Term 3, Week 4

Students and staff have jumped right into term 3. Congratulations to the Year 12 students for completing their Trial HSC exams last week.

Next week is Science week. We look forward to the many activities run by our hard working Science faculty to engage our students in the wonders of the world of Science. Students in Kembla House will celebrate their House Liturgy on Wednesday before Year 9 students head off  for their overnight retreat next Thursday and Friday. Following on from the very successful junior lunchtime World Cup Soccer competition the senior students get their opportunity to be crowned world champions as their competition kicks off next week.

Tuesday was the Feast of St Mary of the Cross Mackillop. We will celebrate this with a full school Liturgy on Monday 21st August (week 6) which parents are welcome to attend. Week 6 is also Book Week with a range of activities planned for students to be involved in as well. Alongside all of this we are in the final stages of our inaugural year of the house system which wraps up at the end of this term with the naming of the Champion House for 2023. As you can see there are plenty of positive things happening at St Joseph’s with a wide range of opportunities for all students to positively engage with. 

Student Sign Out Procedure

We have seen a large increase in students not following the sign out procedure. It seems students are informing parents that they only need to come to the office and the student will be called over the PA system. By doing this it creates extra work for the office Admin staff and also creates a lot of unnecessary disruption to classes, especially those completing assessment tasks. We understand that unexpected events may arise from time to time, in which case we will do our best to support students and families as effectively as possible. In all other cases we ask that the process below be followed if you need to pick your child up early from school:

• A note should be placed in the students diary indicating the date, reason for leaving early and time to be picked up. The admin staff will enter this into Compass (which is a legal requirement) and then issue a pass out note that will be stuck into the students diary
• When it is time for the student to sign out they are to show their class teacher the pass out note issued from the office that is in their diary. Staff will then allow the student to go to the office. Staff will not accept SMS messages on a student phone for a number of reasons including students not being allowed to use their phones at school as well as there is no actual way to prove the message has come form a students parent.
• The student then comes to the office and signs out (again a legal requirement but also provides us with an accurate record of who is on site in the event of an emergency). The student is then free to leave when their parents arrive to collect them.

If the process above is not followed parents will be required to come to the office and ask to collect their student. We will then need to find a staff member to walk to the child’s class to collect them and bring them to the office. This will potentially be a lengthy process and again puts extra pressure on the admin staff. Again we ask that to enable us to best support you and your family the process above be followed where possible,

School Mobile Phone Policy

A reminder that we have a no mobile phones policy at St Joseph’s. This applies from the moment students arrive at school until the bell goes at 3:25pm at the end of period 6 each day. We understand that a large number of students have mobile phones but the policy is in place to minimise distractions that impact learning in the classroom as well as assisting in minimising issues that can arise in the playground.

If you need to contact your student throughout the day we again ask that you contact the school office and we will get a message to them on your behalf. This is the best way to manage this process without disrupting learning. If there is an important matter that you feel students need to be able to be contacted directly please call the students PAL or the office and we can discuss appropriate arrangements.

Students found to be using their phone during school time, even if it is their parent/carer who has called, will have their phone confiscated. Parent/carer support with this process is very much appreciated.

Mr Brett Moran 

Acting Assistant Principal