Newsletter 16 2023
Principal Report
Hello to families and all in the St Joseph's School Community
I am composing this week's newsletter as I listen intently for no sound at all! This will mean all campers are sleeping soundly! Our camp location is centred around a small lake and the surrounds are beautiful. I am appreciating the opportunity to be immersing myself in nature and be experiencing school life from a less formal perspective. Camp experiences provide amazing opportunities for children to shift out of their comfort zone a little, to develop some independence and to learn more about themselves, their peers and the staff who care for them. Some students school camps exciting and enjoyable while other students find school camps more challenging. I hope each student returns home having learnt they are braver than they realised.....and with at least one little success experienced! This week we welcome Winter, not my favourite season! We are certainly feeling the cold chill of Winter as we explore the outdoors this week!
Child Safety - Standard 7
The care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a central and fundamental responsibility of Catholic Education. St Joseph’s School is committed to strengthened practice for the protection of children in line with the Victorian Government child safety reforms.
Child Safe Standard 7 – Processing Complaints and Concerns are Child Focussed | |
7.1 | The organisation has an accessible, child-focused complaint handling policy which clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of leadership, staff and volunteers, approaches to dealing with different types of complaints, breaches of relevant policies or the Code of Conduct and obligations to act and report. |
7.2 | Effective complaint handling processes are understood by children and young people, families, staff and volunteers, and are culturally safe |
7.3 | Complaints are taken seriously and responded to promptly and thoroughly. |
7.4 | The organisation has policies and procedures in place that address reporting of complaints and concerns to relevant authorities, whether or not the law requires reporting, and co- operates with law enforcement. |
7.5 | Reporting, privacy and employment law obligations are met. |
Mary Hogan
Principal
Students of The Week
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
Junior Class
The Junior Class have been low in numbers over the last week with nasty colds and bugs striking. It was lovely to have all back yesterday and hopefully all fit in the coming weeks.
Religion
The class has continued to focus on the wonder of Creation. This week the class has looked at our role and responsibility to care for God's creation by looking after our school and home environments.
Language
The class has continued to focus on developing sentences which provide a clear picture to the reader. During these sessions care is being taken with handwriting and the correct spelling of the initial high frequency words.
Semester assessments have commenced in preparation for report writing.
Mathematics
The Class have been developing graphs and using the data to explain the graph. The other focus has been on location and extending vocabulary to clearly describe the position in relation to parts of the picture.
Mastering ''left'' and ''right'' is always a challenge. Practice outside school when travelling or completing tasks would assist the students.
Hoping we all stay fit in the coming weeks.
Anne Anderson
Making Friends - Friday 26th May
Today we watched a little show called “Making Friends”. It showed us how to be nice. It was alright but I think I would enjoy it more if it had more helpers but other than that, I enjoyed it. It was loud but still very fun to watch.
By Cooper
Today we watched a show called making friends. It was funny and I enjoyed it. My favourite bit was when Louise threw her suitcase out the window.
By Brody
Today we watched a puppet show called “Making Friends”. It showed how to make friends and be polite to everyone and not be a bully. It was very loud but it was still very fun to watch. I enjoyed it a lot.
By Liam
Today we watched a puppet show called “Making Friends”. It showed how to make friends and be polite to everyone and not be a bully.
By Charlie
Today we watched a little show called “Making Friends” We watched a puppet show called Making Friends. It was funny and entertaining. I enjoyed watching it and Lila.L was acting as Snow White in one and Charlie was a dwarf called Ned.
By Lila
Today we watched a puppet show called “Making Friends” and as the name implies, it is about what to do if you want to make friends, there were two little sub-plots and 1 main Plot, the main plot was about a little puppet girl trying to make friends, the other two plots were retellings of the three little pigs and Snow White. It was alright but some of the jokes didn’t really land in my opinion, but overall, 7/10.
By Darcy
Today a lady came to our school and we watched a puppet show called ‘making friends’. The lady made a lot of funny expressions and used different voices for the characters. When she was not playing the mum of Louise (an 8 year old girl) she was covered with a black cloak and her hands were out so she could control the puppets.
By Henry
Today we watched a show called “Making Friends”. A lady called Corinne made all the characters' voices. I thought it was funny when Louise showed the girls how to play basketball.
By Rosie
Today we watched a puppet show. It was the best show ever. I loved it.
By Patrick
Today we watched a puppet show called Making Friends and it was funny and loud.
By Toby
Today we watched a puppet show called Making Friends. It was very funny and loud Charlie and Lila.L were acting out Snow White and the seven Dwarfs.
By Finn
Today we watched a puppet show at school that was called making friends. I enjoyed it but she was very loud but then I soon got used to it.
By Maddie
Today we had a show called “Making Friends”. The girl who made it was named Corrine. The show was a puppet show.
By Flynn
Grade 5/6 Class Report
Grade 5 & 6
This week the senior students are experiencing three days at PGL Adventure Camp, Campaspe Downs. We have united with the grade 5&6 students form St Mary’s in Donald and St Patrick’s in St Arnaud, making a total of forty-one campers and six staff. The camp experience is providing a variety of activities and opportunities for children to challenge themselves; physically, socially; emotionally and even mentally, as they problem solve during activities. The students are also being challenged to explore all of their senses, cooperate, communicate and work collaboratively. All of this is happening in beautiful surrounds – although very chilly! We will update you with reports and photographs on our return as the reception here is not very cooperative!
ENGLISH
The list words introduced this week will carry over to Week Seven as this week was cut short because of camp. Reading texts have provided good examples of informative texts, which identified the common structure and elements of report writing. These texts have been mostly focused on different animals and we discovered lots of facts about sloths using the simultaneous story time book about sloths. Students are working to locate relevant information when researching a topic, using both digital devices and non-digital forms. Next week will move to both writing and comprehending informative texts. Children will need to choose a specific animal for their report
MATHEMATICS
In Mathematics, we are working on the topic of division. We have been paying particular attention to investigating the language of division – divide, share out, make groups, equal shares, quotient, divisor. Many students were surprised to discover that division is linked to fractions and decimals! Students have been capably dividing by one digit, using totals of varying size, and have investigated writing left overs as remainders, fractions and decimals. Much of the division work has been linked to real-life scenarios and when required, we have worked to share out using physical materials.
A reminder that students should have their satchel, reader, diary and Homework Pocket at school each day.
Community News
Acknowledgement to Country
We acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We thank them for sharing their cultures, spiritualities and ways of living with the land, in this place we all now call home.