Welcome Back!

I would like to warmly welcome back all of our existing and new families to St Joseph’s for 2021. As I put in my holiday video and note to you all, I hope that your Christmas and New Year break was a happy and relaxing time for your families. We know that there will be some anxiety for many children in coming back to school, expecting new teachers, friends and processes. Please rest assured that we will be spending time as we start, building relationships with teachers and students and setting up how classrooms will look and feel so that students will feel comfortable settling back in. Our teachers are wonderful at doing this and before you know, it will feel like we never left! We welcome lots of new families from Kindergarten and across the school, as well as some new teachers. We know that our community will ensure they are very comfortable here with us.

MAI and Best Start

It has been our great pleasure to greet students and their families as we have conducted MAI and Best Start interviews this week. Seeing how much students have grown has reminded us of how quickly time goes and how much growing happens over a holiday period. We know this growth is physical and in learning, and we look forward to using the information from these interviews to know our students and how best they will learn this year. Their teachers are very much looking forward to getting to know and work with them.

School Events

Throughout the newsletter and in notes coming home to you via email, there will be many events shared that are coming up. In Term 1 it gets very busy, so we ask that you please check the newsletter and the notes each week to ensure you are prepared for the events that happen throughout the year and in particular at the start. Some of these require replies, which need to be done by the due dates for organisational purposes. We will not be able to extend the dates of these, so any responses required must be in by the due dates. The first of these being the Primary Swimming Carnival, please assist us in organising this by responding by the end of Monday.

COVID-19 Guidelines

We sent out to families last week the latest guidelines and decisions that have been made for our school, which must be adhered to by us and our community. At times you will hear in the media different options to those we send out. This can be due to the Government and Catholic school system governance differences or to Parish and school based decisions for our own individual communities. Even as a school we don’t always like the guidelines we are given, but we do what we can to be inclusive of our community and make sense of what we receive. Thank you for your patience and support as we continue to navigate a different way of living. We are also hopeful that over the coming months we will be able to further return to previous practices.

The main point we would like to express is that apart from some special circumstances, we are still unable to have parents and carers coming into the school consistently. We have been able to allow parents and carers throughout the MAI and Best Start interviews to enter the school due to the limited numbers at a time and time spent on site. It has truly been a joy for us to see you within the gates with us! We will inform you of the times and opportunities when you will be able to come in as we plan forward.

Only parents of Kindergarten children will be able to walk into the school each morning with their children during the coming weeks. We know that many other parents would love the chance to come in and resettle their children, but the numbers of parents and carers coming in and out would exceed our allowances. Kindergarten parents will not be able to stay for a length of time within the school due to the numbers of adults at any one time, and staff will assist in supporting students to allow you to leave. Students in Year 1 to 6, became very independent in the mornings last year and we know with staff support at the gate in the mornings they will start the year wonderfully.

Our afternoon pickup remains the same, with students sitting in class groups at the end of Warlters Street and parents and carers walking through to collect them. Children will come to you, please continue walking through the marked pathway and out the side. Teachers are on duty at this time and unless necessary are unavailable to leave their class to talk, you are welcome to make a time to come and meet with your child’s teacher or request a phone call if you have the need to discuss a concern. 

Uniform Review

During my message to families last week, I mentioned the Uniform Review that has been taking place over the past 18 months in our Parish. This affects all of our Parish schools, as agreement and implementation is combined. I would like to reassure families that the process of transitioning into a new uniform will take time and will mean that any new uniforms purchased for 2021 will not be wasted. We are expecting that the start of the transition will take place in 2022, but this is dependent on the next stages of the review when designs and materials are considered and chosen. Parents and carers will receive a note from the Parish soon, with more details about this. I had recommended that parents and carers don’t buy more than what they need, only to avoid the concern of not getting the use out of these while we await further communication from the committee. You will be able to continue using some variety of current uniforms during the transition period, so these will not be wasted. More information on how this will look will be shared with you during this year.