Term 3 Week 1

Principal's message

Dear Parents and Carers, 

A warm welcome back to St Joseph’s for Term 3! In this newsletter, we are excited to share a couple of important and exciting changes within our community, as well as some reminders of events and options coming up for students and families this term. 

Little Joey’s Transition to School Program 

In Week 2, on Thursday 31st July, we are opening our Little Joey’s Transition to School Program for the first time. This wonderful opportunity is for students who have enrolled for kindergarten in 2026 and whose families have accepted the offer of enrolment. The students have the option of attending school for one full day of learning and playing each week on either Thursday or Friday. Mrs Redman (Thursday) and Mrs Grady (Friday) will take the class, supported by Mr Ananth, Mr Lingham or Aunty Tahnee on a roster basis. Through the play-based experiences of Little Joey’s, the students will build relationships with their new friends, get to know our staff, visit learning and play spaces in the school and share rhymes, stories and creative activities that support their development as early learners. Little Joey’s will support the building of relationships between the families and our school staff to ensure a successful start to school. 

Little Joey’s is optional and will continue for the remainder of the year, excluding school holiday periods. It does not replace the formal transition to school visits planned for Term 4 because this part of the transition process requires all students to come together with the kindergarten teachers in the kindergarten classrooms spaces for a couple of hours each Friday morning for 5 weeks. The Term 4 visits are an important steppingstone in the successful foundations of transitioning to school for students. The students who attend Little Joey’s on a Friday will be accompanied by the teachers to the Kinder visits in Term 4. This year, our Little Joey’s program is free of charge, and we are looking forward to working alongside our families to provide this service. 

Daily Schedule changes 

For many reasons, our school staff have had to change the daily schedule at school. This won’t impact the drop-off or pick-up of students; however, you will need to become familiar with the changes to the student break periods and you may notice event times alter a little to accommodate this change. 

New daily schedule 

Changes to canteen

Given the slightly earlier lunch break at 10.50am and then the second break at 1.05pm, we have decided to speak with students about renaming the breaks, ‘Lunch 1’ and ‘Lunch 2’. This will allow students the option of choosing when they eat their main meal and when they eat their recess style food. Our canteen options have changed on ‘Flexischools’ to reflect this, and families will need to select either Lunch 1 or Lunch 2 when selecting their options. 

Release from face-face teaching 

Teachers access 2hrs each week as release from face-face teaching. This is part of the Employment Agreement for all teachers. During this time, students attend Creative Arts or Learning Hub lessons. With the change to the daily schedule, these lessons will continue but will be for 45mins each instead of 1hr, and teachers will make up the time by taking one day each term.  

ASPIRE Production ‘The Rise of Bozz’ 

We still have a few tickets available for students to attend the excursion to ‘The Rise of Bozz’ ASPIRE Production in Newcastle in Week 2. If you are interested, please check out the Compass notifications sent to families over the last couple of weeks, contact the office for more information, or use this link to access the expression of interest form.  

School Improvement Plan 

For the remainder of this year, our focus is on bringing together the elements within our Catholic Identity, Learning and Wellbeing improvement agendas to ensure the changes we are making are embedded within the life of our school. 

Over the remainder of this year, families will hopefully notice the changes we make to ensure our School Vision and Mission are visible each day in our school through our learning and wellbeing practices. We are aiming to update our website, and staff and parent handbooks to reflect the clarity of our work here at St Joseph’s. Refining our documentation in our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) journey will also reflect the vision and mission of St Joseph’s. 

Our work in building a Culture of Feedback across the school will continue to be promoted inside and outside of the classrooms with opportunities for teachers to record their progress in the changes they make to their professional practice. Students will continue to learn how to use the 'learning walls' in their classroom to make judgements about their learning progress and identify ways to improve. 

I look forward to engaging with the parents who expressed an interest in joining the review of the St Joseph’s School Uniform from Week 2 and sharing our progress with families along the way. 

I hope you enjoy the term we have planned for your children. 

Yours sincerely, 

Brooke Stephens 

Assistant Principal Report

ICAS Assessments – A Chance to Shine 

Within our school community, many students display outstanding dedication and academic talent. These students deserve to be recognised, and this year we are proud to offer them the opportunity to showcase their abilities through the world-renowned ICAS competition. 

What is ICAS? 
ICAS is an online academic competition designed to challenge students' higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills across a range of subjects including English, Mathematics, Writing, and Digital Technologies. 

ICAS results provide detailed, meaningful insights by comparing student performance with peers across the state and nation. This data helps identify areas of strength and growth, supporting families in guiding their child's learning journey. 

How to Register 
If you would like your child to participate in any of the ICAS assessments, please register by Sunday, 28th July. 
To register, visit the link below and enter the school’s access code: 

Register Here 
School Code: DAD528 

If you have any questions or need help with the registration process, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to support you. 

Warm regards, 
Kia May Wall 
Assistant Principal 

Religious Education Report

Grandparents Day Liturgy

We welcome our beloved grandparents to school this Friday at 1:00 p.m. for a special Grandparents Day celebration, led by our Kindergarten students.

This liturgy is a wonderful opportunity to honour the cherished role grandparents play in our families and community. Our youngest learners have been preparing something truly special to share with some heartfelt moments that are sure to brighten your day.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sacramental Program

At 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 3rd, a group of our students will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, a significant milestone in their faith journey. The ceremony will be presided over by the Bishop, and we warmly invite families and parishioners to join us in celebrating this special occasion.

This event was originally scheduled earlier in the year but was postponed due to the floods. We are grateful for the opportunity to come together now in support of our students as they take this important step in their spiritual lives.

Primary Coordinator Report

As we all settle back into the classrooms for term 3, we are going to revise teaching classroom routines and expectations as our first fortnightly focus. Giving the students time to explictly practice routines and procedures is another opportunity for students to contribute to providing an effective and engaging learning environment for themselves and their peers. This will maximise learning time, which is our aim for 2025. 

Wellbeing School Development Day 

Today, the staff have been working on creating a new and updated positive behaviour matrix that will encompass all areas of our school environment. We worked in teams to utilise past documentation alongside our new vision and mission statements to develop a shared language around the behaviour expectations at St Joseph’s Taree. We have been waiting for our vision and mission to be ratified and now we are able to incorporate important themes into our new matrix. We look forward to sharing the final draft with you, possibly in the next newsletter. 

We have also been working as individuals and year level teams to identify our goals in the area of improving the strategies we use to encourage expected classroom behaviour. We have collaborated with our teaching peers to determine how we will incorporate proactive strategies to increase academic learning time. Today, we have explicitly named the ways we will support and be accountable to one another in our classrooms. 

These tasks that we are undertaking are for the betterment of our relationships with students, and the relationships between students. This term we will continue to complete our PIVOT Wellbeing check ins with years 3-6 students and respond to the information these surveys provide. As a school community, we are committed to working on constant improvement in teaching and learning, which includes the vital area of student wellbeing.  

We welcome the students back tomorrow for a productive term of learning with many extra opportunities to contribute to our thriving school community. One of which is our Grandparents Day Liturgy on Friday at 1pm. We invite every grandparent who is able to attend to come along to our liturgy hosted by Kindergarten students, and to stay for a cup of tea or coffee afterwards. 

Loretta Riddiford 

Primary Coordinator 

Sports Coordinator

Sport News  

Wishing Our Athletes the Best at the Diocesan Athletics Carnival! 

We would like to extend our best wishes to all the students representing our school at the upcoming Diocesan Athletics Carnival on Wednesday, 6 August. 

This is a wonderful opportunity for our athletes to showcase their hard work, dedication, and sportsmanship on a larger stage. We are incredibly proud of each student who has qualified to compete and know they will represent our school with pride and enthusiasm. 

Whether you're running, jumping, throwing, or cheering from the sidelines, we know you’ll give it your best and support one another every step of the way. Enjoy the experience, do your best, and most importantly—have fun! 

Go team! 

New Basketball Backboards – Ready for Action! 

We’re excited to share that our brand-new basketball backboards have been installed and are already making a big impact on the court! With a fresh, professional look and improved performance, they’re the perfect upgrade for our budding basketball stars. 

Our basketball teams are thrilled to be training and playing on such high-quality equipment this term. The new backboards not only enhance our sports facilities but also help build skills and confidence in our players as they prepare for upcoming games. 

A big thank you to everyone who helped make this improvement possible – we can’t wait to see the benefits throughout the term and beyond! 

Yours in Sport 

Tarnya Jones  

Sport Coordinator 

Awards