Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Wow, what a fortnight it has been. I apologise that this newsletter has been sent out to you all a week late. There has been so much happening at our school; it has been an exciting time!
Firstly, I would like to wish all of our fathers a wonderful Father’s Day on Sunday. As I was sitting at my meeting this morning, all I kept thinking of was that I was missing a grand celebration back at school. Mrs Fenton sent me many pictures of the breakfast, and it was so wonderful to have so many families present for our celebrations. We have a wonderful school community at Joey’s, and this is to be treasured. None of this happens, though, without careful planning and preparation. Our school’s P&F are to be commended for their time and dedication in ensuring that these events run well. Your efforts are truly valued.
Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge the P&F and all of our school community for supporting our school and various community initiatives. I greatly appreciated your support of our stall at the Wee Waa show, donations of goods, and volunteering of time. Without this commitment, we would not be able to hold events like our Father’s Day stall, show stalls, and canteen at the recent athletics carnival.
For the past two days, I have been in Sydney working with the Association of Catholic School Principals (NSW). Being a voice for support of regional and remote schools is essential in continuing to grow allocations of resourcing to regional areas. Being an advocate is one thing, but what is critical is having the data to back up that supporting regional initiatives impacts student achievement. Our explicit teaching in the English and Numeracy block has a significant impact on the academic success of our students. For instance, we have had very pleasing results in NAPLAN this year. The images show the increased percentage of students achieving in the strong and exceeding expectations proficiency band.
We are also celebrating the fact that we now have over 50% of our K-2 students who have achieved their end-of-year benchmark scores! As a school, we are performing very well, as you can see from the images below:
AIP and Assessment Update
Our staff have been working hard to enact our Annual Improvement Goals for 2024. We have been focusing our professional learning on developing a coherent instructional framework for teaching comprehension skills across K-6. We have also had two staff members complete the Berry Street Trauma Informed Professional Learning. They reported to our staff how much they valued this training, and this will help us continue to provide the best learning environments here at St Joseph’s that we can.
Parent Surveys
An annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff, and students about our school and will be used to inform next year's Annual Improvement Plan. Responses are confidential, and individuals can not be identified.
The surveys were launched via email on Monday, 26 August 2024, using the email addresses supplied to the school. If you do not receive an email with a link to the survey, you can access and complete the survey via the following link. https://www.research.net/r/StJosephsWeeWaaPARENT2024
The survey will close on Wednesday, 4 September 2024.
Wee Waa Show
On Friday, August 16th, our St Joseph’s P & F Association hosted a stall at the Wee Waa Show. It was great to see so many of our families and friends attend to support our fundraising. A big thank you to our P & F for their organisation and all those who volunteered their time to help.
NSWPSSA Championships
Last week, James Gleeson travelled to Sydney to represent CSNSW Sport Polding in the NSWPSSA Rugby Championships. We are very proud of James’ efforts and sportsmanship. Having students represent Wee Waa on these state teams is a massive achievement. Congratulations again, James!
Sydney Excursion
Last Monday, 19th August, our Stage 3 students and staff departed for their long-anticipated Sydney Excursion. We were joined by St Joseph’s Munginidi and St Joseph’s Warialda.
The students and staff had a great time. Highlights of the trip included the SCG tour, Sydney Museum, Virtual Reality exploration, Holey Moley mini golf and, of course, attending last week’s Tigers vs Manly footy game. My personal highlight was leading small groups of students to St Mary MacKillop’s tomb and leading a small prayer in this space. All of our students were so respectful and reverent. As a principal of a Josephite school, this made me so proud. The students were all fantastic, had a great time, and made lifelong memories.
Thank you to all families for supporting this excursion, and a massive thank you to the staff who attended. They all helped ensure that students had a safe and memorable experience.
Moorambilla Workshop
Over the past few weeks, Jillian Cruckshank, Campbell Collett, Kaley Edwards, Florence Melton, Imelda Redmond, Theo Russell, and Poppy Wall from our school attended the Moorambilla workshop in Baradine. It is exciting to have so many students selected for this experience and take the opportunity to try it!
Brain Olympia
On Wednesday, the 28th of August, Edward Carolan, James Gleeson, Ebonie Hatton, Elizma Nel, Ava Phelps, Ava Stevens, Harry Stevens, and Lachlan Stewart travelled to St Joseph’s, Walgett, to participate in the annual Brain Olympiad. The competition is a diocesan initiative that challenges students to test their general knowledge, drama, public speaking and mathematical problem-solving.
What is exciting is that our team was second on the day and has been selected to participate in the Brain Olympia finals in Gunnedah next month. We wish them all the best in the finals.
Book Week Parade & Book Fair
This is a reminder that our Book Week Celebration will be held next Friday, 6th September, starting at 9:15 a.m. Your child is invited to dress up as a book character or in a costume to match the 2024 Book Week theme, “Reading is Magic.”
Two small prizes will be awarded in each class for Best Costume and Costume that displays the Children’s Book Council of Australia theme.
After the parade, families are invited to a picnic morning tea, with tea and coffee provided by the Canteen. Parents are also asked to pack food to share with their child/children.
Finally, we will hold a Book Fair during the day for parents and children to purchase books under the COLA area. EFTPOS will be available.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.
Have a fantastic weekend,
God Bless.
Alistair Stewart
Principal