Dear Families,

This week is Catholic Education Week. The week is an opportunity for our school to join all 334 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese to celebrate our distinctive Catholic identity, our achievements, and the role our school plays within our parish and local communities. The theme for this year’s celebrations is ‘Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Christ’.

Catholic education seeks to provide students with a high-quality education that is inspired by the example of Jesus Christ and fosters the development of the whole person, forming individuals with more than just skills, but with the integrity to live life as transformative agents in our communities.

In choosing St Joseph's School, parents enter a partnership with the school in which there is shared privilege and responsibility for the child’s faith formation, learning and wellbeing.

When Catholic schools and families work together for the formation of all children, the school community is strengthened, and the whole of society benefits as a sense of ownership and belonging to community grows for children and young people, and for their families. Families are honoured in a Catholic school community in three main ways:

Encounter through partnership – encounter happens when the sacred dignity of each person in the partnership is honoured, with each person learning alongside the other
Activating engagement – leaders, teachers, families and children each have a role to play to strengthen the relationship between school and home
Three-way learning relationship – parents, teachers and children come together in a three-way learning relationship to support the full flourishing of each and every child.

Some important initiatives are taking place in the next little while, which we hope will strengthen school, family partnerships and engagement:

# The Community Fete

# The use of See Saw (P-2) and ePortfolios (Year 3 - 6) to share students' learning with families in a regular, timely manner

# Student Led Conferences which will be taking place on Thursday 30th March from 1:00pm.

School Closure Day

Last Friday staff were onsite at school working with a team from MACS Southern Regional Office on reflecting and completing self assessments in order to celebrate progress, identify areas for development and plan goals. Effective schools have a continuous improvement agenda.

Fete

We are on the final countdown for the fete with it being only ten days away. Parents from both schools are invited to a coffee morning this coming Friday in exchange for a donation of wine for our wine stall. Wristbands are presently on sale from the office and so too are Sorrento's Got Talent registration forms. It is sure to be a wonderful community event. Thank you for all your support. Please read all the reminders on the Community Fete page.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Congratulations to the following students who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation last Thursday evening: Alex, William, Isabella, Patrick, Charlie, Billy, Ivy, Billie, Zara, Flynn and Charlie.

St Joseph's Day Celebration

We look forward to celebrating the patron saint of our school St Joseph, on Monday 20 March. We will also be making links with Harmony Day and completing Harmony Day activities as St Joseph was a compassionate, strong, caring person. Students are asked to wear white clothes as they will be participating in a colour run to celebrate the colours of our world. It is sure to be lots of fun.

Welcome and Congratulations

A warm welcome to the world beautiful Beni. Congratulations to Ash, Tom, Hazel and Goldie.

Enjoy your week,

Monica

moshannassy@sjsorrento.catholic.edu.au

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