St Joseph’s Primary School Charlton eNewsletter

Principal's Report

Hello parents and friends. This is our last newsletter for Term 3. Only one term to go and 2022 is finished. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday, rest up, enjoy the 2 public holidays next week and come back next term ready to finish off the year.

This week we have had Grade 3/4/5/6 on school camp at Boomerang Ranch Daylesford and the Prep/1/2 class going on their class excursion to the Discovery Centre and Jumpz in Bendigo on Tuesday and then to the St Patrick's St Arnaud Musical on Wednesday. Thanks to Mrs Byrne and Emily for organising and supervising the camp and Mrs Olive for driving the children to Daylesford. And thanks to Mr Whatnall and Mrs Winslade for organizing and supervising the prep/1/2 excursion and the St Pat's musical. What a week! I bet there are some worn out little people this week!

Please remember we start the STOMP dance programme first day back next term. Prep/1/2 will be dropped off at the College by their buses or parents for a 9:00a.m. start each day. Mr Whatnall will be there waiting for them each morning and Mrs Olive will bring their bags back to school. They will walk back to school when they are finished. 3/4/5/6 will walk to and from the college for their session. There will be a concert on the Friday that will be open to any parents who would like to come and watch. More details about the concert early next term. The children can wear their sports clothes every day during STOMP if they want.

Enjoy your break and see you back next term.

Information

STOMP Dance Program. We will be joining Charlton College for the STOMP Dance Program during Week 1 next Term. The Prep/1/2 children will need to get off the bus or get dropped off by their parents at Charlton College and meet Mr Whatnall at the stadium for a 9:00a.m. start. They will only have to walk one way and we will get their bags back to St Joes for them. The 3/4/5/6 class will be walking to and from the College for a 9:45 start each day. We are hoping to be able to have a concert on the Friday for all of our parents and friends to attend.

100 years of the Presbytery. The St Joseph's Presbytery and Hall were built 100 years ago this year. There will be a celebration and tour of the presbytery in October.

Prep/1/2 Class News

What a busy week we’ve had in the junior classroom! A great way to finish off our term with visits, excursions and some fun! Last week we hosted our second ‘Come and Try Day’ where children from the Kindergarten came to spend the morning with our students. This time around we focused on the well-loved literary text ‘Wombat Stew’ by Marcia Vaughan with the students acting out the character parts and ‘recreating’ the stew with props both natural and handmade. The students enjoyed chanting and singing the lines from the story which included some nice rhyming words, all whilst a different animal character from the text mixed our ‘class made stew’. After our story, we had a fruit break before breaking into four groups and rotating around the classroom participating in drawing/writing (for pencil grip and hand control), playdough (for fine motor and creativity), a cutting and pasting activity (for hand eye coordination and tracking) and a ‘counting the animals’ activity (for number sense and addition practice). We look forward to welcoming our new little friends back in Term 4!

On Friday in class we talked about the sad loss of our monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and the students shared what they knew about the Queen and what they’d seen on TV and in the media. We spent some time talking about the different family members in the Queen’s family, including her late husband Prince Phillip, some of her more well-known grandchildren Prince William and Prince Harry, the corgis and her son Prince Charles who has now become our new King. We then worked on writing messages of condolence for the Queen’s family and even some messages for the Queen herself as the students paid their respects. We will be sending our letters of condolence to the Royal Family to acknowledge the difficult time they’re going through and pass on our well wishes.

This week in class we’ve been very lucky to have had two excursions – our first trip on Tuesday to the Science Discovery Centre and Jumpz Trampoline Park in Bendigo and then our second trip today to St Arnaud for the musical performance of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ put on by the students of St Patrick’s. The students loved participating in the many exhibits and scientific experiments on show at the Discovery Centre, as well as a special session on coding and robotics where they had to program mini robots to perform certain actions and move around the floor, as well as a planetarium visit and the opportunity to go down the vertical slide. Megg was our bravest student as she went flying down the vertical wall at a super-fast speed!! Amazing! We finished off our Tuesday excursion with some fun at Jumpz where the students bounced and jumped around crazily, flipping into the foam pit and having a ball. We had hot chips for lunch, a soft drink and a yummy treat of an ice-cream on the way home. Hope you’ve all had a great term class, enjoy the holiday break, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you back energized and ready for Term 4!

3/4/5/6 Class News

What a way to end the term with school camp! Students have been very excited in the lead up to camp departure and have had a wonderful time away with Mrs Byrne and Mrs Lanyon.

A reminder that there will be no homework or spelling due this week due to school camp.

We would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday and look forward to seeing you all for Term 4!

Fashion Parade Winners.
Best Dressed girl - Murphy Fitzpatrick (Voted by Carrie Byrne - via video call!)
Best Dressed Boy - Rosie Fitzpatrick (Voted by Cate Olive - via video call!)

Community News

Humour

The other day a local Mosque opened its doors and invited non-Muslims to visit in the spirit of their faith’s willingness to be open and welcoming. So, I too decided to go to the local Mosque for the first time to see what it was all about.

At the time I was limping a little. As I sat down, the Imam came up to me, laid his hands on my hand and said:

“By the will of Allah and the prophet Mohammed – you will walk today.”

I told him I wasn’t paralysed, I only had a small bunion on my left foot.

He came back and laid his hands on me and looking skywards, earnestly repeated his mantra.