Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers

What a busy fortnight we have had at St Joseph’s! Cross Country, Stage 3 North West Science and Engineering Challenge and our Mother’s Day celebrations, and that is without diving deeper into the assessments, Big Writes and other fantastic things happening in the classrooms.

Next week, our Stage 2 students are very excited to be off on their overnight excursion to Lake Keepit. We will update you on their travels and upload pictures of them completing activities on social media while at the Lake Keepit Sport and Recreation Centre. I am sure that they will have a fantastic time.

Welcome to St Joey’s

This week we have welcomed two new additions to St Joseph’s Primary School:

Firstly, we had our first sports lessons with Jake Hatton and Ellie Hatton from JSP Sports this week. Jake and Ellie will work with all our students on Mondays during their PDHPE lessons. Over the next few weeks, our students will be honing their athletics skills leading up to our Athletics Carnival. This year we will hold the High Jump events at school on Thursday, 20 July, and the main carnival on Friday, 28 July.

Secondly, we welcomed a new Education Assistant to our staff. Miss Meg van der Merwe will work each day at St Joseph’s across all classes. Meg recently moved to Wee Waa and has previously held an SLSO position and managed a busy swim school. Please make Meg feel welcome to our St Joey’s school community.

School Uniform Survey

Our School’s P&F committee seeks parents' feedback regarding our summer school uniform. This survey went out to families earlier this year, and I thank the 16 people that submitted their thoughts. We really would like more input to this survey so we can begin discussions about our summer uniform and ensure that we are meeting the needs of our school community. If you would like to participate in this survey, please go to https://bit.ly/42JbyeK

Mother’s Day Celebrations

Thank you to the families who joined us in our Mother’s Day celebrations today. It was fantastic to see so many of you present at the Breakfast and Mass this afternoon. From all of us at St Joseph’s, we hope that mums across our school community all have a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday.

COVID and Infectious Diseases

This is a reminder to keep students at home if they show signs and symptoms of COVID-19. We have had increased instances of COVID being reported in our school community, and it is essential that we continue to test and keep children home from school if they are showing signs and symptoms. If you require any COVID tests, we have stock of these at the school office. Please call 6795 4038, and we can send some home with your child.

Attendance

This is a reminder to families that ensuring your child’s regular attendance in school is crucial. Even missing just one day every two weeks can result in four weeks' worth of missed learning per year. Over time, this can add up to a year's worth of learning lost. In addition, consistent attendance helps students progress with their studies, fosters a sense of belonging, promotes friendship development, increases engagement, and enhances awareness of career and life options.

Please see the following informative infographic from the NSW Education website to learn more.

Catholic Schools Week

This is a reminder that on Tuesday, 23 May, families are invited to visit their child's classroom and join us for a special assembly to mark this occasion. Classrooms will be open from 9:30 to 10:00 am, followed by each class performing an item starting at 10:15 am.

After the conclusion of the celebrations, families are invited to join us for Morning Tea, with a celebratory Catholic Schools Week cake, tea and coffee provided by the Canteen. Parents are welcome to pack food to share with their children or pre-order a plate of scones (four halves) with strawberry jam and cream for $6 each via Compass.

We look forward to seeing you on this day!

Have a great weekend.

God Bless,

Alistair Stewart

Principal