What a fantastic day we had at the athletics carnival on Wednesday! It was wonderful to see so many students trying their best in all the events despite the warm weather. Special thanks to Megan Spencer for the smooth running of the day and the staff and parent helpers who turned up to assist. Thanks also to parents, grandparents and friends who came along to watch and support the students.

Our Foundation students will begin their first full week of school next week. Congratulations to all Foundation families on a great start to the year.

The welcome family barbeque was extremely well attended with over three hundred responses. It was a happy evening with many people catching up with friends and new families being welcomed into the school community. Thanks to the P and F for organising the catering as well as cooking it!

We held our first School Advisory Committee meeting yesterday where Mr McMahon gave an outline of his new leadership role as Digital Technology Leader. This is a new leadership role but one which we believe is necessary to keep us all up to date with the “latest but safest” in all things to do with digital technology.

We have taken the step to postpone the Year 6 camp for a few weeks due to the current bushfire emergency around Ballarat. The students will now go to Sovereign Hill from March 13^th to 15^th.

Please read the information regarding carline in the newsletter.

Kind regards,

Roslyn Joyner

Principal

2024

Term 1

Wednesday 31 January – Wednesday 27 March

Mon 4 March                                                 The Resilience Project Parents’ Webinar 6:30pm

Monday 11 March                                         Labour Day Public Holiday

Tue 12 – Wed 13 March                                Parent & Teacher Interviews

Wed 13 – Fri 15 March                                  Year 6 Sovereign Hill Camp (rescheduled)

Mon 18 – Wed 20 March                                Year 5 Camp Rumbug

Tuesday 19 March                                          St Joseph’s Day

Friday 22 March                                            Easter Raffle – special assembly at 2:30pm

Wednesday 27 March                                    Last day of Term 1 for students

Term 2

Monday 15 April – Friday 28 June

Wednesday 24 April                                       School Photos (new date)

Thursday 25 April                                           ANZAC Day Public Holiday

Friday 26 April                                                 Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 11 June                                              Pupil Free Day

Term 3

Monday 15 July – Friday 20 September

Wednesday 14 August                                    Pupil Free Day

Term 4

Tuesday 8 October – Tuesday 17 December

Monday 7 October                                          Pupil Free Day

Monday 4 November                                       School Closure Day

Sacrament of Reconciliation

A significant number of parents indicated that they would like a Parent/Child workshop, therefore we have decided to hold one on 13^th March at St. Ita’s Hall at 7pm. This workshop is not compulsory. Parents, you are your child’s primary educator, we are providing this workshop as an extra support.  At this workshop there will be time for faith sharing with your child, with the option to then share in a wider group, an activity to further assist your child for their first reconciliation, and time spent in the church, familiarising families with the ceremony and a mock reconciliation.

If you have any concerns or need more information, please contact Liz on 0497 278 540 or email: Warragul.sacraments@cdsale.org.au  or contact the Parish office  ph: 5623 1642

Ash Wednesday Mass

Lent

Who is this God?

Mark’s gospel gives the game away from the start – this is the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But what does that mean?

Jesus’ A Team: Peter, James, and John, have been privileged witnesses to much of Jesus’ ministry to this point, but still, it is not clear. Their leader, not only a powerful preacher, healer and prophet is something more: “Beloved Son” of the Creator. Wow!

Even after this Transfiguration experience (Mark 9:2-10) they don’t fully understand God or God’s beloved Son or the Good News message that is the Son’s mission. Transfiguration gives a tantalising glimpse of the Creator’s loving relationship with the Son, whose example and Good News in turn is about a close, all loving, Father.

God is unimaginable for us. Anything we say about God is simply an attempt to encapsulate that which is way beyond our understanding. How preposterous for us or anyone claiming to absolutely know or to understand the mind of God!

We have outgrown childish images of God as a long-bearded old man floating on white clouds with harp playing angels. Outgrown too the notion of a distant, vengeful God hurling lightning bolts at human transgressors.

Pope Francis challenges us to expand our thinking by allowing a new wisdom to shape the understanding of our faith, our world, and our images of God.

“At the end” Pope Francis teaches us, “we will find ourselves face to face with the infinite beauty of God (1 Cor 13:12) and be able to read with admiration and happiness the mystery of the universe, which with us will share in unending plenitude.” “Eternal life will be a shared experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take its rightful place”. (Laudate Si #243)

The bushfire season is upon us and normally runs from October until April.

As St. Joseph’s is located in a high-risk bushfire area, the school will be pre-emptively closed in the event that the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issues a Code Red Fire Danger Rating warning for the weather district in which this school is located (West and South Gippsland - Region). A decision is made at 12:00pm the day before if possible, and will not change regardless of changing weather conditions. If possible, three-days notice may be given to families about the closure. When a school is closed in response to bushfire risk, no one will be permitted on site. This is a part of our emergency management plan for St. Joseph's and every effort will be made to give you advanced warning of a closure. 

St Joseph's Warragul is committed to creating an environment where the safety, wellbeing and participation of all children and young people is paramount.

Please read through our Child Safety and Wellbeing policy.

Our Child Friendly version of our Child Safety and Wellbeing policy was completed last year. This version of our Child Safety and Wellbeing policy uses simple language and is easy for our students to follow. Students have had an opportunity to review this version of our policy in the first few weeks of the year. It is timely to read through the document with your family.

Thank you to the family members using our carline in a safe manner.

The carline on the left (see above - on the left) is a drop off/pickup and go area. Please do not park and exit your vehicle in this section. The parking spaces on the right of the carline are for parking and exiting of your vehicle. Staff help families across the pedestrian crossing each day, please do not stop your vehicle close to the crossing as this impedes the view of the crossing for other vehicles behind.  Continue to fill all spaces in the carline to ease the congestion on Burke Street. 

To ensure the safety of all children and family members, our carline speed limit is 10km/h. This includes exiting  after drop off. Please refrain from mounting the grass area to enter the carline and bypass cars waiting. Patience is key in maintaining safety.

For safety reasons, please refrain from driving up to the office/administration entrance alongside the fence line to drop off students. This is a no standing area. Any available spaces in the staff and visitor car park may be used. 

Any area on the school grounds is private property and the responsibility of the school. Following the directions of the staff on duty is a non-negotiable and aggressive or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated.

At the beginning of each school year, we remind parents and carers that it is time to review your child/ren's medical profile on PAM. Any changes in medical needs should be communicated to the school to ensure that we provide the most up-to-date care for our students. If emergency contact details have changed or emails, phone numbers need updating, please contact the office to provide the updates necessary. The most efficient way to provide these details to the office would be to email - info@stjwarragul.catholic.edu.au

If your child is affected by Anaphylaxis or has any allergies and requires an ASCIA Allergy Plan developed by your child's doctor, please provide information and a copy to the office. In addition, Asthma plans may need updating, please ensure that these are also current. If your child has medication stored at our school, please check with the office that the medication is still in date and there is ample supply. 

The webinar is on Monday 4th March from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Details about the webinar can be found on the images below.

Parents and Carer will need to register using the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtduiqqzIuGdaooQKIcqHK9NPVYmgqm9s6

Welcome to another year! A special welcome to all our new families!

Book Club

Term 1   Wednesday 31 January - Wednesday 27 March

Term 2   Monday 15 April - Friday 28 June

Term 3  Monday 15 July - Friday 20 September

Term 4  Tuesday 8 October - Tuesday 17 December

Zooper Dooper Thursdays!

Lunch Orders

• are every Wednesday and Friday
• can be placed using the Flexischools app
• are delivered to school for the first break at 11:30am
• can be placed until 11:00pm the night before from a full menu
• can be placed until 9:00am on Wednesday and Friday mornings from a limited menu

The lost property shelves can be found in the multipurpose room. 

Parents are most welcome to come and look in the tubs if students have lost any items of clothing, drink bottles etc...

 

Please note that if your child tests positive to Covid-19, it is strongly recommended that students:

• Who test positive to COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five (5) days;
• Should not attend school after five (5) days if still symptomatic;
• Who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school until their symptoms resolve;
• Parents, guardians or carers advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result.

To assist with limiting the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses, parents, guardians and carers should be strongly encouraged to ensure that their child(ren) remain at home if they are unwell, including if they have tested positive to COVID-19.

Welcome BBQ

Thanks to all the families who were able to join us for the welcome BBQ on Thursday 15 February, it was a great start to the year.

It was perfect weather and wonderful to see school staff and families mingling in a casual environment.

Big thanks to the P&F committee and other helpers on the night. 

Labels

Avoid having to replace your children’s things and help us reduce the lost property pile by clearly naming your child’s items.

To make this easy for parents and also raise some funds for the school, we have started a new fundraiser with ‘Stuck on You.’ Stuck on You offer personalised school products including labels, stamps, bento lunch boxes, drink bottles, bag tags and stationery.

Check out their products here

Please use our St Joseph’s fundraising code moPSTs0sQygQ at check out to ensure a commission on every order is returned to the Parents and Friends Committee.

Easter Raffle

Our annual Easter raffle is upon us and raffle tickets will be sent home with each child shortly.

Any Easter egg donations are welcome (big or small), as well as non chocolate Easter items (crafts etc.) to make up the prizes. We would be very grateful if you could send donations to your child’s classroom or to the office.

This is a great little fundraiser for the Parents and Friends group and prize day is always super exciting for the children.

Tickets (sold and unsold) and money are to be returned by Tuesday 19 March.

Raffle prizes will be drawn at a special assembly at 2.30pm on Friday 22 March, all welcome.

Join us on Facebook

We welcome all families to join our P&F Facebook page, a great place to ask any questions you might have and to engage with our school community - please search 'Parents and Friends of St Joseph's Primary School Warragul'.

Second Hand Uniforms

We have racks of clean second-hand school uniforms, available for a gold coin donation.

View these in the hall at assemblies or contact the P&F Committee on stjosephswarragulpandf@gmail.com or the school office.

P&F Meetings

P&F meetings are generally held on the first Friday of each month (except during school holidays) at 2.00pm (or 1.30pm on assembly days) at the school. Our next meeting is scheduled for Friday 1 March.  

If you would like to be involved, we would love to have you! Please reach out to us via email stjosephswarragulpandf@gmail.com, send us a message through our Facebook page or just turn up.

St Paul's Year 7 Information Evening