Principal's Report

Dear St FX Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 3! It will be a quieter week for the families of our Year 6 students as the students head down to Canberra for their week-long Year 6 Excursion.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander State Conference

Last week, we had six of our Stage 3 students participate in a cultural dance at Myall Creek for approximately 500 delegates from across NSW and interstate, who came to take part in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander State Conference. This conference is held every three years and is situated in a different diocese each time. At the last conference, Armidale was awarded the honour of hosting the 2024 State Conference. As part of this year’s conference, delegates were transported from Tamworth to Myall Creek to watch students from various diocesan schools take part in a cultural dance or reflection on the Myall Creek Massacre. Our six students - Hailem, Dominic, Fletcher, Ezrah, Eden and Lara - all participated in the dance group which was a brilliant performance after months of planning and practice.  Fletcher and his younger sister Jamelia were featured in a video recital of the Aboriginal Our Father prayer, alongside several other students from around NSW.  This was shown to all the delegates at the conference.  Each child said a line of the prayer from their own tribal country. I was beaming with pride as I sat with my colleagues from across the Armidale Catholic Schools watching our students perform at such a culturally-significant event, and doing so with such honour. All the children should be very proud of their involvement in this year’s conference.

Kindergarten Transition Sessions

This fortnight marks the end of our Kindergarten Transition Program for our 2025 cohort. We had our second-last session today, and will be celebrating our final session next Monday with a Graduation Ceremony at 12:30pm. Prior to the Graduation Ceremony, parents of the Transition students are invited to the school for the final Parent Information Session at 12pm in the St Francis Xavier’s Library. We look forward to seeing all the transition families here next week, but not only that, being able to officially welcome them to our beautiful school in the 2025 school year. 

High School Transition

Speaking of transitions, we have had several of our Year 6 students attending their own transition programs as they prepare to venture off to High School. Both Narrabri High School and St Mary’s College, Gunnedah have both commenced their transition sessions, with further sessions planned across the rest of this term.

Year 6 Excursion

As mentioned in the introduction, our Year 6 students are heading off to the nation’s capital today, accompanied by Mrs McInnes, Mrs Nott, Miss Squire and me! On this year’s excursion, we also welcome two Year 6 students and a staff member (Miss Langfield - a familiar face to St Francis Xavier’s!) from Sacred Heart, Boggabri, who are joining us to share in the Canberra experience. Across the week, students will be visiting such places as Questacon, Parliament House, the Royal Australian Mint, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the Australian War Memorial, just to name a few. The excursion concludes on Friday 1st November, and will be arriving back to school at approximately 6:00pm that evening.

I hope you all have a wonderful fortnight. I look forward to seeing you upon my return from Canberra! 

Kind regards, 

Mal Frend