PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Michael Gray, Principal
Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and our wider School Community
About this time every year we come together as school community to celebrate what male family members bring to our young people’s lives. As we know both Mother’s and Father’s Day celebrate unique and important life values; the greatest of these is love. Love encourages us all to do our best and be our best for each other. Father’s Day is celebrated worldwide to recognise the contribution that fathers and father figures make to family life. At St. Joseph’s we will also celebrate this special bond at our Annual Father’s Day Breakfast event this Friday. All are welcome, remembering if dad can’t make it a grandfather, family friend or older sibling is most welcome. At St. Joseph’s we celebrate family in all it’s wonderful diversity. Look out for some great free raffles that will be available at the event.
The values fathers bring to family also drive what we do and support at school. Our students enthusiastically engaged in the student leader day; “What Makes You Happy Day” and raised over $750. These funds will be combined with our staff contribution and be made as a donation to the Special Development School here in Warrnambool. The funds are specifically tagged to the new school playground. In building the new school, local support is needed to help have the outside play spaces ready for the schools opening. St. Joseph’s students were keen to support the school and your family support to this cause has been highly valued and appreciated by the Special Development school community.
Also last week our library staff team and student monitors organised a week of Book Week activity, fun quizzes and classroom competitions. Again engaging young people in authentic learning, helping to make school a fun place and encouraging student involvement in their learning, made the week exceptional. Thanks all.
A final reminder that fast approaching is our special Arts Week. We celebrate the Arts every second year and this year we will have some exceptional visitors, workshops, competitions and special events. Please look out for all the details. The Arts contribute significantly in their own right to student learning but they also encourage communication, expression, celebration, meaning making, diversity, language skills and creative values.