Term 2 Week 3 2025

Principal's Message

Welcome to Term 2

Father Michael

Last week, we celebrated Father Michael's last whole school assembly before he officially retires on the 25th of May. It was a beautiful celebration to farewell our Parish Priest of 20 years. We are grateful for all the years he has committed to nurturing our spirituality. His gentle approach and kindness to all will be long remembered. 

We wish Father Michael all the best and hope the years ahead are filled with hope and peace.

All our students will attend Father Michael's final Mass as a school next Thursday at 10.15 am.

All parents are welcome. 

School Review

Over the next 2 weeks, we will be participating in our school review and mission review. This is an affirming process whereby staff, students, and parents have an opportunity to provide feedback to external reviewers on our school.   This process is collaborative and forward-facing. It looks at our current reality with documentation of practice provided to the reviewers before they meet with us and further insights into our practice are gained during the school visit from what they see and hear. This internal review analysis provides us with a report outlining recommendations and commendations which we use to develop goals for our Strategic Plan for the next 4 years. 

Mission Review:  Wednesday 21 May

School Review:  Tuesday 27 May - Thursday 29 May 

TTFM (Tell Them From Me) Survey

This survey has gone out to all parents and carers on Monday, and I am hopeful that you will all take some time to complete it. Parent voice is a vital part of making our school great. Your feedback helps us improve student outcomes and enables us to create a safe and supportive environment for all. 

Assistant Principal Learning & Teaching's Message

Reports

Dear Parents,

Semester 1 reports will be sent out via Compass on Friday 27th June. This report is to let you know what was taught and how well the children learnt it. It also provides information about what improvement is needed. This information was also shared with you during your end of Term 1 interview with your child's teacher. After you receive your report  you can email your child's teacher to book an appointment, if you wish to have another interview to discuss this report.

Please remember that you can contact your child's teacher to discuss your child's progress at anytime.

Public Speaking

By now all children should have a speech prepared and practising it within their classroom with their teachers. Please make sure they begin their speech with   

"Madam Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls" or a brief statement to hook the audience and then say Madam  Chair etc.

Please don't say, " I am going to talk about....." at the beginning of the speech or end with, " Thank you for listening"

At the end just say, " Chairperson"

Good luck, can't wait to hear them.

Practicum Students

This term we are lucky enough to have nine Practicum students from Southern Cross University who are doing their final placement with us for the next six weeks. These students are guided by our dedicated teachers in their journey to becoming teachers.  They are a great support as a second teacher in each classroom. We thank them for their dedication to our students. You may hear your children talk about them in your daily conversation.

Parent Community Forum Meeting:

This is a meeting for the parents to come together to organise social events and build community within the school. This meeting is open to everyone. Our next meeting is  Monday 26th May at 5:00pm in the Library.

Cheers

Chris Mulherin

Assistant Principal Mission's Messsage

Dear St Joseph’s Community,

What a massive start to the term we have had!

At Assembly in Week 1, we welcomed Father Nicolas, who blessed our badges for our Year 6 students and the Student Representative Council.  We cannot stress enough how proud of the way our Year 6 students have embraced opportunities to lead and set a wonderful example for our school, and we're so happy to be able to acknowledge them with these badges.

Our SRC have met a couple of times now and have been wonderful voices for their peers.  Our first major action is to implement a ‘Reach Out’ button on the Student Hub.  This is on the students’ landing page online and will send them to a simple form where they can safely send a message if they have any concerns about safety for themselves or others.  We will be launching this during our Wellbeing Zoom on Monday.  Well done to the SRC for their development of this brilliant idea.

Week 2 saw Years 3-6 engage in Resilient Kids workshops run by the Family Centre.  Students reported back that it was a great fun day and picked up some quality tips to help with preparedness and resilience.  We are very grateful for the team that came to run such a worthwhile event for our students.

Friday was a huge day and a perfect example of our wonderful community coming together.  We were able to celebrate those most special people in our lives - our Mums - with a yummy breakfast and then the most beautiful liturgy led by our Year 2 classes.  There were more than a handful of tissues needed as the children shared their heartfelt prayers and messages for Mums.  Thank you to Mrs Rabula, Mrs Wilson, Miss Andyn and all of Year 2 for their hard work in making the morning so special.  Also on Friday, we recognised ‘Day for Dolly’ with face painting and craft activities.  Thank you to our Year 6 students who led these activities, and especially Alana Simons for the ideas.  It was a wonderful way to stimulate conversations around the importance of spreading kindness and having no tolerance for bullying.  Finally, we farewelled Father Michael at a special Assembly.  Father Michael has been a mainstay in our Parish for many years, and we feel blessed to have had his gentle leadership help shape our school and parish.  Father Michael enters retirement with an abundance of blessings and prayers, and we hope he knows how much we will miss him.

This week at assembly, we are launching our annual ‘Can Can Day’ appeal.  Students are asked to bring in cans to support the amazing John and the team at ‘You Have a Friend’, a local charity supporting the homeless in our community.  We are constantly blown away by the generosity of everyone, and we are so proud of the way the students respond to our call to be Missionary Disciples and care for those less fortunate.

Reflecting on these special events serves as a beautiful reminder of how fortunate I am to be a part of this remarkable community, and I sincerely hope you feel the same.

God bless,

Ryan O’Connor

Parent Community Group Meeting

Monday 26th May at 5 pm, our Parent Community Group Meeting will be held in the Library. All are welcome.

Pupil Free Day

Our staff will be attending our mandated Spirituality Day off site on Friday 6th June  This is a pupil free day.   Don't forget to contact Tabatinga to book your child for the day if you need supervision.

Friendly reminder that Monday 9th June is the King's Birthday Public Holiday

Our whole school Athletics Carnival is on Friday 20th June at Ned Byrne Oval (Wommin Bay Road Kingscliff)

Sports News at St Joseph's

Sporting Success at St Joseph’s – A Fantastic First Half of the Year!

What an action-packed and exciting start to the year it has been for sport at St Joseph’s!

We kicked off Term 1 with our whole-school dance program, delivered by the wonderful team from Zing. Students explored the elements of dance and learned a beautiful Auslan-inspired routine, developing confidence, coordination, and creativity through movement. In Term 2, we’ve continued working with Zing, this time focusing on athletics skills in preparation for our upcoming Athletics Carnival.

St Joseph’s students have proudly represented our school in a range of sporting events already this year. The year began with 28 students from Years 2 to 6 competing in the Zone Swimming Carnival at Murwillumbah Pool. From there, 9 swimmers progressed to the Diocesan Carnival, also held in Murwillumbah, and an outstanding 3 students went on to compete at the Polding Trials in Sydney. We were thrilled to have one student make it all the way to the PSSA State Carnival – an incredible achievement!

Several students have also taken part in trials for Winter sports, with Diocesan and Polding representatives across Rugby League, AFL, Netball, and Soccer for both boys and girls.

To cap off Term 1, our annual Cross Country event went ahead despite the muddy conditions. We were proud to have 47 students qualify to represent St Joseph’s at the Zone Cross Country in Murwillumbah, where they tackled a new and challenging course. From that event, 4 students will now go on to compete at the Diocesan Cross Country in Grafton – good luck to all!

A huge congratulations to all our students for their outstanding efforts and sportsmanship. We are so proud of your dedication and enthusiasm. Keep up the fantastic work!

Sarah Lino

Sports Coordinator

OT Parent Session

On Tuesday 20 th May, Occupational Therapists Josie Thornberry and Charmaine Owen from Kids and Community are kindly presenting an information session at St Joseph’s for families. This session is catered towards families of future 2026 Kindergarten students, current Kindergarten students, Year 1 students and Year 2 students, but all families are more than welcome. This information session will share a bit about what Occupational Therapy is all about, and how to better support your children at home and at school in terms of building independence, school
readiness, a smoother morning routine to make for a more successful positive day, creating more positive homework experiences that support those very busy schedules, enhancing communication skills for safer play
on the playground, strategies to enhance executive functioning skills, support for morning separation, and all things that positively support students at home and at school. Josie and Charmaine come with a huge wealth of knowledge and will be more than willing to answer any questions that you may have. Tracey Loughhead (Principal) and Jacqui Robinson (Leader of Inclusion and Diversity) will be available to entertain the children, so that you can get the most out of this really valuable opportunity. We are really excited about this opportunity and would love
to see you all there.