Dear St Joseph’s families and friends,

 Welcome back! I hope everyone had a relaxing break. The start of a new term is always an extremely exciting time for both students and staff, particularly the final term of the school year.

 I really enjoy this part of the year where we can reflect on the year to date and marvel on the academic, emotional and spiritual development of each child in the school.

With only six weeks to go before another school year ends, there are many things on our calendar between now and 25^th November. The end of year is always a very hectic time filled with orientation days, farewells, graduations, gatherings and occasions that add to the rich school life from which our children benefit so much.

 This term is an important, exciting and big term for Year Six. It is the term where there are many 'last times', transitions and social/emotional learnings. Year 6 started transition visits to WCC on Thursday and last week they went down to Camp Paterson near Mareeba, had fun, behaved well and returned safe, but tired!

 Last week, Amanda O’Brien and I, were fortunate to be able to spend some time with the students on camp, before attending Professional development in Cairns during the day. Year 6 had a great time participating in the many activities on offer at Camp Patterson. It was an excellent opportunity for students to try new things, face new challenges and discover new talents. It was difficult for Amanda and myself to leave to attend Curriculum training when there was so much fun to be had. Camp Patterson is extremely well run by the experienced camp instructors and supported by teachers. Thanks to Melanie Turner and Stacey Edmonds who gave freely of their time away from their families to enable such a great experience for the children. Thanks also goes to Mrs Gear for organising the camp/travel logistics that ensured the camp went smoothly.

 I was impressed with and proud of the respectful and responsible way our Year 6 students conducted themselves throughout the trip. The owners of the camp also had high praise for the maturity and manners of our children. Please keep our Year 6 classes in your thoughts and prayers as they prepare for the next stage of their lives.

In preparation for being Student Leaders in 2023, the Year 5 class will participate in a Leadership Retreat at school in the coming weeks.  

This week we also welcome our new Prep students to St Joseph’s for the first of three orientation mornings. Thursday 13^th, 20^th and 27^th October 9 till 10:30am. This is a great opportunity for students to settle in before beginning formal schooling.

NAPLAN RESULTS 2022

Individual student reports have finally arrived.  If you have a child in year 3 or 5 please come into the office and collect their NAPLAN reports.  These reports provide information on how individuals performed on each of the NAPLAN tests that took place in May.

Normally at this time of year we would also receive the school results in comparison the state and national average.  However, The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has advised that the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2022 Summary report of preliminary results will not be released this year due to lower than usual student participation rates in NAPLAN as a result of the pandemic, flu and floods.