Welcome to Term 4.  I hope all of our St Joseph’s families had a fabulous break and are ready for a busy term.  The calendar is filling up really quickly, so please remember to check our calendar, read any notifications on Compass and the newsletter for important dates and messages.

St Joseph’s staff spent the first day back at St Benedict’s in Narrabundah, ACT.  It was a fantastic opportunity to visit another school with composite classes and to see how they are implementing Catalyst amongst many other initiatives.  Observing teaching and learning, networking with other teachers, Classroom support assistants, RECs and Principals is a wonderful way for our staff to share ideas, and gain different strategies and knowledge that they may not normally get the opportunity to experience.  We are very grateful to all of the staff at St Benedicts for welcoming us into their school on the first day back of term and were so impressed with how engaged their students were, and we have many fresh ideas and strategies to implement.

St Joseph’s welcomes Emerson Henry who has joined us in Year 1.  Emerson has already settled in beautifully to the K/1 class and we hope that Emerson and her family feel very welcome in Adelong and the St Joseph’s community.

As most of you are aware Cath Parker was very unwell towards the end of last term, and I know that the St Joseph’s community have continued to keep her in their prayers and thoughts.  Cath did have a bleed on the brain, and spent a significant amount of time at St Vincent’s hospital, Sydney and was eventually transferred back to Wagga Base and then Tumut hospital.  Cath is by no means out of the woods and I would ask you to continue to pray for Cath’s successful recovery.  In her absence Mrs Clare Pearce, Ms Robyn Saunders and Mrs Jess Campbell will be fulfilling Cath’s role and I thank them for taking on these extra responsibilities.

We welcomed our 2024 Kindergarten students today for their third Orientation Day.  Our new Kindy students stayed for recess and we know they had another great day at St Joseph’s!

We are very excited for our Golf Day - which is happening this Saturday.  It would be fantastic if as many as our families as possible could attend - it is always a great fun family day, and a wonderful opportunity to support St Joseph's Community Council, who support our fabulous school.  Many thanks to the hard working members of the Community Council who have put the Golf day together.

Blessings for a beautiful week

Kirsty Beavan

Principal