Principal's Report

Dear families,

This morning I heard on the ABC news that Australia is expecting a national shortage of teachers by the start of 2026 of over 4000 teaching places. The teacher shortage is a real thing. I am pleased to announce that I have secured two skilled and experienced teachers for St Brigid’s in 2025 and I am in discussions with another. I expect to have a full staffing contingent for the start of 2025. However, we will be stretched in Term 4 of this year as Luke Werner departs for a non-teaching role in the Dept of Ed, Victoria McCann begins maternity leave, another two staff members have extended their medical leave and a planned Long Service Leave absence. You may have seen our advertisement in the Weekly Advertiser and online for more staff.

To address this and to minimise disruption to the students’ learning, Fiona Friberg will pick up a Year 7 English class in week 10 of this term for the remainder of the year and we will revert back to two classes in Year 9 English (as we were in Semester 1). I will teach Fiona’s Year 9 RE classes in addition to my VCE Accounting class.

Yesterday I had a site meeting with the builders and architects to discuss the progress of our refurbishments. The scheduled completion date for Stage 1 – the student toilets, new Foods kitchen and student café – is 25 April 2025. This will certainly provide our students with a comfortable and welcoming setting. With the current demolition, there will be some asbestos removal occurring in the first week of the holidays and all members of the St B’s community are asked to stay away from the school during this time.

We have recently analysed our network and wifi network and as a result, I have approved a major upgrade to our network which will occur at the beginning of Term 4.

As a community we will celebrate Sr Jacinta Rice’s 90th Birthday on September 16 at 12:30pm at our final assembly for the term. All members of our community are welcome to attend as we close out the term.

Stay safe

Gerard Raven