Dear Parents and Guardians,

Thank you to all our families for their wonderful support of our Carols evening last Thursday. It was a fantastic evening and again, l thank our P & F for organizing the delicious food, students for their wonderful singing and acting and staff for their wonderful support preparing our students for this important yearly event.

As this is our final newsletter for 2023 l would like to thank all our families for their wonderful support this year.

School Advisory Council

A big thank you to our School Advisory Council for their work this year. We continued to meet regularly and recently have been busy working together to apply for a building grant for our school. On behalf of the school community, l thank you all for your valuable contributions to our school community.

Good luck to our departing Year 6 students

Thank you and good luck to all of the Year Six students. I would like to extend a very warm congratulations to all of these students on behalf of our community and wish them every success for next year at secondary school.

We have several families with children finishing this year and will be ending their association with St Joseph the Worker. We are saying goodbye to the following families: Crockford, Delgoda, Evans, Nguyen, Pontillo, Santocono, Vecchio and Youssef families.

To our Year 6 students and departing families, we say thank you! Your contributions to our community are greatly appreciated. I thank you for your support and wish you all the best for the future.

Best Wishes & Thank you

I would like to also acknowledge and thank the staff who are leaving St Joseph the Worker at the end of this year; Anabelle Selvaggio, Caitllin Rexley, Jill Marr, Jessica Milesi, Pauline Turnbull and Maria Raso.

We thank Anabelle for her wonderful work this year supporting students with additional needs across our school. She has been an amazing support in all the classes that she has been assigned to. All the teachers have been very impressed with her skill and manner in working with many groups of students and in some cases individual students to achieve their learning goals. Her friendly, calm and positive approach has been welcomed by her students who have looked forward to learning new skills through their everyday activities.

We thank Anabelle for being involved in all our school events and providing her assistance when required. Anabelle’s calm and quiet approach has been appreciated by our community and we wish her well as she begins her PhD study next year.

Special thanks to Caitllin for her dedication supporting the students in her time here at St Joseph the Worker. Caitllin’s calm and positive approach to supporting the students in her care has been valued by all in our community. She has always been a very respectful, supportive and reliable staff member displayed a strong willingness to achieve excellent results with her students. Caitllin is a caring and kind person who has developed positive relationships with her students. They have felt warmth and compassion in her care.

We wish Caitllin well at her new school in 2023.

We are also saying goodbye to Jill who has led Maths teaching and learning at St Joseph the Worker for the past five years. Jill's passion and dedication to supporting both our teachers and our students is greatly appreciated. Her passion for all things mathematical has been inspiring and l thank her for her dedication to supporting our community in deepening their mathematical knowledge and thinking during her time at St Joseph the Worker. We wish her continued success in leadership at her new school in 2024.

A very big thank you to Jess, Literacy leader for four years at our school. We thank Jess for her valuable contributions and expertise in leading Literacy at our school. Jess' wealth of knowledge and passion to enhance literacy have been of great value to both staff and students. We thank Jess for her professionalism and dedication to leading Literacy improvement at our school and we wish Jess continued success in her new Literacy position next year.

Pauline Turnbull is retiring from teaching at the end of this year. Pauline has worked at St Joseph the Worker for the past five years, as both classroom teacher and Religious Education leader. Pauline has been an asset to our school with her wonderful sense of humour and willingness to share entertaining stories about her family. We have all enjoyed working alongside Pauline and building our knowledge of effective strategies to engage students in learning about our faith. We thank you, Pauline for your wonderful work leading Religious Education in our community. To Pauline, we hope your retirement is full of rest, relaxation and happiness (and a few days emergency teaching here at SJW!).

Maria Raso is also finishing up at St Joseph the Worker this year. Maria will be taking long service leave in 2024 and then retiring after 41 years of dedicated service to Catholic education, 19 of which were served at St Joseph the Worker. In her time at our school Maria led staff in school in Literacy, Teaching and Learning including, for the past 6 years, as Deputy Principal. Maria is a calm presence in all she does and collaborates effectively in all her roles to ensure that teaching and learning remain a focus in all we do. I thank Maria for her support, encouragement and sharing the many joys and challenges that face us regularly in leading a school. Maria, your thoughtful advice and ongoing assistance have been greatly appreciated and we wish you a happy and relaxing retirement.

We will also be saying goodbye to Cara Hill who will begin maternity leave in 2024. We wish Cara and her husband Jeremy all the best as they await the birth of their second child. Special thanks to Cara for all her wonderful work supporting the teaching and learning of Physical Education at our school.

Next year we welcome three new staff to our school: Kate Hart, Mary Donis and Vanessa Wanis to our staff in 2023. Kate, Mary and Vanessa are all experienced teachers and are looking forward to joining our community in 2024.

We still have some vacancies and l have advertised these positions and will interview next week. I will update families when these positions are filled.

On behalf of everyone in our community, l thank you all for the wonderful contribution you have all made to the life of St Joseph the Worker and wish you the very best for the future.

Extraordinary Assembly

Our 2024 student leaders will be announced at our extraordinary assembly next Tuesday, 12th December. I hope many of you are able to join us at this special assembly to farewell staff and announce our new captains for next year.

End of Year Mass

Please note there has been a change to our End of Year Mass as Fr Manny is not available on Friday 15th December. We will now celebrate our end of year Mass with the parish on Wednesday,13th December at the 9.10am. All families and friends are welcome to join us at this Mass to celebrate another successful year at St Joseph the Worker as we have much to be grateful and thankful for.

Finally, and most importantly - I would like to thank all of our students who have worked so hard this year and continue to make our job a pleasure. It is our great privilege to work with the children and I wish them a very enjoyable break.

I would like to thank all staff, students and parents for all your amazing support. It is a great privilege to be principal of this wonderful school!

I would like to express my gratitude to all the staff for their enormous efforts this year. I know that all parents are very grateful for the hard work and dedication of the staff. We are very fortunate to have such great teachers, learning support and office staff and I thank them for all that they have done. They are a tremendous group of people who work extremely hard and show great care towards the students. I wish them a very well deserved and restful break.

Special thanks to our students for another year of working together to achieve their best. As a staff we are in a privileged position to support the development of our students and to share their learning milestones and successes.

Special thanks to each and every one of our parents for the trust you place in us and for your support and assistance in so many ways. I am so impressed with your generosity and enthusiasm. Your support in classrooms, school events, parents and friends, attending excursions - is very much appreciated by myself and all of the staff and students. Your contributions have ensured that we are able to work in an effective partnership with you in the education of your children.

I would like to thank Father Manny for his outstanding leadership of our Parish. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful Parish Priest and I thank Father for his ongoing support, and guidance of our families and our staff.

This is the final newsletter for the school year which concludes next Friday December 15th at 1:15 p.m. Students are free to wear casual clothes on this last day of school. Please see below for our end of year and beginning of 2023 dates.

On behalf of Father Manny and the staff, I wish everyone at St Joseph the Worker a very happy Christmas and God's blessings for a peaceful New Year. Have a safe and happy holiday.

Maria Barnes

Creative Music

At St Joseph the Worker