Principal's Page

Dear Parents and Friends,

We have come to the end of another rewarding, sometimes challenging but hopefully enjoyable school  term. Please know I am deeply grateful for your support in working with our staff to overcome challenges, solve problems and celebrate achievements and events throughout the term. 

In addition to the day to day learning experiences students are provided, this term we have also experienced the following:

• Father’s Day 
• Hotdogs and Handball afternoon
• Book Week
• Literacy & Numeracy Week with Mathematics Open Classrooms
• Soccer Gala Day
• Basketball Gala Day
• Stage 3 Public Speaking competition
• Stage 3 Christmas Art Story competition
• Celebration of Holy Communion
• Grade excursions and incursions
• Whole School and Grade masses

As you can see the list is again significant, something impossible to achieve without us working together. Thank you....

I will be taking a brief period of Long Service Leave from today and will return to school next term on Friday of Week 2, 25 October 2024. I thank Mr Aguilera for acting in the Principal role during this time and Mrs Grose for stepping into the Assistant Principal role.

HSC Students

Please keep in your prayers our SJB Year 6 class of 2018 as they prepare to sit the Higher School Certificate in the coming weeks. This is a very important time for these students and their families, and as such is an important time for our whole community. We wish them all the very best.

Please meet Mrs Van Gemert 

Mrs Van Gemert is our Diverse Learning Support Teacher and works three days per week. This role entails the coordination of the strategic directions for learning support for students with diverse needs in the school and includes:

• supporting the CEDOW enrolment process for students with a disability and diverse learning needs
• liaising with specialist providers in education, health and other sectors who are supporting students with diverse learning needs
• promoting the learning and wellbeing needs of students with high needs in case collaboration processes within the school 
• coordinating, communicating and interacting with staff, parents and external agencies regarding students and their diverse needs
• coordinating National Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) and Personalised Planning systems and processes

Annual Improvement Plan Update 

Goal: Students will achieve excellent growth in Mathematics as a result of shared curriculum expectations and collaborative processes ensuring alignment of curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment.

• Our recent Staff Development Day held on Friday 13 September was a fantastic day of dialogue and collaboration. As I mentioned in our previous newsletter, this day focussed on developing a shared understanding of standards referencing aligned to the Common Grade Scale. Parents would be familiar with the Common Grade Scale reference to Semester Reports:

The primary role of assessment is to monitor a student’s progress (or development) along a developmental continuum. The Common Grade Scale provides teachers with this developmental continuum. For our students to progress along this continuum, teachers build an image of the student based on all the information that is collected, including observations, anecdotal records, achievement data, work samples etc. This image informs teacher planning so that teaching and learning can be targeted at student needs and allows students to progress along the continuum.

Providing opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding along this developmental continuum within units of work whilst assessing students’ learning was the focus of our Staff Development Day. 

Recent Staff Professional Learning

Research tells us that the quality of the teacher is the greatest in-school influence on student achievement. Therefore high quality professional learning for teachers must be a priority to ensure improved teacher practice that leads to improved student learning growth. Professional learning undertaken by our staff over the past fortnight includes:

16 September 2024 - Principal’s Meeting 

Mrs Duffin

17 September  2024 - Religious Education Coordinator Spirituality Retreat

Mrs Smith

19 September 2024 - English Curriculum Day

Mrs Clarkson & Mrs Lantry

19 September 2024 - PB4L Zoom Meeting (half day)

Miss Negus & Mr Aguilera

Pertinent Term 4 Dates

• Friday 25 October - Grandparent’s Day & Book Fair
• Friday 25 October - Regional Diocesan Stage 3 Public Speaking Competition
• Wednesday 6 November - Spelling Bee Finalists
• Friday 29 November - Colour Run
• Monday 16 December - LEAP into Learning - Meet your teacher for 2025
• Tuesday 17 December - 9.30am, Whole School End of Year Mass and Year 6 Farewell
• Tuesday 17 December - 12pm, Year 6 Lunch in the hall
• Tuesday 17 December - 6pm - Year 6 Awards Presentation in the hall
• Wednesday 18 December - Student’s Final day of 2024

School Assembly - TOMORROW

Our final whole school assembly for Term 3 will be held on Friday 27 September at 2pm. We will be presenting Merit Awards, Principal’s Awards and End of Term Awards. Everyone is welcome.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and safe school vacation period. Term 4 will begin on on Monday 14 October, 2024.

Kaylene Duffin

Principal, St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

Principal Awards

Our Principal awards are presented to students fortnightly on the even week.  

The following students will receive their Principal Awards on Friday 27 September 2024 at 2pm.

How does my child receive a Principal's Award?

Class teachers nominate students for Blue Merit Awards which are presented at the weekly assembly.  When five Blue Merit Awards have been received, students send them to the school office to be recorded and are then eligible for a Principal’s Award. When students attain their 4th Principal Award, they are awarded a Principal’s Medallion at an assembly. End of Term awards can be included as part of the 5 awards.  Please see the "School Handbook" for a full list of eligible awards.

End of Term Awards

The following student will be presented their End of Term 3 Achievement Awards tomorrow, Friday 27 September 2024 (Term 3 Week 10). Parents of students receiving End of Term Awards are welcome to join the assembly.

Academic Achievement Awards

Habits of Mind Awards

Mary of the Cross Awards

Acknowledgement to Country

St Joseph's Bulli acknowledges and pays respect to the Dharawal people past, present and emerging the traditional custodians of the land on which our school is built.