Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we learned that the angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced that she was to be the mother of Jesus. Greeting her, he said, “Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” [Lk 1:28] Troubled by this greeting, Mary did not know what to make of it. Gabriel assured her of God’s love for her and told her, “…you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” [Lk 1:31] The angel informed her how the Holy Spirit would come to her and, to help her to understand the power of God, told her that her cousin, Elizabeth, had conceived a child in her old age. Mary’s response to Gabriel’s words were, “…I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” [Lk 1:38]

Mary did not immediately think of herself, but set out to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, to be with her at the birth of John the Baptist

Mary’s message today:  Mary did one simple thing. She listened to God’s will—that she was to be the mother of Jesus—and she accepted God’s will.

Have you accepted God’s will in your life? Pray for an understanding of what God is calling you to do.

(This reflection is taken from teachingcatholickids.com)

You may like to pray the Hail Mary Prayer with your family on this special day.

Project Compassion Easter Raffle

Winners from the first mini draw of the Easter Raffle. Thank you everyone for your generous support.

Liz Murray

REC Co-ordinator

Bus pick up on wet weather days  

Cars need to leave space to allow the buses access first.  On Monday afternoon one of our buses who also has to meet another bus later in the afternoon was 15 minutes late as they were in the long queue at our school.  So if we can please allow space for the buses to come into the grounds first that would be great.

Term 2 Pupil Free Days will be Monday 19th April.

Students will return on Tuesday 20th April.

Staff will be attending a Professional Development day.

St Joseph's invites our families to come along to a barbeque breakfast next Wednesday 31st March from 8:30am facilitated by Adelong Health & Community Centre.  Jacinta Elphick, a Child and Adolescent Bushire Recovery Clinician will be joining us for a short talk about building resilience in children and their families one to two years following a major trauma or natural disaster.  An understanding of what the research says, what is a normal reaction and how to keep building on recovery.  Often people are exhausted at this point in their recovery and don't understand why. 

If you would to join us for breakfast, please email the school on office.stjosephsadelong@cg.catholic.edu.au to RSVP with numbers for catering purposes and COVID-19 protocols.

Due to COVID-19 protocols in the school, we ask parents to check in using our QR code and hand sanitise upon entry.

We would like to thank Jacinta for her time and look forward to parents joining us.

Thank you to Father George for celebrating St Joseph's Day with us last Friday and blessing the St Joseph's badges for the students.  It was lovely to see parents join us as well.

Students also celebrated Harmony Day with activities organised by our Yr 6 leaders.

Tim Smith from Catholic Education met with the Community Council recently. Tim is a Performance Improvement Leader and has extensive knowledge of schools in our Diocese, as well as St Joseph's Adelong. Tim is also extremely involved with our school and Mrs Beavan in many areas at our school. The purpose of Tim coming out to meet with the Community Council was to provide us with information on how our school is performing. It was pleasing to hear Tim very positive about our school's performance and all our staff at St Joseph's. Since 2012 St Joseph's has experienced a steady increase in enrolments, and we are now more than double the 2012 enrolments. 

Tim also presented results for 2020 PAT Maths and PAT Reading, for Years 2-6, from the data collection our teachers undertake on all these students and their learning. In PAT Reading the majority of the classes are well above the Australian norms, as are the PAT Maths results. St Joseph's students are very underrepresented in the bottom quartile of Australia students.

The results of the Parent Satisfaction survey were also reviewed, and it was very pleasing to see, across the board parents are happy with our wonderful school, and there were no major areas of concerns raised in the survey.

It was wonderful Tim took the time out to come to Adelong and meet with the Community Council, and it was very rewarding to hear the positive feedback on our school, and we thank Tim for his time. 

Next Tuesday 18 of our students from St Joseph's will travel to Boorowa to represent at the Western Region Cross Country.  We wish all the students the best of luck and know they will do St Joseph's proud.  Thank you to families for transporting the students and cheering them on.

(photos from our recent school Cross Country)

Congratulations to our students who received Principal Awards & Student of the Week Awards in Week 8. 

Principal Awards:  Tessa & Lochie.	Student of the Week Awards: Ollie, Fred, Culley, Eva & Cody.
Happy Birthday Wishes: Bonnie.	Principal Award: Alice Student of the Week: Braxton

Keep up to date with events happening at St Joseph's via our electronic school calendar (please note dates can be subject to change).