Hi everyone and welcome to a new school year. I can’t believe it’s 2020! But starting a new decade brings many new opportunities. We all have New Year’s Resolutions but I feel that when we have a new ‘Zero’ year it’s time to plan and make goals for what you might be doing in 10 years’ time. It’s a good idea to make goals about where you would like to be as then you can break down the step to help you get there. A big welcome to our new families in our Reception classes as well as our new families coming from other schools. It is great to see so many new faces eager and happy to start their learning process. We also have two new staff this year, Elizabeth Bello who will teach Year 4/5 and Lidia Saccone who will teach one of our Reception classes. Both are excellent, experienced teachers and have fit into our community seamlessly. It’s been great to get to know them better and I am sure that you will value their contribution to our student’s education and our school.

This year we welcome back Matt Richards. We call him Apple Matt because, one he’s an Apple Specialist and two, because our IT support person from the CEO who works with us on Fridays is also called Matt. To avoid confusion, we call him IT Matt! Apple Matt is back to help us make the most of our Apple products and continue our development and learning from the past two years. Matt works with staff and students, and has made a positive contribution to how we think about and use IT. Matt and I have some exciting experiences planned for our students so stay tuned.

Our school has now rolled out our planned hardware classroom integration. As it stands now, we are 1:2 iPad in Rec-Year 2, 1:1 iPad Year 3-5 and the Year 6s are using Macs. These iPads have added keyboards so that students can still learn important typing skills with the added flexibility of being portable. This year we will add typing skills to the curriculum to help the students become more confident and faster at typing.

This year I have joined the Ecology Committee at the Catholic Education Office. The committee is full of teachers and leaders from other schools as passionate as I am about caring for the environment and our common home. The Catholic Education team is looking for ways make our schools more sustainable and have the goal of developing moral, compassionate and ecologically aware students.

It was great to see everyone at our Picnic on the Green last Friday evening. We have a wonderful parent community and I love seeing families enjoying each other's company and making connections through their children. I know of many families that have made life-long friends after meeting each other at school. A warm welcome to our new parents who have joined us this year. We hope you have a great time at St Joseph’s, Kingswood and that yours and your child’s experience here is a positive one. As you would know from time to time things do occur that might be less than ideal. If there are any issues or concerns or you just want to chat, please feel free to see Phil or myself at any time. We are here to make sure you and your children have the most rewarding time at school possible and love working with parents to make sure this happens.

Did you know that your brain is very good at believing what you tell it? So, if you tell yourself you’re not good at maths! Guess what? Your brain will believe it and you won’t be good at maths. But the reverse is also true! Studies have shown that even if you’re not feeling happy, if you tell yourself you are happy, eventually your brain will believe it. With this is mind we want your students to believe positive things about themselves that will eventually be so ingrained that they enter their sub-conscious and students will always believe it. Emma Begg and I have developed 5 affirmations that cover a number in scenarios and will help students be successful in school and in life. We will practice these each day in the hope that students will eventually memorise them. Here are the affirmations:

• My mistakes help me to learn and grow
• I can achieve anything with effort
• I can make a difference
• I am perfect just the way I am
• All of my problems have solutions

Good luck everyone for the remainder of the year. I hope you have a fantasic 2020 with many lasting positive memories.

Take care,

Jamie