Principal's Welcome Message
Book Week
What a wonderful celebration today of all things reading and a love of books! With characters from Thing 1 & 2 to Harry Potter, Cindarella to Where's Wally, the students brought their faviourite books to life to reveal that reading truly is their Secret Power. Thank you to all the students and the parents for their enthusiasm in dressing up for our parade today.
In the Library at the moment is a wide range of selected books for sale as part of our Book Week Book Fair. All students have had a chance to browse the books and create a 'wish list' that they have taken home. All payments are via Qkr! and the books will be delivered to the students over the coming week.
Thank you to Mrs Ellis for her energy and organisation in preparation for a big week in our library!
Toys, Trees and the Playground
As many parents would well know, Pokemon cards and Ushies are again the craze and over recent weeks they have been coming into the school playground with little, but some fuss as they are swapped and occasionally traded. While there have been few issues on the playground, they have been a distraction in the classroom and there is an element of 'haves' and 'have-nots'. Therefore from today, the students are to leave their Pokemon cards, Ushies and all toys at home to enjoy of an afternoon and on the weekend.
Similarly, our agreeance to allow the students to climb and sit in some of our lovely trees has been mostly positive and the students have enjoyed the opportunity. However, due to a number of larger branches being broken, and the trees generally looking a little 'tired', the students are not to climb any of the trees for the remainder of the term to allow them to recover, especially during the growing months ahead. We will revisit this in the later half of Term 4.
With a couple of play options now taken out of the mix, it is important to provide alternatives. In the Courtyard now there are two large storage containers that will have a wide variety of small and group play activities. These activities will be introduced in the coning weeks. We are also awaiting some new fixed equipment to be delievered and installed - 2 multi-toss ball towers, a beanbag / tennis ball target game and a ball toss. These will provide the students with much more choice of what to do during their break times.
Also, as part of our bigger focus on providing an engaging and stimulating playground, the School Board has accepted a proposal from Wellspring Environmental Arts and Design to complete a playground master plan incorporating a nature play space at the Boronia Drive end of our oval, extending back along the footpath towards the existing play equipment. Included in this plan will be a sandpit, which will be the first priority for construction, once design plans are completed. Initial planning meetings are underway and community consultation will be undertaken over the coming months.
Musical
As I hope you are all aware, plans for the St Joseph's Primary School Musical, A Night in the Library - How wild could it get, are well underway. Tickets go on sale from Monday 26 August, with details being sent home this week. I warmly invite all families and friends to come along to what will be great performances of a play written by the students and staff of St Joseph's, for the St Joseph's community. Rehearsals and preparations are continuing, with all students from ELC to Year 6 actively involved. Thank you to everyone for their energy so far, but especially to Mrs Knight who has been taking the lead all year to ensure it is a wonderful event!
To ensure our sets look the part, there will again be an opportunity to paint, make and finalise the props. If you have an hour or so on Monday 26, Wednesday 28 or Friday 30 August between 3pm - 5pm, any help will be appreciated. Email laura.knight@cg.catholic.edu.au if you are able to offer some time.
Future of ACT Catholic School Soccer and Netball Carnivals
Please see below a statement from the ACT Primary Principals:
Regretfully, this year is the final year for the ACT Catholic School Soccer and Netball Carnivals.
This decision was carefully considered and was made unanimously at the recent ACT Catholic Primary Principal’s Meeting.
Although these are great community days and have been going for many years, the huge workload on staff, increasing costs, complexity of indemnity and insurance and a lack of volunteers to assist has necessitated the decision to no longer host these events.
Schools are rostered on to coordinate, run and volunteer these events and are run, entirely, by the host school, irrespective of the school size. Parents volunteer on the day and staff work all weekend on these events. In the past few years, some executive staff have worked nearly fulltime in the lead-up to pull off these carnivals, along with many staff who commit their time to support the planning and preparation, all of which is impacting on the teaching and learning agenda of the host school.
ACT Principals acknowledge that there may be some parents and students disappointed by this decision, however, we have agreed that the future of hosting and leading an event such as this is untenable.
This year, Holy Rosary Watson will host the final ACT Catholic School’s Netball Carnival.
ACT Primary Principals
Orienteering
On Friday 14 November, St Joseph's will be hosting the final round of the South Canberra Orienteering schools competition (SC-ORE). This is an exciting opportunity for any and all of our students to get involved in a sport that they may not have tried before. To promote the event and to give the students a taste of what orienteering is, there is a Pop-Up Event on Friday 6 September. Please see the attached flyer.
Father's Day Breakfast
Next Friday, 30 August we will be holding our Father's Day Breakfast from 8am. We warmly invite all of the special men in our St Joseph's Community to join us. Orders and payment are due on Qkr! no later than 4pm, 27 August. Following breakfast, Year 6 will be leading us in a Prayer Celebration. I look forward to seeing you there!
Have a great end to the week.
Yours in Christ,
Cameron Tarrant
Principal