Dear Parents, Carers and Friends

The final week of the school term at St Philomena's Moree brought our community together to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, recognise student achievements, test our athletic boundaries, and reflect on our shared mission as a Catholic community. We proudly celebrated NAIDOC Week, engaging deeply with the 2026 national theme, "50 Years of Deadly." This milestone honours five decades of the National NAIDOC Committee amplifying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, celebrating cultural survival, and leading national truth-telling. We commenced our celebrations with our sacred NAIDOC Liturgy, where we reflected on how our cultural journey intertwines with Catholic social teachings. Pope Francis reminds us in his encyclical Laudato si’ that for Indigenous communities, land is not a commodity, but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values. This deep connection to Country and culture was beautifully alive across our week of celebrations.

During the liturgy, our Year 3 to 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Group captivated everyone with a powerful performance of their new dance. This was followed by Year 4, who beautifully sang "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gumtree" in the Gamilaroi language, and our Kindergarten students delighted the audience by singing the colours of the rainbow song, also in Gamilaroi. We also took the opportunity to celebrate the academic, cultural, and community successes of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by presenting our 2026 NAIDOC awards. Throughout the week, high levels of student participation were maintained through a variety of lively lunchtime activities to celebrate NAIDOC Week at school.

On Wednesday evening, 1 July, our school hosted its inaugural NAIDOC Curry Night.

A large number of families gathered around the campfire to share a meal while children played happily together on the playground. Our secondary students showed wonderful leadership and hospitality by helping to prepare and cook the curries. We were deeply privileged to have a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders work alongside our students, guiding them in preparing the curries and making batches of hot Johnny Cakes and Fried Bread. This evening of shared hospitality and fellowship beautifully mirrored the ideals found in Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti, which calls us to form an authentic "culture of encounter" and build social friendship by opening our circles to one another.

This spirit of community and mutual respect was further echoed in our annual NAIDOC Touch Football Tournament held on our home grounds against Moree Secondary College. The competition was highly contested and played with exceptional teamwork, resulting in St Philomena’s triumph in the final and the proud raising of the Munro Shield for 2026.

Also on Wednesday, some of our primary students travelled to Inverell to compete in the Toni Palmer Memorial Shield rugby league gala day. Facing strong opposition from schools across our diocese, the St Philomena's teams displayed outstanding sportsmanship, grit, and teamwork in every match. We congratulate all our primary players who participated, and extend our sincere thanks to the staff and families who travelled to support the teams and make the day such a great success.

Today, our focus shifted to the sporting field for our annual Athletics Carnival. Students from Kindergarten through to Year 10 tested their physical limits across a diverse range of track-and-field events. Furthermore, it was great to watch our youngest primary students also display great energy and sportsmanship during their tabloid sports activities. House spirits remained high throughout the entire day, with students vocally and enthusiastically backing their respective houses, McAuley, Savio, Mercy, and Goretti.

Student reports will be officially released on Compass this afternoon. These documents outline how each student is achieving across their key learning areas this semester.

We strongly encourage parents to use this opportunity to log into Compass and book a time for the upcoming parent-teacher interviews. These meetings provide a vital space for families and teachers to discuss achievements, address challenges, and collaboratively set learning goals for Semester 2.

As we head into the holidays, we must announce a vital safety change for our afternoon dismissal routine starting next term. Currently, primary students who leave our school on walkers towards Apex Park and then cross Edwards Street to meet parents on the playground side of the street will have a change for next term. Those students in the Walkers group will now walk from St Philomena's along the Gwydir Highway towards Edwards Street, and then stop at that corner. Students will have to wait on the St Philomena's side of Edwards Street, and parents will have to cross the street and collect their children. This change has come from some risks being communicated to our school when crossing a large group of students at one time over a street that has no structured crossing point. We have now had to modify this pick-up point, with students being collected by parents on the St Philomena's side of Edwards Street.

Finally, tomorrow marks the beginning of the mid-year school holidays. I wish all of our St Philomena's families a peaceful, happy, and restful winter break. School will resume for all students on Tuesday, 21 July.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support of our school community.

God Bless

Alistair Stewart

Alistair Stewart

Principal

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