Thank you to Mr Shelton and Mr Moran and all the staff for the first few weeks of school during my absence for their wonderful work. Joey’s is in a good space, students on the whole are engaged in their learning and we are working with those who are not. At Monday's assembly I spoke about “where you live in your head”. In the ‘past’? Always thinking about what was, never letting go of hurts, always focussing on revenge? Or living in the ‘future’? Always worried about what will happen? What will ‘people’ think or say? Being continually worried or anxious? Or is everything ‘I’ll do it later”? Which sometimes never happens.  Or are you in the ‘now’ - the present? Being present to those who you are with, focussing on developing deep and meaningful relationships, focussing on your learning, and doing your best right now on every piece of work you are given? Our best learning is in the now. When you do an exam, you have to be in the now not in the past with the study you may not have done, or in the future of what questions are next .... being in the now is very powerful. We learn more and we live our life there.

We are called to be in the now and this is the consistent story from Jesus to be present to those we are with. This week's Gospel was about Jesus’ time in the desert and being tempted by the devil. The temptations were around the past and the future, power and glory but our real power is in the now. Just something to think about … where do you spend the time in your head?

Structured Literacy Teaching

You may have seen information in the media around the best practice for teaching reading and writing. Joey’s has long been using that method for supporting literacy activities throughout the school. Our parallel reading program for year 7 and 8 as well as the writing program that has been rolling out over the last couple of years, all use structured literacy teaching as its basis. This has all just been part of the quality teaching staff have been doing at Joey’s.

Uniform

I would ask parents and carers to review your child’s uniform and please make sure it adheres to the school uniform policy. It is disappointing to see some of the girls skirts are not regulation length and we will be issuing consequences. I would ask parents to rectify this as soon as possible. Please ensure all shoes are as per the policy and not skate shoes. 

Mulch

The media has been focussed on the asbestos in mulch over the last couple of weeks. Please be reassured this is not affecting Joey’s. The majority of our mulch is from our trees and our suppliers are not part of the affected network.

Bus Times

Change of school times - The change of time is still on the agenda and now moving through due process. As soon as we hear back from the Bus company any information will be published for all parents. I personally am hoping this goes through as soon as possible as I see it as a great advantage for students with the early finish time. So watch this space!

Ms Amanda Wilson

Principal