Principal's Message
Good afternoon Parents and Carers,
Time flies when you are having fun leading learning at St Philomena's with this week seeing the completion of Week 5 of Term 1. It is so wonderful to see how smoothly our students have returned to their class routines, structures and expectations of learning at school.
Wednesday night saw a change to last years Parent Information Session, with more of a 'Meet & Mingle" theme with the inclusion of an informal BBQ, along with the Annual General Meeting of the St Philomena's P&F. Thank you to all the families that supported this event. It was wonderful to see students taking their parents on a learning walk of their learning environments and pointing out all the contemporary learning scaffolds throughout the spaces. Feedback from the Parent Evening last year provided us with valuable information regarding what parents wanted out of this parent event, and thus resulting in a change to the format. In the spirit of 'School Improvement,' we will again be sending out a Google Form to gain valuable feedback from our parent community regarding further ways to improve this event. The survey will be emailed out on Monday and will close at 4pm on Thursday 4 March. I look forward to reading both your positive and constructive feedback regarding the 'Meet & Mingle' event.
Thank you to all the parents that stayed after the 'Meet & Mingle' for the Annual General Meeting of the St Philomena's P&F. It was great to see some new faces at the meeting. I would encourage all new and existing families to try and make it to future P&F meetings, as the P&F is such an invaluable component of the St Philomena's Learning Community and is always looking for support in some way.
Congratulations to the 2021 P&F Executives:
President
Scott Antees
Vice Presidents
Katina Madden
Marguerite McCormick
Allison Turner
Secretary
Sarah Smith
Treasurer
Kristy Hobday
Thank you in advance for your support and we look forward to all the exciting opportunities the P&F will provide throughout 2021 - COVID19 permitting.
This week our Stage 5 Digital Photography class (new elective for 2021) unboxed the brand new digital Nikon SLR Cameras to work through the vast features of manual photography. Mr McKenzie introduced the class to technical photography language such as shutter speed, aperture, lighting and shadows and many others. A special thank you to the St Philomena's P&F for their financial support to purchase this new equipment for the course. I'm looking forward to a future photography exhibition where our students can show off their new photography skills and talents.
Last Friday was the official CENSUS day for school enrolments. It is extremely exciting to announce that our students numbers have increased from the 2020, with particular increases in our Secondary (Years 7-10) school. Our current student population as of last Friday Census is 364. With continual enrolment enquiries and regular school tours, this number should increase throughout 2021.
God bless and enjoy your well deserved weekend.
Jamie McDowall
Principal