Principal's Report

Father Ian's Farewell 

It was lovely to attend Father Ian's parish farewell on Sunday with around 200 parishioners celebrating his 50 years in the priesthood. We will be farewelling Father Ian as a school community at Assembly next Friday morning (12th June).   We know that Father Ian has baptised a LOT of St Finbar's children, and we'd love to include some of these photos in our photo slideshow.  Please send any photos of Father Ian (and babies) directly to me. 

I know there is a collection for Father Ian underway, coordinated by the P & F, so please consider contributing if you haven't already. Our gifts will also be presented to him next Friday. 

New Website incoming 

We've started the process of building our new website with School Presence. Last week, Tserlin and Mark came out and photographed every aspect of St Finbar's to build up a bank of high-quality photos for our new website. We've had a sneak peek at some of the photos, and they are beautiful. We hope to launch our new website 

Pre-Service Teachers

We're very lucky to have five pre-service teachers at St Finbar's at the moment, all from ACU. We welcome:

• Lilly McPhee in 1H
• Alexandra Pandis  in 5B
• Chloe Heenan in 5L
• Emma Coleman in 2B
• Olivia Witham in 2F

We hope that these teachers find their time at St Finbar's a valuable learning experience.

School Closure Days

Please pop Friday, August 7th, into your diary as St Finbar's will be closed for a Staff Development day. Team Kids will be open on this day for parents who need care. 

Also, for those families that are already planning for 2027, our School Conference next year will be Thursday 4th  - Friday 5th March. These are the two days leading into the Labour Day long weekend. 

Playing Safely

We love the fact that our students enjoy playing with their friends in the playground before and after school.  At times, however, these games can become a little too physical, especially amongst our youngest students. Along with the safety concerns this raises, it may also mean that when students enter the classroom, they may not be in the best mindset for learning. 

Some great games to play before school include: 

• Two Square / Four Square (using small balls)
• Tiggy
• Running races along our running track

Driving in Wallen St

We have had another request from our local neighbours to please take care when driving in Wallen St, and the laneway at the end of Wallen St.  Out of respect for the residents that live along that lane, we discourage the use of it, but if you do, please drive slowly. One neighbour reported that her son had nearly been hit by a car driving too fast in the lane. 

Baby News

Congratulations to the Wright family on the recent birth of their new daughter, Violet Grace on the 27th April.  Big sisters Olivia (Prep A) and Elyse look delighted with their new little sister.   

Around the classrooms 

Once again, I've had the pleasure of spending time in many classrooms this week. 

The Year 1s are currently learning about part-whole relationships and worked with Unifix blocks to model their solutions to worded problems. 

The Year 5s presented their pantomimes to their Prep buddies, acting out their own creative versions of well-known fairy tales.  This was complete with the classic pantomime audience participation... "He's behind you!"

Take care and God bless,

Michelle Hill

Principal