Monsignor Fr Kevin Barry-Cotter

Our sympathy and prayers are extended to Father Kevin’s family and friends. Sadly, Fr Kevin passed away at his home in Adelong on the weekend. Although retired, Father had continued to celebrate Mass with us in the Adelong Parish until the outbreak of Covid. Father celebrated Christmas Mass and had just begun to return to Sunday Mass when his health allowed this year. An avid reader, writer and theologian, Father was able to share his extensive knowledge of the Gospels and biblical history. A kind and caring priest who shared the message of God’s love for us all.

A Requiem Mass for the repose of Fr Kevin will be held on Thursday, 11^th March at St James Church commencing at 11.30am. Please see the funeral notice below for further details.

Eternal rest grant to Father Kevin, O Lord, and may the perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Project Compassion Boxes

During Lent we are asked to help support those in need through the work of Caritas Australia. Each classroom has a Project Compassion Box and students are invited to place donations in the box during Lent. We have extra boxes at school and in the Church if any families would like their own donation box for home collections.

In Religion lessons, Years 2 /3 have been learning about the communities that Caritas have supported through donations from Project Compassion. We have viewed a story about Margret, a teacher at a vocational school for deaf students in the Solomon Islands..

The school faced water shortages for about half the year in 2020. Staff and students would walk for up to half an hour to collect water for drinking, cooking, washing and growing vegetables. Then in April 2020, amidst the threat of COVID-19, Tropical Cyclone Harold struck, damaging school buildings and its vegetable garden.

With Caritas Australia’s support, the school installed water tanks, provided cyclone-proof building materials and helped to implement COVID-19 prevention measures. Margret’s school now has enough water for its students and the capacity to cater for more, with plans to boost food security, through increased agricultural production.

Please support Project Compassion: caritas.org.au. “Aspire not to have more, but to be more.”

Liz Murray

REC Co-ordinator

World Day of Prayer is an international ecumenical Christian movement initiated by women.  On one day a year it is an opportunity to set aside time to pray around a designated theme for the needs identified by the women of a specific country.

Swimming tomorrow for Yrs 2-6 has been cancelled. Students will have sport as normal.

We have two bucket style hats that are missing belonging to Beau and Faith, they are new and have a name label inside the hat.  

There has been lots of sickness at St Joseph’s over the past week with many coughs and colds. 

The advice is to PLEASE keep your children at home if they have any flu like symptoms.  Covid advice/regulations for Catholic Education has not changed from the beginning of the year– you will need to get a covid test if your child is exhibiting symptoms and should return to school when they no longer have symptoms.  The school should also be given a copy of the negative result on returning to school. 

Reminder for K/1 students to return their homework folder/reading diary each Friday.

This week in 2/3 in Maths the students have been counting on and off the decade by ten, bridging to ten and completing addition and subtraction tasks using the jump or split strategy.

They also enjoyed different activities with Ms D and some quiet reading time.

On Thursday this week, was the debut of the school science club, run by school leader Ainslie Campbell. All children enjoyed this time and it will be happening again next week on Thursday.  

Tom, Charlie and Nicholas competed on Monday in Narooma at the Archdiocese level swimming.  They all swam really well all making a new personal best time.

Tom came third in the freestyle swimming but unfortunately only first and second go to Sydney. Nicholas came 10th in the breaststroke and Charlie came 7th and Tom came fourth in the breaststroke, all swimming very well. 

- Charlie & Tom

The students are enjoying the beautiful weather at the moment with a range of activities at lunchtime including chalk drawing, Lego, tag and football.

Every Wednesday, Our Year 6 Leaders are running a Sport Skills session. This week Tom and Harry taught the students Rugby skills.

The Cross Country is coming up in a few weeks – we will confirm dates when we hear back from the council.  Starting on Monday we will have a quick cross country practice every morning in preparation.  If the children would like to wear their joggers to school so that they are able to run that would be fantastic.

Keep up to date with events happening at St Joseph's via our electronic school calendar (please note dates can be subject to change).