Principal's Page

Dear Parents and Friends,

This week, Mr Alex Walker and myself will travel to Los Angeles for the annual Los Angeles Religious Education Congress along with colleagues from the Catholic Education Office and Diocesan schools. This will be a wonderful opportunity to be pilgrims on a journey exploring our faith and we look forward to sharing our experiences with the community on our return in Week 6. During this time, I thank Mr Aguilera for stepping into the Acting Principal role and Mrs Kylie Grose for stepping into the Acting Assistant Principal role.

Regular School Attendance - Arrive To Thrive

Regular attendance at school is integral to students’ learning, wellbeing and future life opportunities. Every day of attendance provides students with the opportunity to experience a sense of belonging within their school community, to grow in their faith and to realise their learning potential.

In 2025, a new Attendance Policy and Procedure Document have been introduced across all Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) schools to promote regular student attendance. Schools, in partnership with families, are responsible for encouraging and supporting consistent attendance.

I encourage all parents to read the Arrive to Thrive New Attendance Policy and Procedure Document that highlights and explains changes to the previous Attendance Policy. Of particular importance at this point in time is the new Attendance Levels that have been established to address students’ attendance patterns, Notification Requirements and Extended Absence applications. 

We will continue to share aspects of the updated Attendance Policy and Procedures in this newsletter. Please do not hesitate to contact a member of the school leadership team via the school office for further information or clarification. If at any time parents are concerned about their child’s attendance or their reluctance to attend school, please contact your child's teacher in the first instance.

Year 6 Student Leaders

Congratulations to our Year 6 students who were formally initiated into their student leadership roles last Thursday at our Beginning of the Year School Mass and Year 6 Student Leadership ceremony. We are very proud of all Year 6 students for the manner in which they have embraced the prestige and responsibility that comes with being in Year 6 these past few weeks. Our school community is in good hands!

Swimming Trials - Explanation of ‘Trials’

In 2017, Wollongong City Council made the decision to change the Swimming Pool booking allocation for all Wollongong  Primary schools from one full day to one half day per school. This dramatically changed the format and purpose of the SJB swimming carnival. Rather than a fun day of participation for all, we only have enough time to run competitive 50m races so that we can name our representative team at the Regionals. For those who have attended our past trials, you would be aware of the next school lining up to begin their competition as soon as we have vacated the pool.

We are as disappointed by this ‘competitors only’ trial, as many parents would be. We are continuing to discuss bookings with Council and enquire into any other possibilities. 

2025 Annual Improvement Plan 

Goal: Through quality assessment, students will be challenged in their learning, to ensure continual growth and achievement.

• An important part of our Annual Improvement Plan this year, is to develop a school-wide wide pedagogical approach with the focus on evidence-based High Impact Strategies. Alongside this focus is the desire to enhance our collaborative processes that allow teachers to improve and reflect on their teaching practice in light of the impact their teaching has on student learning. As such, we have begun the implementation of Teaching Sprints across the school

• Our Instructional Leaders, Mrs Kylie Grose (Years 3-6) and Miss Angela Boyd-Skinner (K-2), facilitated collaborative professional learning days with teachers this week using the Teaching Sprint approach to focus on designing lessons/units of work incorporating the High Impact Strategy, Worked Examples. 

• The Teaching Sprint approach, developed by Dr Simon Breakspear, will run over four weeks and includes three phases:

• Prepare Phase 

• Sprint Phase 

• Review Phase 

• During the Sprint Phase, teachers will be involved in peer observation, coaching and mentoring and learning walks.

• Teachers were released this week to begin the Prepare Phase:

We will continue to provide updates on the progress of this Teaching Sprint in future newsletters.

Recent Staff Professional Learning

Research tells us that the quality of the teacher is the greatest in-school influence on student achievement. Therefore high quality professional learning for teachers must be a priority to ensure improved teacher practice that leads to improved student learning growth. Professional learning undertaken by our staff over the past fortnight includes:

18 February 2025 - Teaching Sprints - Prepare Phase 

Half Day: Mrs Grose & Mr Matthews

Half Day: Mrs Grose, Mrs Smith, Mr Walker, Miss Boyd-Skinner

19 February 2025 - Teaching Sprints - Prepare Phase 

Half Day: Miss Boyd-Skinner, Mrs Greenwood, Mrs Clark, Miss Gemmill 

Half Day: Mrs Fursey, Mrs Clarkson, Mrs Grose  

21 February 2025 - Teaching Sprints - Prepare Phase 

Half Day: Mrs Grose, Mrs Lantry, Mrs Parker 

Half Day: Miss Boyd-Skinner, Miss Papaleonidas, Miss Wragge

19 February 2025 - 28 February 2025 - LA RE Congress 

Mrs Duffin & Mr Walker 

School Assemblies

School assemblies are held fortnightly (even weeks) at 2pm in the school hall. Our next school assembly will be held tomorrow, Friday 21 February at 2pm. We are excited to have our Kindergarten students join us for their first assembly. All are welcome!

Kaylene Duffin

Principal, 

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

Principal Awards

Our Principal awards are presented to students fortnightly on the even week.  

The following students received their Principal Awards tomorrow's assembly Friday 21 February  2025 (Week 4).

How does my child receive a Principal's Award?

Class teachers nominate students for Blue Merit Awards which are presented at the weekly assembly.  When five Blue Merit Awards have been received, students send them to the school office to be recorded and are then eligible for a Principal’s Award. When students attain their 4th Principal Award, they are awarded a Principal’s Medallion at an assembly. End of Term awards can be included as part of the 5 awards.  Please see the "School Handbook" for a full list of eligible awards.

Acknowledgement to Country

St Joseph's Bulli acknowledges and pays respect to the Dharawal people past, present and emerging the traditional custodians of the land on which our school is built.