Newsletter 17 2023
Principal's Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
It has certainly been feeling a little Wintery over the past week. I’m sure the farmers will be appreciative of the rainfall that has arrived to nourish the crops and fill the water tanks!
As the Easter season closes, the Church celebrates two major feasts before ordinary time commences again. Last Sunday, the Church celebrated the feast of the Trinity; God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Sunday the celebration focuses on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast day commemorates the love of Jesus and the invitation to share in the bread and wine of the Eucharist -“Do this in memory of Me”. 
This week I have spent some time online with Anne Ruddell, who is an Education Officer with the DOBCEL Student Wellbeing Team. My purpose is to have Anne work with the St Joseph’s School staff to ensure we have a very clear and consistent universal understanding of behaviour systems in our school. Leading on from this will be the documentation and tracking of behavioural related data – both commendations and managed behaviours. I am hoping that Anne’s work with the staff will provide clear inventory of current realities to assist us in goal setting for 2024. I have also been liaising with various people and bodies, in relation to the social and emotional well-being of all students at St Joseph’s School. Anne has also been helpful in this pursuit and is happy to work with staff to create a meaningful scope and sequence for learning in this area. So stay tuned for developments in this very important area!
REMINDERS
There are NO SCHOOL BUSES running this Friday 9th of June as Charlton College is closed on this day. Parents are asked to arrange to have their children transported to school.
The King’s Birthday on MONDAY JUNE 12th is a public holiday. STUDENTS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO ATTEND SCHOOL ON MONDAY.
Student Absence from School
Under Department of Education Regulations, typically the only acceptable reasons for absence from school are illness and medical or dental appointments that cannot be arranged outside of school hours. In accordance with the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, schooling is compulsory for children and young people aged from 6-17 years. It is a legal requirement that parents contact the school regarding any student absences or lateness.
In the event of any absence or lateness, a note, phone call, text message or email, explaining the reason is required. This must be done before 9:30am on the day of absence and can be done on the PAM app.
Child Safety
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.
Standard 8: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training
In complying with Child Safe Standard 8 an organisation must, at a minimum, ensure:
8.1 Staff and volunteers are trained and supported to effectively implement the organisation’s Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy.
8.2 Staff and volunteers receive training and information to recognise indicators of child harm including harm caused by other children and young people.
8.3 Staff and volunteers receive training and information to respond effectively to issues of child safety and wellbeing and support colleagues who disclose harm.
8.4 Staff and volunteers receive training and information on how to build culturally safe environments for children and young people.
Important Dates
Friday 9th June – NO BUSES RUNNING
Monday 12th June – Public Holiday – King’s Birthday
Thursday 22nd June – Averyll Loft visiting for Children’s Movement and Yoga sessions
Friday 23rd June – reports posted on PAM
- END OF TERM TWO - DISMISSAL at 2:30PM
Monday 10th July – Term Three commences
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.
Mary Hogan
Principal
Senior Class Camp to Campaspe Downs
The Campaspe Downs Camp which the Grade 5 & 6 students attended last week was very successful. Below is an icloud link to many of the photos from the three days. Hopefully it loads for you and you may enjoy browsing the photographs with your children and generating some discussion about the experience!
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
Religion
This week we have completed some assessments regarding our learnings about the Creation Story and our call as Christians to care for each other and our environment.
Language
This week we have been completing Semester assessments.
Each student is completing a running record to update their reading level.
Progress is being evaluated in each student's recognition and spelling of the initial high frequency words.
Students have continued to write sentences which include additional information and detail.
Handwriting is continuing to be practised daily with a focus on lower case letter formation and size.
Mathematics
This week the class has been focusing on Fractions, including introducing the vocabulary and symbols related to them.
Daily lessons have continued to include single digit addition and subtraction number facts and the spelling of numbers.
After the welcome rain I hope your gardens are happy, water tanks full and trust some sunshine in the coming days to help the crops grow.
Wishing all students and families a very enjoyable King's Birthday holiday.
Anne Anderson
Grade 3/4 Class Report
This week in Literacy we are continuing our focus on Australian poetry through the poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ by Banjo Paterson. We have read and discussed the themes in the poem and discussed the varying vocabulary related to how events and people are described. Unpacking verses such as ‘the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting’ was an interesting discussion which allowed the students to create imagery in their head of what this may have actually been like during the time when Paterson was writing the poem. This discussion allowed other students to also share some of their own understandings of different vocabulary and scenes written which allowed them ownership in their learning. Throughout this reading students continued to practice their own reading skills- focusing on accuracy, fluency and expression in their reading. In OLSEL we are focusing this week on identifying syllables and singular and plural phonemes (diagraphs, trigraphs and quadgraphs) of the words that we read and spell. We have had a focus on the long a phoneme represented in ay, ai, a-e or a in our OLSEL, Sound Waves booklets and handwriting. In writing this week students are working on information reports. They have revised the text structure of an information report and are researching and completing an information report on a native Australian animal of their choosing. Students have borrowed books from the library and are using a mixture of print and online resources to help them research facts about their animal, such as diet, habitat, typical environment, adaptations and general features. Students are working on pulling these facts together to create a well structured information report that involves formal, technical language.
In Maths we are still working on our unit of money. We have been learning about bank statements and understanding vocabulary such as credit, debit, ATM, EFTPOS and direct debit. Students have looked at play examples of bank statements and discussed features of these, including the columns relating to credit and debit. Students have completed calculations where they have looked at the closing balance of an example bank statement and calculated the ingoings and outgoings of the pretend bank account holder. It has generated many interesting discussions relating to students understanding of money and banking. Students have also been working on calculating change from money transactions through word problems. Students complete skip counting activities (4, 6, 12 this week) using a number chart, mental maths sums and multiplication revision daily.
In Religion we have explored the hierarchy of the church and have an understanding of what Pope, Cardinal, Bishop, Priest, Deacon and Laity are and their roles in the church. We have related these roles to those people who we know in the Charlton Parish for clarity on younger students. We have explored some of the Popes that have been in the role since the Apostle Peter was appointed.
Homework contract 14 and spelling words are due this Friday please. Thank you.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
Grade 5 & 6
Chrome Books everywhere!!!! This week the most exciting thing to happen in the Senior Room is the acquisition of our brand new Chrome Books. Each student has been assigned their personal Chrome Book which is charged each evening at school. Students have been learning some of the basics involved in working on a Chrome Book, with many students familiar with aspects of similar devices. Online safety, care and responsible use of digital devices has also been high on the radar!
ENGLISH
Students are working on an informative text about a chosen animal species. Using digital devices to locate information and put it into our own words has been our focus. We discovered that adding ‘for kids’ to the end of our online searches was very helpful in providing relevant and age appropriate information (eg ‘facts about dolphins for kids’). We are also beginning to recognise the scientific and technical language that is associated with informative texts and are adding this to our vocabulary banks.
MATHEMATICS
In Mathematics, students are doing a fantastic job working with division, orally, with materials and in written form. Students continue to work on their times table facts each day and also complete quick number facts, practising their mental manipulation strategies. As we conclude our division unit of work, the focus moves to completing some end of semester assessments in preparation for report writing. I strongly encourage students to continue perfecting the rapid recall of all times table facts – the benefits of this are enormous!
A reminder that students should have their satchel, reader, diary and Homework Pocket at school each day.
Playgroup At St Joseph's
Last week playgroup had special guests Kelly McCrohan our supported playgroup facilitator from Buloke Shire and Stacey from the EWHS, they provided engaging activities focused on healthy eating which Anna and Harry loved doing. A very relaxed morning for a good catch up while watching the kids enjoy the activities.
This week we spent some time in the playground. The sandpit is amazing! Jarrah, Alby and Dulcie had so much fun!
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.