Principal's Report
Welcome to Week 6! It is a little hard to believe that we are halfway through Term 1 already.
There has been so many school and community events in recent weeks where our families have supported St Joseph’s; staff and myself are extremely grateful for this.
Our Parish mass on the 2nd March was a beautiful celebration of the liturgy where students participated so reverently. Our Ash Wednesday Mass on the 5th March marked the beginning of our Lenten journey and the recent Adelong Show was where our volunteering spirit was definitely evident. Again, thank you to all our families who gave so generously of their time to support not only the school but a fantastic community event. It was also wonderful to see so many of our students put in entries to many of the categories at the show as well as our wonderful school display.
Last week I joined with all the Principals from our Archdiocese to attend Catholic Leaders Day and the Principals Retreat. It was a wonderful opportunity for Principals to work with our Interim Executive Director Pam Betts who comes from the Brisbane Archdiocese, where she was Executive director for nine years. Some of our Rugby families may be familiar with her late father – former Australian rugby union prop Neil’Tiny” Betts. Principals also met with Mr David de Carvahlo who is the new Executive Director of Catholic Education, who will take up his role in June this year. David is a very experienced and well-regarded leader in the education sector, with a deep knowledge of, and commitment to, our Catholic faith. It is a time of great change with incorporation taking place for our organisation – Catholic Archdiocese Canberra and Goulburn Education Limited on the first of January, a new board of directors and new Executive director.
Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will begin NAPLAN on Wednesday and the scheduled assessments will be:
Wednesday 12th – Writing
Thursday 13th – Reading
Friday 14th – Conventions of language
Monday 17th – Numeracy.
Please ensure that your Yr 3 and Yr 5 child attends school on these days unless they are unwell, where they will sit the assessments when they return to school. Students are encouraged to do their best and are reminded that it is another opportunity to demonstrate what they already know and provides the school and parents with information on areas that may need to be revised and strengthened.
Our new school build is basically complete – we are just waiting on a few finishing touches and the green light to be able to move in. We are still anticipating that we will be in for the beginning of Term two – if that date comes forward at all we will notify families.
Blessings for the week ahead,
Kirsty Beavan
Principal