Newsletter January 31, 2025

St Joachim's Vision

“In love and unity, the St Joachim’s community embraces diversity.

Together we inspire lifelong learning, enlightened by Catholic faith,
to make a difference in our ever changing world.”

School Office:

(03) 97852633office@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.auSchool Website

2024 Staff:

includes email address

St Anne's Parish:

(03) 9401 6398seaford@cam.org.auParish Newsletters

Principal's Message

Paul Dwyer, Principal
pdwyer@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au

Dear Parents,

I welcome back all students, parents and staff to an exciting 2025 school year at St. Joachim’s! I hope everyone in our school community has had a restful and relaxing break, and are feeling re-energised for another busy year of faith filled learning “in love and unity”.

It was wonderful to see the smiles and feel the positive energy as students from Years 2 – 6 came back to school this week. We look forward to welcoming our beautiful Foundation and Year 1 students to start school on Monday.

You may have noticed that over the holidays, the car park next to the middle school building was re surfaced, and it looks fabulous. This project has resolved issues with drainage, dust and potential tyre damage to vehicles.

A reminder to please ensure that your child has a school hat at school every day, as our Sun Smart school policy in Terms 1 and 4 each year, is that all students are required to wear a hat outside. Students without a hat are required to play in a designated shaded area. As we do at school, parents are encouraged to remind children to apply sunscreen regularly.

Early this week I sent home a letter explaining the importance of not sending any nuts or nut products to school. Thank you for assisting with this important student safety requirement.

Please note: Our school assemblies will now be held on a Monday afternoon each fortnight commencing at 2:15 pm. This starts next Monday 3rd February. All parents are warmly invited to join us.

Swimming trials for interested students in Years 4 – 6 are on next Friday 7th February. These trials will select students to be in our Swim team for the District swimming event which will be held at The Pines Aquatic Centre on Tuesday 25th February. Please note: Students are required to be able to swim 50 metres confidently. A note went home on Operoo today.

Some forthcoming dates for your diary:

Our Beginning of the school year Mass will be celebrated on Friday 14th February at 11:15 a.m.

Our Parent/Teacher Meet and Greet sessions will be held on Tuesday 18th February after school and again on Wednesday 19th February (2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) NB: School will finish early at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday 19th February for the Meet and Greet sessions. Information about how to book a time will be sent home soon.

School photos will be taken on Monday 24th February. All students are required to come dressed in full summer school uniform on this day.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy is on Wednesday 5th March.

The Labour day public holiday is on Monday 10th March.

NAPLAN testing for Year 3 and year 5 students will take place from 12th – 14th March.

Our first pupil free/school closure day will be held on Friday 7th March. On this day St. Joachim’s staff will be working with MACS staff on an RE focus for the Year of Jubilee proclaimed by Pope Francis.

Regards,

Paul Dwyer, Principal

Maire Macphie, Administration

Sheridan Kellett,
Administration

Office News

Welcome back to 2025!

Any new families who hold an eligible concession card are able to apply for concessional fees by completing the attached two forms.

- CSEF Government funding towards excursions and camps (further info found here)

- MACS concessional fees towards tuition fees.

Current families who have previously received CSEF will roll over in the government system but are still required to complete the MACS Concessional form for the 2025 fees.
Current families who have a new sibling at the school will be required to complete both forms.

Statement of fees for 2025 will be issued to all families at the end of next week.

Please come and see me at the office or email me on mmacphie@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au
I'm in the office every day except Wednesday.

Please do not hesitate to email the office team on office@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au for any questions or to share information.

Religious Education

Zeeta Andrew, Religious Education Leader
zandrew@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au

Welcome

To all our wonderful St Joachim's families and members of the wider community, we offer a warm welcome to this new academic year 2025.

We thank our families for the way you nurture your children in their faith and cultural life. We strive to be a partner, ‘in concrete ways,’ to also enable the young people to continue to know and love their God.

May 2025 bring blessings of love and unity for all in the St Joachim’s community.

Beginning of the School Year Mass.

Beginning of Year Mass will be celebrated on Friday 14th February at 11:20am in the school hall. It is a special time for us to gather as a whole school and pray for a wonderful year ahead. We invite all families and friends to this special celebration.

Prayer of Welcoming

Loving God, our Saviour and companion,

Bless this journey of a new school year as we undertake today.

We give you our school – St Joachim’s Catholic Primary School.

We give to you our staff who work here.

We give to you all the children who learn here.

We give to you our families, who place their trust in the work we do here.

We pray that our school continues as a great place of faith, acceptance, learning, discovery, adventure, and creativity.

Amen.

From Mrs Stewart

Irene Stewart, Deputy Princial - Student Wellbeing
istewart@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au

Welcome back to everyone

I hope you all had a lovely holiday with family and friends and are ready for an exciting 2025 school year!

Learning to Learn.

At the beginning of each school year we start with a few special few weeks which we call “Learning to learn”. During this time, our staff work with our students to build solid foundations for a successful year ahead. This includes establishing classroom routines and expectations as well as getting to know each other: teachers and classmates.

Teachers also spend this time getting to know their students, reflecting on the handover from last year's teachers so as to identify the individual social, emotional and academic needs of each child. This will enable targeted teaching to meet the needs of the student.

Meet and Greet (Parent / Teacher) sessions

The Meet and Greet (Parent / Teacher) sessions scheduled for Tuesday February 18 and Wednesday February 19 provide an opportunity for parents to share further information about their child/ren with teachers.

An Operoo with instructions on how to make an appointment via www.schoolinterviews.com.au will be sent out early next week.

Buddies at St Joachim’s.

Each child in the school has a buddy from another class.

The older buddies provide friendship, guidance and support to their younger buddies, spending some time with them on the playground and in the classroom.

This partnership has proven to be a wonderful experience for all our students.

2025 Buddy classes:

FRF & SHJ
FRZ & SWD
JMR & SLN
JSE & MNG
JTA & MLR
JDB & MYK
MSM & STC

School Uniform

We begin Term 1 wearing our summer uniform only including a school hat. School hats are required by Monday. If a student does not have a school hat they will be required to play in a shaded area until they bring their hat.
Reminders:

Hair below the shoulder must be put up (both boys and girls).
Only clear nail polish is acceptable at school.
Sleepers or small studs only please.

Specialist Timetable:

Please see below the specialist timetable for Term 1.

School Photos

School Photography Date: 24/02/2025

Thank you to existing families who have already logged on and ordered school photos.

School photography information has been sent to all families via Operoo.

School Photos Uniform Requirements

For consistency and with the school uniform policy requirements, the following details will be followed for the school photos.

Hair should be tied up - any ribbons or bows should be in school colours (Pale blue and / or dark blue)
No make up
Earrings - only small sleepers or studs allowed.
No jewellery
Socks - boys grey, girls pale blue
Shoes - black school shoes
Watches / wrists - nothing on wrists for the school photos

Thank you to families for supporting these decisions.

Operoo

At the beginning of the year is the perfect time to update your phone and email details on Operoo. These are the go to details when we need to contact you.

Thank you to families who keep their Operoo profiles up to date such as when they change their address, phone number, parents work contact details etc. If you could also email the office@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au and let us know, so that we can adjust on our system as well.

Parents of Foundation students will have received an invitation via email to set up your child's Operoo account. These emails sometimes end up in spam

Audiri App

Our school uses the Audiri App to help us communicate more effectively with our Parent community. This type of notification does not usually require a response from parents (as Operoo does).

We ask parents to install our Audiri School App which is easily obtainable from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Once installed, just search for our school name “St Joachim's Primary School”.

Absence Notifications on Audiri

Absence notifications are sent to the school via the Audiri App. These notifications are seen by the classroom teacher, and the office staff who manage the daily roll.

Parents and carers have an obligation to notify the school of their child’s absence as soon as possible on the day of absence - preferably before 8:30am.

Other messages such as early pick up, can also sent using the Absence notifications form of the Audiri App.

Here’s a video on how to send absence notifications.

If you're having trouble with your Audiri App on your phone, it may need to be deleted and the latest version installed. Families and staff are telling us that this has fixed any Audiri issues that they have been having.

St Joachim's Primary School on Facebook - link

Subway will recommence on Friday Feb 7.

English

Carolyn Yass, English Leader
cyass@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au

Login to Story Box Library

Username: stjoachims. Password: library

Parents & Friends News

Lauren Wilson- President

pandfpresident@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au

Vice President,
Sarah Cruise

Secretary,
Elizabeth Bonner

Treasurer,
Melinda Mani

Everyone Welcome!

All parents and friends of the school are encouraged to come to the P & F meetings and all are welcome. If you are unable to attend meetings but would like to be involved please send an email to pandfpresident@sjcarrumdowns.catholic.edu.au

To make Zooper Dooper Fridays happen, we need the support of volunteers!

Here is the link for the parent roster for zooper doopers.

https://signup.zone/LYCfZuH5ij44aJqW9

ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS - BUY FROM the P&F.

All purchases via this link, support St Joachim's and therefore your children!

Click here to order: https://subscribe.entertainment.com.au/fundraiser/18h1742

Please help us to spread the Christmas cheer – share this post with your family and friends. We’ll receive 20% from the sale of every Membership towards our fundraising.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! 

St Joachim's Primary School P&F