Principal
Good afternoon Parents and Carers,
And just like that week four of term four is here and gone. But what an exciting start we have had this term. With COVID-19 restrictions loosening a little for schools, we have been able to provide our students with a greater sense of the old 'normal' while maintaining COVID safety plans and routines for our staff, students and parents.
I would like to extend my special thanks to all the parents and students that supported our book week festivities and parade. It was fantastic to see the spirit of the St Philomena's learning community with all the students and staff dressing up for the parade. The costumes were absolutely amazing. Congratulations to our year group parade winners. Thank you to Mrs Sharon Cooke (Catholic Schools Office) and Father Abmar for being our judges on the day. A very tough decision to make. Thank you also to Miss Bremner and her support team for all the behind the scenes work that was necessary to run the book fair and organise the book parade. A fantastic effort!
Recent changes to COVID-19 restrictions, applying to intrastate school excursions and field trips, has enabled our Year 10 and Year 6 students to be able to attend end of year overnight excursions. We wish all our Year 10 students well, along with Mrs Lam and Mr Clark for next week. They will enjoy the great outdoors of Lake Ainsworth while they celebrate and reflect on what has been an 'interesting' year. Our Year 6 students will be travelling to Lake Keepit for an overnight experience in two weeks time. A special thank you to the St Philomena's P & F for their per student contribution to reduce the overall cost of the excursion for both our Year 10 and Year 6 families. A wonderful initiative!
Last week, with the blessing of Father Abmar, Mrs Pamella O'Neill, Mrs Nerida Finlayson and I conducted a number of interviews to secure teaching positions in our K-6 area of the school for 2021. The interviews were all of an extremely high quality and it is with great excitement that I announce the successful applicants for 2021. Permanent full-time positions have been offered to:
- Mrs Jennifer Devney
- Miss Hanne Pedersen
- Mrs Brooke Drogemuller, and
- Miss Danielle Lenton.
Temporary full-time positions for 2021 have been offered to:
- Miss Phoebe McGrath
- Miss Sophie Arthur, and
- Mr David Powell
A number of other temporary appointments will be announced over the coming weeks as we finalise our plans for 2021, based on our confirmed enrolments for next year.
Our first Transition to Kindergarten 2021 session was held on Tuesday with our second (and final) session being held on Tuesday 10th November. The excitement in our school lifted as we greeted around 46 pre-school students eager to experience what life will be like at 'big school.' A special thank you to our Transition to Kindergarten team (including our Year 6 students) for making our new little people (and their parents) feel welcome. I look forward to see them all again next Tuesday.
Finally, thank you to our incredible P & F Committee for organising the Christmas Pudding fundraiser for the school at such short notice. The money raised from this initiative will go a long way to support the purchase of photography, sporting and music equipment for the school for 2021. Thank you to all our parents for getting behind this festive initiative.
Have a wonderful weekend.
God bless
Jamie McDowall
Principal