Dear Parents and Carers,

On Tuesday, March 4th, our school celebrated Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday. Traditionally, Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, allowing families to use up pantry items they won't consume during Lent. Thank you to Mr Wickham, Mrs Fraser and Natasha who cooked up a feast of pancakes for the school.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period leading up to Holy Thursday. Lent is a season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, reflecting the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert. It allows us time to reflect on our mistakes, ask for forgiveness and strengthen our relationship with God and with others.

Thank you to Mr Wickham who organised our school’s participation in Ash Wednesday with our Year 3 to 6 students attending Parish mass at the church, and our Kinder to Year 2 students participating in a liturgy at school.

Building Works Update

Over the past two weeks we have completed the installation of the roof over our outdoor learning area and the LED installation in the hall.

The roof over the outdoor learning area is wonderful and adds another space in our school where children can play on wet or hot days.

The LED screen in the hall will make an enormous difference to our whole school events and liturgies and as you can see it looks great.

We are extremely excited to welcome you into our school during Student Led Conferences this week so you can see the improvements made throughout the school.

Enrolments for 2026 now open

Kindergarten Enrolments for 2026 are now open! You can easily complete your enrolment applications online through our school website.

Join us on March 20th for an informative session and a tour of our school. We encourage anyone considering St Joseph’s to attend this event.

Additionally, Year 7 enrolments for 2026 at St Clare’s are also open and can be completed online.

We look forward to welcoming new families to our community!

Student Led Conferences

This week we hold our student led conferences for Years 1 to 6 and our Parent Teacher Meetings for Kinder. Our students in Years 1 to 6 have been busy preparing for their conference with you and they are looking forward to sharing their learning goals and some of their work. If you did not get a chance to book your conference time, please contact the office to make a time.

Upcoming Webinar

On Wednesday the 12th of March from 7.30pm to 8.45pm there is a webinar for parents titled The Big 6 Skills that Create Wellbeing in Children and Teens. It is presented by clinical psychologist, author, speaker and creator of Learning Strengths™, Andrew Fuller. The topics covered as part of this session include:

· Anxiety reduction

· Concentration

· Friendship skills

· Reducing Gaming

· Sleep and rest

· Increasing motivation

Here is the link if you are interested
https://mncatholic.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ShlyHy1STeum2Nl5gOohfQ

Today I share the Project Compassion Lenten Prayer with you. Please join me in praying for those who need our compassion.

God Bless

Mel Hunt