Dear Parents & Carers 

Afternoon Pick Up and Morning Drop Off

Last week the traffic officers were on Union St and Farquhar St at afternoon pick up time.  They were very complimentary about the use of name cards on the sun visors and expressed their wish that other schools would follow this practice.  Thank you for helping to make our pick-up procedures run smoothly and safely. If you have not placed your name card in your car please do so as soon as possible. If you need further cards please contact the office. 

Further feedback was around the need for not parking in the Collection zone and getting out to put bags and children in cars. What was observed was that a number of parents are arriving too early and parking here for an extended period of time. 

The purpose of a Kiss and Drop Collect zone is to quickly and safely move children on and off the site.  We ask that you not get out of your cars at drop off or collection time and that your children enter and exit the car from the kerb side, not the road side.  If you do need to assist your child then it is advisable that you park in a designated parking area to do this rather than use the drop off and collection zone. The traffic officer also advised us that they would be making regular visits.

For those parents who are not using the Kiss and Drop zone but are crossing the road with your child, please cross at the crossing as a number of parents have had near misses with parents walking in between cars as drivers are about to pull out.  Remember, we need to be modelling the practices that we want our children to be following and I am sure that you would all expect your children to cross at traffic lights, especially when they are so close.

As of next week, Tuesday 11^th June, at both pick up zones we will be introducing a cone system to further improve our pick-up procedures.  There will be 4 different coloured cones on the footpath.  You are asked to make sure that your name card is visible to the staff on duty before you pull up.  They will then call your child’s name and state a colour.  As you pull up, your children will be waiting at that colour cone and they can very swiftly enter the car.  All cars are then to pull out in turn.  For example, if someone is at the front pink cone and you are at the next green cone, you are not to pull out and go around the pink cone car. You are required to wait until the car in front has pulled out first and then you follow.  We believe that having your children ready at the cones when you pull up will make things run much faster and more smoothly. Please talk with your children about the expectations you have of them in regard to being at cone when you pull up and in getting very quickly and independently into the car. 

Thank you for your support in helping to keep not only your child safe but all our children safe.

Kindergarten 2020

Hands and Feet

Over the last couple of weeks, hand and feet cutouts were sent home, asking you to record your family’s thoughts on the hands about what they liked about current/past practices in the school and on the feet the direction you feel our school needs to take. Your information helps us to plan for the future of St Joseph’s.   We ask that you return these completed hands and feet to school by next Wednesday 13th June.

Outdoor Seating

Many of you will have noticed that the bench seats under the COLA that the children sit on for assemblies are relocated around the school grounds for a lot of the week.  The reason for this is so that there is more playing space for the children of a lunch and recess time, as the COLA area cannot be safely used when all the benches are under it.  The benches are in place for our longer Monday morning assemblies and then they are moved after this.  Each class decided on where they would like to move their seats to.  This has led to more social seating arrangements and the benches are getting more use now.  They are then put back into position on a Friday ready for Monday morning.  The assemblies throughout the week are short ones where the children, weather dependent, sit or stand for their duration before going to class.  If there is a longer assembly or liturgy planned for a day other than Monday the benches are put back under the COLA. 

Volunteers

Thank you to all those who volunteer in so many ways here at St Joseph’s.  Your skills and time are invaluable to us.  As you are aware it is a requirement that anyone who wishes to volunteer throughout the year (reading in the classroom, canteen, excursions, carnivals etc) is required to have a Working With Children Check number which can be obtained from

In addition to this it is a requirement that all volunteers undergo a Volunteer Induction session as well as be issued with the updated diocesan Volunteers Handbook

We ran the first of our two Volunteers Induction session on Monday evening. If you didn’t manage to come along to that please come along to the next one, which is on Wednesday 12^th June at 9:00am in the Library.

"Thank God for Catholic Schools"

Earlier this week in The Australian newspaper there was an article commenting on how fortunate it is that we have a Catholic Schools System in our country and how it not only gives choice to parents regarding the schooling of their children but in particular how it saves the government an inordinate amount of money, that can be then put into resourcing the state education system. Below are the links to this article as well as to a follow up statement from Catholic Schools NSW. They both make for an interesting read as well give accurate information to help explain the funding situation of Catholic schools to those who are unsure of it or who have misconceptions regarding this.  I hope you manage to find the time to read these

Important Dates