Principal’s News

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you and your family are managing to stay warm as winter kicks in.  We have had a few days below zero already. Great to see the children rugging up to keep warm on these chilly mornings.

Out of School Hours Care (OSHC)

As you are aware, Cire Children's Services ceased offering Out of School Hours Care to neighbouring schools in 2024.  This has left St Joseph's without OSHC for nearly a year, resulting in great inconvenience for parents and carers.  Due to our small size of our school and low numbers requiring regular care, it was not viable for any OSHC provider to run a program on-site.

Coincidentally, in 2024 Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools - Early Years Education (MACS EYE) began a process of setting up OSHC Programs of their own in their schools in 2024.  We had hoped that we were going to be included in the first intake.  However, we were informed that they were beginning with larger schools where they could run OSHC Programs at a profit.  The extra funds raised were to be used in future to subsidise programs run in smaller schools, like St Joseph's.  

Discussions are well underway with MACS EYE to operate a service at St Joseph’s in 2026. We have received in principle support for the establishment of an OSHC.  However, this is yet to be ratified by the MACS EYE board.  More information will be provided when it comes to hand. 

MACS EYE are very keen to ascertain the level of demand for OSCH at St Joseph's in 2026.  They have asked me to resend the survey sent to families in 2024.  Could I please ask you to take a couple of minutes to respond to this survey:

School Uniform

This week, our School Advisory Council (SAC) and a representative from our Parents and Friends Committee will be meeting regarding the St Joseph's School Uniform.  We will be providing feedback to our supplier on the current uniform and the experience of parents when ordering uniform and dealing with staff at A Plus Schoolwear.  If you have feedback you would like to share, please click the button below and fill in the form by 9:00am on Wednesday 11 June.

Please click the links on the side bar to keep up with important school news.  I especially draw your attention to the Deputy Principal Page where you will be able to book for the upcoming Parent Teacher Interviews (all students) and PSGs (where required).  Please also take a look at the Parents and Friends page where you will find lots of dates for the events planned for this year.

Best wishes for a restful weekend and a peaceful week ahead.

Nick.