Warm the Hearts of the people. Walk through the dark night with them.

Pope Francis

Dear Families,

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the NSW Catholic School Principals conference with principals from all over NSW. One of the speakers was the principal for Wee Waa. He shared his story of moving to Wee Waa from Victoria and not really knowing much about life out back and the challenges he would face. His story was an uplifting story of a community who had been through severe drought, fires, floods and a mouse plague and the way they worked together to ensure school and family life went on. He showed pictures of students and staff getting to school in boats during the flood and pictures of students at home  helping with harvest because there were no workers available or the family couldn’t afford to employ them. He spoke about the challenges of snakes and rodents in the playground and the freezer the school bought and filled with meals for families who needed a meal when times were really tough financially. His story wasn’t a story about how bad things were, his story was a celebration of community resilience and strength and how powerful it is when we all come together to support each other. This is the very essence of who we are as members of a Catholic School community. 

This Friday we are asking the staff and students who wear a splash of purple. The colour purple represents strength and resilience. Friday is known in our community as National Sorry Day and begins National Reconciliation week. On Friday we will acknowledge this day by acknowledging the challenges we all face at different times in our lives and the strength and resilience we learn from these.  It is part of the NSW curriculum that we teach students about our indigenous cultures and embrace some of the wonderful cultural and spiritual connections it can bring to our lives today.

As Catholics we often refer to difficult challenges we face as our Good Friday and our Easter Sundays are those days when we look back and realise how far we have come and the strength and resilience we have had to endure the challenges. It is no doubt that as a community we have endured many challenges over the past few years and together we have been able to move forward and continue to grow. It is important we be mindful that we do not know what someone else may be going through. It is our job, as Pope Franics says, to simply be there and walk alongside. On Friday we will harness the strength and resilience we have developed as a community. We have much to celebrate. 

On Wednesday I will be attending a day with Ms Du Bois to review the Bishop’s document Bearers of Christs Love, the Lighting the way 23+ strategy and a Foundation Catholicity Domain that has been purposefully written for our system all of which we will use to inform our improvement agenda in Catholic schools. On Thursday I will be attending a day with Mr Farrugia on Continuous Catholic School Improvement and how we develop our Strategic Plans and use these to inform our Annual Improvement Plans. On Thursday Mr Ken Bryant will be the Relief Principal in my absence.

Wishing all our families a wonderful fortnight.

Thank you and God Bless,

Volunteers needed!

On Friday, 2nd June, we are asking for some parents/grandparents, carers to volunteer some time in the morning to help us with some laminating and cutting of classroom resources for use in the classroom. If you are available, all you need to do is to come into the school on the above date! Morning tea will be provided. Thank you! 

Thank you

Thank you to our families for completing the Tell Them From Me survey. This data will help to inform our strategic plan moving forward. As we are able to view the information we will share with the community our summaries of the key ideas.

Staffing

Over the past few months we have had difficulties with replacing staff especially School Support Officers when they are on leave. This has a significant impact on the daily routines of the school especially around small groups that work on programs to assist learning. We appreciate this is frustrating for our students, teachers and families. This shortage of teachers and SSOs is not specific to our area. Many schools in our system are experiencing the same issues and our system is working to try to increase the casual listings with suitably qualified people. We thank you for your patience as we try our best to accommodate the shortages.

Mrs Jo Smith will be dropping her work hours down to a four day week from Term 3 where her focus will be solely on the Library, STEM and Creative Arts curriculum. We are currently recruiting for a 0.2 position. The successful teacher will take Year 6 on a Friday while Ms duBois has her REC leadership release time.