What a chilly week it has been getting back to school. It almost feels like I’m still back in Melbourne. Our NAIDOC celebrations this week have been a wonderful opportunity to immerse our students in a variety of activities exploring the culture of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.Thank you to Lizzy Christie for organising such inspiring experiences.

Next week we have a number of students heading off to Mulkadee which is an arts festival hosted by Townsville Catholic Education. Students from Years 4 -12 across our diocese get the opportunity to engage with specialist instructors in Drama, Dance, Choir, Instrumental Music- orchestral, guitar and strings and then perform for over a two thousand strong audience at Townsville Entertainment Centre. Primary students from years 4-6 can mostly participate in the choir but there are some opportunities depending on skill level for the other areas too. Mr Christie will be providing supervision and support for our students across the week. I am looking forward to the showcase on Friday night as it is always a very special event.

We also have Catholic Education Week coming up from 25 - 29 July which celebrates a theme of Communities of Faith, Love and Hope which is very appropriate given the current climate and challenges around the world. We will celebrate our Feast Day at the end of Catholic Education Week with mass in the morning, Feast Day activities in the middle session and Benny’s Got Talent in the afternoon session.

As we are continuing to have cool weather, I’d appreciate it if we could get on top of our school uniform expectations please. Students can wear navy blue or black track pants or tights under their shorts/ skorts/dresses (very economical consideration) and they can wear a long sleeve shirt under their school shirt with the school jacket or another navy blue or black jumper under the school jacket if more warmth than the school jacket is required. The school jacket is however a requirement under our uniform guidelines. I appreciate that these cost a little more but there are often second ones available or they can be sold off as second hand quite easily once students have outgrown them if affordability is an issue. School uniforms are important for building a sense of community and belonging.

Please have a lovely weekend.

Cheers

Penny