Dear Parents, Carers and the St Joseph’s Community,

Catholic Schools Week

Engaging Faith, Minds and Community

‘Send Out Your Light and Your Truth, Let Them Lead Me’ Ps 43:3

Our theme for Catholic Schools Week 2019, ‘Engaging Faith, Minds and Community’ illustrates our holistic approach to educating children to become adults who personify Catholic values and serve their communities.

 The theme highlights the faith-based nature of our Catholic schools while emphasising our

inclusiveness – that all are welcome. Catholic Schools are places where we strive for all to be engaged in faith, inspire the mind and build strong communities.

Faith – placing Christ at the centre.

Minds – inspiring achievement and the fulfilment of each child’s potential.

Community – to become valuable, caring members of the school and extended community.

Pope Francis at the World Youth Day 2019 final Mass, reflected on the importance of young people for society. He said their gifts are not reserved only for tomorrow. Young people, he said, “are the today for tomorrow. They are not ‘in the meantime’, but are the ‘today’, the ‘now’, of the Church and the world.” To inspire young people of today Catholic Schools are places that embrace their joyful presence and provide a community where young people can personally encounter God through the nurturing words and actions of others.

As part of a Catholic community our schools are called to celebrate the gifts and diversity of all its members, inspire the minds and spirit of all those in our midst and help shape the young people to care for and serve those most in need.

Mother’s Day

Tomorrow we will be celebrating Mother’s Day, beginning with our breakfast at 8am. Following breakfast, at 9:15am, Year 3 and the ELC will lead us in a Prayer Celebration.

Thank you to all the special women in our St Joseph’s community for all that you do!

Athletics Carnival

On Friday, we will be holding our Athletics Carnival at Merici College. Thank you to Mr Stephen’s for his organisation and to the many parents who have offered assistance. At present, the weather forecast is looking a little dubious. A decision will be made on Thursday if we need to postpone the carnival.

NAPLAN        

The National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and will be undertaken nationally next week. The tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. They also provide schools, states and territories with information about how education programs are working and which areas need to be prioritised for improvement.

NAPLAN tests are one aspect of our school’s assessment and reporting process, and do not replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance.

All students will require headphones for NAPLAN testing.

NAPLAN TIMETABLE

SICKNESS

As we are enter the notorious cooler Canberra weather, the more susceptible we all unfortunately become to illness. If your child is sick, we ask that you keep them at home until they are well enough to return to school to minimise the spread of infection. Currently we have a large number of students away with Influenza.

I wish all our special mums a wonderful day on Sunday. Hopefully you can manage a sleep in!

Yours in Christ,

Amy Doszpot

Assistant Principal

amy.doszpot@cg.catholic.edu.au