eNews Term 1, Week 9, 2024

Dear parents, carers, teachers, and students,

Thank you to everyone who attended the St Joseph’s School AGM, held on Monday, March 25th, 2024, in the Middle Years building.

The 2023 School Performance/AGM Report was presented. It can be accessed on the St Joseph’s School website at [School_Performance_Report_2023.pdf].

The St. Joseph's School community continues to seek nominations for the 2024/25 School Board. Serving on the Board is an important opportunity to contribute to our school's success. The School Board plays a critical role in shaping school policy and making strategic decisions that affect our students, staff, and overall school environment, such as approving policies and consultation about pupil-free days and special events. Board membership requires only seven meetings annually, ensuring a balanced time commitment alongside your other priorities.

Please contact our current School Board members below to ask about their role or any questions. I encourage all interested community members to nominate themselves for the School Board by contacting Leesa Angove in the administration office.

President: Fr Philip Marshall
Principal: Mrs Ros Oates
Chairperson: Mr Darren Hollitt
Pastoral Parish Council Representative: Mrs Deb Holland
School Staff Representative: Mrs Nicki Clifford
School Board Members: Mr Jamie Mulcahy, Mr Josh Strauss, Mrs Leanne Maxwell and Mr Sean Ching. 

For more information about the role of the School Board, please visit the Catholic Education South Australia website: https://schoolboards.cesa.catholic.edu.au.

• Teacher Professional Development: Our dedicated teachers will collaborate with Dylan Evans, a curriculum planning specialist from the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), to enhance and refine our curriculum planning for the benefit of all students as we move into Term 2.
• School System Upgrade: The administrative team will be supporting the Data Validation and upgrade process for our new eSIS Replacement Project, which will replace our current student management system with a more advanced online platform.

We are partners with AERO!

1. Learn: Discover the best ways to implement highly researched and effective teaching methods in schools to improve learning.
2. Improve: Provide direct support and resources to improve teaching practices and student learning outcomes.
3. Share: Develop examples of successful implementation that other schools can learn from.

Kindest regards,
Mrs Ros Oates
Principal

Staff News

Congratulations to our Reception teacher, Victoria Johnston and Brendon Smart, on the exciting news that they are expecting their first child. Victoria will begin her leave towards the end of Term 2. Please join me in congratulating Victoria and her family.

Earlier this year, Debbie Kuchel, an Education Support Officer employed in our school, received the news of a breast cancer diagnosis. Debbie is now bravely recovering from surgery and continuing her journey with healing treatments.  During this time, let's hold Debbie and her loved ones close in our hearts and prayers. May they find comfort and peace in the love that surrounds them, and may Debbie be blessed with a quick recovery. 

This week, Mr Luke McGlew announced his resignation as our maintenance person and school bus driver as of Monday, 8th April. Mr. McGlew has served our school community for the past 12 months. We are grateful for his dedication and service to our school and wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.

New smoke-free and vape-free laws

From 1 March 2024, new laws called the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products (Smoking Bans) Amendment Regulations 2023 (under section 52(2) of the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997) ban smoking and vaping in a variety of public outdoor areas in South Australia. 

 
Smoking and vaping are banned in all public areas of ‘early childhood services’ and ‘education and children’s services’ facilities and within 10 metres of the boundary of these premises. This means no smoking or vaping is allowed anywhere on school grounds, even within 10 metres of the school fence.

This new rule applies to all childcare centres, preschools and schools to keep the air clean and healthy for everyone.

REMINDERS 

• Holy Thursday March 28th - Mass of The Lord’s Supper 7pm.
• Good Friday March 29th - Stations of the Cross 10am.
• Good Friday- Solemn Service 3pm.
• Easter Vigil Saturday Mass - March 30th at 7.30pm. 
• Easter Sunday Mass - March 31st at 11am.

• Loss and damage: Unfortunately, valuable items brought to school are more prone to being broken, lost, or stolen. This can be upsetting for students and cause disruptions to the learning process.
• Sharing and equality: We encourage students to share and participate equally in activities. Bringing personal equipment can sometimes lead to control over games and the exclusion of others.
• School resources: St. Joseph's provides various equipment for outdoor games, drawing, and arts and crafts activities during playtimes. This ensures everyone can access the same resources and reduces disappointment if a personal item gets lost, damaged, or temporarily finds its way onto the school roof.

SPORTS DAY

Please note, all students being collected by parents or carers must be signed out on sports day. Students who will walk home after sports day need this communicated to their class teacher prior to sports day or a hand written note can be handed to the teacher on the day.

Thank you for your support with this process that is in place for the safety of all students.

HOUSE DAY

On Tuesday, 26th March we held our House Day. Students came to school in their house coloured tops and sports uniforms. There were activities at break times led by the 2024 House Captains.
All students have been placed in one of the four sports day teams; MacKillop (red), Crowley (green), Sturt (blue) and Edwards (yellow). If you are unsure of your child’s team please see your child’s class teacher. If your child does not have a plain team coloured t-shirt or it is now too small, they can be purchased from Grandison’s in the Main Street.

Year 3 have been busy learning all sorts of things this term. We have been focussing on Australia and our traditions, Indigenous art, rocks in Science, our social and emotional well being in Health, lots of number activities in Mathematics and lots of NAPLAN prepartion in English and Mathematics.

We did take time out to relax and exercise when we participated in an AFL and Rugby Clinic organised by Mr Law. We had heaps of fun and maybe identified a few up and coming AFL and Rugby stars!

The Year 3 Team.

This Term, the Year 5 & 6 students have been rehearsing a play and learning songs on the story about Jesus and his story up until his crucifixion on the cross. Lead by Ms Liebich, the students spent weeks practicing lines and songs to perform to the whole school over two days. All the students did a fantastic job and enjoyed performing in front of their peers and families.

Thank you to all of our parents/carers who joined us for refreshments, including coffee/tea and hot cross buns, in the Auditorium after the performance. 

On Wednesday, March 20th our school had a Celebration Day honouring St Patrick's Day, St Joseph's Day and Harmony Day. To begin the day, there was a whole-school Mass led by the Year 5 students in the Auditorium. Students were also invited to participate in a Free Casual Day and to raise money for Project Compassion, families could choose to order a special sausage sizzle lunch.

On Friday, 15th March, St Joseph's played Unity College in the first round of the School Sport SA 5/6 Boys T20 cricket. After winning the toss, our Captain Archer Rowe elected to bowl first. We bowled really well and our fielding was spot on as we took 4 wickets in the first 5 overs. Unity College were all out in the 18th Over for a total of 47 runs. Runs were hard to get with a thick grass outfield, however, Unity couldn't take our wickets. Our batters were retired after facing about 2 overs to give everyone a chance to bat. In the 12th over we passed Unity's score which means the team move forward into the second round. We played to the end of the 20 overs and finished with 69 runs.

Best Bowler - Archer Rowe - 3/1 off 2 overs.
Best Batter - Zaxton Sward - 12 (15) not out.

The team would like to thank the parents and carers who came to watch and support the team, especially Matthew Gates who scored the game.

Sporting Schools Grant

We have been fortunate to be successful in getting a grant through Sporting Schools this term. This grant has allowed us to have 4 sessions of gymnastics for all our Reception and Year 1 students. MissFIT Movement have visited our school each Tuesday over the last 2 weeks providing a session on Aerobic Gymnastics and a session on Artistic Gymnastics. There are 2 more sessions before the end of term for students to look forward to.