A message from the SRC about the School Colour Fun Run: 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for supporting our Colour Fun Run! We had so much fun organising and running the event! We loved seeing everyone participate and get coloured! Thanks to all the people who donated- we raised $31,305.90! Thanks to all the students and staff for participating! Special thanks to the Fire Brigade and Police Officers who came to our event and joined in the fun. Another thank you to our families and friends for coming to see all of us run and helping us get ready for the day. We had a terrific day!

Lastly, thanks to the teachers for getting slimed!

Book Week

Last week the students viewed a performance from Meerkat Productions of The Way of Dog (for the senior students) and Frank’s Red Hat (for the juniors), two of the books shortlisted for this year’s awards. This was a great way to finish our Book Week celebrations. The students certainly enjoyed the performance and participated enthusiastically. 

Open Afternoon

Yesterday we held our Term 3 Open Afternoon when the children from across the school shared with parents, relatives and friends some of the learning they have achieved over the course of Term 3. It was wonderful to see so many people attend- sincere thanks to all of you for making the effort, the students and staff certainly appreciate it. Much of the learning shared has come from the students' inquiry focus for the term. We implement an inquiry approach to learning to involve the students and increase their interest, voice and choice. The following is an article written by three Grade 3/4  students, which was included in the Sentinel Times Education Choices issue in which they describe their experience on inquiry learning:

Inquiry learning  

Written by Daisy Maurizio, Zaya Cole and Ruby Atkinson from 3/4 Faith.

At St Joseph's Wonthaggi, we use inquiry to find out about different topics in the curriculum. Each term we have a different focus and this term, in Year 3/4, we are learning about our local history.

To learn about local history we had an excursion to the Wonthaggi Historical Society. They taught us about the history of Wonthaggi, which is very different to now.  Everyone thought that the volunteers were really engaging when they were teaching us. 

At school we also get to research about a personal interest from our local history that we want more information on, such as the 20ft shark from Phillip Island, the Whale Bone or the 1993 MicroBurst. We have also been using charcoal in our art lessons because of its connection to the Coal Mine.  

At the end of our research we will have an Open Day for family and friends where we’ll show our learning. We are going to be able to present our writing about local history, artefacts, our charcoal drawings and a digital presentation such as slideshow, podcast or interview. 

Inquiry is great because we can choose what we would like to research around the topic we are learning about and how to show our learning. Some of the students have said, “I love inquiry, it is a fun subject!”, “Inquiry is the best way to work with partners and make new friends!” and “I like how we get to go on excursions, it's the best way to learn!”. Inquiry lets students demonstrate their learning in different ways that suit them.  

In conclusion, inquiry is a great way for students to learn. We even get to teach family and teachers things they don’t know!

Staffing news

This week we farewell Mr Travis Newton and Ms Nicole Buccilli who have both taken up positions at Mary Mackillop Catholic Regional College beginning in Term 4. 

We are very thankful to Travis for his leadership around the Whole School Approach to Positive Behavior and the SRC group which has been very much appreciated. He has been a professional, dedicated member of staff who has regularly devoted his lunchtimes to facilitate the senior students’ sport, particularly football and basketball.

Mrs Hayley Tregidga, who has been our school tutor under the government's Tutor Learning Initiative program will be replacing Travis and teaching 3/4 H for the remainder of 2023.  

Nicole Buccilli has been instrumental in creating and implementing an engaging, exciting and impactful STEAM curriculum which quickly became one of the students’ favourite subjects. Nicole has also been an inspirational Religious Education Leader this year and we are very grateful for her efforts in coordinating the Sacramental programs, liaising closely with our parish and leading staff to further their knowledge around the Diocesan Religious Education program.   

We welcome Mrs Sarah Thomas to our school staff and community who will be teaching STEAM from next term. 

We sincerely thank Travis and Nicole for all they have contributed to St Joseph's School and community. While they will be missed, we wish them well in their future endeavours. 

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday break and I look forward to seeing you all return next term!

Joanne Coldebella
Principal

What an amazing Term 3, we all had in the Prep neighbourhood. We have been working on addition and subtraction strategies in maths and doing a great job too. We played lots of math games to help us with the new strategies. Our main genre focus has been recount and we are able to write about our weekends and recount Ned's adventures in our Little Learners Love Literacy books. We have all become little weather experts too. The weather unit was both interesting and fun, with a few science experiments thrown in. 

This Term was filled with lots of fun school activities such as Book Week, 100 Days of School. The School Fun Run, Footsteps, Open Afternoon and the Meerkat Production incursion.

We would like to thank all the Parents, Grandparents and Carers for your ongoing support. We wish you a happy and safe holiday period and look forward to seeing you next year.

Prep Team

Over the last few weeks the 3/4 students have been learning all about the history of the local area. To celebrate this, they went on an excursion to Old Gippstown in Moe. While they were there they learnt how butter was made. After many turns of the handle the 3/4 students got to eat some tasty bread with the home made butter on it. The students then headed outside and played some traditional games. They then experienced what it would be like to attend school 100 years ago. I think most would agree they would much prefer school today! We have had a great term learning about local history and it was wonderful to share all our learning with the community at our open day on Monday.

3/4 Team

On Monday September 11, Peter Morrissey from St Vincent De Paul was a special guest presenter at our assembly. Mr Morrissey came along to receive a collection of our generous donations for the winter appeal. Mr Morrissey spoke to the students about what happens to the donations now and how grateful people within our community are for them. 

Well done to Liturgy captains for welcoming Mr Morrissey and promoting the appeal. Thank you to all of our families for being so generous with their donations.  We look forward to continuing our work with St Vincent De Paul in the future.

Nicole Buccilli
Religious Education Leader

Our boys and girls netball teams competed at the Netball Victoria state championships on Thursday August 31st. Playing against students from all over the state, our teams played wonderfully, showing great teamwork, and supporting each other from the sidelines. The boys made the semi finals, going down to the eventual winners, and finishing 4th in the state. The girls had a few very close games, which could have gone either way, and learnt a lot from the experience, missing out on finals but finishing 7th in the state.  Congratulations to all our students on a very successful day. Thank you to our wonderful parents who travelled to Melbourne, sat on the sidelines and supported our teams. 

Michelle Richards
Sports Coordinator

As the process of planning and preparing for the 2024 school year has commenced, we will soon begin to work on class lists. If parents have a genuine reason for class placement requests for next year, you are required to put this in writing and submit it to the School Office. 

Please be aware that a request has to be made for this current year, we will not be referring to requests made 12 months ago as circumstances change and it is important this is requested and submitted each year. Obviously, we cannot (and will not) accommodate requests for particular teachers; we can only look at the needs of the child.

All requests are to be submitted in writing to info@stjwonthaggi.catholic.edu.au by Friday, October 7 2023. 

It is important to note that once classes are established for the year, no alterations to allocations will be made. While we welcome parent input about your child’s individual learning needs, please be mindful that preferences are requests only and school staff decide the final placement of children based on the learning needs of all students.

This year the school will be utilising the Class Solver program to assist in allocating students to classes. Teachers will input data into the program which will then sort the classes. It is hoped that this will make this process more efficient. 

Just a reminder to families that Term 3 ends on Friday, September 15 at the earlier time of 2:25pm. 
We wish you all a safe and happy break and look forward to seeing you all back at the beginning of term 4.  Term 4 begins Monday, October 2.

Students are now required to wear their hats outside as part of our SunSmart policy. 

Please ensure your child/ren have their hats labeled and in their school bags.

Hats are able to be purchased from our uniform supplier Totally Workwear Wonthaggi

Students may start to wear their Summer from now. Whilst not compulsory until the beginning of Term 4,  it is important that students wear either full Winter uniform or full Summer uniform and not a mixture of both.

Weekday Masses:

Tuesday Our Lady Star of the Sea, Inverloch 11:00a.m.

Wednesday St. Joseph’s Wonthaggi MASS 9:30a.m.

Friday Mass at St. Joseph’s Wonthaggi 9:30 a.m.

Weekend Masses Our Lady Star of the Sea, Inverloch Sunday 9:00am

St. Joseph’s Wonthaggi Saturday 6:30pm, Sunday 10:30am

COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE: People who prefer to receive communion on the tongue, would you please come last for communion, as there is still widespread fear of COVID.

PLEASE PRAY: For those who continue to be affected by the Wars in Ukraine, Sudan and the wildfires in Maui. For all who are sick, lonely and suffering from illness and pain. For those suffering from Road Trauma, both death and injury. For the anniversaries of William Duffy, Daniel Sutton and Walter Sutton.  For our community: that we have the strength to stand in solidarity with victims of abuse, the humility to come to terms with the sinful crimes of the past and the patience to stop and listen to children and the vulnerable. Our loved ones, may God’s merciful love shine on them and on the loved ones left behind.

Please pray for those who continue to be affected by the Ukrainian War, and those natural disasters. Prayer for Peace and Justice in Ukraine.

Prayer for Peace and Justice in Ukraine.
God of peace and justice,
Who change the hardened heart and break the power of
violence, we entrust the people of Ukraine to you.
Protect them in this time of peril;
let them know not death but life, not slavery but freedom,
You are Father of all;
we are brothers and sisters.
Give us the strength to live that truth in love,
choosing peace not war.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Pope Francis’ Intention for September: For people living on the margins
We pray for those persons living on the margins of society, in inhumane life conditions; may they not be overlooked by institutions and never considered of lesser importance.

PARISH OFFICE HOURS: THE OFFICE IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS.

THE OFFICE IS OPEN TUESDAY TO FRIDAY FROM 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. with Lunch being taken between 1:00pm and 1:30pm.  PLEASE CONTACT FATHER DARREN ON 03 56 722 923 OR KRISTINE ON 0499 915 784 IF THE MATTER IS URGENT.  ITEMS CAN BE PUT THROUGH THE LETTER BOX AT THE PRESBYTERY FRONT DOOR. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

Catholic communities nationwide are invited to join the online launch of the Season of Creation, the annual ecumenical celebration of prayer and action for “our common home” Details and registrations for the online launch: https://www.trybooking.com/CJUOQ.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has launched its 2023-24 Social Justice Statement. This year’s statement is titled Listen, Learn, Love: A New Engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. “Strengthening our relationship with our First Peoples is integral and indeed critical to the strengthening of the whole nation,” Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv said at the launch. The media release and the statement can be found at the diocesan website at cdsale.catholic.org.au.

A Voice to Parliament - A message from Bishop Charles Gauci of Darwin “As Australians we are at a very important time reflecting on the Voice to Parliament. I will not tell anyone how to vote, but it is my responsibility as Bishop to encourage you all to be reflective in the light of our faith and Catholic Social Teachings: the Common Good and the Dignity of all People.” Visit https://indigenousvoice.church/

PRAYER SHAWL GROUP:New members are always welcome-plenty of wool & simple patterns available. Good weather for knitting over a cuppa & chat! If you would like a shawl or know of someone in need, please phone Philippa or Maureen. Alternatively, shawls are available at the Parish Office and Our Lady Star of the Sea, Inverloch. Enquiries: Philippa Warby 0408 331 340 and Maureen Maartensz 0407 055 447.

The Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry has published a document on evangelisation, offering a scriptural and theological reflection on the proclamation of the Gospel through the lenses of encounter, discipleship and mission. It draws on seminal documents on evangelisation from recent decades, including the teachings of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Evangelisation can be downloaded directly from https://bit.ly/Evangelisation2023

Sunday Gospel Reflection
Sunday gospel reflections written by the clergy, religious and laymen and women of our diocese are published weekly through the diocesan website and the diocesan Facebook page enabling us to reflect and prepare ourselves on the Gospel before we get to the weekend masses. The link to  our website is   https://www.cdsale.org.au/news/sunday-gospel-reflections
and the link to our Facebook page is  https://www.facebook.com/dioceseofsale 

AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED: ACN AUSTRALIA A message from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN This month Aid to the Church in Need is raising money to build a parish house in Sierra Leone. The parishioners of the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour have been trying to help their priest who is living in a house that is decaying due to heavy rainfall and salt-laden sea air but they themselves are poor and have little to give. ACN has promised to help but we need your help to make this possible. To learn more and to make an offering visit www.aidtochurch.org./monthprojector

A HISTORY OF THE GIPPSLAND CATHOLIC DIOCESE:

A history of the diocese entitled A Mass Kit in the Saddle Bag, written by Patrick Morgan, is now available. Catholics were settling in Gippsland from 1837 for a half century before the diocese of Sale was set up in 1887. During this pioneering period priests were sent out from Melbourne ‘on the Gippsland mission’.  The first two bishops, James Corbett and Patrick Phelan, established a basic but coherent network of Catholic organizations. In recent memory Bishops Eric D’Arcy and Jeremiah Coffey coped with new issues such as increasing secularization and modernist attitudes. The book includes a bibliography, lists of parishes and priests, and over fifty photographs.

The diocesan history can be purchased for $25, plus $5 postage, from Patrick Morgan, 610 Limonite Rd, Boolarra, Vic, 3870; email: morganpa@iprimus.co.au;  phone: 51 596 216.

Establishment of a new Diocese of Sale Mission Council: Its Role

“The role of the new Diocesan Mission Council will be to assist the Bishop in investigating, discerning, and proposing practical priorities and strategies for the development of the Diocese’s pastoral life and mission. As a key body in the Diocese, the Mission Council exercises leadership and co-responsibility in a Christ-centred and mission orientated way, sharing in the proclamation of the Gospel, and serving Jesus Christ where He is present among the people of the Diocese, through unity, trust, and solidarity.” ( DMC Statutes)

MISSAL ONLINE: ‘An App’ which Father Darren Howie finds very helpful is Universalis. This will allow you to follow the Daily Mass.                                           

CARITAS AUSTRALIA: There is still time to support our global neighbours as they tackle the challenges of poverty. Your generosity today can help create a better tomorrow for people living in some of the most remote and marginalised communities in the world. All donations over $2 are 100% tax deductible. Caritas Australia:   www.caritas.org.au

We have been emailing and sending out important communications from the Diocese and if you would like to be involved and receive this information then please contact the Parish Office on 56 721 111 or email your details to wonthaggi@cdsale.org.au.

WORKING WITH CHILDREN: AS WE ARE HOPING TO RETURN TO A ROSTER SYSTEM FOR READERS AND SPECIAL MINISTERS, THIS IS JUST A REMINDER TO CHECK THAT YOUR WORKING WITH CHILDREN HASN’T EXPIRED AND IF IT DOES NEED RENEWING, PLEASE CONTACT THE PARISH OFFICE FOR ANY ASSISTANCE WITH THIS.

Our Parish is committed to the safety, well-being and dignity of all children, young people and adults at risk. Find out more at: catholic.org.au/childprotectionsunday and www.catholicregligious.org.au/safeguarding

If you are concerned about any form of abuse, or believe that someone is at significant risk, you should immediately raise your concerns with one of our Parish Safeguarding Officers. Contact Kristine McRae via the Parish Office: 03 56 721 111 or St. Joseph’s School Safeguarding Officer 03 56 721 052.   Take care, we are here to help..                    

If you are in need of urgent assistance, please phone either Father Darren Howie 0356 722 923 or Kristine on 03 56 72111 or 04999 15 784.

Father Darren Howie                                                        Mrs. Kristine McRae
Parish Priest                                                                       Parish Secretary
St. Joseph’s Parish Wonthaggi