Prayer For The 2023 New School Year
Lord Jesus, we ask for your help as we begin this new school year.  Allow us to experience your presence in the many blessings you put before us.  Open our eyes to the new challenges and exciting opportunities that this new school year brings.  Open
our heart and mind to new friends.  Give us a generous spirit to be enthusiastic encourage to accept new opportunities.  Help us to be attentive to one another and let us experience Your presence in our new friends.  Jesus, inspire us to do our best this year. 
Amen.

We respectfully acknowledge the past and present traditional owners of this land on which we are meeting – the Algnith people. We also acknowledge the contributions of First Nations peoples to the education of all children and people in our country Australia, in which we all live and share together.

Welcome to the 2023 school year! 

Last week we shared in a time of great excitement, hope and joy as our students and parents of 2023 once again entered the beautiful grounds of St Joseph’s.  It is with great pride and gratitude that we welcome all community members to our new school year. We trust that our many new families will feel the inclusive warmth of our St Joseph’s community as they begin their educational journey at our wonderful school.

It has been a relatively seamless beginning considering it is the first time in 3 years that we have started without COVID rearing its head and impacting proceedings. All indications so far indicate that 2023 will be a great year on many levels. Students are excited to be back amongst their friends and teachers. Our Prep students have settled very quickly into school life and are keen to learn and enjoy many new learning experiences. There has been a real calm about the place which is a credit to both our staff and parents for preparing the students so well.

To all our class teachers, I would like to express my appreciation for the amount of time and effort they have spent over the recent holidays to ensure that their respective classrooms were organized and prepared for the term ahead. Such a great feeling to walk into welcoming & engaging classrooms. The work you have done to provide vibrant learning environments has not gone unnoticed. Many thanks to all the parents as well. From my observations and discussions with the teachers, the children have arrived fully prepared and a keen attitude to commence the school year. Well done, you have done a great job!

We all know that children receive the best education when parents and teachers work as a team. Parents’ enthusiasm, support, and involvement are integral to the success of our school as are the skills, dedication, and professionalism of teachers. Together, staff and parents can provide educational excellence for every student, so that they can achieve their personal best. Together, we can support one another to provide a friendly academic environment and, when appropriate, celebrate our achievements.

The adventure of a new school year begins and with it all the potential and promise that awaits. We look forward optimistically towards a challenging and inspiring year of learning and invite our whole community to engage with us in the year that lies ahead.

As I begin my sixth year at St Joseph’s, I am particularly grateful for the blessing of this community and I look forward to working with you all to ensure that our students have an enriching, faith-filled and joyful school year.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

God bless,

Megan

STAFF NEWS

We are very excited about the cohesion of the school staff this year, as well as the new staff to St Joseph’s.  We continually work hard on our recruitment, searching for the right staff that fit our school community. This year, we welcome the following new staff:

• Rory Harrington – Senior Hub Teacher
• Debra Hamilton – Year 1 Teacher
• Lucy Mills – School Officer
• Kathy Mitton -School Secretary
• Jason McNee - Groundsman
• Demi-Lee Boldon – Tuckshop Convenor
• Nicole Young -Tuckshop Assistant

Staff returned to work on Monday 16th January for seven days of various professional development opportunities.  All of these opportunities were linked to the school Annual Action Plan which is informed by the Cairns Catholic Education Services Strategic Plan. Key professional development themes included cultural awareness, review of Mission and Vision, Science of Reading Instruction, Mathematic planning and assessing using the latest version 9 of the Australian Curriculum. The implementation schedule for this curriculum is currently Maths and HPE from term 1 with English and other learning area being introduced in a staged approach. Classroom teachers also spent time learning about the new students in their class by talking to previous teachers, whilst school officers also attended targeted training for their role. 

BACK TO SCHOOL MEET & GREET  
It is exciting to be back in 2023 and able to invite parents into the school again, after a long period of ‘covid times’. With this in mind, we hope to see lots of families at the upcoming Meet & Greet this afternoon. This informal evening will begin with ‘Open Classrooms’ from 5:30pm. It is a great opportunity for you to meet your child’s class teacher and learn more about how their classroom operates.

We will be serving food from 6.00pm so please grab a bit to eat, mingle with friends and be seated by ready for the disco to start at 6.30pm, We are sure students will enjoy an evening of dance and fun with friends. We hope to see many of you there.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Congratulations to all students and families for their commitment to wearing the correct St Joseph’s uniform with pride. It is an essential life-skill to model and encourage students to dress in a neat, clean, and tidy manner. The staff model this daily by aligning with our agreed dress standard of ‘staff dress meets the occasion of the day’.

Parents, please assist your child to meet the correct uniform requirements. The Formal Uniform is worn on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Sports Uniform is worn on Thursday. Please refer to and be familiar with the St Joseph’s Uniform Requirements on our website. This document is included below for your convenience. Some important areas to note include-

• Fingernails. No coloured nail polish or acrylic nails.
• Boys Hair. We have noticed quite a few boys hair styles that are not appropriate for school. Hairstyles must be neat in appearance and not falling into eyes. Hair past the collar must be tied back. Hair may not be dyed or worn in a style that is extreme or inappropriate for school (i.e. no tracks, rat’s tails, mo-hawks, mullets or undercuts that have a large variance between length).
• Girls Hair. Be neat in appearance and not falling into eyes. Girls with shoulder or longer length hair must have it tied back. Hair may not be dyed or worn in a style that is extreme or inappropriate for school. Hair accessories should be minimal and must be in colours of navy, blue or white.
• Shoes. Plain black footwear for boys and girls.

STUDENT MOBILE PHONES AND SMART WATCHES
A reminder to students and parents that student mobile phones are to be brought to the office each morning for safekeeping.  No student is to keep their mobile phone with them or store it in their school bag. We have also noticed quite a few students with smartwatches with camera capabilities and access to games, etc.  We ask that these special watches remain at home or be handed in to the teacher to look after during the school day. 

PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

The P&F Association will hold its first meeting of the school year, Thursday 9^th February at ?? in the school Library. The following meeting on Thursday the 9^th March will be the Annual General meeting where all executive positions, President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer will be declared vacant and will be open for our keen, enthusiastic St Joseph’s parents to nominate. The P&F is a very friendly and inclusive group who work to benefit all students at the school.  There are many ways that parents can become involved, such as attending the monthly P&F meetings, volunteering to help out at school events volunteering in classrooms.  It is a great way to get to know and socialise with other parents and staff. 

ASSEMBLY

Our whole school assembly is held on Friday at 8:50am in the Flexible learning space. Our first assembly will be in Week 3.

UPDATE FAMILY DETAILS

Family details are essential for the care and safety of your child / children.  Please ensure that all your details are updated regularly.  These include current phone numbers and email addresses, medical updates, and religious denomination.  This is necessary and helpful information for administration purposes.  Thank you for your cooperation.

DROP-OFF and PICK-UP PROCEDURE

• Drop-off is from 8:10am – 8:40am. 

      Please don’t leave students at the school, unattended before 8:00am as there is no supervision by teachers before then.

• Pick-up is from 2:55 – 3:20pm.

All students will be seated on the wooden seating in the eating area for collection.

Children using the kiss ‘n go enter and exit through the gate closest to the main entrance.

Children who are being collected by parents walking in please use the gate closet to the road.

RELIGIOUS LIFE

 As part of the St Joseph’s Parish School Annual Improvement Plan, this year we aim to develop a School Prayer to align with the theological and educational views of a Catholic Dialogue School. Led by Mrs Gear with our Catholic Identity and Outreach consultant, we have already begun the process of developing our School Prayer in 2022. Throughout Semester 1, we will continue to seek student and parent voice as part of the re-contextualisation process. 

The spirit of St Joseph’s is a significant influence upon the culture of our school and our community. We are eager to continue the development of our St Joseph Charism and begin to focus on our other Patron Saint Mary MacKillop throughout the 2023 school year. For this reason we have made our theme for 2023 …’Never see a need without doing something about it.’ This is a great lesson we can learn not only through the life and actions of a saint very dear to our school, St Mary MacKillop, but from the life of St Joseph and teachings of Jesus as well. This year, we challenge all members of our St Joseph’s community; students, staff and parents; to consider the life and teachings of Mary MacKillop, St Joseph and Jesus in their interactions with all of Creation. Building on from our theme of the year, we will also be learning more about our school values of Humility, Justice and which are part of the story of both St Joseph and St Mary MacKillop.

Tuckshop News

We are so excited to have completed our recruitment for Tuckshop Staff and welcome Demi-Lee Boldon and Nicole Young to St Joseph’s. Both Demi and Nicole have a passion for food and love making others happy. They have lots of new and interesting recipes that have had us looking forward to when they are gradually introduced into our weekly menu and special occasions. They will introduce themselves in our next newsletter.

Our Tuckshop usually operates five days a week providing lunches, drinks and snacks but with the transition of new Tuckshop Staff, we will commence full time from next Wednesday.

Our Tuckshop follows a very high standard of hygiene and provide a variety of healthy foods.  Our prices are kept at a reasonable level as a service to the students, but we do not compromise on quality. The Tuckshop operates each day at 10:40 am for lunch with our menu being updated regularly throughout the year.

Our Tuckshop staff Demi and Nicole would like to issue a special invitation to parents and family members to become a volunteer at the Tuckshop. Demi and Nicole organise the food, the roster, and will be at the Tuckshop every morning to greet and help you.  You will enjoy your time spent with us, your child will love to see you and the rest of us will really appreciate it also! If you are new to our school, have never helped out before, or have been helping for years and want to come and help again, please let us know in the front Office and Demi our Tuckshop Coordinator will be in touch with you.