Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We are fast coming to the end of term 2 of what has been a crazy, mixed up year! I continue to be in awe of the wonderful work being done by our teachers in supporting the learning and wellbeing of our children. I’ve also been impressed with the resilience shown by our children in coping with everything. Our student reports for Semester One are being prepared, and will be distributed on the last day of term 2. Once we return to school for term 3, you are invited to discuss your child’s progress with their teacher and to clarify learning goals for Second Semester.

The Nature Playground development continues apace. It is exciting to see the works undertaken so far, and to begin to get some sense of what the finished product will look like! At this stage everything appears to be on track for a July 13 completion. This will mean that the play space will be ready to go, on our return to school in term 3!

While on the topic of school developments, significant work continues behind the scenes in bringing our major building program to commencement. We are awaiting the end of the tendering process before we work through each tender to appoint a builder. Once that appointment has been made, I will be able to share a start date with you. While this date is somewhat uncertain as yet, we are assuming it will be mid-August, and so to be properly prepared for this, a number of classes will need to move, starting on the last day of term 2. When school returns in mid-July, all of the 1/2 classes will be located upstairs, while the year 3 class will relocate to what is currently the OSHC room. OSHC will be working out of the hall during the building project, while Italian and STEM classes will happen in each home classroom. I’ll provide you with further updates as they become available. Whilst this will be a somewhat disruptive time for our school, once the new year comes I am sure there will be great excitement at our brand new facilities!

The SA Government and SA Health continue to ease restrictions around COVID-19 and I am excited to say that, from next term, many of the activities that are a feature of our school community will be able to return – assemblies, sports, excursions, camps, Masses, visitors and families onsite etc. I know the children are really looking forward to school retuning to a greater sense of normality! Please click here to read the communication sent home earlier this week, outlining the implementation of each of these.

With restrictions in mind, there are a couple of important activities occurring over the next 2 weeks. Our intrepid Reception classes will be presenting a “virtual assembly.” I know that it will be a great celebration of everything they have been doing this term, and there will be awards presented etc. A video link will be shared with families on Thursday. Our instrumental music students will be videoing a piece to share with you, in lieu of our normal Instrumental evening. These videos will be shared via Seesaw before the end of term. We are looking forward to being able to host our Semester 2 instrumental evening, later in the year.

I am looking forward to this Friday’s Winter Sleepout with the year 6 cohort. This will be a great opportunity for our children to develop a sense of the very challenging existence some members of our community experience, as well as to take positive action, through fund raising and awareness, to enable change. We hope the experience inspires some of them to do more! As per our communications, we ask all families to support this initiative through a gold coin donation and providing a non-perishable item, as part of a casual clothes day on the 26^th June.

Tomorrow, you will receive an SZapp notification regarding confirmation of your children returning to St. Joseph’s School, Kingswood in 2021. We kindly ask that you complete the form by the 3^rd July – end of term 2.

Lastly, a reminder of Vacation care being available during the term break, and on the first day of term three- 20^th July – which is a pupil free day.

God bless,

Phil Schultz

Principal.