Newsletter 5 2023
Principal Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
Journeying through the second week of the Lenten Season I cannot help but reflect on the immense sense of community that I continue to grow more familiar with each week I spend at St Joseph’s School. Lent is a time when Christians are invited to reflect; to look inward and to cast their eyes outward, both locally and globally. The arrival of Autumn is another reminder of change in our midst! When everything around us turns golden and rich and full, may we also take stock of the fullness of life with which we have each been blessed.
In the past week I have felt truly blessed – witnessing the students participate in the Swimming Carnival giving their best efforts and having fun; feeling the support of parents and friends who came along to cheer on the students as they swam; seeing each child proudly dressed in their St Joseph’s uniform and smiling brightly on school photo day and watching our three Foundation students glow!
“Lent is the autumn
of the spiritual life
during which we
gather fruit
to keep us going
for the rest of the year.”
ST FRANCIS DE SALES
Parent Teacher Interviews
A massive thank-you for coming along to meet with your child’s teacher yesterday afternoon….and also for managing the bookings on PAM, well done!
Personally, it was an opportunity to meet many of you for the first time and to learn more about my students from those who know them best. The interviews also provided each teacher the chance to share how the year has started, give assessment data and set goals for future learning and development.
School Nurse Visit
Kerrie McCosh, primary school nurse, will be visiting our school on Friday March 3rd.
Foundation Grade Health Assessments: All parents/guardians of Foundation grade
children will be asked to complete a Health Questionnaire and return the form to the school before her visit. If you do not wish your child to be seen by the school nurse, please sign the non-consent section and return the form to the school.
Referrals (Grades 1-6): Parents and/or teachers may refer children from any grade for assessments of vision, hearing, basic speech, physical abilities, medical conditions, behavioural and parenting issues. Please collect a referral form from the school office if you need to make a referral.
Completed forms are to be handed into the school office TODAY. Should parents wish to have an interview with the School Nurse, please indicate your request on the form.
Please note: You can talk to the primary school nurse at any time throughout the year. The school has her mobile phone number.
Foundation Students
Foundation students joined us on Wednesday this week to be present for school photographs. As discussed at Parent-Teacher Interviews, Foundation students are welcome to commence full time schooling from now on. If at any time you feel your child needs a rest, please communicate this to the school to organise a day for them.
Important Dates
Please note the following dates which are on the Term Calendar.
Friday 10th March – SCHOOL CLOSURE as staff attend Professional Learning in Structured Literacy
Tuesday 14th – Leadership Morning for Grade 5&6 students
Wednesday 15th March – NAPLAN commences
Monday 20th March – St Joseph’s School Feast Day Mass at 9:30am
Friday 24th March – Author Visit Phil Kettle
Monday 27th March – Child Safety Session - Senior students
Friday 31st March Hot Shots Tennis in Boort – Grade 5 & 6
Monday 3rd April – Excursion to Swan Hill to see “The Alphabet of Awesome Science” F-6 students
Please keep on the dates as they continue to populate in each weekly newsletter and aim to avoid appointments on these days so all students can participate.
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead,
Mary Hogan
Principal
Code Red Days
Information
CCSA Meeting. The next CCSA meeting will be held on Tuesday 7th March @ 5:00p.m. in the multi-purpose room. They will be making a decision on the future of the CCSA and where it is heading. Apologies to Kelly Wright.
Rapid Antigen Tests. School will no longer be receiving RAT tests but we still have dozens of them here at school if you want any. Please ask at the office.
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.
Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement. We are now required to adopt DOBCEL's Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement. Although the Grade 3,4,5 and 6 students and parents have already signed their iPad agreements for 2023, we ask could you also please read through and sign the DOBCEL required document the children have brought home.
Murray River Encephalitis Information. Please open link for more information. Link
School Closure. Next Friday, 10th March, will be a school closure day at St Joseph's when the staff will be attending a Professional Development Day in Hopetoun.
NAPLAN 2023. The Grade 3 and 5 students will be participating in NAPLAN online beginning on Wednesday 15th March. These students have an information letter in their bags today for parents to read.
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
We've had a nice week in the junior classroom, with a nice cool break coming through as we welcome Autumn, our amazing Swimming Carnival concluding our swimming program and getting into a proper routine with full days of uninterrupted learning. The students have been doing really well this week and have been very focused, productive and busy completing their work tasks and growing and learning through these experiences. Well done all!
It was lovely to see the community come together last Wednesday for our Ash Wednesday Mass at the church. The students learnt about the significance of this Catholic ritual and how it symbolises the beginning of Lent. Over the last week we've been discussing what the Lenten season means for us and the students have already been busy saving all their spare coins to donate to our Caritas Missions, supporting those less fortunate than us in Australia and abroad. Thank-you!
We've started to create our 'Prayer Space' in the class with the students laying the coloured cloths and symbols out on a table in our classroom: as we talked about what each represented and how the students will use each throughout their time at St Joseph's - the Bible, the Candle, the Cross, our book of Prayers and our books to help us learn about God. We will keep adding to the prayer space as the term unfolds.
This week the students have been learning about the concept of 'Fasting' which is described in the story of Jesus in the wilderness. Instead of going without food, the students learn that during Lent, Catholics often choose to go without something that they really like (and then usually the money spent on that would go towards Missions). The students have been invited to choose something to go without as a symbol of 'fasting' throughout Lent; just as Jesus did when he went without food, during the 40 days he was in the wilderness. I wish all the students all the best with their Lenten promises and I hope each family can spend some time talking about this with their child - reinforcing the idea of 'going without' to bring light to those who always go without and hopefully we can make a small difference to their lives through our 'prayers' and what we 'give'.
In STEM this week, the students were challenged to design the tallest tower possible, using a newspaper, one metre of masking tape and a time limit of ten minutes! The students had five minutes to discuss and make a plan in their small groups and then the timer was set. It was great to see the students problem solving as they manipulated the materials and tried different strategies to build. The real challenge was creating something free-standing, one of the briefs. In the end, Megg, Mia and Lila won the challenge with a tower 41cm tall! Congratulations! The students were then given time to reflect on the activity, draw a design of what they'd created and to discuss what worked, what didn't work and what they'd do differently next time.
In P.E the students finished off their swimming program with our greatly anticipated Swimming Carnival - Nemo vs. Dory. The junior students competed in racing events for wading, freestyle, backstroke and then some fun relays - a noodle horse race and a 'duck and spoon' race. The day was finished off with a 'Cork Scramble' where teams had the chance to scramble to collect floating corks to add some last minute points to their team's tally. Team Nemo came out on top and everyone congratulated one another. We are very proud of all of our little swimmers and what they were able to achieve over the last two weeks. Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring movements in P.E - jumping, throwing, catching and bouncing. This week the students have been practising their skipping skills: holding the rope correctly, learning how to swing it rhythmically and being able to coordinate a jump at the right time. Already three days in and it's great to see the students really enjoying our daily P.E sessions and improving quite a lot with their rhythm and jumping skills in such a short time.
Grade 3/4 Class Report
Literacy: This week in Shared Reading the students are reading Painted Ponies by Alison Lester. For writing students are creating lists of skills people have to use to be a good friend.
Religion: This week the students are thinking about their Lenten Promises and read the story of the Good Samaritan.
Numeracy: The students are working on many counting and place value activities.
Art: This week the students are creating their own version of Starry Night by Vincent Van Gough.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
Grade 5 & 6
Can I start by saying what an enjoyable morning I had at the Swimming Carnival? Congratulations to all the senior students who pushed themselves to do their very best – amazing efforts everyone! We never know what we are capable of unless we are prepared to push ourselves a little – well done. This week is a ‘back to routine’ week as we have very few interruptions. We continue to work together, learning and discovering new things about one another each day, creating a very dynamic working environment.
ENGLISH
I am thrilled to see the improvement in the formation and fluency of the students’ handwriting as we become accustomed to using our “Sky, Grass, Ground” Books each day. Keep up the great work Grade 5&6! We have continued to explore narrative writing and our focus this week has been on best choice of adjectives and adverbs to enhance our stories. During reading time we are focusing on comprehension by reading closely and rereading to confirm information. We have almost organised the take home readers and I will be encouraging students to read some shorter books to make sure the same book isn’t retained for too long!
MATHEMATICS
In Mathematics this week we are finishing up our work on place value and students have completed a final assessment. All students have made progress and appear much more confident engaging with big numbers. Our next topic is ADDITION & SUBTRACTION. You can become involved at home by sharing relevant vocabulary in everyday conversations (eg refer to addition as in total/the sum/ altogether & subtraction as minus/take away/how much more/difference between/subtract….). During mental math time we have been exploring ways to make the numbers we are manipulating more ‘friendly’ For example, 27+17=, we could double 7 (14) and add 30 (20+10) to make 44! Maths is all about making connections and using what we know to help us work out what we don’t YET know.
A reminder that students need their satchel, reader, diary and Homework Book at school each day, please. Reader diaries are to be filled in each day with the number of pages read and signed, please.
Thank-you to all those who attended parent-teacher meetings yesterday. It was lovely to finally connect with each of you and I appreciate you sharing in the educational journey of your child by supporting our dedicated efforts at St Joseph’s School.
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