At our school assembly last week, Ms Wilson launched the new Aspiring/Elite Athlete Program for students interested in applying to be involved in this wonderful opportunity being offered by St Joseph’s Catholic High School in partnership with BaiMed Performance.  

This is a new initiative designed for students who are aspiring or participating at an elite level in their chosen sport, and who desire a future pathway in this sporting field, which includes their academic studies.

It  has been very pleasing to see the high level of interest in this programme and we look forward to seeing many students putting their names forward for consideration for this most valuable programme being offered at St Joseph’s.

This week, we would like to sincerely express our appreciation to all parents, guardians and members of our school community who have hosted our Japanese Exchange students from Tokyo and Osaka for the past couple of weeks. What wonderful experiences our host families, the host buddies and our students have gifted our exchange students with! Many great memories and friendships have been made, and this Friday evening's 'Pot Luck Dinner' will provide an excellent opportunity for our host families and the exchange students and their teacher to share and celebrate these.

We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank Mrs Nicole Hensman for all her hard work and the fabulous job that she has done in coordinating all of the host families, host buddies and school buddies, who have shown great generosity and hospitality by looking after and accommodating our exchange students this year. 

We continue to keep all our Year 12 students in our thoughts and prayers as they are completing their Trial Higher School Certificate Examinations at the moment.

A reminder to parents and carers that the upcoming Parents and Friends Association Meeting will be held at 7:00 pm in the St Joseph’s Staff Common Room on Monday, 12 August 2019.  As always, all are welcome to attend. At this meeting, Leading Learning Coordinator, Ms Amanda Nascimento will be doing a presentation to inform parents of a new pedagogical tool being used at St Joseph’s. This tool is called Literatu/Scribo. The Literatu/ Scribo suite is an online platform that the school has subscribed to, which teachers and students can use to analyse and improve their writing. Ms Nascimento will run a short demonstration to show parents and carers how their children can access Scribo at home and use it to check the quality of their writing, and will also showcase how teachers are using Literatu to monitor and improve learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy at St Joseph’s.

On Thursday 8 August 2019, as a Josephite school community we celebrated the Feast of St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop with liturgies being conducted in Religious Education classes and the following morning prayer:

St. Mary MacKillop was an ordinary person who lived an extraordinary and unconventional life that saw her triumph over adversities and obstacles placed in her way. She truly was a woman who lived her life out of the ordinary. We pray for the intercession of St. Mary MacKillop and, as a Josephite school, we celebrate the incredible example she has set for us to adopt in our own lives today 

Loving God, we thank you for the gift of Mary MacKillop to our land Australia. May the Church in the whole world continue to learn about and know of her holiness. 

Mary MacKillop is an example for us as we learn to know God’s voice in those around us. Through her, may we trust God more.

Mary MacKillop spread the message of your love to all those she met. May we try to follow her example. We give you praise O God for giving Mary MacKillop to our nation Australia.

Mrs Jenny Bell

Assistant Principal