2025 Week 6 Term 1

Congratulations

I am delighted to announce that Miss Sophie Anderson has been appointed to Acting Assistant Principal Mission. Sophie's exceptional commitment to student growth and her understanding of our school's Mission make her an ideal fit for this role.

During Sophie's time as Leader of Learner, she consistently demonstrated strong leadership, fostering innovative teaching practices and supporting student success. We are confident she will bring the same passion and dedication to her new position, ensuring our school continues to thrive. Please join us in congratulating Miss Anderson on this well-deserved appointment.

Thank you

I wish to extend our sincere gratitude for your understanding and cooperation during last week's sudden school closure due to the approaching weather event. Your flexibility and support ensuring the safety of our students was truly appreciated. We know that these unexpected changes can be disruptive, and thank you for your patience and adaptability.

We are also aware that some families within our community may have been directly affected by the severe weather. If your family experienced difficulties or require assistance as a result of the weather event, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Enhancing Our School Community: Updates & Improvements

We are continually striving to improve our school environment and processes to serve our students and families better. During the coming weeks, you will see enhancements in the following areas:

1. Traffic Management 

Morning Drop Off Avondale Street

• • We will implement updated traffic management procedures to streamline our drop-off during the morning so that it is more efficient. The improvements will include education, clearer signage and if granted council permission, line marking outlining stopping bays. We aim to improve flow and reduce congestion.

Afternoon Routine

• • We are currently exploring options which leverage technology to enhance our pick-up procedures. We aim to:

    Increase safety – Reduce the risk of miscommunication and unauthorised pick-ups.
    Improve efficiency – Streamline the dismissal process to minimise long car lines and confusion.
    Enhance communication – Ensure parents, teachers, and staff receive real-time updates. (Particularly when after-school activities have been cancelled due to changes such as weather etc).
    
    

    For parents we are exploring systems which allow

    1. Parents to update dismissal preferences in real-time (eg bus, Kiss and Drop, COLA pick up, After-School program, or walking home) directly through an App.
    2. Administrators to track and manage dismissal changes through a centralised dashboard.
    3. Teachers and staff to have real-time visibility on how each student is getting home.

Car Parking 

• • We will also work closely with the Country Club to ensure smoother co-existence of parking spaces, minimising disruptions and maximising accessibility for both the school and the bowling club. Currently, parking spaces at the country club are not being respected, especially the long golf cart area. Please follow the signage and line marking.

External Services - Spaces & Timetables

• • We are undertaking a strategic review of how we manage external service providers working with our students. With a growing number of requests and limited school space, we need to ensure sustainable integration. While we value the benefits these services offer, our primary focus remains the delivery of high-quality education, which must not be compromised.

Parent Communication:

• • We understand that clear and consistent communication is essential for a strong school-family partnership. To ensure you receive timely and relevant information, we are working to clarify what types of information you can expect and on which platform it can be located.

    With the increasing use of digital platforms, we want to provide a clear overview of how we will be using these tools to keep you informed.

Fire Drill

We successfully conducted a scheduled fire drill today, Friday 14 March 2025. This drill was a planned exercise designed to ensure that all students and staff are familiar with our emergency evacuation procudures and can respond quickly and safely in the event of a real fire. 

NAPLAN: Year 3 and 5

Our school began NAPLAN testing on Wednesday 12 March with all students in Year 3 & Year 5 completing the writing assessment.  Year 5 and Year 3 completed the Reading component on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Tests that are still to be conducted are as follows:

Monday 17 March: Year 3 & Year 5 Language Conventions (Spelling/Grammar & Punctuation)
Tuesday 18 March: Year 3 Numeracy
Wednesday 19 March: Year 5 Numeracy

Students who miss any of these tests will have the opportunity to complete catch-up sessions. 

Results for NAPLAN are expected during Term 2. Each parent or caregiver will receive a hard copy of their child's results for each assessment, which can be discussed with the classroom teacher.

WHOLE SCHOOL WRITE

Earlier in the term, every student sat to do a whole school write which was a persuasive text. The topic was: School should be a 4 day week! There were great persuasive reasons provided for each side of the argument and some students could also see both perspectives. Staff use the NAPLAN structure to conduct the writing and the marking guide to mark it. The school conducts the assessment in Term 1 and Term 4 and use it to identify goals for students, support programming and use the end of year whole school write to monitor student growth over one year of learning.

Tonight at dinner, pose the statement, 'Schools should be a 4 day week!' and see what arguments you receive for or against it.

 

See you soon Mr Kiely!

Lasiandra Festival

Ash Wednesday Mass

Shrove Tuesday 

Fr Felix Prepare the Ashes

Whole School Write

Children's Liturgy Mass

M.A.D Team - Make a Difference

Rugby Union

Zone Swimming Carnival

Hastings Zone Winter Sport Trials

Welcome Talya Parsons

We are excited to welcome Talya Parsons to our school as our new Speech Pathologist.

Talya will be working with students across all grade levels, providing support both in classrooms and through small group sessions. She is dedicated to helping students develop their language, communication skills and is looking forward to working with our school community. We are thrilled to have her on board and cannot wait for the positive impact she will have on our students. 

Kilometre Club:

Join the Fun Every Wednesday Morning!

Our Kilometre Club is off to a fantastic start! Every Wednesday morning at 8.35 am, students lace up their runners and hit the bottom playground to build fitness, have fun, and enjoy an active start to the day.

With our School Cross Country coming up soon, Kilometre Club is the perfect way to prepare, helping students build stamina and confidence while enjoying the fresh air.

A huge shout-out to everyone who joined us last week, especially our enthusiastic Kindergarten and Stage 1 runners—your energy and effort were amazing!

St Joseph's runners, come any Wednesday morning and be part of the fun—weather permitting. See you there!

Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Office (DLCS) supports students, schools, and families to ensure quality education for all. This support may include but is not limited to:

• Reviewing currently held information by the school about your child
• Providing advice at planning meetings
• Release of any relevant information concerning your child to appropriate professionals (medical,therapy or education)
• Facilitating external professionals to provide written or verbal advice to the school regarding your child

All parents need to complete this form as a formal confirmation of the permissions that have already been granted. Please complete the form for each enrolled child. Release of Information

The Release of Information Consent Form needs to be completed by Monday 17 March 2025. Please fill out urgently. 

Dear Parents and Carers

As we approach Harmony Day, we are excited to celebrate the rich cultural diversity within our school community. This year, we wish to focus on helping our students understand and appreciate the unique  heritage of classmates and their own families.

To prepare for our Harmony Day celebrations, we would love for you to share your family's heritage with us. This will help us create a vibrant and inclusive learning environment where students can learn about different cultures and traditions.

Your contributions will help us plan engaging activities and discussions which will allow students to share their stories and learn from one another. We believe that understanding our heritage is essential for building a strong and harmonious school community.

Thank you for your participation and support in making Harmony Day a meaningful and memorable experience.

Please fill in the survey if you have not yet done so. 

SURVEY HERE

Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers

Re: Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School  Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already  available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative  requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in  line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).  

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

∙ year of schooling 

∙ category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional 

∙ level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive. 

This information assists schools to: 

∙ formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools

∙ consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools

∙ develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational  outcomes for students with disability. 

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for  the support of students with disability. 

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be  able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by  privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more  about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy  

(https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy). 

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au). If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.  

Nigel Toole

Acting Principal

Hello, St Joseph’s Wauchope Community, The P & F would like to advise a couple of  achievements during Term 4, 2024 and plans for Term 1, 2025. 

In, Term 4, using the Hastings Co-op grant plus additional funds raised, we purchased a set of new numbered team sports shirts. These have already been put to use in the recent Hastings Zone Winter sports trials. 

During Term 4, 2024 we also supported the school by providing the Swimming Carnival BBQ and the Christmas raffle. Thank you to all those that volunteered their time, and to those who donated prize. 

This year we have already donated $1000 to subsidise school bus travel costs throughout the year. During the Lasiandra Festival, we sold raffle tickets at the school stand in Bain Park to raise funds for new outside toys. Thank you to those families who have already contributed to the Raffle. Please forward donations to the Office. 

This Term we will continue to support school events by running the Cross Country BBQ. Meal deals are available via Flexischools. 

Mark your Diary now - Monday 24 March 2025 welcome dinner at Bain Park. This is an opportunity for all care-givers, old and new, to come together in a relaxed environment. The P & F will provide a sausage sizzle for children and parents. Sausages will be served from 6.00 pm,  feel free to arrive at the park when it suits you. A message has been sent to families via Compass Events.

Hopefully, you have seen the Compass notification that the P & F AGM will be held on Thursday 20 March 2025, 6.00 pm in the school Staffroom. We invite everyone to attend. At this meeting we will also be adopting the new constitution as part of the movement to the School Community Forum. The P & F will continue to run, however our name will change and there will be a slight change in the administration and organisation of meetings. We are looking forward to seeing some new faces! 

Victoria Thrum