Newsletter 12, 18th July 2024
Principal's Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
A big welcome to term three, the beginning of the second semester of 2024! As we continue on our educational journey together, we look forward to working closely with you to ensure your child's continued growth and success.
We extend a warm welcome to the Niju Family - Niju, Tintu, and twins, Jaidan and Jovakkim - who join the Prep class. Welcome to the St Joseph’s School community and we hope you have fun learning and growing with us!
I was thrilled to learn during the holidays that St Joseph's was successful in securing a Bendigo Bank Community Grant to the amount of $16, 500. These funds will be used to purchase outdoor seating in the Recovery Garden and Playground and to provide some alternative quiet spaces for students to access during breaks. The idea for the seating came from the students and I am very pleased to be able to accommodate this.
Although the welcome to term is warm, we have had a very chilly start to the term! Students are welcome to wear jackets to and from school and we are investigating the purchase of some new beanies!
A reminder that this coming Monday, July 22nd is a school closure day. Staff have a day of professional learning in Structured Literacy on this day. The school is closed to students on Monday.
The term calendar is filling up and we look forward to a number of key events. Please add the following dates to your home calendars:
Celebrating 100 Days of Prep - 30 July
Science Week 12 - 16 August
Calder Athletic Sports - 15 August
Book Week "Reading is Magic" 19 - 23 August with a Magic Show on the 19th and dress up day on the 21st
Screening of 'Runt' at the Rex Theatre - 28th August
Father's Day Breakfast - 30 August
School Concert - 'The Paris Olympics 2024 The Musical' - TUESDAY 10th SEPTEMBER at 7:00pm
Active Breakfast at St Joseph's - September 3rd (see flyer below)
School Surveys
One way for effective school improvement to occur is the participation in the Insight SRC School Surveys. Staff, students and parents are invited to participate in the survey, which will be made available from the beginning of Week 3 this term. Please take the time to participate and provide feedback, to support the future direction and improvement of St Joseph's School. More information to follow.
Long Service Leave
DOBCEL (Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited) is offering principals in the diocese a pilgrimage to Ireland, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Diocese of Ballarat. I will be joining the second pilgrimage, escorted by Fr Justin Driscoll, in September this year. I will also be taking the opportunity to explore some of Scotland, England, France and Italy before journeying home again. For your information, I will be taking leave for the final week of Term Three and the first week of Term Four.
You are encouraged to contact the school with any questions or concerns you may have as we navigate through the remainder of the school year together.
With commitment to our shared journey,
Mary Hogan
God of New Beginnings,
We are thankful for the opportunity to start afresh in this new term. We seek your guidance and wisdom as we embark on this journey of learning and growth. Bless our students with open minds and hearts eager to absorb knowledge. Grant our teachers patience, creativity, and strength to inspire and nurture their students.
May this term be filled with opportunities for discovery, understanding, and achievement. Help us build a community of kindness, respect, and support among students, teachers and parents. Strengthen us to overcome challenges and celebrate successes together.
Bless St Joseph's School, its staff, students and everyone who walks through its doors.
Students of the Week
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
We welcome a new family to the school - the Niju family. Jaidan and Jovakkim are both in Foundation and have been warmly welcomed by everyone. We hope they enjoy their time at St Joseph’s.
The F/1/2 students have started the term with a lot of excitement by welcoming our new class pets - Percy, Tamatoa and Crabby!
The hermit crabs have been welcomed by all and have created a lot of excitement in the classroom.
In Literacy, we continue with our daily phonics program, along with our daily Buddy Reading sessions each morning.
The Grade 6 students are working well with the juniors and are showing great leadership skills when working alongside them.
In Numeracy, Grade 1/2 will be focusing on Statistics and Data while Foundation students working with Place Value.
Grade 3/4 Class Report
Welcome back to Term 3! The students have had a lovely break away and been excited to share their stories of their holidays with the rest of the class.
This week in Literacy we are looking at revision of Term 2 learning. We have been revising the vocabulary that we learnt last term, including definitions, synonyms and antonyms. In No Nonsense Phonics, students are working on the ‘ow’ and ‘oi’ sounds. We have worked on editing and proofreading our sentences and paragraphs using a thesaurus to challenge our use of common words, such as ‘big’ and ‘small’. Students have revised their understanding of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and simple, compound and complex sentences.
In Maths this week we are revising our understanding of analogue and digital time. Year 3 students are working on telling analogue time to the nearest five minutes, linking this with digital time. Year 4 students are consolidating their understanding of telling analogue time to the nearest minute and linking this with digital time. Some students are working on understanding how elapsed time works- adding and subtracting hours and minutes.
Homework and spelling words have been given out this week and are due in on Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
It was lovely to welcome the students back on Monday, rested and ready to tackle term 3.
This term we have Darcy and Isaac as our school leaders. They did a stellar job organising the lunch orders this week and led prayer at assembly on Monday. Well done!
We have started the term with a renewed focus on our home reading. Students are aiming to read four times a week for fifteen minutes, with some incentives along the way. Let’s go!
In maths this week students have worked on decimal fractions: writing, reading, comparing and ordering decimals to thousandths. Some excellent participation and collaboration has happened in deciding how to compare place values and strategise when ordering decimals, so well done!
In English we continue to follow the structured literacy approach, working daily on our sounds, vocabulary and spelling strategies. We explored the idiom - don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill- and learnt some new vocabulary including exuded, discarded, exotic and exerted! Students completed daily reading and researched some facts about the upcoming Olympics. We also read through the script for this term’s concert!
Students have made a great start to the term!
Keep your eyes open for homework booklets next week, containing weekly spelling and home tasks. I am trying a different tact with this booklet - hoping it proves successful.
Mary Hogan
St Joseph's School TV
As we transition back into school routine, this week's report on our School TV page is all about sleep!
Children these days seem to be going to bed later and later. Distractions such as TV, computer games, internet, texting friends and social media are all having a negative impact on a child’s sleep time. Sleep is vital to a child’s wellbeing. When children sleep well, they are more settled, happier and ready for school the next day. Sleep also strengthens their immune systems, supports overall development and their ability to function properly on a daily basis. Children who do not get enough sleep show increased levels of aggressive behaviour, are less attentive and are much less active. Trying to catch up on sleep on weekends is not the answer and can still lead to severe sleep deprivation. Recent studies have shown than many children, especially teenagers, are missing out on vital REM sleep, which is particularly important for memory and learning
Start exploring SchoolTV today! https://sjcharlton.catholic.schooltv.me/
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.
Child Safety - digital images
Taking Photos/Video Footage
As we begin a new year 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
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.