Principal's Report

Dear St FX Parents and Carers,

Annual Improvement Plan

Each year our school creates an Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) which details goals for our staff, students and community to work towards embedding or improving. These goals live under one of three headings - ‘CHRIST CENTRED INCLUSIVE LEARNING COMMUNITIES -STRONG TEAMS THAT ENHANCE TEACHING AND LEARNING-EXCELLENCE IN STEWARDSHIP AND GOVERNANCE. These goals are created based on staff and student feedback. Mrs Katie Hanes and Mr Damian Roff from the Armidale Catholic Schools Office visited our school to discuss these ongoing plans and this was a tremendously affirming process. It became evident we have identified similar visions for our schools in the Armidale Diocese which will also be measured against similar metrics. IN other words…we’re on the right track to making some great improvements in well being, academics and spiritually!

Parents and Friends

Our Parents and Friends Committee (affectionately known as the P & F) provided a social BBQ recently at school. The evening was a great chance to get to know new families and welcome everyone back to school life. The sausages were delicious, the fizzy drink was cold and the music was groovy as the evening ended with plenty of smiles and full bellies. Thank you to our P & F committee who work tirelessly behind the scenes to provide these social activities.

If you would like to be a part of the P & F committee please contact Mel O’Connor our president or make yourself known to the school. Meetings are once a term for no longer than an hour. There will be a zoom link made available via the Compass APP if families would like to attend the meeting but find it challenging to commit. If you would like to join the meeting Wednesday 19th March at 5:30pm please feel free to come to the staffroom at this time or join via Zoom.

STARBUCKS

Starbucks has become very popular at our school and works hand in hand with our Living Well and Learning Well Framework. For those of you who are familiar with Baird Bucks and Frend Bucks, the process for receiving a STARBUCK is the same. Students who are seen Living Well and Learning Well receive a raffle ticket from their classroom teacher or any member of staff. This raffle ticket goes into their class raffle ticket box and many are collected over the week. Each Friday I visit each classroom with a prize box and draw out a lucky winner. The winner of the raffle in each class receives a STARBUCK certificate which the student keeps and brings home along with a prize from the prize box. The certificate is not redeemable at the canteen but rather an acknowledgement and “discussion starter” for families. Congratulations to all our winners so far - and to all the students who have received a raffle ticket!

NAPLAN dates

Across the next two weeks, students in Years 3 and 5 will be undertaking four NAPLAN assessments. The schedule for the assessments has been sent to our families via compass. 

If your child is absent for one of these assessments, there is only a small window of opportunity of a couple of days for them to complete the assessment, particularly the writing assessment. If you would like more information, please contact the school about this. 

St Francis Xavier's Religious Life

Ash Wednesday Mass was celebrated as a whole school along with our parishioners last Wednesday  5th March. Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and prayer with a clear message that it is time to reconcile. 

Next Monday, the 17th March, St Francis Xavier's staff and students will be attending a liturgy under the cola at 10:00am to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. We will also celebrate St Joseph’s day at 10:00am on Thursday 20th March. All families and friends are invited to attend these celebrations with our staff and students. For the cost of a gold coin, and in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, students are invited to wear green on Monday, with all money collected contributing to our Lenten almsgiving for Project Compassion. Thank you to Rhonda McInnes who is coordinating our Masses and fundraising. 

140 years

Our beautiful school has a birthday coming up - we are 140 years young in 2025! Celebrations are being planned but until then…

St Francis Xavier’s School was founded in 1885 by three Sisters of St Joseph. These three Sisters, filled with the spirit of their founder, Mary MacKillop, began their service in Narrabri by starting the first Catholic school with an enrolment of 35 students. In 1889, the Sisters of Mercy established a community in Narrabri and took over the teaching in the school which had grown to approximately 100 students. At the time, the convent was a weatherboard structure that was also used as the school. As the number of pupils increased, a block of land opposite the convent was purchased and a new school was opened in 1897.

A new convent for the sisters was built in 1927, which still stands next to our present school and is proudly seen by the community as a fine architectural contribution to the town. The Sisters of Mercy remained at St Francis Xavier’s for 81 years. In 1970, the Sisters of St Joseph returned to Narrabri and in 1975 the present school was erected. In 2001 three extra classrooms were built and the administration and staffroom were extended. The Sisters remained until December 2001 after which, the first lay Principal was appointed to the school.

Sport

Congratulations to all our swimmers who represented St Francis Xavier’s at Gunnedah. There are many fantastic stories emerging such as personal best times, individual swimmers going on to Polding trials and our very own junior girl relay qualifying too! Please see the Sport Report in this week’s edition for further details. Thank you to Jess Craig and Janelle Nehrkorn for supervising our team of superstars!

Our Cross Country is coming up and rain is looming! We’ll keep everyone posted if the school has to postpone, as many would be aware the Winter Trials have also been postponed due to rain.

May God bless you,

Mrs Michelle O’Connor

Principal