Newsletter 8, 16th May 2024

Principals Report

Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,

As you may have read on the last newsletter, Mrs Hogan is on Long Service Leave this week, spending some time with her daughter before she heads off overseas.  We hope she is having a relaxing trip and enjoying a well-earned break.  Mrs Hogan will be back at school next week.

School Closure Day – Change of Date
The Religious Education School Closure day which was scheduled for May 20^th has been rescheduled for Monday, June 3rd.  May 20^th will now be a normal school day.  Please note these dates on your calendars. Apologies for any convenience.

School Saving Bonus - Vic State Budget 2024-25

We have received the following information from DOBCEL in regards to the latest State Budget.

The $400 Bonus will be provided during Term 4 of this year to all State school families and Health Care Card holders in Non-gov’t schools, making sure families have time to plan and budget for the 2025 school year ahead.

Families will receive a credit on their school family account to help meet the cost of activities and uniforms. Cash will not be paid directly to individuals or families.

DOBCEL say:

• • The Allan Labor Government has excluded the vast majority of Catholic school families from the $400 School Savings Bonus announced in the State Budget in a move that is blatantly unfair.
  • 100% of government school families will receive the benefit because it is not means-tested.
  • It is deeply disappointing that only Catholic school families who hold a Health Care card will be eligible (13% is the diocesan figure).
  • Like government schools, the vast majority of our families are in the low and middle-income brackets.
  • We believe the payment should apply to all students/families or should be means-tested for all students.
  • This support payment should not be based on which school you attend.
  • Our families are feeling cost-of-living pressures too, yet only those who are healthcare card holders are eligible for the program.
  • We want to work with government to ensure students across all sectors receive the support they need to get the best education possible, but this policy is blatantly unfair.
  • There are thousands of parents across regional Victoria, including parents at my school, wondering why the State Government is refusing to help them with their cost-of-living pressures, while handing out money to families in Melbourne’s wealthiest suburbs.
  • We are contacting our State Government representatives as a matter of urgency to better understand why our families have been excluded from this program.

DOBCEL would like us all to contact our local MP Jade Benham.  I will attach a template for a letter that has been provided by DOBCEL.  Template email from principal to Legislative Assembly MP (all other parties) Mary has sent an email to each family with these details.   I am  also attaching a link for the broader school communty to contact Jade Benham.  So share it with your family and friends and lets get our message across. Template email for broader school community to send to MPs.  Thank You.

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 26^th May at 10:30am Mass. All families are warmly invited to join in this special parish celebration.

Winter Sports
Students in Grades 3-6 travelled to Boort for the annual Winter Sports.  The children were placed in teams with children from other schools and everyone had a great day.  This year they brought in a new initiative, a Sportsmanship Award for a boy and a girl from each sport to be presented to a child who displays good manners, encourages their team mates, respects umpire decisions and plays within the spirit of the game. St Joseph's had 3 recipients on the day female Minkey - Megg Fitzpatrick, male Minkey - Toby Bourke and female Netball - Rosie Fitzpatrick.  Congratulations to these three students but from what I have heard,  all of our children were very well behaved and could all have been recipients of these awards.  Well done students. 

Mother’s Day
We hope all of our Mums had a beautiful Mother's Day and were treated like Queens for the day.  We had a lovely morning on Friday with many Mother's, grandmothers and other very special females in our students’ lives here to celebrate Mother's Day with the children.  

Walk to School Day
On Friday, the students went for a walk to celebrate Walk to School Day.  They had You may have noticed some tattoos on your childrens arms and legs!  

Simultaneous Storytime.

Next Wednesday is National Simultaneous Storytime.  Schools all around the country read the same book at 12:00p.m.  This years book is called Bowerbird Blues.

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, family day cares, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 24th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

Students of the Week

Breakfast Program

The Breakfast Program operates on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning between 8:30 amd 8:55 for all students.  I would love to see the students come in for a juice or toast.
Mrs Wright

Foundation/1/2 Class Report

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and got to enjoy Mother's Day with their families. It was great to see so many attend our Mother's Day Liturgy on Friday and see everyone enjoy their gifts made by the students. 

We were very lucky to have Mrs Fitzpatrick come and help the students make the delicious biscuits that went home to all the families.

The students had a lot of fun decorating their flower pots and gift boxes for Mother's Day. 

Last week we had the pleasure of having the children from Charlton Kinder visit us and enjoy some Gruffalo activities. It was great to see so many new faces and families come and visit our wonderful school. 

The children at St Joseph's enjoyed all the activities and got to create masks and puppets and put on a  Gruffalo Puppet Show. 

Have a great week

Ms Brown - P/1/2

Grade 3/4/5/6 Class Report

Literacy: This week the 3-6 students have joined together. The Year 3 & 4 students are working on understanding and using noun phrases and pronouns, horizontal joins in handwriting, practising accurate and fluent reading in pairs and working together in a small group to create a writing piece (written or digital) that they are passionate about. The Year 5 & 6 students are working on spelling words focused on the root spec/spect, understanding and applying vocabulary words- physical, appreciate and informal, practising accurate and fluent reading in pairs, a informative writing piece on a country of their choosing- draft, edit and publishing and also an independent written or digital piece on a topic of their choice that they are passionate about for the Young Voice Awards run through Australian Catholics. 

Maths: All students are revising their multiplication tables with Year 3 & 4 focusing particularly on x7. Students are revising and working on their automaticity in doubling and halving numbers and skip counting from a non zero starting point. Year 3-6 are working on the topic of division this week with assessments of prior knowledge happening and understanding division related vocabulary of divisor, dividend and quotient. Students are working on division turnarounds/fact families, division and multiplication links and relationships and working on short division with a 2-4 digit dividend. Some students are working on revising/understanding remainders in division. Year 6 students are working on completing division sums involving decimals. 

Art- Year 3-6 have worked on a mixed media piece this week using ripped newspaper, scrap paper and watercolor paint to create an ocean themed piece inspired by their integrated studies unit on explorers. 

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 Four level information.

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.