Dear Parents and Carers

What a busy week or two it has been at school!  Lots of school events, camp, activities and visitors. 

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea 

What a beautiful afternoon our students and staff were able to share with our mothers, grandmothers and other special family members last Friday.  The late Autumn weather, which has been so beautiful, was certainly on show again on Friday. The quad was full of many visitors and the 45 minutes or so everyone had together was very special. The afternoon tea was Rosary’s way of saying thank you to our mothers and other special people who support our students.

Thank you to our Year 2 parents, including many of our dads, for the planning, setting up and serving the afternoon tea.  Thank you to our Community Council parents for continuing to explore ways to engage our parents in the life of the school. 

Mother’s Day Poem - read by Year 6 students on Friday:

Smart Watches

Is important that I highlight the Rosary’s expectations that smart watches must not be worn in school hours at school. This was also mentioned in Term 1. Unfortunately, we are still having incidents where students use smart watches to access the internet or communicate with their parents in school time.  Other smartphone features like recording audio, video and photography are also a concern and if used would breach confidentiality and privacy legislation. 

Smart watch use also has the potential to adversely affect the social cohesion of students at school.  

Students are to take off any smart watches when they arrive at school and put them in their school bag and not touch them during the school day and until they leave school premises.

It is important all communication or change of arrangements for their children goes via front office staff. The school has a duty of care to all students when they are at school. We also have to support our staff and teachers and ensure they are able to manage the care of students. 

Please note, smartwatches are brought at the student’s own risk.

Students are welcome to wear a watch without this capacity. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Thank you for understanding in this matter 

Year 5 Camp Success

Congratulations to the Year 5 students and the teachers that attended camp last week in Jindabyne. The 3 day/2 night camp was a huge success and the first overnight camp or stay away from home for many students. The program was full of outdoor activities and team challenges which the students managed to navigate and work together on well. I was able to visit the students for the day program on Thursday and witnessed how well they interacted together, their team synergy and the positive effort they put into the activities.  They were blessed with some lovely Autumn weather which helped make the camp more comfortable. I heard students and staff praise the quality of the food at camp! What a bonus.

The experiences of camp should benefit the cohort for the remainder of the year. .

I'd like to offer a huge thanks to the staff who attended the camp including Mrs Nicole Mogan, Mrs Naomi Scott, Mrs Emily Holgate and Mr Chris Evans.  They gave up their own time away from their own families to support and encourage the students on camp. 

New Zealand Delegation visit Rosary and other Catholic Schools

On Tuesday this week Rosary hosted a delegation of 15 principals from the North Island of New Zealand, along with two members of the Catholic Education Office in Canberra.  Their visit was to observe our teachers and students engaging with High Impact Teaching Practices. Our Catholic schools have been on this journey of evidence-based explicit teaching for over three years now and it was wonderful to be able to showcase our learning,  pedagogy, instruction and assessment to these principals.  Our staff shared lunch with the New Zealand visitors and swapped stories about their schools and their systems.  The New Zealand visitors presented the school with some lovely books and a token (artefact) from New Zealand to say thank you. 

Rosary Cross Country

We had a very successful Cross Country carnival on Monday which included all students from Kindergarten through to YEAR 6. It was great to see the students test their endurance by competing in the distance relevant to their age group. They all tried really hard and earnt points for their prospected house. 

A huge thank you to Mrs Fryar and all the Rosary staff, and parents and carers who volunteered to help at the carnival. It was great to see the Rosary Spirit on display. 

Ribbons were presented at the Friday assembly this week for students who placed first to fourth place in their race. Some of these students in the older age groups will now progress to the regional carnival and represent Rosary on Monday the 26th May.

We also congratulated Gold Barton on winning the carnival with the most points.

I am privileged to be able to attend an upcoming faithful formation experience In the form of a Catholic pilgrimage.  I am taking part in a “Footsteps of Saint Paul” pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey.

The pilgrims on the trip are principals and teachers from Australia, New Zealand and USA.  The group meets in Athens before embarking on the pilgrimage through mainland Greece, the Greek Islands and then onto Turkey. 

We will travel where St Paul and his companions courageously preached the word of God and kept the early Christian communities vibrant and alive in faith.  We will walk in the footsteps of the Church’s greatest evangelist.

I will also have the opportunity while in Turkey to visit Gallipoli and the surrounding areas, which is very significant to Australians and New Zealanders. 

During this time Mr John O’Biren will again be Acting Principal, Mrs Liz Higgins Acting Assistant Principal and Mr Chris Evans Acting Religious Education Coordinator.  

I thank them for stepping up in these roles, as they've done so admirably all year. Thank you for giving them your full support. 

Wishing you a great week ahead.

God Bless

Greg Walker