Newsletter 7, 2nd May 2024
Principal's Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
What a week! This week we have celebrated Catholic Education Week and the 150th Anniversary of the formation of the Ballarat Diocese. It has been a wonderful week of celebration at St Joseph’s School; on Monday we prayed at assembly and students reflected on what they love about St Joseph’s School, on Tuesday we had a visit from the kinder children who enjoyed the ‘Gruffalo’ story and some connected activities, on Wednesday we hosted out cluster schools (see more below), on Thursday we attended the Charlton College Fete and tomorrow the students are going to finish the week with some party style games! During this week we have joined DOBCEL in promoting the accessibility, affordability and benefits of Catholic education through our facebook page. The week has certainly proven that Catholic education is alive and thriving in our local communities.
Catholic Education Week Cluster Day
On Wednesday, neighbouring Catholic Schools joined us at St Joseph’s School to celebrate Catholic Education week. Staff and students from St Mary’s Donald and St Patrick’s St Arnaud arrived in time to celebrate Mass together, led by Fr Gerry Prunty. After Mass, the principals of each school planted a native each to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Diocese. The students, numbering 170 in total, were then entertained by special visitors, KABOOM SPORTS INC. Students participated in an Olympic Games themed rotation of events. After sharing a BBQ lunch and having a play together, our travellers returned home. A wonderful day of celebration was enjoyed by all.
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Sacramental Preparation
There are six students from St Joseph’s Parish currently preparing to receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. The Sacraments will be celebrated on 26th May at 10:30am Mass. All families are warmly invited to join in this special parish celebration.
Cross Country
Last week, all students joined the Charlton College students to run Cross Country. F-2 students ran one kilometre and the Grade 3-6 students ran three kilometres. I was a very proud Principal on the day, seeing all students giving the run their very best effort. It was amazing to see the improvement in some students compared to their run in 2023.
5-6 Girls – Sophie Roberts (1st), Rosie Fitzpatrick (2nd), Ruby Wright (3rd).
5-6 Boys – Isaac Roberts (2nd)
3-4 Girls – Megg Fitzpatrick (1st), Maddie Lanyon (2nd).
3-4 Boys – Flynn Zagame (2nd)
F-2 Girls – Mia Wright (1st), Lila Lanyon (2nd).
F-2 Boys – Vinny Roberts (1st)
Isaac, Rosie, Sophie and Flynn competed in the Division Cross Country in Bendigo yesterday. This is a great opportunity for the runners and they all performed admirably against much larger fields of runners. Congratulations!
Winter Sports
Students in Grades 3-6 will travel to Boort next Thursday 9th May, to participate in a variety of Winter sports. Students will travel to and from by bus, are to wear their sports uniform and pack their usual snacks, lunch and water bottle.
Mother’s Day
A special Mother’s Day morning will take place on Friday 10th May commencing at 10:30am. A Liturgy, some entertainment and morning tea will be provided for our special visitors. Mothers, grandmothers and other very special females in our students’ lives are warmly invited to join us for this occasion.
School Closure Day – Change of Date
The Religious Education School Closure day which was scheduled for May 20th has been postponed. May 20th will now be a usual school day. An alternative day is yet to be confirmed, but it is likely to be Monday 3rd June. Please note these dates on your calendars. Apologies for any convenience.
Walk to School Day
The annual Walk to School day is next Friday 10th May. As we have many bus travellers, students will instead go for a walk around our local township next Friday to mark the event and promote physical activity.
Finally, I wanted to let you know that I will be taking long service leave during Week 5 (May 13-17), to spend some time with one of my daughters before she travels overseas. Cate will also be at an administration conference on the Monday and Tuesday of this week. Please contact Chloe Armstrong 0400140489 if you need to make contact during this week. The Office will be open on the Wednesday & Thursday if you need to make contact with Cate during Week 5.
Many thanks in advance,
Mary Hogan
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Students of the Week
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Foundation/1/2 Class Report
Welcome to Week 3
What a great start to the term we have had.
Last week the students from P-6 participated in the Primary Cross Country which was held at Charlton College.
Well done to everyone who was involved to make the event happen.
All students did such an amazing job and it was great to see all students have a go and try their best.
Special mention to Mia Wright, Vinny Roberts and Sophie Roberts who all placed in their age groups and walked away with medals.
Amazing effort!!
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Grade 3/4 Class Report
Week 3! Hard to believe! The students have been very busy with days and activities outside of the classroom. Students have been involved in Anzac Day, Cross Country, Catholic Education Week Day in our school clusters and Charlton College Mother’s Day Fete in the last fortnight alone! Well done to all on their preparation, participation and respect that they displayed at all of these days.
Literacy: Our Literacy sessions have continued to review our knowledge from Term 1, including independent and dependent clauses, conjunctions and relevant vocabulary. Students are working on handwriting with horizontal joins and touch typing short diagraphs, such as ing, er, sh, ch and experimenting with punctuation keys such as question marks. Students are continuing to focus on reading, understanding and applying quotation marks in their own writing. Students are working on revising their understanding of paragraphing and how this works in information texts. Students have recently begun to work on an information text that focuses on a natural icon of Australia, such as the Daintree Rainforest.
Maths: Students are continuing to work on the topic of multiplication. We have been revising terms such as product, multiple, digit, number, times, array, groups of and repeated addition. Students are continuing to work on 2 by 1 digit multiplication sums, including the process of short and long versions of these sums. Students continue to work on their multiplication facts and skip counting daily, we are working on x8 multiplication facts for the next two weeks. Students are continuing to consolidate their understanding in all areas of Mathematics through daily practice in their Maths mentals books.
Religion: We are focusing on the topic of ‘gratitude’. What does this look like? How do we show gratitude? How does it affect us and others? Students have been exploring these ideas and are currently working on an artwork that answers a few of these questions and displays their current understanding of the topic.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
What we've Been Up to
I was super impressed by the way the students tackled the Cross Country event last week; best efforts all round! Congratulations to Isaac, Rosie and Sophie who followed up with very commendable runs in Bendigo this week. The senior students also did a wonderful job as leaders at our Catholic Education Week cluster day on Wednesday.
In Literacy sessions we are focused on reading fluency and vocab development to build reading comprehension. We are beginning to explore informative writing, which includes research skills and digit presentation. Our initial focus has been on how to write informative paragraphs. In Mathematics our focus topic is multiplication. We have revised factors and multiples and are working to process and problem solve using multiplication. Students have also investigated the relationship between multiplication and division.
News for Home
Students have a home reader, a weekly spelling list and a mathematics or literacy sheet, on alternate weeks. Homework is handed out each Monday and to be returned each Friday.
Reading diaries should be filled in by students each day, noting the pages read.
Next week we have the Winter Sports on Thursday and the Mother’s Day morning tea on Friday morning.
Mary Hogan
(Class Teacher – Monday-Wednesday)
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St Joseph's School TV
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St Joseph's is very excited to introduce a new initiative to help support the wellbeing of your students and better resource key staff. After all, happy and well supported students are better equipped to learn and succeed.
Because parenting doesn’t come with instructions, SchoolTV is an online wellbeing resource that can support you in the challenges of modern-day parenting. This award-winning resource helps build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers to navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. It can assist you in starting conversations on topics that are sometimes awkward or difficult to tackle.
Parenting is a learning journey and SchoolTV supports families by providing credible information from trusted sources offering practical strategies with a focus to empower confidence when difficulties arise.
We invite you to visit our SchoolTV site and view the content. Discover a host of interesting topics featuring interviews with leading youth wellbeing experts and researchers from around the world offering hours of relevant and practical information. Additionally, each topic includes a compilation of related resources from key organisations providing a comprehensive stream of content. Resources include informative fact sheets, articles, apps, books, podcasts, websites, and other videos - all related to a single topic, in one place for easy access!
Start exploring SchoolTV today! https://sjcharlton.catholic.schooltv.me/
Mathematics
We are surrounded by mathematical concepts in our world, each and every day! Some of us notice these and some of us don’t! Mathematical thinking – the ability to break down problems into smaller parts and to ‘think outside the box’ – is a valued skill in everyday learning and in many careers. It is important to remember that we don’t need to instantly be good at maths – it’s a normal part of skill progression to make mistakes and learn from them. My dream is for all students to love mathematics! Over the next few newsletters I will share information about numeracy at each level of the curriculum. This week, check out the Grade Three level information.
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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.
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Student Attendance
All children are expected to be at school ready to begin by 8:55am. Arriving on time for school is important. The first 10 minutes of school is a vital time of the day when the day's routine and structure is established. It is a time for ‘tuning in’ and focusing on the learning intentions for the day. It is very difficult for children arriving late to ‘catch up on this missed information. Parents are required to phone through to the office the child’s absence on the day, or enter it through our school Parent Access Module (PAM). If there has been no contact from the family before 9:30am on the morning of the absence, you will receive a call or sms from the office to confirm the child’s absence from school. This is a legislated requirement.
Taking Photos/Video Footage
A reminder to parents and family members to please ensure, when at school events, to take photos or video footage of your child/ren only. Please do NOT post photos of children, other than your own, at school events or wearing school uniform, on personal social media pages other than your own. Thank you for your cooperation in using social media respectfully helping to keep everyone in our school community safe online.
Community News
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Acknowledgement of Country
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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.