What a wonderful few weeks we have enjoyed! There has been a lot of celebrations to be had across all classrooms.

Book Week - Symphony of Stories

A huge thank you to all our wonderful families and friends who joined us for our special Book Week celebrations!

Our trip downtown and shared lunch at Warialda Town Square was a fantastic success. It was so special to see our community come together, share a meal, and celebrate the joy of reading. Thanks to Mel and Jackie for helping to prepare our lunch box treats!

We were blown away by the incredible effort everyone put into their costumes the creativity, colour, and excitement brought our favourite stories to life in the best way possible!

Days like these show just how special our school community truly is!

Father’s Day Breakfast & Celebrations

A huge thank you to all the Dads, Uncles, Pops, Grandfathers, and father figures who joined us for our Father’s Day morning. The school was buzzing with excitement as everyone enjoyed bacon and egg rolls, shoot-arounds on the basketball court, quite conversation and board games in the morning sun. Thanks Miller family for eggs and to Mr Bell for coooking up a lovely breakfast!

We deeply appreciate our staff and students for their efforts in hosting a wonderful event and making our special visitors feel so welcome.

Student Achievements

Well done to all of our students for their efforts and achievements over the past few weeks!

A special shout-out and all the best to Isaac, Eylah, Elijah, and Levi, who will be competing at the Polding Athletics Trials in Glendale this Friday. They are representing not only our school, but the entire Armidale Diocese. We are so proud of you and wish you the best of luck and can not wait to hear all about your adventures! Run fast!

Staff Professional Learning

Why Our Staff Are Learners, Too!

Learning doesn’t stop at the classroom door even for staff. We strongly believe that the best educators are the ones who never stop learning themselves. When our teachers, support staff, and leaders keep growing, our entire school community thrives.

Here is why continuous learning for our staff matters so much for your children:

By learning new teaching methods and staying up to date with fresh strategies, our team ensures your children receive an engaging education.

When students see their teachers reading, asking questions, and taking on new challenges, it sends a powerful message: curiosity and learning are lifelong adventures!

Ongoing professional growth helps us ensure every child feels safe, understood, and supported every day.

Professional development brings new ideas and inspiration into our school.

Mrs Brooks has recently completed 'Language Lift' training as a model to support oral language and communication in the early years, Mrs Whalan has attended the ACS Aboriginal Education Assistants retreat in Walgett, Mr Paton has attended the Curriculum Review as we prepare to embrace new syllabus ducuments in 2027, Miss Cook and Miss Perrin attended the Shared Beliefs and Understanding session for Early Career Teachers and this week Mrs Moxey will attend Inclusion Support Teacher days in Armidale. Well done to all staff for their support of our young people and for embracing new learning experiences themeselves.

This week, our teaching staff recently had the invaluable opportunity to visit Holy Trinity in Inverell and St Philomena’s in Moree. As part of our ongoing professional development, these "learning walks and talks" allowed our teams to step into other educational settings and connect with colleagues beyond our own school walls.

We are incredibly grateful to the Leaders of Pedagogy at both schools for generously sharing their time to discuss student data, instructional pedagogy, and effective learning strategies. Our staff gained so much from this collaboration, and we look forward to future opportunities to grow professionally ensuring we continue setting every student up for success and a hope-filled future.

Save the Date: Grandparents Day

Please mark Thursday, 22 October in your calendars for our annual Grandparents Day celebration! We look forward to welcoming our wonderful grandparents and special friends into our school to celebrate the vital role they play in our students' lives. Further details and timing for the day will be shared closer to the date.

Weeks 6 & 7 Joey Award

A massive congratulations to Eylah for Week 6 and Ashlin for Week 7!

The Joey Awards recognise students who consistently demonstrate our core values:

I am Safe
I am Valued, Respected and Cared For
I am a Learner

Throughout the term, staff catch students “doing the right thing” and enter them into our Joey Award recognition pool.

In addition to regular milestone draws each week, we track this positive data to host a special end-of-term celebration, honouring students who have consistently lived out our school values.

Uniform

We will now be in our Summer Uniform for the remainder of Term.

Please check uniforms and come to our school office if you need to purchase larger sizes.

We have a small handful of second hand uniforms still in good condition.

School Hats: Students are required to wear their school hat during all outdoor activities and break times.

Please check that your child's hat is clearly labeled with their name.

Changes to our Social Media and Use of Digital Images

You will see changes on our school social media including Facebook and Instagram and the posting of student photos and names. This is in direct response to the rise of generative AI and our commitment to the safety of our young people.

The rapid growth of accessible generative AI tools has introduced new risks in regards to how photos and videos may be harvested, stored and altered online. AI enabled photo and video manipulation is increasingly realistic and more accessible. Using photos posted by schools to public locations such as social media this technology is being used to create nonconsensual and sexualised images of students and staff.

We must consider these risks in the context of our duty of care for all our people - our students, our staff and our families. These changes serve to ensure our people are ‘safe, valued, respected and cared for’.

Following the recent advice from the e-Safety Commissioner about increasing AI risks and the misuse of images, our school and the wider Armidale Catholic Schools system are following guidelines to move to a safer digital environment. We will regularly review our practices as the landscape changes to ensure processes are up to date.

To adapt to these emerging risks while continuing to celebrate student success, we are making the following updates to our digital communications:

Focusing on Group & Contextual Photos: We will use wider-angle shots, group activities, and photos that showcase student learning, work, and participation from behind or at angles where faces are not fully identifiable.
Reducing High-Resolution Photos: We will avoid posting close-up, high-definition photos of individual students on public platforms.
Removing First & Last Name Combinations: Student names will not be published alongside their images on public social media.
Using Internal Channels: High-resolution photos, individual achievements, and identifiable images will be reserved for secure, password-protected internal platforms (such as Compass) rather than public social channels.

We know how much our community values seeing the daily life of our school, and we remain committed to sharing the wonderful achievements of our students. However, protecting their privacy and long-term digital footprint must come first.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership, understanding, and support as we take these proactive steps to keep our students safe in an evolving digital landscape.

Warialda Off Road 200

Our students who are not attending the SoccerGala Day will have the opportunity to attend the Meet and Greet with some of the local drivers. Keep an eye on Compass to provide permission for attendance at this event.

Our 3 - 6 students are busy making Mars Rovers as part of their Science unit. They are inspired by some of the designs!

Honey Festival

We are grateful to our P & F for their support of purchasing an oven for school! This means that we can get baking for the Festival competition.

Our students have been invited to perform at the Honey Festival and we look forward to having a stall with lots of treats available along with The Cake Ladies!

2027 Enrolments

As we start to plan for the 2027 school year we invite all families with students planning to commence school in 2027 to please complete the new online enrolment form.

Be sure to share if you know of anyone interested in joining our school community next year! Contact the school if you have any questions.

https://stjosephswarialda.catholic.edu.au/enrolment-information/

Please be sure to come along to our assembly on Friday afternoon at 2:30 pm in the hall.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and partnership.

Warm regards,

Jacqui Wait

Principal

COMMUNITY NEWS

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