A Message from the Principal

What a community!

I have been blown away over the past two weeks by the generosity of our community. I would like to thank those who have donated to our Faithful Forester's drive for new chicken and feed. 

The Quirindi Pantry made a very generous $500 donation, and a number of our students donated money from their own "cash for cans". 

One of our amazing families donated over $900 to support our Year 6 excursion.

Another family owned business:  Eykamp Seeds donated seeds and time to restore the grass on our school oval to repair the site after all of our retaining wall construction work. 

I feel so blessed to be part of the St Joey's family! Thank you!

School Survey

An annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential, and individuals can not be identified. The surveys were launched via email on Monday, 24 August 2026 using the email addresses supplied to the school. If you do not receive an email with a link to the survey, you can access and complete the survey via the following link. https://www.research.net/r/StJosephsQuirindiPARENT2026  The survey will close on Wednesday, 2 September 2026.

School Counsellor

We would like to share an update regarding our school counselling services: our current school counsellor has resigned to pursue her next professional chapter. We extend our gratitude to Cass for her dedicated work, care and support of our students and school community during her time with us. Armidale Catholic Schools is actively recruiting a qualified replacement to fill this position as soon as possible. In the meantime, we remain committed to supporting our students' well-being and will keep families updated on further progress.

Book Week

This year, we are excited to celebrate Children's Book Week under the wonderful theme, "Symphony of Stories." Just as different instruments blend to create a beautiful melody, this theme highlights how diverse voices, imaginations, and tales come together to foster a lifelong love of reading. To help spread the joy of reading across our school community, we will have a collection of pre-loved library books available at the front of the school for children to collect and take home both before and after school. We invite all students to browse the selection, and we kindly ask that children bring along their own bags or boxes to safely carry their new literary treasures home. We will have our opportunity to dress up as our favourite book character in October when we have our annual Book fair.

LWLW Response Strategy

The Armidale Catholic Schools Living Well, Learning Well framework is a comprehensive student support model designed to integrate student wellbeing, academic learning, positive behaviour, and school community connections into a cohesive practice. Centred on upholding the human dignity of every child, the framework rejects traditional control-based discipline in favour of a research-driven, system-wide ecological approach that focuses on adult actions, inclusion, and protective environments. By prioritising safe, supportive, and Christ-centred classroom environments through clear guidelines—such as standard "Rules for Living"—we can foster emotional resilience, student voice, and positive behaviour, ensuring students feel valued, safe, and empowered to achieve strong educational outcomes. As part of this framework, St Joseph's has developed a Response Strategy to support a consistent approach to unsafe or unproductive behaviour. Each student has been exposed to this response strategy, and I encourage you to ask them about it at home.

Have a wonderful week, and as always, reach out if I can be of assistance.

Amanda