PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Last week we had a wonderful Induction Mass with students from Years 5 to 10 present at Sacred Heart Church. We also had our Kinder students start. On Friday we had our census and we have 542 students enrolled for 2023. This is an increase from 2022. We also had 20 visitors on Tuesday from Catholic Schools Armidale who did learning walks around our school. We received many affirmations regarding the calmness of our classrooms and how enthusiastic our students were about their learning. It was great for our staff and students to receive this positive feedback so early in the year.

Congratulations

To Julian Collins (Year 6) selected in the Polding Cricket Team.

To our school for their generosity towards the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal. We received a letter of thanks for our very generous donation of $2000 towards our community plus our fantastic Christmas hamper donations. Thank you for supporting this initiative!

Best Wishes...

To our students for the Swimming Carnival this Wednesday. 

Communication

In last week's newsletter, both Primary and Secondary teacher email addresses were listed. This is the best way to contact your class teacher. You are able to use your usual method of emailing or you can use Compass. 

When using the Compass App go to the three horizontal lines (hamburger) a=menu on the top left-hand side. Select the "Open in Browser" option. Below the child's photo, select a teacher and beneath the name is a link to "email teacher".

Class teachers will also be sending group messages through Compass. It is crucial that families have Compass working as it is our key form of communication. Please contact the Front Office if you need assistance logging in to COMPASS. Sorry, there has been a delay in our Family Handbook, hopefully, it will be available in Week 5.

Please Consent via COMPASS

• Media Permission Consent
• Computer and IT Code of Conduct

In the coming weeks, we will be developing another online consent for regular school activities that take place outside the school such as sports and Masses. Please keep an eye out for Compass to consent to these events.

Uniform and Presentation Requirements

We have updated our Uniform and Presentation Requirements for 2023. Thank you to our 2022 Secondary SRC, our staff and our family forum participants who gave suggestions and advice to update this. Please take the time to read this information. Students across our school are being reminded about the requirements and we have a phase in time for the first 5 weeks of school. As always family support of our uniform is appreciated. The Alinta Uniform shop has received a minimal supply of our new K-10 girls' culottes and short-sleeve blouses as an alternative to our summer tunic. If we have enough interest in these items then more shall be arriving in May and it will become standard stock. It can only be bought in-store not online at this stage. One set per customer at this stage.

Fees for 2023

Term 1 fees will be generated soon and will be emailed out to families. Please check your Junk folder as sometimes the school emails go there. Thank you to many of our families who have already increased their direct debits this year to counter the fee rise. Please come in and see Mrs Dee Delaney if you need help setting up a direct debit. 

Parking around the school

Last week we had a number of families receive traffic infringement notices whilst in the Kiss and Drop Zone as they were parked there for longer than the designated 2 minutes. Please read the attachment where the rules for parking around our school are. This is featured regularly in the newsletter.

On Monday I met with a representative from Inverell Shire Council to discuss how to make our afternoons safer and more streamlined for our students and their families. Next week we will change the seating of students at the end of the day to hopefully make it quicker for you to collect your children. We are also investigating the purchase of family name cards for car visors to help speed up the process of identifying the cars arriving. Please remember you are able to park in Mather St and students can walk around without having to cross any roads. This exit point is currently underutilised. 

COVID-19

It is still with us! Please contact the Front Office if your child has tested positive as we are required to notify families. We will continue to send a letter to year groups where the virus is present. This is important for families, particularly with students who have compromised immune systems and family members who may also be significantly affected. Students must remain at home until they are symptom-free.  

Come along to...

• Our K-6 Meet and Greet today!
• Our Swimming Carnival on Wednesday (see sports section)

Unfortunately, I will be absent from these events as I am in Brisbane completing a course on leadership, ethics and governance. 

Take care and contact me if you have any concerns. My email address is in the heading above.

Have a great week!