Welcome to Week 8 of Term 4. The weeks continue to fly past and we are now only 4 weeks away from Christmas Day celebrations!

Our students continue to excel in the community arena. Last Friday we received the very exciting news that Riley Smith in Year 3 was named the Judges Choice winner of the recent Snowy Hydro ‘Science of the Snowy’ Competition. Congratulations Riley on such a wonderful achievement. Congratulations are also extended to Abigail Bock in Year 4 who also had her entry shortlisted.

Level 3 restrictions are still in place for all NSW schools with these restrictions now most likely to remain in place until the end of this year. Several of our Archdiocesan schools in Canberra have had recent active COVID cases and have had to take measures to isolate affected cohorts. You would also be aware of the number of Wagga schools that have also had to close recently for deep cleaning. While vaccination options are unavailable for Primary aged students, all measures will continue to be taken to protect this age group.

There have been many queries about the end of Year functions. At this stage we are planning a Year 6 Graduation Mass, our annual Award Day and our Year 6 Graduation dinner. However, restrictions will guide what we can and cannot do nearer to the date. Please see below, our plans for end of year events and the restrictions that are currently in place for these events to proceed. Vaccination certificates will need to be sighted at all events. Thank you to Community Council members who have offered to assist with this process.

Please understand that staff are constantly trying to work around restrictions when planning every school event. We have prioritised keeping school events as normal as possible for our students and ensuring we can go ahead with as many events as possible while keeping within the restriction parameters. It has been challenging to say the least. Our students learning and well being are always our top priorities in all that we do.

The handover of our new administration area did not go to plan as mentioned in our last newsletter. The recent rain has held up several of the outdoor projects and some minor works still need to be completed inside. We are hoping for a new handover date shortly.

All teaching staff will be attending Professional Learning on the Science of Learning and the Science of Reading this Wednesday evening. This will support our CATALYST initiatives in 2022.

Take care and have a great week.

Christine Baron