Dear Families,

Students have settled very well into the new school year. I would like to thank you for your support in this regard. As a parent, I know first hand how challenging it can be to get children back into the school routine and the staff greatly appreciate the efforts you have gone to to ensure children are in bed early and up and dressed in full school uniform each day.

Today we farewelled Fr Drinkwater. Fr Drinkwater was a constant within the school and always worked very closely with the Principals and Religious Education Coordinators to ensure that the school was an integral part of the parish. This strong connection was continued with the support of Fr Tom and continues still with Fr Gerard. It was a feature of the school that the registration panel commented on last year for our most recent registration and noted as the closest connection any panel member has ever seen. The students reverently lined Lhotsky St to give Fr Drinkwater one final farewell.

I want to thank the many families who provided a plate of food for Fr Drinkwater’s wake. This generosity was greatly appreciated by the school and the mourners, many of whom had gone through the school over its 48 years of operation.

Tonight, we will have our Meet and Greet. This will be a wonderful opportunity for parents and carers to meet their child/ren’s teacher. We will meet in the hall so that everyone can be introduced to all of our new staff, then families will be able to visit classrooms. It has been a while since we have been able to open the school up, and I am looking forward to being able to do this again this year with Goal setting meetings in Week 4 of this term and Learning Journeys in Term 3.

There are always a number of notes to look over at the beginning of the year. Notes for the swimming carnival went out to families with students in Years 3-6 last night. If you have a child in Year 2 who swims competitively and you would like them to be included in the swimming carnival, could you please contact their class teacher to let them know so a note can be sent home via COMPASS. The ICT permission note will be coming to your inboxes shortly, again it is important that we have these back as soon as possible as students across the school need to access iPads and Chromebooks for testing and as part of the broader curriculum.

Take care and God bless

Yours in Faith