Welcome to Week 5.  It was lovely to see so many parents and visitors at our first assembly for 2020 last Friday.  K/1 presented their work and it is always great to see how well students are progressing.  Kindergarten in particular are doing so well with their writing.  Adjunct Professor Kaye Lowe was in our classrooms last week, and worked closely with staff and also ran a literacy day for teachers here in Adelong.  She was most impressed in particular with the standard of writing at St Joseph’s, which is fantastic.

Last week in the newsletter I mentioned about attendance and how it directly impacts on learning when we get in a regular pattern of missing school days.  Punctuality is just as important and can also have a big impact on learning. As well as children missing important routines and structures that are part of every day, children need that social interaction with their peers at the beginning of the day.

We celebrated a beautiful Mass for Ash Wednesday yesterday with Fr George.  A big thank you to Mrs Murray who is doing a great job in her new role as REC.  The children have been thinking about what their Lenten promise might be –either giving up something they like or doing simple acts of kindness throughout the Lenten season.

Have a great week,

Kind Regards,

Kirsty Beavan

Lost key found on our playground after our holiday morning tea, we thought we would check if one of our families are missing a key.

"Thank you St Josephs & St Josephs families for catering for the bull sale. Thank you to the people who make salads & slices & also to those who came to help cook & look after people on the day. We really appreciate it".

- Nicki & Jim Pearce

In the past few weeks, the 5/6 class have spent some time discussing how to challenge themselves in their learning, which included a “Diamond 9” activity where they had to order the characteristics of an effective learner and justify their choices. 

For Science, the 5/6 class have been conducting many different experiments to learn about micro-organisms. They have used ipad magnifying glasses to look closely at different objects, and explored the taste, texture and odour of different types of breads. Our ongoing experiment is to watch how mould grows on different types of bread in different conditions. Some interesting results have occurred already!

Absent:  Ted Pearce

It was great to see our Kindergarten/Year 1 students present some great classroom work last week.  Thank you K/1 and Miss Braun.

Congratulations to our Students of the Week for receiving awards recognising their great work over the last couple of week.  Well done Gypsy, Jack, Preston, Henry, Nicholas and Reuben. 

This week is the beginning of a very important Liturgical time in the Catholic Church. 

We begin with Ash Wednesday (26th February) and it continues for forty days ending with Easter Sunday celebrations. Yesterday we celebrated Mass and Father placed the sign of the cross on our foreheads with ash. Lent is a time for prayer and penance. During lent we are encouraged to make good choices that show kindness towards others and help others in need. It is a time that we might ‘give up’ some food we enjoy and raise money for Caritas.

Each class will receive a Caritas Project Compassion box for their classroom. We are encouraged to give charitably during this time of Lent.  Donations to this charity allow for local communities around the world to be assisted.

We celebrated Shrove Tuesday by cooking pancakes and completing activities in groups. The other name for this day, Pancake Day, comes from the old English custom of using up all the fattening ingredients in the house before Lent, so that people were ready to fast during Lent. The fattening ingredients that most people had in their houses in those days were eggs and milk. A very simple recipe to use up these ingredients was to combine them with some flour and make pancakes!

We enjoyed creating and eating the pancakes.

- Mrs Murray - REC

Sport Swimming Sessions

Last week of sport swimming sessions for Yrs 2-6 this week.  They need to bring their swimmers to change into at school and remember to bring a rashie, towel, thongs, goggles etc.  

Parish Roster

Keep up to date with events happening at St Joseph's via our electronic school calendar (please note dates can be subject to change).