From the Principal's Desk
Dear Parents/Carers,
We have recently placed signage around the school that documents our school vision and mission. Our vision speaks of the essence of the philosophy of our school. It outlines what assumptions we make decisions about, the people in our school and our goals as a Catholic primary school in Camden. Our vision has at its centre, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our christian story provides an orientation of consciousness about the ethos of St Paul’s. It is the values that are shared in the Gospel that offer the criteria by which our effectiveness needs to be evaluated. I am of the belief, this was never more so apparent than during lockdown and remote learning.
With this in mind, I leave you with our vision and I ask all to make a little list of how you see this in our school, especially during the challenges of the past two years:
With Jesus as our model;
In the tradition of St Paul and St Mary MacKillop
we strive to provide an education that
challenges and encourages all to achieve their full potential.
We do this in partnership with our families,
parish and the wider community.
We are committed to our school motto of ‘Truth, Love, Faith’.
Students Preparing For First Holy Communion
I am mindful of the students in the parish currently preparing for their First Holy Communion. Now that we can celebrate the mass as a community again, I look with great satisfaction as the families have obviously made the effort to pass on their Christian tradition, faith and spirituality to their children. This is not only something that happens within a Catholic school but must come from home first, as well as from connection with parish. Jesus is obviously central to everything we do at St Paul’s and there are also many other aspects of life that children, parents and teachers value. This is our story and we are formulating it in some way every day.
A man by the name of Thomas Berry in his book; ‘The Dream Of The Earth,’ reflects on our Catholic story and the challenges facing the Catholic Church. I found this following statement by him quite thought provoking:
It’s all a question of story. We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories.
Our vision tries to articulate our new story at St Paul’s. The commitment from parents and the staff to passing on our positive new story is happening right now. I am responsible for this and so are you!
Go gently,
Michael Reardon
Principal
Welcome To Our New Staff
I would like to officially welcome Mr Matthew Messina (3F) and Mr Andrew Birkett (4F) to St Paul’s School. Both are replacing staff who are on maternity leave. Mrs Marchant, who has just given birth to a little girl and Mrs Buchanan who is close to having her first child as well. I know the staff and parent community will do their best to make both Matthew and Andrew welcome.
Congratulations Our New School Leaders 2022
Congratulations to the students in Yr 5 - Anna, Bianca, Tabitha, William, Aidan and Ben who have been successful in their nominations for the Student Leadership Council. This week we will continue the process to choose from this group our school captains for 2022.
Haircuts
Now that we are fully back at school and have been so for 2 weeks, part of re-establishing routines is to focus again on our school uniform and presentation. Since the students have returned, there have been some interesting hairstyles that are outside the school uniform policy which parents signed.
Next week I will be focusing on students’ hair. As per our policy students are required to:
- Wear their hair in a neat and tidy manner.
- Haircuts should be of an even grade (No fades).
- Bleaching, colouring and dying of hair is not permitted.
- No undercuts, steps or shaved lines.
- Nothing shorter than a number 3 comb. Hair should not extend over the shirt collar (Boys)
- Man buns are not permitted
Uniform constitutes part of the discipline code of the school. When uniform and hair operate outside what we seek to identify with it is also reflected in the students’ behaviour and learning. Can you please support the school with this, as I am sure that everyone can get into a barber/ hairdresser by now.
I will be approaching parents next week if their children come to school outside the guidelines.