Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to Week 6.

New Principal for Rosary Announced

This week the announcement came through that Petra Cole will be the new principal at Rosary Primary School.  I congratulate Petra on her appointment and look forward to welcoming her to Rosary in the near future to meet students and staff. 

The appointment letter from Catholic Education outlines all of Petra’s qualifications, experiences and achievements. It will be good to have a handover with Petra towards the end of the year and discuss all of the wonderful things that make Rosary School such a special place.   

Welcome Back Mrs Abarquez 

This week we welcomed back Mrs Diandra Abarquez following 12 months of parental leave following the birth of her beautiful boy Brooklyn.  Mrs Abarquez will be working on Mondays and Tuesdays until the end of year, covering classes in various ways. 

Book Week Thank You

Thank you to Mrs Jodie Dawson for organising a fantastic Book Week and Book Fair last week.  As always the week is a highlight of the year.  Well done to everyone for dressing up for the Book Week Character Parade on Friday.    

Rosary Staff Away at times

There are a lot of ‘bugs’ and illnesses going around Canberra at the moment and Unfortunately a number of Rosary teachers and staff have been unwell. There is a national teacher shortage and we do our best to find relief teachers to cover classes.  Occasionally we do not have enough teachers available and we do have to spilt students to other classes with work to complete. 

We always try to minimise the disruption to students’ learning. 

I want to thank our great Rosary staff for supporting each other and taking extra students when required.  Thank you also to our parents and carers for your understanding.  

Rosary Fathers’ Day Breakfast

The Rosary School community will celebrate Fathers’ Day next week with a breakfast for all who can make it.  The breakfast is on Friday 5 September between 8am-9am. Please see the flyer sent out by our Community Council this week with the details and RSVP for numbers. There is no charge for the breakfast, we would just love you to attend and mingle with other families.  

Thank you to our parent volunteers with children in Year 4 for being involved in making this event possible. 

2025 Major Rosary Fundraiser

The Community Council has another event coming up soon.  The Rosary Colour Run returns for 2026 and promises to be bigger and better this year. The fun run last year was a lot of fun and bought students, parents and staff together for a great afternoon!

We will launch the colour run next Monday 1 September and encourage each student to seek sponsors for the event to help raise money for the school. The actual date for the colour run is Thursday 25 September (Week 10).

Thank you in advance for supporting our major fundraiser of the year.  More information to follow next week.   

Rosary Community Council - Open Meeting Next Week

Members of our Community Council would like to invite you to the next meeting which is an OPEN MEETING on Wednesday 3 September (Week 7) at 5.30pm in the school staffroom.

Our OPEN MEETING each year has attracted a number of parents to attend and hear about the work of the Community Council and the roles everyone plays in supporting the governance of the school.

Currently there are 9 parent representatives on the Community Council, with each parent bringing varying types of professional experience and parent insights. There are also 3 staff representatives on the Council, as well as Fr Renoir.

Please consider coming along, maybe bring a friend, and learn more about how our Community Council supports our school community. 

Year 1 Portrait Gallery Excursion

This week Year 1 students and staff attended the Australian Portrait Gallery.  They all said it was a very interesting place.

This is what some of the students said about the excursion:

We did poses and it was fun and it was colourful.  We did self portraits and it was the best. We drew to music and it was fun. Walter M

On our excursion some of us did poses and then we saw some cool paintings and then we had to draw a picture of ourselves and then we got to hold a really cool necklace. Evie Q

At the Portrait Gallery we got to do self portraits. At the gallery we did poses for pictures. We got to draw to music. We got to see portraits made of spray paint. We got to see models of people. Our excursion was really fun. On the bus on the way there I sat next to Isla. Charlie S

We saw a portrait of a famous singer. We saw statues of indigenous people. We saw a video portrait. We all drew to music and we drew a self portrait. I loved the excursion so much. Hudson H

Yesterday we went on a bus. We listened to music and drew.  I drew me.  Amira N

At the gallery we had so much fun. We listened to music and we drew. Max G-M

ACT Chess Final

This Thursday 28 August is the ACT Primary Schools Chess Finals at Trinity Christian School Wanniassa. Rosary has our best chess players competing in 1 team.  They are certainly very good players and what a great opportunity this is to test their skills against the best players from other schools. Our chess team consists of  

• Ryan D
• Ram R
• Julia L
• Max P

Thank you again to Mrs Dawson for facilitating our Chess Program at Rosary.

Year 3 Liturgy

This Friday 29 August our Year 3 students and staff will celebrate their year level liturgy in our parish church at 10.00am.  All parents and carers are welcome to attend.  

Wishing you well for the week ahead.

God Bless.

Greg Walker

Principal