Dear Parents and Guardians,

I know I am stretched when I draft the newsletter at home on a Sunday.  However, I remind myself constantly at this time of year, that it is the season when everything converges, and if we’re not careful, we turn into robots and just start ticking off our to do list and lose sight of the children and community we seek to serve. In fact, I treat my stories that I share with you so seriously, I have decided to hold off until the weekend to reflect more deeply as we share life, community and commitment to your child.

I am amazed at the strangest of places where I learn about the role of service to the St Paul’s community, and how important our work is. This time it was at the school disco, as two students chose to share some of their very important dance time with me, rather than dancing with their friends. The first one involved a Year 1 girl who was obviously struggling with the noise and the crowd of students in the hall.  She came outside with her friend and sat on the seats just outside the hall. After a while, she came over to me and told me she had an earache and was wondering how much longer until the disco finished and her mum would be there to pick her up? Now there obviously was some anxiety there, I reassured her, and her little friend and they then went back to their seat outside to eat their chips and drink their juice, She then came back a little while later and asked me if I could see her at the table?  I again reassured her and she happily went back to her friend. At the time I never thought too much about it, but upon reflection, i know it was important for this young lady to know that I was around, I didn’t need to be with her, she was more than able to manage her own anxiety, as long as there was someone in the background making sure everything was going to be ok. As I think about it more, I’m so glad that I didn’t jump in to save the child, but did enough to give her the confidence to manage her own uncomfortableness, which she did admirably. That is what we do as parents all the time. I don’t know about you, but too often I have jumped in too soon and spoilt a huge learning opportunity for my child or someone else’s child. Thank you to this seven year old for reminding me about this at the disco.

The second involved another student who spent considerable time with me on disco night, genuinely wanting to help me, as well as being very willing to give me some “good advice” about the night!  He asked me with a very serious look: “What do you do when you are a principal?” I said in my own cheeky way, knowing everything goes back to mum or dad,

”I just sit in my office signing papers and I relax.”

He then asked me with a very serious look on his face, “Who is your boss?”  Naturally, I asked why he wanted to know this? This very honest eight year old then said, “Because I think your boss is paying you too much money.”  I was speechless, which everyone knows is rare!

In relation to the above stories from our school disco, a well known educator, many years ago once said to me that if a Catholic school is to be congruent with its beliefs and message, then there will be the challenge to have the school as a listening place where the “Word” should be recreated and generated.  Schools may be engrossed in active time that is time organised, time controlled by buzzers, time tables, appointments, and by work, BUT the most valuable time for me was at the disco last Friday!

Finally, in conclusion to my story, I cannot finish this story without acknowledging the parents and teachers who made the disco such a “feel good” experience for the children.  Your contribution and work never goes unnoticed and I thank everyone involved.

Kind regards,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Change in the Canteen for 2020

During term 3 and 4, Mrs Roberts and I have been very busy planning and implementing a tender process to outsource the canteen from 2020.  This has been unfortunate, but the reality is that over the past five years, the canteen has struggled to balance the books and has incurred financial losses.  Naturally, this is not sustainable and has resulted in a need to outsource canteen services effective from 2020. This has not been a result of poor management, but due to the financial challenges associated with running canteens today as well as keeping on top of all compliance requirements, which has led to most schools no longer running them but outsourcing them for a rental fee.  In fact, I need to acknowledge the work of Julie Butterfield, who with her team of parents have managed to stave off this outcome for so long.

I wish to thank both Mrs Butterfield, and you the parents and grandparents, who have made the St Paul’s canteen such an institution.  Once the tender process has been finalised in the coming weeks, more information, including new menus and organisational matters will be shared with the parent community.