Hello to Families and all in the St Joseph's School Community,

Wow – what a week we have experienced here at St Joseph’s School this week!

Catholic Education Week, Reconciliation Week and staff learning about DOBCEL’s Strategy to 2035!

On Monday we kicked off Catholic Education week with an OPEN MORNING at St Joe’s. It was wonderful to greet visitors from the past, present and future. Thank you to those who were able to call in and spend time in our classrooms, witnessing the dedication and skill of our collective staff. It was a fitting celebration of St Joseph’s School in what is an important week for all Catholic schools across the Ballarat Diocese.

The mission of Catholic schools is centred around the integration of faith, learning, life and culture. This does not just happen in the classroom, but through the witness offered by teaching and non-teaching staff, and through the experience of the student being part of a community which models this integration in a life-giving way.

Found at Life to the Full: The Mission and Purpose of Catholic Schools - NCEC

On Tuesday, teaching staff from across the Northern Zone gathered in Euston for a Network Collaboration Day. This day allowed time and space to connect, exchange ideas and explore how the DOBCEL Strategy 2035 might come to life in our classrooms and communities. The day was very engaging, with staff enjoying the possibility of ‘thinking outside the box’ to promote new ways of bringing ‘fullness of life’ to all students.

On Wednesday we joined with St Patrick’s St Arnaud and St Mary’s Donald to celebrate Catholic Education Week with our neighbouring schools. After a special celebration of Mass, we continued to the town hall where we were entertained by a MAD SCIENCE SHOW. Air forces, electricity and fire facilitated some fun experiments and demonstrations to the collective ‘Ahs’ and ‘Ohs” of the audience. A shared sausage sizzle and some playtime with new friends concluded the day.

Today we started the day with smoothies at our Breakfast Program. An accidental smoothie explosion caused much excitement! We also had Sam Meerbach, DOBCEL Education Consultant, working in the classes demonstrating an additional assessment tool for collecting valuable data about our students. Sam is also engaging staff on the importance and value of using manipulatives to facilitate hands-on learning in math lessons.  

Each of these moments, from visits to celebrations, reflect the ongoing work and shared purpose of Catholic education across the Diocese. I thank the amazing staff at St Joseph’s for continuing to work with compassion, courage and dedication to serve our school community.

We have also acknowledged National Reconciliation Week and this year's theme of Bridging Now to Next. This theme reflects the ongoing connection between past, present and future. The theme Bridging Now to Next calls on all Australians to step forward together, to look ahead and continue the push forward as past lessons guide us.   

In faith & learning,
Have a great week,
Mary