Principal's Report

Dear Families,

I say this every week, but it has been another busy week at St Finbar's with two groups of Preps visiting us on Monday for their first orientation, Prayers in Pyjamas with Year 1 on Tuesday evening, and a big group of Year 3 and 4 students heading off to Cricket Blast tomorrow. We look forward to welcoming the rest of our Prep students on Monday. 

Nominations for P & F 

After four years of tireless effort as our Parents and Friends President, Kate Blake is hanging up her presidential boots. I personally am very grateful for all that Kate has done for our St Finbar's community, especially as I was finding my feet as Principal in that first year. 

This means we are now looking for a new P & F President in 2026, as well as Class Reps for each year level. There is more information on the P & F page of this newsletter, but I will include the link to the Expression of Interest form here https://forms.gle/73UJ2pHu2wqDBz816 

School Advisory Council

We are also seeking one new member of our School Advisory Council for 2026 - 2029. Members generally join for a three-year term, and the time commitment is five meetings throughout the year (Tuesday evenings)

The School Advisory Council:

• Supports the principal with advice on school strategy, mission, and community matters, not on governance or daily operations.
• Works together to promote the school’s Catholic identity, improve the school and engage the community.
• Acts with integrity and in the best interests of the whole school community.

Please reach out to me directly if you would like to express your interest or just ask more about the role. 

Cessation of Operoo in Australia

On September 2nd, we were informed that Operoo will cease operations in Australia at the beginning of 2026. This has an immediate impact on us here at St Finbar's, who use all Operoo for Medical Information and Forms.

Since this affected so many Catholic schools, MACS entered into a contract with NForma as the official replacement for Operoo.  This is a good thing for us as we already use NForma for our roll and reports, and most parents will already have the NForma Parent Portal App on their phone. 

 Details are still being finalised, but we anticipate that you will soon be asked to re-enter all of your children's medical information into NForma. We apologise for the inconvenience of this but it is probably a good opportunity to revisit the information that you provide to us.   Things might get a little messy as we transition from Operoo to NForma but we ask for your patience throughout the process. 

Operoo will provide us with a confirmation certificate once they have destroyed our data in the new year. 

Homework survey

Yesterday, you received an email inviting you to share your views on our Homework Policy at St Finbar's. We have already had 88 responses, so thank you to those who have given your feedback. The survey will be open until the end of next week; please feel free to add your own thoughts.

Christmas Carols

It's still a while away, but Christmas will be here before we know it. Our annual Christmas Carols will be held on Wednesday, 10th December, from 5pm. 

We're changing up the format for this year's carols and hope to have more of a Christmas fair feel to the evening. Most of the festivities will be on the Thomas Sherry playground so we

just need to hope the weather cooperates. More information will follow shortly. 

Robotics in Prep

Today, our Prep students were putting their knowledge of positional language into practice with the Beebots. The Preps needed to use simple coding skills in order to make the Beebot move in various directions. It was wonderful to see them working together, and problem-solving in order to get the Beebot to where it needed to be. 

Take care and God Bless, 

Michelle Hill 

Principal