Dear Families and friends,

The AGM will be held Wednesday 26^th March at 7pm. We look forward to sharing achievements and giving thanks. An AGM booklet will be provided with reports tabled so we can use the meeting as an opportunity for you to hear about future as we continue thrive and build excellence at St Joseph’s School. Please consider applying for a position on the Board, which will be advertised next week. Each member brings different perspectives, knowledge and skills to the Board to help in decision making.  The meetings cover varied topics including, planning, finance, wellbeing, social justice, strategy, education – to mention a few.

One of our key values is CONNECTION. This has been a focus and includes camps for our older students. Our year 5’s have recently attended a 2 night camp at Wirraway, horse riding was certainly a favourite activity. On Tuesday, I will be heading off to Kangaroo Island with our year 6 students. I am looking forward to seeing our senior leaders in a new setting, watching how they connect, seeing their strengths at work. At the end of the term the year 4’s will be spending the night at AFL Max. 

Each term our students complete an online wellbeing Pulse Check ‘survey’. One question is ‘Do I have friends?’  With only a few results to come in, only 4 out of more than 200 feel they don’t have a friend often, with more than 85% saying they have positive friendships most of the time. This is fantastic, news, but the 4 matter. The survey enables us to support these children to build positive friendships through working on their strengths setting goals and working with the child and families.

A few tips for supporting your child build positive friendships:

• Plan a playdate
• Help your child practice skills like turn taking, sharing and social cues with you at home
• Remember to aim for friends, rather than a best friend
• Remember there are disagreements in good relationships

Please talk to your child’s teacher if there are any concerns, working together is key to success.

Some responses in survey to ‘I feel like I have positive relationships at school….’

• and when we apologise when we’ve done something we know we shouldn’t have done.
• being included in activities
• having a laugh with my friends
• having fun at recess and lunch
• because my friends are nice and friendly to me
• if I have an issue I can tell the teacher and we can fix it
• kindness
• my friends are always kind sometimes problems happen, but we always find a solution
• my friends looking out for me
• we learn about respecting others

The long weekend is a great opportunity for us all to re-energise for the second half of a long term. I hope you all have opportunity to connect with your family and or friends.

Kind Regards, 

Jodie 

In all things Charity