Dear parents, friends, staff and students,

This Sunday, the church returns to what we call ‘ordinary time’. It is ordinary in the sense that we are not celebrating a specific season such as Lent, Advent or Christmas. It does not however, suggest that this time is less important than the others. It is sometimes within the ‘ordinary’ that we might get the best advice or the most easily understood messages. In this week’s Gospel, Matthew 9:36- 10:8, Jesus uses the phrase “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few”. As teachers at the moment, this is particularly relevant, but in a broader sense it is an invitation for each of us to take part in the harvest. We can be both harvester and crop. In the second part of this Gospel, each of the apostles is individually named and a number of them also have a brief description given about them. Perhaps Matthew goes into this detail partly to ensure that we are aware that God picks people by name and knows of us each individually. The harvest that is occurring is the richness that occurs as we grow in relationship with God. We do this by cultivating good deeds and acting in the way that God expects. One message here in the ordinary day to day of our lives is to go out and live a life that brings us closer to God but also brings others as well.

Today and Monday we will be posting our Year 7, 2024 offers. This is the culmination of a process that began mid-way through term 1 and involved an information evening and interviews with all applicants. In the end, we have applied the CEDoW advertised enrolment criteria and this will determine who is able to join our community next year. I thank all who have been involved in the process and whilst I empathise with those who have missed out, it is encouraging to know that there is such great desire to join us.

In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about two issues that I wanted to repeat to ensure all parents are aware. They are repeated here:

Over the past few weeks, we have been stretched with staff absences and the inability to access casual teaching staff. This has been a difficulty across schools this year and we had avoided large scale supervision of multiple classes until this past fortnight. On the whole, most students have been very cooperative and have worked well in these larger groups. This is not our preference and is less than ideal, however, in discussions with colleague principals, we were able to hold out on doing this longer than many. We are working toward accessing more casuals and hoping that the current spreading of illness amongst staff will ease. We are looking to ensure solid learning still occurs in an environment of safety and care.

Over the past few months, we have had a number of issues with the junior girl’s and boy’s toilets. Much of this stems from the inability of staff to easily see into the common areas in the toilets and who is gathering in them. We are looking to open new junior boy’s toilets when the senior girls move to the new amenities block at the top of the school. Following discussion with the College Captains and P&F, I will be looking to improve general supervision by placing ventilation grates at the end of the corridor which runs between the cubicles, install new lighting and re-paint. This will ensure staff can see into the corridor and will be able to supervise more appropriately. The aim is to complete these works during the next holidays.

Ite in Veritate

Mr Steve Lo Cascio