In the blink of an eye, we have come to the mid-point of term 4, and the penultimate newsletter for the year. Over the past few weeks, Jamie and I have had the privilege of hosting a significant number of school tours – both individual and collective. It has been a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about the many fantastic elements of a Catholic education at St. Joseph’s School. I am very much looking forward to welcoming those families into our community in the coming months and years. One piece of feedback we regularly receive from attendees at our tour is of the positive way people talk about our school and what we offer, and I am always grateful for this support!

My sincere thanks to Katie Routley and Makella Holden and the wider P&F for organising the Fashion and Fizz evening – I am reliably informed that it was a most enjoyable evening! As always, funds raised from the evening will go towards the redevelopment of our playground into a Nature Play space during 2020. Whilst you haven’t heard much of late about this project, there has been considerable work done behind the scenes on both this project, and stage one of our Master Plan. Both projects are due to begin during the 2020 school year, and careful planning is going to be required. What I can say, though, is that we should have some exciting concept plans for presentation by the end of the year, and I trust this will generate significant excitement, heading into 2020.

One small area of our playground that has had a recent addition has been the small garden outside the Reception classrooms. Parents may have noticed a new structure there – a shop! I want to sincerely thank the Mueller family for their very generous donation of the shop, and associated shopping items. Our students have THOROUGHLY been enjoying themselves engaging in a variety of play! 

Last Thursday, our outstanding band along with combined choirs, under the tutelage of Steph Insanally and Michelle Page, performed at the Mitcham Square Shopping Centre. Their performance was very well received by all, and was a brilliant showcase of the gifts and talents of our young musicians. Their next public performance will be at the City of Mitcham Carols, on Saturday November 30. I encourage all families to get along and enjoy the evening’s festivities, and support our choirs!

While the choir was performing in public, I was at Mercedes College learning more about the impact of homelessness in our city, and broader community, while participating the inaugural Vinnies Principal Sleepout.  While I had a cold and uncomfortable night’s sleep, I was able to go home, shower and turn up for work the next day, knowing that I had a home and a family to go to on Friday night. Many South Australians don’t have that some opportunity, and Vinnies is on the front line every day, providing shelter, food, care, support and the possibility of a brighter future, for the many, many homeless people in SA. This is the mission of the Catholic church lived out by so many wonderful, faith filled volunteers. My heartfelt thanks to all members of the St. Joseph’s Kingswood community who contributed to my fundraising efforts. I am proud and humbled to have exceeded my fundraising target of $1264 (contributing to the total in excess of $40k) , and that money will go directly into supporting the homeless in SA.

As we approach. The end of the school year, there are a number of significant upcoming events. Three of these are the Semester 2 Instrumental evening on December 2, The Carols on the Green on Friday December 6 and the end of year Thanksgiving Mass, on Tuesday December 10. Please make sure these dates are in your diaries and that you prioritise your attendance.

God Bless,

Phil Schultz

Hello everyone and welcome to Week 6. We have had a fantastic few weeks in the middle part of this term. There have been many wonderful celebrations and I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of them and seeing the children learning and enjoying themselves.

A couple of weeks ago we had Italian Day. We are blessed to have such a sensational Italian teacher who goes above and beyond to create rich meaningful learning experiences for our students. Italian Day was an example of diligent and creative planning that fostered a love of learning a language and about the Italian culture.

On Monday the 11^th in the 11^th month at the 11^th hour the Year 6 students and I visited the Soldier Memorial in Mitcham to remember those who have died and currently serve in an effort to protect our lives and way of living. It was a wonderful service and the children were very respectful while we were there. A big thank you goes to Alicia Milde, who hand made a wreath to lay at the service. It was beautiful and, in my opinion, better than the other bought ones.

Last week I attended the Children’s University graduation at Adelaide University. It was great to be able to represent our school and see the children graduate and be rewarded for their many hours of study and learning outside of regular school hours. Congratulations goes to Callum Beckley, Anastasia Harrison, Darcey Heynen, Vincent Patriarca, James Slape, Krish Desai, Edie Heynen, Darius Tan, Evelyn Patriarca, Audrey Patriarca, Chloe Peacock, Lucas Tan, Mia Davis, Genevieve Harrison, Ella Peacock, Ashleigh Sykes and Georgia Sykes.

This year’s sacramental program is going well. This Sunday evening, we had a workshop with our students as we tried to deepen their understanding of the Reconciliation process and finished with a beautiful mass together. The Sacrament of Reconciliation finishes ceremony on November the 28^th. We pray that this is an enlightening moment for our students as the begin the process of being initiated into the church. These students will continue their learning with the Sacraments of Communion and Conformation in 2020. 

I hope you all have a great couple of weeks as we end 2019.

Take care 

Jamie