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Welcome to the start of Autumn. Our foundation students are settling into school life really well. Here they are pictured at school:
Sacrament of Reconciliation
One of the most important things that we do in a school year, is to prepare students for the Sacraments. There are seven Sacraments in our church (Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders and Annointing of the Sick). At school, we prepare students for Reconciliation in Gr 3, Eucharist (First Holy Communion) in Gr 4 and Confirmation in Gr 5 or 6. This year we have 12 students who are preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The parents have already attended a parent education evening in Warragul and the families have attended the Commitment Mass in our church last Saturday, where Fr Bernard welcomed them as part of the parish family.
Other Reconciliation preparation sessions include:
Thurs Mar 2nd Reconciliation Parent & Child Workshop Warragul 4pm or 7pm
Thurs Mar 16th Second Reconciliation Parent & Child Workshop Warragul 4pm or 7pm
Wed Mar 29th SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION 7pm our church All families are welcome.
Lent
Ash Wednesday started the church season of LENT. During Lent we reflect on our lives and try to change the things we need to change in order to lead more meaningful and purposeful lives. This prayer is taken from The Australian Children's Prayer Book and it is simple and meaningful. You might like to share it with your family. I find reading a simple, short prayer before a special meal can be really positive.
LENT PRAYER
Loving God, as we begin this season of Lent
we pray that over these 40 days,
we will open our minds and hearts
to recognise and respond to the needs of others.
Help us to be kind to those around us,
especially friends and family.
Through prayer, fasting and giving to those in need,
may we be ready to enter more fully
into the days of Holy Week. Amen
Athletics Program
We have been lucky enough to acquire the services of an expert athletics coach for a 4 week program. This program is well underway and will finish next week. It is funded through the Sporting Schools Program. Our expert coach helps the students and teachers to prepare for our Athletics Carnival which will be on Tuesday March 21st at the Joe Carmody Track. The students will compete against each other in our Sport Color Teams (red, blue, yellow and green). This is such a fun family day. Taryn is already thinking and planning for it. If you are able to help in any way on the day please let Taryn know. We really need lots of help on the day for the timetable to run well.
Icy-poles are available on Fridays in Terms 1 & 4 $1 each
May God continue to guide us and bless us in our learning together
Trish Mulqueen
Principal
Creative Japanese at St. Joseph’s Trafalgar
Susan Taylor teaches Japanese at our school. In this example she asked the students about this photo.
I asked a student to take a few pictures around the school. Then I popped them onto slides with a ‘scenario’. We worked as a whole class to discuss possible responses to this scenario, aiming for at least 5 options. If they needed a word or two then I would jot it down, but they had to add it to the sentence themselves. I would help them move the word order and add grammar bits as needed, while encouraging the creative ‘have a go’ attitude.
Next students reworked the scenario in pairs, writing sentences on whiteboards. (I roamed and helped with word order/grammar).They practised reading their sentences out loud, first with the whiteboards, then without them.
The whole class was buzzing with student-created Japanese.So much fun!
Next week I plan to do the same activity but to use SpeakUp! to record their work orally.
Susan Taylor
Parents and Friends are focussing on providing healthy lunches this year to encourage and promote healthier lifestyle choices. Our first lunch day is scheduled for Wednesday the 15th of March. We will be offering salad wraps, salad rolls, fruit cups and yoghurt. Families can order lunches through CDF pay from Friday.
Regular lunch Orders
We are also hoping to establish a regular lunch order arrangement with Bella's Bakehouse to supply healthy lunches for students. More information will come out as these arrangements are finalised. Stay tuned!
Parents and Friends are excited to announce we will run an Easter Raffle this term. It will be drawn on the last day of school, Wednesday April the 5th.
To ensure our raffle is a success, we kindly ask families to please donate Easter themed items to go towards the prizes. A box for donations will be in the office from Monday.
Raffle tickets will be available on CDF pay soon. Tickets will be $2 each and you will be able to purchase books of 10 for $20. Bought books of tickets will be sent home with students. Please include name and phone number when filling out the tickets. If you have sold tickets to grandparents, for example, we ask that you please add the name of the student we can send the prize home with on the ticket. We don’t want anyone to miss out!
Parents and Friends appreciates the support of families in helping make our activities a success. We are hoping another fantastic year will enable us to purchase new playground equipment for our students to enjoy!
Uniform Shop
This year Brianna Maynard is running the unform shop. She will aim to be at the Uniform Shop each Thursday from 3pm to 3.30pm if you want to buy anything. Alternatively, you could complete the order form electronically on CDFpay and then Brianna will fill the orders on the Thursday and pass the order to your child at school.
School Fees have been generated and sent to families. Please remember we are a 'not for profit' organisation and we need to charge school fees as we don't get as much government funding as the local government schools do. We need to charge fees to make up the shortfall and to be able to run the educational programs that we provide. Thank you for attending to your school fees. The school's preferred payment option is to set up a direct debit regular payment, please talk to Lucy in the office about this. Please see below this year's School Fee Schedule.
2023 School Advisory Committee Members are: Marja Jamieson, Brett Hicks, Scott McCartin, Lauren Baldassa, Ashley Treyvaud, Taryn Maxwell-Garratt, Fr Bernard Buckley and Trish Mulqueen. The Committee met on Wednesday May 17th 2023. Church and Parish connection was discussed. The Committee felt it was important to try to support local charities and community projects were possible. P&F activities were reported to the Committee and the great work of the P&F was acknowledged. Child Safety is a standing agenda item and the new School Bus Stop was discussed. The Committee reflected on our school’s s vision statement and discussed how we live this vision out. Members reinforced our catholic core and values and highlighted the work of the Mini Vinnies team. Members highlighted the importance of ‘having a go’ in learning.
If you have any questions/wonderings that you would like the School Advisory Committee to consider please see one of our members and they will put it on the agenda.
School Photographs for 2023 - St Joseph's School, Trafalgar
Annual school photos will be taken on Tuesday, 14 March 2023 by Spargo Photography.
Students are to be in full Summer school uniform.
PRE-ORDER ONLINE (orders close at 5:00 pm on the day prior)
See the packages available and place your pre-order online.
To place your order Go to our website or scan the QR code;
Select> School Photo Pack Orders
Enter your School Access Key: 7WVG59YR
Select the pack you want and complete the form.
Sibling photos are available for families with multiple children attending the school.
Sibling photos must be ordered online before 5pm the day prior.
** A complimentary family/sibling photograph is available for families who order an individual pack for 3 for more children at the same school. To be eligible, you must order all the individual packs first and then add the family photograph to the same shopping cart. The discount will be automatically applied.
Place your order online before 5pm the day prior, you do not need to return any paperwork.
If you have any inquiries, please contact us on (03) 5942 5234
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.
The tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN tests are just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process; they do not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance.
NAPLAN tests also provide schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working and whether young Australians are meeting important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.
The NAPLAN information for parents and carers brochure provides information specifically for parents and carers. This brochure is available in 16 languages see the website for this information.
Students in Grades 3 & 5 will be completing these tests in the week of Wednesday March 15th to the 22nd of March.
2023
March
Thurs 16th Reconciliation Parent & Child Workshop
Warragul 4pm or 7pm
Fri 17th AFL clinic (all classes)
3. Interest Based Learning
Mon 20th St Joseph's Feast Day Prayer Service church 3pm
Tues 21st School Athletics Carnival
Wed 22nd Storytime 9.15am
School Advisory Committee 5.30pm
Fri 24th AFL clinic (all classes)
4. Interest Based Learning Program
3pm Lenten Prayer Service in church
Mon 27th Gr 6 Young Leaders Day Melbourne
Tues 28th & Wed 29th Life Ed Program Healthy Harold
Wed 29th Sacrament of Reconciliation 6pm church
Fri 31st 5. Interest Based Learning Program
April
Mon 3rd Easter Carnival 3.30 to 5pm at school
Wed 5th Last day of Term 1.
Easter Dramatization in church 2.30pm
School finishes 3.30pm
Thurs 6th Pupil Free day. Staff Professional Learning
Fri 7th GOOD FRIDAY
Mon 24th HOLIDAY
Tues 25th ANZAC DAY holiday
Wed 26th First Day of Term 2
May
Mon 22 to 26 Catholic Education Week
June
Tues 6th Andrew Chinn (music composer) visit & concert
Mon 12th King's Birthday Holiday
Wed 21st Last day of term 2 for students
Thurs 22& Fri 23 Staff PD days in Melbourne (student free days)