Dear Parents,

Welcome to Term 3!

As always, we’ve hit the ground running at St Francis Xavier, with a vibrant start to the term and many exciting initiatives already underway.

NAPLAN Results – A Testament to Excellence

Last week, our Year 3 and Year 5 families received their long-awaited NAPLAN results. We were delighted to see our students once again perform strongly across all five domains—Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation, and Numeracy. These results are a reflection of the high expectations we set for all learners, combined with the unwavering dedication and care our teachers show every day. Our teaching team is now analysing the data to ensure we continue to support and extend every student across all year levels.

Feast of St Joachim & St Anne – A Celebration of Grandparents

What a joyful occasion it was to welcome so many grandparents to our school last week. The prayer service beautifully honoured the role of grandparents and great-grandparents in our students’ lives. It was especially heart-warming to see many of them join in the fun of our “100 Days of Kindergarten” celebrations—though it may have been closer to 105 days! A sincere thank you to all staff who arrived early and helped ensure the morning was memorable and ran smoothly, as always, in true St Francis Xavier fashion.

Parent Information Session – Monday 5 August

Our Term 3 Parent Information Session will take place on Monday 5 August in the Year 6 classrooms. Mrs Scullion and I will share insights into our recent progress, including our NAPLAN results and broader school initiatives.

Mrs Girgenti will also present information about our Peaceful Kids program and outline our pastoral care and wellbeing priorities.

I’ll be available to answer any questions you may have, and we welcome your feedback on all aspects of school life.

Parent Survey – We Want to Hear from You

On Monday we are releasing a short parent survey to gather your feedback. We plan to issue

brief surveys each term to ensure all parents have regular opportunities to share their thoughts and contribute to our ongoing school improvement. I will speak more about the survey on Monday night.

Mission, Vision and Values – Shaping the Next Chapter

In honouring our school’s 95th anniversary, the leadership team and staff have been

working on refreshing our mission and vision, shaped in part by your feedback at our last session. We now invite you to suggest a new school value to accompany this work. I will also be meeting with our SRC students to gather their insights and ideas. We are hoping to relaunch our Mission, Vision and Values at a special prayer service on St Ursula’s Feast Day Tuesday 21 October.

School Readiness Program Begins

Our School Readiness Program for 2025 Kindergarten students begins tomorrow and will run fortnightly on Fridays from 9:15–10:15am. Last year’s program was a tremendous success, and we are excited to welcome our new families and support our youngest learners in making a confident and joyful transition to school.

Public Speaking Competition

The school has been buzzing with energy as students take part in our annual public speaking competition. Today we hosted the Stage Finals in the hall, with adjudicators from St Vincent’s and special guest Mary Anne Thorne, Education & Research Manager from Sydney Catholic Schools. Congratulations to all our finalists and stage winners—you continue to make us proud!

Thank you to Mr Criniti for his organisation.

Congratulation to our winners :

Stage 1 - Nathalie Barrero

Stage 2 - Oliver Barrero

Stage 3 - Sofia Micalizzi

Health & Wellbeing – Keeping Our School Community Safe

A reminder that if your child is feeling unwell, please keep them home until they have fully recovered. This helps keep our school community healthy and safe for all.

Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support and partnership.

We look forward to seeing many of you on Monday evening.

Stay dry this weekend

Brian

School News

Cheerleading - Montana Carrozza