Dear Parents and Carers,

On Friday, you would have received communication about Mrs Tiffany Reedy’s appointment as Principal of St Gregory’s Queanbeyan from the beginning of the 2023 school year. We congratulate Tiff on her appointment to this role and know she will do great things leading this community. Our loss is St Gregory’s gain!

We have begun a nationwide search for an Assistant Principal. This process will likely run into Term 4. I will share knowledge of the successful applicant as soon as possible. We will have an opportunity to thank and farewell Tiff next term.

On Monday, I shared with staff that Mrs Karen Western will also leave us next year. Karen has been an integral member of our community for the last three years and has accepted a position as Literacy Coordinator at Holy Family Primary School from the beginning of the 2023 school year. We will also have an opportunity to farewell and thank Mrs Western next term.

I am also pleased to share that after a successful recruitment campaign Ms Julie Rummukainen has been successful in the School Finance Manager role. She will begin on Tuesday next week. We wish Julie all the best in the role and look forward to her joining our office team.

Book Week

Last week we celebrated Book Week, with our costume parade, book-themed incursions and a Book Fair. The children had a wonderful week and the joys of books, and reading was appropriately celebrated. Thank you to all parents for your efforts with your children’s costumes; I know that it is not always easy. Our costume parade was a whole lost of fun, and the children and the staff looked spectacular. Photos can be found on our Facebook page. My thanks to Debbie Cossettini, our excellent Librarian, for her fantastic job in coordinating the week, and my thanks to all staff for their support of the week.

Swimming Lessons

Given the uncertainty of the ongoing Covid situation this year, you would have noticed that you have not been billed for swimming lessons. They are normally spread over four terms, being roughly $25 a term for each child. We have decided not to run our swimming lessons this year due to a range of factors:

• Uncertainty around Covid restrictions and being able to safely run the program.
• Financial pressures in the general community around the cost of living are not conducive to charging parents for lessons in one term. $100 per child.
• Collecting these fees and the chance it does not go ahead is a significant amount of work to refund fees.

We remain committed to offering swimming lessons and will look to get this back on track for 2023.

Uniform

In recent weeks, teachers have noticed some students wearing non-uniform hats and jumpers to school and runners as a part of their normal school uniform. Please ensure that your child is always wearing their school hat and jumper. Hats were back on from the beginning of August, and as a part of our Sunsmart Policy, ask students to move to the shade shelter if they do not have a hat at play times. The Navy jacket is for outside the classroom and is worn in addition to the school jumper for extra warmth during colder months.

A reminder that shoes should be Traditional black leather ‘school’ shoes as a part of the normal school uniform in both summer and winter. Please contact the front office if you are experiencing hardship or need support sourcing black leather shoes. For more information, please see the uniform page on our school website.

NCEC Conference

Next week from Monday to Wednesday, I will be attending the National Catholic Education Conference (NCEC) with several Principals from the diocese. This is the first time the NCEC has run in almost six years due to Covid. It is traditionally every four years and features prominent speakers who are looking at the future of Catholic Education from a national perspective. Mrs Reedy will competently run the school in my absence.

Cyber Safety

We continue to have reports of students accessing a dangerous app/website from home. The website is called Omegle and is a serious child protection concern. The app and website connect users together randomly from across the globe and doesn’t require registration or logins, making it extremely easy for an online predator to engage with children anonymously. Part of the challenge is that it can be accessed via a downloadable app and by visiting the website via a browser on any device, which often circumvents parent restrictions related to the installation of apps.

The best way to keep your kids safe online is to ensure they use devices in the house's public areas and never alone in bedrooms. Please utilise the following link, Omegle | eSafety Commissioner, to read the eSafety Commissioner information and warning about Omegle on their website.

We are offering parents another Cyber Safety information session on Tuesday 17th October (Week 2 Term 4) at 6 pm should you wish to find out more information about protecting your child/ren online. If you are interested in attending, please let us know by completing an electronic RSVP

Kind regards

Sean Rutledge

Principal