Dear Parents and Carers,

Happy Catholic Schools Week!

There is always much to celebrate at St Joseph’s but this week has given us the opportunity to open our school up and come and see how and what we learn. It was lovely to have so many families including grandparents, at school today for mass, morning tea and classroom visits. Not to mention our sea of green for St Patrick’s Day which we celebrated today. A huge thank you to all our staff for their organisation and hospitality at the school community BBQ on Tuesday night. It was a wonderful way for our families to come together and socialise.

Last Night I attended the Awards Evening which was another celebration of those who have worked in, supported and contributed to Catholic Education in the Diocese of Wagga Wagga.

Catholic schools are the largest provider of faith-based schooling in Australia, our continued growth shows the great importance Catholic school families place on choosing a school that meets the needs of their child and reflects their values and beliefs.

Enrolments are open for 2025 and a date for the diaries is 16th May, 2024 when we will host our Kinder 2025 Information Session and Open Day.

Positive Behaviours for Learning

Our new whole school values were launched this week at our school community BBQ on Tuesday Evening. COMPASSION, RESPECT and COMMITMENT. The staff, parents and students all had a voice in contributing to this outcome. We have a great PBL team on staff led by Mrs Maloney who have been working with staff and the community as we build PBL in our school. This is a very special and exciting journey we are on as a school and we look forward to continuing to share our progress.

NAPLAN

Amongst our busy week, our Yr 3 & 5 students also began their NAPLAN testing with Writing on Wednesday afternoon. They will continue with their testing timeline (which has been published) with Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy to follow.

Before/After School and Holiday Care

We have included a survey below regarding the need for before/after school and holiday care.

We are wondering if there is a need in our school and wider community. The survey closes next Friday 22nd March. If the need is there, we will continue to explore this as a school with the assistance of Catholic Education.

To complete the survey, please follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeofNh3ikB_qLGnwcbaoJHk0FfW8YD96RyofEq1xgXHKqz6Yw/viewform?usp=pp_url

St Patrick’s Day

Today we celebrated our St Patrick’s day mass. A big thank you to our Kinder and Stage 1 students who hosted the mass and Mrs Salmon for all her organisation.

St Patrick’s Day is always a special feast day for Fr Paddy and if you see Fr Paddy around next Wednesday it is his birthday! Happy birthday Fr Paddy for next Wednesday 20th March. We hope your day is as awesome as you are! Thank you for all that you do for St Joey’s and your wonderful faith leadership.

Harmony Day

Next Thursday we celebrate National Harmony Day and at St Joey’s we will be showcasing the culture in our school with a special performance for students and staff in the hall between 12 -1pm. Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home.

Lelani, Amarli and Irie will be performing a traditional Tongan dance for the staff and students. A special ‘Thank you’ to Raegan Latu and Brianna Gibbs-Manuatu for preparing the girls for this special celebration. Bailey O’Neill, our Aboriginal Support and Community Worker will be performing a traditional Welcome dance and he will also involve the students in learning some traditional Aboriginal Dancing. Our diversity makes Australia a great place to live.

Parish Mass/Holy Week

We are looking forward to hosting our first Parish weekend mass as a school on Saturday 23rd March starting at 6pm. We would love to see as many families and students there to celebrate in our liturgy. Thank you to Stage 3 who will lead the special parts of this special Palm Sunday Vigil mass. This will take us into Holy Week which is the most sacred time in our Church’s Liturgical Calendar. I look forward to joining with our community in the Holy Thursday Paraliturgy hosted by the students on Thursday 28th March at 11am.

St Joseph's is certainly the big heart in our little town and I am so privileged to be part of this amazing community.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

God bless

Angela Scott

Easter Celebrations