2024 | ISSUE 3 | SJC Newsletter

Principal's Video News

Part of our human nature is that we enjoy receiving praise, this is also true when an institution that we are part of receives praise. In recent weeks, the excellent work and achievements of students have been acknowledged by a variety people in a range of ways:

• A staff member of ‘Campaspe Downs’ who hosted our first Year 7 camp contacted us to say that our Year 7s were the most polite group of young people she had experienced in 30 years. High praise indeed!
• Last week I shared lunch with a group of Year 10 and 11 students to acknowledge and thank them for their efforts. While heading home from a VET course one evening, the boys saw a man in his 90s who had fallen in his driveway. He was injured and was unable to get up. They rang an ambulance and cared for him until it arrived.
• On our inter-house athletics day, a large group of costumed Year 12s ran with a Year 7 student with high needs supporting and encouraging him to finish the race. His mother wrote “Thanks to the gorgeous young men who stepped up to support and encourage - a great bunch of lads who clearly demonstrate your school's value of compassion”.

This week the 2023 ‘Virtus’ will be distributed to families. It is a beautifully put together record of the 2023 school year at St Joseph’s and I hope you enjoy it. I would like to acknowledge the professionalism and hard work of Clara Orr from our Community and Development Office for her work in editing and producing the magazine.

I have visited the College library a number of times in recent weeks and have been enormously impressed by the number of students, particularly senior students, who are working diligently during class time, at lunchtime and after school. Many of our senior students are taking advantage of the library being open until 5pm (Monday to Thursday) and 4pm (Friday) with tutors available (along with free food and hot drinks), to catch up on work and study. Many are finding it a great opportunity to use the time between the end of school and the commencement of sport training or other commitments productively.

In the last newsletter, I emphasised the importance of communication and families and teachers working together. As we commence the second half of the first term, it is a good time to check in on how your student/s academic work is progressing. This can be done through PAM. Detail on how to access this is available in the parent portal. You can also see what assessment tasks are coming up to help ensure students are well prepared for them.

We are committed to continuous and regular reporting of student progress throughout each term, however, we also provide formalised mid semester and end of semester reports. The Mid Semester Reports will be available through PAM on Tuesday, 19 March.

One of our many learnings from the Covid period has been the popularity of online parent teacher meetings with many families. Online meetings can be booked for 9am until 12pm on Thursday, 28 March and face-to-face meetings can be booked for 4pm until 7pm on Wednesday, 27 March. Bookings can be made through PAM and open Wednesday, 20 March.

Last week our athletics team competed in the Associated Catholic Colleges Carnival. We have relatively few specialist track and field athletes and most of the team’s primary focus is on a different sport. Hence it was a terrific effort to finish second in the aggregate and in each of junior, intermediate and senior divisions while winning the U/13 and U/16 age groups. Outstanding performers on the day were Tobias Servin and Darcy Harrington in the U/16’s and Hunter McCarthy and James Richardson in the U/13’s.

The School Advisory Council plays an important role in the College as a forum for discussion and discernment, providing parent voice and community perspective in shaping important decisions. The Council is not a board of governance or decision-making authority and members do not hold legal or financial responsibility for any decisions of the College. The Council is supported in its work by our Finance and Planning Committee and our Governance and Risk Committee.

Following consultation with Advisory Council Chair, Shona Eland, we would like to call for expressions of interest from any member of the College community who might be interested in joining the Advisory Council, the Finance and Planning Committee or the Governance and Risk Committee. The commitment involves about eight meetings each year.

If you would like to know more about the Council and committees, please feel free to contact me on 5226 8119. Alternatively, you may wish to submit an expression of interest in writing providing some background as to your skill set and interest. These should be emailed to [email protected]

God Bless

Tony Paatsch

Principal