This term has passed so quickly. Here we are staring down the last weeks of the year and there is still much to do and much left to be finalized. We apologise for the changeable nature that we find ourselves in as we plan the annual end-of-year events. We are subject to the directives of NSW Health and the advice of Catholic Education as we work through the COVID safety plans to ensure that we don’t impact on people’s Christmas plans. The safety of our community is always our highest priority.

Below are the most recent plans for the finals masses, Annual Awards ceremony and Graduation. Any school event on school grounds requires that the adults are double vaccinated.

• For the Year 6 Thanksgiving Mass on Friday 3 December at 12noon only the Primary students will be attending along with socially distanced Year 6 parents who are double vaxxed. We will be required to check vaccinations upon arrival. Students will be cohorted and there will be no mingling after Mass. We are permitted to take cohort photos. Specific details for each event will be sent home closer to the event.
• For the Year 10 Graduation Mass on Friday 10^th December at 11.45am only secondary classes will be attending in cohorts. Parents will be required to be double vaxxed and socially distanced at the rear of the church. There is to be no mingling after Mass but we will take a cohort photo before the graduating class leave the church.
• The Annual Awards Ceremony will be conducted in three parts on Wednesday 8^th A separate Infants Awards ceremony will be held in the church at 9.30am on Wednesday 8 December. Any parents of award winners who are in attendance will be required to be double vaccinated. Parents will be contacted in the coming week to invite them to the presentation. Please arrive in enough time to allow for check-in. Unfortunately we will no longer be able to have our Kindergarten 2022 in attendance to be welcomed into the community. The Primary Awards Ceremony will be held at 10.30am on 8^th December. Once again Parents of award winners and Year 6 Leadership will be contacted to invite them to attend and they must be double vaxxed. The final ceremony will be for the Secondary students at 12noon. Parents of award winners, Year 9 Leadership and Year 10 students are permitted to attend. Again they must be double vaxxed and socially distanced at the back of the church. Photos will be taken of all award winners at the time of presentation and we will make these available to parents. There is to be no mingling after the presentations.
• Year 10 Graduation Ceremony will be conducted at the S & C Club on the evening of 10 December. All parents need to be at the Club by 6.45pm. Photos will commence at 4pm. According to the COVID protocols of function centres all attendees over 16 years of age must be double vaxxed. We are required to follow the NSW Health and Government guidelines in accordance with the latest directives.

Last week you should have received an email inviting you to log onto our new communication platform COMPASS. You were required to log in and change your password. This will be the platform that will ultimately replace Schoolzine and will be where you have access to all relevant information pertaining to your child/ren. This will include any admissions to sickbay, access to reports and the students timetables and attendance. Please contact the school if you did not receive this email as they were sent to the addresses that we have loaded in MAZE. I will resend the request today so please log in if you get a chance. All Semester Two reports will be issued this way. They will not be printed and sent home as they usually have been but will be stored permanently there for you to access as you require them.

A reminder that Term 4 fees are due. We would hope to be able to finalise our finances in the last weeks. Please contact the school if this could be an issue. Tomorrow night the School Board will hold its final meeting for 2021 and the fees will be considered for the 2022 school year. It is appropriate to thank the Board members for their generous and tireless efforts in supporting the school and our future directions. I have valued the sage advice and invaluable skills of our incumbent Board – Chris Drum, Liz Bodycott, Jon English, Fr Lolesio, Lisa Buchanan, Emma Deep and Gareth Jones. We look forward to another successful year in 2022.

Ms Nicky Trinder

Principal