School Newsletter

On Saturday March 25 we opened our school to the wider community for our Come and Play Day.  It was wonderful to see so many of our school community, as well as families we had not yet met, taking advantage of the beautiful weather to come into the school grounds and utilise our fantastic new nature and adventure play space.

Days like this do not ‘just happen’ they take organisation and support. Thanks to Maria Apostolou who provided marketing for this event, and staff members who assisted on the day. This was the first of our Parents and Friends supported school events and many thanks goes to Rebekah Walton, Laura Morris, Graziella Panazzolo and Katie Downie who formed the organising committee and those who came along and assisted on the day, particularly with the sausage sizzle, coffee and drink stations. I would also like to thank Nic Benedetto of 3 Little Pigs Gourmet Meat Store for kindly donating the sausages, and Vandi Huynh, manager at Highland Bakehouse, for the generous donation of bread.

Helena’s last day at St Joseph’s School will be Thursday 6 April. Helena has facilitated a tremendous service to the school community for many years to ensure students are able to purchase delicious food for recess or lunch, either by order or through across the counter sales. We wish Helena all the very best for her next chapter.

In conjunction with the School Board, we have been exploring models for how we can continue to provide a quality canteen service in a cost-effective way. As you will be aware, costs have risen significantly over recent years, and volunteers, who help offset the costs, are much harder to come by.  Whilst we are not looking to make financial gain from the canteen, we must ensure that the service can cover its own costs, and this has not been the case in recent years.

We are currently looking to outside providers to deliver a lunch service for our students going forward. This has not been finalised as yet, but we will provide an update via Skoolbag as soon as we can in readiness for next term.  We would also like to provide some over the counter sales at recess for our students, but this can only be made possible if we have volunteers.  Please contact Jasmine in the front office if you could commit to providing over the counter sales from 11-11:30am one day per week or more.

Please note that our school staff will be engaging in professional learning on Tuesday next week and therefore our students do not start back after the Easter long weekend until Wednesday 12 April. 

Teaching staff will be focusing on the use of our learner management system, SEQTA, for assessment and reporting as our Semester 1 reports will be generated on SEQTA for the first time. Teaching and ESO staff will also engage in learning around positive behaviour intervention with Michael Lincoln, CESA Engagement and Wellbeing Education Advisor.

This week marks a very important time in the Catholic Church liturgical year as we transition from Lent into the season of Easter. The students and teachers have been preparing and sharing beautiful liturgies which depict the events of Holy Week in an accessible and powerful way. Starting on Easter Sunday, we will enter the season of Easter which is the pinnacle of the liturgical cycle – a period of 50 days where Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus three days after his crucifixion. We will celebrate this event together upon our return to school next Wednesday.

I wish all our families a blessed Easter and, as this is our last newsletter for Term 1, a wonderful term break.

Marianne Farrugia

Next Friday, 6 of our students – Aker, Grace, Sofia, Zion, Clara and Sienna - will be celebrating their First Reconciliation following a liturgy hosted by our 3/4AF class and celebrated with all the 3/4 classes. This is a very special time in these students’ lives as they continue their faith journey. Can we please keep these students in our prayers over the next few weeks, asking God to guide them through this journey.

This week we have been participating in the journey Jesus took, sacrificing his life for us. It has been quite special coming together as a whole school, watching classes run liturgies based on these stories and seeing the enthusiasm and meaningful way they are contributing to these liturgies. We finish our week off with the Year 5/6s taking us through the Stations of the Cross.

As well as our liturgies, classes have been participating in the Stations of the Cross. At each of the fourteen stations, students listen to a relevant Scripture reading and engage in a reflection to consider the experiences of Jesus as he was condemned to death and crucified. Students then participate in an activity that connects the event to their own lives. This is an important time for all students to reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made and think about how they can share the message of love, forgiveness and faith with others.

Katie Downie

Do you remember when we asked our families to start collecting bread tags?

In that time, we managed to collect 28L worth of bread tags. Last week these tags were taken to the Marine Discovery Centre who are now an official drop off location.

Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs collects bread tags nationally in Australia. The tags are recycled locally, raising funds to buy wheelchairs for disadvantaged people in South Africa.

Thanks to all you contributed, you've helped make a difference and helped people who cannot afford a wheelchair to get one.

To celebrate the last day of Term 1 (Friday 14th April), we're offering families a special lunchtime meal deal from Subway. 

This lunchtime special costs $10 and includes:

🥪 a 6-inch Sub (your choice of bread, meat, salads and sauces)
🍪 one cookie (choose either rainbow, choc chip or double choc)
🧃 one drink (choose either water, choc milk or apple juice)

👉 A vegetarian option has been added

👉 To order simply head to Qkr! and select your favourite options.

Order before tomorrow, Thursday 6th April

ℹ️ Canteen Closed in Week 11
Due to a short week, the canteen will be closed for recess and lunch during Week 11.

Our numeracy provocations sparked wonder and interest –grouping, ordering, counting, sorting and team work – Can you write down these phone numbers? Can you add 7 spikes to the stegasaurus?

We continued our family drawings. And talked about ‘how many’ family members we have in our houses.

On the 31st of March 12 students visited the State Aquatic Centre to represent St Joseph's Hindmarsh at the SACPSSA swimming carnival. Students began the day with some nerves prior to their first race. However, this changed very quickly as soon as students had completed their first race. Mr Baird witnessed a growth in confidence of all students as the day progressed. The students were remarkable. All students had a top 3 finish and collected a blue, red and or green ribbon on the day.

Special mentions go to Harry Clinch and Grace Madden who were named top athletes for their respective year levels, which is a fantastic individual achievement. St Joseph's Hindmarsh ended up winning the carnival and taking home the shield for Section 8, a fantastic achievement for all participants. Congratulations to all who stepped out of their comfort zone and represented the school at a high level.

WOW!!! A very good experience to do something new and exciting at Challenge Hill. There are so many amazing obstacles to learn like the mouse trap where you need to find ways to get out.  

You can interact with your friends when you are doing obstacles at Challenge Hill.  Everyone had an amazing time there with their friends. It was really a relaxing place to go to with your class/family.  

A list of obstacles and activities at Woodhouse: 

• Mouse trap/Rat trap  

• Tyres  

• Rock climbing 

• Tunnels  

• Quiz night 

• Movie night  

• Disc golf  

• Laser skirmish  

• Tube slide  

• Ice blocking

  Cops and Robbers in a maze i.e. Labyrinth 

Written by Rocco and Joey 

On the 21st of March, my classmates and I got to experience Challenge Hill. Challenge Hill is an obstacle course where you get to the top of the hill and go down the hill without falling. The hill was so big that we had to split the hill into two sessions, the first half of the hill and the end half.  

There were a variety of skills we learned at Challenge Hill from climbing, crawling, swinging, jumping, and balancing.  

We felt challenged and it was exciting to show our skills to finish the obstacle course.  

It was a very fun activity for my classmates and I.     

Written by Harry, Koby & Chace