Principal's Report

Welcome back to Term 3 for another busy time of learning growth and community building! 

Firstly, I must deeply thank the P&F and all of those generous businesses that contributed either practically or in-kind donations to a highly successful Trivia Night at the Services Club last Friday. With over 120 people in attendance, a wonderful night of brain-teasing questions and friendly table banter was had by all. Special thanks go to our P&F President - Sal Floyd and those helpers that could make it, in preparing the exceptional ‘grazing platters’ and the room set up and pack up. A fine example of what St Joseph’s School Glen Innes is all about - building strong community partnerships.

As most would have noted through previous newsletters and our social media posts, we bade farewell to one of our highly skilled adults at the end of the last term as Mrs Casey Chard moved up into a MaST project coaching role across the whole Diocese. That deserved career move left a hole in our staffing that was challenging to fill. The good news is that we managed to cover each of her teaching and leadership allocations with experienced and generous staff. I offer public thanks to all of the following staff for stepping up to cover the many roles that Mrs Chard held and to support our talented young people. Many of these staff have extended their work hours or stepped out of their comfort zone in the true spirit of building a strong team of skilful helpful adults.

Sports Coordinator -  Jackie Barratt.

MaST Project Teacher -  Judy McManus. 

Stage 3 Teaching Team -  Katie McMeniman, Jackie Barratt, Sarah Smith, Rickie Withers, and Geoff McManus. 

And yes (!) you did read correctly that I am personally heading into the classroom each Wednesday to support the great work our Stage 3 team is doing to prepare our Year 6 and Year 5 students to ‘future-proof’ them for high school. Poor kids - imagine having your Principal in the classroom each week!?

I spoke at length at Assembly on Monday about our recent Sports Trifecta (Cross-Country, Netball, Rugby League) and the importance of “testing” ourselves at the “next level”. My point was and is consistently that unless we continue to ‘test’ ourselves against a higher standard we will not improve, whether it be on the sporting field, on the stage or in the classroom. It is why here at St Joseph’s School Glen Innes we participate in New England Sings, Diocesan Sport, and Newcastle Permanent Mathematics Competitions, as well as constantly benchmarking ourselves academically against National Standards such as NAPLAN, PM Benchmarks and ACER PAT-R and PAT-M tests. In short, there is little point in only measuring yourself as the best in Glen Innes and then not being able to ‘cut it’ in the big wide world!  We encourage all families to continue to work in partnership with our team of skilful helpful adults in setting high aspirational learning, wellbeing, sporting and cultural targets for our talented children!

It is a pity that we have had to postpone our annual Grandparents Mass and Morning Tea again due to our concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Nonetheless, when the season warms and the spread is less likely, be assured we will revisit this important event on our school calendar.

We also received a lovely letter of thanks from the local conference of St Vincent de Paul for our recent kind and generous donations at the ’Poor Persons’ Mass on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. As a hard-working local organisation that has so far in 2022 serviced over 263 people with over $10 000 worth of food, our donations were gratefully received and highly valued.

Information has been sent out this week about the Student-Led Conferences to be held during Weeks 3 and 4 here at the school. These invaluable 10-minute conversations with your child’s teacher/s have a clear rhythm and focus on the ‘next steps’ for learning growth. I encourage all families to bring their child along to the meeting so that the conversation reflects a supportive partnership between school, family and student. Our team of skilful helpful adults will help to lead the child through a reflective 10-minute conversation about “How they are going?” and “What are we going to do next as partners in their learning?” While learning goals were explicit in the recent written reports, there is nothing better than a face-to-face partnership conversation to enhance the great work in the classroom!

In my next newsletter, I look forward to sharing some exciting news about our 2022 NAPLAN results and our Year 6 RE Test results! Stay warm and stay well!

May God go with you

Geoff McManus

Principal