Principals' Message
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to Week 10 and the culmination of another busy and productive term! As you all know, the Australian Government has announced a National Day of Mourning to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II and have declared Thursday 22nd September 2022 a public holiday. Therefore, all schools in the Armidale Diocese will not be open this Thursday due to the public holiday. As Friday 23rd September 2022 is a Staff Professional Development Day, the final day for students in Term 3 will be Wednesday 21st September 2022.
National Catholic Education Commission Conference 2022
Recently, Mr O'Toole had the privilege to attend the 2022 National Catholic Education Conference in Melbourne. The theme was “The Future is Listening” with around 1,400 Catholic educators and delegates in attendance.
At the opening of the conference the keynote speaker’s statement was 'Catholic schools give Australian families the choice of a high quality, faith based, holistic education’. From humble beginnings 200 years ago, Australia’s 1,755 Catholic schools now educate more than 785,000 Australian students or one in five students. As our first keynote speaker constantly remarked, 'Every Catholic School is a Sacrament of Hope and Catholic Education has a lot to celebrate.’
The three days contained a mix of keynote speakers and individual sessions on a range of topics. It also reinforced the importance of learning and wellbeing not only for our students but our entire school community to support a positive learning environment. Our students can achieve anything if they truly believe it and work relentlessly to achieve it and are surrounded by skilful helpful adults.
During the conference we had the privilege of listening to some well spoken and informed students who had some innovative ideas for the future of schooling and education. We are very proud and excited about the work we do at St Joseph’s in providing a variety of opportunities to support our students.
Kindergarten Transition Program - 2023
Last week we commenced our Kindergarten Transition program and warmly welcomed the pre-schoolers and their families to St Joseph’s school. It was great to see how excited they were to be at ‘big’ school. Transition provides an excellent opportunity for the children to become familiar with the school environment, staff and students. It also provides an opportunity for staff to get to know the children before they commence next year. A special thank you to Miss Sampson, Mrs Cuthbertson and Ms Gee for co-ordinating the program and supporting the children in their transition to school. A great start to Kindergarten is an important part of the educational journey. The Kindergarten Transition Program will continue into next term with the children attending full days. We look forward to a long and happy association with St Joseph’s School.
As Term 3 draws to a close, we would like to thank the St Joseph's School community for another great term of learning. There have been many achievements and successes throughout the term that we can all be very proud of. We wish you all an enjoyable and relaxing school holiday break and look forward to seeing everyone for the start Term 4 on Monday 10th October.
May God bless you and your family,
Maree Holland & Greg O'Toole
Co-Principals
St Joseph's School - a Faith Filled Community Where Learning Matters.
