Dear Parents/Carers,                                                                        

The school fete is over for another year. It truly is a celebration of community life and through supporting the fete, no matter in what way (bringing the family, working on a stall, providing gift boxes, cakes and slices or the many other requests), you, the parent community are giving your children their St Paul’s story. In fact, I call it their rite of passage! When they leave the school, it is my wish that every child can tell a story about a staff member who genuinely cared about them as a young person (hopefully more than one). They won’t remember how inspiring their maths lesson was or their Word Sort during spelling activities. They will remember people they related to AND the St Paul’s Fete, where one day a year all school bureaucracy and rules aren’t there and each child can be truly free.

I’m also drawn to how important the quality of relationships between teachers and parents are. Such relationships call for tolerance, mutual respect for the position and perspectives of others, so critical in the planning leading up to fete day. Fete day enables the staff and parents to practise this very important skill as all look beyond self and take responsibility for our communities development.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the work of the fete committee. It takes about six months to plan for our big day each year, please know your work is noticed and deeply respected.

On another matter, last Wednesday Mrs Mangiapane came to me to say that there was a man in the office who wanted to meet with me. It was out of the blue, he was a former student at a previous school where I was principal. The man in question is now 24, struggled at school with his learning, but has a trade and is making his way in the world. His family had moved into the area and he sort me out. What he was really doing is acknowledging the very essence which I shared with you in the above. I had a year 5 student with me at the time, telling me about his trip overseas, back to Croatia to spend time with his extended family. I looked at the student in the room with me after Robert left (the former student) and said to him, this is exactly what we are doing now. I wanted the student to know that it was more than just his visit to Croatia that I was interested in. I wanted him to know that I genuinely cared about him as a young person and his interests were my interests.

Never take for granted the impact we have on the formation of young people. They grow into adults and some will come back and share their story with you as men and women.

Go Gently,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Principal Awards

Congratulations to the following students who have recently received a Principal Award.

Cohen M, Noah A, Liliana P, Sofia H, Oliver I, Vivienne C, Leo A, Ruben S, Charlotte C, Austen F, Leila H, Georgia C, Ollie C, Lourdes F, Mollee M, Edward K, Franco R.