Dear Parents,

What an action packed last fortnight we have had at St Joseph’s!

MACS recently launched their Vision for Engagement strategy. All around the world young people are facing complex challenges. Our students, families and community require more support to deal with the many challenges they are faced with.

Vision for Engagement sets out to support students to thrive fostering a sense of belonging, supporting students mental health and wellbeing and enabling motivation. We are extremely proud of all we are doing in our school to promote engagement and flourishing for every student which has been particularly evident in the last fortnight here at St Joseph’s.

Last Monday, our senior students participated in the state final for Wakakirri which was a wonderful achievement. We were so proud of every student from years 4, 5 and 6 who participated and were shining and flourishing on the stage. A huge thank you to Jess Scudamore, Tazmyn Hose and all of the staff involved.

Last week we welcomed Hani, Boen, Subki and Suryana from our sister school in Sumbawa, Indonesia. We have had a wonderful connection with Hani from Lombok for the past 12 years where we have connected through the Sea is our Best Friend project. Across the globe we have been sharing learning about the sea and the importance of mangroves, sea grass and coastal literacy. Unfortunately, our original sister school in Lombok is no longer able to connect and so Hani has now connected us with a new sister school in Sumbawa where we will share learning together in this most exciting initiative. It was such a wonderful experience having our visitors and we look forward to a great sister school relationship moving forward.

What a wonderful community day we had on Friday 5th September celebrating all of our Fathers and special father figures at St. Joseph’s. It was such a show of the strength of our community and how important it is to ensure we have opportunities to celebrate and be with our precious children.

A special shout out to our Prep community who led the afternoon and were simply incredible.

A huge congratulations to our senior students on a great performance at the District Athletics last Thursday. We are so proud of all of your great efforts and congratulate all students who have proceeded to the next level.

Tomorrow, we celebrate a very special day here at St Joseph’s. We are hosting the Little Scientists, Big Ideas Expo. A number of Catholic schools from our zone will attend all sharing their ideas on how to make a difference in the world.

You are most welcome to come along and join in on the day and see the brilliant students in action from 9.00- 1.45pm in the hall.

A huge thank you to our learning leaders Ebony Jenkins, Georgie Dunn and Ashleigh Gledhill who are leading the day and to all who have assisted. A special thanks to Bendigo Bank who have sponsored the day, Sally Taylor and guests from CSIRO and MACS staff and visitors. Thanks to Paul Mercurio, Jen Hawkins and Kelli Simmons for being the judges on the day.

This term, students have been learning about the concept of Curiosity and have been engaging in various inquiries to deepen their skills and dispositions. We invite all of our community to come along and share in our learning from 2.30pm onwards tomorrow to see the terms Inquiry projects on display.

Please don’t forget to complete your MACSIS survey. We highly value and appreciate your feedback.

Congratulations to all of our community for working so magnificently together to support our students. It has been such a pleasure to work with you throughout the term and share our learning and special celebrations as a community.

Thank you to our amazing staff who have gone above and beyond, working tirelessly throughout the past term ensuring every student belongs, connects, and grows in their learning. I am so privileged to work with such a dedicated staff and thank each of them for their brilliant efforts.

We will conclude our amazing term of learning with our end of term assembly this Wednesday at 2.30pm.

Students finish for the term at 3.15pm Wednesday.

Staff will then enjoy a conference on Thursday and Friday where we will work on the Vision for instruction and Vision for engagement strategies. Both of these days are pupil free days.

Term 4 commences on Monday 6th October and I look forward to partnering with you to ensure every student is growing and flourishing in our care.

Yours in Partnership,

Gab

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