Newsletter 1 2023
Principal Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
The 2023 has commenced with great gusto and I thank everyone for thier warm welcome as I begin my time leading at St Joseph's School. It was wonderful to see the children's smiling faces and enthusiasm as they returned to school after the Summer break, looking so brilliant in correct uniform each day. We warmly welcome new students, Sally, Ivy and Samantha in Foundation and Neive in Grade Two, together with the Armstrong and Cotton families who are new to the school in parenting roles. I look forward to meeting members of the wider St Joseph's Community and to a productive and fun year ahead.
In meeting with all staff last week I introduced a theme as a mantra for the 2023 school year. I hope this serves as a reminder of the privilege we hold as responsible carers of children each day. I also hope it sets the tone for how all member sof the school community interact with each other.
"Let the words you speak always be full of grace." Colossians 4:6
May I be Your hands to bless others.
May You guide my feet to places where I can go and be a blessing.
May my speech be seasoned with salt so that I may speak words of comfort and encouragement, and speak the truth in love.
Give me the grace to be available when others are in need.
Lord, I pray that your blessing and guidance may draw each one of us closer and united in our mission at St Joseph’s School during 2023.
Amen.
Beginning of Year Mass
The Beginning of Year Mass will be held on Friday 10th February at 9:30am. All are warmly invited to attend this celebration. We will welcome our new students and acknowledge the Grade 6 leaders.
Foundation Students
A reminder that Foundation students have a rest day on Wednesday 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd of February. They are to attend school on Wednesday 1st March for school photographs.
Parent-Teacher Interviews
Interviews will be held during Week 6 of this term. These are an important and invaluable way for teachers and parents to come together and build a working relationship, to ask question and answer questions. It is hoped that together you can decide on learning goals for the remainder of the Term and into the future.
Swimming
Swimming lessons will happen each day during Weeks 3 and 4 between 11:00am and 1:00pm. Students are required to have their bathers, sunsmart swim top, towel and personal items (eg goggles, ear plugs) at school each day. Children will work on water familiarisation, water safety and stroke technique. A Swimming Carnival of novelty events and team relays will be held on Friday 24th February between 12:30pm and 2:30pm. All welcome.
School Closure Days
A reminder that teachers are learners, too, and professional learning days are crucial to maintain up to date teaching and learning practices. Staff will attend a Reigious Education meeting in Donald on Monday 20th February and a Literacy Dayin Hopetoun on Friday 10th March. Please note these dates.
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead,
Mary Hogan
Principal
Information
Shrove Tuesday. ShroveTuesday is on the 21st February. We will have pancakes for morning tea on this day.
Ash Wednesday. Mass at 12:30p.m.
Camp, Sports and Excursion Fund. If you have a valid health care card, you are eligible for the CSEF funding. Please bring your health care card into the office so Cate can get a copy of it and she will give you the appropriate paperwork to fill in.
Parental Consent Forms/iPad agreements/conveyance allowance forms. The children should have bought home an envelope on Tuesday with classroom notes and a number of forms that need to be signed and returned. Parental consent forms - please make any changes, sign and return; iPad agreements (Grades 3/4/5/6) - please read through parent and student expectations with your child, sign and return; Conveyance allowance forms (some bus students) please sign back page and get children to sign second page. Please return all forms to school ASAP.
School Photos. School photos will be on the 1st of March this year. This is a Wednesday, so all preps will be required at school this day.
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
Welcome to Grades Foundation/1/2 – Junior Group at St Joseph’s Primary School – Charlton! I hope everyone had a great summer and has settled well into the year of 2023. For those that don’t know me, my name is Mr Jason Whatnall and I am very excited to be working with you and your child this term.
Yesterday we hit the ground running with our new Preps starting their first official day of school as well as our new and existing students who have all moved up to a new grade and have enjoyed the first day of school for 2023 - finding their place in the school, catching up with friends and settling in. We welcome Neive to Grade 2 in the junior room and Ivy, Sally and Sam who have joined us in Prep! We’re all excited to get to know our new friends and hope they feel very welcome at St Joseph’s.
In the following weeks, we will be working extremely hard to establish our classroom as a happy, challenging, comfortable, safe and most of all fun learning environment where my colleagues Mrs. Emily Lanyon, Mrs Karina Johnstone and I will always do our personal best. However, I recognise that you and your child will be working just as hard to make this year a successful and rewarding experience as well! I encourage you to take the time to sit down with your child and discuss what they are learning and reinforce that learning at home.
Since we are all working toward the same goal, it is important for us to communicate often. I will send regular updates to let you know of upcoming events, special learning projects taking place as well as always touching base on your child’s progress in person wherever possible. Please feel free to e-mail me at jwhatnall@sjcharlton.catholic.edu.au or contact me by phone at the school on (03) 5491 1343 if you have any questions or concerns. Writing notes is also a good way to share information. If you haven’t already, please join our classroom Dojo page, where I will also be posting regular updates of classroom learning with pictures of the children for you to see. If you need help with this, let me know J
Together we can make this a great experience for your child! Thank you in advance for your support and don’t forget that I’m always here if there’s anything you’d like to discuss – even if it’s just the weather or what you did on the weekend!
Grade 3/4 Class Report
Welcome back to school everyone and what a great start to 2023!
This year we are a composite of Year 3 and 4 for Literacy and Maths, with the Year 5/6 joining us from 12:30 onwards daily. We welcome our new Year 3s into the middle classroom- Maddie, Finn, Flynn and Connor.
This week our class have been learning the routines of the classroom and how our learning will be structured. Students have been discussing what it means to be a ‘good reader’ and some of the skills and behaviours that they have. From this, students have been setting themselves reading goals that they want to work on and achieve. Students have completed some writing tasks based around themselves and sharing their interests with the teacher and their peers in an ‘All About Me’ writing piece.
In Maths students have begun a unit on the concept of place value, with a particular focus on ones to tens of thousands. Students have completed a pre-test to demonstrate what they already know regarding our topic. This week we revised what odd and even numbers are and how to determine these to four place values. We revised how to read numbers correctly to tens of thousands place value and the purpose of the comma when writing larger numbers.
This week the 3-6 class began to learn about ‘Heat’ in Science. We discussed how fire moves, looks and sounds and linked this to our understanding of heat and light from the sun. Students observed what infrared cameras do and were able to discuss how these work and are used in certain professions, such as zoologists and zookeepers.
A great start to our term. Thank you to all for their engagement and participation.
Homework and spelling words will not commence until Week 2 of term.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
There was much curiosity and wondering as the Grade 5 & 6 students commenced in the Senior Room this week. Mrs Hogan was feeling a sense of ‘newness’ as well, as she commenced her teaching and leading role at St Joseph’s School. Some time each day has been spent getting to know each other and sharing holiday happenings.
The Grade 5 & 6 commenced the week by randomly choosing the school captains for each term of 2023. All students will have the opportunity to act as leader for a term and from what I have witnessed so far I am sure they will all do a fantastic job! Students will be provided opportunities to develop their leadership skills throughout the year.
Term 1 – Lila and Cooper
Term 2 – Charlie and Liam
Term 3 – Harry and Clancy
Term 4 – Brody
The students have been introduced to the Seesaw Learning app and have already made a post or two! Parents are encouraged to join as soon as possible to receive snapshots of their children’s learning each week and to receive class messages.
ENGLISH
In English this week we have organised our reading boxes, started our beginning of year assessments and started to develop our morning routine. Students have completed spelling and vocabulary assessments and reflected on their holidays by writing two truths and a fake to share with the class! Common punctuation has been revised during writing time and spelling attempts focused on base words, prefixes and suffixes.
MATHEMATICS
In Mathematics this week we have commenced each lesson with counting, times table facts and mental math work. We revised what a number is and what a digit is and looked at the difference between prime and composite numbers. We also explored positive and negative numbers and ways they are used in real-life situations. We are beginning to look at place value, using large numbers. I encourage families to talk about numbers we see in our world and how they are used. Keep practising your times table facts each day!
A great first week Grade 5 & 6 – well done and keep up the great work!
Community News
The Charlton Football Club invites all community members to attend the first of two mental health education sessions on Thursday 16th February at 7:00pm. Outside The Locker Room will be presenting the program. They are an organistaion that provide mental health education and welfare support to organisations across Australia. The program will include: how to start conversations on mental health/signs and symptoms/how to support someone/how to seek help/wellbeing/resilience/inclusion and respect. It is ok not to be ok and it is ok to ask for help.
The Buloke Shire and Bendigo Bank have both sponsored this program to enable it to happen.
