Michael Gray, Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and our Wider School Community.

As a school community we are truly blessed that each and every year parents, staff, students, families, sponsors and the wider Warrnambool region support and create a Fair that is consisently an outstanding day of family fun, friendship and engagement.

Living in a time where social media, the internet and what is wrong in the world can hijack our agenda; the simplicity of conversation, co-operation, team work, time with neighbours and contributing to an enterprise bigger than ourselves (schooling); the St. Joseph’s fair connects us with each other and this is an important learning for young people.   

Obviously one of the key features of the day is fundraising. To this end it gives us great pleasure to confirm a highly successful day with total spend increasing, our profit margin rising and a final profit of $44,000. This was all reported at our evening summary gathering after the pack-up.

Events such as this only happen with effort, support and interest. A very special thanks to all the students who embraced the opportunity to be with friends, support their school and contribute to our community. Thank you also to all our parent volunteers who again donated time, talent and a spirit of cooperation which is a significant contributor to the success of the school fair. A very special thanks also to our administration team, teaching staff, school support staff and our brilliant grounds and maintenance teams who also generously support the school’s vision with time, energy and commitment.

Each key aspect of the Fair has a team leader; support by our Fair Coordinator and school administration team. For the last few years this has been Helen Sheedy. I cannot thank Helen and this team enough for their vision, helpful spirit and a “can do” attitude. It is this culture which invites people to “jump on board” and support a day that helps young people grow into mature, resilient and compassionate people. I recognise this team as critical to the Fair success and especially thank Helen, on behalf of everyone for her coordination. Helen will finish with our school when her last child (Bill) moves into Year 7, so I extend an invitation to anyone who maybe willing to think about sharing your talents with our team to help run the 2020 Fair.  

A key aspect also of this event is the sponsorship support; goods, services and cash donations ensure key costs are covered. They underwrite the rides which we all acknowledge are tremendous value. Our Sponsors support our vision of pro-active engagement in health, learning and wellbeing. I thank each of these organisations and encourage families to support these local people.

Looking at today (Monday’s) weather we were fortunate yesterday; the heavy rain held off until after the pack up, the bad wind forecast was only mild in Warrnambool and we experienced near perfect conditions over the day.

In conclusion the funds raised this year will support our Parent School Association (PSA) budget. This budget, developed and accounted for by this important parent group mainly supports our grounds, playground and special events. This year our focus is replacing our old and tired school fencing for both security and assetic reason. We have designed this project and are awaiting final city council and catchment management authority approval. As many would be aware the playground area of the school is in a flood zone so this needs to be considered in school design. We look to this being in place for this year.