Newsletter 14, 15th August 2024
Principal's Report
Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,
I hope everyone is back into their usual sleep routines after a very entertaining 2024 Olympic Games! The students certainly did the green and gold very proud today with their performance and effort at the Calder Athletics Carnival. I was so impressed by the organisation, staff participation, family support and the behaviour of the students. A huge BRAVO to everyone involved. St Joe’s rounded off a fantastic day’s work coming second in the relay events overall and finishing in third place on the leader board. Congratulations and well done! Thank you to the St Joe’s staff, Garnet, Kye and Wes Jenkyn who so capably prepared the students. An extra thank you to Mrs Olive for her organisation of the relays and St Joe’s responsibilities on the day.
Insight SRC Surveys
Insight SRC is conducting this survey on behalf of St Joseph’s School and Catholic Education in the Diocese of Ballarat. The main aim of the survey is to identify those factors that contribute to the organisational health of the school. The results will provide valuable information about the ways in which our school can be improved. About two weeks ago, families received a white envelope with information regarding access to these surveys. I encourage each family to take the time to provide their feedback and be a part of effective, on-going growth and change at St Joe’s. THE DEADLINE FOR RESPONSES IS TOMORROW>
School Concert
The concert is on Tuesday, 7th October at 7pm.
All students will need a black base costume (eg black leggings, tracksuit pants, shorts, jeans, skirt etc and a black top (long or short sleeve. It won’t matter if it has a small print on it.) Please don’t feel you need to buy anything new – make do with what you have or can borrow.
We look forward to your company on this evening – so mark the date on your calendar!
Prospective Preps 2025
An information session will be held for prospective families of Preps for 2025 on MONDAY 9th SEPTEMBER at 9:00am. Please spread the word. See the flyer below.
School Camps & Excursions
F-2 Day Excursion Bendigo – Term Four
3&4 Billabong Ranch Echuca November 7th & 8th
5&6 Urban Camp Melbourne October 15th -18th
Grade 5 & 6 Urban Camp permission forms and some information will be sent via PAM this week. Please check them out.
Book Week Magic Show & Dress Up Day
Book Week is happening next week. The theme for 2024 is “READING IS MAGIC”. Part of our student wellbeing boost grant has been spent on a real live magician to visit St Joseph’s School.
The magic show will happen on MONDAY 19th August at 11:30am.
Our Book Week dress up day and parade will happen on WEDNESDAY 21st August. As usual, students are invited to dress up as one of their favourite book characters. We will visit the kinder and the Nursing Home on this day.
Active Breakfast
Everyone is most welcome to come along to the ACTIVE BREAKFAST which is SUPPORTED BY MALLEE SPORTS ASSEMBLY, VIC HEALTH, ST. JOSEPH’S PRIMARY SCHOOL, EAST WIMMERA HEALTH SERVICE & CHARLTON NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSE at St Joseph’s Primary School on Tuesday 3 rd September 2024 between 9.40am-11.00am.
A healthy breakfast will be provided and students treated to two local guest speakers to promote healthy and active living!
Father’s Day
The Father’s Day breakfast for all the special male role models in our students’ lives will happen on FRIDAY 30th AUGUST from 8:00am – 9:00am.
This year the Grade 6 students have some activities planned for our visitors!
RUNT at The Rex
On Wednesday 28th August all students will be walking with staff to The Rex to watch the film ‘RUNT’. This is a much loved children’s book about a loveable dog who has an extraordinary relationship with his owner, Annie, who trains him to become a champion in dog agility courses.
With commitment to our shared journey,
Mary Hogan
Students of the Week
Foundation/1/2 Class Report
Welcome to Week 5 P/1/2 Families - how quickly has that flown by.....
This last week, the P/1/2 students have been working hard with their Phonics groups and learning new sounds, Preps focusing on w, Grade 1s with oa and the Grade 2s working on -ge and -se sounds.
We have had a big focus on handwriting this week too and the students have enjoyed using their new sky/grass/dirt workbooks to help with their letter formation.
In Numeracy our topic has been multiplication and groups of - and all I can say is WOW!! The students have all worked so well in small groups and pairs and have grasped the topic so quickly - amazing work everyone!!
In sport this week, we had the pleasure of Garnet, Kai and Wes coming to join us to teach us some Athletics Skills for the Calder Athletics this week.
The students all had a blast and are ready to go for this Thursday.
Have a great week and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks
Ms Brown
Grade 3/4 Class Report
Literacy: This fortnight students have been busy learning about evaporation, melting, freezing and condensation in their shared reading texts. We have been learning about the changes in state of solids, liquids and gases and how suspension works with a liquid and a solid. Students have been practising their reading skills daily through individual, small group and whole class practice. Students have been using sentence kernels based on our shared reading topic to complete their sentences using connectives when, where and how. This week students have taken a short break from formalised, sentence based writing and are working on a creative story set in a futuristic theme park. Some great imaginative writing and integration of our lessons this year. Students also completed a spelling test which is data that will inform me of their current spelling levels, strengths and needs.
Maths: We dove straight into Chance, Data and Graphing this fortnight. Students have been learning about likelihood of events, collecting data, graphing this in various ways and interpreting their data. Students really enjoyed the data and graphing activity involving discovering the popularity of clinker colours in a bag of lollies. Students were very engaged and enthusiastic.
We continue to prepare for our Calder Sports this Thursday with Garnet and Kye. Thank you for their expertise and fun activities.
Grade 5/6 Class Report
Students have been training hard for the Calder Athletics, which are happening today. I’m sure they will do the school proud and achieve their personal best results!
Students have been encouraged to read more often at home with a couple of incentives in place. There has been a huge improvement in reading rates which is fantastic. Congratulations to Rosie Fitzpatrick who won the raffle draw for a Book Week Voucher. There will be another one up for grabs at the end of this term so keep up the good work!
In Literacy students have been exploring topic related technical vocabulary relating to States of Matter. Our reading and writing tasks have been focused on this, with students being shown how to write informative sentences containing relevant, technical vocabulary and extending this to paragraphs. Our morning phonics groups are showing increasing understanding and usage of all the different sounds and understanding that the English language is quite complex!
This week in Mathematics students worked to consolidate the adding and subtracting of fractions, both with like and related denominators. Students worked to use equivalent fractions and their tables facts to simplify answers in the lowest form. Students completed their post-assessment of fractions, decimals & percentage.
Students have a spelling sheet and a homework sheet due each Friday.
Mary Hogan
Wellbeing News
Wellbeing News
How did we go with doing or sharing something that makes us happy?
Something that makes me happy is taking my new puppy out walking with me.
This week try doing some yoga.
Moves may include:
Bow Pose, Butterfly Pose, Plough Pose, Tree Pose, Cobra Pose, Warrior, Downward Dog Pose, Cat Pose
Breakfast – it is great to see and speak with the students in the morning during Breakfast. All students are welcome to attend breakfast or to come in and mingle with others who are playing games or colouring.
If students have a request for a breakfast item please let me know.
Mrs Wright
St Joseph's School TV
RESILIENCE
Resilience is important for a child’s mental health. It is their ability to bounce back from failure, challenges, adversity and stress. It’s not something that kids have or don’t have but a skill that kids develop over time as they grow. Building resilience not only helps a child deal with current difficulties, but it also helps develop a resilient mindset that will help them deal with challenges later in life. All children are capable of working through challenges and coping with stress, but they require guidance and support from a charismatic adult role
model.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.