From the Principal

Dear Parents, Carers and Students

Welcome 

Welcome to St Joseph's College Toowoomba for the start of a new school year and a very warm welcome to our 174 Year 7 students beginning their secondary schooling and our 34 other new students across Years 8 - 12. This is St Joey’s 67th year and will be another significant year for the College as we strive to continue to provide an outstanding Catholic education in the Edmund Rice tradition.

Congratulations to our Year 12 Graduates of 2022. As a College community, we are incredibly proud of their achievements. We wish to acknowledge that their results are a testament to their individual and collective strength, resilience, and determination to achieve their personal best in a highly challenging year.

Academically, the College achieved well in our QCE/QCIA and ATAR results, with 100% of the students receiving a QCE/QCIA and 89% or almost 9 out of 10 Year 12 students who were striving for an ATAR receiving an ATAR above 60. Zachary Vellacott one of our Academic Captains from 2022 is our College Dux for 2022 with an outstanding ATAR score of 98.95. In addition, we continue to experience success through our VET courses, with some 85 students being awarded one or more VET Qualifications and 27 Year 12 School Based Trainees gaining employment before leaving the College. I congratulate all students on their results. I also wish to acknowledge the work of our staff in supporting our students.

It is also pleasing to see that the majority of our ATAR students were successful in gaining entrance to tertiary courses that included Engineering, Law, Education, Business, Medical Science, Sport and Exercise Science. Congratulations to all our students on their diligence and hard work throughout the year.

2023 Staffing 

Our College teaching and school officer staff returned at various intervals over the last three weeks with the majority returning on Wednesday 18th January to commence professional development and preparation for this year. I thank our staff greatly for their efforts in preparing for what will be another jam-packed year of learning in classrooms and through extra and co-curricular activities. 

I would like to take the opportunity to introduce the College Leadership Team for 2023. I thank these people for their leadership of the College. 

Mr Brendon Willocks - Deputy Principal

Ms Kellie-Marie Ford – Assistant Principal Religious Education 

Mrs Kerrie-Anne Fellenberg – Assistant Principal Curriculum

Mr Joe Cryle – Assistant Principal Student Engagement

Mrs Karen Tobin – Program Leader Senior School Learning Leader

Mr Bill Whiting – Acting Program Leader Middle School Learning Leader

Miss Maree Comerford – Program Leader Staff Development

Ms Deb Newton – Program Leader Sport

Mrs Rosanne Pietsch – Acting Program Leader Culture

Ms Leigh Price – Program Leader e-learning

Ms Cathie Barton – Program Leader Mission and Identity

Mr Darcy Goodall – Program Leader Enhance Learning

Ms Emma Chalmers – Curriculum Leader English and Languages 

Mrs Candice Crouch – Curriculum Leader Mathematics 

Mr Cameron Love – Acting Curriculum Leader Science

Mrs Chrissy Dwyer – Curriculum Leader Arts

Mr Brian Cantwell – Curriculum Leader Technologies

Mr Andrew Fellenberg – Curriculum Leader Humanities and Commerce

Mr Mitch Kilgour – Curriculum Leader Physical Education

Mr Luke Logan – Brennan House Leader

Mrs Melissa Zenke – McAuley House Leader

Miss Aleesha Degan – Murphy House Leader

Mr Tom Moore – Rice House Leader

Mrs Natasha Digweed – Program Leader Student Induction

I also take this opportunity to welcome the following new and returning staff to the College:

New Staff:

Miss Maree Comerford (RE & Humanities Dept. Program Leader Staff Development)

 Miss Ashley Jeffery (Humanities Dept)

 Miss Rhonda Martindale (English and Humanities Dept)

 Mr Cameron Love (Acting Curriculum Leader Science)

 Mrs Debbie Morris (Admin Team)

 Miss Elle Moss (PE, Science, Tech Dept)

 Miss Abbey Orbansen-Thew (Science Dept)

 Mrs Sandy Sullivan (Teacher Aide Team)

 Miss Taylah Waldron (English Dept)

 Mr Nick Downey (Teacher Aide Team)

 Miss Erin Townsend (Canteen Team)

 Miss Amanda Wallis (Canteen Team)

Returning Staff:

Ms Cathie Barton (Program Leader Mission & Identity) 

 Mrs Dilki Balalla (Maths & Science Dept)

 Mr Phil Margetts (IT Team)

 Mr Hayden Maripa (Teacher Aide Team)

 Mrs Rebecca Wong (RE Dept)

Our staff are very approachable and will do their best to return any emails or phone calls within a 48-hour period. We would ask, however, that families do recognise the busyness of a school week if this 48-hour time period is not always adhered to. 

Year 12 Student Induction

Last Friday we celebrated the beginning of the school year and the induction of our Year 12 cohort for 2023. We wish this wonderful group of young people all the best for their tenure as the senior cohort of St Joseph’s College. During the introduction to the seniors, I highlighted that we are very excited by the calibre of the whole cohort, and we are very much looking forward to working with them as we continue to engage with ‘The Joeys Way’ over the year.

A reminder that our Student Leaders for 2023 are;

Parent Engagement in Schools

At St Joseph’s College, we greatly value the partnerships we develop with our parents and caregivers. Last week we held three extremely successful events to develop this partnership with our community and I would like to thank the parents/carers who were able to attend these sessions and the staff who put a lot of work into preparing the sessions. We do, however, also understand the numerous commitments that parents have and we also understand that it can be quite daunting for parents and caregivers to initially engage with the secondary school environment. 

In order to grow parent engagement in students' learning Catholic School Parents Australia have available the Gearing Up for Parent Engagement in Student Learning toolkit. This important free resource will assist all schools and families in Australia. The toolkit aims to build knowledge to encourage families to engage in their children’s learning and well-being for all of their schooling. We invite you to take a look at the parent engagement website http://www.parentengagementcspa.edu.au as we have found it to be a very useful resource in designing our transition and orientation programs.

In addition to this resource, St Joseph’s College welcomes all families to be part of our Parent Engagement Network. Last year in term four we held a very successful PEN session on the SJC Teaching and Learning Framework and our next PEN session is booked in for the date below. We hope that many of our families will again be able to join us on this occasion. Please RSVP via the correspondence emailed last week from the College.

Tuesday 7 February

6.30pm – 7.00pm – Welcome and social gathering

7.00 – 8.00pm – SJC Formation Framework – Miss Kellie-Mare Ford.

Aspire to Excellence

We are very proud of the efforts that our students and staff are making in engaging in a culture of learning in aspiring for excellence in everything that we do. This aspiring for excellence should not only be evident in the student’s academic, sporting and cultural performance achievements but also in the appearance of our students, how they conduct themselves and how they present themselves. Each of these aspects reflect how we are perceived and see ourselves. As such, there is an expectation that the uniform code is followed without exception. You will see further details in this newsletter, and you can quickly refer to our uniform code at any time in the student diary.

As highlighted above this year we have over 200 new students commencing at the College, and it is shaping up to be another great year. Critical to a successful year is the establishment of a strong partnership between parents/caregivers, staff, and students. I encourage all families to embrace this partnership and ensure 2023 is a successful year for all within the St Joseph’s College community.

Please peruse this Newsletter for the information you need to know for the commencement of the 2023 schooling year and throughout.

Best wishes

Kort Goodman - Principal - KGoodman@sjc.qld.edu.au