Filter Content
- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- ADVENT
- SYNOD OF BISHOPS
- WARRAGUL HOSPITAL TOILETRY BAG DRIVE
- CONCERT
- ‘Mary and Baby Jesus’ felted statue Lucky Number Competition
- END OF YEAR CELEBRATIONS
- REPORTS
- SCHOLASTIC BOOKCLUB
- LIBRARY BOOKS ARE NOW TO BE RETURNED
- 2022 Life Education Program (Sexual Health Education) for Gr 5 & 6
- 2022 STAFFING
- MASKS
- ICYPOLES
- JAPANESE DAY
- 2022 BOOKLISTS
- DATES
- KIDS HELPLINE
Dear Families
This is the final newsletter for the 2021 school year. We thank our Gr 6 students for their leadership in our school. May God continue to bless and guide you on life’s journey. Amen
May God’s peace and love gather up your family this Christmas time. We pray that we all enjoy safe and restful holidays. God bless,
Trish Mulqueen
Principal
Advent is a time of preparing for Jesus’ birth, we prepare our homes, our classrooms, our towns and most importantly, we prepare our hearts.
It is important that we teach our children that Christmas is so much more than the decorations and gift giving. The first Christmas story is the real meaning of Christmas, that baby Jesus was born to unsuspecting, average parents and he grew up to teach and share God’s message of love with everyone. Jesus’ message in that time was new and refreshing. He spoke of love and forgiveness and living your life to the full.
A great way of helping your family recognise the real meaning of Christmas is to participate in our Christmas Eve Mass in our church at 6pm. The F/1 students will act out the nativity story and students in Gr 2,3,4,5 & 6 will perform two special songs. All children are welcome to come dressed as someone from the nativity. (Mary, Joseph, angel, king, shepherd etc) You don’t have to come dressed up, but you are very welcome to if you want. This is a great way of helping children to think of others at Christmas and to pray for other people in our world. This will be a COVID safe event so that we will need to QR code in and vaccination status will be checked on entry as per the Government regulations. Please know that there are big fines if we do not comply with the regulations.
Last month in Rome, Pope Francis launched the Synod 2021-2023 . He invites Catholics all over the world to walk on this journey with him and with each other, to become a transformed Church that is close to people, a Church that listens.
Catholics across Australia are invited to participate in a period of local consultation for this Synod of Bishops, which has the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”. From now until the end of February 2022, dioceses, parishes, schools, Catholic groups and agencies will be participating in the Synod consultation at their local level.
Here is a message from Bishop Greg about our involvement in this consultation
In October Pope Francis announced a Synod on Synodality for 2023.
He reaffirmed the Way of the Church is to walk alongside one another as Jesus has shown us in the Gospels by: Encounter; Listening; Discerning our way together.
We have already begun to walk the synodal way across the Diocese of Sale.
We have been doing this through the Diocesan Assembly of 2019, the consultation and engagement for the Plenary Council, and at so many local levels.
I want to invite you to be part of this journey toward the Synod of 2023. The
Vatican Council II understood the Church as the pilgrim People of God.
Pope Francis now calls the whole Church, all of us, to walk together. It is an adventure. It is exciting. It will not be without its expectations and fears, clarity and confusion.
It will require of us deep trust in the presence of the Holy Spirit who Jesus promised would lead us to the Truth.
May we walk together with one another!
Please visit our Diocesan website https://www.cdsale.org.au/synod-of-bishops for further information.
WARRAGUL HOSPITAL TOILETRY BAG DRIVE
Christmas is a time of giving, and this year, we are asking families to please donate an item for a toiletry bag (toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, brush, soap, sanitary pads, deodorant, etc). We aim to make a whole lot of 'Emergency Toiletry Bags' for the hospital so that the nurses can give these bags to the patients who have found themselves unexpectantly in hospital without these necessities. The people who have previously supplied these bags can no longer do this. We thought this would be a great way of helping out our local community. In this way, we are showing love for one another, just as Jesus told us to do. There will be a big box at the office clearly labelled, for your donations. Last day for donations is tomorrow Friday December 10th. Thank you for your help.
Last week we put on a fantastic School Concert. We really need to acknowledge our script writers: Liana Eerhard, Ethan Paul, Fenn Towb, Rubi Myrteza, Ava Harvey, Ava McCutcheon and Stephanie O’Neill. I am sure you all felt especially proud of yourselves as we certainly enjoyed presenting your work to the community. Thank you so much Mrs Raelee Hill for all your work as well. We really appreciated your direction and expert help. 'The Genie'...St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School 2021 concert is now viewable on Youtube.
https://youtu.be/kySK8EdNic8 Thank you Kathy Grass for filming the concert for us.
‘Mary and Baby Jesus’ felted statue Lucky Number Competition
The winner of the Lucky Number Competition was Bill McMahon. The second prize for the felted Border Collie Happiness Wand was won by Elisabeth Staberhofer. This was drawn before a live audience at school. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all those people who purchased a ticket to support our Church Restoration Fund. We raised $410. Special thanks go to Kathy Grass for creating the very special prizes for us.
In addition, our Mini Vinnies team raised $417.60 from selling their craft goods at the Yarragon Christmas Craft Market last weekend. Thank you Kathy for organising this and helping the students on the day to sell their goods.
We will celebrate our End of Year/Graduation Mass tomorrow in our church at 9am. This is where the school community gives thanks for the school year and sends off our Gr 6 students. Then on Mon Dec 13th at 6pm we will celebrate the Gr 6 Graduation in the Mary MacKillop Room. This is generally for the Gr 6 families. This will also be a COVID safe event so that QR codes and vaccination certificates will be needed. Monday 13th is the last day of school for the Gr 6 students.
Written School Reports will be available on PAM on Monday Dec 13th. If you have any questions about the reports you are welcome to make an appointment with your child’s class teacher in the last week of term. Printed reports are available on request.
Our latest Scholastic Book club orders will hopefully be delivered prior to Christmas, although as previously stated, there is no guarantee of delivery times by Scholastic.
If however it is received, we can hold your order at the office for parent collection throughout the day. Please ring Lucy or Taryn if this is something you would like us to consider.
Thanks for supporting our book club throughout this year.
LIBRARY BOOKS ARE NOW TO BE RETURNED
Our stocktake in our school library is about to begin and we request that you return any books you have from our school ASAP.
If you child tells you they cannot find a book on their overdue notice, please write a brief note and sign the notice, returning this to Michele Midgley at school. My hope is that these books will be found throughout our annual stocktake.
Thanks in advance.
Michele
2022 Life Education Program (Sexual Health Education) for Gr 5 & 6
The Sexual Health Education program called Talk About It is presented by specialist educators from Life Education Victoria and will be held on Monday 7th February and Tuesday 8th February, 2022. Talk About It is an age-appropriate personal development program for students in Years 5-6.
The program is divided into the following modules:
Years 5 & 6
- Who Am I?
- Welcome to Puberty
- Evolving Friendships
Grade 6 only
- The Journey of Human Reproduction
The Talk About It program is facilitated by specialist sexual health educators who work in partnership with the classroom teachers. The teaching framework is student-centred, interactive and ensures all content is delivered in a sensitive, factual and age-appropriate manner.
The Talk About It program is a new program that is delivered separately from the rest of the Life Education Victoria programs. The specialist teachers will visit our school for the two days to work solely with the Grade 5 and 6 students and their teachers. We understand that engaging in this program at the beginning of the school year fits really well with building and maintaining respectful relationships as well as understanding and respecting themselves and others as they enter or approach puberty. It also fits really well with our School Wide Expectations (SWE).
The cost of this program will be deducted from the Excursion Levy. It is considered to be an ‘incursion’ as it is held within the school grounds. Therefore, there is no additional cost on top of what is already included in the annual school fees. The cost of this incursion for Grade 5 students is $36 and for Grade 6 students it will be $40.
Mrs Janet Poelsma: At the end of this school year, Janet will retire after a rich and rewarding career spanning over 40+ years as a Primary Teacher in Gippsland. Janet has taught at various local schools in Newborough, Moe and Morwell. She started teaching at St Joseph’s in 1989 so that makes this year her 32nd year at our school. Janet thinks that St Joseph’s is the best school because of the dedicated teachers and the welcoming community. Janet has taught every grade level and prepared students for each of the Sacraments during her career.
We will certainly miss Janet’s presence on our teaching staff next year and we hope that she will visit us often. “We are incredibly grateful Janet for all that you have done for our community. We wish you all the very best”.
Mrs Carmen Rowlings has worked as an administration officer at our school for 19 years. She hasn’t worked much of this year as she has been sick and coping with cancer treatment. Actually she has been fighting cancer for over 8 years now and she has decided to ‘hang up her boots’ at the end of this year. We wish Carmen all the very best in her recovery and thank her for all her work at our school.
Mrs Sonia Lombardo: Sonia has been working at our school for nearly 7 years as an admin officer and more recently as a Learning Support Officer. Sonia loves helping our students so much that she has decided to become a teacher herself. She has been studying while she has been working for the last few years and next year she wants to dedicate more time to her study so she will also be finishing up at the end of the year. We thank Sonia for all her work with us and wish her all the best with her studies.
Students in Grades 3 to 6 are still required to wear masks indoors at school, unless a lawful exception applies. There are a number of lawful reasons for not wearing a face mask, including for staff and students who are unable to wear a face mask due to the nature of their disability, medical or mental health. Students do not need to wear masks outdoors.
Whilst not required, it is strongly recommended by the Victorian Chief Health Officer that students in Foundation to Grade 2 wear a face mask indoors at school.
Parents, guardians and carers are required to supply their child(ren) with an appropriate face mask that covers the nose and mouth. Thank you for your cooperation in this area.
We have a wonderful (Subarashii) day planned for our Japanese Day on Tuesday December 14th. Activities include origami, manga drawing, sumo socks, Japanese reading and music. Japanese has been a continual focus of ours this year and we have noticed the impact this learning has had on the student’s learning. Thank you (arigatou) Taylor Sensei for all your work and direction in this area. We so appreciate your help.
2022 Booklists are available on-line from Trafalgar Newsagency. www.booklists.com.au/trafalgarnews/ We request that you get your child’s booklist requirements at the Trafalgar Newsagency as it makes life in the classroom easier if each student has what the teacher has asked for. Sometimes the cheaper books are cheaper quality and we find that they don’t last very long. The last day for ordering is on 15th December 2021 and collection days are 27th and 28th January 2022 at Trafalgar Newsagency.
December
Mon 6th to Fri 10th SWIMMING for all grades
Fri 10th End of Year/Graduation Mass 9am
Mon 13th Last day for Gr 6
Gr 6 Graduation 6pm School
Tues 14th Japanese Day
Wed 15th Last day for students 1pm finish
Thurs 16th & Fri 17th Planning days for staff
2022
January
Fri 28th First day for the teachers
February
Tues 1st First day for all students
Wed 2nd Rest day for Foundation students
April
Fri 8th Last day of term 1
Mon 25th First day of term 1