Prayer for Term Four

God grant us the patience to work together, bring us all together as a family. Let us work together with understanding and compassion in our hearts. Let us not be rude or arrogant towards one another, as we light the way to your heavenly kingdom. Amen.

Important Dates

Wednesday 19 October                Year Twelve Graduation Mass at 5.30 pm in the Holy Family Church

Tuesday 25 October                      Secondary Presentation Night in the gymnasium at 7.00 pm

Friday 11 November                      Albany Show Pupil Free Day

Thursday 1 December                   Year Six Graduation Mass in the Holy Family Church at 9.00 am

Tuesday 6 December                    Junior School Presentation and Christmas Concert Night at 5.00 pm in the gymnasium

Friday 9 December                        Kindergarten to Year Ten students conclude the school year

Friday 16 December                      All staff and the College Office conclude the school year

Dear Parents, Caregivers, Staff, Students and Parishioners,

Welcome back to the first COVID restriction free term in nearly three years. Parents and visitors are able to attend all school events and we look forward to seeing you at the various special occasions shown on the Term Four Calendar. Three new students commenced in Year Seven (x 2) and Year Nine this week and I hope them and their families feel welcome at St Joseph’s College.

CEWA (Catholic Education Western Australia) have commenced the process of appointing a new Principal for St Joseph’s College. Towards the end of the holiday break, the position was advertised and an announcement of the successful applicant is expected around Thursday 10 November.

Planning is well underway for the 2023 school year with nearly all required staff across the school secured. Currently students in Three-Year-Old to Year Six are collectively known as the ‘Junior School’. Next year there will be some re-structuring with Three-Year-Old to Year Two being known as Early Learning and Year Three to Year Six being known as the Junior School. This new structure will enable resources, staffing, professional development etc to be better targeted as there is a huge difference between the youngest students and the middle/upper primary students. Congratulations to Mrs Michelle Lister on her appointment as Head of Early Learning (Three-Year-Old to Year Two) and Mr Jim Morcom as the Head of Junior School (Year Three to Year Six). In their new leadership positions, each has responsibility for all aspects of student welfare, child safety practices, pastoral initiatives, curriculum planning and behaviour management and intervention strategies for their sub-schools. This re-structuring has been possible due to Mrs Mielens returning to Perth.

Yesterday our Year Twelve students concluded their secondary education and this cohort left our school showing respect for self, others and property – I am extremely pleased with the way they approached their final day and departure. The students enjoyed breakfast together, a practice for their Graduation Mass and a game of Big Base Baseball against the staff.

Last Friday, our entire College community enjoyed the long-awaited colour run. The oval was covered with students from Kindergarten to Year Twelve and staff having an amazing time completing the obstacle course with a blaze of colour happening around them. There was so much laughter and broad smiles on the faces of all participants! This joyous event was organised by our P&F Executive as a celebration of finally being one school again. Thank you to Mrs Loveridge, Mrs Davey and Mrs Dallimore for organising this event. Your planning, efforts and thoughtfulness were greatly appreciated by all who participated and watched!

Father Chris was farewelled by the entire school last Friday as he now moves to St Damien’s Parish in Dawesville. Father Vince is the new parish priest for the Holy Family Parish in Albany. Father Joel has recently arrived from the Philippines and is becoming acquainted with daily life at St Joseph’s College. He will be the College chaplain in 2023. Father Jeoff is wished a safe and enjoyable holiday in the Philippines and will return just before the students conclude at the end of the year.

Ms Carissa Robinson commenced this week as our new canteen assistant. Please make her feel welcome in our school community.

Parent help in the early years is now back in full swing again this term. Please check the classroom door for possible dates or speak to your child’s teacher. I appreciate that for parents with younger children not being able to help in the classroom has been greatly missed but now you can enjoy this opportunity!

Given Term Four is underway, I ask parents and caregivers to make every effort to pay their school fees before the end of the year. If there are circumstances as to why the fees cannot be paid, please contact the office and make a time to come and discuss the situation with me.

Each day holds a surprise at St Joseph’s College. Only if we expect it can we see, hear or feel this surprise!

Best wishes,

Mr Mark Browning

Principal

Wow, what an exciting and busy Term Three we had in the Junior and Senior Libraries! We started the term celebrating NAIDOC week with wonderful library displays where students could find and read a variety of books about Indigenous Australian culture, past and present, and explore books that celebrate the important contributions of our First Nation people as they share their stories of bravery, innovation, resistance, empathy, and adventure.

Books including...

1. Heroes, Rebels, and Innovators: Inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People from History written and researched by Karen Wyld, an author of Martu descent.
2. The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples, by Corey Tutt, illustrated by Blak Douglas
3. Walking in Gagudju Country: Exploring the Monsoon Forest, written by Diane Lucas & Ben Tyler and illustrated by Emma Long.

All three books were in this year's CBCA Book week shortlist!

Many NAIDOC activities were set up at lunch time for students to do. The kangaroo and whale jigsaw puzzles were a hit in the Junior School Library whilst Middle and Senior School students were challenged with an Indigenous Australian art puzzle in the Edmund Rice Library.

The dreamtime stories were left on display as we began Book Week and with that came new CBCA shortlisted books to the library in anticipation for the book week theme "Reading is Like Dreaming with Eyes Open". The highlight of the week being the grand costume parade, which was enjoyed by all.

Junior Library:

1. It has been great to see most students using their library bags or homework satchels to help protect their library books. It has definitely reduced the amount damaged books coming back to the library.

1. To reduce the number of overdue books, classes from Kindergarten to Year Six participated in a fun "Return Your Overdue Library Books" race. At the end of term, the class with the least number of overdue books won a small prize. I was very impressed by everyone's effort and amazingly three classes won!!

Well done Year One Blue and One Gold and Pre Primary Blue. An extra congratulations to the students (and parents/guardians) in Pre Primary Blue, who consistently remained in the lead most weeks this term.

1. Finally, a big thank you to the Year Six Library Monitors (official and unofficial) for all your help putting books away, tidying up after lunch activities, helping create library displays, putting on puppet shows, helping other students in the library, and so much more.

Our Uniform Shop is now available on Quick Cliq - www.quickcliq.com.au

You can now order uniforms online and collect from the School office, between 8am and 4pm, Monday to Friday during school term.

Please refer to order pickup notes when placing your order to determine when your order will be ready for collection.

School Uniform shop open hours are: Tuesday 8.15am - 9.30am and Wednesday 2.15pm - 4.00pm.

Country Families @ Ngala is an online parenting support service to complement existing professionals in regional areas.

Targeted at families with children aged 0 – 8 years, living in rural, regional and remote Western Australia, these families can access a variety of online services through our website page: https://www.ngala.com.au/program/country-services/

If you require any further information, please email us at countryfamilies@ngala.com.au or call Ngala 9368 9342 and you can speak to one of our team members,

SRTAFE Open Day is a great starting point to find out all the opportunities available to you in the one place.

Saturday 22nd October

10 - 1pm

SRTAFE at 5 Nanson Road

ADFA have opportunities for you to have your part or full degree paid for, plus they have Gap Year opportunities - where you start getting paid from day one.

If you are interested, and want more information, go to:

https://www.defencejobs.gov.au/students-and-education

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