From the desk of Mr McManus ....

It is my great pleasure to announce the School Captains for 2024. After a period of reflection by the Year 5 candidates and subsequent speeches to the whole school or their House group, the following captains have been elected and affirmed by their peers and the staff. Note that as the Year 5 cohort is small in number, there is a different proportion of boy and girl sports captains.

School Captains

Indie Lawson

Andy Watson

Sports Captains

FITZROY

Collie Cooper, Jace Southern

MACKILLOP

Ryder Swift, Atticus Zietek

PENOLA

April Collins, Max Grob

The year group members of the Student Representative Council (SRC) will be finalised by Monday and announced via COMPASS notification. Congratulations to our wonderful student representatives and we all collectively pray for their success and active support of our beautiful school culture in 2024!

As some may remember at the end of 2022, the St Joseph’s School Advisory Council, Father Gleeson and myself decided NOT to raise the school fees for 2023. As we now move into 2024 and as the overarching governance body of all schools in the Armidale Diocoese, the Armidale Catholic Schools Board has advised all schools to raise their fees for 2024 by a factor of 4%.

In making this decision, the Board Directors were cognisant that:

there are persistent and potentially growing cost-of-living pressures on families
most schools have not increased their fees for a number of years
schools also have cost-of-living pressures and must also maintain quality learning resources and environments
the recommended 4% increase is below the current CPI of 5.4% as at the September Quarter release.

As a school that strongly endeavours to ensure that families get value for money from their fees, St Joseph’s School Glen Innes routinely covers the costs of entry/nomination fees, bus transport and minor excursion fees. Consequently, we believe that families get great value by maintaining the upkeep and regular payment of their school fees. Even with the 4% increase the total cost to families works out at less than $40 per week or, put even more simply, a cup of coffee per day (ie. $5/day). If the fees do become an issue for your family budget please make sure you make a confidential appointment to see me and we will be able to negotiate a sustainable payment plan.

Finally, as we end Week 6, please keep a weather eye on the COMPASS App and Facebook for important school events that will occur over the final month of 2023. Year 6 families particularly have received a COMPASS notification from me about significant dates for ‘rites-of-passage’ experiences as these children move towards the excitement and challenge of testing themselves at the next level of education!

Until next time.

May our God go with you

Geoff McManus

Principal

Little Joeys Playgroup