From the Principal

NAIDOC Celebration

Last week, we celebrated NAIDOC week and the opening of our new Yarning Circle. For our Catholic School, celebrating NAIDOC week is an essential part of our commitment to fostering an inclusive, respectful and culturally rich school environment. We are fortunate to have Aunty Wanda Smith, an Aboriginal elder, at our school two days a week, working with our Aboriginal students culturally. Aunty Wanda was responsible for the organisation of the NAIDOC Week celebrations and for the design and construction of our Yarning Circle. Thank you to Father Victor, who led the School Liturgy and blessed our Yarning Circle. Thank you to all the businesses who generously donated resources and Aunty Wanda who so passionately and tirelessly worked to make this a memorial celebration for our students.

Melinda Tankard-Reist

Last week, we hosted a parent information session on Respectful Relationships for all parents from our Primary Feeder schools and our school hosted by author and psychologist Melinda Tankard Reist and her colleague Dr Marshall Ballantine-Jones. Thank you to the parents who attended the evening. I believe they all found the information enlightening and perhaps alarming. We understand that you are all busy working parents and that the event time may not have been possible; however, Melinda said she will provide the school with further information that we can share with parents in upcoming newsletters. 

Annual School Visit

This week, we will have our Annual School Visit, where approximately 20 Leaders from the Catholic Schools Office will visit the school, speak with our school Executive Team and discuss our School Improvement Plan and direction. They will conduct Learning Walks in some classrooms during the day and look at our new building facilities. Part of the day will be looking at additional support the Catholic Schools Office can offer the school.

The day will focus on our Catholic identity, how student potential is being realised, and the school's future sustainability. We will use various data to inform our responses, including NAPLAN, HSC results, Tell Them From Me survey data and regional statistics from Catholic Schools NSW. 

The purpose of the visits is to celebrate what we do well, look at where we can improve, and plan for the school's future direction.

Veronica Rolfe

Principal