Good afternoon parents, carers and friends of the St Philomena's Learning Community, and welcome to the 2023 academic school year. What a wonderful, exciting and most importantly a positive start we have experienced throughout our first week of term 1.

St Philomena's, our term commenced last Friday, with two days of professional development (learning) with a strategic focus on two key areas of school improvement:

Developing and sustaing strong learning and leadership teams, and
Nurturing and sustaining a positive school culture for learning

These important themes will be the 'golden threads' that will be woven throughout all areas of our professional learning community and underpin our Annual Improvement Plan for the 2023 academic school year. (St Philomena's 2023 Annual Improvement Plan will be shared with our school community over the coming weeks).

Our student population continues to growth into the 2023 academic school year with a student population of 376 in K -10 as at our February census (Primary 260 students & Secondary 116 students). This is a wonderful achievement and an indication of the growing confidience within the community of the overall high quality education provided to our students from Kindergarten to Year 10 at St Philomena's.

It was so wonderful to see the excitement and big smiles on our students faces as they returned to school on Tuesday. I would like to extend a warm welcome to the families of our 43 new Kindergarten students and 41 Year 7 students and hope that their first days in their new classes met all the hype, enthusiasm and expectation.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new staff members for 2023:

Miss Claire Griffith - Year 6 Leader of Learning
Miss Meghann Kerwin - Year 3 Leader of Learning
Mr Dan Church - Secondary Leader of Learning

I know our school community will make Claire, Meghann & Dan welcome and they in turn look forward to meeting you during the Meet & Mingle event next Wednesday 15th February. (Check Compass for further details).

A new initative in our Secondary School for 2023 has seen all Year 7 - 10 students involved in an Orientation Week this week, providing new and existing students with the opportunity to engage with staff (and students) around themes such as:

What it means to be a student at St Philomena's Catholic School
What it means to be an active participant in a Stong & Positive Learning Team
Nurturing and Sustaining a Positive Culuture for Learning - What is my role?
Unpacking our Rules for Living:
- I am Safe
- I am Valued, Respected & Cared for
- I am a Learner

All secondary students were also involved in team builidng/relationship workshops and a retreat facilitated by the Lasallian Youth Ministry. All students in Year 7 have now been provided with their Semester 1, 2023 timetable and diary. All other studnets will receive their timetable on Monday morning before formal classes begin.

Commencing next week, Monday 13th February, we will be closing the Boston Street gates at 9:15 am, as part of a new safeguarding procedure for our school community. Parents wishing to gain entry into the school will need to be done via our new video intercom gate located next to the right of the double gates. Simply press the button, wait for a member of the Office Team to answer, introduce yourself and then wait for the gate to open. The gate will automatically close after approximately 30 seconds. To exit, simply press the call button and a member of staff will open the gate for your to leave. Again, the gate will close after approximately 30 seconds. The introduction of the Video Intercom Entry Gate ensures increased security and protection for our students and staff whilst at school.

I would like to finish by sharing with you the prayer that was used to welcome our secondary students on Monday, as an invitation to encourage a personal relationship with Christ.

Enjoy your weekend and see everyone next week. Don't forget the Meet and Mingle and the P&F AGM on Wednesday.

God Bless

Jamie McDowall

School Prinicipal

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