St. Joseph's Newsletter

Principal's News

St Joseph’s Athletics Carnival

Go Red!

After a few years of cheering on the winning teams of green or yellow, our red team knocked it out of the park today, with a stunning win! Go red! And well done to ALL teams for great displays of teamwork, sportsmanship and ‘have a go’ attitudes.

Highlights:

  • Preps getting into the swing of things with a competitive spirit, coupled with their support of one another
  • A relay race that will go down in history as the best false start ever!
  • A lost shoe, but the race continued
  • Staff running with students, side by side, coaching them along
  • Benji and Josh helping Dylan who tripped at the beginning of the 200m race- and then went on to come second! Benji and Josh took it very well!
  • The super organisation from Miss Birch and the team- wow!
  • Parents sporting their house colours!
  • Knocking down the hurdles, but still running to the end
  • The parent race- wow! You’re great sports!
  • THE SUNSHINE!!!

There were so many other highlights of the day, and our Year 6 captains will provide a full recount next week; thank you to all the parents and staff for supporting our students to ensure their day was simply perfect!

Open Day and the Working Bee

Thank you to the families who came along on a very dreary Sunday afternoon to ensure our school looked stunning for our Open Day on Monday. A special thanks to Adrian and Hamish for cleaning up the sandpit and for adding 2 tonnes of new sand- what an effort!! Our students were so grateful, and the sandpit has been a hive of activity all week. 

We had a number of families tour on Monday and I must congratulate our Year 6 leaders for making us so proud; we did things a little differently this time around, with ‘expo’ tables dotted around the school and our Year 6s presenting to prospective families. Thank you!

A new fee structure from MACs (Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools)

As of 2022, those families who hold a Health Care Card will be eligible for discounted school fees. The concessional fee policy is being introduced in Catholic Primary schools in the Archdiocese and this policy was presented at our recent SAC meeting (School Advisory Council- formerly the Education Advisory Board). This policy was very well received as it opens up the opportunity for all families to access education for their child in a Catholic school. I must emphasise that this alternative fee structure in no way impacts the fees that other families pay, rather, it is funded through the government via the Health Care Card supported funding. Our standard enrolment policy applies.

I will be sharing the concessional fee policy via Operoo next week.

 

Retro Night Disco and Trivia

Our P+F need your help with raffle prizes for the night, and also we ask that you book your tickets! The TryBooking link to book:

https://www.trybooking.com/BRLUP

Feel free to bring friends to make up your tables/ teams. 

 

After school pick up

Just a gentle reminder that ball games (footy, soccer) are not allowed before or after school. Whilst we understand that some families like to stay back so their children can play, all students must be supervised closely as we don’t want any of our children, or younger siblings, to have accidents out there- especially as they are very tired after a long day of hard work!

Thanks for your cooperation with this.

 

Smiling Mind photoshoot

The team from Smiling Mind spent the afternoon with us yesterday, visiting the classrooms and taking photographs to update their website and app. We are privileged to work closely with Smiling Mind, who are not for profit and work towards positive mental health in children and adults alike. If your child has brought home a release form, could you please fill this in and return it by Tuesday of next week. We can’t wait to see the stunning photographs of our students and staff around the school.

 

Absences and Late Arrivals

Many apologies for the issues with our phone absence option and thankfully this has now been repaired. I ask that if your child is going to be absent, please call the office as soon as you can to leave a message or email office@sjmalvern.catholic.edu.au . Please do not message teachers as they do not have their email/ dojo open all of the time, and Joanne/ Isabelle can update the attendance system from the office. If your child is late- after the second bell- we ask that you sign them in at the front office, or if they are not accompanied by a parent, please ask them to come into the front office before they head to class. Our updated MACs Attendance Policy is here:

SJM MACS Attendance Policy .pdf

Next week:

We have our Junior BIG DAY OUT at the Zoo on Monday, and I thank Marta Cummings (our junior school leader) for organising this special day as part of our current topic. Thank you also to the parents who have offered to come along to help supervise. The children can wear sports uniform for the day. Look out on the class dojo messages for any additional information.

Next Friday, our Year 6s will spend the day in their Confirmation retreat day- a special way for them to prepare to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on June 2nd. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions only students, their parents and their sponsor can attend the mass. Fr Alan is happy for someone to video the occasion to share, so if anyone is willing to volunteer to do this please let me know. 

 

From Ms Birch:

I wanted to say the biggest thank you for everybody's efforts today. You were all honestly amazing.

Thank you to Michelle for taking the Year 5s, Mr Earl for being the starter, Tanya for scoring and helping me, Faye on First Aid and ribbons and to all the teachers and LSO's for taking your classes and making the day run so smoothly. Thank you to Miss B for taking Year 3. We finished early/on time which is such a bonus when running days like these!

A special thank you to Ms Jo for coming down early this morning to meet some of us and assist with setting up (and packing up this afternoon!). You rock!

The weather was on point, and the highlight for me was the relay at the end when the children were running everywhere - too funny!

The day would not have run so well if it was not for you and all the parents helping - a special team effort today!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Miss Birch

 

 

Thanks again for a wonderful day of sport and laughter- and thanks to Imogen’s grandparents for the much-needed coffee shot!

Here’s a little video of our parents competing- thankfully no injuries or lost shoes!

Have a great weekend,

Michelle