20th October 2022, Week 2, Term 4

From our Principal - Mr Brendan Moloney

St. Joseph’s School Prayer

Dear God, We offer you our prayer and praise to start another day. We praise, bless and thank you for being our God and our friend.Help us to bring justice, love and peace into our world. Amen St Joseph, Pray for us Mary of the Cross, Pray for us.

Dear Families, 

This week I have chosen to share with you our School Prayer. This prayer is prayed each week for our Monday and Friday assemblies, classes will also use this in their classrooms for their daily prayer.

It is wonderful to welcome back our students for Term 4; I am sure that you have all enjoyed the quality time the holidays provide to families. It is a joy to see the children coming back with their beautiful smiles and their readiness to be focused on learning.

We also continue to offer our prayers to the Williams family with the passing of Steve. The funeral was held last week with a very large contingent attending to pay their respects. 

Restoration Works

During the holidays Daniel Stewart Construction and his team have continued to work hard in order for our floors to be completed within a very short timeline. They achieved this without disrupting our learning environment for our students and now we have these fantastic spaces. It also needs to be acknowledged that our staff, as always, have done a lot of extra work in packing up their classrooms and setting them back up again to have them ready for our students, they really do go above and beyond.

The next stage of the restoration works is the repairs to the student toilets, these will start next week. During this time our staff toilets will be allocated to the students to use and our staff will use the disabled toilets. This is necessary as they are unable to source the temporary toilets required, these are hard to come by at the moment and timelines they have been given after searching far and wide would be February at the earliest. This timeline is not acceptable; hence we have developed plan ‘B’ in order to get these works completed as soon as possible. If families have any questions, please come and speak to us.

Tell Them From Me Survey

As part of our recent School Review Process we used the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey tool to capture the thoughts of our students, parents and staff in order to identify celebrations and areas of focus for our school improvement planning. The survey results were extremely positive and are something we are very proud of as a school community. Here is a snap shot of some of the data.

• Parents feel welcome: Our school average was 9.5 compared to the TTFM average of 7.4
• Parents are informed: Our school average was 8.8 compared to the TTFM average of 6.5
• Students with positive behaviours at school: Our school percentage was 94% compared to the TTFM percentage of 89%
• Students try hard to succeed in their learning: Our school percentage was 94% compared to the TTFM percentage of 90%

Stage 2 & 3 Excursions 

Stage 2 are very excited to be heading off to Circus Arts Byron Bay, Stage 3 are ready to go to Brisbane Mon-Thurs next week. They have a large variety of exciting experiences lined up for them.

I am sure that both these experiences will provide a lot of joy for our students. We also need to acknowledge that the cost of these experiences has been heavily subsidised by the many donations and generosity of community groups and individuals who have donated to our school to support our community following the flood event earlier this year. We are so appreciative of this support.

Junior Joey’s

Junior Joey’s gets underway for Term 4 this Friday. The children have been very settled and are becoming more familiar with the routines and expectations of school life. We look forward to welcoming them for Term 4.

Planning for 2023

Plans are well underway for 2023 and structures that will be in place to support the learning and wellbeing of all our students. If families are aware of children who are intending or considering enrolling for 2023 we ask that you encourage them to contact us and complete the enrolment process. This is important as it supports our planning.

God Bless,

Brendan Moloney

Mission News

What is a Parable?

This Sunday we will hear a parable from the Gospel of Luke. Jesus tells the parable of the proud Pharisee who prayed from his self-importance and the tax collector who prayed humbly. We will also hear in the coming weeks one of the students’ favourite Gospel stories of Zacchaeus. What can we learn from the way Jesus treats Zaccheaus? What can we learn from Zacchaeus’ behaviour?

Month of The Rosary

October is the month of the Rosary which aligns with Stage 2 learning about the life of Mary. During this unit the children will learn 2 special prayers for Mary; The Angelus and The rosary.

Grandparents, Grandfriends and special people in our lives…

You’re Invited to celebrate Grandparents and Grandfriends day with us!

Monday October 31st at 10am starting with Mass followed by morning tea. We are also celebrating the culmination of The Month of the Rosary on this day. The children will be making a Rosary keychain and we would love you to stay and help your Grandchild create theirs to take home. 

Save the Date

31 October- Grandparents Day Mass and celebration 10 am

11 November- Remembrance Day Liturgy 10:45 am

9 December- End of Year Mass 10am

12 December Graduation Mass for year 6 families 530pm

General Business