Communication

Communication is one of the key drivers for success and it goes two ways. 

There are many opportunities and ways for our parents to communicate with us. 

For communication to be successful and timely, it is important that it is directed toward the correct person.

If at any time you have a concern about your child, the first person to contact is your child's classroom teacher. They work very closely with your child on a daily basis and know them the best. Teachers can be contacted via phone or email. Phone calls are often difficult to put through or return, so the best option is email. As teachers are busy teaching our children during the day, emails will generally be replied to within a 48 hour period. It is in these emails that you can express any concerns or clarifications you may have, or make a time to meet face to face.

If something is of an urgent matter, like change of pickup time, please do not email this information as it maybe too late by the time our teachers read this email. Please ring the school office and we will pass the message on to ensure your child is informed. 

Sometimes there are bigger concerns families have that may not need to involve the classroom teacher, but leadership at the school. 

Parents are welcome to contact myself via email at any time or phone, where I can help and support any concerns or queries you may have. We value what our families have to share and require, and we will try our best to support families with this. 

Lent

This week, we started off our Lenten journey by celebrating Shrove Tuesday, a tradition where people would use up all the fats in their homes before the fasting period leading up to Easter. The children had a great time enjoying pancakes with their teachers and classmates!

On Wednesday, we entered the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday Liturgy, marking the occasion with the blessing and distribution of ashes. Over the next six weeks, we are given a unique opportunity to deepen our relationship with God, reflect on our actions and shortcomings, engage in more heartfelt prayer, and show generosity to those in need. We pray that the Spirit will guide us as we strive to strengthen our commitment to the life that Jesus modeled.

Commissioning Ceremony of Mini Vinnies - 2024

At our whole school Ash Wednesday Liturgy, the students who form our Mini Vinnies Team as part of the St Vincent de Paul, Seaford Conference were commissioned and received their badges. The aim of Mini Vinnies is to empower primary school students to become advocates within our school and local community by putting their values into action. The children were presented with badges to recognise their commitment to help others both locally and globally.

Congratulations to Milla, Gurshan, Gabrielle, Sienna, Nixon, Constance, Lucy, Christine, Victoria, Dante, Zak, Aria, Shevon, Addison, Jaxon and Nysa on their commitment to join Mini Vinnies.

The Mini Vinnies aim to serve Jesus by offering “a hand up” to people in need and poor. They do this with love, joy, and by respecting their dignity, working towards making our world more loving and just.

The Mini Vinnies follow the ‘Think, See, Do’ model, reflecting and discussing their spirituality and connecting their faith with issues affecting their community through volunteering, advocacy and fundraising. Not only do the students in Mini Vinnies benefit from the experience, but also the school and wider community benefit. This has been shown by all the great work done by our Mini Vinnies over the past few years.

Project Compassion: Caritas Australia

To care deeply for the needs of another person or creature is an expression of our love for them. This tender concern is called ‘compassion’. We show compassion each year, through our efforts to raise funds for Project Compassion. The money raised supports people around the globe and here at home in Australia, to live with dignity and to make a true difference for themselves and their families.

We have Project Compassion boxes in every classroom and in the admin office to support Caritas Australia this Lenten season and help support vulnerable people around the world, now and for all generations. With your support, Caritas Australia has been able to support vulnerable communities around the world to tackle poverty, food security, education, water and sanitation and disaster risk reduction. 

Project Compassion 2025, reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come to build a better future for all. 

As St Pope John Paul II said, “The future starts today, not tomorrow.” Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow for all future generations.

Here is a lovely Lenten prayer to pray together as a family …

Open our hearts to you word, O Lord, that we may be renewed
Open our hands to receive and to give, that we may be replenished
Open our minds to the silence of Your presence, that we may be refreshed – Amen

Maths @ St Joachim's

Our Foundation students have been doing maths rotations focusing on number formation and number matching.

It’s been great getting to learn all the Foundation students names for 2025! 

This week the students enjoyed using lots of colours to create their name art as well as  drawing two of their favourite animals ! What a fantastic start to the year in the Art Hub !  

Middles Performing Arts

Over the last few weeks, the Middles classes have been busy exploring different sounds from many percussion instruments. They have worked in groups to create a journey of water, using the instruments. Students then performed their compositions to their classes. They created storms, evaporation, thunder, hail, waterfalls, water treatment plants, drains going into the ocean, rain falling into puddles and many other creative scenes.

St Joachim’s House Athletics Carnival

Our annual St Joachim’s House Athletics Carnival will be held on Monday, 24th March.

The tabloid sports activities will be held from 11:15 - 13:15. The athletics activities will be held from 2pm to 3:15pm

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

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.