St Joseph's Catholic Parish Primary School is located in Springvale in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The school originally opened in 1938 to serve the growing rural community. Over the past 70 years the school and parish have grown and reflected the changing migration patterns of Australia with many students coming from multicultural backgrounds. Following recent refurbishments, the school has additional forthcoming improvement plans including a large multi-purpose hall. There is a strong commitment to cater for students with special needs. The school's major focus is on literacy and language development. Programs such as Reading Recovery and Corrective Reading are utilised to address individual literacy needs. Specialist programs of physical education, music, library and Italian are offered to all. Students have access to technology with computers in all classrooms and a computer lab. The recent introduction of interactive whiteboards complements the teaching. The school also offers a number of extra-curricular activities comprising swimming, camps, inter-school sports, athletics, school choir and active after school programs.