PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Week 3: Mother's Day Edition

What a special and joy-filled week it has been at St Agnes’ as we celebrated the mothers, grandmothers, aunties and special women who play such an important role in the lives of our students. Across the school, it has been wonderful to see the thoughtful and creative ways our classes have honoured these important relationships. 

A particular highlight was our Mother’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy on Thursday morning. We paid tribute to the wonderful mothers, grandmothers and special women in our community. The morning began with a fantastic breakfast for our guests, generously organised and prepared by our team of dads, superbly led by Lukas Bray.

Our Mother’s Day Liturgy in the church was spectacular! From the opening song by the Preps through to the mythbuster section where we learned about all of the super power strengths the special women in our lives have. The final song involving our entire student group was beautiful. It was the perfect performance to make us reflect on how important a role these women play in our lives. 

A highlight of the morning was the heartfelt speeches delivered by our Year Six students, Charlotte and Noah, who gave us a beautiful personal insight into why their mums are so special. While I have no words to describe how lovely Karen McGoldrich's reflection on motherhood was. While sharing her own journey as a mother, Karen also spoke so warmly about the strength and importance of the bonds shared between the mothers in our own school community. It was a truly lovely reflection.

Mrs Gorski has once again done an incredible job producing another beautiful Mother’s Day celebration. As you can imagine, the amount of work and care that goes into a liturgy like this is enormous. Thank you to all of our staff and students for the time, effort and love they put into making the liturgy such a fitting tribute to our mothers and special women.

Thank you also to all of the mums and special guests who were able to join us for the morning. We hope you thoroughly enjoyed the experience and felt celebrated for the incredibly important role you play in the lives of our children and our community.

Mother’s Day Cookies

I hope all of our mothers enjoyed the ‘Sophie’s Cookies’ shared at our Mother’s Day Breakfast. These were thoughtfully baked and packaged by Sophie in Year 5 as part of her not-for-profit business, with all proceeds generously donated to Berry Street. What an impressive example of initiative, creativity and compassion from one of our students. Thank you, Sophie, for such a kind and meaningful contribution.

MACS Visit

Last week, we were pleased to welcome members of the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) Teaching and Learning team, who visited St Agnes’ to gain a deeper understanding of our approach to teaching and learning. Following our strong 2025 NAPLAN results, the team were keen to explore the practices that continue to drive student growth across the school.

While I was not personally here during the 2025 school year, it is very clear from what I see each day that this success is built on a number of key, consistent practices: the ongoing refinement of explicit instruction, a daily focus on Reading, Writing and Mathematics, strong leadership within classrooms and in planning, and the unwavering dedication of our teachers and LSOs.

Each day, I see the high-quality learning environment our students are part of. Our staff are deeply committed to continually improving their practice, ensuring that every student is supported to make progress. This whole-school commitment to growth and improvement is led exceptionally well by Amanda Baker. Her thoughtful, knowledgeable and highly supportive approach to leadership empowers all staff to build their confidence and capability, ultimately strengthening outcomes for our students.

Over the past few days, we have also received our preliminary 2026 NAPLAN results. I was particularly pleased to see the strong growth demonstrated by our Year Five students, compared to their Year Three results. As a school, we are committed to ensuring every student continues to grow, regardless of their starting point, and these results demonstrate we are meeting that commitment. They are also a further reflection of the consistent, high-quality teaching and learning taking place at St Agnes’.

Cross Country and Winter Sport

Last week we took part in the HOLT District Cross Country, where we took 51 students along, our biggest team we’ve ever taken. Our students did a fantastic job, finishing 2nd overall in the standings.

A special congratulations to Gracelyn who won the 10 year old girls race, going back to back after winning the same race last year. Well done to Estelle and Wilhelm who both finished third in their respective races.

We will send six of our students through to the Beachside Cross Country later in the term.

Over the past two Fridays, our Year 5/6 students have enthusiastically taken part in their winter interschool sport. These afternoons provide a valuable opportunity for students to be active, build teamwork and enjoy playing alongside their classmates, while also representing St Agnes’ against other local Catholic schools. It’s always pleasing to see the connections being formed, particularly as many of our students will continue these relationships into their secondary schooling.

Today I had the pleasure of attending the netball and watching out students interact and represent the school so well. I was also incredibly impressed with Amanda Moloney, who works across our school as an LSO, but had a long history as a netballer of note in her younger years, coach and umpire the teams today. Her gentle care and supportive coaching of the students from both schools was such a plesure to witness. We're so fortunate to have Amanda on our staff.

A sincere thank you to Mr Otto, Mrs Miller, Mrs Gorski and Mrs Moloney for their time, organisation and support in providing these opportunities for our students.

Building Works

2026 is shaping up to be a significant year for St Agnes’ from an infrastructure perspective, as we continue to grow and enhance our learning environment. These developments represent an exciting step forward for our school, supporting both our current students and future growth.

For a more detailed update on the works planned for 2026 and beyond, along with ways you can support these projects, please visit the Building page in this week’s newsletter.

Open Days and School Tours

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we now have two full Prep classes for 2027. What an incredible milestone and celebration for our beautiful school community. It is a wonderful reflection of the outstanding work taking place every day at St Agnes’, and of the strong partnership we share with our families.

This week we also held our final Open Day for families looking to secure places for our 2028 and 2029 cohorts. As is tradition at St Agnes’, our Year Six students proudly lead these tours, offering families a genuine student perspective on what makes St Agnes’ such a special place to learn, grow and belong. I am always incredibly proud of the way our student leaders speak with such warmth, confidence and authenticity about their school. They are a true selling point of our school.

Today, I received the most beautiful email from a family who attended Wednesday’s tour. It is such a privilege to be able to share the following correspondence with our community.

Good morning,

We attended a tour of St Agnes' on Wednesday this week and wanted to send a quick email to say how impressed we were with our two Grade 6 tour guides. I believe their names were Eddie and Natalie, although apologies if I have that wrong.

They were very informative and spoke so positively about the school, but we especially wanted to acknowledge how polite and courteous they were throughout the tour. They consistently opened doors, greeted everyone warmly, and represented the school exceptionally well.

Please pass on our thanks and compliments to them.

ANZAC Day

Congratulations to our school captains Niamh and Leo for the way in which they represented the school at the Anzac Day Dawn Service. They spoke so well at the event and I have lost count of the number of parents who have shared with me what a superb job they did. 

Mother’s Day Stall

A big thank you to our wonderful Mother’s Day Stall helpers: Lauren, Dharshi, Emily, Sarah, Jenny and Tennille for giving their time to help make the stall such a special experience for our students. The children absolutely love the opportunity to thoughtfully choose a special gift for the important women in their lives, and it was lovely to see the excitement and care they put into their selections. We are incredibly grateful for the support of our parent community in helping create these special memories.

Mother’s Day Cocktail Party

Thank you once again to our P&F for the Mother’s Day Cocktail Party, led by Co-Presidents Bree Walsh and Sarah Gardner-Bibby. Thank you also to Ivy Rose Signature Beauty and Bare Laser and Skin for sponsoring the event. See below, some happy snaps from the night!

Mother’s Day Wrapping Competition

Recently, Westfield Southland held a Mother’s Day wrapping paper design competition, inviting children to create their own unique designs. Under the guidance of Mrs Murdoch, a number of our students enthusiastically took part in this wonderful opportunity.

We were absolutely delighted to hear that Sophie in Year 5 was selected as the winner. Her beautiful design has now been printed and used as official wrapping paper in the centre for Mother’s Day, what a fantastic achievement. Congratulations, Sophie! Many of the other designs are actually on display at Southland shopping centre.

A sincere thank you also to Gemma Wieloch and Jen Bray, who generously volunteered their time at Southland, wrapping gifts to raise funds for our P&F. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a supportive and generous parent community, always willing to give their time to support our school.

Year 5/6 NGV Excursion

This week our senior students boarded the train and headed into the city to experience an artistic excursion. The students visited the ‘Mother’ exhibition at the Ian Potter Centre. A wonderful celebration of motherhood across history. The students had a wonderful time exploring the different artworks, as well as a few other iconic Melbourne attractions on their journey. This is a great inspiration for our art show later in the year. Thank you to Mrs Murdoch for organising this excellent opportunity for our students.

Transition to Winter Uniform

Our students are looking very smart in their winter uniforms. The weather has timed it’s change to the colder temperatures to perfection. All students are now expected to be in full winter uniform. Please see below, an outline of winter uniform items. A friendly reminder that the maroon spray jacket is to be worn over the top of the school jumper, not instead of.

School Illness

As we move into the cooler months, we are beginning to see an increase in illness across the community. A gentle reminder that if your child is unwell with any contagious illness, they should remain at home and only return once they have been symptom-free for at least 24 hours.

This small but important step helps minimise the spread of illness and supports the health and wellbeing of all students and staff. We sincerely appreciate your support in keeping our school a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

P&F Meeting

Our next meeting will be on the 19th of May, beginning at 7:30pm. We hope to see as many of our P&F and parent reps in attendance as possible.

Friday Night Lights

What a wonderful experience for George and Kilian on the ANZAC Eve game who got the opportunity to run out and play on the MCG in front of more than 80,000 supporters. The boys loved their experience. One day we might see them both oput there for the main game!

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Mother’s Day this Sunday, spent with family and friends. Thank you to our community for the warm engagement and support shown across our recent Mother’s Day celebrations. A particularly large thank you to all those who volunteered and donated to our celebrations. It has been a pleasure to see so many opportunities for connection and shared celebration. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Tom