Filter Content
- Principal's Report
- Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support (WSAPBS)
- Attendance
- The Importance of Reading
- Mini Vinnies Talent Show
- School Improvement and Strategic Planning
- Interest Based Learning Presentation
- Code of Conduct
- Japanese
- Parents & Friends (P&F)
- Eucharist (First Holy Communion)
- Summary of School Advisory Committee Meeting
- Drink Bottles
- School Garden
- End of Term 2
- School Calendar
Dear Families,
Each year we promote our wonderful school in our Open Day. We had to postpone our recent Open Day because of the lockdown, so our new date is next week on Wed June 16th between 2.30 and 4pm. If you know anyone with a 4 year old kinder child, you might like to suggest our Open Day to them. Please spread the news!
Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
On Friday 11th June our church celebrates the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This feast day highlights Jesus’ love and care for us. Just as Jesus loves us so much , we too are called to show love and care for others. One way we can show that we love and care for others is to respond to the invitation to donate a non-perishable grocery item to our ‘Non-perishable Grocery Item Drive’. We will gather the items together and donate them to the Trafalgar St Vincent de Paul group, who will then distribute the items to local families in need. This is a simple and practical way that each of us can help other families.
Fr Herman Hengal will celebrate Mass in St John’s Church at 12 midday. Everyone is welcome to celebrate with us.
Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support (WSAPBS)
St Joseph’s School promotes and values positive relationships. Our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support (WSAPBS) focuses on this. WSAPBS is inclusive of all members of our school community including teachers, students and families. We have established four School Wide Expectations (SWE) and these are Respect, Resilience, Inclusiveness and Teamwork. We understand that these SWE are expected from all members of our community 100% of the time.
Last year, during Lockdown, we created an amazing banner demonstrating our SWE in The Front Door Project and it stands proudly in the Mary MacKillop room reminding us of the positive community that we have here at St Joseph’s.
As an extension of this project, we would like to invite you to participate in another project that involves being creative and working together. The idea is to create a poster that displays how your family shows each of the SWE. We suggest that your poster could include your family name and all 4 of the SWE. Liza Marino has put together a poster showing examples of how the teachers live out the SWE. Her poster includes a combination of photos and writing. You can present your poster however you like.
We invite all families to participate in this activity. We have plain A3 paper and/or a template available at the front office if you would like to use this. We also thought it would be appropriate to include our Japanese focus, so we have included the 4 SWE in Japanese as well.
We are hoping that some of the final results can be used to promote our SWE around our school and would like to have some of the posters printed professionally. It would be great to have your poster into the office by no later than Wednesday 23rd of June. This will be the last day for students in Term 2.
Remember it is best practice to be on time for school. If your child is absent from school you need to let the school office know and explain why they are absent.
On Mon June 21st the Mini Vinnies Team are organising a Talent Show. They are inviting people to enter the competition to perform a song, dance, poem, stand up comedy act…..actually whatever you would like really (as long as it receives approval from the organising Committee). The entry fee for each participant is $3 and adults will be charged $3 to come and watch. Remember it is a fundraiser for Mini Vinnies. Everyone is welcome to come and watch at 2 pm.
School Improvement and Strategic Planning
As you are aware, 2021 is our school’s year for Review. This is part of our ongoing 4-year cycle of school improvement. We have just participated in a 2-day review, where reviewers visited our school and investigated our processes to see where we have had impact and where we have not had impact. This information drives our Improvement Agenda. I have explained and promoted our 2021 Annual Implementation Plan in a short 2-minute video clip, which has been posted on our website www.trafalgar.catholic.edu.au I hope you can find time to view this brief summary.
Interest Based Learning Presentation
We just love our Interest Based Learning Program. On Wed June 23rd at 2.45pm in the Mary MacKillop Room we are going to showcase our learning from Term 2s Interest Based Learning Program. Everyone is welcome.
Safety is paramount at our school. Each year we ask all parents to read and sign our Code of Conduct. I have attached the Conduct to this newsletter for you to print, sign and send into school, so we can add your name to the register. Alternatively, you could read the copy that is at reception/office and sign the register at the office. Thank you for helping to keep our community safe.
日本語
Nihongo
Japanese
My turn
私の番。
Ultimately speaking a language is about speaking the language, to communicate what you want to say in an everyday situation. I try to create real contexts for students to speak to each other. In this class, students are asking for their turn by saying:
Have a look at this video of grade 45.
It wasn’t the only Japanese used that day. I also heard
私と一緒に遊ぶ
Watashi to issho ni asobu.
I with together play. (Play together with me)
And
レゴをください。
Lego o kudasai。
Lego please.
And
ここ
Koko
here
Yoku dekimashita St Joseph’s students! Well done
You really are USING Japanese.
What Japanese can your family say at dinner time?
Email me to let me know and I will help you make a Japanese way to say it. Especially if it fits the “object - verb” pattern. office@trafalgar.catholic.edu.au
Our P & F group met on Wednesday. This group works hard to fundraise money to support our school programs and they also work to promote social friendships and connections within our community. We have given the school $300 to purchase lego for interest-based learning. The students are really enjoying building with the new lego.
Pie Drive – P & F are running a Yummy Pie Drive. All pies are from Yarragon Bakery. Order forms will go out by end of term, due back 2nd week of Term 3. Payments to be made on CDF.
Delivery will be end of July!
Eucharist (First Holy Communion)
One of the most important things we do each year at school is to prepare the students for the Sacraments. Sacraments are special blessings in our faith and aim to help us along our faith journey. In Gr 3 we prepare for and celebrate Reconciliation, in Gr 4 we prepare for and celebrate Eucharist and in Gr 6 we prepare for and celebrate Confirmation. This term a number of people ( Aidan Cathomen, Miranda Upston and Liza Marino) are preparing for their First Holy Communion (the Sacrament of Eucharist). This Saturday is the second teaching Mass for these families. Of course, we are all invited to help these families prepare and celebrate together.
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION MASS will be celebrated on Saturday June 19th at 6pm in St John’s Church, Trafalgar. Everyone is welcome to celebrate with us. We especially remember Aidan, Miranda and Liza in our prayers.
Summary of School Advisory Committee Meeting
On Monday May 10th our School Advisory Committee conducted the AGM where we thanked Michael Jacobs for his service on this Committee over the last two years and we welcomed Marja Jamieson as our new member. The 2021 School Advisory Committee includes Imelda Cathomen, Dan Towb, Ashley Treyvaud, Vanessa Donald, Marja Jamieson, Katie Balfour and myself, Trish Mulqueen. The Code of Ethics for the School Advisory Committee members was read and agreed to. The School Advisory Committee approved the inclusion of the green school Tshirt with the yellow panels as another option for families for school uniform. The uniform shop is presently sourcing these and when they become available we will advertise this. Hopefully this will happen in Term 3. The Committee talked about supporting the Church refurbishment project and the Go Fund Me page. The church has started a vigorous fundraising effort to raise $300,000 for much needed repairs. We talked about staffing changes: we welcome Clare Atkinson as our new school counsellor and we have employed Liza Marino and Michele Midgley to teach our tutoring program as a result of remote learning in 2020. We also talked about our school’s participation in the Review process. Our Japanese program is humming along nicely and Trish gave a brief report on the happenings of the P&F group. Child Safety is always on the agenda and we talked about the most preferred option for bus drop off and pick up: we aim for this to happen in the Parish Car Park. There is still some work to be done here to get the necessary approvals. Promotion of the school was talked about as well. This group operates to support the overall running of the school and is also used to gauge parent opinion. I am very grateful to the work of this Committee.
In previous years we have run a very successful School Vege Garden, we are wondering if there is a keen gardener or two, out there who might like to take this on once again. Once a month we invited interested students to work in the garden with the person running the Garden Club. Is anyone interested in this important program?
Please be advised that school reports will be available in the last week of term on Monday 21st June. You will be able to access your child’s report through PAM (Parent Access Module). We will not be printing hard copies of the reports. The last day for the term will be Wednesday June 23rd and dismissal will be at 3.30pm. The staff are engaging in two days of professional learning on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th June so the school will not be open for students on these days. Families get to start their holiday a little earlier.