Thank you to Ms Smith, staff and parents who supported our teams at the Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival last Friday. We've received a lot of feedback that they played their very best and were really respectful to both players and referees. Thank you everyone involved for the time and commitment to provide this opportunity for our students. It is a big drive and day and we all very much appreciate it.

New Direction for Catholic Education

Last week the new Executive Director of Catholic Eduction Canberra and Goulburn met with all Principals and other senior leaders. Mr David de Carvahlo led us through a process of looking at the future of Catholic Education, with a focus on what it means to have a Catholic Curriculum. 

The Catholic Curriculum is not just Religious Education. It is an education that encompasses a journey, balancing intellectual rigour, faith, and dialogue with the modern world. Rather than isolating itself, Catholic education ideally contributes to the public good, offering an education that values truth, virtue, and community along with knowledge and skills.

We're all very excited about the direction that our new Executive Director is taking us.

Planning for 2026 and beyond

Yesterday our school Executive Team underwent the first of a number of planning days to help us determine the future of our work at St Thomas Aquinas Primary School. It's a very rare opportunity for our Executive Team to have uninterrupted time together to discuss our core work. We spoke about the curriculum we provide our students and identified what we need to stop, pause, develop further, investigate, adapt, etc.

We are developing key improvement goals for our school to keep us focused on the future we want for our beautiful school and community. We'll share these with parents in the near future and seek your feedback.

Being clear about one's direction, values and goals is very important for making any positive progress in a busy and demanding world. I often refer to a portion of a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox to remind me to take time to be clear about my and our purpose:

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

Staffing Changes

In 2026 Ms Monica Culas will be undertaking a one year transfer to Mother Teresa Primary School in Harrison. Ms Culas has taught a number of classes in our school and her quiet, warm and kind manner with students has been a great support for many of our teachers this year. We wish her the very best in her 'year of exploration' and professional learning in 2026.

I'm looking forward our Chinese Expo Day this Friday. There are a lot of wonderful experiences planned. Thank you to our Chinese teacher Ms Sally Wang for all of her wonderful work in teaching Chinese language and culture across the school.

I hope everyone has a lovely remainder of the week.