Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.

O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.

Give us the grace to see your face in one another and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.

Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.

Give us ears to listen humbly to each other and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.

Lead your Church into a hope-filled future, that we may live the joy of the Gospel.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age.

Amen.

Dear parents and carers and the St Joseph’s community,

Welcome back to Term 3. It has been a settled and positive start to the term for the students and staff. While there continues to be pressures on our school community due to the impact of COVID-19, we are confident that by following our COVID-safe practices and the guidelines provided by Catholic Education, that we will ensure a safe and supportive learning and teaching environment for all our school community. Please see the information that was sent out via Compass on Tuesday 19 July for more details on the Term 3 COVID Management Plan.

We are excitedly watching the final stages of our incredible new nature playground being completed and are preparing for a grand opening in the coming weeks. At the same time, we are reviewing our playground supervision practices and playground safety rules to include the new nature playground, and to clarify rules for other areas of our playground. Once finalised, these rules and agreed practices will be shared with parents and clearly communicated with students.

After a long wait, we are pleased to welcome Mrs Megan Bolas as our Italian teacher for the remainder of the year. Megan has worked at St Joseph’s for a couple of years in a casual capacity, but is now looking forward to using her Italian language skills as she takes on the Italian teaching role starting next week. Welcome Megan!

Term Calendar

Following the announcement yesterday that the priority in Term 3 is to ensure staffing is consistent and there are limited interruptions and extra-curricular activities, unfortunately some planned events such as the Athletics Carnival and planned class excursions have been cancelled. However, we are committed to continue providing opportunities, when possible, for parents to join activities or gatherings remotely and to find ways to share the learning that is occurring here at school. Please keep an eye on the calendar that is available on Compass and also on the website. Class Term 3 Overviews will also be sent out on Friday this week, which will have key dates for the term ahead.

Kid Free Night

A reminder about the Kid Free Night next Friday 29 July. This is a great opportunity for parents to get together… and have the kids looked after here at school by Camp Australia for a couple of hours.

Fete

The planning is continuing for our St Joseph’s Fete on Sunday 6 November. Over the coming weeks more information will go out to year groups as fete stalls are planned and calls are made for volunteers.

The next committee meeting is on Tuesday 2 August at 7.30pm at Howling Moon.

If you are interested in joining the Committee, or want to know more, please contact:

Caroline Odgers on caroline.odgers@hotmail.com or 0404 687 663

Enrolments

We are continuing to seek new enrolments into our Early Learning Centre and Foundation for 2023, as well as into most other grades across the school. If you have the opportunity to share with friends and families what makes St Joseph’s a great school, it would be wonderful to welcome more new families into St Joseph’s in the future.

Now is also the time that offers of place need to be accepted. If you have a child starting Foundation, or another year, in 2023 then Letters of Offer were sent at the end of Term 2. Acceptance of these offers need to be completed by this Friday, 22 July.

For our Year 6 families, please let your child’s teacher know the high school they will be attending in 2023 as we need to gather this information before the end of the year.  Likewise, if your child is in another year, and you are leaving St Joseph’s at the end of 2022, please inform the school as soon as possible to assist with planning for next year.

Have a great end to the week.

Yours in Christ,