Principal's Message
Dear Parents, Carers and the St Joseph’s Community,
Welcome back to Term 4. There is already some bite to the sun, so summer is definitely on the way! I hope that all families enjoyed some time away from the busyness of the school routine over the past two weeks. We have an exciting term ahead, albeit still impacted by COVID restrictions that are currently in place. Pleasingly in recent days there have been some restrictions eased across the ACT, that will allow for some of our usual ‘end of year’ events to go ahead in some way. I will provide an update before the end of the week with further details.
The holiday break allowed for continued progress with our building project. While the heavy rainfall has had an impact on the completion of the new classrooms, we are expecting to be able to move into the beautiful new building by mid-term. Today, I again took a walk through the new classrooms to give you all an insight into what awaits us all!
Staffing
Today we welcomed back Mrs Parmenter, after her long absence from St Joseph’s. It was lovely to see the children so happy to see her. We also welcome Ms Emily Butler to St Joseph’s in a full-time capacity for Term 4. Ms Butler will be teaching 1 Purple, as Mrs Nesci continues to need to have time away from school.
All staff have returned to school eager and ready for the term ahead, having planned engaging and challenging learning for the students. It is also worthwhile noting that our staff continue to be learners as well; we currently have 6 staff completing studies in Masters of Education across a number of disciplines, all of which builds capacity and ensures we have a dynamic and professional learning community. I thank all of our staff for their commitment and dedication to our school.
Book Week
Next week is Book Week, postponed from earlier in the year. While we do not have a Library that has been able to be the focus for Book Week this year, all classes have already been exposed to the shortlisted books as part of their Library lessons in Term 3. There have also been some initial activities to get us ready for the event.
Next Wednesday, 21 October will be our traditional Book Week costume parade. Even though we are unable to welcome our parents and friends into the school to join with us on the day, all students are still encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character, or perhaps something inspired by the 2020 Book Week theme, Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. On the morning, we will have the students parade through the school, sharing their costumes with the other classes. We will also post class photos to Seesaw and on SZapp.
COVID-19
As mentioned previously, there are new guidelines that are coming into effect that may ease some of the measures that we have had in place in recent months. However, all members of our school community are still required to follow these simple healthy habits that have kept us safe:
- Wash hands regularly throughout the day.
- Use the hand sanitiser that is available around the school.
- Use a tissue and throw it in the bin when you need to.
- Bring a water to bottle to school every day – the bubblers are remaining closed at this stage.
- If you are unwell, please remain away from school.
- All adult visitors to the school must still enter via the Front Office and sign in / out, agreeing to the Health Declaration information near the iPad.
Have a great end to the week.
Yours in Christ,
Cameron Tarrant
Principal