School News

Dear parents, families and friends,

This will be the final newsletter for 2025. As you can see, the banner for this page in this edition is our Year 6 Graduating Class of 2025. We have come to the end of a very busy, exciting and eventful year. For our Year 6 Graduating Students, they have come to the end of the primary school journey. For many of these students, they have been with us for 7 years. It is almost important to remember that 2 of these years, Year 1 in 2020 and Year 2 in 2021 were Covid years with these students spending most of this time in lockdown and remote learning. On Monday evening we will farewell these students. We wish them all the very best as they begin the next chapter in their lives as they journey through their secondary school years.

As the year draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of some of the changes that will happen for 2026. 

Staffing

Classroom Teachers

Prep - Marissa Balbuziente

Grade 1/2 M - Alex Mathewson

Grade 1/2 RS - Kristen Re (4 days) and Tiziana Scimone (1 day)

Grade 3/4 L - Natalie Librizzi

Grade 3/4 S - Clare Sa (New staff member for 2026)

Grade 5/6 JM - Jess Brennan (4 days) and Bill Manoleras (1 day)

Grade 5/6 PJ - Peter Shorthouse (3 days) and Olivia Jones (2days)

Specialist Subject Teachers

Arts - Barbara Ady and Tiziana Scimone

Italian - Natalina Paglianiti

Library - Olivia Jones

Health & Physical Education - Bill Manoleras

Kitchen Garden - Kristen Re

SEL (Social Emotional Learning) - Jess Brennan

Curriculum Coordinators

English - Alex Mathewson

Mathematics - Dina Mazzeo

Digital Technology - Natalie Librizzi

Sacraments and Liturgy - Marissa Balbuziente

Learning Support Officers (LSOs)

Caroline Manuell

Sue-Ellen Grguric

Taylah Brennan

James Pearce

Library Assistant  - Kat Kats

Counsellor - Tara Brennan

Bursar - Catherine Santillo

School Leadership Team

Principal - Matthew Stead

Deputy Principal - Dina Mazzeo

Learning Diversity Leader - Natalina Paglianiti

NCCD Team

Principal - Matthew Stead

Deputy Principal - Dina Mazzeo

Learning Diversity Leader - Natalina Paglianiti

Student Wellbeing Team

Natalina Paglianiti

Tara Brennan

Jess Brennan

Milan Bulic will be taking leave for 2026 to travel and then complete further studies in specialist education. We wish him all the very best in his studies next year. We thank Milan for his dedication and hard work over the past three years in Year 1/2.

We welcome Clare Sa to our school community. Clare is a second year graduate teacher who has spent the past year working in Sydney. She comes highly recommended by her past employers and has also completed a Masters in Education - Intervention. Many parents took the opportunity to make Clare feel very welcome when they introduced themselves to her on Step Up Day on Tuesday.

Dina Mazzeo will return to her role as full time Deputy Principal, providing essential support for me in the daily running of the school, as well as supporting teachers in their role of facilitating Learning & Teaching and also supporting students and families whenever needed. Besides being an amazing and extremely hard working teacher, Dina is also a great school leader providing guidance and mentoring to all our staff. I thank Dina for all she has done this year, especially for all the support she provides me on a daily basis.

I also take this opportunity to thank Natalina Paglianiti for all the amazing work she does in her role as Learning Diversity Leader and Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader. All the Program Support Group (PSG) meetings, Personal Learning Plans (PLP), visits from and contact with support services either in person, on the phone or via email would not happen effectively without Natalina coordinating and organising all this for the benefit of our students.

I also need to thank Catherine Santillo for all of her tireless work running the front of house for the school. Answering phone calls, answering the door, sending and receiving emails, collecting school fees, paying bills etc, etc, etc. All that Catherine does, allows us to focusing on teaching and learning.

Curriculum Changes

There will be no STEM next year due to not having the dedicated space to set up ongoing projects and conduct experiments. STEM will return in 2027. Library lessons will replace STEM as part of the specialist subjects rotations for 2026.

Specialist subjects will also move to Wednesday and Thursday.

Kingsville Community Carols

Last week about 15 students from the Monday Music Lessons represented our school at the Kingsville Carols. They performed amazingly, being the only school to provide both singing and live music. A very big thank you to Matthew Rich for organising the students and rehearsing with them over the past few weeks.

The following night, all of the music lessons students had their end of year concert. It was wonderful to see how much they have learnt this year. Not only are they learning to read music and play an instrument, they are also learning to play together as band in harmony and to perform in public on stage.

Playground Upgrades

New mulch (softfall) has been added to the senior adventure playground, bringing it to safe standards for the students. The sand in both sandpits has also been topped up.

Upcoming Events

• Monday 15th December, 6pm to 9pm - Year 6 2025 Graduation
• Tuesday 16th December, 10am to 2pm - Whole School Fun Day
• Tuesday 16th December, 3.00pm to 3.15pm - Year 6 Guard of Honour and End of School Year Dismissal

I wish all our families a very Merry and Holy Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with joy and laughter. May the summer holidays been restful and safe.

Matthew Stead

Principal