School Newsletter

Edition 24: Term 2, Week 4

Can you help on International Day? Get in Touch!

What you'll find in this week's Newsletter:

  • From the Principal
    • International Day - June 26
    • Pentecost
    • Albemarle Street Gate
    • SACPPA Conference
  • From the APRIM - Religious Education News
    • Sacramental Program
    • Pentecost
    • Vinnies Winter Appeal
    • Children's University: Bottle Moments
  • From the Leader of Learning - Learning Highlights
    • Bullying. No Way!
    • What the students have been learning
    • Advice and Support for Parents and Families
  • Visible Wellbeing Project - Year 5/6 Focus
    • Conversations about Emotions - Year 5/6 T
    • Emotional Management - Year 5/6 DG
    • Changing Emotions - Year 5/6
  • Preschool News
    • Early Learners Go Wild @ Wittunga
  • School News & Reminders
    • National Reconciliation Week Assembly
    • Catholic Education Week
  • Parents & Friends News
    • Volunteers Needed
    • Thank you
  • National Reconciliation Week & Sorry Day

Diary Dates

 Term 2

Sunday 26th May⬛️🟡🟥 National Sorry Day✝️ Sacramental Presentation Mass
Monday 27th - 3rd May⬛️🟡🟥 National Reconciliation Week
Wednesday 29th May🎒 New Reception Transition Visit no. 1 & Parent Information Session
📣 Assembly at 12pm - National Reconciliation Week
Wednesday 26th June🌏 International Day

Term Dates

Term 2Tuesday 30th April - Friday 5th July
Term 3Monday 22nd July - Friday 27th September
Term 4Monday 14th October - Wednesday 11th December

From the Principal

International Day - June 26

St Joseph’s School is a multicultural community, and we are very grateful for the myriad of people who belong to our community and share with us their cultural and faith experience.  Engaging everyday with people whose cultural experience is not the same as our own helps us build empathy, cultural understanding, and respect as well as important skills of perspective taking and mindful communication.  This year, to help us celebrate the many different cultures that live, learn and play together at St Joseph’s School, we will be holding an International Day on Wednesday 26 June.

An outline of the day will be shared soon, however, families might like to take this opportunity to invite grandparents to this event as we will be giving our annual Grandparents Day a rest this year, with a view to including our grandparents in our International Day festivities and giving them opportunity to celebrate the rich, diverse nature of our community. Stay tuned for more information soon!

Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday, which was celebrated last weekend, is an important event in the Catholic Church as it recognises the time that Jesus’ apostles, scared and in hiding after his death, were gifted with the Holy Spirit, providing them with the gifts and strength they needed to go out into the world and share the good news of Jesus.  Our Year 3 /4 students, along with Fr Santhosh, lead a Mass today to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and to recognise that we too can be graced with the gifts of God’s Holy Spirit through our faith, prayer and sacramental life.

Albermarle Street Gate

Please always use the intercom during the school day when entering and exiting the school through the Albermarle Street gate and ensure the gate closes behind you.  This gate will only be propped open when the teacher is on duty before and after school.  We will no longer be propping this gate open prior to the end of day bell or after the beginning of day bell. 

Thank you for prioritising the safety of our students. 

SACPPA Conference

This week I will attend the annual South Australian Catholic Primary Principal’s Association conference.  The theme for this year is ‘Leading and High-Performance Culture, Now and in the Future’. Throughout these three days, a number of nationally and internationally recognised presenters will lead us through key notes and workshops, supporting us to lead successful schools whilst navigating conflicting priorities, multiple stakeholders and ever evolving cultures and expectations.

The SACPPA Conference has, in the past, provided learning and reflection for me as a leader that is immediately impactful, and I have no doubt this year will be the same. Whilst it is difficult to be away from school for these days, I am grateful for our leadership and administration teams, as well as all our staff, who ensure the operations of the school run smoothly and our students continue to learn and thrive in our community.

Wishing you a wonderful week,

Marianne Farrugia

Religious Education News

From the APRIM

Sacramental Program

Celebrating the Sacrament of First Reconciliation

It is with great joy that we extend our heartfelt congratulations to Leandra for her recent celebration of the Sacrament of First Reconciliation. This significant celebration reaffirms her commitment to faith and embracing the grace of God's forgiveness.

Leandra's dedication to preparing for and participating in this sacrament reflects her growing understanding of the importance of spiritual growth and moral integrity.

As Leandra continues her journey of faith, may the grace she has received through the Sacrament of First Reconciliation empower her to live with compassion, and continue to grow in faith and love.

Presentation of the Sacramental Candidates

You are warmly invited to join us at Mass on Sunday 26th May, 9am at Sacred Heart Church, Hindmarsh where Father Santhosh will present our sacramental candidates to the parish community. We congratulate all the candidates in our parish who are preparing for the sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion.

Pentecost

"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

Pentecost, often referred to as the "birthday of the Church," commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, empowering them to spread the message of Christ.

As we celebrate Pentecost this year, let us come together as a school community to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May the flame of faith be reignited within us, illuminating our hearts and minds with God's love and truth. Let us be open to the Spirit's guidance as we seek to live out our calling as disciples of Christ.

In the spirit of Pentecost, let us embrace the diversity of gifts and talents within our school community, recognising that each one of us has a unique role to play in sharing the Good News of the Gospel.

Thank you to Father Santhosh, the Year 3/4 students and their teachers for leading a beautiful Pentecost Mass in celebrating the Holy Spirit's ongoing presence and work in the world, empowering us to continue the mission of Jesus Christ.

Vinnies Winter Appeal

The Minnie Vinnies would like to lead the St Vincent de Paul winter appeal and they need your help. The St Vincent de Paul Society has launched its 2024 Vinnies Winter Appeal. This year, they are focusing on the issue of the working homeless. The lack of affordable housing and increased demand for rental properties in Australia means that even those working can’t afford a roof over their heads. As a result, more and more Australians are being forced into homelessness – ‘the working homeless’. We are asking for donations of blankets, warm clothing and non-perishable food items.

Children’s University: Bottle Moments

Children’s University is excited to offer our school community an opportunity to participate in the Bottle Moments – an art-based initiative encouraging students to think about their exciting futures ahead.

The concept was originally devised by Professor Kevin Dutton (formerly of The University of Oxford, now at The University of Adelaide) during the UK’s strict COVID-19 lockdowns. The movement asked students to think about their ‘Bottle Moment’ – the one thing that they looked forward to the most once things returned back to normal.

With the help of Professor Dutton, Children’s University (CU) is bringing Bottle Moments to South Australian schools and asking students to think about their most treasured moments: moments that put a big smile on their faces when they’re perhaps not feeling their best. Moments, in other words, that they’d most like to ‘bottle’, and open, as if by magic, whenever they feel like it! It may be a friend they’d like to see, a place they’d like to visit, or a hobby they love doing. It can be anything. We will collect them throughout the year so that they may be displayed at The University of Adelaide on World Mental Health Day (Thursday, 10th of October).

Further information about Bottle Moments can be found at the link above, and the concept is also well explained in the following video.

From the Leader of Learning

Learning Highlights

Bullying. No Way!

Along with Visible Wellbeing, our students have also been exploring ways to keep themselves and others safe with a focus on Anti-Bullying across all the year levels. It is so

important that this is a subject we all talk about openly and empower our pupils with key strategies to stop it from happening in or out of school.

Bullying

The national definition of bullying for Australian schools says:

Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.

Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:

  • mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
  • not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
  • one-off acts of meanness or spite
  • isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.
  • Being bossy

However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved. Likewise not all online issues are bullying. (Online bullying is sometimes referred to as cyberbullying and refers to bullying that is carried out through information and communication technologies.)

This is what we have been learning and exploring in our year groups:

Visible Wellbeing Project

Year 5/6 Focus

Conversation about Emotions - Yr 5/6 T

In 5/6T we began the term with an exercise which required us to think about our emotional state, on the first day of a new term. We engaged in a conversation about a number of emotions – nervous, excited, unsure, apprehensive, calm and many more. We were then asked to think about the weather as an analogy for the emotion that we were feeling. Through creative and expressive art, we created a water colour landscape to depict the weather that we felt best expressed how we were feeling on the first day of Term 2. Our final images show our emotional state, and the different intensities of emotions amongst our class.

We have continued to monitor our emotions in 5/6T with nonverbal signals such as 'thumbs up/down/in the middle’ as well as incorporating a common language around the Zones of Regulation.

Reflection #1 by Brook

I have illustrated a double waterfall with a dirt cliff and a bright fluorescent blue sky. I illustrated this because I feel that waterfalls represent calmness and self-centeredness which is exactly how I felt on the first day of Term 2. I think that is very interesting to represent emotions as weather because everyone has different opinions on what emotions represent what weather.

Reflection #2 by Amelia

I have illustrated a sunset with the reflection of the sun on top of the water it reflects that on the first day of the term I am very relaxed and laid back. I think that a sunset is relaxing and calm because of the colours and the way the colours change, that's how I feel at school because I am just calm and just want to get through the day without getting too annoyed.  I also feel that at school it's a bit of a sunset because it can get really tense like when the colours get  really bright, or it can be really quiet like when the colours are dim.

Reflection #3 by Isabella

I have illustrated an orange/red sunset with a banana shaped moon in the middle of my piece. The moon is surrounded by blue and grey mountains and birds flying around the moon. Above the moon there is a shooting star representing excitement because shooting stars usually pass quickly, along with my excitement. There is also a small bunch of other stars along the sky of my piece. I also have drawn some trees at the bottom near the mountains. I have drawn this piece because on the first day of school I was feeling calm and serene, but tired considering I have woken up early to get ready.

Emotional Management - Yr 5/6 DG

In Year 5/6DG, we have implemented emotional management learning through a variety of strategies. Each student is provided with Unifix cubes in the Zones of Regulation colours, which they keep in their book box or pencil case to conduct emotional check-ins throughout the day. Students show the colour zone they are in for teachers to see, and if they are in any zone besides green, teachers have a quick conversation with them to understand why they may be feeling that way.

Rewind Area

Additionally, as a class, we created a 'rewind area' where students can select a zone-coloured card with a corresponding time limit to take a break and calm themselves down. We collaboratively established rules and expectations for this area, and students contributed to designing what the space should look like.

Changing Emotions - Yr 5/6 O

In 5/6O, we have been engaging in activities and discussions involving different feelings and emotions that people have and how they change depending on the situations we are in. We have identified emotions that we connect with to build a class display as a way of supporting each other. We have also looked at how emojis represent different feelings and can be interpreted differently depending on how they are used. We did this by arranging them in order from positive to negative feelings.

Preschool News

Early Learners Go Wild @ Wittunga

On Wednesday 15 May, the two Preschool classes set out on an adventure to Nature Play SA at Wittunga Botanical Gardens. Once there, the children listened to some stories with Jade and the educators, before beginning their own nature play. Children chose between loose parts play, clay echidna making and making garden stew. Throughout the day, children shared resources and experimented with different ingredients. They even helped with the dishes at the end!

Since being back at Preschool, the children have transferred their knowledge with playdough echidnas, loose parts creations and lots of garden stew. They have even started making their own wish lists of tools and ingredients for their garden stew! We will use these ideas to upgrade the Preschool garden, with the children leading a garden reinvigoration project.

A big thank you to Gail, Georgie, Nisha, Sam and Samantha for joining us on the day!

Swipe through to view photos

School News & Reminders

National Reconciliation Week Assembly

Please be advised that there has been a change in the schedule for the Week 5 assembly.

The assembly will celebrate National Reconciliation Week and will now take place at 12 PM next Wednesday, 29th May. 🟥🟡⬛️

We hope you can join us for this important event.

Catholic Education Week

Last week, we celebrated Catholic Education Week with a series of heartwarming and inspiring activities. 🎉

Our students and staff shared why they love our school in a touching video, highlighting the friendships and learning that make our community unique.

We came together in prayer, embracing our 2024 theme: 'Raising Hearts and Minds to the wonder and awe of God’s creation.' 🏫💙 Together, we celebrated the beauty of God's creation and the spirit of our school! 🙏💫

Reflecting on a week filled with gratitude and blessings, our Gratitude Wall became a testament to the love, friendship, and learning that define our community. Let's carry this spirit of thankfulness forward as we continue our journey together. 🙏💖

Our Gratitude Wall

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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Parents & Friends News

Vounteers Needed

The P & F are seeking volunteers to support our upcoming International Day in Week 9, Wednesday 26th June. We appreciate any amount of time you can offer, even if it's just for a short while. More hands make light work!

✅ Registered Volunteers:
If you are already a registered volunteer and would like to help, please email Andrea Boseley at theparidons@gmail.com 

🙋 New Volunteers:
If you would like to become a registered volunteer, please contact Seva Maitianos at seva.maitianos@sjsh.catholic.edu.au to receive a registration pack.

Thank you for your support!

Thank you

The P & F extend their gratitude to the wonderful volunteers who generously contributed to the success of our recent events held within the span of two weeks.

The Donut Day was a terrific success, largely thanks to the efforts of the Year 3/4 I parents. Similarly, the Mother's Day stall was supported by parents from Year 1/2 M.

We kindly request volunteers from other classrooms to come forward and lend their assistance for upcoming events. If you're interested, please reach out to Andrea Bosely via email at theparidons@gmail.com.au, and we'll get the ball rolling.

National Sorry Day

National Reconciliation Week

National ‘Sorry Day’ is Sunday 26 May.

It is a day of healing for the Stolen Generations, their families and communities.

It marks the beginning of Reconciliation Week in Australia held annually from 27 May to 3 June.

On our pathway towards reconciliation, Sorry Day is an important moment to remember the past policies of forced child removal.

It is a day of healing for the Stolen Generations, their families and communities.

We remember this ‘sorry’ past and pray for a new beginning.

+ God of all the peoples of the earth, your son Jesus cared for all the lost ones.

May all Australians walk together seeking healing and reconciliation.

May all Australians work for a united Australia, where all are welcome and are at home.

We make this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.

On behalf of the St Joseph’s Hindmarsh community, we would like to say ‘sorry’ to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s children who were taken from their families and to the families who were broken up.

We pray that together we can move forward and build community and relationship based on understanding and respect for the rights and dignity of all people.

May we continue to be committed and enthusiastic for reconciliation and act with justice, tenderness and humility.

Extracts from Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology Speech

February 13th, 2008

“I move that today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.”

National Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is an opportunity for Australians to come together and learn about the history, culture, and achievements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and join the National Reconciliation journey of healing and justice.

The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2024, is ‘Now More Than Ever.

‘This theme is a reminder to all of us that no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will — and must— continue.

We need connection. We need respect. We need hope. And we need change.

Now more than ever, we need reconciliation.’ 

We've been asked to advertise the following:

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  • St Joseph's School Hindmarsh

    At St Joseph’s Hindmarsh, learning is co-constructed and dynamic.  Learners are encouraged to IMAGINEDISCOVER and CREATE and to make meaningful connections with their world.  

    As capable learners they are given opportunities to develop capabilities that build their confidence and skills to engage with the curriculum and ACHIEVE excellence.