Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s incredible to think we are at the end of Week 3 already! We have all hit the ground running with all systems in place and much to celebrate. A big thank you to our families for all their support with our Swimming Carnival, School Opening and Ash Wednesday Masses. Our school spirit was so alive and evident at all the events.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank our hard working teachers who are so committed to providing quality care, support and education for all our students. St Joseph's is such a happy place to work and teach in.

This week we started the Lenten period in our Church’s Liturgical Calendar with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time for reflection, renewal, giving to others in need and challenging ourselves to be better people. At the centre of this is love. Love for God and one another just as Jesus showed us. Fr Paddy spoke to us at Mass on Wednesday about being proud of the cross which symbolises our faith and the love God has for us.

Welcome to 2024 School Year from our Director Andrew Watson

Our Director Mr Andrew Watson has an address to everyone in the Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga for the beginning of our school year.

The CEDWW 2024 theme is ‘Sowing the Seeds’ which follows on from the 2023 theme ‘Preparing the Good Soil’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaVcMRBOIWs&t=3s

Student Attendance

What if my child has to be away from school?

On occasion, your child may need to be absent from school. Justified reasons for student absences may include:

being sick or having an infectious disease
having an unavoidable medical appointment
being required to attend a recognised religious holiday
exceptional or urgent family circumstance (e.g. attending a funeral)

Following an absence from school, you must ensure that within 7 days, you provide your child’s school with a verbal or written explanation for the absence. This can be via Compass or by phone, email or in written form. Parents will receive a Compass notification with a link for parents to provide this information in Compass.

Principals may decline to accept an explanation that you have provided if they do not believe the absence is in the best interest of your child. In these circumstances, your child’s absence would be recorded as unjustified. When this happens, the principal will discuss their decision with you and the reasons why.

Principals may request medical certificates or other documentation when frequent or long-term absences are explained as being due to illness. Principals may also seek parental permission to speak with medical specialists to obtain information to collaboratively develop a health care plan to support your child. If the request is denied, the principal can record the absences as unjustified.

School Advisory Council Meeting

Just a reminder that the School Advisory Council AGM will be held Tuesday 20th February starting 6pm at the school followed by our first meeting for 2024. We have a minimum of 4 meetings a year (week 5 in each term on Tuesday evening). We sometimes may need to call an extra meeting for something specific or change the date.

We are calling for three parents who may wish to nominate themselves or nominate another parent to fill the positions which will become vacant at the AGM next Tuesday. Please contact the school and speak to me if you are considering being a member.

Below is the link to the School Advisory Council Policy from Catholic Education Diocese of Wagga Wagga. Please read through this if you want to learn more about the function of this Council and don’t hesitate to come and talk to me if you would like to learn more.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bBjx68n51OJGSZB0weWlorze5Idq3O75AydusaQ4IMQ/edit

SJJU Social and Fundraising Committee

A big thank you to the parents who attended the meeting last Thursday. There were some great ideas discussed and we are looking forward to more ideas from parents in order to plan the social and fundraising events for the year.

We will continue assigning a social or fundraising event to a class like we did last year as this was successful. This will involve two parent contacts for each class to communicate the event organisation but also to arrange times parents from that year group can meet socially for a catch up. All of this organisation is done on the Messenger chat groups set up. If you would like more information on what the role may entail please don’t hesitate to contact me.

We do have a small community fundraising event coming up on the 7th March for the Women’s Day held at the Athenium. St Joey’s will be operating the Drinks Stall there and Year 6 will be designated this fundraiser. More information about this will be forwarded to Yr 6 parents.

A poll was sent around to see what day would be better to have our S&F Meetings and Wednesday was the winner! Children are welcome to come as we hold the meeting at the pub and you can have a meal. The next meeting will be Wednesday 6th March at 6pm Venue TBC. I extend a special invitation to our parents who are new to the school to come along and meet more parents in an informal setting.

Parent Teacher Interviews

We will be holding our Parent Teacher Interviews on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th February in the afternoon.

Details of times and our booking system will be released shortly. These meetings are for parents to come and speak to teachers about their child rather than the teacher discussing the progress of the child, as it is only the start of the year. Class teachers are looking forward to meeting with parents to build those positive and effective partnerships between home and school.

Adding Grandparents and Family Members to Newsletter E-Mailing List

If any grandparents wish to be added to the newsletter, please see the subscription button at the bottom of our newsletters. We also publish our newsletter on the school Facebook site for anyone to read too.

School Drop Off and Pick Up Safety

Please find copies of our school traffic procedures here: https://newsletters.naavi.com/issue/5zPLODJ/edit/NGBWzZ5

They include clear photos around where and what needs to happen at drop off and pick up points.

We ask that Parents DO NOT park across the road from the Kiss and Drop Zone and walk their children through the pick up line or school car park. This compromises the safety of our students, staff and families. If parents park in the school car park, they need to come inside the school gates to collect their child/ren and take them back to the car.

In the pick up zone, the first three bays will be supervised by a teacher and children can not get into the car unless a teacher is there to let them in. Teachers move as quickly as they can to put the children in the cars and direct the traffic.

The bus stop area is for buses ONLY. Parents are not permitted to park across the road and walk children across Kitchener Street in front or between buses. This compromises the safety of the students and the bus drivers.

We appreciate your cooperation with this matter to maintain a safe environment at St Joey’s.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

God Bless

Angela Scott

Parent Talk

https://ccsp.schoolzineplus.com/parenttalk?nid=34

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zEMTGHYT9yq7JWCDOZF359Y88p91KFzx/view

Calendar

Important Dates for Term 1