25 October 2023

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Parents & Guardians

Welcome to Week 4                                                     

Tomorrow evening, we will be hosting our annual Swimming Carnival at the Southside Pool.  This year we are encouraging our students and their families to sit in their MacKillop, Daly and Leahy house groups.  We will be starting the carnival with some war cries while all the students are present.  After this, we will be holding all of the 25m lower school events and a novelty staff versus parents relay before progressing to the Upper School events in the 50m pool.

Due to the timing of the event with many of the younger students heading home early, we will be hosting a special presentation at Monday’s Whole School Assembly to acknowledge the 9yrs – 12yrs Swimming Age Champions and overall House Champion in the Multi-Purpose Area at 8:35am.

Thanks to the Parents & Friends Association and the Joey’s staff that helped host a wonderful Prep Orientation Day last Thursday.  It was great to welcome so many new families and students to our school community.  Feedback for the day was extremely positive with our current Prep students enjoying a day in Year 1 and the current Year 1 class enjoying the day with their Year 6 buddies.  The day was filled with excitement and anticipation for the upcoming 2024 school year.

Just a quick reminder that OSHC is not in operation this Friday due to a shortage of staff.  This will also be the case for the final Friday of the school year, December the 1^st as the staff will be required to attend a school function.

Confirmation of Enrolment Forms (green) need to be completed and returned to Megan Crosthwaite in the office as soon as possible.  These forms allow us to plan our 2024 staffing and budget as accurately as possible.  These forms also allow us to have the most up-to-date information and ensure that we are able to offer our community the best support possible.  Please make this a priority.  If you are not intending to return to Joey’s in 2024, forms still need to be completed and returned.

Finally, this Friday among other things is World Teacher’s Day.  At St Joseph’s, we choose to celebrate the important roll that all of our school staff play in the lives of our students.  I would like to take this time to thank my wonderful staff for their dedication to their craft and the continued growth of our school community.  As I mentioned at last week’s Prayer Assembly, the human element being the students, parents, grandparents and staff is what makes Joey’s a lovely place to be.

This week I am attempting to publish a comprehensive list of dates for the remainder of the school year.

Don’t Forget….

• SJPA Swimming Carnival. Thursday 26^th October
• Socktober/Day for Daniel/World Teacher’s Day. Friday 27^th October
• All Saint Day. Wednesday 1^st
• All Souls Day. Thursday 2^nd
• Melbourne Cup. Tuesday 7^th
• P&F AGM. Thursday 9^th
• Remembrance Day. Saturday 11^th November
• Final Board Meeting for 2023. Tuesday 14^th
• Semester 2 Performing Arts Assembly. Monday 20^th November
• Presentation Night/Christmas Concert. Thursday 23^rd November
• Semester 2 Academic Awards. Monday 27^th November
• Semester 2 Report Cards posted to Parent Lounge. Wed 29^th
• Year 6 Graduation Mass. Wednesday 29^th November
• End of Year Mass/Term 4 concludes. Friday 1^st December

Kindest Regards
Bernard Fitzgerald
Principal - St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Park Avenue

St Joseph’s 2023 School Improvement Priorities:

• Prayer Life
• Learning Dispositions
• Increased Learning Gain & Achievement

RELIGIOUS MATTERS

29th Sunday Ordinary Time
The question about paying taxes.
Matthew 22:15-20

Different View – A simple question?

This gospel passage is sometimes interpreted as Jesus’ endorsement of the Christian responsibility to state authorities. It has been interpreted as affirming the obligation to pay taxes and participate in the processes of government. In fact, Jesus neatly avoided the direct question put to him and never gave a response to the question of paying taxes. Rather, he made the question a much broader one and reminded people that their first obligation was to God, not the state. It is an excellent example of the need for critical interpretation of scripture. A simple, literal reading of this text leads us to drawing simple, literal conclusions about whether or not we should be paying taxes.

@Liturgy Help – Greg Sunter

Socktober – Crazy Sock Day

Catholics and in fact, all global citizens have been called by Pope Francis to answer God’s invitation to love him and our neighbours.

Catholic Missions gives us the opportunity to answer this call and to be a community of missionary disciples, people of action.  October is Mission Month in the Catholic church and this year, Joeys is actively supporting this initiative.

If your family is able, you can donate using the link below:

Crazy Sock Day is planned for this Friday, October 27 and will be our culminating activity for Socktober.  On this day, which is also Day for Daniel, students can wear red as well as their craziest socks for a gold coin donation.

Liturgical Celebrations Coming Up

*SJPA – St Joseph’s Park Avenue
*OLHC – Our Lady Help of Christians church (next to St Joseph’s, Park Avenue)
*MPA – Multipurpose Area (Basketball court)

PARISH NEWSLETTER

Elizabeth Carter
Assistant Principal Religious Education

Day for Daniel

This Friday is Day for Daniel. Students and staff are encouraged to wear red.

This is a day that is annually recognised throughout Australia, honouring the memory of Daniel Morcombe. All Australians on this day are asked to Wear Red, Educate and Donate. A day where schools, early learning centres, businesses and the community come together to raise awareness of child safety issues.

Educators, parents and carers are encouraged to start a conversation about personal safety with children and young people. At Joey’s, in-class students will be working through safety lessons.

This year, Joey’s will not be raising money for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation; instead, we will raise awareness by wearing red.

Please follow the link below to the Daniel Morcombe website for access to fabulous free resources:

CLASSROOM NEWS

Yr 2

Hello everyone! We are the Year 2 students, and we're excited to share with you all the incredible adventures we've had during Term 4 at school. It's been a few full-on weeks of learning and having tons of fun. Join us as we take you through some of the most exciting moments and lessons we've experienced!

Year 2 isn't just about fun and games; it's also about learning important skills like math. We've become math superheroes, solving addition and subtraction worded problems, measuring the area and capacity of objects and shapes using informal units, and chance and probability.  We have also been learning about collecting data and mapping the data on graphs. It's been a real challenge, but it's made us feel super smart!

In English, we have been dedicated to the art of persuasive writing! We have been using strong emotive language to attempt to persuade the audience to agree with our point of view.

We have been having fun exploring Earth’s resources.  This included making butter to see how we can use earth’s resources to make other things (cow / milk / cream / butter).  We also learnt how precious our water is and that it evaporates, we saw this through our science experiment ‘Magic Water’.  One of our assessments is to make a Claymation to show how we can save water.

Year 2 has been an incredible journey full of new experiences and exciting challenges. We've made new friends, dived into books, solved math mysteries, took a trip back to the past looking a range of technology, practiced our persuasive skills and explored Earth’s resources. We can't wait to see what Year 3 has in store for us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Congratulations to the following students who will celebrate their birthday this week.  They are: Harper C (Yr 5), Lilah K (Yr 5), Stella K (Yr 3), Ashtyn S (Yr 1), Isla S (Prep), Lexianna C (Yr 1) and Jacob Wall (Yr 5).

Have a great day.

JOEYS GLALACTIC ENCOURAGEMENT AWARDS

This week, the Encouragement Awards for Joey’s Touch goes to the following students:  Harrison B, Cody P, Reuben B, Saige L, Addison S, Adam G, Sonny K, Sienna B, Isabella H, Nate B, Ryan H, Harrison M, Braxtyn P, Kiara C, Aleeya H, Madilynn H, Audrey B, Siarra R, Emily-Rose E, Millie W and Xavier H.

Congratulations to all these students.

IMPORTANT OSHC INFORMATION- SERVICE CLOSURE FRIDAY 27 OCTOBER 2023

Hello Families,

Due to staffing OSHC will be closed Friday 27 October 2023. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind Regards,
The SJPA OSHC Team

BOOK SALE

Preloved Books

Sunday 12 November
St Joseph’s Cathedral (outdoor shelter)
10:30am – 1:00pm
Bargain prices – Great Christmas Gifts

DRAKES SUPA IGA

Drakes Fundraiser for St. Joseph's Cathedral

I thank you for your support of this project which has raised over $40,000, of which the school community has played an important role.  Please continue to support the Cathedral by shopping at DRAKES using your key tag and receiving the benefits.

If you have not been part of this fundraiser you are invited to get a key tag from your local School or Church and shop at your local Drakes, one cent in every dollar you spend will go to the Cathedral.  No Fuss, only benefits.

Hoping to see you at Drakes 

Stay Safe

Shirley Hopkins,
Co-ordinator, Drakes Fundraiser for St Joseph's Cathedral