Principal's Report

Welcome back to all families and children to our final term of valued work and commitment to excellence at St Joseph's School Glen Innes. As I stated in the final newsletter for Term 3, every successful person speaks of the hard daily work required to achieve excellence. And so we begin again at St Joseph’s to work in partnership with our team of skilful helpful adults to challenge our children to step up to the next level of effort and achieve great things in the classroom, on the sporting field and on the stage.

In having a bit of community fun on the last day of Term 3, we held a Pyjama Day and managed to raise $142 for Catholic Missions. Lovely to see so many smiling happy faces, especially when we took the Attendance photos at Assembly and our beautiful children all lined up in their pyjamas!?

Our collective prayers across the Diocese have been with the Smith family as they grieve the loss of their three children and grandfather after the tragic plane crash outside Canberra. As ex-students of St Nicholas Primary School in Tamworth and recent Term 3 enrolments at St Mary’s Primary School in Armidale, our community feels a strong connection to the children. We are currently respecting the families’ privacy as requested and we await an opportunity to contribute and support the healing process in time. In the short term, our staff have made a donation to the St Nicholas School staff for a special afternoon tea to allow them to pause, gather and pray together.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Once again it is my great pleasure to announce the success of past students of St Joseph's! The new 2024 School Captains at Glen Innes High School are both previous graduates of our great school. Congratulations to Charlotte McHarg and Kolby Martin! Another fine example of the high-quality children who graduate as leaders from our great school.

Congratulations to everyone involved for their active contribution to high-quality farewell Masses for Father Gleeson both on Sunday 15 October and Monday 16 October. I have said many times before how privileged we are to have such talented adults and children at this school and that was never more evident than the performances of the adult and children’s choirs. While led by the super-talented Mrs Core and Mr Withers, the level of participation and execution was incredible and many locals as well as outsiders have commented to me about the high calibre performances. Thank you, everyone, for honouring a wonderful priest whom we have been privileged to lead us for six years in our Catholic community. I attach a link to my public address in which I spoke on behalf of our school to offer small tokens and thanks, not only from our school, but the many Catholic schools and parishes that Father Gleeson has humbly served for 45 years. We wish him well for a well-earned and prayerful retirement.

Until next time.

May our God go with you

Geoff McManus

Principal