Principal's Piece

Dear Parents and Carers 

We hope all our students enjoyed their extra long weekend. Our staff spent the last two days participating in Professional Development on trauma-aware practice. In 2020, before COVID took hold, it was reported that 72% of Australian children experienced at least one adverse childhood experience. This number has risen significantly since 2014 with previous data putting the number of children at 40%. The staff were shown a practical approach to teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement with students with complex, unmet learning needs and successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, growth and academic achievement. The pedagogical strategies incorporate evidence-based trauma-aware teaching, positive education, and wellbeing practices.

This Friday we will celebrate the Feast Day of St Joseph. We will begin at 11.30am with a liturgy in the lunch shed and then we will break into small groups and participate in different activities relating to St Joseph. Parents are welcome to attend the liturgy and the activities. Please sanitise your hands on arrival, maintain social distancing at all times and be mindful of the number of allowed adults inside a classroom space. 

The countdown till St Patrick’s Quiz Night, this Saturday 20^th March is now only three sleeps to go . Doors open at 6.15pm ready for a 6.45pm start. Please remember to bring coins and some extra cash on the night for the coin toss, shamrock boards and other games. Tickets are available at the school office. The P&F and staff will be meeting this Friday at 2.30pm to finalise the event, if you are available we would appreciate the help. 

St Joseph’s is looking to register as a Sunsmart school with the Cancer Council of WA. This will ensure we are doing everything we can to keep our students safe. We already require students to wear a wide brim hat during play time, play in the shade if they do not have a hat and wear the full school uniform. We will work towards having sunscreen available to all students from the start of Term 2. In the meantime you are welcome to send your child with their own supply of sunscreen and they can reapply as needed during the day. School-supplied sunscreen will be a generic brand of SPF30+. If you do not want your child to apply the school sunscreen please inform their teacher in writing. If you would like to donate a bottle of sunscreen for your child’s class we would greatly appreciate this. 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Miss Gabby

Principal 

COVID Update - Unwell Children

Students who are unwell should stay home. Parents are asked to seek medical advice if their child exhibits symptoms of COVID-19. Normal processes for advising the school of a child’s absence will apply.

See the CEWA Website for further information: https://covid19.cewa.edu.au/covid-19-response-210207/