Principal's Welcome
Carmela D'Amato (Principal)
Dear Families,
Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome back. Although it was an amazing 6 weeks away, I am happy to be home back to my boys and back to our SoGS community. The most asked question these last two weeks has been, ‘What was the most memorable part?” and I honestly have to say that Assisi has left a lasting impression on me. The calmness I felt, amongst an incredibly busy period, truly surprised me. The basilica of St Francis was truly a sight to behold as was St Clare’s. I was so happy to have attended mass at 5.30pm with my friends who I met at St Clare’s as a graduate so many years ago. Being able to visit Blessed Carlo Acutis was also a moving experience and left me wanting to know about his story and the impact he has had on young adults and their connection to their faith. We had the opportunity to visit many churches whilst overseas, all as beautiful as each other and many prayers were said for our staff, students and families.
I would like to thank the staff for the support they gave to each other and students during my absence. In particular a very big thank-you to Jemma McVeigh for stepping in as Acting Principal during my absence. Her leadership has been amazing and we are all blessed to have her working alongside us. Also a big thank you to Caith Malone for stepping in as acting deputy. Together their leadership qualities shone through!
Term 4 is shaping up to be an exciting one with many excursions already underway and many more to come. The school is starting to look absolutely amazing with all the artwork that has been prepared by the students. Mrs Garro and the specialist team have been busy creating what will be a magnificent display of ‘THE ARTS’ at our school. Gates will open at 5:30pm and the gallery will remain open until 7:30pm. For anyone wanting to be part of the official opening, we will be gathering on the Tiger Turf at 5:30pm otherwise, feel free to come anytime during those two hours. There will be an opportunity to purchase coffee, gelato and food as we will have two vans available as well as some traditional Italian music playing. We can’t wait for ‘THE ARTS’ celebration!
In 2024 we will be forming a new Parents and Friends Committee and we will be asking for our community members to apply to be part of this committee. MACS has put out some general guidelines of how the P&F runs and we will develop further protocols as a school. Please keep an eye out for further information regarding this opportunity to be part of an inclusive, welcoming committee in 2024. Thank-you to our Community Liaison team for all their hard work this year.
Last term we asked for expressions of interest from parents to be part of a newly formed Parish Schools Advisory Council. Thank-you to those parents that sent through their expression of interest. In collaboration with Father Dishan, we will be going through these expressions and we will then let families know.
On Thursday 26th October the leadership team will be working offsite to forward plan learning opportunities for staff, students and families as part of our ongoing School Improvement Plan. This year we have focused on professional learning based on the Inquiry Approach to learning where we continue to provide opportunities to foster curiosity, independence and growth for all. Our teachers have also been involved in data chats with our numeracy and literacy leaders to ensure that data collected is accurate, timely and reported on accurately. We continue to tighten these processes and procedures so that students continue to experience growth. I look forward to sharing our planning with our community in the weeks to come. We have also been working on our formal report structure and have investigated ways we can improve this document so that information is also clear and accurate. Thank-you to Daniel Cook for stepping in as Acting Principal for the day on Thursday.
Lastly, we would like to ask for some feedback around our NEWSLETTER. At the moment we can track how many times our newsletter is being read and we would like to see what is working well but would also like to hear how it could be even better. We would truly appreciate it if you could fill in this anonymous survey regarding our newsletter so that we can make some informed decisions about the frequency of the newsletter, the timing, what sections we should continue to include, what could be removed etc. we will keep the survey open for two weeks and wills send out reminders during this time. Thanking you in advance for your assistance!
Have a wonderful week,
Carmela D'Amato
School of the Good Shepherd
Address: 88 South Circular Rd, Gladstone Park 3043
Telephone: 9338 7686
School Office hours: 8:30am- 4pm