‘Chilling Out’

Don’t you wish sometimes that you had the time and space to just ‘chill out’ during the day?  Well that is what these beautiful children get to do.  During Lunch 1 and Lunch 2 our students have the opportunity to attend our Chillout space.  This is an area designed to just sit and play quiet games and puzzles, to draw, talk, relax on bean bags or build towers with blocks.  Whatever the children choose to do, it is done quietly and in a very relaxing environment. It is a beautiful spot to sit and listen to the students talk about their day or watch them engaging in imaginative play.

Tell Them From Me - Partners in Learning Survey

We would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Joseph’s Primary School. 

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You can leave the survey and return at another time if that is more suitable.

Last week we emailed and sent via sms to you the below link to be able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device: http://tellthemfromme.com/t4fs3

Thank you for taking time to complete this survey.

Celebrating Our Faith

This week we took time to pray to Saint Mary MacKillop. We celebrated the feast day of Mary MacKillop on Monday 8th August. Some key messages that we hold onto at St Joseph's are:

"Find happiness in making others happy".

"Never see a need without doing something about it".

"God gives me strength for what is necessary".

- Mary MacKillop

We are grateful to Saint Mary Mackillop, whose life inspires us to go out to make a difference.

The Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary

Monday 15th August is the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary. This day commemorates the belief that when Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, her body was "assumed" into heaven to be reunited with her soul.

Blessed is She, having completed the course of her earthly life, Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. Her assumption reminds us that heavenly glory is our Christian destiny. As we keep the end of life’s pilgrim journey before us, we join with Mary in praising the greatness of God.

We take time to pray to Mary and thank her for watching over us in all that we do.

Sacrament of Confirmation

A reminder to parents of students who are preparing to complete the Sacrament of Confirmation will need to be registered. A note with further information has been emailed to parents of Sacrament. 

Dates for your calendars and parent reminders are:

Workshop 1 - Tuesday 23rd August at 3.30pm - St Agnes’ Primary School

Workshop 2 - Thursday 25th August at 6.00pm - St Agnes’ Catholic Church 

Workshop 3 - Wednesday 31st August at 3.30pm - St Joseph’s Primary School      

Workshop 4 - Thursday 1st September at 6.00pm - St Peter’s Primary School          

Learning Together

Police Liaison Visit - Year 3 to 6

We're looking forward to welcoming Constable Wendy Hudson on Monday to talk with our students around cyber and personal safety. We extend an invitation for parents to attend. Please note the updated times for your child's session:

• 11:40am - 12:25pm -  Year 5 and 6 (Transition to High School, Bullying and Cyber Behaviour, Vaping, Graffiti and more).
• 12:25noon - 12:50pm -  Year 3 and 4 (Bullying and Cyber Behaviour).

Book Week

Each year since 1945 the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators.  At St Joseph’s, students will read a variety of books including the CBCA nominated books over the week.

On Friday 26th August from 1:15pm, parents and carers are invited to come in and share a story with their child. Parents and carers are encouraged to bring a favourite story from when they were a child. A variety of books will also be available within classrooms on this day to share.

Parents and carers are welcome to stay during Lunch 2, to read, play or bring a snack to enjoy with their child (we are a nut and allergy aware school). All are welcome to stay and attend our Friday prayer assembly at 2:20pm, hosted by our SRC students.

Innovation Grant Update - Future Anything Professional Learning

CREATE - Developing future Capabilities by fostering Relationships, developing Enterprising skills, activating student Agency through a Targeted and Empowering curriculum.

As part of our Innovation Grant, this week our staff participated in a professional learning experience facilitated by Nicole Dyson from Future Anything. Effective professional learning focuses on developing the core attributes of an effective teacher. It enhances teachers' understanding of the content they teach and equips them with a range of strategies that enable their students to learn that content. 

Nicole is a globally recognised expert and practitioner in project-based learning and student entrepreneurship and is the founder of Future Anything, which delivers award winning, curriculum aligned entrepreneurship programs for school students. She has repeatedly led the design and implementation of whole school changes to support future ready learning.

Nicole passionately believes that youth-led ideas have the power to bend the future, and works tirelessly to provide young people (and their educators) with the support, skills and space they need to take their ideas out of the classroom and into the real world.

Our Stage 3 (Year 5 and 6) team spent a further day with Nicole participating in a pilot program called Activate. Nicole worked with our teachers to create units of work that will use entrepreneurship as a vehicle to build the capacity of our students across six key future capabilities.