Dear Families and Friends
Welcome to Term 2. We hope everyone enjoyed a restful break over Easter. Term 2 will begin much the same way that Term 1 ended, with some students working on their flexible learning packs at school while others work at home. Thank you to parents and carers who assisted in making this morning run smoothly by dropping students off at the front gate. It was also great to see a large number of flexible learning packs collected from our distribution point at the front gate. It is important that all worksheets that have been completed at home are returned to school so that teachers can maintain appropriate records for their classes.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Mrs Kate Carew, Tahlia and Tom on the recent arrival of baby ‘Sophie.’
Congratulations also to Miss Brianna Birch who welcomed baby ‘Kamissa’ into the world during the holidays. We look forward to meeting Sophie and Kamissa in the near future.
Staffing for Term 2
We welcome Mrs Matilda Kehl and her family to St Joseph’s. While Specialist Classes will not formally commence until a further announcement is made concerning our school’s mode of teaching, we look forward to benefiting from her creative and artistic abilities over the remainder of the year.
Thank you to Mr David Ballingall, Mrs Melinda Fitt and Ms Tanya Lockwood who will be teaching in remote communities during the first 2 weeks of this term. David and Tanya will be working in Ringer Soak and Melinda in Mulan. This will enable the schools in these communities to reopen while staff undergo a two week quarantine period following interstate travel. In their absence, Kindergarten will combine with the Pre-Primary class and Mrs Kehl will assist the Year 3 students with their flexible learning packs. We look forward to welcoming David, Melinda and Tanya back to St Joseph’s in Week 3.
Mrs Laura Christopher is currently undergoing a 2 week quarantine period in Karratha. We will welcome Laura back to school in Week 3.
Mrs Sophie Waideman will be commencing Maternity Leave at the end of this week. We wish her all the best over the coming weeks and look forward to hearing of a new arrival to the Waideman family.
We keep Mrs Marcia Constantine and her family in our thoughts and prayers. Marcia is currently in Perth for family reasons and will hopefully be returning to school later this term.
Mode of Learning Review
As per the letter emailed to families yesterday, a review of our current mode of learning will take place on Monday 11th May.
Cleaning
As you would be aware, the WA Government has requested that schools increase their cleaning throughout the day. Thank you to Ms Deb Rocke and staff who have committed to maintaining a clean and hygienic school environment. To minimise additional cleaning duties, playgrounds will be out of bounds until further notice. During breaks children will have access to sports equipment that will be disinfected after use.
Water Bottles
In order to minimise the use of water fountains, we ask that all students bring a drink bottle with them each day.
ANZAC Day
It has been great to hear so many stories of students who stood in their driveways on ANZAC Day as a sign of respect for all soldiers who have fought in wars to defend our freedom. Unfortunately, the Year 5/6 ANZAC Day Liturgy, which was due to take place this week, has been cancelled.
Mother's Day/Special Women Liturgy
With sadness we have also had to cancel our Mother’s Day Liturgy which was scheduled for next Friday 8th May. We trust that children, fathers, grandfathers and carers will be working hard at home to make sure all mums and special women will be well looked after on Sunday 10th May!
School Banking
Many thanks to Brock Burston and Stephanie Hogan who will be coordinating our school banking program this year. Over the coming weeks, an announcement will be made about when school banking can commence.
School Closure Days
As yesterday was declared a school closure day for all schools in WA, our scheduled closure day for Term 2 will now take place on the first day of Term 3, Monday 20th July. A reminder that our Catholic Day is on Friday 29th May. This will be a four day weekend for staff and students with WA Day falling on Monday 1st June.
Recycling
The students at St Joseph's have been working hard to reduce our environmental footprint. One way we have done this is by recycling our soft plastics. Instead of going into landfill, in partnership with Coles soft plastics are recycled and turned into a wide range of useful items such as tables and chairs. At the end of each week, senior students sort the plastics to remove items contaminated with food scraps or other rubbish. It has been great to see their workload diminish over time as students take increasing care to ensure their rubbish is placed in the correct bin.
We will soon integrate the proposed container deposit scheme donation point into the everyday life of the students. We look forward to this worthwhile initiative being introduced to our school.
Language Nest
Thank you to the Language Nest team who have made valuable contributions towards our flexible learning packs. Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring have some terrific resources for learning Mirwoong. With fabulous books produced locally and a read-along pen available for purchase, it is a great resource and an opportunity to support the Language Centre and the important work they do.
Our local businesses generously support our community in many ways. A great example of this was the many prizes donated for our P & F Quiz Night last term. It is now our opportunity to support business in whatever way we can.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Tim Hogan
Principal
Term Dates 2020- Term 2: 29 April—3 July
- Term 3: 21 July—25 Sept
- Term 4: 13 Oct—11 Dec
School Closure Days 2020- Friday, 29 May (Catholic Day)
- Monday 20th July (PD)
