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- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- EVERY DAY COUNTS – SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
- P&F NEWS
- BOOK WEEK AND BOOK FAIR
- 2021 NEiTA Awards
- SUMMARY OF SCHOOL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
- PARENT /TEACHER/STUDENT INTERVIEWS
- LIONS CLUB PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION
- WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACH TO POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT (WSAPBS)
- SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
- CODE OF CONDUCT
- OH&S Occupational Health and Safety
- MINI VINNIES TEAM
- 2021 SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION UPDATE:
- CHILD SAFETY
- FREE WEBINARS AND ADVISE FOR PARENTS AND CARERS
- SCHOOL CALENDAR
- COVID-19 VACCINE IN BAW BAW
Dear Families
I think we all have Olympic Fever! We had the best day at school on Tuesday when we hosted our Mini Olympics. Thank you to families for helping your child dress up for the country they were allocated to. In the morning, we rotated around different groups learning about the Olympics and the history of the Olympics. In the afternoon, we rotated around different physical activities where we worked hard to display our School Wide Expectations (SWE) of Resilience, Respectfulness, Inclusiveness and Teamwork. It really was an incredible day. The teachers were very proud of the Gr 6 class who worked as leaders during the day. A great day was had by all.
We have a new TV in our reception area above the front window. We have put the photos from the Mini Olympics day on a loop on the TV, so hopefully the next time you are in at school, you could view the Mini Olympics pics on the TV. They are certainly worth a look. Thank you for organising such a great day Katie!
EVERY DAY COUNTS – SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day, when it is of course, safe to do so. In these COVID times, it seems contradictory to be promoting school attendance but the basic premise is, if it is safe to do so, students should be at school in the school term. It is best to have family holidays in school holiday time.
UNIFORM ORDERS
Uniform shop is stocking new green school T-shirts.
All uniform orders available on CDF.
SPECIAL LUNCH Thurs Aug 19th More information to come.
Next P & F Meeting: Wed Aug 25th 9.15am Everyone welcome.
Sports Dress Up Day: Thurs Sept 16th Special Lunch Hot Dogs $3
Each year the Australian Book Council puts aside a week to celebrate Australian Literacy. This year the theme is ‘Old Worlds, Other Worlds, New Worlds’. We too, like to get into the spirit of things by promoting our Book Week Dress Up Day on Tuesday August 24th. We encourage everyone to dress either to the theme or come dressed as a book character. Let’s have some fun!
The Book Fair for this year has had to be postponed because of COVID. As yet we have not rescheduled a date. Stay tuned.
For more than 25 years, via the National Excellence in Teaching Awards, the NEiTA Foundation has been acknowledging exceptional educators in early learning centres, primary and secondary schools, and special schools across Australia and New Zealand.
In fact, these teachers and principals are not just exceptional professionals. They are also talented, committed, caring, innovative, passionate and dedicated to their students, schools and the community.
If you would like to nominate a teacher go to the NEiTA website
SUMMARY OF SCHOOL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Annual Report to the School Community was highlighted and discussed. This report is available on our school website www.trafalgar.catholic.edu.au. Everyone was encouraged to read it. Uniforms were discussed and the new green school Tshirt is now available through the Uniform Shop. The findings of our recent Review were highlighted and discussed. The Committee looked at our Successes and Opportunities for Further Success. Our Leading Languages Professional Learning (Japanese) Program, was discussed and ideas for Promotion of the School were also explored. The P&F report was delivered and the Committee had time to discuss and explore the impact of COVID on our school and community, and made suggestions about helping us to move forward. The idea of Before and After School Care is presently being explored with parents being asked to complete a survey to determine the level of interest in this program. We thank Ashley Treyvaud for organising this for us. Our next meeting is Monday August 16th, where we will discuss the findings of the survey and decide whether to move forward with this initiative
PARENT /TEACHER/STUDENT INTERVIEWS
As part of our regular reporting to parents protocol, we plan to have our second lot of interviews on Wednesday August 18th. We had planned for these interviews to be in person, but recent information from the office stipulates that parent interviews need to be virtual. If the guidelines change beforehand we will of course, offer this option as face to face, but presently we will plan for these interviews to be virtual. More information will be sent out soon.
LIONS CLUB PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION
Each year we promote the Lions Public Speaking Competition. We were to hold this event early in Term 3 but it has now been rescheduled to week 5 (Friday August 13th at 11.30). We are strongly encouraging and supporting the students in Grades 3, 4, 5 & 6 to participate. This competition could be a great opportunity for your child.
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.
This year, we are inviting you to create your own family poster showing 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.
Follow link below to access a blank template
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.
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 completed our 2 day review, where reviewers visited our school and investigated our processes to see where we have had impact and where we haven’t 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.
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.
OH&S Occupational Health and Safety
LV Shade Sails have repaired the shade sails above our Junior Adventure Playground. They look great.
We have already replenished the mulch in both playgrounds but now think we need to purchase more mulch to keep our playgrounds safe. Safety continues to be paramount in our school
We have a very positive and active team of student leaders who work hard in our school as Mini Vinnies.
The Mini Vinnies team are promoting and supporting the Mary MacKillop Foundation in running a Crazy Hair Day at our school on Monday August 9th. We are asking for a gold coin donation to support the Josephite Nun’s work in the Mary Mac Foundation. In our church, we celebrate St Mary of the Cross MacKillop’s feast day, the day before on August 8th. Mary MacKillop is Australia’s first saint.
Mini Vinnies are also promoting and supporting the National fundraiser for Foster Care in advertising the PJ day for Friday 13th August. We are encouraging a gold coin donation to support Foster Care. If you would like to give more than a gold coin, you are, of course, very welcome.
On Saturday August 28th, the Mini Vinnies team are putting on an art/craft stall at the Yarragon Market. They have prepared lots of fantastic things to sell at the market. The funds raised on the day will go to the ‘Save the Church’ fund. We are very proud of these students and their work. Congratulations! We hope you will all visit our stall at the Yarragon Market.
2021 SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION UPDATE:
This weekend we acknowledge the Presentation of Confirmation Candidates at the weekend Mass i.e. Saturday August 7th 6pm in our church. Ayla, Justyce and Liza are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation. The first parent/child workshop will be on tonight with the second workshop on Thurs 12th Aug. Both workshops are in Warragul. We celebrate the SACRAMENT of Confirmation on Saturday August 21st 6pm in St John’s Church Trafalgar with Fr Peter Slater. Everyone is welcome to join us.
As always, Child Safety is paramount on our school agenda. Our Child Safety Team members for 2021 are Trish Mulqueen, Katie Balfour and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt. Our Child Safety Standards are always visible in our school and are on display in the reception area as well as in the Mary MacKillop room. These Standards were rewritten by the students and use child –friendly language. They have illustrated these to reflect the message of each of the Standards.
FREE WEBINARS AND ADVISE FOR PARENTS AND CARERS
Whether you're in lockdown, adapting to restrictions or simply staying home more, this is a challenging time for parents and carers around the country.
eSafety can support you with free webinars and advice for parents and carers and help keep your children safe while learning and socialising online.
Book in for eSafety's parent guide to popular apps. The FREE, live webinar is for parents and carers of young people aged 8-13, and looks at popular apps like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.
May God continue to bless and guide us in our learning.
Trish Mulqueen
Principal
Dates
August | |
Thurs 5th | Confirmation First Parent/Child workshop |
Mon 9th | Crazy Hair Day (gold coin donation to Mary Mac Foundation) |
Thurs 12th | Confirmation Second Parent/Child workshop |
Fri 13th | PJ day Fundraiser for Foster Care (Gold coin donation) |
Lions Club Public Speaking Competition 11.30am | |
Wed 18th | Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews |
Thurs 19th | P&F Special Lunch |
Sat 21st | CONFIRMATION 6pm in church Everyone welcome |
Tues 24th | Book Week Dress Up Day |
Wed 25th | P&F Meeting 9.15am School |
September | |
Thurs 2nd & Fri 3rd | Gr 4 Overnight Camp to Mill Valley |
Mon 6th | Father’s Day Breakfast at school followed by liturgy at 9am |
Thurs 16th | Sports Dress Up Day (no charge) |
Hot Dog day | |
Fri Sept 17th | Last day of term 1pm finish |
October | |
Mon 4th | First day of term |
Tues 12th | School Advisory Committee Meeting 5.30pm |
Thurs 28th | School Concert at Lowanna College |
Fri 29th | World Teachers Day |
Day for Daniel (wear red) | |
November | |
Mon 1st | Assessment Day (Pupil Free Day) |
Tues 23rd | Foundation Orientation Program 9.15am to 10.45am |
Tues 30th |
Foundation Orientation Program 9.15am to 10.45am |
December |
|
Wed 1st |
Japanese Day |
Tues 7th |
Foundation Orientation Program 9.15am to 10.45am |
Fri 10th |
End of Year/Graduation Mass 9am |
Mon 13th | Last day for Gr 6 |
Gr 6 Graduation | |
Wed 15th |
Last day for students 1pm finish |