Dear Parents,

A special welcome to Katrina McGrath who has been appointed Acting Principal in Kirsty’s absence. Katrina comes with years of experience, including Classroom Teacher, Learning Support Teacher, Religious Education Coordinator Principal. Recently Katrina worked as Senior Schools Registration Officer, Schools and Family Services at the Catholic Education Office in Manuka. 

Katrina will be at St Joseph’s Monday-Thursday. On Fridays I will continue to be Acting Principal. Students were very excited to meet Katrina today. Katrina is eager to meet our wonderful parents so if you are in the office, please feel free to pop your head in to say hello! 

Catalyst 

On Monday staff participated in a day of Professional Learning with the Catalyst Team from Catholic Education.Staff completed a range of Professional Reading before the day to ensure that all staff had an understanding of the research behind the practices that were being introduced through the sessions during the day.

Topics Covered:

• The connections between High Impact Teaching Practices and the Science of Learning evidence.
• How the brain processes information.
• Cognitive Load Theory
• The importance of starting lessons with a Daily Review – which leads to consolidation and automaticity of knowledge, skills and strategies.

Over the next few week staff will develop their own Daily Reviews and present them to Catalyst Team for Feedback. We look forward to working with our Coach – Michael, and hopefully have him visit the school to see our lessons first hand.

Western Region Swimming Carnival 

Just a friendly reminder to please return permission notes for the Western Region Swimming Carnival. The qualifying students will compete next Thursday 24 February in Cootamundra. 

Congratulations and best wishes to our talented swimmers who will be representing St Joseph’s. 

Have a lovely week everyone.

Stacey Braun

Acting Principal