Principal's News

All Things Bright and Beautiful!

(Thank you Junior Choir for this trip down memory lane)

What a joy (and relief) to have finally been able to celebrate the amazing creativity and talents of the St Joseph’s students in our Art Show, “Where the Wild Things Are”.

Thank you for your understanding and support when we had to cancel our original plans due to poor weather and I know this change meant that some families were unable to attend the rescheduled event. Tuesday’s weather was perfect and was a warm backdrop for a relaxing evening enjoying the arts!

Thanks to Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Federal Labour MP for Higgins) for opening the evening and to Fr Stephen (assistant Parish Priest) for joining us on the night. A special mention to our Art Captains for their welcome and introduction to the event.

The event was made all the more important as this is the first Art Show since 2019, which meant our Preps-2s (and families) had not experienced this sort of celebration, and I thank those of you who have emailed your words of gratitude to Marta, Jess, students and staff.

So why all the fuss about the arts? The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) is the recognised peak association in the arts learning and professional development area in Australia, who work with government agencies, teachers, schools and tertiary institutions across the country. Through rigorous research they have identified the following benefits of arts education:

A selection of photos from the night:

The Community Event...

We had been able to open the doors last Saturday morning for those parents who wanted/ needed an earlier sneak peek, and for the broader community. With a steady trickle of visitors, our student artwork was showcased to current, past and new families; we welcomed people from our parish, many of Marta’s family and friends and a couple of art teachers from other schools who were looking for inspiration! All were welcomed and offered a taste of Laura Piva’s award-winning scones- 197 were baked throughout the morning and were delicious.

So many 'thank you's!

Marta Cummings for her exceptional skills as an art teacher- what an incredible inspiration she is to students and staff alike.
Jessica Chan, our music teacher put together a great selection of performances from our two choirs, our school ensemble, and all grades, all the time spotlighting those students who play instruments or specialise in vocals. Well done Michael C in Y5 for writing your class song lyrics (Wow!) and to all of the children for giving it their ‘all’! (Special shout out to Y2s and ‘The Aussie Dingo’ song)
Classroom teachers and support staff for their work in preparing the class art pieces and the student performances on the night.
Hanna Rose (Oscar, Y3) for the donation of her beautiful artworks for the silent auction
Our parent community for your generosity with donations towards the cost of the show; for donating silent auction items and for purchasing raffle tickets etc on the night.
To James Noonan for stocking/ organising and running the bar with his ‘team’ on the night, plus the all-important tidy up at the end. Amazing!
Leo Dipetta for organising the food trucks and Mario for his gorilla and bar.
Lucy Lewis for organising the raffle and auction items.
Laura Piva, Jane Pausewang, Mark Breeze, Stacey Farrell and Courtney Jendra for organising and assisting during Saturday’s community event.

Please read Marta’s page later in the newsletter as she acknowledges the student, staff and parent team efforts to make this occasion a success. Word on the street is that Marta is already brainstorming the 2024 theme- so watch this space!

Other bits and pieces in the life of our school…

Diving- Our middle school students and staff enjoyed an impromptu excursion to Harold Holt to witness the opening of the newly refurbished and iconic diving tower. Thanks to Ms Huebner for organising the trip for our students.

From a local newspaper…yes, SJM were the enthusiastic group:

Under a perfect blue sky Harold Holt Swim Centre’s dive pool was officially reopened today, after nearly two decades out of action.

The dive pool was officially opened by City of Stonnington Mayor Cr Jami Klisaris who was joined by invited guests including the Federal Member for Higgins, Dr Michelle Ananada-Rajah and City of Stonnington Councillors Matthew Koce and Kate Hely.

Also on-hand to witness the milestone moment was a small crowd of Harold Holt regulars and an enthusiastic group from the local primary school who were very excited to see the pool back in use.

Celebrating the reopening Mayor Cr Klisaris said, “From today we are thrilled to welcome diving back for the first time in nearly 20 years.

“Before closing in 2003 over safety concerns, the dive pool and tower were loved by the community and extremely popular features of the swim centre.

“For many locals, a visit to Harold Holt on a hot summer day was not complete without the thrill of leaping from the tower into the pool.

“Although the tower cannot return to operation, we’ve added one- and three-metre springboards to the pool so diving will again be very much part of a visit to Harold Holt Swim Centre”.

Years 3 and 4 also recently enjoyed a visit to the new science centre in Moorabin, “TwistEd”, as part of this term’s science unit. The children and staff had a great time and highly recommend a visit for families. ‘Charlie’s Angels’ loved the opportunity for a photo:

Our Preps-2s had a wonderful time at Myuna Farm, although not ideal timing with the evening’s art show. The sun shone as our younger students enjoyed meeting the animals and spending time in the great outdoors. A special ‘well done’ to these students and our staff for making it to the end of the art show! Thank you to the parents who came along to assist on the day.

The Master Plan

Following my impromptu (but timely?) announcement of the Master Plan project on Tuesday evening, I thought it best to give you a more detailed breakdown of our wish list for the infrastructure at our beautiful school and future planned enhancements. After being given the green light from the team at MACs regarding the future growth of our school- two more prep classes next year and several enrolments across other year levels, it is wise to start making plans for upgrades, additions and refurbishments. Our wish list includes:

Somehow bridging the gap between the admin/ prep block and the main building without losing any play space. It’s amazing what you can do with a cantilever design.
Building a new indoor toilet block that can also be accessed from the outside during recess etc.
4 new classrooms and additional storage/ breakout/ office rooms.

The process for making this dream a reality:

The School Advisory Council shortlisted Architects from a list provided by MACs
This week, the shortlisted companies came on a tour of the school and we discussed the needs of our growing school and the need to protect all available play spaces.
On Tuesday 7th November, the shortlisted architects will submit their plans to MACs
On Thursday 10th November, a team from St Joseph’s and MACs will interview the shortlisted companies and choose an architectural design that meets the brief.
The architects will then consult the school community to add ‘meat to the bones’ of the design.
In Term 1 of next year, we will submit the master plan for a capital building grant.
If successful, we will put a tender out to builders.
Fingers crossed!

I am really grateful to Katherine Holden, from the MACs Infrastructure team, for pushing us along and organising all of the finer details of this process. She has been invaluable support thus far.

Of course, we will keep you updated as to the progress of our project in the coming weeks and months.

Introducing our new Prep teacher for 2023

With great pleasure, we introduce you to Mr Dean Butler, who has been appointed as the new prep teacher for 2023, to work alongside Jasmine. We were in the fortunate position of having a very high-quality pool of applicants, and Dean was a stand out with his commitment to high standards, his focus on student wellbeing, his experience of structured literacy/ explicit teaching and his years of teaching in Prep. I know that his current school are very sad to see him go and we very much look forward to welcoming him to the team at SJM.

From Dean:

I feel extremely fortunate to be joining the St. Joseph’s community in 2023 as one of the Prep teachers. I have been teaching for many years, with the past three years in Geelong. There are many things that I love about teaching, however the best thing is forming trusting relationships with my students and supporting their academic and emotional learning journey. I look forward to creating an engaging learning space where all students feel supported, respected and safe.

When I am not teaching, I enjoy taking my border collie for walks, in particular during the warmer months. On the weekends and holidays, I am often found in my garage building one thing or another –one day I’ll have the dream shed that will be big enough to accommodate this hobby. Growing up on a sheep farm in rural New South Wales provided me with endless opportunities in which I could tinker away at scrap pieces of timber or metal and rework them into something purposeful.

I am excited for my move to Melbourne and look forward to building strong connection with both students and families as we venture into many positive learning experiences. Dean Butler

Hayley Knight

Our wonderful Miss Hayley (LSO Y1) is about to embark on a trip to the Solomon Isles as part of her 3rd year Bachelor of Education. How fitting that Hayley will be working in a Vincentian school? She and her fellow trainee teachers have organised the following, and any support would be greatly appreciated:

Hello Everyone,

In a few weeks I will be travelling to the Solomon Islands for a month, where I will participate in an overseas teaching experience at St Vincent De Paul Primary School. The school has very few teaching resources, making it difficult for teachers to teach and students to learn. We have been overwhelmed with the amount of physical donations to take over which we are very grateful for. There remains a need for funds to upgrade facilities such as the toilet block, provide solar power and to raise money to go towards educational projects. If you are able to offer any financial support it would be greatly appreciated. We have set up a Go Fund Me page where donations can be made: https://gofund.me/80c71f87

Thank you for any support you are able to give!

Hayley

Laura Saladino

It was with sadness, but also excitement, that we farewelled our Italian teacher Laura on Thursday, as she begins her maternity leave. With baby due in 4 weeks, it is time for Signora to put her feet up and rest in preparation. We wish her and Michael all the love in the world as they journey this exciting family time together. Of course, we can’t wait for baby cuddles!

Laura will be replaced by Christie Birch from Y2 to Y6 for the remainder of the term. These students have completed the curriculum content for the year, and Christie will be embarking upon some ICT/ Cyber safety work with those students. Signora Gleeson will continue with her Italian in Prep/ Y1.

Orientation #2

We welcomed back our pre-preps for their second orientation yesterday. After being part of the playgroup for over a term, they already feel like they are an integral part of school life at St Joseph’s. Thanks to our staff for their organisation of the morning, and we are hopeful that Dean Butler can join us for the next session on Thursday 17th November.

A big thank you to our Sustainable Uniform team of Bianca, Mel and Simone, for running this valuable offering during the prep morning. Over $1000 was raised, which is incredible!

Thank you!

Wishing you all a relaxing and sunny weekend ahead. I know our students are ready for some rest as we head into week 4 of the final term of the year. Best to keep energy levels up!

Michelle