both junior and senior choirs will serenade the guests. All other students will have recess snack in class at this time.

When choir have finished, students will be called to accompany their special guests to their classroom to look at work and also take them on a tour of the school.

We expect the day to conclude around 12pm. Children finish school at normal time of 3.30pm.

Please note all times are approximate

We are extremely excited to welcome extended families to school and to showcase the wonderful learning and environment here at St. Joseph’s.

Italian dress up

What a delight it was to spend some time in Italian classes this week and see our children dressed in Italian ‘school uniform’. Thank you to Mrs Gleeson and Mrs Falla for organising these ‘hands on’ cultural experiences for our children.

2019 Cookbook

Another event during our ‘fruitful’ week, was the photo shoot and and finishing touches for our 2019 St. Joseph’s cookbook. The artwork painted by art club members, coupled with the stunning photographs (and of course, delicious recipes) will ensure these books sell like ‘hot cakes’. Thank you to Sarah, Elissa, Angie, Marta and Helen for the amazing efforts in bringing this book to life! We can’t wait to see the final product in the coming weeks.

Class Dojo

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Baby News- Nearly!

We wish Mrs Carmen all our love and best wishes as she begins her maternity leave this coming Tuesday, and we look forward to meeting the newest member of the family in the coming weeks. We thank Georgie for all of her assistance in testing and student support this term and we hope she manages some rest before baby’s arrival in mid April.

Congratulations Archie!

What an incredible effort from Archie, our ‘high jumper’ in Year 4, who recently came second in STATE high jump championships, with a 1.25 metre jump. Amazing! Here’s Archie enjoying a well deserved icy pole in the principal’s office!

ECSI Parent Survey

Please look out for a Caremonkey notice early next week containing details of a Catholic Identity survey that we would encourage you all to complete. Our staff and senior students will also complete a similar survey. The data collected will be an integral part of our next school review in 2020.

Graduation Jumpers

Thank you to Pina (Gianluca Y3) who organised and coordinated the production of the Year 6 graduation jumpers. This is a huge effort by Pina, who also runs our uniform shop purely on a voluntary basis. Thank you Pina! Our Year 6 students were thrilled to receive the new additions to their wardrobe, proudly presented by our beautiful preps. This is another lovely tradition in our school and the photographs below say it all!

Children and Social Media

Recently, I came across the following article which I found extremely useful in understanding current use of social media by children, particularly teenagers. In this day and age, it’s pretty daunting for parents to keep up to date with new additions to social media and this article provides some sensible insights on how to keep children safe online:

https://www.abc.net.au/life/apps-that-parents-of-teens-should-know-about/10901680

Wishing you all a relaxing and restful weekend ahead and we look forward to seeing as many parents as possible at the working bee on Sunday.

Michelle