Principal Message

As we near the end of term I’d like to thank our staff for their dedicated commitment to the care and success of our students both in and out of the classroom. It has been a very busy term with a significant amount of extra curricular activities occurring with great success for many students and teams. Their dedication to be constantly providing quality learning for our students five periods a day as well as the wrap-around support for students to support them academically and for their wellbeing and faith lives is very impressive and shouldn’t be taken for granted. 

I know there will be staff continuing through their holiday break to support the students, particularly Year 12 as they edge closer to their HSC trial examinations and completion dates for major projects approach just as quickly. I spoke with Year 12 last week and reminded them that if staff are providing extra support over the holiday break they owed it as marks of respect and gratitude to turn up and take full advantage of the support provided by generous staff giving up their holiday break. This motivates the staff to keep giving as they want their students to do as well as they possibly can. To not turn up speaks a loud message also.

Congratulations to the following for their recent success

• Year 7 / 8  DaVinci Decathlon team triumphed at TRAC over regional schools.
• Senior Girls Basketball defeated Mater Dei in the Wagga Schools final.
• A number of students across a number of sports have participated at BISSA, Wagga Diocese and CCC carnivals.

From the start of next term I will be on Long Service Leave for eight weeks arriving back for the last two weeks of term. My wife and I will be enjoying some overseas travel during this time. The Acting Principal will be Mrs Christie Scutti and the Acting Assistant Principal will be Mr Kieran Udy. I’m sure you will provide them with every support and good wishes.

Last Friday we had a very successful mufti day with such a good response from students to bring in toiletries etc. to donate to Micah House run by St Vincent DePaul that we more than filled a room. Mr Peter Burgess from SVDP came and spoke to the students on Monday commending them for how well they lived out the values of the college and Pope Francis plea for us to help those right in front of us. It was wonderful to see their faith in action making a difference to the lives of others.

This week we hosted Tomorrow Man with a Father/Son night. It was a wonderful success and we plan to expand this to include a concurrent Mother/Daughter evening in 2024. The eternal question of how we get more parents to come to nights we hold is something our College Council is discussing. We have held two nights - Safe on Social and Tomorrow Man which had very valuable input but it did occur to us all that a wider audience in future would be valuable. Such great input missed by many. Any insights into how to achieve this would be welcome beyond the current repeated reminders via email, compass and social media. I’m sure word of mouth from those who attended will make a difference too.

Kildare was privileged to host in partnership with ANU and CSU the Riverina Climate Update with eminent guest speakers outlining the latest data in relation to climate change. We were also lucky to have them come to the college on Friday to work with students and staff. My congratulations and thanks to Mrs Sharon Forwood for all her work in establishing the partnership and bringing them to Wagga Wagga.

Recently we have also had our Staff Development Day looking at the Catholic Education Charter with sessions run by Fr Sean Byrnes, Sr. Susan MIller PBVM and Mr Kieran Udy. Our day started with mass in the Presentation Chapel led by Bishop Mark Edwards OMI who also joined us later in the day. It was a very positive dialogue and a great staff community day as we unpacked Christ the Teacher, prayer with Nano Nagle and the four pillars of the charter that ask schools to be places of  Welcome, Faith, Service and Learning. 

I will keep you in my prayers whilst I am away and best wishes for the holidays and the term to follow.