Welcome back to Term 4!

We have certainly hit the ground running with a busy start to the term across all year levels at St Francis Xavier.

Our Kindergarten classrooms have been filled with excitement as the students welcomed baby chicks!

This has provided a wonderful real-life opportunity for the children to watch them grow each day while learning first hand about their life cycle.

Congratulations to our Year 6 students, who completed their Religious Education Test last Wednesday. Every student approached the assessment with great maturity and focus. We had our next 2027 Kindergarten School Readiness session, where the future Kindergarten class enjoyed a sport lesson with Mr Martin and a Religion lesson with Mr Criniti. Year 1 had a fantastic time on their excursion yesterday to Carss Park, engaging in a day filled with active learning and outdoor exploration.

The prizes from the 2026 Monty's Colour Fun Run arrived at school and there were lots of happy faces when they received their well earned prizes. A big thank you to Mrs Laoudis and Mrs Onuchukwu for giving up their day to help unpack and sort out prizes.

Ms Tsokas and I attended the Catholic Schools NSW High Potential Gifted Education Symposium. The symposium aimed to bridge the space between research-informed theory and meaningful classroom practice. NESA Curriculum Managers helped us navigate the NSW curriculum reforms to design learning that offers genuine depth, explicit challenge and talent development for every student. Speakers and panellists focussed on iterative pathways that can ensure every high-potential child in our Catholic schools flourish. We are looking forward to bringing our new learning and skills to our students at SFX.

What a beautiful day we had yesterday in the sunshine as we came together in faith to celebrate the Feast Day of St Ursula! St Ursula is remembered for her courage, unwavering faith and commitment to God, inspiring us to live with strength, kindness and compassion.

We were delighted to welcome Ms Awad, the principal from St Ursula’s Kingsgrove and the Year 12 coordinator Ms Brooks along with our ever supportive Ursuline sisters Terese, Leon and Mary. It was lovely to see so many parents and grandparents join us for the special liturgy and morning tea.

Ms Awad and Ms Brooks had a chance to meet some of our girls who will be commencing at St Ursula’s College in 2027 and the girls took the ladies on a tour of the original St Ursula’s College building here at St Francis. A big thank you to our wonderful Year 6 students and Mr Criniti for leading us in such a beautiful and meaningful liturgy! A special thank you also to Mrs Lorena for leading our choir and filling our celebration with beautiful music!

At the conclusion of last term, Mr Anderson received a letter from Damien Kerr - Director of School Support at Sydney Catholic Schools. The letter was to congratulate our school community on achieving a school attendance rate above the Sydney Catholic Schools stretch target of 95% for Semester 1 2026.

This significant achievement places our school community among a small group of schools across the system to reach this important benchmark. Damien wrote - “Your achievement reflects much more than a percentage. It speaks to the culture that has been fostered within your school, the commitment of staff to accompany students and families, and the shared belief that every day at school matters. It demonstrates a collective determination to ensure students have the greatest opportunity to realise their God-given potential.”

We will continue to work with all families during Term 4 to monitor attendance and ensure our students live in the spirit of Magis by continually striving for excellence in faith and learning.

We look forward to seeing some of you on Monday night at 7:00pm in the Kindergarten rooms for our Term 4 Parent meeting. There will be a parent volunteer induction at 6:30pm for any parents who have not completed the induction and would like to help with the upcoming swimming program.

God Bless,

Fiona

SFX Newsletter

High Expectations For All

Week 2, Term 4 · 22 Oct 2026

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