Welcome back to another term. It has already been quite eventful. Today we welcomed our Grandparents and Special Friends to the school for activities. Many of our special visitors enjoyed their time at school, playing games, completing activities and even having a cuppa afterwards. I was very fortunate to meet so many family members and hear about their own school experiences and family stories. We thank God for the wonderful gift of Grandparents and special people in our lives. We also say a quiet little prayer to remember and thank God for the Grandparents and special people that have left us and are in heaven.

Please enjoy some of the photos taken today - 

A huge congratulations to our Boys Football team who made the Regional football finals playing against teams from across Gippsland, including Inverloch, Traralgon, Maffra and Bairnsdale. The team represented our school respectfully and with pride. A big thank you to Bec Murnane for coaching and to the staff who accompanied the team. Our Girls Football team also made it through to the Regional finals, and will compete in two weeks.

Coming up this term we have many events of celebration including Year 6 Confirmation, Italian Day, the Arts learning showcases and productions and Book Week celebrations to name a few. We also will invite parents and guardians to Parent Teacher Interviews later in the term for an update on the childrens’ learning. A very lively term ahead indeed. 

Take care everyone and stay warm.

Kind regards,

Camillo Redi

Acting Principal

TERM 3

Sat 29 & Sun 30 July                       - Confirmation - Commitment Masses

Thursday 3 August                          - 3/4 Excursion to Melbourne Museum

                                                                - 100 Days in Foundation Celebration

                                                                - SSV AFL (Girls), Traralgon

Friday 4 August                                - Italian Day

                                                                - P & F Meeting 2pm at St Joseph’s

Thursday 10 August                        - Confirmation – Child Workshop

Tuesday 15 August                          - Junior Showcase Performance (Foundation – Grade 2) 6:30pm at Marion Theatre, Marist-Sion College

Friday 18 August                              - School Closure Day - Pupil Free

Thursday 24 August                        - Confirmation – Parent/Child Workshop

Friday 25 August                              - Book Week Parade and Performance - 9:00am School Hall

                                                                - 5/6 Production Rehearsal at Marist

Tuesday 29 August                          - Senior School Production (Grades 5/6) 7:00pm at Marion Theatre, Marist-Sion College

Wednesday 30 August                   - Grade 6 Confirmation Retreat

Thursday 31 August                        - Confirmation – Reconciliation Rite

Friday 1 September                        - Father’s Day Breakfast and Stall

Tuesday 5 September                   - Parent/Teacher Interviews

Thursday 7 September                  - Parent/Teacher Interviews

Friday 8 September                        - Sacrament of Confirmation (Marist-Sion Hall)

                                                                - Grade 3/4 Musical Rehearsal at Marist

Thursday 14 September               - Footy Day

                                                                - Middle School Musical (Grades 3/4) 7:00pm at Marion Theatre, Marist-Sion College

Friday 15 September                     - Last day of Term 3 – school finish time is 2:20pm

Have your personal contact details changed?

• Do you hold a current Centrelink Concession Card?
• Do you no longer have a current concession card?
• Has there been a name change?
• Have you moved address?
• Have you changed your mobile phone number?
• Is your landline still valid?
• Have you changed your workplace, therefore your business phone number has changed?
• Have emergency contacts changed? Maybe they have moved away?

If you have answered "YES" to any of the above dot points, please email the office info@stjwarragul.catholic.edu.au with your updated information.

PAM

• Have you verified your PAM email login?
• Please ensure student medical and contact details (including email address) are up to date.

A reminder that any student who brings along a mobile phone to school for a safety reason (i.e. walking home after school or catching a bus), must hand in their phone into the office for safe keeping during school hours. Any messages that need to be given to students must come through the school office. Please be aware that sending emails to teachers with messages for students during school hours, may not reach the children in time. Again, the fastest way to get a message to children is through the wonderful team in the office.

A reminder that this term the gates will continue to be opened at 8:30am each morning and we ask that by 8:50am all students are at school. Gates will be closed at 8:50am and supervision at the carline will cease. Students arriving after 8:50am will need to make their way through the office area. From 8:50am music will play to signal students to move to assemble in class groups on the basketball court. By 8:53am a bell will ring and by this time, all students should be lined up ready to be moved inside. Learning begins each day at 9am, students arriving after this time will be marked late. Please remember, the office will make contact with you if you haven’t provided a reason for absence by 10am. If contact cannot be made with the parent, guardian and/or carer, the school may contact emergency contact(s) nominated on the student's file, held by the school.

Any hesitancy I may have felt about returning to school after an eight week break quickly evaporated after being so warmly greeted by the students at school on Tuesday with many enquiries and much interest in my travels to the Holy Land.

The main foci of our group’s travels and study were:

• To gain a richer understanding by visiting where Jesus travelled in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
• To study Mark’s Gospel with particular focus on women and children in the Gospel.
• To gain a better understanding of the Judaism and Islam in the context of the Holy land and within their sacred spaces.

Our base in the Old City of Jerusalem was the Ecce Homo Convent of the Sisters of Sion.  Beneath this multi-level site contains the “Lithostrotos” (meaning Stone Pavement) which are important remains from Roman times. Since the Crusaders, Christian tradition has placed the beginning of the Jesus’s  “Way of the Cross”  at this location. Here we recall Christ’s suffering at the hands of Roman soldiers and his trial by Pontius Pilate. The name “Ecce Homo” refers to John 19:5 “Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them: “Behold the Man’ (Ecce Homo).

In the Old City we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on what is believed to be the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.  This church is a very holy site to many of Christian faith with control of the church itself shared amongst a number of denominations including Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Apostolic

We visited the Mount of Olives, overlooking the old city and where Jesus wept for Jerusalem and the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus’ passion began and where he was betrayed by Judas.

We attended a Friday evening Shabbat service at a local, less traditional synagogue, where much of the service was sung in Hebrew.  We visited the Western Wall, the only remaining wall of the second Temple which was destroyed by Romans in about 70CE.  This is a holy site for those of Jewish faith and where I offered our class prayers to God by inserting them into some crevices in the wall. We also learned much about Judaism through our local tour guides as well a number of guest speakers who addressed us.

On our three day trip to Galilee we saw the remains of the ancient city of Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, which was only discovered in excavations in about 2011.  An ancient synagogue was found in these excavations and as it was a familiar stomping ground for Jesus, there is a very high likelihood that Jesus preached at this synagogue.  It was amazing to be at such a place.

Also around the Sea of Galilee, we visited the synagogue at Capernaum and Peter’s mother-in-law’s house where Jesus stayed.  We visited Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus taught us how to live, went on a boat ride, swam in the sea and saw the remains of a 2000 year old fishing boat, found in low water during a drought in 1986 and which took 10 years to safely remove and preserve intact.

Many Palestinians also live in the Old City of Jerusalem, in fact 30,000 of the 40,000 inhabitants of the Old City are Palestinian, most of them are Muslims but a relatively small number are Palestinian Christians.  The Temple Mount, containing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the holiest sites to those of Islam faith.  The Dome of the Rock can be seen all over Jerusalem with it’s distinct blue mosaic outer and it’s massive gold plated dome. Such a beautiful and sacred place for many.

Throughout the experience, the Sion Sister’s charism taught us to see Jesus as a faithful Jewish man of his time and the Jews as his brothers and sisters. We honour both those of Jewish and Muslim faith and respect our common roots and the God we hold in common. 

We had to wear long pants and long sleeves when we visited the Temple Mount area and the Dome of the Rock. It was very hot!

Lots of people of Jewish faith visit the Western Wall to pray.  The women and men pray on separate sides of the fence.

One of the Stations of the Cross or the Via Dolorosa.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to be on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.

The preserved remains of a 2000 year old fishing boat.  This gives us a clear picture of what boats were like in the time of Jesus.

The site of the ancient synagogue in Magda. It is very likely that Jesus taught in this synagogue.

The “Lithostrotos”, pavement from Roman times, under the Ecce Homo convent.

A message from Deacon Mark

RCIA: Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

R.C.I.A.

These letters stand for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, the ancient Rite of welcoming people into the Church. Catholic Parishes of Warragul and Drouin warmly invites anyone interested in discovering more about the Catholic faith to attend our meetings on Wednesdays, in the Marian Room at St. Joseph’s Church Warragul. We start at 7.30pm and finish by 9.00pm. 

Our sessions will begin on Wednesday August 2^nd. If you know anyone who is interested, please speak to Joan Robertson at St. Joseph’s Parish Office on 5623164.  

Sacrament Dates for 2023

The S.T.A.R. Raffle is back and our raffle winners have been drawn. 

Congratulations to:

• Oliver Hudson
• Lexi Borthwick

The raffle tickets are an incentive to encourage our students to consistently demonstrate our School Wide Expectations with their behaviour.

• TAKE RESPONSIBILITY 
• ACT SAFELY
• BE RESPECTFUL

Our Staff are on the lookout to recognise and celebrate our students CONSISTENTLY being a S.T.A.R. by rewarding them with a raffle ticket. 

2 tickets will be drawn each assembly and students can choose a prize.

Have a conversation with your child about what it means to be a S.T.A.R. at St. Joseph’s.

Expectations at St. Joseph’s

In Term One, you would have received a presentation from their class illustrating practical ways  they can demonstrate these expectations. Further to this, our Staff have developed a matrix which highlights the behaviours we expect of all the members of our community.

Expectations Chart 2023

Staff Professional Learning Day 18 August - student free day

Reflection Forms

Some of you may have received a Reflection Form that your child has completed. Thank you for returning them. 

The forms allow students to consider their choices, how they felt and how they can make improved choices in the future. 

More importantly, they inform us and assist us to gain a better understanding of our students' behaviour and how we can support them.

The Forms will be completed by a teacher with the student. The teacher and student will sign the form. The form will then be sent home for the parent/guardian to read, sign and return to school. 

Contact will be made with parents/guardians prior to the form coming home.

Copy of Reflection Sheets Form 1

Copy of Reflection Sheets Form 2

Please note the WRC bus loop is NOT a bus stop, yet a bus transfer station only. All students travelling on the Government School bus system must travel to and from their home address to their designated school only.

Current Child Safety Laws and the Conditions of Bus Travel do not allow students to leave the bus transition area. If your child does not intend on travelling to their home address they must depart from their school of origin. Thank you for your understanding. WRC

The bus loop is continually experiencing a high volume of students entering and exiting on foot during the busy bus transition period which is placing unnecessary pressure on bus supervision. Although it may be convenient for parents to collect their children from the WRC bus loop, leaving the bus loop is not permitted for any reason. Child safety laws and the Conditions of Bus Travel stated on all Government applications do not allow a supervising school to permit students to leave the bus loop safely.

UPCOMING SPORTS DATES:

Athletics

Thursday August 3rd, S.S.V. West Gippsland Regional Winter Sport (Girls A.F.L. Traralgon)

Tuesday, October 10th. Gippsland Regional Athletics. Joe Carmody Athletics Track, Newborough

New Students House Allocation

All new students have been allocated a house. Please check your child’s profile on PAM. We have four houses at St. Joseph’s.

John - Green

Luke - Red

Mary - Blue

Therese - Yellow

S.S.V. State Cross Country

Congratulations to Lenny Barake who ran in  the State Cross Country Championship last week in Yarra Glen. It was a large field of competitors. Lenny ran a strong race and finished 44th with a time of 0.09:05 Well done Lenny, we are so proud of your efforts.

Thank you to Lenny’s parents who transported and supported him at this event.

S.S.V. Gippsland Regional Winter Sport A.F.L. (BOYS)

Congratulations to our Senior Boys Team, who played great football in magnificent conditions in Maffra this week to finish fourth in the Gippsland Region.

The manner in which the boys competed and conducted themselves was impressive. It was a busy schedule with boys playing four back to back matches against quality teams from Maffra, Bairnsdale, Traralgon and Inverloch/Kilcunda.

Thank you to Lachlan Nardone, Liam Cutler, Adam Garvey and Coby Murnane for supporting their peers. Thank you to the parents who came to support our students.

A special thank you to Bec Murnane and Fletcher Kennedy who coached the boys.

Sports Uniform Reminder

It has been great to see so many students prepared for Sport each week with the correct sports uniform. Just a reminder that the sports uniform is to be worn only on the students' Sports Day. This includes appropriate footwear for vigorous activity.

TUESDAY: Grade 3/4 Classes

WEDNESDAY: Foundation and Grade 1/2 Classes

THURSDAY: Grade 5/6 Classes

Grade 6 can also wear their sports uniform on a Monday.

Book Club

All orders for Book Club issue 5 need to be finalised by Friday 21st July. Thank you to all families that have supported this issue of Book Club. There were some new features added.

Author Visit

On Friday 25th August we will be having an interactive online visit with the author, Michael Salmon. Michael Salmon has been involved in graphics, Children's literature, TV  and Theatre since 1967. Michael is an author and illustrator. He likes to inspire students to develop their own creativity.

ALL PERFORMANCES will be held at the

MARION THEATRE at MARIST-SION COLLEGE

More information regarding each concert will be sent home soon.

Junior School Showcase (Foundation - Grade 2) - "Showcase of Learning" Tuesday, 15 August at 6:30pm

Senior School Production (Grade 5/6) - "Count Back" Tuesday 29 August at 7:00pm

Middle School Musical (Grade 3/4) - "Trollin' through Fairyland" Thursday 14 September at 7:00pm

ITALIAN DAY 2023

LA MACCHINETTA ROSSA!

(The Little Red Car)

Our Italian Day is on Friday August 4th, only two weeks away!  The students will be participating in activities based on the travels of the Little Red Car in the picture story book, La Macchinetta Rossa.

They will spend the day in multi-age groups and rotate around six different activities. The children are invited to come to school dressed up with an Italian theme, such as, a famous Italian person, the colours of the flag (green, white and red), a tourist, an Italian sports person, Pinocchio or an Italian landmark.

Our day will start at 9am with a short costume parade in the hall before the children commence the activities. Families are most welcome to watch our parade.   

PLEASE NOTE: We would like the children to bring a reusable shopping bag to school to carry their snacks, drinks bottles and stationary to each activity.

In the final part of The Resilience Project's parent series, Hugh shares an important message about allowing our children to experience adversity.

The key to building resilience in our children is allowing them to experience failure, hardship, disappointment etc. As parents, we can be too quick to resolve our children's challenges which can deprive our children of enormous growth opportunities. These typically happen when we experience failure and uncertainty. As parents we should be there for our children when they fail, but not fight their battles for them.

View Part 5 of the series here:
Part 5 - Summary: https://theresilienceproject.com.au/2023-parent-carer-hub-inspire-hugh/

Thank you for participating in this Parent and Carer Digital Presentation series.

You can re-watch the videos and access activities and resources anytime via the Parent & Carer Hub.

You can also stay up to date with The Resilience Project news and events by signing up to their Newsletter.

Rapid Antigen Tests are available from the school office.

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.

P & F Dates for your Diary

Events for the Calendar

• Father’s Day breakfast and stall- Friday 1 September
• Footy Day- Thursday 14 September
• Colour Run- Friday 27 October, backup Fri 10 Nov

Has your child lost or grown out of their bomber jacket? If you’ve checked the mountain of lost property with no luck, we have heaps of second-hand jackets in all sizes available, for a gold coin donation. Thanks to Warragul Drycleaners who have donated their services to professionally clean our second-hand school uniforms.

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

P&F Meetings

The next P&F meeting is scheduled for Friday 4 August, 2.00pm at the school.  

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 ‘Parents and Friends of St Joseph’s Primary School Warragul’ or just turn up.

SCHOOL BEANIE

The school beanie has ARRIVED and is in stock at the Warragul Beleza store. They are available for purchase and are $18 each.

Prices have been reduced further...

Short sleeve polo shirts are available in size 2 - 16 and are now $6.60 each

Long sleeve polo shirts are available in size 2 - 16 (size 14 no longer available) and are now $7.20 each

Green windcheaters are available in size 4, 10 & 14 and are now $10.00 each

Geoff Watt Memorial Fun Run & Festival

Warragul District Amateur Basketball Association

Our junior program registrations for Aussie Hoops and Under 8’s are now OPEN, all Registration links provided below!

Aussie Hoops Warragul Program - https://www.playhq.com/basketball-victoria/register/5b3663

Aussie Hoops Neerim Program - https://www.playhq.com/basketball-victoria/register/98ee79

Warragul Under 8's Program - https://www.playhq.com/basketball-victoria/register/8c699c-3c6acce3

Neerim South Under 8's Program - https://www.playhq.com/basketball-victoria/register/8c699c-c2fe3ad2

For any further information please refer to our website - https://warragul-basketball.tidyhq.com/

Girls Football

Looking for under 12 girls players to join:

Gippsland United Football Club's Metro teams play across South East and East Melbourne. We train twice a week (Tuesday & Thursday) on the new synthetic surface at Baxter Park in Warragul. A unify who is keen can email juniors@gippslandunitedfc.com  

Miniroo's Program

We also run a miniroo's program at Baxter Park in Warragul, this is for all kids age 6-10 and every week on the synthetic surface at Baxter Park. This is a great place for players with any amount of experience to try the game and progress into the future. It’s a fun, relaxed environment and all of our coaches for the 2023 season will be qualified to ensure the kids get the best opportunities moving forward. For more information or a link to register, please email miniroos@gippslandunitedfc.com 

Baseball

Warragul Blues Junior Football Club

The Latrobe Valley Beekeepers Association is pleased to announce we will be hosting our second Moe Earth Market on Sunday 13 August. We are a local Registered Charity with a group of dedicated volunteers who have been revitalising our club facility on Saviages Road, Moe.

The site is home to our new Community Pollinator Garden plus several other community groups. We are passionate about developing a space for positive community connection. 

Moe Earth Market will take place on Sunday 13th August 2023 from 9am to 2pm.

Follow-up events will be held quarterly (second Sunday of August, November, & February).

This is an outdoor “grow it, make it, bake it, sew it, recycle it” market, which will also have food trucks and include FREE children’s activities.