“The power of the pen!” is an old saying many of us would be aware of; this truism exploded into action recently here at St. Joseph’s. Students of E3 focusing on improving their writing recently wrote to the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Their writing beautifully and compassionately expressed their concern for the plight of drought affected farmers. The students were particularly concerned for the farming families of outback NSW. They were conscious of the impact on livestock, community, young people and the local environment.

Gemma Jones, the new sub-editor of the Daily Telegraph in Sydney responded by announcing six of our students as the winners of “The Adopt A Farmer” support program. Gemma has offered to fly the six students published to Dubbo to visit farms and the local primary school.  Qantas and News Corp will fund the trip and visit. Our students; Sophie Jellie, Nicholas Russell, Hannah Van de Camp, Daisy Shiells, Amelia Harris and Neave Black will fly with Qantas, stay overnight at St. Vincent’s Girls Boarding College in Potts Point Sydney and then fly to Dubbo for the day to visit farms and tour areas devastated by the conditions. The students will then share a BBQ with a local school and return to Warrnambool. Quite an adventure for all involved. Staff George El-Hage and Catherine Lee will be supporting the travellers.

To support this endeavour, the students from E3 are coordinating a casual clothes day this Friday with a gold coin donation. Family, student and community support will then be presented to the local school to help with their program of buying items for farming families. These items include shoes, clothes, food and other daily essential items.

Student Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

As per many updates the midyear Parent Teacher Interviews commenced this week. Student reports were also available from last Friday via our new Parent Access Module. A big thanks to all for your support of these two important aspects of helping young people grow and learn. A special thanks also to our teaching staff for their work in preparing the documentation. Thank you also to our ICT and Administration Teams for their work supporting learning and communication with an electronic option. The real heroes of St. Joseph’s are our students; they work hard, always do their best and believe in themselves.

Andrew Fuller (Geelong based Parent Educator visiting St. Joseph’s later this year) says the three things every parent wants for their child, every teacher wants for their students, and every community wants for its young people is for children and teens to have: Safe, Healthy and Fulfilling lives. Learning is crucial to this objective; a report or interview today is one of the many steps designed to support the learner, inform parents and help direct teacher future work.

Michael Carr-Gregg (Parent Educator) also gives good advice; he constantly reminds us as parents to have “high aspirations and realistic expectations.” The best way to do this is to notice young people’s strengths, deal with areas of concern through listening, dialogue and small steps of action.

Confirmation

This week students from St. Joseph’s will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. Please keep these children and their families in your prayers and thoughts.

Student and School Safety

As mentioned in previous newsletters we are replacing the old fencing around the school, this includes the full property perimeter, appropriate access gates for foot traffic and managed vehicle access. The works are planned for the Term Two break.

 Yours sincerely, Michael Gray, Principal