Dear Parents and Carers,
It is hard to believe that we are already in the month of November!
Sport and Outdoor Education
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the SACPSSA Athletics Carnival with our St Joseph’s Team as they competed against other Catholic Schools in our section. The carnival runs for the week, with each day hosting different Catholic Schools from small country schools to the larger colleges. With the current restrictions in place, it was only attended by competing students, supervising teachers, the officials and parent volunteers. It was a highly successful day for our school with many students receiving ribbons and awards. The overall results included:
Winning the Section 7, Year Level Champions for:
This resulted in us winning the overall Girls Section 7 Shield and Championship Pennant for 2020. The last time the girls won this shield was back in 2000.
Not only did our team demonstrate excellent athletic ability they were extremely supportive of each other and I was very proud of their achievements and the way they handled themselves throughout the day. It was certainly a wonderful experience and I was able to witness their individual and team achievements. Everyone played a part and represented our school so well. I would like to congratulate the whole team and would like to especially acknowledge and thank Mr Moulton for all the hard work in managing and preparing the team for such an event. A lot of time and energy goes into making this day a success for our students and I would also like to thank Ms Beale for her care and support on the day. Finally, thanks to our parent helpers who attended the day and supported the event by volunteering their time to be judges and officials, your assistance was appreciated.
Certainly, all our senior students have been busy in the last few weeks. Recently our Year 4 and 5 students attended a three-day camp at Aldinga Holiday Park. I was able to visit the camp and check in and see how everyone was going. It was wonderful to see our students working together to make the camp such a success. At St Joseph’s we value the opportunity to provide our students with an outdoor education experience. The benefits of an over-night camp experience allow students to develop their independence, team building, leadership and decision-making skills. It encourages physical fitness and great opportunities to develop a wide range of social skills. Not to mention creating life long memories.
All classes have had the opportunity to participate in our Tennis Coaching sessions on Mondays over the last few weeks. It has been great to see the students participate and engage in different sports here at St Joseph’s. The Sporting Schools Program is an Australian Government initiative designed to help schools to increase children's participation in sport and to connect them with community sporting opportunities. Sporting Schools programs are provided free to children and their families to help students build the confidence and capability to be active for life. This initiative allows small schools like ours to access coaches from a range of different sports each term.
The Pulse Check
A reminder to all families that this week our students will again be able to participate in the simple wellbeing initiative –Classroom Pulse Check. The “Check In” is deliberately designed as low impact and high yield. It has been developed to find out how students are currently feeling about their experience in school. It is a tailored instrument that will allow us to check in and provide immediate feedback and support to them. Students will complete the pulse check online and once the data is made available it will be reviewed over the coming weeks by classroom teachers and Leadership to check in on individuals and their wellbeing and learning.
Adventure Playground Focus Groups
Recently one of Student Leadership Teams (The Student Voice Team) assisted in supporting our Play Space Focus Workshops. A total of 40 students from R-6 attended the sessions which were organised by Amanda Balmer and Keiran Power from WAX Landscape Designs. The sessions allowed the students the opportunity to select their top five “must have” equipment/experiences for our new adventure play space in 2021. The Student Voice Team were able a great help as they were able to assist our Early Years Students. As we move into the design phase, we hope to have visuals to show the school community before the end of the Year. Stay tuned!
Finally, we will welcome back Janet Price later in the week as she has returned from the UK and had the last 2 weeks in a Medi-Hotel. She has had the all clear from SA Health and is looking forward to some freedom and the comforts of home. A special thank you to Anthony Filpi who has been filling in for Janet while she has been away.
Stay safe
Kind regards
Adrian Grbin
