2023 Week 3 Term 1

Dear Parents

It sure has been a smooth start to 2023 at school. I am pleased to say that our Kindergarten cohort have not missed a beat since completing two full weeks of school.

We are preparing ourselves for Lent, at this time - the season in the Church where we try and return to God, looking closely at our words, actions and also considering how we follow Jesus more closely. That is the thinking I am gathering from the Gospels over the past couple of weeks.

During the coming weeks we will have many opportunities to examine how we live our lives - are we flourishing? Are we supporting other people, helping them to flourish? Even those who are ‘different’ to us? Lent is a growing time - time to examine our current activities and thoughts and grow to be more who God calls us to be. More about Lent over the coming weeks and the preparation it takes to move to Easter.

Contacting Teachers

The best outcomes occur for our children when school and home, work together. We look forward to continuing to build the strong links between families and school this year. Your child’s teacher is obviously an integral part and there may be times during the year, aside from our scheduled Meet and Greet in Term 1, that you need to contact your child’s teacher.  If so, contact can be made through the Office 6585 1745 or through the classroom's chosen platform.

We request that our teacher's time outside working hours be respected and if a message was to be outside working times it will be attended to during their hours of work or after school hours when time is available. You can also contact your child’s teacher via our Office, by leaving a message. Teachers return your call as soon as possible. As you can appreciate, teachers are very busy during the school day. Any ‘urgent’ messages for your child regarding travel arrangements, medications, lunches etc... must be made by calling the Office.  6585 1745

Parent Social Media

It is quite common for parents to establish social media groups or pages to share information or connect with other parents in a child’s class and within the school community. Please be reminded that it is not permitted to establish a social media presence using the school's name or logo without written permission from the Principal. It is also important to know that some families have chosen not to allow the school to publicise their child's face online. If you are taking images of your child at school events, they must only be of your child and not groups of children.

Any permitted social media pages/groups/accounts must adhere to the St Joseph's School and the Catholic Schools Office Diocesan Social Media Policies. We currently have a School Facebook page. This communication platform will service our parents and community members with current school events, happenings, photos and reminders. At different school events, the staff media representative does their very best to showcase every child, on some occasions, it is not possible to share with the community every child's image in our school on our Facebook page. 

COMPASS - New Online Platform

St Joseph's school will be undertaking a roll out of a new system called COMPASS - School Management System, which will go live at the commencement of Term 2. https://www.compass.education/

What does this mean for Parents? It means that parents will have one platform to oversee all your needs. Compass will be your one and only platform. The school will be moving away from all platforms such as Operoo, Dojo's and Flexischools. All of these platforms were needed at some point and have given our school a wonderful difference to other schools and an operating ease for our staff and parents over the years. It is time for a change for all Catholic schools within the Lismore Diocese and alignment with other Catholic schools across Australia.

Many of our schools in the north, transferred over to this operating platform last year and they are finding the platform a more convenient way of managing their school systems.

Compass includes many different features, including the ability to:

• Monitor your child’s attendance, and enter an explanation for absence or lateness
• Communicate with your child’s teachers, and update your family contact details
• View your child’s timetable and the school calendar
• Monitor your child’s homework and assessment tasks
• Download and view your child’s academic reports
• Book parent-teacher conferences
• Pay and provide consent for events and school fees
• Purchase uniforms
• Order from the Canteen

We will advise parents in the near future when each of these features become available for use. More information throughout the Term will continue to keep you updated on our progress as the school works with the Catholic Schools Office. Much behind the scenes work is taking place within the Office and throughout the school. 

LA, USA Religious Education Conference - Mr Dane Seymour

Congratulations to Mr Dane Seymour on his selection to travel to the LA Catholic Religious Education Conference - Embrace Grace. The Los Angeles Religious Education Congress is the largest annual gathering of its kind in the world. This four-day event is held at the Anaheim Convention Center and is sponsored by the Office of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. We wish Mr Seymour all the very best on his trip to America and the wonderful spiritual experiences he will have by attending the event.