Dear Families
We’ve had a positive start to the year, with so many exciting elements to highlight this start.
Learning has been in full swing at St Joseph’s Memorial, and it has been wonderful to go into the classes to see teachers lead purposeful learning and to hear the students confidently share what they are learning about with great excitement.
Last week we held a whole school Mass in the Norwood Parish Church, led by Father Chris Jenkins and it was wonderful to see the whole community together. In addition, we held our first combined Preschool to Year 6 assembly in the new Performing Arts Centre. It was a great opportunity to celebrate the students who received the Live Learn Lead award certificates and to announce our new Year 6 school leaders. The whole school is looking forward to all of the student leaders having a positive impact in their roles.
Additional highlights of the past few weeks have been the community school events that have been held. Last Wednesday night, our Preschool staff hosted a ‘Welcome night’ and last Saturday night, our Parents and Friends group held a ‘Welcome drinks’ in the Performing Arts Centre. Both events were a wonderful opportunity for our community to connect and catch up. It was wonderful to see families that are new to our school community attend.
Our popular playgroup has commenced and it is again held on Friday mornings starting at 9:15am in the Bridge St campus OSHC / Library room. The group is run by Marta and is for children, parents, grandparents and care givers. There is no need to book in to attend and it is free for all community members.
The ‘Skoolbag’ application is our major link to families delivering school alerts, information as well as our electronic version of the school newsletter instantly and directly to your smartphone and/or tablet. This year we are continuing our Facebook site and Instagram page to celebrate the many fantastic things happening in our school. Please feel free to follow these sites to keep posted.
Finally, in reference to staffing news, I would like to congratulate Jess Nelson on winning a position as Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Mary MacKillop College. Jess has been an integral member of our school community as a parent for over 15 years and staff member for over 13 years. In that time Jess has led OSHC, P&F, enrolments, school marketing, communications and administration. It is evident that she goes above and beyond for the school and families to which we have been extremely appreciative of. It is with no doubt that Jess will be sorely missed by the staff, families, students and the community. We will have an interim replacement for Jess in the office and will advertise the position.
Yours sincerely
Adam Slater
Principal