Dear Parents,

Welcome back to the 2020 school year. I hope that the summer break was as enjoyable for you as what it was for your children. They have obviously spent some wonderful times with you and very much enjoyed the experiences that you provided them with over the holidays, gauging by what they have been sharing with us.

I would like to especially welcome all the new families to our St Joseph’s community. We have a delightful group of fresh young faces in our Kinder classes as well as some refreshing new faces across various year groups. They have obviously heard how brilliant a school St Joseph’s is! We welcome the following students & their families; Flynn (Y 1)  & Cooper (Yr 3) Hosking, Peter (Yr 5) & Jonathon (Yr 3) Higgins, Amelia (Yr 6) & Madelyn (Yr 1) Oderico, Felix Pasvolsky (Yr 2), Misheel Chandmani (Yr 3) and Michael Mooney (Yr 6).

We also extend a warm welcome to our new staff members, Miss Emma Cook and Miss Grace Parker.  Emma will initially be teaching Year 6 Gold with Nicola Matheson. A little later this term Nicola commences maternity leave as her and her husband welcome twins into their family. Emma will then take over the fulltime teaching role in 6 Gold. Grace will be teaching Music to all students, K-6, this year on a weekly basis and will be with us 3 days a week. We are so glad that all these people have joined our community and know that each one of them will add much value to our school family.

Teaching Staff 2020

To borrow some words from our Parents’ Back to School prayer, this year with your children, we aim to ‘fill them, guide them, protect them and enliven them’ and we hope that you will very much support us in this mission.

I look forward to meeting you all at our “Meet the Teacher” Information Evening to be held on Wednesday 19h February.

Meet The Teacher Night

All parents will have the opportunity to meet their children’s teachers on Wednesday 19th February. At this meeting the teachers will talk with the group of parents from their class, outlining routines, aims and expectations for the year.  This meeting will then be followed by the first P&F meeting of the year. We look forward to seeing all families on this night. 

Session 1 (Classrooms)
5.30pm – 5.50pm       Parents meet with class teacher in the classroom
Session 2 (School Hall)
6.00pm – 6.20pm        All parents meet with school principal, Karen McGinlay
Session 3 (Classrooms)
6.30pm – 6.50pm       Parents meet with class teacher in the classroom

(Session 3 is a repeat of Session 1 for those parents unavailable to attend the 5.30pm time or for those who need to be at several teachers’ sessions)

If you would like to know more about the school or become more involved in the school community, as well as connect with other parents please come along and join us for our first P&F Meeting for the year. This will follow the information night at 7:00pm in the Library.  Come and join us for a cuppa and a treat, see what the P&F is all about and offer your thoughts and ideas.

Playground

As you will have noticed the dirt bowl is no longer in existence and we have a magnificent lush green playground complete with an upgraded sand pit and a dry creek bed and bridge creative play space. We are so grateful to Aussie Outdoor Design, the company we selected to undertake the works.  To start and completely finish the job within 3 weeks was brilliant and, for me, each visit up to school throughout the holidays was exciting as every time there was something more unfolding. It is fabulous to see the children get so much joy from the various aspects of the playground, from rolling down the mound to playing soccer with clearly marked lines and others pretending to be billy goats crossing the troll’s bridge or extending their engineering skills in the sandpit!  A little later in the term we will organise an event to celebrate what we have achieved, however I would like to take this opportunity to make special mention of the great assistance we received from Peter Shrewsbury and his workplace BG&E engineering and from Mrs Sarah Rees from Green Space Planning. Their advice and support were invaluable.

Some General Items of Information

Absences

All student absences, by law, are required to have a written explanation, so please ensure that on your child’s return to school you have explained their absence using Compass or alternatively provide the school with a note outlining the dates and reason for their absence.

Extended Leave: If your child will be absent from school for more than 10 school days at a time you need to complete an Extended Absence Form that can be obtained from the office and it is a legal requirement that you submit copies of airline tickets/itineraries for these absences.

Parent/Teacher Communication

Please arrange a time, either through the office, or directly with the teachers to speak about any issues concerning your child’s welfare or progress. Teachers are only too happy to meet with you, or speak with you over the phone, however it is important to book a time so that they can be best prepared to respond to your concerns and so that time they plan to use for preparing their lessons & resources is not unexpectedly impacted upon.  Our policy, if you wish to email the teachers is to do so using the school admin address, which is: admin@merewether.catholic.edu.au as opposed to using their direct email address.

Medical Plans

If your child has any significant medical issues and requires the administration of medication it is a requirement that you provide the school with a medical/health management plan. Please ensure that your child’s doctor completes one of these and pass it on to the office staff as soon as possible.  This even applies if your child may only occasionally require their medication eg seasonal Asthma.  If tablets are to be regularly administered to your child please arrange for their medication to be put into blister packs which clearly have your child’s name and medication details displayed.  If you are unaware of what these packs are please speak with your pharmacist.

Compass

It is essential that all parents have downloaded the Compass app onto their devices and are familiar with using Compass as the majority of our communication will be via this. If you have forgotten your password please go in and reset a new one. If you are still having difficulty with accessing Compass after this please contact the office.

Bell times

We have adjusted our recess bell times by 5 minutes this year. Recess is from 1:25pm – 2:05pm. This is to better accommodate Music and Library lessons.

Canteen

The canteen is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays this year and will continue to be managed by Kelly Brands.  Lunch orders are placed online using the QKR app. See below for details.  The canteen is open for snacks at lunchtime, once the children have finished eating their lunches, and again at recess.  We require volunteers for both lunch time and recess sessions. Please see the roster that Kelly has set up and if you can spare some time this term to come along and help out, we would really appreciate it.  Children love to see a family member behind the canteen counter for many reasons!

Uniforms

The children are currently wearing their school uniforms with great pride, especially the new sports polo shirt and white trainers.  Please note that the boys’ summer shirts are to be worn outside their shorts, rather than tucked in. Sports shirts are also to be left out.  Thank you to all those families who have complied with the footwear policy of black leather style school shoes and white/predominantly white trainers.  Our students are certainly looking very smart at the moment and we ask that you continue to encourage this sense of pride in your children throughout the year.  

Label Everything!

Please ensure all clothing (especially hats), lunch boxes, drink bottles, paint shirts, devices and library bags are clearly marked with your child’s name. This applies to all children from Kinder through to Year 6. This will save you money and us valuable learning time as well as less distress all round.

It is important to remember in this hot weather to send a drink bottle to school each day. Children are encouraged to keep them in their classrooms and keep themselves

hydrated. We will be continuing with ‘Crunch and Sip’ this year. Crunch and Sip takes place in each classroom throughout the morning block. Remember to send small snack sized freshnb fruit or vegetables with your children that can be quickly and easily eaten whilst they continue on with their learning. It is important to have this snack packed separate from the children’s lunches.

Sick Bay

If your child is unwell prior to school starting of a morning please keep them at home

for the day. This is in the best interests of your child and other people’s children. If children need treatment such as cream on days old mosquito bites or lip balm for their dried lips the administration of these types of things needs to occur at home

CONGRATULATIONS

Felicity, or Flick as most of us know her, from KCA OOSH and her partner celebrated the birth of their first child, Harlan, this Wednesday 5th February.  Harlan was born in the morning and weighed in at 3.2kg and 50cm in length.  We offer Flick and her family all the very best wishes and hope that there are not too many sleepless nights coming their way!

Through Jesus Christ we Learn, Love and Live the truth.

Karen McGinlay, Principal

Important Dates