Dear Parents and Carers,

We could not have put more into the first five weeks of term if we tried!

Our parent teacher interviews this week were a wonderful opportunity for parents to meet their child’s class teacher and tell them about their child. Thank you to the staff for their time and professionalism in conducting the interviews and to the parents for their attendance.

Our Kinder students have settled in so beautifully. Starting school for our littlest students can come with its challenges such as long days, the heat, adapting to school routines and environment, detaching from parents and making friends, just to name a few. Thanks to Mrs Brady and Ms Moran for working with the students and their families to ensure the children’s transition to school has been as positive as possible.

It’s wonderful that our students are able to participate in a variety of sports made available to them. Wishing all the students in Yr 1-6 a fantastic day on Monday at the Soccer Gala Day & good luck to those students who will be competing at the Diocesan Swimming Carnival next week as well.

Catholic Schools Week, Welcome BBQ and St Patrick's Day

Catholic Schools Week begins in Week 7, Monday 11th - Fri 15th March. As part of the celebrations for the week we are hosting a Welcome BBQ at school from 5.00pm-6.30pm. A free sausage sizzle and drinks will be provided. You may want to bring chairs or a picnic rug. This gives our families the opportunity to mingle and meet one another. The St Joey’s staff will be hosting the BBQ and I thank them in advance for their time to do this.

On Friday 15th March we will have a whole school mass to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Families are invited to join us for the mass, followed by recess together at school and open classrooms.

Catholic Charities

As a Catholic school, we are committed to supporting three main Catholic Charities throughout the year. Those are Caritas Project Compassion, our annual Lenten fundraising and awareness appeal, St Vincent De Paul (Winter and Christmas Appeals) and Catholic Missions, which is a world wide Papal Organisation (Socktober).

Currently, during this Lenten period, Mrs Salmon has been working with the students to create an awareness of those in need around the world at our weekly Monday assemblies through Project Compassion. The students have been very responsive and generous with their almsgiving which is testimony to their compassion for others.

Late arrivals to school

Just a reminder that when a student arrives late to school they must be accompanied by a parent, carer or adult who signs them in at the Compass Kiosk before the child goes to class. Thank you for your assistance with this.

School Advisory Council

Our School Advisory Council held their Annual General Meeting last Tuesday followed by their first meeting for the term. Positions were declared open and I’d like to thank Mrs Lowana Sweeney for taking on the position of President and our sincere gratitude was expressed to Mrs Lisa Oliver for serving as President for the last two years. We also welcomed Mr Michael Tracey as a new member of the School Council.

Our 2024 School Council members are:

Mrs Lowana Sweeney (President)

Mrs Amanda Riley (Staff Member & Secretary)

Fr Paddy Sykes (Parish Priest)

Mrs Angela Scott (Principal)

Mrs Lisa Oliver, Mr Nick Wood, Mr Adam White, Mr Mark Halliburton, Mr Alex Kearins and Mr Michael Tracey.

We have published the Presidents Report from Lisa Oliver below which celebrates the work of the School Council and our community.

School Pick Up

A Compass Alert went out this week regarding school pick up. The safety of our students and all our community is paramount. Since the new school was built in 2018, the school has grown and the current school pick up procedures have had to be adapted to meet the amount of cars/students being picked up in the Kiss and Drop Zone and car park. It is time to review the current procedures in consultation with parents, CEDWW and local council.

It has been wonderful to have parents being allowed back onto school grounds after Covid to mingle and catch up before the children come out of school. Unfortunately, with growing staff numbers there are not many car spaces available in the school carpark of an afternoon. I welcome any ideas from parents of how we could improve the school pick up as part of the review to ensure the safety of our students, staff and families.

In the meantime, I ask that parents do not park on Vaughan Street and walk their children through the Kiss and Drop Zone. We have three staff members on the Kiss and Drop Zone who are efficient in getting students in the cars between 3.10 - 3.25pm. I appreciate your understanding with this matter and look forward to meeting with parents to get some ideas about how we could effectively change the current system.

SJJU Social and Fundraising Committee

Next Thursday 7th March, Yr 6 parents and students will be selling drinks at the Women’s Day Community Event. This is a small fundraiser and more an opportunity for our school to support the Junee Community for such a wonderful event. I’d like to thank Alicia White for kindly organising the event and to the Yr 6 parents for their donation of drinks to be sold.

We need to plan the yearly social events and fundraisers so we can put the calendar out and nominate 2 parent contact people for each class that will communicate to the other parents. Out first meeting of the year will be held on Wednesday 20th March starting 6pm at Merv’s Cafe. All parents are very welcome and please bring the children along to have a meal and play. It is a wonderful opportunity for our new families to meet other parents. This year we are looking forward to planning more social events for our parents and families and look forward to your suggestions.

God bless

Angela Scott

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