Principal's Report
Dear Parents,
I write this as my first newsletter report following my official appointment as Principal of St Finbar's. It is such an honour to be trusted with this role, and to lead St Finbar's into the next stage of its future. The announcement also provides stability and continuity for the entire St Finbar's community. I started my journey at St Finbar's twelve years ago as a Prep teacher, and have held a variety of classroom and leadership roles since then, including five years as Deputy Principal. Throughout this time the students, parents and my colleagues at St Finbar’s have all become very important to me.
Thank you for your many congratulatory words and messages of support, both in person out on the playground and via email. I may not be able to respond individually to you all, but I have read all the emails and are very grateful.
From a day to day perspective, not much will change in the short term, it is business as usual for us. Teaching and learning is our core business and my vision as Principal is to ensure that we are delivering the best education that we can for all our students, catering to both ends of the academic spectrum. There are a couple of initiatives in the pipeline, such as the Principal Maths Challenge which will be open to students from Prep to Year 6.
This is probably a good time to remind the community of our 2024 goals, which is driving much of our work as a leadership team and teaching staff this year.
Priority 1 - Maximising Student Growth
Goal: To enhance learning outcomes of all students by developing a consistent approach to a differentiated curriculum
Priority 2 - Building Staff Capacity
Goal: To implement highly effective teaching strategies, using research-based teaching practices, to ensure that every student is engaged and challenged
To develop the capacity of teachers to dialogue with students about matters of faith
Priority 3 - Student Empowerment
Goal: To empower students to have self-efficacy and agency in their own learning.
Term 2 is shaping up to be a busy term, with a few significant events coming up this term.
Our Year 4 students will receive the sacrament of Eucharist in May, a special occasion for our students as they receive the body and blood of Christ for the first time.
Our Sporting calendar is jam packed this term with our school Cross Country event next Wednesday and Year 5 and 6 interschool sport starting this week. Please see Mrs Thompson's Sports Update page for full details.
Just a reminder that next Thursday is ANZAC Day and we have a school closure day on Friday. Team Kids is running on Friday if you need to use their service. There will be no newsletter next week.
Start of Term Mass
Please note that our start of Term mass will be this Friday at 9:30am. We will not be having an assembly this Friday morning. Christian will still be in the playground with his coffee van tomorrow morning for those of you that would like a coffee before Mass.
Staff Congratulations
Congratulations to our Year 1 teacher Carlie Cochrane who graduated with her Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) on Monday. This was the culmination of years of hard work, and Carlie was able to enjoy a much deserved celebration with her family.
We also had two weddings over the holidays. Congratulations to Laura Zeeng, who married Luke on Saturday and to Emma, who married Marco. From all reports, both brides had a wonderful day celebrating with friends and family.
Uniform
There was a long queue at the Uniform Shop on Monday morning as families rushed to stock up on winter uniform. We have a two week grace period where both summer and uniform is acceptable, but from Monday 29th April all children are expected to be in Winter uniform.
A few reminders about the Winter uniform:
- shirts need to be tucked in
- ties are to be worn with shirts
- shoes should be black, and worn with navy socks or tights
- hair ribbons should be navy blue
Drive Through reminders
Now that we are in Term 2, we remind everyone of the importance of remaining in the car when dropping off or picking up from Drive-Through. We are a bit more understanding in Term 1 with our Prep students, and acknowledge that car seats can be a bit tricky however we aim to keep our Drive-Through moving as quickly as possible and every time a parent gets out of the car it does slow things down.
Running Club
One of the strengths of St Finbar's is our Leadership program, and the commitment that our Year 6 students show to their leadership roles. Two of our students, Angus and Abel, approached us with a proposal to start an early morning running club at St Finbar's. This came to fruition with a series of early morning running sessions attended by about 20 students each time. Well done boys!
Have a wonderful Easter,
Michelle Hill,
Principal