Newsletter 28 2023
Principal's Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
It was wonderful to witness the enthusiasm and dedication shown by the staff and students in running their activities for the Halloween themed Catholic Mission fundraiser yesterday. The event was definitely indicative of this year's theme "Hearts on fire, Feet on the move". The Senior Class ran a ghost tunnel with many tricks along the way, and a treat of specially made Ghost Pops if you made it to the end alive! The Middle Class sold Monster Jelly and deliciously frothy milkshakes while the Junior Class hosted Halloween Themed games. I was very impressed to see students man their stalls responsibly from start to finish and to clean up quickly at the end of lunch time. Well done to everyone involved. It was also fabulous to have some parents, grandparents and members of St Joseph’s community, stop by to share in the action. Congratulations are in order as a total of $330.85 was raised to be sent to support the work of Catholic Mission in Timor-Leste; an amazing effort. Well done and thank you!
Staff participated in a school closure day on Tuesday, furthering their professional learning of Structured Literacy. It was an engaging and informative day and we are excited to be preparing in readiness for fuller implementation of the practices and methodology of Structured Literacy in 2024.
In other exciting news we have received the final cut of our school video which was filmed in Week Two of this term. A massive thank you to staff, students, SAC member Kelly Wright, and of course, Mr Kevin Cummins, for producing the final product. I hope you enjoy watching the video to witness a little of daily life at St Joseph’s School. You will be able to view the video on our St Joseph’s School Facebook page which will launch tomorrow.
SCHOOL ASSEMBLIES
We have decided to try our whole school assembly at 12:45pm each Monday. This makes sense to prepare for the week ahead and to present awards based on the previous week’s work and activities. All members of the St Joseph’s School Community are most welcome to pop in and join in our assemblies.
RELIGION NEWS
Sacramental Program
This year, students in Grade 5 & 6 who are wanting to make their First Reconciliation will be given the opportunity during Term Four. First Reconciliation will take place on THURSDAY 7th DECEMBER at 6:00pm as a part of the Parish Advent Reconciliation service. Students will be prepared during school time by Mrs Hogan.
If parents have any questions regarding the Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Eucharist & Confirmation, or regarding Reconciliation, don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Hogan at the school.
SPECIAL VISITORS
Both today and last Thursday, students in all grades have been treated to visits by Mrs Bianca Winslade and her Animal Care students from Charlton Trade Training Centre.
TRANSITION PROGRAMS
Transition programs are an important way of making children feel more confident as they take the step to the next phase in their educational journey. These programs allow children to familiarise themselves, physically, with the new environment and to meet other students and staff members. The details for each transition are noted below.
Kinder to St Joseph’s School
- Information Session and School Tour for prospective Foundation students on Friday 3rd of December (tomorrow) at 10:00am.
- Transition sessions on 9th November (10-11am), 16th November (10am-1pm), 23rd November (9am-1pm) and November 30th (full school day).
- See flyer below.
Grade 6 to Charlton College
- Year 6 Information Session at Charlton college at 5:30pm
- Year 6 transition day at Charlton College on Tuesday 6th of December.
Please, don’t hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions or concerns relating to either transition processes.
SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS
Please note the following school closure days for Term Four. Students are not required at school on these days.
MONDAY 6th NOVEMBER – Staff Report Preparation Day
TUESDAY 7th NOVEMBER – Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
SCHOOL CAMPS & EXCURSIONS
Grade 3 & 4 students will join their peers from St Arnaud and Donald Catholic Schools, to go on camp to the Pioneer Settlement in Swan Hill on the 27th & 28th of November.
F-2 students will have a day excursion to the Halls Gap Zoo on Tuesday 5th of December.
Please keep your eye out for communication in relation to these events, both printed information and digital information via the school app.
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 to the school is required. This must be done before 9:30am on the day of absence, explaining the reason for absence on that day.
PUBERTY PROGRAM
School Nurse for our area, Kerrie McCosh, will be visiting St Joseph's School to guide the grade 5&6 students through a two session Puberty Program. Kerrie will conduct the sessions on November 13 and 27. The first session will be the whole class and the second session will be specific to, and completed in gender groups. Further information will be communicated directly to parents, so please be on the look out for this. A reminder that my door is always open and I am happy to meet with parents at any stage. If you have any questions regarding the puberty Program please don't hesitate to conatct me at school.
Important Dates
November 3rd - School Information Session for prospective students
November 6 & 7th - SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS - Melbourne Cup
November 9th - Kinder Transition 1 10-11am
November 16th - Kinder Transition 2 - 10am-1pm
November 21st - Year 6 Information Night at Charlton College
November 23rd - Kinder transition 3 9am-1pm
November 27 & 28th - Grade 3 & 4 Camp to Pioneer Settlement
November 30th - Kinder Transition 4 - full day
December 5th - Juniour Excursion to Halls Gap
December 6th - Year 6 Transition day - Charlton College
December 7th - First Reconciliation at 6:00pm
December 12th - End of Year Mass and Dinner
December 15th - Students last day for Term Four
Mary Hogan
Principal
Students of the Week
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
It's been another great week in the junior classroom with the student's keeping busy in lots of different ways. A snapshot of some aspects our fortnight:
In our daily Literacy sessions, the students have continued to work on refining their writing skills tailored to their needs and the standard of their year level. The Foundation students have been focusing on writing sentences that flow and show ideas that connect well together and have explored writing about a character and a setting in the beginning of a narrative. Grade 1's have been working on connecting two ideas together with a joining word (conjunctions) and are being encouraged to continually edit their work to keep on improving readability and using adjectives to make it more interesting. Grade 2's have been working on using apostrophes to shorten words (contractions: do not > don't) and have been revising Proper Nouns and remembering to capitalise such words when they write. Later in the week, we've been exploring 'information reports' and learning about what a fact is and the difference between a fact and an opinion. The students have been practising writing sentences that are 'factual' and reporting these orally to the group. The student's will be researching and working on an information report style project in the coming weeks about a chosen animal - some of which we might be lucky enough to see at our visit to Halls Gap Zoo in December!!
In Science we've started learning about the notion of 'Force' and this fortnight we've explored what it means to move something and the students have experimented with pushing and pulling different objects. We've made predictions about what objects would move and then have manipulated the objects to see how they could be moved - push, pull, still. The students made statements about what they were observing and recorded their findings in a table. Early scientific minds at work! Over the coming weeks, we will investigate how technologies use forces to create movement in designed solutions by designing and making a toy that can be pushed or pulled out of recycled materials.
In Religion the students have been unpacking the theme of 'joy' and have responded with a page titled 'Something that brings me joy is....' The students had to reflect on what really brings them joy and then illustrated an A3 page each for a classroom book. The students really enjoyed sharing their happy memories and things that make them 'joyful'. Over the last few weeks we've had opportunities for the students to participate in a range of fun and engaging activities which often bring 'joy' to people - it has been nice to see and hear the students open up and respond to the activities positively. We've also acknowledged the fact that different activities bring 'joy' to different people in different ways, i.e. some students enjoy art more than sport, etc. This makes us unique in our experiences of joy, whilst there are many activities that the students could collectively agree on that bring joy to most of us, if not all of us, i.e. a birthday, a wedding, good news, etc. In the coming weeks we will start to explore the story of Jesus' birth and the 'good news' it brought to the people at that time and the joy each person experienced - Mary, Joseph. family, friends, etc.
Thank-you to everyone for commiting to weekly homework tasks with your children. It's been great to see such a high number of homework books coming back and so quickly! Well done everyone. This week we are working on Contract 24. Also don't forget the importance of the nightly readers. We've tested all the students recently and their levels have been adjusted to match their current abilities. Keep at it, we are almost half way through the term and I just know we will see more growth in the next 7 weeks if we all work together. We are very proud of the efforts of each and every one of you, working so hard to practice your reading and getting better every day! Keep up the great work all!
Grade 3/4 Class Report
In the last fortnight we have been testing students on their knowledge and skills in reading, Maths and writing in preparation for reports at the end of the term. Outside of this testing, students have also continued working on their understanding of sustainability and the importance of looking after our environment. Students read ‘The Lorax’ by Dr Suess last week and wrote a structured response to the quote ‘Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.’ Students had to use this quote in their answers and work on expanding their ideas, explaining the quote, the importance of sustainability and practical ways in which people can individually and collectively care for our planet. In grammar, Year 4 students have been working on understanding and using quotation marks successfully. Year 3 students have been consolidating their understanding and use of apostrophes. Our phonetic focus for last week was ow as in ou and ow. This week’s focus is ch as in ch and tch.
In Maths this week we are looking at revision. Students have been revising their understanding of subtraction, division and fractions through test type activities. Students have also looked at shape this week, including consolidating their identification of regular and irregular 2D and 3D shapes and their properties.
Students have been busy preparing for, and producing some great activities for Mission Week this week that we celebrated on Wednesday. Well done to the 3/4 students for their dedicated preparation and serving of milkshakes and monster jelly.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
The Senior Class has farewelled Aria as she and her family moved to Bendigo. We sent Aria with our best wishes for a smooth transition to her new school and happy times ahead! Well done to everyone for the fantastic effort with the Ghost Tunnel and the Ghost Pops for the Catholic mission fundraiser this week. Students all took their turn running the activity, were responsible and cleaned up beautifully after the event! A special mention to Term Leader, Brody, for the super job he is doing assisting with the organisation of the lunch orders each Wednesday - well done!
ENGLISH
During Literacy time our class focus has centred around assessment. We are assessing all aspects of literacy learning in preparation for report writing, forward planning for next year and to see what we might be able to reiterate before the end of the 2023 school year. Students have completed a new set of assessments which are part of the Structured Literacy data tracking process. We have also completed spelling, punctuation and grammar, reading and writing assessments. During grammar time we have revised the apostrophe of possession, especially when using plural nouns. Students have also been introduced to some of the components of Structured literacy, as we work our way towards implementation in 2024.
MATHEMATICS
Students have completed assessments in mathematics; number & algebra, measurement & geometry, statistics & probability; times table facts and mental maths. Moving forward, we will continue to revise all areas of the curriculum and focus on those areas as suggested by the analysis of the completed assessments.
Next week students will have a quick mini-assessment of the table equivalents below:
Fraction | Decimal | Percentage |
¼ | 0.25 | 25% |
½ | 0.50 | 50% |
¾ | 0.75 | 75% |
1 | 1.00 | 100% |
HOMEWORK
Students have weekly spelling to learn and a reader for nightly practice. Please note that some list words may be easy to spell but are included to develop vocabulary and meaning. The HOMEWORK HOUND online homework will continue to be available for any students who wish to use this at home. I also continue to provide a homework sheet for students, which is due back each Friday. Please prioritise reading, spelling, tables practice and homework sheet, in that order, completing what you are able to.
There will be no spelling or homework distributed next week due to the short week with the Melbourne Cup holidays.
Mary Hogan
Halloween Mission Fundraiser
Community News
Child Safe Standards
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.
THE 11 CHILD SAFE STANDARDS
Standard 1
Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 1
Standard 2
Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 2
Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 3
Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 4
Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 5
Standard 6
People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 6
Standard 7
Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 7
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.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 8
Standard 9
Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 9
Standard 10
Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.
Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 10
Standard 11
Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.
Acknowledgement of 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.