St Joseph's Newsletter

Our final playgroup for Term 3 took place on Thursday 15 September as Thursday 22 September was the National Day of Mourning for Her Majesty the Queen and Thursday 29 September was our Sports Day. This term, playgroup has been wonderfully facilitated by Graziella Panazzolo and Olivia Zollo who have created many opportunities for fun and socialisation for our youngest members of the St Joseph’s School family. I sincerely thank Graziella and Olivia for their hard work and planning this term.  Playgroup doesn’t ‘just happen’! It takes careful planning to create the warm and inviting environment that our playgroup is renowned for.  Maria Apostolou will again take up leadership of the Playgroup and Meka Vizzari will work with Maria beginning next term.

As a part of their Humanities and Social Science and Digital Technologies learning this term, the Year 5/6 learners have collaborated, imagined, created, advertised and opened their own small businesses over the past couple of weeks. These businesses have created much excitement amongst our ‘consumers’ who have delighted in the goods and services that have been available. Congratulations to our students who are learning on the job what it means to be a small business owner.

Year 5/6 learners are also in the midst of a fantastic opportunity to design, plan and record a podcast with the Arch D Podcasting Team from CESA. Again, this ‘real world’ learning is integrated with their small business creation as podcasters complete their Level 1 Podcasting Badges through this ‘on the job’ training where they are developing their recording and editing skills, as well as skills in persuasive writing, public speaking, collaboration and problem solving.

Congratulations to all of our students, staff and families who made our Sports Day a wonderful day to enjoy and celebrate the sporting skills, positive attitudes and excellent efforts of our St Joseph’s students.  Thank you especially to Mr Matt Baird who co-ordinated the event and prepared the children along with the Sports Day Committee.  Thanks also to the P and F who organised refreshments and executed the cooking and distribution of sausages to perfection!

Congratulations to our sensational choir students who performed as a part of the massed choir at the Catholic School Music Festival on Wednesday night. As always, this was a wonderful showcase of exceptional musical talent and our choir did St Joseph’s School proud.  Thank you especially to Tasso Bouyessis, our Performing Arts teacher and choir trainer who prepared the following students for this excellent performance: 

Lina Marie A, Sophie B, Isabelle B, Adeline B, Zara DB, Roxson H, Claire H, Ishmeet K, Ruby K, Maria V, Tisha B, Brando DA, Mistir A, Michelina B, Tilly B, Jack D, Hardik K, Chelsea P, Harleen S, Agnese P and Anna A. 

Last Sunday was Migrant and Refugee Sunday the theme this year is ‘Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees’. The message from Pope Francis focuses on how we are all on a journey in our world, searching for our true homeland – the Kingdom of God. He tells us that ‘God’s Kingdom is in us’ and as we work to do God’s will,’ justice needs to be built up with patience, sacrifice, and determination, so that all those who hunger and thirst for it may be satisfied’. Pope Francis reminds us that no one must be excluded. God’s plan is inclusive and gives priority to those living on the existential peripheries. Among them are many migrants and refugees, displaced persons, and victims of trafficking. The Kingdom of God is to be built with them, for without them it would not be the Kingdom that God wants. 

On Thursday, 15th September, the Year 5/6 unit had the opportunity to listen to and participate in a very practical, relevant and engaging workshop in First Aid Training.

The students were ably guided and supported by Karyn Hindle.

The students learned how to be confident ‘first aiders’ in the event of either a small and/or big emergency.

The Year 3 Strawberry Patch project has been run by Mrs Melis' class with the help of ESO Rose. A garden bed was dedicated to this project and students were able to plant a strawberry plant as well as take one home. All students contributed to creating the sign displayed in the garden. The students have learnt patience waiting for the plants to come out of their winter dormancy which are now showing signs of spring growth. Hopefully, in the next few months, they will enjoy delicious strawberries.

Congratulations to Maya Tran from 3/4AB for her winning entry in the Mayoral Make A Book Literacy Challenge Competition. Maya's story is titled 'In the Shadows', it is a horror story based on two girls trapped in a school! 

The Challenge's purpose is to give kids a taste of what it is like to create their own book, and it's also a fun, creative way of practicing study skills and processes that they'll eventually be doing at higher levels in school. The competition runs once a year. 

Well done to Maya and all the other entrants from St Joseph's this year. 

As you may know, as part of our learning in Business and Economics, the Year 5/6 students have eagerly participated in the challenge of creating and operating small business ventures. This was a very immersive learning opportunity for them, building their enterprise skills as they were only able to borrow a maximum of $20 from their families to create, launch and start their own business. They began by pitching their idea of a product or service to a panel of teachers and leadership, then once they had their business plan approved they were ready to begin!

Their businesses this year have included home-made donuts, henna tattooing, home-made candles, baked goods, jewellery, slime and a wide range of games. Students were responsible for every element of their business - including ensuring they remained ecologically friendly and complied with all hygiene and health regulations. 

After a very successful two weeks of business, we are please to share that we have raised over $1000 which we will be donating to Catholic Charities! 

Did your child enjoy our sausage sizzle? 

Our sports day sausages were generously donated as a fundraising gift from Slape & Sons. 

Support the businesses that support us and pick some up for the school holidays from major supermarkets, including Drakes & Foodland stores. 

Stockist locator here: https://www.slapeandsons.com.au/find-a-store/ 

School begins on Tuesday 18th October.

Students to wear their summer uniform.

Information about school photos will be distributed to families on Tuesday 18th October.

Has your child lost their hat, container or jumper? You might be in luck!

Our Lost Property box is relatively full at the moment and the vast majority of the clothing and containers in there are not labelled. 

🖍 Please name your items
Uniforms, lunch boxes, drink bottles etc stand a much better chance of being returned to your child if it has your child’s name clearly printed on it.

📍 Where is the Lost Property?
You can find the Lost Property in the MacKillop Centre of Learning, to the left of the entrance.

For achieving the highest number of spirit points in Term 3, 33 points!!!

The points were accumulated by receiving the greatest number of ‘thumbs up’ cards during play time this term.

These ‘thumbs up’ tokens are distributed to children (by Year 5/6 School Captains, House and vice- sport captains) who demonstrate positive and respectful behaviours whilst playing. 

Each card is exchanged for a plastic lid which equates to a spirit point for their respective House Team.

To celebrate and acknowledge Joseph's positive efforts in Term 3, on Wednesday 28th September, all children who are in Joseph, were lucky enough to wear their sport uniform with a blue coloured t-shirt or the like!

Well done Joseph ! 😊

This week Preschool hosted an incursion facilitated by Trent Hill. Trent is an Indigenous storyteller, educator and guide who has worked at Adelaide Botanic Garden for more than 10 years. His engaging time with us supported our learning of first nation culture with a focus on Dreaming Stories. 

Trent told the children Dreaming Story and morals such as sharing, listening to elders and telling the truth were discussed. A brief overview of the connection of the Dreaming and totems with the land was also shared. Trent showed us some artefacts such as a kangaroo fur and boomerang and he made some incredible animal noises when playing his didgeridoo. In the sandpit Trent showed us how to start a fire by the friction of rubbing sticks together.  

Find out what the children thought about Trent's visit below 👇

👧🏾 "The story was about the person walking on the hill and he didn't listen to his mum. Then he went to the girls and wanted the hunters food, but the girls said he needed to ask the hunters but he didn't ask the hunters and didn't tell the truth to the girls and ate all the food".

🦘 "He made kangaroo and emu sounds with the didgeridoo and showed us kangaroo skin".

🔥 "He used the sticks really fast to make a fire and dried leaves".

👦🏾 "The story was about a big boy doing jokes and he got sent to the sky because he was really rude and naughty and ate all the food".

Rainbows in the sky led to great discussions.

🤔 How did it get there and what makes a rainbow?

We discovered that sun and water make a rainbow and we invited the children to create their own. Noticing is about seeing and observing the world around us. It is through wondering that new discoveries are made.

This discussion led helped inspire the Preschool art pieces for the Art Show in November. They used a selection of craft materials to add to their unique and colourful art works. See the finished artworks at the Art Show next term.