Principal's Message
Liam Buckley
Dear all
Thank you for your patience as we work to set up 2021. This has been a huge term for all of us and we are very grateful to finish the year with the children in school. There will be a brief newsletter next week celebrating the end of the year and our Year 6 Graduates and staff.
Graduation
Our Year 6 students and their parents are celebrating the end of primary school with a Graduation Liturgy from 6pm - 6.30pm on Tuesday 15th December.
From 6.30pm the Year 6 students and staff will celebrate the end of the year with a disco / pizza evening in the school hall from 6.30pm - 8pm. The Class of 2020 will be off to Luna Park with Mr Brooks, Mr Sandison and Mrs Cathy Wells on Wednesday 16th December.
| Diary Dates | |
|---|---|
| December 14th (Mon) | 'Move Up Day' Students will spend from 9.30am - 11am with their 2021 teachers and classmates. |
| Dec 15th - | Graduation 6pm - 8pm |
Dec 16th (Wed) | Year 6 Luna Park 9.15am - 2.45pm 3pm Assembly (Year 6 parents welcome onsite) for 'Ringing of the Bell' |
| Dec 17th | Last day of Term 4 12pm Assembly / Nativity Liturgy (Foundation) All parents welcome (physical distanced on playground) Year 6 Captains Announced for 2021 Goldstein Medal awarded to a Year 5 student |
| Jan 27 & 28 | Teachers back |
| January 29th | All students first day of school (Summer uniform) |
Library
In 2021 the current library will be repurposed back to its original use as classroom space. This great space has bifold doors which allows the room to be a flexible learning space. It will be home to Foundation and Year 1 next year. The classes will operate separately, but also offers the opportunity for the Foundation and Year 1 children to have a larger social group and access to two teachers.
The library resources (books) will be rehoused in the current Foundation classroom. This room will be a Wellbeing Space as well as home to the library books. This space will be available at lunchtimes to students and will be supervised by teachers. It will also be available for our Learning Support Officers (LSOs) to work with children who may not be 'ready to learn'.
We thank Merie for the time she has given to St Joseph's and for the relationships she has developed. We wish her all the very best next year. We also farewell Pauline who has been so helpful and cheerful all the time and we wish her well in her new job next year. We will have more to say about Mr Brooks next week!
Specialist Programs have increased to 60 minutes instead of 40 for 2021 and will still occur on Wednesdays. First lessons being Feb 3rd.
School Community
Dear parents, next year we would like to re-engage with our parents and friends as much as possible. We hope to establish a new Parents & Friends Association (P&F), we would love to be able to have parents engaged in our learning programs with us or supporting our fundraising etc. Positive parental engagement is essential as we learn and grow together.
We will establish quickly in Term 1 some extra curricular activities for the students. There will be options for before school, lunchtime and after school activities. Further details to follow but we hope to include; fitness club, performing arts, chess, lego and hopefully yoga. Please let me know if you would be interested in facilitating an activity or club for the wonderful students at St Joseph's.
(WWCC required).
ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOUP VAN HAMPERS
A huge thank you to all of the wonderful families who have donated so generously to the appeal. There are many much needed items under our school Christmas Tree. They will be collected on Friday morning. If you would like to help pack the hampers, this will take place at Stella Maris in the Multi-Purpose Room on Saturday. Thank you again for your amazing generosity.