From the Principal's Desk

Dear Members of St Joseph’s Family,

Welcome back to 2021! I am truly thankful that we were able start back this week as it has been lovely seeing all the smiling faces and hearing lots of holiday stories.  A very big welcome to our new families and new staff.  You have made the choice to join a wonderful community and I am sure you will be very happy here.

COVID

This week has already shown us that we have to be ready for anything in 2021.  More positive Covid outbreaks in Perth could see us all return to remote learning at a moment’s notice.  Our teachers have all been asked to be prepared just in case the worst-case scenario happens.  Hopefully all that preparation won’t be needed, but it is best that we are all ready to go.  We got through it last year and we can do it again if we have to.

The regulations around the wearing of masks changed a couple of times this week.  However, as from next week, staff who travel from Perth will be required to wear their masks at all times except when they are teaching their class.

It is important to note that anyone from Northam who travels beyond the regional border on the weekend will be required to wear a mask as per the regulations (i.e. at all times) until the requirement to wear a mask is lifted.  This includes staff, parents and Secondary students.

Student Leaders

Yesterday, both our Primary and Secondary Student Leaders were commissioned in front of their peers.  They received their badges and pledged an oath to carry out their duties to the best of their ability.  I congratulate them all and look forward to working with them.

Building Program

The Secondary building program has made great progress over the holiday.  We are now using the new buildings and toilets and most of the interior landscaping is finished.  I am hoping that it will be less than a month before everything is completely finished.  The unfinished components are ones that we added onto the original contract.  Still to finish is the entrance to the School from the Church carpark, the tiered seating on the old oval and the retaining and landscaping on the embankment.

          

Year of St Joseph

Yesterday at our beginning of the year Masses, I explained to the students that our focus for 2021 was the person of St Joseph.  I have included below the information that I spoke to the students about yesterday.

Pope Francis and I must think alike because just like I have announced that this is the year of St Joseph for us here at School, he announced that for all Catholics around the world, this is the Year of St Joseph.  For the Church around the world it is 150 years since St Joseph was made a patron or the protector of the Universal Church.  It made him a big deal!  Pope Francis has called us all to learn about St Joseph, to try to be like him and to pray to him.

For us, it is 50 years this year that two Catholic schools in Northam became the one school.  The Secondary campus was a school for boys and girls from Kindy to Year 3 and for girls only from Years 4 to 7.  It was called St Joseph’s and was started by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition 132 years ago.  73 years ago, the Marist Brothers purchased Fermoy House and that became St Paul’s College for boys from Years 4 to 10.  Over time, it became clear that it would be more sensible for the two schools to join together.  The decision was made to call the school St Joseph’s School so that it was the same as the Parish and the School has only continued to grow since then.

Our School Prayer calls us to see, listen, speak and act like St Joseph and yet there would be many of you who have no idea who St Joseph is or what is so impressive about him.  So, in this celebration year for us as a school, we think it is important that you know exactly what the prayer that you say every day actually means and the sort of behaviour and way of life that it asks of you.

So then who was St Joseph?  Well, St Joseph was the foster father of Jesus.  He is the person least talked about in the Bible and yet he is the person who would have had the greatest influence on Jesus as he grew up.  He had the courage to stick by Mary when he found out that she was pregnant before they were married, which in those times was a terrible crime.  Joseph would have taught Jesus what it meant to be a good and kind person.  He would have shown him what hard work looked like and he would have taught him how to show compassion and patience to others.  Throughout his adult life, Joseph was placed in many situations where he had to trust that God would look after him, because in most of these situations, others would have run away as quickly as they could.  Instead, Joseph faced those challenges and stuck by those that he loved.  His faith was strong, and he believed that God would provide what he needed. Joseph showed us that not only was he a good dad and a good provider for his family, but he was also a great role model to for all of us.

So, as we celebrate the 50 years since our amalgamation, in classes this year you will spend time talking about some of the  characteristics of Joseph which make him someone that we should try to be like.  My hope is that by the end of this year all of you can find something about St Joseph which you can use in your own life and that whether you leave our School this year or in 6 years, you will always take with you the knowledge that the school you attended was named after a pretty remarkable man and that if you can be even a little bit like St Joseph, then you will be a pretty good person to be around.

Student Sporting Success

We are pleased to acknowledge and congratulate Antoinette and Jianna Matres who both did extremely well at the CBH Country Week Tennis Championships held in January. Jianna was 12/U Champion Girl in both Singles and Doubles and Antoinette was 14/U Champion Girl in Singles and Runner-up in Doubles. Well done, girls!

                                              

Bushfires

Our prayers and thought are extended to those families who have been impacted by the current bushfires.  We have touched base with the families we think may have been affected and have offered our support in any way.

Over the coming weeks the Student Leaders on both campuses will be holding a fundraising event with proceeds going to the Lord Mayor’s Bushfire Relief Fund.  More information will be sent home as soon as we have it.

Calendar

The 2021 calendar is now available to view from the School’s website.  It can be found under the Class Information tab.  The information is also currently being placed on the online calendar on the SchoolZine app and it will continue to be updated with events as we confirm these.
 
Key dates coming up: 
8 February     Interm Swimming Commences - Years 3 and 4  /  P&F Meeting @ 6.45pm @ The Duke's Inn 
10 February   Years 7-12 Parent Meeting @ 6.30pm / P&F Meet & Greet Soiree @ 5.45pm @ Secondary
12 February   Primary Swim Trials
17 February   Ash Wednesday - Primary and Secondary Liturgies
18 February   Secondary 'Digital Tech' Parent information Session @ 6.30pm
19 February   Secondary Swim Trials  /  P&F Early Years Meet & Greet @ 8.45am
26 February   Pupil Free Day 

As we settle into the new school year, we are once again thankful to be living where we do.  Take care, stay safe.

God bless

Andrea Woodgate
Principal 

Our Faith

Marist Student Leaders’ Gathering

Over the weekend 28-30 January, our Years 11 and 12 Student Leaders embarked on the 2021 Marist Student Leaders gathering.
This was held at Point Walter Recreation Camp and included student leaders from Northam, Newman College, Bunbury Catholic College and Immaculate Heart College in Adelaide.

The three-day gathering focused on the skills needed to be an effective student leader in the modern world and challenged participants to adopt characteristics of the Marist Way.

                                        

Our School’s ten participants represented the School with great confidence and developed aspects of their personal leadership styles. The connections and friendships that emerged between students from each school were immediate and it is obvious that many will be long lasting.  The opportunity to be able to gather as multiple school leadership groups was absolutely invaluable.

We give our wholehearted thanks to the Marist Youth Ministry team and the extra support staff who made it all possible, including Mr Hillyer, Mr Reidy, Mrs Woodgate and Mrs Parnham.

We, as members of the St Joseph’s Student Leadership team, look forward to engaging with our peers throughout 2021 and allowing our skills to help enhance the charism and community spirit of our great School.

Ash Wednesday Liturgies

As we begin our season of Lent on Wednesday 17 March let us understand that what we proclaim that day is that God is love, mercy and forgiveness.  This love is always on offer to us whenever we fail.  St Joseph’s School will be observing Ash Wednesday with Ashing Liturgies on the Primary Campus at 10.00am and for Secondary students and staff at 11.15am.

Forgiveness is the most visible sign of the Father’s love, which Jesus sought to reveal by his entire life.  Every page of the Gospel is marked by this imperative of a love that loves to the point of forgiveness …

Nothing of what a repentant sinner places before God’s mercy can be excluded from the embrace of his forgiveness.  Our repentance is only possible because first there is a God who is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and ready to relent.

God forgives us because God is forgiveness.  This is the message that Jesus brought to the world, a message that has often been misinterpreted over the past two thousand years, largely because we find it impossible to believe that God can be so good to us in the face of our sinfulness.

Our response in the face of God’s willingness to welcome us back is to allow the Spirit of reconciliation to touch our lives and change them.

To be marked with ashes on Ash Wednesday is to open a new Holy Door in our own lives through which we can rediscover the God who calls us to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.  On Ash Wednesday we commit ourselves to renewed almsgiving, in which we learn to be as generous to others as God is generous in forgiveness to us.  We commit ourselves to renewed prayer, in which our focus is to hear his voice.  We commit ourselves to renewed fasting, in which we give up our addiction to selfishness and self-indulgence and hunger once again for justice and peace, respect and dignity, forgiveness and love.

Lloyd Reidy
Religious Education Coordinator

Primary News                                   

Welcome

Welcome to 2021!  I feel truly blessed to be working at St Joseph’s School this year.  The entire community have made me feel so welcome and my office is slowly being decorated by a range of beautiful drawings from the students.  It has been lovely to visit classrooms this week and to hear all about the students’ holiday adventures and what they love the most about our School.

Just in case you were curious, I thought I would share a little bit about my background.  First of all, I am a Mummy to my 4 year old son Coby and wife to my husband Joel.  I have been an Assistant Principal at both Good Shepherd CPS Kelmscott and St Benedict’s School in Applecross.  Prior to these roles, I was an Early Childhood Teacher and have taught classes from Pre-Kindy through to Year 2.  I have a strong interest in student and staff wellbeing and have had extensive experience in curriculum development and building effective teaching and learning teams.  I look forward to sharing my passions and knowledge in these areas and working with the students, staff and families.

 

Unfortunately, we were unable to hold our Welcome morning tea on Monday, but fingers crossed, we will be able to gather as a community in the near future and that Northam remains free of any lockdowns.

Interm Swimming Lessons

Next week, our students in Years 3 and 4 will begin two weeks of swimming lessons commencing on Monday, followed by our Pre-Primary to Year 2 students who begin their lessons on Monday, 22 February. Swimming trials for students in Years 4 to 6 who would like to compete in our 50m events, will be held on Friday, 12 February.

May you all have a beautiful weekend with your families.

Michelle Christian
Head of Primary 

Secondary News

Curriculum Matters

Welcome one and all to another exciting year of teaching and learning.  The 2021 academic year has commenced for our school community, but we have seen that for other locations a relapse of 2020 occurred.  If nothing else, last year encouraged all of us to ‘expect the unexpected’, so for a successful year - be prepared and be prepared to be flexible.

Certainly we have seen everyone starting off in a positive direction, with fresh minds and fresh books.  What we should see as time progresses is less of the latter, those books should not be so fresh!

Note books should have notes and text books are great resources, read them, complete the questions, transfer key points, tables and graphs to your notes.  Use your resources and use them wisely, if you are not sure that is where your subject teacher can help you, what notes do I need to make, what are the important points, what do I need to study, these are great questions to receive an answer to before it all becomes too overwhelming.

There is a story, or a tale of two wolves, which has been adapted for many situations, which effectively outlines the struggle between two animals.  One an individual and the other a team player, one good one evil, or one kind and one mean.  So perhaps a further adaptation is the struggle between two ‘wolves’, one that doesn’t complete homework, doesn’t spend studying making notes and study, one that procrastinates and allows themselves to be distracted from completing their tasks.  The other ‘wolf’ is organised, prepared for class, makes class notes and creates and sticks to deadlines.  This struggle, this internal battle may have gone on for years and will continue for many years yet, perhaps for the rest of your life.

So you may wonder, how do we know which ‘wolf’ wins?
It is the wolf you feed that wins!
Feed the wolf that listens in class, writes down and completes the homework, studies for tests and submits all work on time.  This is the wolf that will lead you to a successful year and one that you can look back on and say that you really did strive to be the best student you can.

All the best for 2021 students!

2020 Year 12 Achievements

Congratulations to all our Year 12 students from 2020.  For our ATAR group, there was a sense of anticipation that lasted until late December, but the wait was worth it with some excellent ATAR results in the mix.  As an overview, four of our students obtained special recognition certificates from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA).

Well done to Audrey Carroll and Jelena Manuel who both received a Certificate of Distinction and to Isabelle Ochtman and Cassidy Knight who obtained a Certificate of Merit.

These SCSA awards are based on school-based grades during senior secondary and any additional programs or completion of additional courses, such as VET training in that time.  Four SCSA Awards from our small year cohort is an impressive achievement.

Some highlights from our 2020 ATAR students include:
Audrey Carroll who attained a 97.55 (our highest score to date for a St Joseph’s School student) and will be completing an Integrated Medical Sciences & Clinical Practice degree for Direct Entry to Medicine at the University of Western Australia (UWA);
Jelena Manuel received an ATAR of 92.55, and she will be on her way to UWA for Political Science (International Relations) and Biochemistry;
Isabelle Ochtman attained an ATAR of 88.50 and is enrolled into a Bachelor of Education (Science) at the University of Notre Dame Australia; and
Hannah Morrison finished with an ATAR of 82.65 and is looking forward to attending Murdoch University for a Bachelor of Science in Medical, Molecular & Forensic Science.

Some other notable mentions are Taylah Page, who will be attending UWA for a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Microbiology & Immunology);  Dalena Reynders, who will be attending Edith Cowan University (Joondalup) for a Bachelor of Education (Primary); and Miri Stewart and Clancy Thompson both of whom will be attending UWA for a Bachelor of Arts.

In addition, through the Early Offer program, Katie Harris will be at Murdoch University doing a Bachelor of Nursing and Nadine Clark at Edith Cowan University for a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood).  We also have a number of additional ATAR students enrolling in pre-university courses and bridging programs at various tertiary institutes.

Congratulations to these students and indeed all our 2020 Graduates.  Well done to all the teachers who supported them in their educational journey.  We look forward to hearing updates about all your ongoing successes in the future.

Mark Gargano
Years 7-12 Curriculum Coordinator

Our School

2021 School Fees

The Business Manager is in the process of finalising Family Accounts for 2021.  To assist families, we invite anyone who has a Health Care Card or Pension Card and wishes to claim the discount to come in with their current Card to allow the Business Manager to reflect this discount in your School Fees Account prior to the annual fees being issued.

Steve Johnson
Business Manager

Our P&F

Our first meeting for the year will be held this coming Monday, 8 February, at 6.45pm at The Duke’s Inn in the private room.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

We have lots planned for Term 1; the Colour Fun Run, Easter egg raffle and more.  We hope to see lots of new and current faces at the meeting and events, joining in on the fun and being part of the School community.

As we had to postpone our usual welcoming morning tea, we look forward to holding that in the near future and will keep you updated.

Remember to join our Facebook page;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1764507137145087/?ref=share

Georgia Haddrill
President

Our Community

Northam Residential College ~ Boarding Opportunities

Have you ever considered boarding at Northam Residential College for your children?  Here are some reasons why families choose to board at Northam Residential College:
Northam is able to provide the very best public or Catholic education and course options in the Wheatbelt.
There are amazing Government subsidies available to significantly reduce the boarding fees.
Your child can participate in any sporting or recreational activity they choose as we will transport them to and from that activity each time.
Healthy and nutritious home style meals provided each day by our own college Chef.
Your child will have their own private, comfortable, and secure bedroom.

Northam Residential College is a home away from home.  Perfectly located on the edge of town, we provide all the structure, routine and support your child will need to succeed.  Please contact us to find out just how affordable and worthwhile boarding at Northam Residential College can be.  T: 9621 0077 E: Northam.ResCol@education.wa.edu.au

EXTEND Before & After School Care

Come along to Extend and enjoy an engaging program of activities with your Extend team!  Enjoy an indoor and outdoor program of high and low energy activities, plus healthy food to fuel healthy bodies.

At all times our COVID safe practices are in place.  If you see us cleaning our surfaces, or the children and Educators washing their hands regularly, don't be surprised!  We look forward to welcoming your children to our program and encouraging them to embrace existing friendships and make new ones.

To enrol and book, head to https://www.extend.com.au/families/enrolments-and-bookings/  For more information on your school’s program, visit https://www.extend.com.au/families/find-myschool/  For further assistance contact us at support@extend.com.au

Wanslea Parenting Workshop ‘Circle of Security’

Wanslea is offering a free eight session parenting program for parents and carers of young children based on how secure parent-child relationships can be supported and strengthened.  Participants will learn how to identify their child’s needs, how to respond rather than react to their child’s needs, learn about their own personal parenting experience and how to remind themselves of just how important they are to their child.

Sessions will be held on Mondays 1, 8, 15 and 22 February; 8, 15, 22 and 29 March from 1.30-3.00pm at the Wanslea Offices, 76 Fitzgerald Street, Northam.  These sessions are free and light refreshments will be available.  Please contact Jeni Pages on 0447 622 736 or jpages@wanslea.asn.au to secure your place.

Uniform Shop 

Opening Times:                             Mondays - 3.15pm to 4.45pm       
                                                      Thursdays - 2.45pm to 4.15pm                               

Can’t Get To The Shop?

Families who find they are unable to attend the Uniform Shop during opening hours are able to place an order by sending in a request by email to the School’s email address : admin@sjsnortham.wa.edu.au  or families can now use the SchoolZine app to place an order.  Please note that all orders must be paid for before they will be released.  Once payment has been received, orders will be filled and distributed to students or sent to the relevant Campus Admin Office for collection as soon as practical.  For your convenience with payment, you can provide your credit card details along with your Order, pay by credit card over the phone through Primary Admin (9621 3500).

Michelle James 
Primary - 9621 3524

Canteen News

Term 1

The Primary Canteen commenced operating this week.  We have a new range of items on the menu and many of these have been tasted by some of the students over the course of the first week.

Online ordering has been set back at the moment but we are aiming to get it up and running as soon as possible, so Primary Canteen orders should be made through your child's classroom as usual.

We require help!  To run efficiently we require parent helpers and this term, we will start with two shifts per day.  If you are able help out, please sign up online at  https://signup.com/go/LQaHAbC

We are both looking forward to working with you.  If you have any queries, please contact us on the number below.

Kerri & Angela
Canteen - 9621 3525