Dear Families,

It was wonderful to see smiling faces and hear excited voices today as students and families arrived to start the new year. Students were very settled in the learning spaces as they built relationships, set goals and became familiar with learning routines and expectations.

Every 25 years since 1300, the Catholic Church holds a special celebration called the Jubilee Year. This is a time of reset, where the land and people rest and we focus on our relationship with others and with God. We will be including the celebration of the Jubilee Year in our school community as we continue to build an engaged learning community contributing for the common good of all. I look forward to journeying with you this year, together in hope.

Welcome

A very warm welcome to all our new Prep students and their families: Charlie C, Jace, Sidney, Audrey, Niamh, Ava J, Charlie K, Saia, Gus, Giuliana, Ava S, Emerson and Eleanna.

We also welcome Viv (Year 5) and his family to the St Joseph's Community. We hope all our new students and their families' time with us is positive and rewarding. We look forward to inviting all our new families to a Welcome Dinner on Tuesday 11 February at 5:30pm.

New Baby Announcement

Congratulations to Jess, (Mrs Cameron) James , Ned (Year 1) and Oscar on the safe arrival of gorgeous Jay David John last Sunday. We wish them all every happiness.

New staff

We welcome four new staff members this year. Mr Philip Whelan will be teaching in the 5/6 Learning Space and Ebony Hood, Kim Neate and Nicole Byrne are Learning Support Officers in the 1/2 learning space. All new staff members bring a wealth of experience with them and we look forward to learning from and along-side them.

Assemblies and Newsletters

Assemblies and newsletters will now be held on Mondays. Our first assembly for the year will be next Monday 3rd February.

Emails

Please don’t email teachers during the day if the way your child is getting home has changed as their number one priority is teaching and they are not always looking at their emails. Please ring the office and a message will be passed on.

Right to Disconnect

Under last August's Fair Work Legislation Amendment - Right to Disconnect, an employee is to refuse to respond to communication from parents, students, colleagues or others within the school community if the contact relates to their work and is outside of the employee’s working hours, unless the refusal is unreasonable. Contact includes all forms of communication including emails, texts, telephone calls, messages, video calls or sending or reviewing other messages. It is an expectation that communication is replied to within 24hrs of returning to work. Staff have been directed to not check their emails after 5:00pm. Please always include all teaching staff in the learning area in emails, in order to receive a prompt reply as some staff work part-time. We appreciate your understanding with this.

School Bus

Our new bus driver is Kamal. Parents, please meet the bus at your child/childrens' stop and do not wait in your cars as Kamal will not be able to see if all students are collected. If you are not at the bus stop to meet the bus, Kamal will contact the school and wait 5mins. If you have another arrangement for collection, please inform the school via email.

Meet and Greet Meetings

We acknowledge that parents are the first educators of their children and know them so well. On Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 19th February, we are inviting parents up to the school to meet their child/rens' teacher and share with staff important information to assist in the teaching of each student. A 3-2-1 sheet will be sent home for families to complete. An Operoo will be sent in the next few days with more information and times for parents to make appointments.

Please let me know if I can assist you in any way. Enjoy your week,

Monica

moshannassy@sjsorrento.catholic.edu.au

Community News