Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 4 of Term 3. The weeks are once again flying by! We have certainly been enjoying the warmer weather and beautiful sunshine.

WR PUBLIC SPEAKING FINALS: it was a pleasure to host the WR Public Speaking finals last Wednesday in St Patrick’s School Hall. 24 students representing our 12 WR Catholic Primary Schools, presented some impressive speeches. Many thanks to our adjudicators Mrs Anne Saunderson, Mrs Vicki Somerville and Mr Abb McAlister for adjudicating on the day. They had some tough decision to make! Well done to Lane Johnson who represented St Patrick’s in the Year 4 division. Lane should be very proud of his preparation, hard work and presentation on the day. We were very proud of you Lane!

WELCOME MISS WILSON! St Patrick’s welcomes Miss Erika Wilson to our school community. Miss Wilson is in her fourth year of studying a Bachelor of Education at ACU in Canberra. Miss Wilson will be teaching our Year 5/6 students under the supervision and support of Mrs Wilson and Mr Makeham. Miss Wilson will be with us over seven weeks as she completes her final teaching practicum before she begins a full-time teaching career. We are delighted to have Miss Wilson sharing new ideas and teaching techniques with our Year 5/6 class. (and no ……Miss Wilson and Mrs Wilson are not related!!)

PRINCIPAL/REC/CLERGY Day: Mrs Howe and I attended the annual Principal/REC/Clergy Day in Canberra last Friday. This was a wonderful opportunity for School Leaders and local Parish Priests to connect and discuss the theme ‘Catholic Schools as Centres of Evangelisation’. Speakers for the day included Mr David de Carvalho (Executive Director) who addressed the topic, ‘We are called to be faithful, not successful’ and Mr Patrick McArdle (Vicar for Education) who spoke on the topic of ‘Partners in our Evangelising Missions’. A panel of speakers addressed the challenges and opportunities for evangelisation in our local communities. Our final session involved all the local TBAG Principals, REC’s with Fr Xavier identifying current evangelisation processes that work well and consideration for new ways to explore.

HITP VISIT: Today we welcome Mr Pat Ellis to our school as we continue to embed High Impact Teaching Practices into our classroom. Mr Ellis was keen to engage in discussions with Mr Makeham (HITP leader) and provide support and guidance as we continue our school HITP journey.

STUDENT AMENITIES/COVERED OUTDOOR AREA:  We are eagerly awaiting the completion of our new student amenities facilities. The handbasins arrived today and the plumbers have been busy installing them. Once they are installed and a final clean completed, we will be opening the toilets for the students to use. A final handover meeting will be held with Mattoni this Friday.

We have also had confirmation that construction of our covered outdoor area will begin during the next September school holidays. Karauna from Junee have been the successful tenders. We hope to have this structure completed in time for summer activities. Our thanks to Thomas James (TJ) from the CECG Planning and Facilities team, who has strongly advocated on our schools behalf, for the project to be completed in the immediate future. It will be exciting to have two major projects ticked off, before the end of 2025!

PRINCIPAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (PPDP): I will be undertaking a pilgrimage to Portugal, Spain and Italy as part of the PPD Program (with several other Principals), from Monday 25 August until the end of term. As 2025 is the Jubilee Year of Pilgrims of Hope, this is a significant opportunity to deepen my faith, values and sense of purpose as a Catholic school leader.

The pilgrimage includes:

1. Portugal-A Visit to the Shrine of our Lady of Fatima
2. Spain-Walking The Camino (The Way of St James)
3. Italy-Audience with Pope Leo, Tour of the Holy Doors, St Francis of Assisi, Blessed Carlos Acutis, St Anthony of Padua and other holy sites.

Mrs Wilson will be Acting Principal during this time. Please reach out to Mrs Wilson if you need anything.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead and every blessing for the rest of the term. I will keep you updated on my pilgrimage journey.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick, Pray for Us