Thursday 12 November 2015

1. Principal News - Week 5 Term 4

St Joseph's leaders continue to shine - 5 out of 6 at St Kevin's
Many families and students who have passed through our school say the leadership opportunities we provide in Year 7 and 8 truly prepare our leavers to embrace leadership roles at St Kevin's College and beyond. Our Year 7 students are presently preparing CV's and letters of application for Year 8 leadership roles for 2016. They will be interviewed in a couple of week's time and the present Year 8's will announce the 2016 leaders on the last day of term.
Every student is gifted with an opportunity to lead and they are encouraged to make the most of this gift. They learn that it's easy to come up with ideas but it takes effort from behind the scenes to action the ideas and make them a reality. You can read about some of the processes they go through on this link.
Last week, at the St Kevin's prize giving the top six school leaders for 2016 were announced. We are very proud that five out of the Top 6 are all from St Joseph's. Loyalty to our Catholic schools and a commitment to our Catholic faith contribute to the strength of character recognised in these inspiring young leaders. Here are the Top 6:
Head Girl and Boy - Gypsy Mae Harihona Harrison & Max Stewart, Deputy Head Girl and Boy - Ellen McAtamney & Mark Whittet, Deputy Special Character Head Girl and Boy - Niamh Farrell & Thomas Pickles  


Max, Thomas, Niamh, Mark, Ellen and Gypsy Mae
Learning improves through blogging at St Joseph's
Yesterday, the teacher's had a discussion about the improvement in writing and reading for many of our Senior Hub 2 students (Year 6, 7 and 8) this year. We believe one of the contributing factors is the opportunity for the students to share their learning on student blogs.
When the students write in books or on pieces of paper, often the only person to read their writing is the classroom teacher. When they share their learning onto a blog, they potentially have a global audience. The students have an authentic purpose for writing. Parents, grandparents, extended family and friends anywhere in the world can read and comment on the blog posts. Any comments are moderated and go directly to the class teacher before they can be published.
During our recent Catholic Special Character Review, it was noted in the full report:
Newsblogs celebrate successes and encourage engagement with Religious Education and Parish activities. Students share prayers and Religious Education reflections for families and friends around the world to read on student blogs. The web site is among the most effective in the Diocese for providing open and transparent sharing with parents around planning and delivering of curriculum.

Student blogger of the week
This week's student blogger, Kaleb Cant in Year 7, has taking his blogging to another level. Kaleb is using it as a personal diary as well. You can read highlights from his recent family trip to Australia as well as read about learning at school and much more. Here is the link to Kaleb's blog.



New enrolment meeting Monday night
Since our official enrolment meetings in August, we have had a large number of extra families wishing to enrol their children. For the first time, we will be running a parent induction and extra enrolment evening together with Fr Wayne and Adrienne Wylie (Bishop's Rep on our board) and her husband Mark Wylie. The families will have a chance to learn how to support their children at our school and become part of our community. There are new children joining us at every year level across the school. 

Great results for Speech exams
Congratulations to all of the children who participated in the speech exams. We had some excellent results with a number of credits, merits and honours including three students who gained Honours Plus  - Sebastian Whiston Grade 3, Joseph Spillane Grade 3 and Annalise Kilgour Grade 2. There are more details further on the blog.

Prayers for the the Asi family and extended families
Our children bravely sang during the moving service to celebrate wee Delilah Asi's eight weeks of life this morning. We will continue to keep the children and their families in our prayers and thank everyone for their love and support.



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