St Joseph's Primary School Trafalgar eNewsletter

Dear Families

Recently we had a wonderful Grandparents celebration at school. We invited our Grandparents to school to visit our classrooms, then we had a prayer service in our church and finished with afternoon tea in the Mary MacKillop room. Thank you to all those special people who visited our school. We love our grandparents and we thank God for them and the very important role that they play in our lives.

Book Fair

Last week we organised a School Book Fair. Thank you Emma Poore for planning and running the Fair. The school took over $2000 from the fair and a small amount of this will go to our library. The students enjoyed celebrating literacy.

Prayer for Ordinary Time

Lord, be with us in good times and bad;

in our highs and lows,

as we live these everyday routines of Ordinary Times.

Amen

Swimming

This week we have been conducting our annual swimming program. Thank you to Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for organising this program and thank you to the parents who have come to help. The students have worked hard at the pool and the teachers have been impressed with the growth. Well done!

Assembly

We have a weekly brief assembly on Monday afternoons at 3.15 where we sing the National Anthem and give out class and birthday awards. Additionally, we have two Friday afternoon assemblies in each term. This Friday the Gr 1/2 students will present their learning at Assembly. Everyone is welcome to join us in the Mary MacKillop Room at 3pm.

The Assumption Prayer Service

Next week on Tuesday August 15th our church celebrates The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day each year, Catholics celebrate the assumption of Mary into heaven.

The dogma of the assumption of Mary is ancient. In the early days of the Church, writings suggest that Mary did not die, or that her tomb was empty, just as Christ's was. There was debate over whether she physically suffered death. There remains disagreement over this matter to this day. But ancient sources agree that she was assumed into heaven. It wasn't until 1950 that Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of the Church, ex cathedra. Because of this proclamation, Catholics are required to accept this dogma as a matter of faith.

The Church teaches that Mary was without sin. She accepted God's will for her life and freely and perfectly obeyed. She served God, and followed her son, Jesus Christ. She was present at his death and resurrection.

As a just reward for her goodness and devotion, she was assumed into heaven where she resides today in the company of God, and all the saints.

Mary, like the saints, can hear our prayers. She has a special connection to Jesus Christ as His mother, and therefore we believe she can intercede for us.

The Virgin Mary remains one of the most important figures in the Catholic faith, as well as for most Christians around the world. All people are encouraged to follow her example and to emulate her devotion. Prayers, such as the Hail Mary, and the Hail Holy Queen are constantly recited by Christians, as well as the Rosary, which is a devotional prayer dedicated to Mary and her son, Jesus Christ.

We will be conducting a prayer service in our church on Tuesday at 3pm to honour Mary. Everyone is welcome to join us.

Book Week

We celebrate Book Week in week 7, ie Monday August 21st to Friday 25th. The theme this year is Read, Grow, Inspire. Our dress up day is Tuesday 22nd August. Everyone is invited to dress up in either a book character or something to do with the theme. We will start the day with a parade to show off our costumes, everyone is welcome to join us.

Mini Vinnies

We have a very positive and active team of student leaders who work hard in our school as Mini Vinnies.

SAUSAGE SIZZLE

The Mini Vinnies team conducted a Sausage Sizzle on Tuesday and they raised $262.50 for the Mary MacKillop Foundation. The money will go to support the Mary Mackillop Foundation which travels to rural and remote areas in third world countries and teaches children in these communities. Thank you for supporting this fundraiser.

TALENT SHOW

Our Mini Vinnies team are organising this year's TALENT SHOW. It will be on Tuesday August 29th at 2pm in the Mary MacKillop room. All students are encouraged to prepare and enter the Talent Show. This is a fundraising event, it costs $2 for each student to enter the Talent Show. If families come to watch the Talent Show the entry fee is $5 per family. If students would like to watch the Talent Show they will need to bring $2 to pay for entry. More information later in the term.

ANDREWS HOUSE TRAFALGAR

The Mini Vinnies team members are going to visit Andrews House and meet with the residents. We are visiting to present our donation of $300 to the residents. The Mini Vinnies team are keen to support local charities and places that would really benefit from our fundraising efforts. It's great to make a difference to the lives of local people! Thanks for your wonderful work Mini Vinnies!

May God continue to bless and guide us in our learning.

Trish Mulqueen

Principal

Because parenting doesn't come with instructions, SchoolTV is a wellbeing resource implemented at our school to help support you in the challenges of modern-day parenting relating to youth mental health and wellbeing. Parenting is a learning journey and SchoolTV supports families by providing credible information from trusted sources with practical strategies to help alleviate some of the challenges being faced by young people today.

Watch video interviews with leading wellbeing specialists and browse a library of resources. Each topic is accompanied by factsheets, podcasts, books, articles, apps and other videos.

This award-winning resource helps families build relationships, foster connections, enable understanding and break down barriers to navigate a pathway towards better mental health and wellbeing for young people. It will assist you in starting those conversations on topics that can sometimes be awkward or difficult to tackle.

Parents and caregivers are the greatest influence on a young person's life and SchoolTV focuses on empowering confident parenting.

Explore SchoolTV today!

I believe that RESILIENCE is something we need to grow in our children. Please find time to explore this topic on School TV. It really is worth the time invested. Here is the link:

https://trafalgar.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/resilience

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 October 11^th . Church and Parish connection was discussed. P&F activities were reported to the Committee and the great work of the P&F was acknowledged especially with the recent successful Comedy Night. Child Safety is a standing agenda item and our continual work with OH&S provides a safe school for everyone. The staff’s commitment and work in the Social Emotional Learning space helps staff to meet individual student needs better. The Committee workshopped the idea of what successful Parent Education looks like. The idea of zoom meetings for busy parents was suggested. The Committee felt the Father’s Day activity at school was successful and wondered about doing more things like that. The idea of Dads doing lawn bowls with their kids was suggested.

If you have any good ideas for parent education, please feel comfortable to come and have a chat with me. I am really interested in supporting parents better in this space.

If you would like anything discussed at the School Advisory Committee, please see one of our members.

The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence will be held on Friday 18 August 2023. The theme for 2023 is 'growing connections'. It supports the research findings that strong school community connections and social skills are protective factors in the prevention of bullying and help enable positive, help-seeking behaviours in students.

Our school will be supporting this National Day of Action by encouraging everyone to wear orange to raise awareness about stopping bullying. We will be having important conversations at school about bullying with the strong message of 'If your friends tell you to stop doing something, you must stop doing it". We encourage families to have these important conversations as well. Together we can create awareness and stop this unacceptable behaviour!

Gavin Chatelier

We warmly welcome Mr Gavin Chatelier to our school staff. Gavin is a qualified counsellor and is employed under the National Schools Chaplaincy Program. Gavin has been working as a counsellor for over twenty years, he is also a professional singer. Gavin is married and has seven children and eleven grandchildren. He was born in India and came to Australia before he turned one year old. Fun Fact: Gavin was born in India, grew up in Australia and has a French name.

Gavin's work will support our learning in the social emotional domain. He can work with individual students, small groups of students, with teachers and also families. If you would like your child to have a chat individually with Gavin you can ring the school and we will send out a consent form for you to complete. Sometimes the teachers will request that Gavin supports small groups of friends as well. We are very lucky to have this extra demension to our social learning at school. Welcome Gavin!

Sabrina Shaw

Sabrina works as a Learning Support Officer at our school and she is having a baby. Last week, we organised a special Baby Shower for her with the senior students as she works with these students. Emma Poore (Learning Support Officer) organised a photo booth for the students to have photos with Sabrina, we had Guess how big Sabrina's bump is and Guess the day and time the baby will be born competitions. It was lots of fun. Here are some photos from the Baby Shower:

Rubbish Warriors Competition

We are running two class competitions: one next week, in week 6 and another competition in week 7. We are encouraging healthy and delicious food and drink options at school. We are focussing on reducing rubbish in our food wrappings. At the end of recess and lunchtimes, each class will collect their rubbish from their food and put it into a transparent plastic biodegradeable bag. At the end of the week, the student leaders will collect the bags and compare the rubbish. The class with the least amount of rubbish will win the competition. The prize is healthy yummy smoothies on Monday for everyone in the winning class.

So let's think carefully about what we eat and also about how we package that food. Less food wrappings in our rubbish is good for our environment.

Comedy Night

Our Comedy Night is on Friday the 1st of September from 7pm at the Trafalgar Bowls Club.
Tickets are now available to purchase by going to: comedyforacause.net/STJP
Tickets cost $40 each, plus a booking fee of $2.75.
The show will feature four professional comedians. Posters will be going up soon showing the line up and the details of the night.
We are hoping to organise pizza for dinner for an extra $10 per head, this option will be available on CDF pay when we have finalised the details.
We are planning to have some games and raffles, including the popular $2 toss!
The Comedy Night will be a late night and may include some mild coarse language, we recommend that it is best suited to people 18 years and older.
Being close to Father’s Day, it would be a great, local night out for Dads, Grandpas, uncles and mates! As well as Mums, Grandmas, Aunties and friends too!
It should be a fantastic night! We hope families will support the Comedy Night and reach out to their wider family and friends networks to extend the invitation and information.

National Day of Action Against Bullying

Friday the 18th of August is the National Day of Action Against Bullying. Students are invited to wear orange to school to create awareness around this important cause 'Say No to Bullying!'. Tshirts advertising the National Day of Action are available for purchase at the school office.
Thank you to the families who have supported this day by purchasing the shirts and a big thank you to school family business, Blended Kreations, for making all the amazing shirts for us!

Healthy Lunches

We continue to offer healthy salad roll lunches on Wednesdays though Bella’s Bakehouse. Please place your orders on CDF pay by noon each Tuesday and a freshly made salad roll will be delivered for lunch on Wednesday. ($1.20 from each roll goes directly to the P&F fundraising effort).

Father’s Day Stall

Father’s Day Stall will be held on Thursday the 31st of August at 2pm. Families will be able to order gifts on CDF pay soon.

Uniform Shop

If anyone has a stash of brown paper carry bags from Coles or Woolies at home and wants them to be reused, please pass them to us as they are 'just right' for uniform orders to be delivered to families. So please save your reusable brown paper carry bags and we'll put them to great use. Thank you!

In week 6 on Wednesday August 16th we are running our Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews. Please note that Gr 3 Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews will be taking place the following Wednesday, that is 23rd August, this is to ensure that both class teachers will be present at the interviews. This is part of our reporting process. It is an opportunity for teachers and families to discuss the Semester 1 Report and to talk about how teachers can best meet your child/ren’s needs. Conversations are scheduled for 15 minutes. Families will be given the opportunity to chose to have the interviews either at school or via Google Meet. We ask you to book your Interview online through PAM, this function is available now on PAM. When accessing PAM please click on the link Parent Teacher Interviews and follow the prompts. Families who have regualr SAEP (Student Adjustment Evaluation Plan) or PSGs (Parent Support Group) Meetings will not need to book an interview time as they will have an opportunity to discuss their child/ren's reports in week 5.

STORYTIME for the toddlers is on a Wednesday morning 9.15 to 9.45am in room 5 (not the Discovery Centre). Storytime aims to provide families with a great literacy session, as well as having fun singing and dancing together. All families are welcome, not just school families. So if you have any friends or neighbors who have a 4 year old child, please invite them. It is lots of fun AND LEARNING!