Newsletter 9. 30th May, 2024

Principal's Report

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

Last Sunday was a very significant day in a number of ways – six students completed their initiation into the Catholic faith community, receiving the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. Congratulations to Megg, Macey, Flynn & Maddie from St Joseph’s School & Eadie and Harrison from Charlton College. Many thanks to Bernadette Zagame for preparing the candidates, to Naomi Fitzpatrick for making the celebratory cupcakes and to all those who helped in any way. On the national calendar, Sunday was also Sorry Day, which marks the start of Reconciliation Week. The purpose of Reconciliation Week is to foster reconciliation and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to on-going reconciliation in Australia. This was very fitting as the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist, can contribute to the themes of reconciliation and social justice that are celebrated during National Reconciliation Week. On Monday, we commenced our assembly with a prayer dedicated to Reconciliation Week and this year’s theme of ‘Now More than Ever.’ This annual week of awareness encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise. During the week, I have been impressed by many of the students’ understandings, ideas, comments and contributions.

We pray for a united Australia that represents this land of ours,
values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage,
and provides truth, justice, peace, unity and equity for all.
Help us as we grow to appreciate one another.
In your eyes we are one.
Help us not to see colour, race or creed, but to see you in all people we meet.

Winter Sports
Students from Grades 3-6 combined with students from Charlton, Wycheproof, Wedderburn, Boort and Pyramid Hill on what was a glorious day at Boort Park. Students participated in AFL, Minkey, T-Ball, Netball, Soccer and Newcomb. St Joseph’s was very proud to have three students achieve sportsmanship awards on the day. Well done Rosie Fitzpatrick, Toby Bourke and Megg Fitzpatrick. All students were commended on the positive behavior and participation on the day. Well done everyone!

Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day was keenly celebrated with our special visitors on the Friday preceding the special occasion. Students presented a liturgy of thanks for all the special mothers, grandmothers and other notable females in our students’ lives.  The Junior Class performed a heart – warming rendition of “Thank You God For My Mum” and the Grade 3-6 students presented a comedy skit. After receiving a symbolic flower, our visitors enjoyed a well-deserved morning tea! A sincere thankyou to all those who were able to attend; your on-going support of our students is greatly appreciated.

National Simultaneous Story Time
National Simultaneous Story Time is celebrated each year, with a special book chosen to be read at noon on a given date. We are grateful to the Charlton Neighbourhood House for promoting this event and donating the story book to our school library. This year’s story was ‘Bowerbird Blues’ by Aura Parker. The students enjoyed the story and were fascinated with the rituals involved in finding a mate! Students were challenged to think about the treasure they would bring to their ‘nest’ and wrote these on blue hearts. These hearts were added to our very own, specially made, Bowerbird nests!

Hockey Bendigo
Tomorrow, thirteen of our Grade 3-6 students are venturing to Bendigo to participate in the Division Hockey Tournament. They are very keen and are looking forward to playing against the four other teams in their pool. We wish them well for the event and hope they have an enjoyable day. The bus is leaving St Joseph’s School at 8:00am sharp. Remember to pack snacks, lunch and water bottles, please. Mouth guards are COMPULSORY.

School Closure Day
As part of St Joseph’s commitment to on-going professional learning for all staff, the school will be closed to students next Monday 3^rd June. Staff will continue their learning in Religious Education, with a specific focus on prayer in the contemporary school environment.

Athletics 
On the last day of Term, Friday 28^th June, we will combine with Charlton College to compete in their House Athletics Carnival, in a similar way to how we joined in the Cross Country. This is a fantastic opportunity for the students to practice their skills before the Calder Athletics next term. Students will also do training for each event during Physical Education lessons at school.

With committment to our shared journey,
Mary Hogan

Students of the Week

Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist

Foundation/1/2 Class Report

Welcome to Week 7 St Joseph's families! 

Last week in the P/1/2 classroom we have been learning about Time in Numeracy.

The children have been enjoying learning the different times of the day and how to read the time on an analog and digital clock. 

In Literacy we are focusing on our Phonics sounds ch, -y and l. Our 3 Literacy groups are enjoying their time learning new sounds each week. 

In Sport, P/1/2 worked on teamwork and sportsmanship. They were encouraged to work together in teams and solve maths problems to become class champions. Each team worked well in their groups and cheered each other on.

We have had some very cute visitors come into St Josephs for Show and Tell. The children have loved bringing their pets in to show everyone. 

We also have a new friend in our classroom. 

Koco the Koala is our new class pet and the students will each take turns to look after her for a week. There is a book to go home with her so you can write about all the fun adventures your child has with Koco the Koala.

Grade 3/4 Class Report

Literacy: For the past fortnight we have been learning about noun and verb phrases. Students have been revising the phonemes -ear and u-e in the class and spelling lists. Students have also been learning about and writing sentences using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and appositives. Year 4 students have been working on paragraphing and writing a topic sentence to begin their paragraph. Year 3 students have been working on constructing sentences with appropriate detail and revising paragraphing with teacher support. Students have been working very diligently on their handwriting and I am very pleased to say that all Year 3 students have received their pen licence and Year 4 students have renewed their pen licences. Well done!

Maths: Students have been working hard over the last fortnight. We have completed our unit on division and begun our new unit on fractions. We are learning to recognise fractions in visual and digital form, along with appropriate vocabulary. Students are working on understanding fractions of collections and what proper, improper and mixed numbers are. Students are continually revising multiplication facts (focus on x7 this fortnight) and mental strategies focused on all areas in Maths. 

Grade 5/6 Class Report

The Grade 6’s have been making the most of their new jumpers on the cold mornings we have been experiencing – very grateful that they have arrived! Some of my favourite times of each day are morning recess duty and our Brain Break at 10:00am. It is lovely to chat with the students and see them interacting positively.

English & Mathematics
In Literacy sessions we have used Reconciliation Week for our focus content. I hope there has been growth in knowledge and understanding as the week has progressed. We have used the topic to explore vocabulary, for our paired reading, to generate question in a reverse comprehension task and to develop sentence content using words such as therefore, however, because and so. A big congratulations to the Grade 6s for their efforts in writing an essay, "What ANZAC Day Means To Me" for a local RSL competetion. They did an amazing job! In Mathematics our focus topic has been Division. We have revised fact families (12x4=48, 4x12=48, 48÷12=4, 48÷4=12) and explored different ways of recording remainders; r, fractions, decimals. Our daily review this week has been reinforcing the difference between prime and composite numbers. Students continue to work on their times table facts each day, with a number of students now focused on table facts beyond the 12x tables. Bravo!!

Homework
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. At this stage, I have asked students to work on the sheets already pasted in their Homework Books before we add any new ones.
Reading diaries should be filled in by students each day, noting the pages read. On a whole class level there is a lot of room for improvement. Remember – the more you read, the more you know… and the better you get!

Mary Hogan

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 Five level information.

School Attendance

All children are expected to be at school ready to begin by 9:00am. 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.

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.