Principal's Report

As a great school, we are incredibly well supported by our families who actively contribute and commit to our whole school culture so our children feel SAFE, VALUED-RESPECTED & CARED FOR with a laser-like focus on LEARNING. That active and busy support is represented in many forums, not the least being our wonderful P&F committee which met recently for their 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM). Without stealing the thunder from incoming President Jennie Dodds concerning the amazing amount $$$ raised at the Shamrocks and Shenanigans Ball in March and the new members of the 2024 P&F Committee, I think it would be highly remiss of me not to mention the outstanding contribution of outgoing President - Sal Floyd. As many are well aware, Sal has been a wonderful leader and ridiculously hard worker as the President of the P&F for many years. Her initiatives, encouragement and cheerfulness are all-pervading and a big part of the overwhelming success of the St Joseph’s P&F Association is on the back of Sal’s leadership and willingness to take our school to “the next level”. While our on-site team of skilful helpful adults are working hard to make a good school great, under Sal’s leadership with new ideas and encouragement of the team, our parents have been able to find an active and rewarding conduit to make it even greater. Thank you Sal - enjoy a well-earned rest!?

Thank you also to outgoing Committee members who have been similarly invested and hard-working in their support of the school for many years. Please read Jennie’s article in the P&F section of this newsletter for more details.

I trust that families enjoyed the 5-day Long Weekend recently. The staff were able to gather for two highly worthwhile days of professional learning and we also managed to engage in some team-building and socialising. Consequently, I offer public thanks to all of those families who made a combined donation for Christmas at the end of 2023 for a significant $$$ voucher at the New England Motor Lodge. The staff enjoyed a few quiet drinks and a lovely meal together after school on Thursday, subsidised by that generous gift. With great respect to the thoughtful individual gifts that teachers and support staff annually receive leading into the Christmas period, the combined nature of that voucher (and another one yet to be spent at Smeatons!?) created a sense of every staff member feeling appreciative and thankful to our families. Food for thought if you are thinking about Xmas appreciation later in the year.

Teachers are in the final stages of compiling and collating reports to be sent out to families at the end of this term. Note that there will be specific and detailed communication coming to families via COMPASS and on the actual reports themselves for families to become more aware of the important changes to the English and Mathematics Focus Areas from Kinder to Year 6. If after reading and digesting these respective documents, families are still confused please contact your child’s teacher or the Office and we will organise a face-to-face conversation. 

I offer public thanks to the teaching staff for their skilful work and attention to knowing every individual child that they teach to ensure the report is a high-quality reflection of point-in-time learning achievement and positive well-being for our beautiful children.

Congratulations to all of our past students of St Joseph’s who ran in the State Secondary School District Cross Country at Coolah last week. We are relentlessly focused on ensuring that our children are “future-proofed” to take on the challenges that present themselves beyond primary school. Take a look at these results and I commend their ongoing efforts to “test themselves at the next level”!

12 years girls:     Aila McBain              1st

                                Mia Sak                     4th

13 years girls:     Paige Floyd              9th

14 years girls:     Emily Poulton          11th

                               Airlee Poulton          13th

15years girls:      Mary Arandale        1st

                               Jasmine Klingner     2nd

                               Danika Elliott            4th

16 years boys:    Jack Floyd                 5th

16 years girls:    Maddie Tarrant        3rd

17 years boys:   Kayden Elliott           1st

17 years girls:    Lily Cooke                  8th

 Until next time.

May God go with you.

Geoff McManus

Principal