Dear families

It was a joy to welcome our Secondary students back last week and it has certainly been a beautiful start to the school year.  Pope Francis has declared 2025 to be a Jubilee Year with an overarching theme of HOPE. In the Catholic Church a Jubilee Year only comes along once every 25 years.  The frequency has changed over time: at first, they were celebrated every 100 years; later, in 1343 Pope Clement VI reduced the gap between Jubilees to every 50 years, and in 1470 Pope Paul II made it every 25 years. 

A Jubilee Year such as this one can be seen as an opportunity to reset… and perhaps to look at life with fresh eyes. As a staff, the lens through which we are seeing with fresh eyes this year is one of connection. We know that when students have a sense of connection and belonging in their school community they are more likely to be engaged and focused on learning. Teachers have been using the opening lessons of the year to begin explicitly building connections with students and setting the tone of their classrooms.  It has been wonderful to walk through classes in these early days of the term and see everyone settling in so well.

This year we are also rolling out our updated Uniform Policy. I am very grateful for the large number of parents, staff and students who engaged in the review process we held last year. The feedback we received was incredibly helpful and enabled us to refine the policy and also clarify the implementation processes around it. Overwhelmingly, the feedback indicated that our community places a high value on the uniform expectations we set and there is an eagerness to maintain the high standard of presentation we see from our students. There are a few components of the policy that we have adjusted and we have also had very productive conversations as a staff regarding how we can implement the policy in the most fair and equitable way possible, with a strong emphasis on taking a relational approach that always maintains the dignity of students in the process. Please take some time to read the updated policy which is included for your reference.

All the best for the year ahead.

God bless

Angela Myles | Executive Principal