Principal's Report

At the time of writing, we are gearing up for our P&F Father’s Day Breakfast in the Undercroft on Friday. We are quite fortunate here at St Joseph's Glen Innes to have so many of our Dads, Granddads and Pa’s so heavily invested in our wide array of community activities. It is not such a long time ago that Fathers did not feel welcome to visit school classrooms or attend school functions and community events. Conversely, education research strongly emphasises the positive impact that Dads can have on improved learning and well-being outcomes by actively talking, listening and sharing learning experiences and daily goings-on with their children. The impact is most notable with Maths! If Dad says, “ I was no good at Maths at school either!?” then - guess what - the child gives up because they get the implied impression Dad gave up too. However, IF Dad says, “I wasn’t very good at Maths either, how about we work this problem out together…” then low-and-behold, the child gets implied self-belief in themselves because Dad believes I can do Maths!

Similarly, our daily after-school mantra of “READ-REST-RUN” is actively reinforced by those Dads who run around with their kids at training, house/farm chores or in their backyards and read to their children at night are positively reinforcing a positive work ethic and healthy life habits. There is way too much evidence to support the “absent-father” syndrome and its negative impact on the well-being of young people. So, whether you are a Dad, Granddad or an Uncle or family friend who knows that our St Joseph’s kids really matter and need our attention and effort - keep on keeping on being a great part of our school-family partnership!

From all of us here at St Joseph’s - Happy Father's Day to all of our Dads this weekend and thank you for your support and active partnership in making our good school -GREAT! 

The word is out! We have signed up for the construction of our brand-new Multipurpose Court! The concrete slab will go down in the September holidays and weather permitting we should be playing Basketball, Netball or Pickleball by the beginning of November! As a major capital investment at the school to the tune of over $200 000 we have been greatly blessed to receive a White Rock Wind Farm Community Grant for $25 000! Our outgoing P&F President, Sal Floyd engineered a carefully crafted application which was ultimately successful out of 52 applications. Thank you, Sal! It now leaves the P&F to focus on other worthwhile projects for our children after their highly successful Shamrocks and Shenanigans Ball raised over $8000. At this point, we are discussing a GaGa Pit as a unique and fun addition to our playground resources. Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

 Until next time.

May God go with you.

Geoff McManus

Principal