Dear parents and carers,

Welcome to our new term of learning.

I trust that everyone was able to enjoy some quality time with their family during the break.

Term One concluded with the drawing of our Easter Egg raffle, and we hope that if you had a winning ticket, you enjoyed the Easter treat!

As you will be aware, we have moved into a process of transition between Mr Hamill and myself.  Over the next few weeks both Mr Hamill and I will be here at school, with more aspects of my new role commencing, I will move to focusing on those duties while Mr Hamill works with our St Joseph’s community.

Already this week, some of you may have had opportunity to meet Mr Hamill and begin the process of getting to know each other.

Welcome Mr. Hamill!

This week we have also welcomed Mrs Lander.  She is joining as our student welfare officer.  This position has been made available to us through Federal Government funding of the School Chaplaincy program.  Mrs Lander will be working with us each Tuesday.

Welcome Mrs Lander!

Sunday April 25 – ANZAC Day – Please note the change of meeting place for those families who are able, to join us for the annual ANZAC March. We have been asked to meet at the vacant block between Main and  George St. Please staff meeting at 10:30am.  The children should wear their winter uniform and hats, if it is hot, we will not wear jumpers during the march.  I understand that the march will commence at 10:45am so that everyone can be in place at the cenotaph for the beginning of the service at 11:00am.  We have also been invited to participate in the Dawn Service.  For those interested, the service begins at 5:45am on Anzac Day.

On Monday our staff worked on further professional learning relating to our Catalyst project.  Our focus was on cognitive load theory.  This looks at how our brains work and cope when learning any new skills. Some interesting reminders on the day related to how our working memory can only access between 5-9 pieces of information when learning a new skill, while our long-term memory can hold an infinite amount of information, once we have developed the pathways needed to remember specific pieces of information.  Hence the more we practice new learning, the better we become as we build stronger links between pieces of information stored in our brains.

Over the past few days, we have been hearing about some of the adventures that were had during the break, and it is terrific to see that the children are enjoying being back in class.

NSW State Government Hansard - Right at the end of last term we received notification for our local member Steph Cook that we were recognised in NSW State Parliament for our efforts to support the Grenfell Food Bank last year.  A copy of the Hansard record is attached to this newsletter.

It is always wonderful to see our children and staff recognised in the wider community.

During the holidays further works were completed around our school.  Our ICT infrastructure received an upgrade with the school being rewired with Cat6 cable.

We also had works done to make use of our tank water for both our chooks and veggies gardens.  We re now looking to move the vegie patch and expand it in readiness for some new crops.

I encourage you to keep in contact with class teachers to support the activities that children are working on at school and to keep us up to date with any concerns that your children may be dealing with.  Your support is appreciated.

Compass - Over the coming weeks, we will begin the process of providing access to the Parent Portal in Compass, we hope that this will streamline many of the processes relating to attendance at school as well as other aspects of communication between home and school.

Please remember that those short absences from school do add up over time, and a challenge for this term will be to reduce the amount of class time missed.  As we know just a few minutes each day soon adds up to lots of lost learning time.

 If your child/ren is absent from school, please remember to let us know the reasons for the absences so that this can be recorded accurately for compliance and record keeping purposes.

Next week, Mrs Mitton, Mrs Hunter and I will be participating in further training with Macquarie University’s MacLit program.  This work will have a focus on Years 3 - 6 and we will be using this training with our older children in the coming weeks.

There are a variety of different activities planned for this term and we are looking forward to participating in those events.  Already K/1/2 are wondering about what we might see when we visit Canberra.

Take care and stay safe,

The K-2 students have been talking about places in and around their homes, and their community, that are special to them. Some students talked about their cubbyhouses or bedrooms or their Nan’s house as their special place, but one student talked about visiting her grandmother’s grave at the cemetery as a place that was special to her and her family, as it was a way to remember their Nan.

As we prepare to participate in the Anzac Day celebrations on Sunday, the K-2 students have been learning about the Cenotaph and some of the symbols and rituals that are significant to Anzac Day. Even at their age, these young students recognise the importance of remembering and honouring the brave soldiers who fought and died for our country.

We hope that you will find the time to join us for the Anzac Day march on Sunday in honour and remembrance of past and present service men and women.

Sacramental News

This year, St Joseph’s Parish will be celebrating the Sacraments of Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

The meetings for the Confirmation candidates will begin on Tuesday the 4^th of May at 6 pm in the St Joseph’s School Library. A parent is expected to attend the meetings with their child. This year the meetings will occur each week for four weeks. Children in Years 5 and 6 (or older) who have already received the sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion will be eligible to join the Confirmation preparation group.

The preparation for Reconciliation and First Holy Communion will take place later in the year and these are prepared for, and celebrated usually within a week of each other.

If you would like your child to be included in any of the sacramental programs, could you please call the school or email me and leave the name of the child and the sacrament. The number is 6343 1514 and my email is leslie.king@cg.catholic.edu.au