Over the last two months, I have spoken to many parents, families and students at Middle school and Senior school information nights. On these nights, I have focused on the two major themes of what we provide in our educational journey at St Joseph’s.  

Firstly, our focus on continual improvement, where as a community we actively research and develop innovative ways to improve practice, both as a staff and as an educational community. Importantly, as a school, we have a continued focus on how we can deliver quality teaching in learning in our classrooms, through refining practice as part of a collaborative learning community, using data to improve the quality of differentiated learning for students in our classrooms and improving the diversity and resourcing of the curriculum across Years 7-12. This enhancement in the curriculum space will see the introduction of Japanese in the middle school from 2021, as well as continued expansions of Vocational opportunities for students in the areas of Agriculture and Business. Further to this, we continue to focus on the success of reconnecting with the Trade Training Centre and Queensland College of Wine Tourism and enhancing these opportunities for students as we move into the future. As well, we have established links with Riverside College to provide flexible learning opportunities for our students in 2021, allowing many students to access specialised learning in areas such as Accounting, Psychology, Health and Food and Nutrition. 

Secondly, we focus on our support of students in becoming the best they can be in their academic and school journey. In Catholic Education, what sets us apart from other institutions is the focus on wellbeing and the growth of the whole person. From 2021, we are focused on continuing to improve the quality of Pastoral Care and wellbeing support we provide for each and every student. This will involve the shift to a vertical Pastoral system that will allow for students to be connections with the Pastoral Care teacher, their House group and importantly, with students across all year levels. 

On another note, our Year 12 students move into an 8 day Mock External Assessment block across Weeks 9 and 10 as they prepare for the state wide External Assessment block that commences 26 October. The purpose of the Mock assessment is to rehearse the structure of the assessment block and familiarise them with the types of assessment they will experience in October and November. Feedback received as part of these mock assessment is critical in informing the direction of the remaining weeks of the mastery period and will allow for students and staff to work collaboratively to prepare the students for the challenges of the external assessment.

It is an exciting future that presents itself here at St Joseph’s and I look forward to sharing the journey with all members of our community. 

Live Jesus in our hearts, forever. 

Matthew Brown
Deputy Principal