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Dear Parents and Carers
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the staff, students and parents of the St. Paul’s community for the manner in which everyone has responded so compassionately since the sudden passing of Mr Don O’Brien. The students in particular, have expressed and shown such great empathy for Mr O’Brien with the words and prayers they have placed on the table in his honour. I hope that despite the technical difficulties, you were able to view the funeral liturgy for Don.
As previously mentioned, Mrs Katie Browne will now take over as Acting Principal at St. Paul’s, Moss Vale for the remainder of 2021 while Mrs Dulcie Ryman from the Catholic Education Office will take on the responsibility of Acting Assistant Principal to support Mrs Browne. Mrs Ryman has previously worked at St. Paul’s as an educational advisor and is familiar with the school community.
As I head back to my role as Principal at Kiama, I want to say that I have been both honoured and humbled to have been with the school community during this challenging time.
Kind regards
Mr Peter Michael
Acting Principal.
Mr Don O’Brien was a loving husband to Heidi and father to Lachlan, Xavier and Amelia. They are now dealing with the reality that their husband and father will no longer be with them and having to adjust to daily life. Over the past three weeks the St Thomas Aquinas community has provided meals for the family. We would now like to invite the St Paul’s community to take over this generous service for the next few weeks. If you are able and would like to provide a meal for the family you can do so by contacting Mrs Norman in the school office, letting her know which day you can do this. On the day or the day before, drop the meal to the school office and we will ensure that it is delivered to the family on the same day. We will make up a roster for the next two weeks and aim to have all the spots filled beginning on Monday 30 August.
Thank you in advance for your support towards the family.
Sincere Thanks
Thank you for the overwhelming support you have provided in recent weeks as we mourn the loss of Mr O’Brien. It was a privilege to have worked with Don in leading our school community and to learn from him. On Friday we reflected on the life of a man who gave a great deal to all the schools that he worked in through his deep faith and commitment to professional learning. He has left an incredible legacy here at St Paul’s that we will endeavour to continue on.
Attached to this newsletter is an article about dealing with grief during a pandemic. It has some practical ideas.
Remote Learning
Thank you to everyone for the way in which they have supported their children in attending to remote learning. I have heard great stories of children completing a range of wonderful activities and sharing these with their teachers. Please remember that the biggest priority for your daily life is everyone's wellbeing. We cannot attend and learn if our wellbeing is not right. There are great resources available on the wellbeing tab of the Parent Portal for both students and adults if you would like some support in this area.
Communicating during Remote Learning
If you require support during remote learning please contact your child’s class teacher through their email or by phoning the school and leaving a message.
Infants will be using SeeSaw to communicate with the students and parents. Parents may use their account to contact the class teacher if they have one.
Year 3 - 6 will be using Google classroom. Google classroom is for the students only. If a parent or carer requires help or assistance then please communicate using the teachers email or phoning the school.
The Parent Portal is a great source of information. Please bookmark this and refer to it.
https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/st-pauls-moss-vale/home
Bishop Brian would like to invite parents and caregivers to participate in a survey that seeks to collect information regarding "what they believe to be important for their children in presenting them for the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist”.
Click on the link to view the letter. Sr_Monica_Sacraments_Survey_Letter.pdf
This week is book week. The theme this year is “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds”. Here is a painting created by some of our Year 6 students which is hanging outside the library.
Also, the WINNERS have been announced for the CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Book of the year awards. The winners are listed below. If you would like to know more or see the books that got honours, go to:
https://cbca.org.au/winners-2021
