Principals' Message
Welcome to another fabulous week at St Joseph's! It's hard to believe we are into the third week of Lent and have only four more weeks until Easter. This Friday is St Patrick's Day and, for a small gold coin donation, students are invited to come to school dressed in green mufti clothing. The money will be donated to Caritas Australia, a Catholic organisation who are raising funds for people living in some of the most vulnerable communiuties across the world through their Lental Appeal - Project Compassion.
Annual Improvement Plan
Last week, accompanied by Mrs Dominica Bearman, we travelled to St Joseph's Primary School in Tenterfield to present our 2023 Annual Improvemant Plan to leadership teams from the Catholic Schools Office and other schools in the Armidale Diocese. We took great pride in sharing our goals with colleagues across the diocese and outlining the steps we are taking to improve learning outcomes for the students in our care.
Our broad improvement goals for 2023 are:
- To sustain a Christ-centred inclusive learning community aligned with the Living Well, Learning Well Framework and our Catholic Principles and Values;
- To continue to embed a school-wide, self reflective culture focused on improving pedagogy;
- To continue to build strong, effective leadership and teaching teams.
Our visit to Tenterfield included a 'learning walk' through the classrooms during the English and Maths sessions where we had the opportunity to ask the students the 5 learning questions. It is great to see common understandings about learning and teaching evident across the diocese. After the visit we were able to reflect on our current practice and acknowledge that we are very fortunate to have such wonderful facilities and, most importantly, have high quality learning and teaching taking place every day.
A huge thank you to Mrs Cherie Yates (Principal), the leadership team, staff and students from St Joseph's Primary Tenterfield, for welcoming us into their classrooms and being open to sharing practice.
Meet and Greet
There was a great response to our Student-Parent-Teacher Meet and Greet sessions held in Week 6. The meetings gave parents/carers an opportunity to meet their child's teachers and discuss their learning goals. This collaborative process provided a great start to the year and is far more beneficial than a simple information night which outlines classroom structures and procedures. Research shows that strong partnerships between parents, student and school have a positive impact on student achievement. One simple way of being involved is to ask your child what they have 'learned' not what they have 'done' at school each day. A simple change of language places the focus on learning growth rather than on completing tasks.
Halogen Young Leaders Day
Some of our Year 6 leaders, along with Mr Paterson, attended the 2023 Halogen Young Leaders Day in Sydney last Tuesday. They listened to some of Australia’s most high profile people share insights from their own leadership journey: Honourable David John Hurley - Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Nazeem Hussain - author and comedian, Caitlin Bassett - former captain of the Australian national netball team; the Diamonds, Dr Jordan Nguyen - Biomedical Engineer, and Chris Green - Sydney Thunder cricket superstar.
The Young Leaders Day was a wonderful experience for the student leaders from St Joseph's who were able to attend. Pictured below - Amelia, Will and Ri with Nazeem Hussain.
May God bless you and your family,
Maree Holland & Greg O'Toole
Co-Principals
St Joseph's School - a Faith Filled Community Where Learning Matters.