Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome back to all students, parents and staff. A special welcome to our Foundation students, who have Wednesday’s as a rest day until after the March long weekend. Great to see students ready for learning after the summer holidays.

We had many plans to begin our school year as a community including our Beginning of Year Mass, Beginning of Year Picnic on the Turf and Shrove Tuesday Breakfast. Due to the latest covid restrictions, these have been postponed until a suitable date, hopefully later this term.

It has been great to see parents joining us for our morning assembly, we welcome all parents to this morning gathering outdoors. A reminder to follow mask and distancing protocols. Currently, all parents are welcome onsite or to drop off messages etc at the front office. Please note that parents are also welcome inside classrooms, ensuring that QR codes are used and vaccination certificates are up to date.

Little Joey's will begin next Wednesday. Please see the advertisement in the 'Little Joey's' section.

Satisfaction Survey Term 4 2021

Thank you to those who participated in the school survey at the end of last year. We welcome your thoughts on what you value about our school and how we can make it better. We will be repeating this short survey in the last couple of weeks of each term this year and I encourage you to participate in future surveys and be part of shaping the future direction of St Joseph's.

But please don’t wait for the survey! My door is always open to receive feedback or drop me an email.

All the responses were valued. Below are the most common answers only.

When asked about what is currently working well at St Joseph's, the most comments received were:

That the kids are happy and engaged in their learning
Overall teaching and learning
The school community

When asked about what we could improve upon/ do better the most comments were:

Better communication (from classrooms / overall school communication)
Better parent engagement/community building
Teaching and Learning – specifically around structured reading in junior years, more science & sport, help for struggling kids and stretching higher achievers
More engagement with the wider Beechworth community

When asked what is most valued about being at St Joseph's (either in theory or from their experience)

Belonging caring culture/Wellbeing focus
Good teachers / supportive team/High-quality education
Kids are happy in a learning environment
Family /community feel
Feeling connected and well informed

It is really pleasing that despite the challenges of the past couple of years, the overall satisfaction score for being ‘satisfied / extremely satisfied’ was around 70%. A further 25% of respondents sat on the fence, being neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the school – presenting an opportunity for us to influence this result in 2022. The survey responses provide some general compass points for us to go forward within our school planning and daily school life. I look forward to sharing more on this in future newsletters and warmly invite your involvement in this process.

Parent Reps

Parent Reps are a great way for classrooms parents and caregivers to feel more connected and informed.

This looks different for all class groups as their families move through the different year levels. I’m aware that last year chat groups were set up and were a great, informal way to share information and connect with the class parent groups. I encourage these to keep going! If you're not part of one yet and would like to be please contact me and I'll direct you to relevant people to link you in.

The Parent Reps are a more formalised group of parents who filter down relevant information to your fellow classroom parents/caregivers via email or Social Media groups (if everyone is linked into these).

They can be one or two parents from each class who offer a small amount of time to do this. The types of things they may become involved in:

Assist the teacher in sourcing helpers for classroom activities/excursions, if required.
A ‘go to’ for new families. Providing advice on where to go or who to ask for information when required, what is required for dress-up days, sports days etc.
A reminder for key school activities and events and encourage parents to get involved with the school, social and fundraising activities throughout the year.
Plan class-specific social activities, e.g. coffee mornings, dinners, family picnics (optional, but really helpful in helping build community)
Provide feedback about ideas for school improvement to be passed on to school council members or me.

We are currently looking for someone to put their hands up for the following Parent Reps, please fill out the form from the link below if you are interested.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1csPLiZo8FrYZ2BdS4WtSUGy126ZtwzwAKiL-9VwVGCw/edit

Staffing Updates

Michael Kearton will be on Long Service Leave for the beginning of the school year. Pete Humphreys will fill in for Michael during this time. We also farewell Naomi Ingleton who has been coordinating the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden, as she focuses on her business. This position will be advertised shortly.

Meet and Greet Interviews

Throughout the year there are two formal opportunities for you to meet with your child/ren’s classroom teachers, the first of these being next week We encourage you to pop in regularly to touch base with teachers throughout the year.

The purpose of this first meeting is for you to share your wisdom about your child with their teacher. Some questions you may consider are:

Is there anything happening at home that you feel could impact your child at school?
What are your child’s strengths and areas of need?
What are the interests your child and your family have, outside of school?
Are there any learning difficulties that you think we may not know about?
Do you have any concerns about your child’s social well being?
How can we best communicate throughout the year?

These will take place next Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th February. The booking sheet will be sent in a separate email tomorrow morning. Due to restrictions, these will take place outside (if the weather is appropriate), or an online link will be sent.

Parent Engagement Expressions of Interest

Expressions of interest regarding a range of opportunities for Parent Engagement is now open, until Friday 11th February.

We all value being part of a connected and engaged school community, but remote learning and ongoing Covid restrictions have disrupted our ability to come together in mutual support of our children, their teachers and each other. Everyone can play a part in building a connected community at St Joseph’s - and all contributions are valued and welcomed. We’d love parents and carers to get involved in whatever capacity you can offer, whether it be helping with reading, being the classroom rep or even joining our School Council. Please be in touch with me, or fill in the attached form if you’d like to help reconnect our school community in 2021.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1csPLiZo8FrYZ2BdS4WtSUGy126ZtwzwAKiL-9VwVGCw/edit

Parent Code of Conduct

This School Code of Conduct ensures clarity about the behavioural standards that parents and staff can reasonably expect of each other. It is our intention that with this Code of Conduct we will continue to promote and advance respectful, cooperative and supportive relationships between parents/carers/guardians and staff.

This process is supported by our deep commitment to human life being sacred and to the dignity of the human person at all times being honoured and respected. The implementation of this Code of Conduct will contribute to the ongoing development of our school as a healthy, safe and hope-filled community.

This Parent/Carers/Guardian - School Code of Conduct is one violence prevention strategy in promoting a shared understanding and commitment of all in the promotion of the school as a safe workplace for our staff and students. We are here to support you and your children. We expect that everyone will act and speak respectfully, listen and work together to resolve issues of concern and or problems as they arise.

Please see attached a copy of the Code of Conduct (which is endorsed by Catholic Education Sandhurst) for your reference.

Icy poles

Icy poles will be available for purchase at lunchtime on Fridays. They will be .50cents each.

Diary Notes