God of Comfort,

send your Spirit to encompass all those whose lives

are torn apart by violence and death in the Middle East.

You are the Advocate of the oppressed

and the One whose eye is on the sparrow.

Let arms reach out in healing, rather than aggression.

Let hearts mourn rather than militarize.

God of Justice,

give strength to those whose long work for a just peace

might seem fruitless now. Strengthen their resolve.

Do not let them feel alone. Show us how to support their work

and bolster their courage. Guide religious leaders to model

unity and reconciliation across lines of division.

Guide political leaders to listen with their hearts as they seek peace and pursue it.

Help all people choose the rigorous path of just peace and disavow violence.

Dear parents and carers,

This week, I offer a prayer for peace in the Middle East. As a Catholic community, we are united with all peoples of the world where such sadness and suffering exist. It is a horrendous time for so many, and is being reported on across many online and accessible platforms. It can be a worrying and confusing situation for children, and they may have questions or concerns. Listen carefully, should your child raise anything, and be confident in sharing that it is important to know that war and fighting is terrible and impacts so many around the world.

As the term quickly comes to a conclusion, I want to acknowledge and thank the students for their efforts and energy these past 10 weeks. Term 3 was once thought of as the ‘calm term’, but somehow, we have managed to change that in recent years! Thank you to all parents, carers and friends in the St Joseph’s community for your continued support and commitment to our school. I hope each student and their family have a wonderful, restful break and we look forward to welcoming everyone back for Term 4 on Monday 14 October.

Behaviour Learning

Throughout this term we have reviewed, adjusted and communicated our Behaviour Learning Statement of Practice. As part of this, today as a staff we looked at how the recent changes have impacted student engagement and teaching and learning in the classroom. It is really pleasing to know that by improving our communication with parents over the past month, we have seen an improvement in overall student success in the classroom.

There has been positive support of this communication, via the Behaviour Learning Forms, that reassures us that we are all working together to set high expectations and supporting the students to have success.

Behaviour Management Statement of Practice

Orienteering at St Joseph’s

On 31 October, St Joseph’s will host Round 2 of the Spring SC-ORE orienteering challenge. This is a great before school activity that runs over 4 weeks, facilitated by Orienteering ACT. This is open to all students in Years 3 – 6. The participants get an outdoor, body and brain workout before hitting the classroom. What better way to start the day!
Parents and carers are responsible for completing their child/children's entries online.

Events will finish in time for children to get to school (more or less on time).

More information will be shared at the start of Term 4, arranging teams and participation. It would be great to have lots of interest as we are hosting one of the events.

Registration here 

2025 Classes

In preparation for organising classes for 2025, a Socio-gram will be sent home with all students in Foundation to Year 5 early in the Term 4, to allow students to choose 3 friends who they would like to be in class with in 2025. This is always a very carefully considered process that begins with the current teacher and what they know of each student and, first and foremost, their learning. More information will be shared at the time.

If there is specific information that parents would like to advise me of to assist the composition of classes for 2025, then this must be done so in writing to me either via email or letter by no later than Friday 22 November. This does not include requests for particular teachers, nor does it include considerations other than the learning needs of your child.

Code Camp

The Code Camp lunchtime club will again run during Term 4 for students in Years 2 - 6. This lunchtime club was introduced earlier this year and is an extra opportunity run by Code Camp, an outside organisation. The club will run on Wednesdays at first break during Term 4.

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