Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our final newsletter for Term 3. This week, our school community is proud to celebrate Mercy Week, honoring the enduring charism of the Sisters of Mercy who founded St Joseph’s. The Mercy charism calls us to live out deep compassion, hospitality, service, and practical care for those around us.

On Friday, we had the wonderful privilege of gathering for a whole school Mass celebrated by Fr Victor Babu Dos. We were truly blessed to be joined by Sisters of Mercy, Sr Margaret Hart and Sr Kate McCarthy, who celebrated Mass with us and stayed for morning tea with our staff and students. Both Sisters share deep ties to our community. Sr Margaret grew up locally and attended St Joseph’s herself, while Sr Kate has many relatives throughout Junee, including students currently enrolled at our school. They thoroughly enjoyed visiting the classrooms, chatting with the children and taking in the rich history of our school so beautifully displayed in the foyer. They expressed great joy and excitement seeing how our school community has reinvigorated the legacy of the Sisters of Mercy. To put this charism into practice, all of our students will partake in hands-on acts of mercy this week by sharing the gift of music and singing for community members at either Junee Hospital or Cooinda Court. Our prayer this week focuses on Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Mercy Sisters Order, that we are privileged to know, understand, protect and honour throughout work in Catholic education and in particular here at St Joseph’s - a Mercy school.

Walking the Pathways of Mercy

Merciful God, source of goodness, you have shown us in Catherine McAuley a woman of faith and dedication.

Teach us, we pray, to embrace her love for all people and her compassion for the poor.

Bless us with her ability to inspire others, and her courage in defending the dignity of all people.

Increase our desire, like Catherine, to respond to your invitation to use our gifts to realise your love and mercy in our lives and the lives of our families and communities.

Catherine McAuley had a dream. We have the privilege of knowing it. We have the responsibility to understand it. We have a duty to protect it. We have the honour to live it… Let’s live it well—together we can make a difference.

May the blessing of God’s peace live in our hearts and Mercy be the work of our hands.

Amen

Congratulations Mrs Halliburton

A huge congratulations goes to Mrs Katrina Halliburton who has completed her Graduate Certificate in Religious Education Teaching (Primary) through Campion College. This is a huge feat given she has had to juggle her teaching load, homelife and family whilst studying. We are very proud of her accomplishments and her new qualification.

Well done Mrs Halliburton!!

New Capital Infrastructure

We have exciting news to relay to our school community. An application for walls/doors to separate our classrooms in Stage 1, 2 & 3 has been approved by CEDWW and this building is scheduled to take place over the January 2027 holidays and should be completed by the time the students return to school. This project is costed at $70,000 and we are very grateful for CEDWW to be funding this.

Some of you may not be aware, but when the new school was designed, it was centred around open learning and flexible learning spaces. The larger space in each block was to house up to 60 students with two teachers and the smaller space with kitchens was the ‘breakout’ space. At the time of opening the new school we had around 120 students. As the school has grown to 150 plus Junior Joeys (an extra 25), we have moved from 4 Staged classes to 7 single stream classes K- 6. We recognise however, that not having walls between classes caused auditory and visual disturbances for students and teachers amongst other issues. We are very grateful for CEDWW approving our recent application.

CEDWW has 29 schools in its care and you can imagine the cost of maintaining and upgrading each school. We are very fortunate to have new school buildings which were only opened in 2019. However, since 2022, we have had other major infrastructure works within our school which I think is important to highlight.

Major Infrustrature Works

At the start of 2024, we had the student toilet block on the oval refurbished which was $40,000. Along with this, the infants playground refurbishment including new sandpit, mud kitchen, outdoor platform/learning area and concrete surrounds around play equipment ($28,000), new sandpit poles and shade sail ($7,000). We recognised that there was also a need for shade in the Primary Area so a new shade sail and poles were erected over the primary play equipment, as well as concrete edging around this area replacing the wood surrounds ($30,000). With the addition of the $70,000 for classroom walls in 2027, this is a further $175,000 spent on infrastructure to benefit our students in 5 years. Some of these projects have been funded by the money raised in fundraising, others CEDWW and some school money.

An added cost to each classroom has been the purchase of 7 digital Clever Touch boards and stands which we have purchased over three years with the final cost being $45,000.

School Building Maintenance

As well as new infrastructure, the school buildings require ongoing maintenance. In the upcoming school holidays, CEDWW are paying for our beautiful school library to be repainted on the outside. They are also installing new solar panels on the hall to assist in saving money on our electricity bills and to conserve energy. Our hall is 16 years old now and it is requiring some upgrades. The school is in the process of purchasing a floor cleaning machine this year. A big cost will be replacing the cooling system in the hall as it is no longer functional and we are in the process of gaining quotes for.

As mentioned in previous newsletters, most of our school fundraising for next year will be focused on raising money for new air conditioning in the hall as this benefits all of our school community. Another area of focus will be raising money to erect a shelter in the kiss and drop area for sun and rain protection and the possibility of a sports shed. We are fortunate to provide such wonderful facilities for our students and community and are grateful to our St Joseph’s community and CEDWW for enabling this.

Colour Run

The students are so very excited about the biannual school Colour Run which will be held this Friday 25th September. Please see further in newsletter for details including an earlier award assembly.

A huge thank you to the business houses who have donated to this event and all the parents who have put so much time and effort into the organisation. The money raised from this event will pay for a new shade sail over the infants play equipment and re- painting of the Infants shade sail poles. This will complete all shade sails in our school and cost $8,500.

Showcase

It was wonderful to see the beautiful Athenium Theatre full last Thursday evening to support all of our students performing in their first Showcase, giving our students the opportunity to perform on stage and express themselves creatively build confidence, teamwork, and self-expression. A massive congratulations and thank you to all the dedicated staff from St Joseph’s and Riverina Music who worked tirelessly with the students to create and rehearse such inspiring, creative performances!

Stage 2 Excursion

Stage 2 had an exciting day last Friday at the National Gallery and National Museum in Canberra. They made some very creative wearable art at the Gallery and enjoyed exploring the Antarctica exhibition.

A big thank you to the teachers and teacher assistants who accompanied the students: Mrs Munn, Mrs Kerr, Miss Kerr, Ms Moran and Tahlia Crane. The students were wonderful ambassadors for our school.

Transistion to Kinder 2027

Thank you to all who have submitted their expressions of interest for next years Transition to Kindergarten Program (Junior Joeys). We are awaiting further instruction from CEDWW and will be in touch for the next step of enrolment.

School Uniform for Term 4

Next term the students will come back in their summer school and sports uniform. We do have second hand school uniform items for sale at the school if you need to purchase them.

Pupil Free Day

Teachers will return to school after the holidays on Monday 12th October. This will be a pupil free day and all students will return on Tuesday 13th October.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every parent for their support over the term. You have all given in so many ways and we truly appreciate your generosity.

Wishing our staff, students and families a very happy and safe holiday.

God bless

Angela Scott

Awards & PBL