Week 2, Term 1 2025

It was wonderful to see so many families onsite last week as students officially began back at school, particularly at our Coffee and Chat on Tuesday morning. It was also lovely to be able to welcome the children back and they have so far adjusted well to being back into the routines of school.

We have welcomed many new students and several new staff members into our school community this week and we are grateful for the gifts they bring to St Joseph’s School.

Welcome to our new students in Preschool: Alessio, Amilia, Bezawit, Delilah, Fibi, Grace S, Grace V, Leo, Leonardo, Lucas, Mason, Mila, Milan, Olive, Patricia, Ryan M, Ryan T, Zahlia, Zayn and Zoi.

Welcome to our new students joining our school for Reception: Allegra, Charlotte, Lucas, Peter and Waleed.

We also welcome new students joining us in the other classes: Mayar, Rastin, Colette, Mason, Gabriella, Teoni, Tiah and Ethan.

Joining our staff this year is: 

Mr Joshua Rouse – Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission (APRIM) and Year 1/2 teacher

Ms Chantel Farina – Reception teacher

Ms Bianca Kovacevic – Reception teacher and Preschool teacher

Ms Julia Mules – Year 4/5 teacher

Ms Olivia Zollo, who has been a valuable member of our OSHC staff, has resigned and will be finishing with us in the coming weeks. We wish Olivia all the best in her new role.

We warmly invite all families to the Annual General Meeting of the School Board will take place on Monday 10 February at 6:00pm. This provides a general summary of the 2024 school year via brief reports from myself as Principal, Craig Costello as Board Chairperson, Jo Puccetti, representing the Finance Committee and Andrea Boseley as chair of the Parents and Friends.

Following this, at approximately 6:30pm, will be an opportunity for parents/caregivers to join the teachers in the learning spaces to discuss the class routines, learning expectations and the learning program. Teachers will run a repeat session at 7pm for those who need to go to more than one classroom info session. We hope you have ‘saved the date’ for this important opportunity to engage with your child’s classroom teacher.

I am thrilled to announce a new partnership with Nazareth College who have appointed a new member of their grounds and maintenance team to be subcontracted to our school. Glenn Ferguson, who many of you will know as a parent in our community, will be working onsite two days per week to attend to all our grounds and maintenance needs.

For those who have been onsite, you will have noticed our school oval looking green and wonderful after renewal work was undertaken across the school holiday break. Dirtwork, the company who originally created our oval and playspace, were contracted later last year to renew and maintain our oval for 12 months following the work done to improve drainage. Our orchard at the back of the oval has also grown beautifully and is currently setting fruit ready for the Garden Club to harvest in the coming weeks and months.

As a part of our commitment to the environment, we have implemented some changes to eating time in the school. Though students have always been provided with supervised eating times for lunch and recess, now our students do not bring remaining food into the yard, instead they are being provided with a few additional minutes after play time to eat unfinished food.

The effect on our yard space was immediately noticeable and I have had many students comment to me as to how much cleaner the play space is.

We have also asked that any food wrappers are put back into lunch containers and taken home. Again, this has had an immediate effect on the amount of rubbish we have for collection, which has, up to now, often been beyond the capacity of our bins.

Thanks to our ESO Rose Falanga, food scraps are collected daily and added to our school compost, further reducing wastage and encouraging recycling. As always, we will continue to encourage ‘nude food’ as an important way to reduce the waste overall that we all send to landfill.

Thank you to our students and families for supporting the environment in this important way.

As communicated prior to school starting, we are excited to be hosting the Strength Switch Parenting Course in the coming weeks.

Who is the course for?

Parents of kids of all ages - it’s never too early or too late to start applying the principles of strength-based parenting.

What will I come away with?

• Action plans to help you start to change some of your immediate reactions to certain behaviours at home, focusing more on strengths.
• Confidence in applying the concepts you’ve learnt having had the opportunity to practise them with other parents.
• Fun activities to do with your kids that strengthen family bonds.
• Expertise from your facilitator for those tricky issues.
• An increased awareness of your strengths and how you can use them during both good and tough times.
• A network of other parents who you can share your journey with.

This course, facilitated by Courtney Quigley, Visible Wellbeing Facilitator and Coach, will complement the whole school learning your child has been and will continue to do as a part of our Visible Wellbeing project. It has been developed by Professor Lea Waters, pioneer in the field of positive psychology and is based on her book ‘The Strength Switch’.

The workshops will occur over three sessions here at school on Wednesday February 26, March 5 and March 12 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Please get in early to secure your place at no cost!

To attend, please BOOK HERE

As we continue to strive to ensure all our students are growing in their learning, our staff engage in professional learning sessions weekly, as well as during dedicated professional learning days each term.  This term our staff will engage in a professional learning day, focusing on both Mathematics and Aboriginal Education, on the last day of the school term, Friday April 11 and this will be a pupil free day for our students.  OSHC will be available on this day.

Across the year, pupil free days will occur as follows:

Term 1 – Friday April 11 (last day of term)

Term 2 – Tuesday June 10 (day after long weekend)

Term 3 – To be confirmed

Term 4 – Thursday/Friday December 11 and 12 (last days of term)

Finally, I ask for God’s blessing on you, our families, as you embark on this new school year.  As you continue to navigate the ups and downs of family life, juggle commitments, and work in partnership with us to enable your child to thrive, may you always know and feel God’s loving care around you.

Marianne Farrugia
Principal

My name is Josh Rouse and I am thrilled to join the St Joseph’s Hindmarsh community in 2025. My role will be as Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission (Mon-Wed), 1/2BR teacher (Thurs) and 1/2RR teacher (Fri). I have felt very welcomed in the first few weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know students, staff and families so far.

I have spent the last nine years in various roles at St Martin de Porres School in Sheidow Park and am excited to finally be working and living close together! I love to play the guitar and look forward to hearing our children sing their hearts out. Outside of school I coach basketball, love (most of the time!) watching my beloved Adelaide Crows and spending time with my lovely wife and cat.
 

Community Prayer

This year we will be introducing a new form of liturgical celebration called Community Prayer. These are short mini-liturgies (approx. 20 mins) run by a class on Wednesday mornings a few times a term. Community Prayers will alternate Wednesday mornings with assemblies and masses.

Each class will be running one Mass, one assembly and one Community Prayer over the course of the year. This is a slight change from previous years where a whole year level ran these. The reasons for this change are to give:

• children another opportunity to connect with our Catholic Identity in a more intimate and relevant way
• families another opportunity to come and participate in community celebration
   

Beginning Year Mass

On Wednesday, February 5th, Father Santhosh celebrated a beautiful whole school Mass to formally welcome everyone back to school for 2025. The Mass was led superbly by our Year 6s who set a tone of reverence and respect for all to follow. It was lovely to hear all the children singing along and we look forward to this continuing throughout the year.

Shrove Tuesday

On March 4th (Tues Wk 6) we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. It's traditionally a day for feasting and using up rich foods like eggs, milk, and sugar before the fasting period of Lent begins. It's a time for reflection and preparation for the Lenten season.

We will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday by having pancakes. We need some helpers to cook and serve enough for the whole school, so if you would like to help out in the morning and are a registered volunteer please contact me at joshua.rouse@sjsh.catholic.edu.au. If you would like to become a registered volunteer, please contact the front office. We would love to have you!

Dear parents/caregivers,

Welcome back to an exciting year at OSHC and vacation care. We are now open from 7:00 am and there are no parking issues at that time. Children can be booked in on the spike app which you can download onto your phone, and if you have any difficulties, we are always here to help you. Payments can be made via the QKR app or in the OSHC office via credit card. Our vacation care was packed with a variety of fun activities and excursions.

Maria Cronin
OSHC and Vacation Care Director