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- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- RESTORATION AND MAINTENANCE WORKS AT ST JOSEPH'S
- MINI VINNIES
- P & F AGM TUESDAY MARCH 16th
- PAM (PARENT ACCESS MODULE)
- ST JOSEPH'S DAY
- CatholicCare VICTORIA
- UNIFORM SHOP NEWS
- NATIONAL ZART ART COMPETITION
- LIFE EDUCATION VAN AND HEALTHY HAROLD
- NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST BULLYING AND VIOLENCE 19th MARCH, 2021
- TUTOR PROGRAM
- JAPANESE LEARNING
- ASSEMBLIES
- ICY POLES
- HATS AND DRINK BOTTLES
- SCHOOL CALENDAR
Dear Families
We had a wonderful day on Friday. Thank you to Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for organising such an eventful day. We have collated the scores and the winning team is BLUE on 493. Second is RED team on 449, third is YELLOW team on 441 and fourth is GREEN team on 403 points. Well done everyone. We have also awarded the Age Champions: Foundation Eleanor Harrison and Levi Knight. Grade 1: Olivia Pedemont, Zane Coyld and Conrad Edwards. Grade 2: Amelia Oldham and Josh Plozza. 9 yr olds: Tahlia Pedemont and Mason Grujic. 10 yr olds: Kiarah Shields and Ethan Paul. 11 yr olds: Kaitlyn Pedemont and Oscar Murto. 12 yr olds: Shelby Malady-Williams and Cohen Paul.
RESTORATION AND MAINTENANCE WORKS AT ST JOSEPH'S
Article by J. Huffer on behalf of St. John’s Parish Council.
There has been a Catholic Church on the present Waterloo Rd site since land was first donated by the Kenny and Walls families in 1889. Generations of families have worshipped here and sacrificed to provide for a church building. The first timber structures needed extensions in 1903, and after serious fundraising, were opened in 1906. The Catholic Parish of Trafalgar, covering Moe, Yarragon, Thorpdale and Willow Grove was declared in 1907. When the first Josephite nuns came in 1930, these buildings also served the Parish as a school. At the height of the Great Depression, Catholics and the Community raised sufficient money to build a brick building to house the nuns.
Time moved on and needs changed, so a larger brick church was built as a War Memorial Church which opened in Feb. 1955. Always the provision of the church buildings relied on the financial generosity of the parishioners and the wider community. The Church served the community well since then. It has been the place for many joyful celebrations of weddings, baptisms, and gatherings for worship, and a place of support for the sadder occasions of funerals. The local branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society operates from here, and many of the district’s needy, as well as passers- through have sought and found friendly assistance here.
In recent years the building was attacked by very unwelcome visitors. White ants left a trail of destruction behind which now requires urgent, extensive repair. The building has to be brought back to current safety codes. It is a costly exercise, and once again, the Catholic and wider community are asked to help to restore this landmark Trafalgar building.
To make a donation please contact the Parish Secretary, Julianne, for details at 56 331166
Fourteen senior students this year have expressed interest in working as part of our Mini Vinnies Mission Team.
We congratulate and acknowledge:Kaitlyn Pedemont, Ruby Francis, Ava McCutcheon, Ella O’Connor, Arabella Simpson, Stella Chapman, Erin Kondo, Stephani O’Neill, Rubi Myrteza, Charlise Eerhard, Oscar Murto, Robert Arbrecht, Alex Jacobs and Maxwell Haines.
This team is already hard at work. They are organising a Cake Stall for Monday March 29th from 3pm. Families are welcome to come into the school early this day to purchase goods from the Cake Stall.
In addition, the Mini Vinnies team are organising a ‘Guess The Number of Jellybeans’ Competition. It will be $1 for a guess and the prize is the full jar of jellybeans. How exciting! It will be drawn on the last day of school Thursday April 1st after the Easter Liturgy at 12 midday.
Our Parents & Friends Committee held their AGM on Tuesday. The following positions were filled: President-Lauren Francis, Vice President-Narelle Jamieson, Secretary-Gen Fotis, Treasurer-Rebecca Harrison, Uniform Shop-Kylee Eerhard, General Committee-Mia Scanlon, Rebecca Harvey & Emma Steendham. We are still looking for a Vice Secretary if anyone is interested we would love to hear from you. This is a really important committee in our school and we welcome your participation. Please let me know if you are interested.
You will be aware that we are now using a new communication system within the school. SIMON is the staff access and PAM is the parent access. About half our families are yet to access PAM. If you haven’t accessed PAM, Taryn will send out clear instructions for you to do so. It is our intention that all forms of communication will be through PAM by the beginning of Term 2. We are very confident that you will find this mode of communication easy and efficient.
Tomorrow we celebrate St Joseph’s Day. We will start the day with a liturgy in the church at 9am. Parents are welcome to join us there. We will go back to school and we will be joined by Stomp Dance Company. STOMP is an indigenous dance company and they will be taking each grade for a workshop. This will then be combined for a whole school performance and presentation in the afternoon. We are fortunate to have STOMP Dance Company so close to Harmony Week. Costs are covered through the school excursions levy.
This is a fantastic opportunity that supports the Victorian Curriculum including history, languages, performing arts, physical education health and social capabilities. It also supports our School-Wide Expectations of respect, inclusiveness, resiliency and teamwork.
Have you noticed a change in your child or adolescent’s behaviour? Have they become quiet and shy? Or maybe they are acting out? A change in behaviour can be a sign that something isn’t right. Children and young people can sometimes find it difficult to cope with major life events like starting or changing school, family conflict, parental separation or the loss of a loved one. Counselling can help them learn and manage strong feelings positively, increase coping skills and build resilience. We can help with issues involving: anxiety, bushfire trauma, family relationships, grief and loss, parenting, school, separation/divorce, trauma. If you have any questions please call us on 1800 522 076 [CatholicCare provides counselling to all people, regardless of their religious belief or background]
Offices in Pakenham, Traralgon and Warragul.
Second hand uniform sale
$5 per item payment cash or CDF
11.15 to 12 midday
Thursday April 1st (last day of term)
Mary Mackillop Room
This year Zart Art established The National Teacher-Artist Prize 2021 (NTAP) to reward teachers by celebrating the value and quality of their individual art practice. They received an incredible 760 entries. NTAP aspires to be one of the most important events on the art and education calendar - the only dedicated art prize for educators in the world.
Fifty artworks have been shortlisted. Acknowledged as one of the 50 finalists is our very own Ms Kathy Grass.
Kathy runs our Art program and “We are so very proud of Kathy and the work she does at our school. Our art program is second to none and the students love the opportunities that Kathy presents to creatively express themselves. Kathy is a fine artist herself and she truly loves teaching art to the students. It is fitting that Kathy’s artwork has been recognised nationally.”
Kathy’s entry is entitled #Homeiswheretheheartis and is a 3D needle felted artwork.
“To be selected as a Top 50 finalist out of 760 entries is a great honour for me as a teacher of art and a creator of artworks. I am passionate about art in general but especially needle felting. To have my felting artwork selected and recognized in a mixed media art competition is very special as felting is often just thought of as a craft rather than an art” Kathy said.
The next phase of the competition is to have all the 50 artworks placed on display for several weeks in a gallery in Melbourne. From these 50 artworks the Best in Show will be chosen as well as 7 State ‘Highly Commended’ awards. A ‘Peoples’ Choice winner’ Award will also be announced. You can vote for our local artist, Ms Kathy Grass #Home is where the heart is, by going to The National Teacher-Artist Prize 2021 website. Congratulations Kathy and good luck in the final.
Here is her work…
LIFE EDUCATION VAN AND HEALTHY HAROLD
At the moment, the students in our school are being visited by the Life Education Van and Healthy Harold. The theme for the visit is to build healthy and respectful relationships. The beginning of the year is an ideal time to participate in a program such as this as we navigate maintaining and building friendships and new class structures/groupings. During the visit, students will have the opportunity to participate in developing their knowledge by receiving age-appropriate and factual information in a safe and respectful environment. The school already promotes healthy and respectful relationships through our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support (WSAPBS) and through our School-Wide Expectations (SWE). Reinforcing our SWE through the uses of services such as the Life Education Van is fantastic not only for providing great learning opportunities but to also reinforce that safety and relationships are always a priority for us here at St Joseph's School.
NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST BULLYING AND VIOLENCE 19th MARCH, 2021
Please remember that, this year, St Joseph’s Primary School will once again be
participating in the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. It is
an important day in our school calendar to join with hundreds of other schools
across Australia to say “Bullying. No way!” At our school, we encourage
students to take hold of the issue and talk about what does work. Let’s
support our students to drive powerful messages and take action to prevent
bullying. Together we can make change.
So far, our students have been learning about building and maintaining healthy
and respectful relationships. Building healthy and respectful relationships is
everyone’s responsibility. At school, we promote the Whole School Approach
to Positive Behaviour Support (WSAPBS) and explicitly teach our School Wide
Expectations (SWE). As a whole school community, it is important that
everyone; teachers, students and parents promote the expectation of positive
relationships and say “Bullying! No way!”
Tomorrow, we invite all students to come to school dressed in
the colour orange for the day. In doing this, we can help our school deliver a
powerful message that bullying and violence are never okay.
We will employ Ms Liza Marino and another teacher to support student learning following the periods of remote and flexible learning. This funding will help us to deliver additional targeted teaching support to students in a way that best suits our local circumstances. We will need to identify students requiring tutoring support with a focus on literacy and numeracy. In order to identify students, teachers will use a variety of data.
Students who may require additional support include those:
- with low levels of English
- with home environments not conducive to remote and flexible learning
- already at risk of disengaging from school and
- who need educational and health and wellbeing supports at school but were unable to access them at home.
The tutoring style will be small group based and use an evidence-based approach to differentiated teaching. The idea is for students to be tutored in short (30 or 45 min) regular sessions (between 3-to-5 times a week), over a sustained period (between 10-to-20 weeks). We are presently planning our school’s approach, or combination of approaches, to tutoring that best fits our context and the needs of our students. Tutors will work under the direction of and in collaboration with the classroom teacher to implement evidence-based approaches that target the needs of the students within the group. In the coming weeks if your child has been identified as someone requiring tutoring support we will be in contact with you and give you further information on how this program will run. If you think your child needs this program, I encourage you to talk directly to your child’s teacher. It may be that our school data reinforces this idea or it may be that the school data doesn’t confirm this approach, either way it is positive to talk to the class teacher about this.
日本語
Nihongo
Japanese
Repetition + frequency = memory
How many times do you need a new word repeated to make it easy to say at anytime?
For me it is around 100 times. Research suggests that it is between 20 and 500 times, we are all really different.
The memory curve shows that frequency of repetition is also vital!
Could you use a little Japanese at home?
This is what we have been practicing.
[something you want] を ください。
[something you want] o kudasai.
[something you want] please.
ありがとう。
Arigatou.
Thank you. (informal)
What things does your child ask for? Food? Things when shopping? Clothes? Toys? Could you encourage them to ask for it in Japanese? Could you ask them too?
Let us know what you say and how it goes.
May God continue to bless and guide us in our work
Trish Mulqueen
Principal
This year, assemblies are Fridays 3.10pm. From now on we will hold the assemblies in the church so that parents can attend taking into account the density rules to keep everything COVIDsafe. This week we have Stomp Dance Company at school so the assembly will be 3pm outside on the asphalt area (basketball court) and everyone is welcome.
Remember school hats must be worn in Term 1 & Term 4.