Dear Parents and Carers,

2020, What a fantastic experience it has been. Even though it has been a year with a lot of challenges, it has also been a year where our school community has banded together for a common purpose. I am very proud of our families, particularly with the way you have all adapted to ever-changing requirements and restrictions. I am excited, as you all would be, about the relaxing of restrictions in our communities, and the fact that we will all be able to celebrate Christmas and our summer holidays with greater ease. Unfortunately with the latest changes, these do not apply to schools in 2020. We still need to abide by the 4 square metre restrictions and other COVID regulations for our end of year events. Catholic Schools NSW will send information to schools in the new year about 2021 restrictions.

2021 School Leaders

It was with great pleasure this week that we announced our new school leaders for St Joseph’s Wee Waa in 2021.

School Captains:

Polly Carolan
Charlie Haire

St Andrew’s House Captains:

Phebe Hamblin
Toby Hayes

St Joseph’s House Captains:

Ruby Graham
Edward Haire

Also, a special congratulations to our Year 6 class for 2021. They are all leaders of St Joseph’s.

Students did a wonderful job presenting their speeches this week. I am proud to have such strong student leadership at St Joseph’s Wee Waa.

Transition 2021

Next week, students will have the opportunity to work with their 2021 Leaders of Learning. We will be holding 2 transition sessions, 9.00 am - 11.00 am on Tuesday 8 December and Wednesday 9 December. The Leaders of Learning for 2021 are as follows:

Kindergarten - Miss Brooke Theobald
Stage 1 - Miss Lucy Suttor & Miss Teagan Conomos
Stage 2 - Mrs Karlee Hatton & Mr Mark Rottger
Stage 3 - Miss Elise Vinson

Mrs Monique Soutter will be leading our MaST Program (Mathematics), with all stages, but particularly in Stage 2 and will be teaching Physical Education for all Stages on a Tuesday. Mrs Anna Baird will be teaching Creative and Performing Arts for all Stages on a Tuesday also.

Mrs Emily Sullivan will be our Inclusion Support Teacher and will also be working one day a week with Miss Vinson in Stage 3. As announced previously, Mrs Elise Baird will be our Leader of Pedagogy and Assistant Principal.

I am excited to see how our students will grow in 2021 with their new Leaders of Learning. As a diocese, we will be introducing a new wellbeing framework, Living Well, Learning Well, with all schools taking part in this, there will be a range of clear descriptors centred around rules for living and learning. This will have a major impact on the life of the school and how we support all students and their families.

At a school level, our Annual Improvement Plan for 2021 will focus on three main points. Great learning and teaching, An authentic Catholic community of care, and Strong teams. This refined view of annual improvement is something that will be communicated in greater detail to all families in 2021.

School Reports:

Our Semester 2 reports will be released electronically on Compass at 3.00 pm on Thursday 10 December. As a principal, it has been exciting to read all students reports, to see the level of growth and development all students have made. There are some structural changes to our reports this semester. All students will receive a score on their achievement in all key areas of learning. The score assigned will be either “Working towards the expected level of achievement”, “Working at the expected level of achievement” or “Working beyond the expected level of achievement”. You will also find a comment for English, Mathematics and Social skills. The comments recorded for your child will be based on one aspect of the key learning area. It will detail an area that your child has achieved success in, an area that they are working towards achieving and an area that they can work together with their family members at home to achieve success in the future.

The goal in modifying the way we comment on key learning areas is to facilitate a discussion with your child on areas that they are familiar with and learning about in class. As a staff, one area of focus in 2021 is to refine the way we give feedback to students to help make the learning process more constructive with a clear partnership between the Leader of Learning, the student and the student’s family. This will be further developed in 2021.

2020 Celebration of Learning:

We are excited to have parents onsite to celebrate our student’s successes in 2020. Our celebration of learning will begin at 2.00 pm on Thursday 10 December. This event will be live-streamed to families who cannot attend. Please ensure that you have RSVP’d to this event as we have a restricted number of people that we can have onsite.

This event is not a replication of the traditional school presentation evening that is usually held at the Bowling Club. This event will be different. There will be awards, but not the same awards as in previous years. Each year level will have an award for Academic Excellence (Strong learning growth and high-level achievement), Most Improved (strongest growth within the year level for multiple subjects based on data and performance) and Christian Attitude (Consistency of positive treatment of others, Seeing a need and doing something about it). The students selected are nominated by the Leaders of Learning and ratified by me as principal. Other school awards are being presented, such as Dux, an English and Maths award, and a Mary MacKillop award for school service. We have had some amazing support from local companies and services that have helped make this celebration a success. A big thank you needs to go out to:

The Imperial Hotel Wee Waa
Narrabri Shire Council
The Lions Club Wee Waa
RSL Narrabri Sub Branch
Cotton Research Development Corporation
Armidale Diocesan Investment Group

We will finish the event with each person receiving an icy pole and our Year 6 students leaving as we play the song Parting of the Ways.

Comings and goings:

If your family are moving away from Wee Waa and are planning on leaving St Joseph’s Primary School over the summer holidays, can you please contact the school office as soon as possible? We must have accurate information so we can staff the school accordingly.

Also, if you know any families that are considering sending their children to St Joseph’s, can you ask them to contact the office so we can get in touch with them to enable accurate enrolment before the beginning of the 2021 academic year.

School Fees:

Our school, as well as all systemic Catholic schools in Australia, are partially funded via the federal government. That means that our system receives money to pay for vital parts of education like the staffing of a school. However, this is only a proportion of the cost of running a school. Our school charges school fees to pay for the running costs of operating a school. Your school fees help us to pay for utilities, stationery, IT resources and general expenses.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of our school fees have still not been paid. If there are extenuating circumstances why these have not been paid, can you please let me know? Paying a small amount, what you can afford, regularly (weekly or fortnightly with your pay), is better than leaving this as a growing debt. I will be making contact with families with outstanding fees over the course of the next week, it would be great to see more of our fees paid, that way we can invest further into your child’s time here at St Joseph’s Wee Waa.

Primary End of Year Mass:

Our Primary End of Year Mass will be officiated by Fr Joseph on Monday 14 December at 9.30 am. We will be live streaming this Mass for families to follow along at home or on their break at work. The link to the live stream will be posted on our school’s Facebook page.

Infants Liturgy:

Our Infants End of Year Liturgy will be officiated by Fr Joseph on Tuesday 15 December at 9.30 am. We will be live streaming this Mass for families to follow along at home or on their break at work. The link to the live stream will be posted on our school’s Facebook page.

School Closure Day reminder:

Just a reminder about next week’s School Closure Day. This will be occurring on Friday 11 December. No children can be sent to school this day, as there will be no staff on-site, as we are participating in Religious Education Professional Learning at an external venue.

International Day for People with Disability:

It was wonderful to celebrate International Day for People with Disability yesterday. It was great to hear the discussions of students around how we need to make schooling fair and equitable for all students in Australia. Please see the following excerpt from Mrs Elise Baird detailing what we did to celebrate:

On Thursday 3rd December, we celebrated International Day for People with Disability. The day aims to increase public awareness and acceptance of people with disabilities, whilst celebrating their achievements and contributions. At St Joseph’s, we began our morning assembly with the prayer for International Day of People with Disability, before engaging in inclusive discussions concerning ‘Equality, Equity and Justice’ linked to the 2020 theme ‘Not all Disabilities are Visible’ In our classrooms, we watched various clips that focused on the achievements and contributions made by people with disability in all areas of society. Well done St Joseph’s, your contributions made our celebrations authentic and inclusive.

Elise Baird

Inclusion Support Teacher

Saints, Superheroes and Curious Creatures:

Thank you to all of our school families who helped make our Saints, Superheroes and Curious Creatures day such a success. It was excellent seeing your children all excited about their costumes. It was great to chat with students and discuss why they were picking people to emulate on this day.

Year 6 Leavers 2020:

A special shout out to our wonderful Year 6 leaders of 2020. You have done our school proud and we all wish you the very best as you head to Secondary school next year. Please pray for all of our Year 6 students as they finish their time here at St Joseph’s. We will be farewelling them with a Year 6 Graduation Dinner next Monday and then publicly at our 2020 Celebration of Learning assembly.

Xavier Baird

Nathan Bolton

Annabelle Carolan

Bailey Coutts-Smith

Matilda Davis

Harrison Evans

Alexi Hannaford

Jack Kiem

Mia Kiem

Jett Palmer

Billy Shearin

Tyler Simmonds

Laura Jessica Tuckey

Cassidy Welsh

Thank you for all of your support during this often difficult year. It is a pleasure to be the principal of St Joseph's Primary School. We have a fantastic school community and a wonderful group of learners. I wish everyone who is leaving St Joseph’s the best for their ongoing education and future endeavours. For those of you who are returning in 2021, I pray that you have a safe and happy Christmas and summer holiday.

Regards,

Alistair Stewart

Principal

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