Spring is in the air (just) and as per usual term 3 is a busy term for everyone.

The Quiz Night was an amazing success – raising close to $9000!!!  A fun filled evening with many families and friends joining in and whole heartly dressing up. I thank you for supporting the school and children through your attendance and the many donations. A reminder to consider supporting the sponsors who have supported our community. Thank you, Lucy Sach, for your leadership and Rosanna Cantone for successful coordinating the event with your team of helpers.

The Father’s Day Breakfast was a wonderful gathering of all the important men who support our children. The children were so excited to have you there and the looks on the dad’s faces during the song were just beautiful. Thank you to our staff for organising the breakfast, especially Katina Dahdah for her working in setting-up and preparing food and to Steph Insanally for choir preparation.

The staff retreat was a wonderful opportunity for staff to be together in “communion’. Mary Carmilleri supported Christine Furrugia in assisting our staff to understand the term communion in our Catholic context – Communion ‘together’ and Eucharist – ‘thanksgiving’. A major part of the day was spent creating a meal together which we share in communion and giving thanks for each other.

National Child Protection Week

Last week was National Child Protection Week. National Child Protection Week raises awareness about the community’s collective responsibility for the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people. This year, the focus is ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’.

For Catholic schools, this provides an opportunity to emphasise their strong commitment to the safety and wellbeing of young people in their care, and the important role they play in creating safe and nurturing environments at school, online, at home and in the community.

At St Joseph School we implement several measures to help ensure the safety of all:

• Staff members maintaining their RRHAN qualifications
• Teaching of the Keeping Safe Child Protection Curriculum
• Volunteers training and screening
• ESafety - child safety and protection this includes online environments

I bring to your attention the following documents which relate to child protection

• Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy (Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide) or
• Responding to Online Safety incidents in South Australian schools: Guidelines for staff working in education settings
• Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum information for educators (Department for Education SA)

I wish our Senior Choir all the best for their performance in next week and I look forward to catching up with parents and friends on the last day of term for Sports Day. 

Jodie Higgins
Principal