I hope you are all having a “happy Lent”. Remembering that this is a time to give and not just give up. Fr Lolesio spoke with fervour about how we prepare for Easter by focusing on what bad habit we can give up and how we can give to other people.

This Thursday 5^th March and Tuesday 10^th March Primary staff will host the parent/teacher/student conversations for the early weeks of 2020. This is an important opportunity to meet ‘up close and personal’ with the Primary staff to identify how the year has started for each child and to be informed about where their child currently is and where they plan to take them in the coming weeks of the year. Please log on to SessionKeeper (information was sent out earlier this week) to make your bookings. It definitely takes a village to raise a child and we need parents/guardians to be informed about their child’s progress and learning to support what happens in the classroom at home, or conversely to inform the teacher about what they understand about their child’s learning.

Another reminder about the important Community Working bee on 21 March at 10am. We would really love to have a score of parents and helpers available on the Saturday morning to help us prepare the grounds and buildings for Registration. We will need wheelbarrows and shovels, rakes and hedge trimmers to help us with the growing list of chores that we need to get through. We will be shovelling soft fall for the climbing equipment, manicuring garden beds and mulching new plantings, pressure washing eating areas and the outside of buildings to remove caked on dust and dirt, small repair jobs and some general maintenance. We would so love to see as many parents as possible spare a few hours to help us tidy up the school grounds and buildings. We will provide a BBQ lunch and refreshments for the helpers.

Last week our friendly police brought to our attention that there are people who are not obeying the strict guidelines for the “Kiss and Drop” area in Morris St. This is not a parking area where you can leave your car and collect children from class/school. It is literally a momentary stop (no longer than 2 minutes and you must be within 3 metres of the vehicle) to let the children alight and you are to move on again. There are quite substantial fines for those who park and leave their vehicle. Please see the attached flyer highlighting the significant fines that will be handed out from this week if you breach the guidelines. These rules are to benefit our community and are to encourage a more fluid system of drop offs and pick-ups.

Next week we will begin our Breakfast Club with cheese toasties on offer. Staff have volunteered to run this valuable service because they recognise the value of a good breakfast to help our students make the most of their learning opportunities.  

                                                                                    Congratulations to our talented swimmers who competed at the Archdiocesan Carnival in Narooma on Monday. To reach this level is a tribute to the training and effort that our swimmers commit to their preparation. To have such a large “pool” of swimmers who qualify for this level is outstanding for a relatively small school. Thank you to all the parents who enthusiastically support their child/ren’s endeavours. Please see Mrs Litchfield’s report on our stellar results.

For the remainder of this week I will be attending the Catholic Leaders’ Directors’ Day and Principals’ Retreat. This is an important opportunity for all principals to hear the same message about the direction of our archdiocese. The new Learning agenda for Catholic Schools will be discussed and it is important that rural schools have a voice in Canberra’s decisions. We will have the opportunity to hear from Professor Br David Hall, Director of the La Salle Academy at the ACU. The theme of the retreat this year will be ‘The Virtue of Hope – Leading Learning and Mission’. I will share some of his wisdom in next week’s newsletter.

This week, like every other week, we strive to ‘Learn, Lead and Live’  in all we do at school, to give our very best to rise by lifting others.

Remember if you have to choose between being exceptional or kind, be exceptionally kind!

God Bless

Mrs Nicky Trinder

Principal