Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our final term for the 2021 school year! We had very happy and excited children return to school last week ready to begin another term of learning. A special welcome is extended to our Acting Assistant Principal, Mrs Flanagan and Mrs Reardon who will be the full-time teacher on Year 5/6 while Mrs Wilson is on Long Service Leave. St Patrick’s continues to operate under Level 3 restrictions which includes minimising mixing of students outside their class cohorts, social distancing, regular handwashing and sanitising and only attending school if well. Our students are wonderful in embracing the new restrictions which helps make our job very easy. With the opening of NSW this week we may see further changes for school restrictions in the near future.

It was indeed a very special way to begin our school term with the beautiful Confirmation (Take 2) Mass on Saturday evening. Many special thanks to Mrs Howe and Mrs Saunderson for their dedication and hard work in preparing both Confirmation classes for this special sacrament. Thank you to the Sacramental Team and our Parish Priests, Fr George and Fr Namora for their support of the Confirmation program We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated Parish Sacramental Team to lead us through the sacramental programs each year.

This week St Patrick’s School will undergo the School Registration process. This process is undertaken every five years to ensure school meet compliance regulations in school operations. Due to our current restrictions, the process this year will be an online desk audit rather than a school visit from the panel. I would like to thank the staff for all their hard work in preparing documentation for the online desk audit especially considering the ever-changing climate our education system has faced over the past two years. We look forward to the Registration Report that will be provided on Thursday afternoon with commendations and recommendations for the future direction of our school.

A very special thank you is also extended to the Community Council for organising a parent working bee over the past week. We are extremely grateful to every family that participated in supporting this working bee over the past week. The school was a hive of activity on Saturday and our school grounds are now looking greatly improved with all the work that was carried out. A special thank you to the Barton and Graham families for the donation of some new plants for the school garden.

This is a special term for our Year 6 students as it is their final term of Primary School at St Patrick’s. We wish all of our Year 6 students a happy and productive term as they prepare for entry into High School life.

Best wishes for the week ahead.

Christine Baron

Principal