Dear Colleagues,

As we near the end of the 2024 school year, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work and enthusiasm in supporting our young people to realise a hope-filled future. Together, we have achieved so many great things in 2024 including:

Our theme ‘Pray with Hope’ clearly focused on our Christ-centred learning community. More staff and students engaging in faith formation activities. Our wonderful Masses to celebrate Catholic Schools Week.
Co-hosting the CSNSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Conference including the Message Stick journey across our Diocese and the wonderful participation of our students.
Our outstanding results, including NAPLAN, indicating that more of our students are reading, writing and able to work mathematically ensuring they have skills for improved life outcomes.
The rebrand of Armidale Catholic Schools incorporating our strong Vision and Mission of our Diocese.

These are just a few key achievements this year and no doubt you can think of many more at the classroom, school and system level. Thank you for your passion and dedication.

We will farewell staff members across ACS at the end of the year, some through retirement and others through new opportunities. I want to thank each of you for your contribution to Catholic education. Many of our staff retiring have dedicated their lives to our schools with over 30 years of service. Thank you for your service and I wish you all the best.

During this Advent season, as we prepare for the celebration of Christmas, we are reminded of the profound gift of God's love in the birth of Jesus Christ. During this time, I hope you take some time to reflect on the values that unite us as a faith-filled community, hope, peace, joy, and love. We are in a very privileged position as staff in our Catholic schools and office to nurture the faith and hope of our young people and their families. May the light of Christ inspire us all to share His love with others during this holy season.

I wish you all a happy and holy Christmas. I hope you get some time to reflect and renew during the holidays and I wish you many blessings.

Congratulations - Katie Daley

Katie Daley from St Nicholas Primary School has successfully completed Module 2 for Lead Teacher. She addressed all 12 nominated descriptors. The feedback stated that overall, the module showed evidence-informed practice and effective leadership of professional learning. The documentary evidence in the module demonstrated that the applicant shares effective practice with colleagues and applies knowledge about how students/children learn. The module also demonstrated a strong connection between evidence-informed practice, data-driven decision-making, and student/child growth.

Katie will complete her site visit at St Nicholas next year in Term 1. Once she has done so, she will be accredited as a Lead Teacher. Congratulations, Katie. This is a fantastic achievement and so well deserved!

Christmas is traditionally a time when we focus on buying gifts, writing Christmas cards, and making sure everything is ready for a day spent with loved ones. Yet, as we prepare for Christmas, we are also given a wonderful opportunity to look beyond the material gifts we

give, and instead embrace the chance we have each and every day to share the gift of our presence. In simple ways, we can touch the lives of others—through our interactions in the classroom, on the playground, with a letter, a visit, a phone call, a text message, or a conversation. These small gestures can help warm and transform someone else’s life. We might never fully know the impact that a smile or an unexpected text could have on someone having a tough day.

If we look to the example of Jesus, we see that He rarely gave material gifts. Instead, He offered His personal presence and gifts such as self-belief, peace of mind, compassion, forgiveness, dignity, and justice— things that any one of us can offer to others. Yet, in the modern Christmas rush, sharing our presence rather than presents can feel like a difficult task when we are so busy. At times, we become like the innkeeper, indirectly saying, “There’s no room” to open our hearts to the gift of personal presence for those who might need us.

If we take a moment to reflect this Christmas season, we are invited to consider whether our hearts and lives are too full for Christ to find a place. To have Christ in our lives and to truly put Him back into Christmas, we must create time for Him—time for those in need, time for hospitality, time for celebration, and time for prayer. It also means making room for the unexpected people we encounter who might be in need. More than two thousand years ago, the innkeeper missed the opportunity to welcome the stranger. Today, the itinerant strangers still knock at our door. Perhaps they need our smile, our comforting words, our praise, or our thanks. Maybe they just need us to listen and show

love as our first gift to them.

Without a doubt, this Christmas we will have opportunities to create room in the inn of our hearts—if only we look hard enough.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Armidale Catholic Schools throughout the year, whether as a parent, grandparent, teacher, staff in our schools and office, Parish Priest, consultant, someone working in administration, the library, or a member of a school committee.

Wishing you a peaceful, safe, and joyful Christmas season.

Peter L Maher

Chairman Armidale Catholic Schools.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education News

ACS Diocese Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Education Committee

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