Deputy Principal's Report

Dear Parents,

Farewell (for now) to Pat  

Today we say a temporary goodbye and good luck to our amazing principal Pat. It is a testament to his leadership that he has been asked by MACS to step in as the Interim Principal of St Patrick's. The students, staff & parents of St Patrick's will all benefit from his experience, knowledge and sometimes questionable sense of humour.   No doubt he will leave his mark on the school in the short time that he is there; he has gained the nickname Action Pat for a reason. 

Pat's care for the wellbeing and learning of each student of St Finbar's is genuine.  His strong desire to build the capacity of teachers and encourage them to move into leadership roles has resulted in a strong, cohesive staff team that all work together to support your children. We will miss him, but look forward to having him back in 2024. 

Alice the Musical Wrap-Up

We know that St Finbar's does events well, and this year's production of Alice the Musical is no exception.   We cannot emphasise enough how much work has gone on behind the scenes to make Alice the high-quality production that it was. 

Our amazing Performing Arts teacher Susan Williams has lived and breathed this production for months on end, devoting her weekends and days off to Alice. Likewise, Miss Nonie Kay has given up hundreds of hours of her own time to work on Alice.   These two teachers barely took a lunch break whilst rehearsals were in full swing. They really were the dream team! We are in awe of their ability to bring this show together, working out the logistics of getting 350 students involved -  from our youngest Prep/Year 1 students right up to those senior students who wanted a greater involvement.   

I'm sure you'll agree that the Make Up, Costumes and Props were verging on professional standards.  Annalisa Gourley, Laura Zeeng, Peggy McDonald and Lisa Douglas led these departments, ably assisted by a huge team of staff and parent helpers.  

Enjoy a selection of photos below (thanks to Tania Thompson for these amazing photos). 

Story Dogs

This year St Finbar's has benefitted from Story Dogs.  

We have four wonderful volunteers that come in weekly with their dogs to listen to our students read.   

On Friday 25th August Story Dogs is holding a WOOF for Story Dogs Giving Day. To show our support for Story Dogs we are going to be selling orange Story Dogs ribbons and we are asking each student for a gold coin donation. 

Teacher Professional Development Day 

Tomorrow is a student-free day at St Finbar's.  This is one of our allocated days for teacher professional development. The focus for next week's learning is on the teaching of reading.

We have Mary-Anne Rugg (MACS Learning Consultant) coming to spend the morning session with us and share with us some of the latest research and best practices around the pedagogy of reading. The next session will be training around a new assessment tool that we are introducing at St Finbar's. The final session will be an opportunity for teachers to share and discuss some examples of great practices that they are already using in their classrooms.  

Thank you

Michelle Hill & Steele Anderson

Deputy Principals