St. Joseph's Waroona gears up for the new year, with a new assistant principal and performing arts centre

A fresh school year has brought new faces and facilities to St. Joseph’s School in Waroona.

A new playground as well as a drama and performing arts centre all opened this month, as the school also welcomed a new assistant principal, Caroline Leighton.

Mrs Leighton said she felt really blessed to join the small community school.

“My role coming into any new school, particularly a small community school, is to first and foremost get to know the community,” she said.

“My role is to walk with the staff, the children, the families and the community as a whole.”

St. Joseph’s School principal Michael O’Dwyer said he felt very lucky that Mrs Leighton had joined the community.

“She’s very passionate about what she does,” he said.

Mrs Leighton previously worked at St Damien’s Catholic Primary School, working with high needs students.

“I have a lot of experience working with families as they work through the needs of their children, whether they be diagnosed or undiagnosed,” she said.

“There are so many different areas to support children and I absolutely adore working with staff and families to make sure that every child gets exactly what they need when they’re within the school environment.”

As well as the new drama and performing arts centre, Mr O’Dwyer said air-conditioning had been added to the building along with a number of other upgrades.

Mr O’Dwyer said he would ultimately love to do productions in the space, but it would take a little time to work up to that.

Mrs Leighton said she was looking forward to being involved with anything happening in the drama section.

“I have a huge passion for music, so I look forward to being able to use my talents in that space,” she said.