Dear Parents, Carers, Staff and Students,

Welcome to the Week 5 school newsletter. As noted through our recent notifications this year we have made the conscious decision to provide three detailed newsletters each term with a focus on student learning, wellbeing, and community engagement. This approach allows us to share more meaningful updates, celebrate achievements, and highlight key initiatives that support our students' growth. In this edition, we reflect on the importance of enriching our faith in this year of Jubilee, provide an update on our annual improvement plans, acknowledge the dedication of our staff, and provide important updates on upcoming events. Thank you for your continued support in fostering a vibrant and connected school community.

As we enter more deeply into this Jubilee Year each Parish received materials from the Diocese of Wollongong that were distributed to parishioners over the weekend. In addition, all parishes in the Diocese have received “pilgrim passports” for parishioners who would like a passport to assist entering more deeply into the spirit of the Jubilee Year.  The passports contain excellent information about the meaning of the Jubilee Year, associated themes of pilgrimage, the Jubilee Indulgence, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and list all six pilgrimage sites in our Diocese. We are grateful to the staff at the Office of the Bishop for their creativity in designing such an accessible and creative way to assist us all to enter more fully into the spiritual potential of the Jubilee Year. Each pilgrimage site also has a “stamp” that can be provided when you make a special pilgrimage to the site. I encourage all families to attend weekend mass at St Anthony’s parish church to pick your passport and make the commitment to collect as many stamps as possible in this year of Jubilee.

2025 Annual School Improvement Plan

In 2025 staff, students, parents and carers had an opportunity to provide feedback about the strengths and areas of growth for the school. This feedback was used by staff and the School Leadership Team in consultation with the Catholic Education Office to develop the St Anthony’s Annual Improvement plan for 2025. This year will see the staff at St Anthony’s focus on an Annual Improvement Goal which is briefly outlined below.

All students will experience expected growth in learning Mathematics through quality assessments.

Teachers' professional learning will be an integral component of the St Anthony’s Annual Improvement Plan. Teachers will be released from their teaching load throughout the year to engage in professional learning targeted to the above annual improvement goals. We are looking forward to this year's targeted learning and partnership with our parents and carers.

On behalf of the staff at St Anthony's we look forward to working with our parents and carers to provide a supportive and caring learning environment whereby every student finds meaning and purpose in their life through experiencing continual growth in their Faith and improvement in their learning.

Listening Interviews

Last week the teaching staff have provided the opportunity to have ‘Listening Interviews’ with the parents of the students in their class. The focus of these interviews is for parents to provide a snapshot of the strengths, areas for growth and other relevant information that will support the learning of your child. 

What this interview process highlights, for me, is the role we all play in developing a partnership with parents that supports every child’s spiritual, academic, emotional and physical wellbeing. As a school community we strive to build this partnership that centres on three key fundamental areas:

1. In connection with the parish, a partnership that centre’s on supporting your child’s faith
2. In connection with the staff, a partnership that centre’s on supporting your child’s learning.
3. In connection with the P&F, a partnership that centre’s on supporting activities/events that bring the whole community together.

For this partnership to be effective it requires active engagement from both the school and the home environment. As a school we strongly encourage your active engagement to support your child's learning and wellbeing. While the Listening Meetings and other initiatives, like the Grade Overviews, provide opportunities to share information about your child's learning and wellbeing, you are always welcome to arrange with the school office an informal meeting or phone call with your child's teacher throughout the year. Sometimes you might just want to touch base with a teacher to see how your child is going and how you can support learning. Please be assured that teachers will communicate with you when required to share learning successes or concerns.

Can I take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedication and hard work that each staff member of our St Anthony’s community gives to the support of each child in our school. Our learning interviews highlight the importance our teachers place in building the important parent partnership.

Take Care

Mr Justin Devlin 

Principal