St Joseph's Memorial School Newsletter

Dear SJMS Community

We are getting closer!

(In alignment with SA Department for Education announcements made late yesterday 15/6/20)

Current school access arrangements (until 29 June)

A reminder that essential service staff (including support staff) can attend schools, Preschools and Early Childhood Services (at the request of Mrs Benci for SJMS).

This includes psychologists, speech pathologists and occupational therapists, school improvement support, and any other service that is vital to the health, wellbeing and learning outcomes of students.

From Monday 29 June, the following activities can resume providing government health advice and physical distancing requirements are strictly followed:

• Parents, volunteers, school support and other service providers may again enter school and Preschool grounds. All external service providers and volunteers must complete the site access forms on entry.
• School assemblies.
• Class photos.
• All intrastate camps and excursions with particular restrictions.
• All school sport competitions, sports days and carnivals, including inter-school competitions (but the use of change rooms and shower facilities is not permitted).
• Inter-school choirs, bands and other performing art activities.
• School formals, socials and discos.
• Playgroups and occasional care.

Requirements that remain in place:

• It is important that students and staff stay home if they are unwell.
• Physical contact (even between students) must be limited. Non-physical greetings should be encouraged.
• School, Preschool or Early Childhood visits to nursing homes cannot recommence.
• The general public should not access school playgrounds or play equipment.
• Parents must continue to physical distance, including at school pick up and drop off.
• Interstate and overseas travel remains on hold.

Co-curricular offerings

Mr Siinmaa has written about the return of sport below in today’s newsletter. In addition, I have also written to parents yesterday about the recommencement of Debating for those Year 5 and 6 students who expressed an interest in this at the beginning of the year.

Year 6 Canberra Trip

While all SA borders will open on 20 July, the Department will consult with SA Health regarding interstate school camps and provide further advice.

Under the current SA Department for Education restrictions, the Canberra trip would not be able to go ahead. However, knowing that the potential relaxing of restrictions may allow the Year 6 Canberra trip to go ahead in late Term 3, Mrs Vassallo-Wakefield yesterday wrote to all Year 6 parents about the intended support of the Canberra trip if restrictions were to be relaxed by early next term when we would need to finalise travel arrangements. I look forward to seeing these, which we will share the outcome. The outcome will inform us, so we can be agile in our planning moving forward. 

School Board

Last Wednesday the School Board met. The outcomes of the meeting were that the school will proceed with the installation of a new play space at Bridge Street before the end of the year.

In addition, we also discussed Swanbury Penglase’s next iteration of detailed plans for the William Street Office and Ground Floor which you can via the links below:
Plan 1
Plan 2
Plan 3

I would love to hear your thoughts on these and have provided this link if you have any feedback.

Finally, we collectively contributed towards the drafted update of the CESA Fee Policy.

Reports

Please be reminded that reports are due to come home next Friday 26 June.

Mr Heaney

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes for Mr Heaney, I have passed these on. May we continue to keep Mr Heaney in our prayers that he has a speedy recovery.

God Bless

Brady Stallard

Photos: Year 6 students wearing their Leadership jumpers. Thank you Mr Heaney for your coordination and work to ensure the students receive their jumpers.

Dear Parents and Caregivers

On Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast day reminds us of the Last Supper, when Jesus shared a meal with his disciples to celebrate the Passover festival. At this meal, Jesus told his friends that he was giving up his life for them and that he wanted them to remember him every time they gathered to eat a community meal.

This is what we do when we gather at mass on Sundays. We gather to share stories about Jesus and pray together. The Eucharist is important because we remember Jesus’ final meal with his friends and how he sacrificed his life for us. Our participation at Eucharist joins us closer to Jesus and God. 

Sacred Heart of Jesus – Friday 19 June

This Friday we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This provides an opportunity to be joyful together and to give thanks to God for loving us deeply and always. Jesus shows us the depth of God’s love by the way he lived his life, and in his willingness to do what God asked of him. Because of Jesus, we are called the children of God.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing,

I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins

I offer you this poor heart of mine.

Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to your will.

Grant, Good Jesus that I may live in you and for you.

Protect me in the midst of danger.

Comfort me in my afflictions.

Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs,

your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death.

Amen.

Refugee Week

Did you know that Jesus was a refugee? At his birth, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee from Bethlehem as Jesus was in danger. Heeding the message, Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus fled to Egypt where they remained until after the death of Herod and the fear of persecution had passed.

This week we celebrate Refugee Week from 14-20 June. The theme for this year is the ‘Year of Welcome’ which is about promoting harmony and togetherness regardless of our differences. This week, let us celebrate the positive contributions that refugees have made to Australian society.

Lord, No one is a stranger to you and no one is ever far from your loving care.

In your kindness watch over refugees and asylum seekers,

those separated from their loved ones,

those who are lost, and those who have been exiled from their homes.

Bring them safely to the place where they long to be,

and help us always to show your kindness

to strangers and those in need.

Amen

From: Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

Grace Vassallo-Wakefield

APRIM

Dear Parents and Caregivers

I'd like to thank all students and parents for their patience and consideration during the term as we have waiting for news to come through regarding the resumption of our school sporting competitions. We are now gearing up and getting ready to begin all of our Winter Sports in Term 3, which is really exciting. Uniforms will be distributed to students and teams released in Week 10 of this term.

As we are still not permitted to have parent volunteers on site, I will be working with the Year 6 Leaders to run training sessions for students during lunchtimes, beginning next week in Week 9.

Basketball
A new season is approaching for Terms 3 and 4, all students that wish to take part will need to register, regardless if they played in Term 1. The online registration form and information can be found in the SkoolBag app and will close on Tuesday 23 June. Please also consider volunteering as a coach if you nominate your child, no experience is necessary.

Soccer
EZPSSA have updated us on their projected outlook for school soccer. Games will be played on Saturday mornings beginning 25 July and running through to 12 September. Further details on the fixture and games times will come later in the term. Students will also need to have their own long dark socks (navy or black), soccer boots and shin guards.

Netball
EDNA have announced that fixtures will be released on 3 July with games to commence on 25 July. EDNA are still working through the finer details of the season which will be passed on when they come to hand.

Football
Over the weekend the SANFL Schools Competition released their approach to the shortened Term 3 season. There are 7 rounds set to run on Saturday mornings from 1 August to 12 September. Venues and fixtures will not be finalised until the start of Term 3. If your child is registered to play school football, they will need to have their own football boots, long dark socks (navy or black) and are strongly encouraged to have their own mouthguard.

We are still looking for additional parent volunteers with a current Catholic Police Clearance to help with coaching teams, in particular the Football teams as we do not as of yet have coaches, which makes it very difficult for those teams to go ahead. If you would like to volunteer please get in touch with me, or if you would like to apply for a Catholic Police Clearance please see Mary Fantasia at the William St office.

Yours sincerely

Tom Siinmaa

Physical Education Teacher and Sport Coordinator

We are excited to announce St Joseph's Memorial Preschool and Mid Year Reception intake fees have been waived for Semester 2, 2020!

Limited places available in Preschool and the Mid Year Reception class- contact us today for more information.

Enrolment form available here.

(Fees waived for Terms 3 & 4 2020)

2020
Term 2 Monday 27 April to Friday 3 July (Pupil Free Day on Friday 5 June)
Term 3 Monday 20 July to Friday 25 September
Term 4 Monday 12 October to Friday 11 December
(Pupil Free Days Monday 12 October, Thursday 10 December and Friday 11 December)

2021
Term 1 Wednesday 27 January to Friday 9 April
Term 2 Tuesday 27 April to Friday 2 July
Term 3 Monday 19 July to Friday 24 September
Term 4 Monday 11 October to Friday 10 December

2022
Term 1 Monday 31 January to Thursday 14 April
Term 2 Monday 2 May to Friday 8 July
Term 3 Monday 25 July to Friday 30 September
Term 4 Monday 17 October to Friday 16 December

2023
Term 1 Monday 30 January to Friday 14 April
Term 2 Monday 1 May to Friday 7 July
Term 3 Monday 24 July to Friday 29 September
Term 4 Monday 16 October to Friday 15 December

2024
Term 1 Monday 29 January to Friday 12 April
Term 2 Monday 29 April to Friday 5 July
Term 3 Monday 22 July to Friday 27 September
Term 4 Monday 14 October to Friday 13 December

2025
Term 1 Tuesday 28 January to Friday 11 April
Term 2 Monday 28 April to Friday 4 July
Term 3 Monday 21 July to Friday 26 September
Term 4 Monday 13 October to Friday 12 December

Please remember to check the SJMS calendar regularly for important dates and events.

Catholic Police Check Application Forms are available to download here or at either school office.

Please note - there are many times throughout the school year where visitors are required to have a current Catholic Police Check (parents/caregivers attending excursions, reading in class, helping in class, attending community events).

This process ensures we maintain a child safe environment. To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to apply for a Catholic Police Check through either school office.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at either office.

Thanking you

The SJMS Admin Team

School Card Reminder

2020 Applications are available online through the Centrelink website. These need to be submitted for eligible applicants every year, they do not roll over to the next year.

Follow this link to view the application forms available.

COVID-19 Fee Remission

Families who have lost significant income due to COVID-19 are encouraged to engage with us and we will confidentially and sensitively work through this with you.

We will work with families to implement and provide this financial assistance for an extended period of 3 months.

To find out the latest news from local Catholic high schools, please click read more.

In light of easing government COVID restrictions, here are the new church opening guidelines:

Church Mass Times

Masses Monday to Friday (one in the church and one in the hall) at 12 noon
Only 20 people may attend each mass

Church Private Prayer Openings

Monday to Friday: 12.45pm to 1.30pm
Saturday: 1pm to 5pm
Sunday: 8.30am to 12.30pm
Only 20 people at a time will be allowed for prayer this weekend.

Individual baptisms are allowed for twenty participants plus those officiating. Please contact the parish office for more information.

St Ignatius Parish Website

St Ignatius Parish Facebook

Click here to read the latest news from the Southern Cross.