Dear Parents,

Thank you for the lovely well wishes I received while I was away on Paternity leave. My wife and I welcomed our son Croí (Pronounced ‘Kree’ meaning Heart) in week 1 of this term. I thank the staff and particularly Mr Wigg, for taking on the management of the school, only three days after he joined us, to allow me to enjoy this special time with my family.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating the Feast of the Assumption where at the end of her life, Mary, the Mother of Christ, was taken body and soul into heaven to live with her Son. All are welcome for Mass at noon in the church.

Farewell

On Friday we will be hosting a community afternoon tea from 1:10 pm in the staffroom for Mrs Margaret Pollard. This afternoon tea will be followed by an assembly in the hall to thank Mrs Pollard for her significant contribution to our school. Please RSVP for catering purposes via Skool Bag.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Renovation

Our renovation works are in the final stages of confirmation and will likely begin next week. During this time, the stage and office side of the hall will be out of action. Services will still run as normal in the hall but in a reduced space. Fencing will be erected to close off the building site from the useable space. Unfortunately, the hall doors will be inaccessible from the office side. The building team will work to prioritise the completion of the hall, which will hopefully be completed at the end of week 9. The focus will then turn to the reception area, which will be closed off during the holiday break for its fit-out. During the Holiday program, all access to the school will need to be via the back gates.

New App for School Communication

Our school has been undertaking a process to streamline our website, newsletter and communications with one provider. Our new website was launched last year, and our new-look online newsletter launched earlier this year.  The final step in this process is to phase in the SZapp as a way of communicating with parents and connecting all these forms of communication. Feedback from some parents regarding communication tools such as Skoolbag have been around too much communication and receiving messages that may not be related to your child. The SZapp addresses some of this feedback as it allows for greater control of notifications for the end-user allowing you to subscribe to specific groups and receive notifications about content that is more relevant to your family.

From Week 7 this Term, we will begin to phase in SZapp with a full change over expected to commence at the beginning of Term 4. From weeks 7-10 content will be duplicated across both SZapp and Skoolbag platforms to aide in the switch. SZapp will replace the SkoolBag app, and SkoolBag will not be used after the end of this term.

We thank you for your cooperation.  More information regarding how to download and install the app will be in next week's newsletter.

Blessings and best wishes

Sean Rutledge

Acting Principal