Dear Parents, Caregivers and Families,

It is always a pleasure of mine to do a yard duty and witness our children playing at lunch times. The joy, fun and community spirit is always on show at St Joseph’s. Our children love being here.

At our last assembly, I spoke to the students about gratitude. I explained how gratitude is an emotion similar to happiness or thankfulness, and that it is something you would show in response to positive behaviours, such as; good manners; someone helping you; or giving you a gift. I also spoke about how being grateful recognises the goodness outside of you, as you can be grateful to God, to other people and to the world, but not to yourself. You can be grateful for your life, for your health, and for your family. But like humility, you are grateful for the things around you and the things that affect you. You can be grateful for the goodness in your life and how this goodness came to you.

Unfortunately, so often in our lives, we see gratitude being replaced with disappointment, anger, and resentment, when for example, we don’t get the things we want or, when things don’t happen the way we want them to. This is not showing humility, manners or gratitude, this is being selfish, rude and ungrateful. Being grateful helps you focus on the positive aspects of your life, and helps build and maintain relationships and improve your wellbeing.

Gratitude can be demonstrated in many ways. It can be shown with a simple, “thank you”, however is best shown when you are grateful for all the good things in your life.

I would love it if you could continue this conversation with your children.

The benefits of effective Parent-Teacher Communication

‘A 2020 study’ found ‘that teachers feel parents often fail to keep them informed about major changes happening at home that could affect their students’. ‘The outcomes’ of this ‘research determines that teachers need to be updated on major events in a child’s life, such as divorce, major illness or accidents and death in the family’. ‘A teacher without any knowledge of what is going on at home will lack context as to the true cause and may put it down to general behavioural problems’.

The researcher advises that a teacher who has context from parents, can be more understanding towards students who are struggling or acting out and is able to effectively work on addressing the problems correctly’.

‘Teachers and parents have equally important, although different, roles in a child’s overall development, and when working together can give the child the best possible education and upbringing’.

‘The study outlined a number of helpful and proactive ways’ to improve communication in order to benefit our children.

1. Over-communicate- Information is king. The more you can share with your teachers the better equipped they will be to help your children.
2. Contact details- Make sure teachers are able to contact you via the school communications methods (email, phone, Compass Connect).
3. Be proactive- Reach out to the teacher if you have a concern about your child rather than waiting for the teacher/school to contact you.

Sourced from: https://www.cos.net.au/e_catalogues/Innovate-for-Teachers/10/#zoom=z accessed 5/11/2024

Parent School Partnership

At St Joseph’s, parent partnership is one of our most focused objectives, and is embedded in our Mission statement. We hope that we have kept strong communication connections between our school and home. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teachers if you have any questions, concerns or information which may better help us support you and your child’s growth and learning.

Further to this, I would like to introduce a new initiative in 2025 which is, The School Community Group (SCG). This is a termly gathering which recognises and values the primary role of parents in the education of their children and their role in the school and parish community. The aim of the SCG is to strengthen the partnership between family, school, parish and the wider community for the benefit of their children’s full human development and learning, in the context of the vision statement for Catholic education in the Diocese of Lismore.

All parents of students attending the school are welcome to attend any meeting held by the SCG. Meetings will be held once per term, and will be advertised across the school’s information platforms.

Due to the informal nature of this group, the meeting can take on conversational tone as there is no need to formally move and second motions. School Community Groups are encouraged to engage in dialogue and conversation.

I will talk more about this and our first gathering date early in the new year.

The School Administering Medication to Students

There will be occasions when the administration of medication during school hours is necessary to support students during the course of the school day and during extra-curricular school activities. While the school has a strict set of responsibilities regarding this, parents and carers also have responsibilities to abide by when asking the school to administer medication to your children.

• Parents/carers should make every effort to administer medication to students in the home;
• Ensure medical documentation reflecting dosage is provided to the school;
• Obtain, complete and return the relevant school medication forms;
• Provide the medication in the original labelled container to the nominated staff member(s);
• Ensure the medication is not out of date and has an original pharmacy label with the student’s name, dosage and time to be taken;
• Provide written instructions from a medical practitioner for medication that is not obtained on prescription, or medication that is to be self-administered by the student, indicating: Name of student; Condition for which the medication is required; and Guidelines for administration.

For more information, please see the ‘Administering Medication Policy’ on the School Website under Policies.

Year 5 Camp

This week our Year 5 students went on camp out at Trial Bay for two days. I often talk about the Staff of St Joseph’s and how special they are. I thank all our staff who attended the Camp and every Year 5 student for their maturity, fun, resilience and teamwork.

As always, I thank you for your support in regards to your child’s ongoing learning.

Guy Campbell
Driving Excellence in the Macleay

It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. Mother Teresa

 Prayer

Lord, remind me to look to those we are assisting for the lessons they can teach me.

Amen.

Sourced from; https://cms.vinnies.org.au/media/5mjf0s5q/srg_sept_dec_2024_web.pdf?folder=nsw__spiritual-reflection-guides&path=5mjf0s5q%2Fsrg_sept_dec_2024_web.pdf