Dear Parents and Carers,

What a spectacular St Patrick’s Day festival we enjoyed last week! Firstly, we had our school celebrations on Friday with a special Mass beautifully presented by Year 2, a lovely St Patrick’s Day cake shared with Fr Joe to welcome him officially to our community and then we finished off with a great afternoon of Irish themed activities.

This was followed by our amazing St Patrick’s Day Fair on Saturday! The weather was perfect, and the crowds came. Thank you to our very dedicated Fundraising committee and Community Council parents, who have worked so hard behind the scenes for months beforehand to make this such a special event. It certainly didn’t disappoint!! Very special thanks to Mrs Sam Johnson who was the mastermind behind the whole event, for the hours of planning, organisation and work that went into the pre planning with her very dedicated parent group behind her. Thank you also to staff members for coordinating class contributions and their invaluable support on the day and our very dedicated students that came along to give a hand on the day. Many thanks to all our wonderful families who supported through donations, cooking and assisting with set up and clean up and to everyone who came along on the day and supported the fete. A huge thank you to our sponsors Ray White (Gold sponsor), GMP, Bellette’s Bins and Foodworks (Bronze Sponsors) for their very generous sponsorship of our fete.

NAPLAN: Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students who are currently undertaking their NAPLAN assessments. Last week, they completed the Writing and Reading assessments and this week will complete their Conventions of Writing (Wednesday) and Numeracy (Thursday) assessments. Thank you to parents for ensuring students are at school during assessment times. If your child will be absent, please make sure you contact our front office ASAP, so we can try to reschedule their assessment.

Leave: Next term, I will be taking leave for the first 5 weeks of Term 2. I will be attending a Principal Professional Development Program for the first part of my leave, during which I will be participating in a Pilgrimage to The Holy Lands along with other Catholic School Principals and some CE staff. I feel very privileged to be visiting the areas where Jesus was born, lived with his family, worked as a carpenter and lived out his ministry, including some of the areas where he performed miracles. The itinerary also includes the places where Jesus was condemned to death and his journey to Calvary followed by the place where Jesus’s glorious resurrection took place. This is a privileged opportunity to deepen my faith through the opportunity to walk in the actual footsteps of Jesus. Following this journey, I will also take some personal leave.

Mrs Wilson will be Acting Principal and Mrs Kate Howe will be Acting Assistant Principal during this time. Mrs Howe will also continue in the role as REC during this time. I am very grateful to Mrs Wilson and Mrs Howe for stepping up into higher roles during this time, while I am on leave.

Cross Country: This Friday we look forward to our annual school Cross Country to be held at the Gundagai Racecourse. Thank you to parents for offering their assistance on the day.

It has certainly been a busy first term at school and we still have more activities prior to the end of term including the Footsteps Dance Program, Rugby 10’s Gala Day, Week 10 Awards Assembly and our Holy Week activities.

Thank you to parents for being proactive with COMPASS and ensuring you are keeping up to date with permission notes and activities. It is greatly appreciated by staff.

Best wishes for another great week ahead,

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us