A message from the SRC about the School Colour Fun Run:

Our Colour Fun Run is this Thursday! (August 31st at 1.30 pm).

We will be setting it up on the school oval. All the students will run in class groups around the oval and through an obstacle course that the House Captains will set up. Each level will run or walk for around 15 minutes. All the kids will need to wear old clothes and a light or white coloured t-shirt and bring a towel & an old jumper for afterwards.

We can’t wait!

Parents and friends are welcome to watch us and join in the fun!

We have raised over $27,000 so far!

A whole lot of teachers and staff are going to be slimed!

Thank you everyone!

Footsteps

Thanks to everyone who attended the Footsteps performance last Monday. The students were very excited to perform in front of an audience. The dance lessons have been great fun for students and staff and really successful in getting the children active and moving in different ways. We thank Rhiannon for her expertise, professionalism and enthusiasm in running the program.

Book Week

We had a fabulous Book week celebration yesterday with our annual parade and the Bake a Book Display from the 5/6 students. This day is such a highlight for the students and it is wonderful to see the younger siblings and our staff getting involved as well. Sincere thanks to all the parents and friends who helped with the students’ costumes!

Parent Teacher Interviews

A reminder that Term 3 optional Parent-Teacher interviews will be held on Tuesday September 5th between 8.30am-5.00pm. They will all be held in the parish hall. These interviews may be via telephone or face to face. Parents and carers can enter the school via the front entrance and as per our Child Safety protocols, are required to sign in before their interview, so please allow time for this. I encourage you to take this opportunity to talk to your child’s teacher about their academic progress and social growth. If this day doesn't suit you, please feel free to contact your child’s teacher directly to arrange another suitable time.

Open Afternoon

Our Term 3 Open Afternoon will be held on Monday September 11 from 2.30pm- 3.15pm. Please mark this event in your calendars. The children really look forward to sharing their learning and achievements for the term with parents and friends on this day. It would be wonderful if there was someone to visit every child in the school- grandparents, neighbours, family friends are most welcome!  

Joanne Coldebella
Principal

The Bishop of Sale, Most Reverend Greg Bennet and Director of Catholic Education for the Diocese of Sale, Mr Paul Velten commend Catholic schools in the Diocese of Sale for their innovative projects to keep young people safe. Many of the projects in the video have been developed by young people with the support of their schools and parishes. The Bishop and Director encourage families and communities to take the time to access resources and to have conversations with the young people in their lives about child safety.

The Grade 1/2 children continue to work hard in the classroom. We began the week with a super Footsteps concert, rocking out to the Lion King and Party Rock. 

We have been exploring Aboriginal toys in our inquiry unit and have created two different spinners, a spinning propeller and a wind spinner. These were a challenge to thread, but everyone enjoyed the end result. 

We have written our narrative Big Writes this week about the bush. There were many creative stories ranging from snakes on bushwalks, lyrebirds mimicking sounds to injured kangaroos.  

We are looking forward to the School Colour FunRun this week- the students are so excited that all their teachers are getting slimed!

1/2 Team 

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the 3/4 neighbourhood with lots of extracurricular activities happening including a successful swimming program.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Footsteps program, and the students were excited to showcase their performance before their family and friends.  Another thing we have participated in recently has been the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.  The focus this year was on making positive connections and developing an understanding of how these connections can contribute to bullying prevention.  We also had Dion Drummond, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performer come to our school and it was fantastic to learn songs and dances from both cultures and hear about what life was like when he was younger.  

In Reading we have been working on analysing texts this term.  We have been discussing how authors help us understand how events in a story impact the character and story development, along with different points of views for characters and alternative story endings.  In Maths we have been working on our Multiplication and Division and our students are starting to develop a good understanding of how these are connected.  We are still encouraging our students to practise their multiplication facts, as this will also support them with their division.  Our Writing has been heavily intertwined with our Inquiry learning and we have focused on Fictional Recounts and Information Reports and we look forward to sharing them with you at our Open Day.  This term, we have incorporated an extra Art Unit, related to our inquiry, and the students are becoming more comfortable with using charcoal as their medium.  In Integrated Studies, students have been learning about different facets of local history, such as the Wonthaggi Coal Mine, the dinosaurs that have been found in the Bass Coast region, and the 1993 microburst, for example. We have been on a couple of excursions and the students have enjoyed learning in this way.  For our Open Day, the students have picked an area of interest (related to our local history) to research and we can see that they are beginning to question what they are researching and create more questions based on what they have read, which is fantastic.  You can read more about our Inquiry learning in an article written for the Sentinel Times by some of our 3/4 students (picture attached).

This term students have had the chance on a Thursday afternoon to choose an activity to participate in during iHour.  Here is some of what we have been busy doing!

On Monday August 28, our students were invited to dress up as their favourite book characters for our Book Week Parade. It was wonderful to see so many parents attend our parade and watch the children show everyone who their favourite characters are, even the staff got in on the action and dressed up as book characters.  As always our Bake a Book event was very popular with some wonderful cakes being baked and decorated.

On Monday 14th August four students represented St. Joseph’s at the Vicspell spelling competition held at San Remo Primary School. Our students competed against students from eight other local primary schools. With the aim of promoting and recognising exceptional spelling, our students were challenged to spell many difficult and unusual words. Congratulations to Piper Richards, Aaron Mesch, Matthew Korecki and Annabelle Sampson for representing our school so well.

We’re just two days out from our School Fun Run! We hope students are working hard towards their fundraising goals!

Currently we have raised $27,000 and we hope you’ll keep supporting us! Remember, the money raised will be going towards improvements to the school playground.

We've had a great response to our first School FunRun, students are looking forward to the event.  You have until Sunday September 10 to register or fundraise.   All children will need to wear to school suitable/older clothes for running, the powder is made from food colouring, so it can stain.  The greatest visual effect comes from white clothes!  

On the event day please ensure your children also bring;

1. Water bottle

2. Old jumper 

3. Towel 

4. Sunscreen

5. Hat (if preferred)

6. Sunglasses/Goggles (if preferred)

7. Runners on for the Fun Run 

If you’re having any trouble setting up your student profile or fundraising online, please get in touch with the Fun Run team on 1800 FUN RUN.

Thanks for supporting us with your fundraising efforts, we look forward to celebrating with an amazing day!

St Joseph's School SRC

School Fun Run Prizes

Parent Fun Run Information

As the process of planning and preparing for the 2024 school year has commenced, we will soon begin to work on class lists. If parents have a genuine reason for class placement requests for next year, you are required to put this in writing and submit it to the School Office. 

Please be aware that a request has to be made for this current year, we will not be referring to requests made 12 months ago as circumstances change and it is important this is requested and submitted each year. Obviously, we cannot (and will not) accommodate requests for particular teachers; we can only look at the needs of the child.

All requests are to be submitted in writing to info@stjwonthaggi.catholic.edu.au by Friday, October 7 2023. 

It is important to note that once classes are established for the year, no alterations to allocations will be made. While we welcome parent input about your child’s individual learning needs, please be mindful that preferences are requests only and school staff decide the final placement of children based on the learning needs of all students.

This year the school will be utilising the Class Solver program to assist in allocating students to classes. Teachers will input data into the program which will then sort the classes. It is hoped that this will make this process more efficient. 

St Vinnies De Paul Winter Appeal

   
Thank you to all our wonderful families for their support of the St Vincent de Paul food drive. The baskets in the classrooms are overflowing with wonderful donations. We have until the last week of school this term to donate.

Prep 2024 orientation schedule 

Friday September 1 is a School Closure day.  School resumes Monday September 4.

As of Monday September 4 students are required to wear their hats outside. 

Please ensure your child/ren have their hats labeled and in their school bags.

Hats are able to be purchased from our uniform supplier Totally Workwear Wonthaggi

Students may start to wear their Summer uniform from September 4. Whilst not compulsory until the beginning of Term 4,  it is important that students wear either full Winter uniform or full Summer uniform and not a mixture of both.

Optional Term 3 Parent Teacher Interviews are available for Parents on Tuesday, September 5 between 8.30am and 5:00pm (this will not affect the students’ school attendance that day).

These interviews will be of 10 minutes in duration and will take place in the Parish Hall.  Attendance at these interviews may be either face to face or via phone, of which you may select your preference at the point of booking. Entry for onsite meetings will be through the front office, with all visitors asked to sign in. Please allow extra time before your interview to complete this process.  Please note Parent Teacher Interviews for Claire Shannon will be held on Wednesday, August 23.

Bookings for Parent Teacher Interviews are to be made though PAM. If you have not setup your account please email the office via info@stjwonthaggi.catholic.edu.au and we will help you get setup. 

If you have been involved in PSG meetings, please do not arrange an appointment.  These interviews are expected to be of 10 minutes duration.

If you have any queries regarding booking an appointment please contact the office.

Weekday Masses:

Tuesday Our Lady Star of the Sea, Inverloch 11:00a.m.

Wednesday St. Joseph’s Wonthaggi MASS 9:30a.m.

Friday Mass at St. Joseph’s Wonthaggi 9:30 a.m.

Weekend Masses Our Lady Star of the Sea, Inverloch Sunday 9:00am

St. Joseph’s Wonthaggi Saturday 6:30pm, Sunday 10:30am

(Please note that Father Darren Howie will be away for the next 10 days following the Assumption Mass. Father Tony Cox will be celebrating the weekend masses and Father Manny Lomagno will take any calls that are urgent 03 59 525 418.

COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE: People who prefer to receive communion on the tongue, would you please come last for communion, as there is still widespread fear of COVID.

PLEASE PRAY: For those who continue to be affected by the Wars in Ukraine, Sudan and the wildfires in Maui. For all who are sick, lonely and suffering from illness and pain. For those suffering from Road Trauma, both death and injury.  For Catherine Zanatta, who has passed away recently and the anniversaries of Martin O’Halloran, Fr. Patrick Cremin and our loved ones.  May God’s merciful love shine on them and on the loved ones left behind.

Please pray for those who continue to be affected by the Ukrainian War, and those natural disasters. Prayer for Peace and Justice in Ukraine.

Prayer for Peace and Justice in Ukraine.
God of peace and justice,
Who change the hardened heart and break the power of
violence, we entrust the people of Ukraine to you.
Protect them in this time of peril;
let them know not death but life, not slavery but freedom,
You are Father of all;
we are brothers and sisters.
Give us the strength to live that truth in love,
choosing peace not war.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

FATHER'S DAY APPEAL FOR THE PRIESTS' WELFARE FOUNDATION OF THE DIOCESE OF SALE: This Fund supports the priests and deacons of our diocese in times of sickness or retirement.  At present the Foundation is supporting nine priests and three deacons in retirement and is responsible for the other priests, including our overseas priests, and deacons in time of sickness.  The budgeted expenditure of the Foundation for them over the next year will be about $400,000.

Envelopes are available in the Church for the Special Collection to be taken up next weekend to assist the work of the Priests' Welfare Foundation of the Diocese of Sale.  All donations of $2.00 and over are tax deductible.  If you require a receipt for taxation purposes, please print your name and address clearly on the special envelope and a receipt will be issued in due course. SPECIAL COLLECTION:   3 SEPTEMBER 2023

CATHOLIC WOMEN’S LEAGUE: INVERLOCH. 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION. ALL past and present members are invited to celebrate 50 years of CWL.  On the 12th of September 2023 at the Inverloch Church beginning with morning tea at 10: 15a.m followed by Mass at 11:00 a.m. and then to Par 3 Inverloch @ 12:00pm.RSVP: Before the 4th of September to Margie Robinson on 0412 702 092.

Pope's prayer intention for August: Church on the way: Pope Francis invites everyone to work for a transformation of the Church - a work that begins with “a reform of ourselves” through an experience of prayer, charity and service, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Catholic communities nationwide are invited to join the online launch of the Season of Creation, the annual ecumenical celebration of prayer and action for “our common home” Details and registrations for the online launch: https://www.trybooking.com/CJUOQ.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has launched its 2023-24 Social Justice Statement. This year’s statement is titled Listen, Learn, Love: A New Engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. “Strengthening our relationship with our First Peoples is integral and indeed critical to the strengthening of the whole nation,” Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv said at the launch. The media release and the statement can be found at the diocesan website at cdsale.catholic.org.au.

A Voice to Parliament - A message from Bishop Charles Gauci of Darwin “As Australians we are at a very important time reflecting on the Voice to Parliament. I will not tell anyone how to vote, but it is my responsibility as Bishop to encourage you all to be reflective in the light of our faith and Catholic Social Teachings: the Common Good and the Dignity of all People.” Visit https://indigenousvoice.church/

PRAYER SHAWL GROUP:New members are always welcome-plenty of wool & simple patterns available. Good weather for knitting over a cuppa & chat! If you would like a shawl or know of someone in need, please phone Philippa or Maureen. Alternatively, shawls are available at the Parish Office and Our Lady Star of the Sea, Inverloch. Enquiries: Philippa Warby 0408 331 340 and Maureen Maartensz 0407 055 447.

The Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry has published a document on evangelisation, offering a scriptural and theological reflection on the proclamation of the Gospel through the lenses of encounter, discipleship and mission. It draws on seminal documents on evangelisation from recent decades, including the teachings of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Evangelisation can be downloaded directly from https://bit.ly/Evangelisation2023

Sunday Gospel Reflection
Sunday gospel reflections written by the clergy, religious and laymen and women of our diocese are published weekly through the diocesan website and the diocesan Facebook page enabling us to reflect and prepare ourselves on the Gospel before we get to the weekend masses. The link to  our website is   https://www.cdsale.org.au/news/sunday-gospel-reflections
and the link to our Facebook page is  https://www.facebook.com/dioceseofsale 

AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED: ACN AUSTRALIA A message from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN This month Aid to the Church in Need is raising money to build a parish house in Sierra Leone. The parishioners of the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour have been trying to help their priest who is living in a house that is decaying due to heavy rainfall and salt-laden sea air but they themselves are poor and have little to give. ACN has promised to help but we need your help to make this possible. To learn more and to make an offering visit www.aidtochurch.org./monthprojector

Prayer for our Youth Pilgrims Attending World Youth Day  We rejoice in the journey of faith as 18 enthusiastic youth from our Diocese, accompanied by Fr. Avinash George, Fr. Paul Zahar, and Sr. Mary Olofu, embark on their pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. Our young pilgrims have visited the holy site of Fatima and are now in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Let us together extend our heartfelt prayers, for their journey to be transformative, and that may they find strength, guidance, and inspiration in the company of fellow youth from around the world.

A HISTORY OF THE GIPPSLAND CATHOLIC DIOCESE:

A history of the diocese entitled A Mass Kit in the Saddle Bag, written by Patrick Morgan, is now available. Catholics were settling in Gippsland from 1837 for a half century before the diocese of Sale was set up in 1887. During this pioneering period priests were sent out from Melbourne ‘on the Gippsland mission’.  The first two bishops, James Corbett and Patrick Phelan, established a basic but coherent network of Catholic organizations. In recent memory Bishops Eric D’Arcy and Jeremiah Coffey coped with new issues such as increasing secularization and modernist attitudes. The book includes a bibliography, lists of parishes and priests, and over fifty photographs.

The diocesan history can be purchased for $25, plus $5 postage, from Patrick Morgan, 610 Limonite Rd, Boolarra, Vic, 3870; email: morganpa@iprimus.co.au;  phone: 51 596 216.

Establishment of a new Diocese of Sale Mission Council: Its Role

“The role of the new Diocesan Mission Council will be to assist the Bishop in investigating, discerning, and proposing practical priorities and strategies for the development of the Diocese’s pastoral life and mission. As a key body in the Diocese, the Mission Council exercises leadership and co-responsibility in a Christ-centred and mission orientated way, sharing in the proclamation of the Gospel, and serving Jesus Christ where He is present among the people of the Diocese, through unity, trust, and solidarity.” ( DMC Statutes)

MISSAL ONLINE: ‘An App’ which Father Darren Howie finds very helpful is Universalis. This will allow you to follow the Daily Mass.                                           

CARITAS AUSTRALIA: There is still time to support our global neighbours as they tackle the challenges of poverty. Your generosity today can help create a better tomorrow for people living in some of the most remote and marginalised communities in the world. All donations over $2 are 100% tax deductible. Caritas Australia:   www.caritas.org.au

TRINITY FAMILIES: Charities providing services for families in the region covered by the Catholic Diocese of Sale are invited to apply to the Catholic Charity, Trinity Families, for 2023 project funding, 

To be eligible to apply there are three criteria an applicant must be able to demonstrate:-

1. They must be a registered charity with deductible gift recipient status (DGR)
2. Any funds granted must be used to support families in a way which aligns with Catholic values
3. The project must be within the defined area of the municipalities of Cardinia, Casey, Baw Baw, Latrobe, Wellington, Bass Coast, South Gippsland and East Gippsland.

Charities wishing to apply for funding are encouraged to download the fillable application form and send is back. Deadline for submission is 30^th September 2023.

Further information is available on the website www.trinityfamilies.org.au or by email at trinity@sale.catholic.org.au

109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees: Sunday 24 September 2023

The theme of Pope Francis' Message for this year's World Day of Migrants and Refugees is "Freedom to choose whether to migrate or stay." The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) has created online resources, including the Migrant and Refugee Kit 2023, a liturgy for primary and secondary schools, homily notes, and prayers of intercession, to help celebrate this special day.

Resources available at: https://bit.ly/ACMROKit2023 

We have been emailing and sending out important communications from the Diocese and if you would like to be involved and receive this information then please contact the Parish Office on 56 721 111 or email your details to wonthaggi@cdsale.org.au.

WORKING WITH CHILDREN: AS WE ARE HOPING TO RETURN TO A ROSTER SYSTEM FOR READERS AND SPECIAL MINISTERS, THIS IS JUST A REMINDER TO CHECK THAT YOUR WORKING WITH CHILDREN HASN’T EXPIRED AND IF IT DOES NEED RENEWING, PLEASE CONTACT THE PARISH OFFICE FOR ANY ASSISTANCE WITH THIS.

Our Parish is committed to the safety, well-being and dignity of all children, young people and adults at risk. Find out more at: catholic.org.au/childprotectionsunday and www.catholicregligious.org.au/safeguarding

If you are concerned about any form of abuse, or believe that someone is at significant risk, you should immediately raise your concerns with one of our Parish Safeguarding Officers. Contact Kristine McRae via the Parish Office: 03 56 721 111 or St. Joseph’s School Safeguarding Officer 03 56 721 052.   Take care, we are here to help..                    

If you are in need of urgent assistance, please phone either Father Darren Howie 0356 722 923 or Kristine on 03 56 72111 or 04999 15 784.

Father Darren Howie                                                        Mrs. Kristine McRae
Parish Priest                                                                       Parish Secretary
St. Joseph’s Parish Wonthaggi