Our great start to 2024 continues

Lent 2024

Today is the beginning of the season of Lent. We began our day today with a wonderful Ash Wednesday service in each house led by their SRC members. It highlighted the importance of Lent as well as launching our Caritas fundraising for the period leading up to the most important time in the church year, Easter.

I would like to congratulate Mr Nejman and the SRC members from Years 11 and 12 who lead each house liturgy. They did wonderfully well.

To assist with making it easier to donate we have included an item on our online canteen and cafe square system where you can purchase through multiples of 50c. If every student donates $1.00 per week we reach our target of $5000.

In reflecting on the season Lent, I’d like to share this reflection with you from Fr Kevin Walsh, a retired parish priest of a former parish of mine;

“The ‘renewal’ Season of Lent begins on this day, and it goes on for about 40 days. It is a prime preparation time for the Celebration of the Paschal Mystery at Easter.

The word Lent comes from a mixture of old English and Dutch, meaning ‘Springtime.’ For us Down Under in Australia, its really moving into Autumn. However, this does not matter, what is important, is what we should do to be more wholesome followers of Jesus.

In short, for us and all Christians, Lent is a time of personal and communal renewal.

To put it in modern day terms, it’s our ‘Fitness First’ within our spirituality. Crowds of people are hooked on ‘fitness’ and that is incredibly good; this is the time to be hooked on interior renewal, through personal reflection and spiritual exercises.

The treadmill is walking along with the Lord, while listening to his invitations for ‘change’ in us. Our desire to exercise will make the way for us to respond to Jesus through his Word. Any type of exercise only happens if we want to do it! Reading about it won’t make the ‘change.’ We must be people of action in this renewal process.

Our fitness first will be nourished by our Care and outreach to those who need sustenance. It is also energized by our alertness in looking for the Saving hand of God in Daily living. It all has the ‘power’ to change us and become more insightful to God’s presence around us. Hence, we will need to make time for our personal appraisal, meditation and prayer. That’s the hard bit! Our fitness first will be strengthened by our Fasting! Fasting from food? Personal self-denial? Maybe! Let’s conclude with what Pope Francis suggests.”

Open Night

I have been visiting our Catholic feeder schools both in Wagga Wagga and the broader region. I am very grateful to these schools for allowing us to meet with their students to talk about their high school. My message is in three parts, that Kildare is their school, that we have an Open Night and all are welcome and thirdly about why Kildare is a great school for them.

Please see the ad in this newsletter for more details about our Open Night. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

College Social Media Channels

Many of you are already engaging with our social media. We find this a very useful way of day by day getting good news stories out there. Please feel free to search for us in Facebook and LinkedIn and keep checking in.

Compass is our primary source of communication of important school information to you. This is also supported by email communication.

Please utilise the Compass app on your phone. Download through here

Uniform.

We are grateful to the many students who are doing the right thing and wearing the right uniform on the right day. It is important to firstly highlight the many students who get it right every day in so many ways. Thank you to those families too who are supporting the college by ensuring this occurs.

The following shows what is to be worn on which days of the week.

Therefore as one can clearly see all students are in Academic uniform on Monday and Thursday. Parents will receive a Compass notification from home group coaches if incorrect uniform is worn. Please engage positively in support of this.

Further if a student persists then either it is about an issue at home re uniform or it is about defiance which is a wholly different issue.

If is about an issue at home then I have asked home group coaches to refer the issue to the student’s Academic Care and Wellbeing Coordinator and we will reach out to families to assist. We are here to help.

Students who are acting against our values by defiance of course will be accountable. This will impact on whether a student can take part in co-curricular activities such as sport and performing arts. If a student won't cooperate they won't be rewarded. We need your support with this important life learning. Interestingly and perhaps ironically those very same students who won't comply with a uniform expectation will readily do so in their part time workplace.

Thank you for your support in this.

Swimming Carnival

We look forward to a terrific swimming carnival, tomorrow at 4.00 pm at the Oasis Aquatic Centre. Our senior SRC are working with their houses to make this a really engaging event. We need parent support please, by ensuring your daughter/son attends and stays until the end. This is an important community event for all to commit to, and we look forward to your support of this event.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the college.

Student Attendance

What if my child has to be away from school?

On occasion, your child may need to be absent from school. Justified reasons for student absences may include:

being sick, or having an infectious disease
having an unavoidable medical appointment
being required to attend a recognised religious holiday
exceptional or urgent family circumstance (e.g. attending a funeral)

Following an absence from school you must ensure that within 7 days you provide your child’s school with a verbal or written explanation for the absence. This can be via Compass or by phone, email or in written form. Parents will receive a Compass notification with a link for parents to provide this information in Compass.

Principals may decline to accept an explanation that you have provided if they do not believe the absence is in the best interest of your child. In these circumstances your child’s absence would be recorded as unjustified. When this happens the principal will discuss their decision with you and the reasons why.

Principals may request medical certificates or other documentation when frequent or long term absences are explained as being due to illness. Principals may also seek parental permission to speak with medical specialists to obtain information to collaboratively develop a health care plan to support your child. If the request is denied, the principal can record the absences as unjustified.

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