Principal’s Message

Welcome to Term 4!  I hope you enjoyed the school holidays with family and friends.  We hit the ground running last week with the fantastic St Joseph's School Dance Extravaganza.  Congratulations to the students on their amazing performances.  As you are aware, I was on leave for a few weeks prior to the holidays so I was very impressed to see the polished performances. The evening showcased the outstanding talents of our students and involved everyone across Kindergarten to Year 6.  Special thanks to Mr O'Toole for co-ordinating the evening so brilliantly.  He has a special knack for motivating the children to perform 110% which they certainly did.  Mr O'Toole and Mrs Bearman applied for a Creative and Practical Arts grant through the Catholic Schools Office which was successful.  We are extremely grateful for the considerable funding which was provided to us so that we could hold the dance instruction week as well as the performance last Thursday evening. I extend a sincere thank you to the staff for their considerable efforts in preparing the dances, organising and creating the fabulous costumes and of course, for our ABBA performance! Looking forward, we are hoping to create a new  St Joseph's School tradition by holding a Dance Extravaganza every other year.  

The 4th session of our Kindergarten Transition Program took place today with our preschoolers spending the whole day at school. They are settling in very well and becoming more familiar with their classmates, teachers and school routines.  We have enjoyed getting to know the children and their families over the past few months.  The Kinder Transition Graduation will take place next Monday - see inside for more details.

I was excited to see how much the new building had progressed since I've been away!  I had a quick tour of the new section last week and it is amazing!  The learning areas are spacious and we are very proud of the overall design.  While there has been some disruption to the playground, it will all be worth it in the end.   Our students deserve high quality, contemporary facilities in which to learn and that goal will certainly be achieved.  Hopefully the new stage will be completed before Christmas in readiness for the children to commence in their new contemporary learning spaces in January 2020 - stay tuned!

As I write this, Years 5 and 6 are heading to Canberra on their major excursion.  I wish them all the best for a great week of learning and fun!

May God bless you,

Katie Hanes

Principal

'Remember, we are all but travellers here'  - St Mary MacKillop.