Principals' Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

A warm welcome to Week 4! We hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend with family and friends and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful weather we are experiencing at the moment.

Mary MacKillop

Mary MacKillop is Australia's first and only saint. Mary MacKillop died in Sydney on August 8, 1909. She was canonised as Saint Mary of the Cross on October 17, 2010. Together with Julian Tenison-Woods, she founded Australia's first religious order, the Sisters of St Joseph (the Josephites). The Josephites were a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools including our school here in Tamworth and welfare institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand, with an emphasis on education. We will celebrate the feast day of Mary MacKillop with a liturgy on Tuesday 8th August at 12:00 noon in the hall.

Learning Together

Tomorrow our staff will take part in a twilight professional development session to continue our focus on Mathematics, in particular assessment and moderation. The session will be facilitated by Mrs Helen Rowsell from the Catholic Schools Office.

This year as part of our School Annual Improvement Plan we are revisiting and refining our co-teaching framework as we consistently look to improve our pedagogy and practice here at St Joseph's for the benefit of our students. Therefore, on the 4th September there will be a pupil free day where staff will attend a Professional Development Day in a collaborative initiative with the staff at St Joseph's Primary School, Tenterfield. 

Maitland/Newcastle Study Tour

Next Thursday 17th August and Friday 18th August, we will welcome three groups of Assistant Principals from the Maitland/Newcastle Diocese. We were honoured to be asked to host a Learning Walk and Talk by a previous System Performance Leader Mr Jason Hanrahan. We are excited to be able to highlight the excellent learning and teaching happening across K-6 in our wonderful learning spaces.  We are very proud of our school and appreciate the opportunity to showcase our school as a centre of excellence in learning and teaching. It is a fantastic acknowledgement for our enthusiastic teams of Teachers and Educational Assistants who consistently co-plan, co-teach and co-assess as part of their daily practice to support our students in achieving their best possible outcomes.  

Principals' Conference

We will be away this week from Wednesday 9th August until Friday 11th August attending the Term 3 Principal's Conference. In our absence any queries or concerns can be directed to Mrs Bearman.

Have a great week.

Maree Holland & Greg O'Toole

Co-Principals

St Joseph's School - a Faith Filled Community Where Learning Matters.