Week 2 Reflection...

Another productive week at St Joseph's, with our Junior School excursion to Melbourne Museum, school photographs, our first inter-school netball/ football match of the season, more school tours (phew!), P+F meeting and of course, we ended the week with a spectacular Mother's Day celebration.

We started the day with a yummy breakfast and refreshments served by our team of dads; how lovely to hear the chatter and laughter in the hall. Thank you to the team of dads, and Lynnette and Isabelle for organising the gorgeous food for our mums (and some students!).

Following the speedy tidy up (thanks Dads!) we enjoyed a beautiful liturgy presented by our talented Year 1 students- how cute! (Franco's saxophone dance was a hit). Thank you to Miss D and Miss W for their expert preparation; we were blown away by the superb readings from the students.

Then off to a special lunch...

Thank you to Claire Yelland and Olivia Healy for organising the delicious lunch and celebrations for our mums. 'Remy's' was full to the brim and our mums looked divine! Whilst I was only able to take photos during the first couple of hours, I would dearly love to see the post 4 pm selfies! (Feel free to share!).

Thank you for your generosity with the raffle, not only for buying tickets (the Year 1 mums bought A LOT) but for also donating prizes for the day.

What a lovely way to begin the Mother's Day weekend and hopefully our Friday celebrations were the beginning of a fantastic few days for our mums and special people.

Just in time for Mother's Day! Congratulations!

A HUGE congratulations to Charlie (1D) and mum Georgia on the birth of beautiful baby Scarlet, born on the 20th of April. By all accounts, Charlie is the best big brother and was so proud (wanting to show off baby Scarlet) that he insisted on mum and bubs coming in for a visit on the first day back (6 days old) ! What a delight and I look forward to plenty of baby cuddles in the coming months!

Congratulations to Josh (Y6)

We are so very proud to share the great news that Josh in Y6 has been awarded a music and academic scholarship to Scotch College for next year. For those of you who have had the pleasure of hearing Josh play, you will know how hard he works to nurture his natural talents. Scotch are very lucky to have him!

Maths Olympiad at St Joseph's

We are thrilled that Maths Olympiad has begun again, with Mr Earl running the weekly sessions. The APSMO Maths Olympiads is a competition for students in years 5 and 6 of primary schools and years 7 and 8 of secondary schools from around Australia and New Zealand. At St Joseph's we also invite a number of high-achieving Year 4 students. It is aimed at challenging participants' maths problem-solving abilities.

Each competition comprises 5 questions and must be completed in a specified time frame of around 20-30 minutes.

The Maths Olympiad is an ideal format for high achieving students to work in a competitive environment with challenging questions to hone their skills.

All students who complete the Maths Olympiads will receive a certificate and individual and Team Awards are also available.

We thank Mr Earl for running this valuable extension program for our older students.

Naplan 2022

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will sit their Naplan tests next week, over three days. NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

A Reflection and Prayer:

We wish all of our mums, nannas, aunts and special women a wonderful day on Sunday and thank you for all you do for our children. On this day, we honour those who have mothered us and cared for us and who care for the children in our community. You are remarkable!

For some, this will be a birth mother to whom we express our grateful thanks.

As an adoptee myself, and for many others, it will be the women who raised us, who were our mothers in childhood – an adopted mother, older sister, aunt, grandmother, stepmother or someone else. We express our thanks to those women who held us and fed us, who cared for us and kissed away our pain. We pray that our lives may reflect the love they have shown us.

We pray for older mothers whose children are grown.

Grant them joy and satisfaction in how their children’s lives unfold.

We pray for those with adult children, but whose lives are still shaped by their children’s needs and cares.

Grant them strength, patience and wisdom.

We pray for new mothers experiencing changes they could not predict.

Grant them rest and peace and confidence as the days unfold.

We pray for pregnant women who will soon be mothers.

Grant them patience and good counsel in the coming months.

We pray for mothers who face the demands of single parenthood.

Grant them strength and wisdom.

We pray for mothers who are raising their children in poverty.

Grant them relief and justice.

We pray for the mums of blended families, and those who take care of others’ children.

Grant them patience and understanding and love.

We pray for mothers who are separated from their children.

Grant them faith and hope.

We pray for mothers in marriages and relationships that are in crisis.

Grant them support and insight.

We pray for mothers who have lost children through illness, or death come too soon.

Grant them comfort that their children are held in divine embrace.

We pray for mothers in developing countries who die in childbirth due to inadequate maternal health care, or whose children die too young.

Grant that generosity may abound, that money will be released for resources, and to attract skilled personnel who can support the women and children.

We pray for mothers who gave up their children for adoption.

Grant them peace and confidence that the children will be held in good care.

We pray for adoptive mothers.

Grant them joy and gratitude for the gift of life entrusted to them.

We pray for women who desperately want, or wanted, to be mothers.

Grant them grace in their particular and often private sense of loss and grief.

We pray for all women who have assumed the mother’s role in a child’s life.

Grant them joy and the appreciation of others.

We pray for those people present who are grieving the loss of their mother in the past year.

Grant them comfort, and confidence that loving continues in how we live our lives.

Wishing you all a special weekend ahead,

Michelle

Parents Needed: Working Bee 28th May