WEEK 1 Term 42024

Dear Families, 

I hope you had a wonderful break with the children. 

This term we welcome Mrs Naomi O'Dwyer as our Acting Assistant Principal. Naomi comes to us from St John's at Mullumbimby. We look forward to working with Naomi and welcome her to the St Joseph's Community

We are thrilled to share our excitement as we have officially returned to Woodburn this week after two years and eight months away! The past week has been filled with a whirlwind of emotions—excitement, joy, gratitude, disbelief, and even a few nerves.

It has been wonderful that some of you have joined us to explore our beautiful facilities. Those shared feelings of pride and gratitude connect us all. 

To commemorate this special occasion, we celebrated with a cake on Tuesday, which was a huge hit with the children!

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has contributed to making our return possible, particularly Dan Stuart and Allan Marsh from DJ Stuart Constructions.  Thank you for your dedication and hard work in rebuilding St Joseph's Woodburn, we are overjoyed with the result. 

As we settle back into our home, we look forward to growing and flourishing together as a community. Thank you for standing by us and being part of this exciting new chapter!

We are thrilled to invite you to a special occasion—the official Blessing and Dedication of St Joseph's Woodburn following the rebuilding of our school. Many workers, builders, contractors, staff, students and families come together to restore and enhance our beloved school, and we look forward to having you join us for this momentous event.

This celebration will include a blessing ceremony led by The Most Reverend Gregory Homeming OCD, Bishop of Lismore and a Dedication ceremony by  Her Excellency The Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General  followed by a tour of our newly refurbished facilities.

It will be a wonderful opportunity for us to acknowledge, thank and celebrate as a community and witness the improvements that have been made to ensure a safe and inspiring learning environment for our children.

Please RSVP to the invitation below by Tuesday 28 October 2024.   All parents will receive an invitation via COMPASS as well.  Please only RSVP one time. 

This special event marks a significant milestone in our community, and we look forward to celebrating this important day with you!

During the holidays we received the wonderful news that Sarah and Scott welcomed their beautiful baby boy, Kai Robert McManus. Both mum and baby are well. We wish them all the best for the future and can't wait to meet Kai in person. 

JUNIOR JOEYS CONTINUES 

Our  Junior Joeys recommences next Wednesday 23 October 2024 9am- 11am, for a further 3 weeks at our beautiful new school at Woodburn. We can't wait to welcome you. 

ST JOSEPH'S WOODBURN WORKING BEE

The community spirit absolutely amazed us at the working bee at St Joseph's Woodburn on Saturday 21 September. Thank you to the many many people who came to the working bee. And what a mighty amount of work we achieved. Our current school community, teachers, grandparents, past students and families, parishioners and Woodburn and Coraki community members all came to help. We sent a Special thanks to the 20 VERO volunteers from all over Australia provided their help on the day, activity packs for the children, pruners and saws and a couple of wonderful outdoor games donated to the school. Thank you also to the Casino Rotary for the scrumptious sausage sizzle. The end result of all the hard work is nothing short of amazing. THANK YOU!

A REMINDER ABOUT ST JOSEPH'S SCHOOL

KISS AND DROP

A big thank you for your attention and care with the new procedures at St Joseph's Woodburn. Generally things seem to be running smoothly. Please keep us informed if you have any concerns or questions. 

We are having a couple of issues with the Kiss and Drop, so I thought I would repeat the information that I sent out to parents at the end of last term as a reminder.

The turning circle out the front of the school is used for a “Kiss and Drop” area before school and during parent pick up each afternoon. It is essential that traffic moves safely and smoothly through this area so we have some clear regulations around the use of this.

This is a NO PARKING area during 8:00-9:30 am and 2:30-4:00 pm. Please do not leave your vehicle during these times.

Please always drive as far around the circle as you can before stopping to collect your child. This allows all cars to move smoothly.

For the safety of our students, this is only to be used if your child can get themselves into their car seat, and their seatbelt on by themselves. Parents should not leave their car during this time.

If you are unable to safely use the Kiss and Drop with your child, please park in the designated parking bays opposite the church and walk around to the front of the school to collect your child safely.

Thank you for helping to ensure this area of the school  runs smoothly and ensuring the safety of our children.

• Our beautiful new school
• Being back together in Term 4 at Woodburn
• Our students for adapting so well to their new school
• The joy and excitement of our students
• The incredible work of our staff for the seamless transition from Evans Head to Woodburn and for creating amazing learning spaces
• Dan Stuart and Allan Marsh from DJ Stuart Constructions for remarking St Joseph's Woodburn
• The Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Richmond Region staff for helping us move. 
• Mr Aaron Beach, our Regional Service Leader, for all his work and support to ensure that our move happened. 
• Mrs Naomi O'Dwyer -Assistant Principal- Welcome to St Joseph's
• Our parents, for your continued support of all we do.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Regards

Jeanette Wilkins

 Principal

SUNDAY GOSPEL REFLECTION-29th  Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading  St. Mark, 10:35-45
The reading tells us that Jesus talked about the leaders of the people and how they enjoyed having power over others. He said that it must not be that way among His followers. Leaders are meant to serve others, and Jesus came as an example of how to serve.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that many leaders use their power over others to make themselves more important.

Jesus says we must never be like that. To be the most important, we must serve others.

St Joseph's SPIRIT OF JESUS AWARD

This term, the students will participate in a Water Awareness Swimming Program at the Woodburn Pool. 

There will be 5 sessions held at the pool:

• Thursday 31st October,
• Thursday 7th November,
• Thursday 14th November,
• Thursday 21st November and
• Thursday 28th November 2024.

This program develops the children's water awareness strategies which are aligned with the PDHPE syllabus. Parent helpers are more than welcome to assist, please contact the office to leave your name. Your child's classroom teacher will be in contact. Unfortunately, younger siblings will not be able to attend if you are helping a group.

Our school Water Awareness program is a compulsory activity and all students are expected to attend. A Season Pass for Evans Head or Woodburn Pool can be used for the entry component to the pool. Please contact the office before payment if you have a season pass so, your price can be adjusted. As the pool is being opened for our water awareness program we need to play for a lifeguard. The cost of the lifeguard will need to be included for all students.

Please contact the office with the season pass details to have the cost altered.

A Compass event will be published to all parents on Monday with full details

CONGRATULATIONS

Hello there St Joseph’s Woodburn family, Cassie here from the Family Connect in School program. I'd like to introduce “Family Connect in Action’, a new addition to the school’s fortnightly newsletter. Each edition will give you links to information and resources to help you on your parenting journey.

My first edition is to let families know about the school Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) which can provide:

Free internet for eligible families

The Australian Government has introduced the School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) to provide free internet access to eligible families. The SSBI provides internet access to up to 30,000 families with school-aged children who are currently unconnected. The free internet access will be provided until 31 December 2025.  

Am I eligible?

Eligible families:  

• have a child living at home enrolled in K-12 at a NSW school
• have not had an active National Broadband Network (NBN) internet service for the previous 14 days. Having a mobile internet service does not affect eligibility. 
• reside in a premise that can access a standard NBN service
• will undergo a suitability assessment conducted by the National Referral Centre (NRC). This is just a phone call or online application.

If you require any further information or assistance with an application, contact Cassie from the Family Connect in School program at 0427620667 or  contact the National Referral Centre – run by Anglicare Victoria – on 1800 954 610 (Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm AEDT), or visit:  https://www.anglicarevic.org.au/student-internet/