Dear Parents and Guardians,

Congratulations to our students in Years 4- 6 who recently celebrated sacraments. All ceremonies were beautiful, and l was very proud of how well our students were prepared and participated in these important faith milestones. Thanks to our teachers Maureen, Jackie, Caitllin, Monique, Sandra and Paul for their teaching and preparation of our students. Thank you also to Pauline for organising these masses and co-ordinating these sacraments.

Thank you

As this is our final newsletter for 2021 l would like to thank all our families for their wonderful support this year. St Joseph the Worker is blessed to have such a wonderful community who work together to support each other and our students to achieve their best. It has been a challenging year for everyone, and we have all shown great resilience to get through.

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.

The students have all grown in many ways this year, and despite the challenges they faced, they should be very proud of all that they have achieved. As a staff we are indeed in a very privileged position to support the development of each child and to share in their many milestones and successes.

Special thanks to each and every one of our parents for your support and assistance in so many ways. I am impressed with your generosity and enthusiasm. Your commitment and support ensure that our community continues to work together and remain connected. The work you did to support your child through the home learning was amazing. Thank you!

A big thank you to our School Advisory Council for their work this year. We continued to meet regularly via teams and have been busy working on our new terms of reference, investigating and introducing Lunch Mums to our community. A special thank you to our retiring Board members: Sera De Pace, Belinda and Cliff. On behalf of the school community, l thank Sera, Belinda and Cliff for their valuable contribution as members of the School Advisory Council.

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, especially during home learning. We are very fortunate to have such great teachers and support 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.

As we come to the end of another year impacted by COVID – thanks to everyone for their resilience, adaptability, support and for again, working together to ensure that we could all get through this challenging time.

Thank you and good luck to our departing Year 6 students

Thank you and good luck to all of the Year Six students. We know it has been another challenging year for you but despite the difficulties, you have been a great group of students and we are proud of you. 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 whose youngest child finishes this year and will be ending their association with St Joseph the Worker and some families leaving the area. We are saying goodbye to the following families: Barbaro, Brown, Chimdamo, De Nobile, Gallo, Ioculano, Lim, Marotta, Santinon, Squintrito, Younan. Check spelling

We are also farewelling the Arthur, Frendo, and Mailo families whose students are moving to new schools in 2022.

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

I would like to also acknowledge and thank staff who are leaving St Joseph the Worker this year; Meg McKenzie, Frances Smith and Paul Tarabay.

We wish Meg continued success next year as she is moving to Bendigo to work. Meg’s calm and sensible approach to supporting the students in her care has been greatly valued and appreciated by everyone in our community.

Thank you to Frances for her work at St Joseph the Worker this year. Frances began the year as our Literacy Leader and also took on the role of Diversity Leader in Term 2. Frances always worked with the students at the centre of every conversation and provided ongoing support to staff, students and families in her roles this year. We wish Frances continued success in the future.

We are also saying goodbye to Paul. Paul confidently stepped into our school, a new classroom and a new ways of working at the beginning of the year. He navigated all of these changes whilst ensuring students were engaged in purposeful learning. We wish him continued success at St John’s Heidelberg in 2022.

We thank you all for the wonderful contribution you have all made to the life of our school community and we wish you the very best for the future.

Welcome

We are also welcoming new staff members:

Geraldine Crowe – Diversity Leader

We will also be saying welcome back to Jessica Milesi who returns from maternity leave in 2022.

We have advertised for two more teachers for 2022 and hope to fill these positions in coming days. We will update families regarding new staffing in 2022.

Starting again in 2022

Students in Prep will begin school next year on Monday, 31st January. Students in Years 1 to 6 will start school on Tuesday February 1st, 2021.

Finally, and most importantly - I would like to thank all of our students who have worked so hard this year and 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!

This is the final newsletter for the school year which concludes next Wednesday December 16th at 1:15 p.m. Students are welcome to wear casual clothes next Wednesday to finish the school year.

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

We ask St Joseph the Worker to continue to bless our School Community.

Regards

Maria Barnes

RE News