Principal's Message
As Mother's Day approaches, we want to take a moment to celebrate and honour the incredible mothers, grandmothers, carers and all those who nurture and support our students each and every day.
Your love, guidance and dedication make a lasting difference in the lives of your children and in our Good Shepherd community. Thank you for everything you do, both seen and unseen, to help our students grow, learn and thrive.
Wishing you a joyful and well deserved Mother's Day!
A big thank you to all the parents who supported the Mothers Day stall on Thursday. It was so good to see the joy in our students as they selected very special gifts for their family members.
The next event to celebrate our beautiful mums is the Mothers Day Dinner on Friday 23 May at the Mulgrave Country Club. I encourage you to consider attending as I know it will be a great night to connect with each other. You can find all the details in the Parents and Friends section of the newsletter or click on this link https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1376528
Over the past few weeks the school has certainly been a buzz with many extra curricula activities taking place to support our learning and teaching programs. Many of the experiences are shared in todays newsletter.
Our Year 5 students had a wonderful experience at camp last week and I would like to thank Vanessa Lamanna for leading the camp and all the staff who spent time away from their own families to support our students.
On Saturday our Parents and Friends hosted a sausage sizzle as our school became a polling site for the Federal elections. A big thank you to both the parents and students who gave their time. As communicated this week there will be a sausage sizzle on Tuesday 13 May for all students. The QR code is included in the Parents and Friends report and if you can spare time to support please email gsps.parentsfriends@gmail.com
An important reminder that we have our next School Closure Day on Monday 19 May as staff will be involved in Professional Learning. Camp Australia will be running a program on this day for families interested.
Welcome Pope Leo XIV
Today marks a historical moment in the life of the Church with the election of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo. We offer him our prayers as he begins his sacred ministry, leading the Church with wisdom, humility and love.
Swimming Program
Our School Advisory Council members discussed at our last meeting the importance of implementing a school swimming and water safety program at Good Shepherd that meets the Victorian Curriculum and provides our students with the knowledge and confidence to participate in aquatic activities. I presented to them documentation from Life Saving Victoria, Department of Education and Victorian Catholic Education Authority.
Please keep an eye out for further communication as we work through a process to possibly implement it on a small level later this year if we can secure a booking at a local pool. Then moving into 2026 we plan to look at a whole school approach to school swimming and water safety for our students.
Staffing
We welcome back Kathleen Fahey (LSO) to Good Shepherd next week as she returns after being on parental leave for the past year.
Upcoming events in the month of May
12 May Year 6 Assembly
District Cross Country
13 May P & F Sausage Sizzle
SAC Meeting (5pm)
P & F Meeting (7pm)
14 May Year 4 Incursion
19 May School Closure Day
21 May National Simultaneous Story time
23 May P & F Mothers Day Dinner
26 May Year 5 Assembly
29 May Good Shepherd Feast Day Celebrations
30 May P & F Crazy Sock Day
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Jacqui Marshall
Principal