Dear parents, carers and the St Joseph's community,

A prayer for the St Joseph’s community this Christmas season:

Loving God, we offer to you our year just gone,

Through your guidance, we have formed new friendships and taken new challenges.

We thank you for all the opportunities to learn and to grow, within our Christ-centred community,

And for the people that have been in our lives that show us your face each day.

As we celebrate the coming of your Son at Christmas, may we too be renewed by this period of waiting and rest,

Ready to rejoice in the experiences and wonder that await each of us next year.

May you guide and watch over our community and be our constant strength.

Amen

Last week, at our End of Year and Thanksgiving Mass it was announced that Mrs Carolyn McFarland has been successful in gaining an on-going position as NCCD Officer at Catholic Education. We congratulate Carolyn on her new role and thank her for her tireless contributions to our school community.

This morning the staff gathered to bid one final formal farewell to our staff who are leaving. We wish Carolyn, Kerri, Skye and Tim all the very best for their future endeavours and congratulate Lynn and Jill on their retirements. The reflections that were shared by their friends and colleagues gave great insight into just how significant their contributions have been and the vision they have had for St Joseph’s over recent years. You will all be missed terribly.

Christmas Carols

Due to the cancellation of our carols last night, all classes will be singing their carol after our Advent Prayer Celebration tomorrow morning at 9:15 am. Please feel free to join us in the Hall. 

2020 - A Year of Building

Following many delays and false starts, I am very pleased to confirm that Binutti Constructions has been accepted as the builder for Stage 2 of the School Master Plan. This has been a couple of years in the making but will start in mid-January for a completion date ready for the start of the 2021 school year. Stage 1 of the project is the construction of 4 new classrooms at the MacArthur Ave end of the tree area between the Foundation classrooms and the ELC. Once completed midway through the year, our Year 1 and Year 2 classes will move into these new classrooms, allowing for the demolition and refurbishment of the downstairs classrooms in the original school building. Once complete, our Year 3 and Year 4 classes will move into these refurbished classrooms, with Year 5 and Year 6 upstairs. This will be an exciting time, that will require some adjustment as we allow for the construction to take place. Far more information to come at the start of 2020.

Also at the start of 2020, two sandpits will be installed on the oval-side of the original playground area. This is following the work of the School Board in 2019 to seek concept designs for developing nature play spaces throughout our playground. Thank you to Phil from Wellspring Environmental Arts and Design for the wonderful plans that we will now undertake as Stage 1 - installing the sandpits. Construction will begin early February, so there will be some disruption, but kept to a minimum.

Birthday Celebrations

Next year, students who are celebrating their birthday will be welcome to wear plain clothes on their special day. What better way to make their day more memorable! Any students who are celebrating their birthday in January or February before schools starts are welcome to wear free clothes to school on the first day back next year. 

House Points 

Congratulations to members of Fatima who yesterday shared a pizza lunch for being our winning House this term.

The final standings of points were:

Fatima 4508, Loretto 4438, Lourdes 3831, Madonna 3824

The amount of house points that the children received this term is a testament to their on-going commitment to what it means to live as a 'Joey' by embodying our  Seeds of Growth. Well done to you all!  

Reminders

If you have any library books, readers or sports jerseys at home could you please return them to school tomorrow. Could you please also ensure that any unexplained student absence notes for Term 4 are returned to classroom teachers so that class rolls can be finalised. 

Making a Difference

Some weeks ago, Violet in Year 5 approached me with an idea to help those who are doing it tough in the small country towns. Violet, her sister Abagail and their mum, set about calling for donations of stationery that they could give to the students at Tullamore Central School, west of Dubbo. What a difference a great idea can make!

Thank you for your donations for the Tullamore Central School

I have some pictures to show you how well we did because of your donations…….

This was all the stationery that we got from everyone that helped us. We are very grateful that we got all this stuff because it helped a lot of families there.

This is the town of Tullamore and yes, it may seem like a beautiful old town but it is very dry. When I went there, I couldn’t see any water holes and there was no green grass anywhere. It was just dead grass or dust. There was no supermarket and cafés, there was just a pub, a pool and a school. The population there is 255 people in the whole town, so imagine living there for a week...It would be hard, wouldn’t it?

This is the school that we helped. It only has 71 students in it but the school went up to year 12 from preschool. Although it is a small school, their Principal was very nice to all of us and very thankful for all of our donations.

Thank you, everyone, for your donations. They made a big difference.

Violet W

In closing, thank you to the staff for their incredible dedication and professionalism, thank you to all the parents, grandparents and friends who contribute so much to our school community and most importantly, thank you and congratulations to all the students on a fantastic 2019.

I wish you all a happy and Holy Christmas and look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 3 February for another action-packed year.

Yours in Christ,

Cameron Tarrant & Amy Doszpot