Dear Parents, Friends, Staff and Students

A successful Catholic school is one that thrives as a welcoming community, built upon the Gospel values witnessed by Jesus. It is a community where students, staff, parents, parishioners, and visitors connect to build an environment that nurtures the needs of all. It has been so disappointing this week to have to restrict the presence of parents at school.  It goes against our values as a thriving Catholic school community. It is not how we want to operate, and I am deeply sorry that restrictions are in place.  My hope is that it will only be for a short period of time.  In the meantime, we will do all we can to keep our parents and caregivers engaged and connected.  Staff do an excellent job with keeping parents up to date using Seesaw. Please make sure you have connected with your child’s class Seesaw page. It is a terrific means of communication.  Please see your child’s class teacher should you have any problems with connecting to the class Seesaw page.  The newsletter and various social media posts are other ways to ensure our parents are kept connected and engaged with the school while the restrictions apply.

Year 6 Student Leaders

The Year 6 students responded with pride and a great sense of responsibility during the Commissioning Ceremony held at school this week.   All our Year 6 students have designated leadership roles.  All are members of a leadership council and have specific responsibilities associated with the council group.  In addition, some students have been chosen to represent the school as Student Leaders and others as Faction Leaders. Congratulations to our Student Leaders; Ovia, Sophia, O’Hara, Imogen, Lincoln and Lochlan.  Congratulations to our Faction Leaders; Ava, Brodie, Adam, Georgia, Cooper, Tahlia, Katherine and Peyton. There is also a small group of students selected as the Audio-Visual Team and we congratulate Ella, Lexie, Aydan and Iszacc.  All our Year 6 students have the ability to be excellent leaders.  They just need the opportunity. The leadership opportunities offered to them at Matthew Gibney Catholic Primary School are outstanding.  Their teachers expect a lot from them, and, in my experience, our students always deliver.  I look forward to working with this fine group of young people as they develop their leadership skills through the year.  Congratulations to them all! 

Powerful Spirit of God,

you guide us and light our way.

Bless our Year 6 students

as they take on the role as leaders of our school.

Bless our community as we encourage and support them

in their leadership role.

We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

School Events

• Welcome Picnic: My sincerest thanks to the Welcome Picnic organising committee for the work they had put into preparing the picnic for this year. Unfortunately, with the COVID Safe measures we have had to put in place the Welcome Picnic will be cancelled for this year.  We will investigate another event for later in the year. 
• The PP/Yr 5 Church Excursion – postponed.
• Sacramental Enrolment Mass Weekend 12/13th  March – will go ahead as planned at this stage.
• Class Masses and Liturgies – those planned for this term will go ahead, but without parents attending.
• Ash Wednesday – the Parish Mass will not be going ahead. Instead, the students will participate in liturgies in their classes and their teachers will distribute the ashes.
• Assemblies – cancelled until advised they can go ahead.
• Merit Awards – will continue to be distributed in line with the term planner. However, the awards will be distributed in class and parents will be sent a photograph of their child receiving their award. It is important that we give awards when they are earnt by the students.  It is difficult to catch up with awards at the end of the year.

Decisions about other events later in the term will be made in a few weeks’ time.  We need to be careful of making decision too early as things seem to change mighty quickly.

Thank you for your support as we have encouraged the children to come into their classes independently.  It is not the situation we would have expected so early in the year.  However, our students always impress.  The independence shown by our younger students, in particular, has been most impressive this week. 

Warmest regards

Therese Hussey
Principal