Dear Parents and Carers

 World Teachers’ Day - Reach out with a message of thanks and appreciation!

This Friday is World Teachers’ Day!  Or as I like to call it - World Staff Day!  We work as a team at Rosary and all staff support our students and families in some way.  Every child matters and every staff member matters.

If you can spare a few minutes before Friday or on Friday, maybe you or your child could write a note of thanks or appreciation to a teacher or member of our staff. It could even be a picture or even a chat in person. That's the best acknowledgement we like!

We are all blessed and privileged to be able to educate and work with our students and your support and encouragement means so much.  Thank you.     

This message of support and thanks for all teachers and staff also came through from the National Catholic Education Commission.

Hats off to teachers!  

Tomorrow on World Teachers’ Day (31 October), we celebrate more than 112,000 dedicated staff in Catholic schools across Australia. Each one plays a vital role in forming the minds and hearts of our young people. Their work is not simply a job – it is a vocation of deep service, hope and love. 

In classrooms, playgrounds, staff rooms and communities, our teachers accompany students as they learn, grow and discover who they are called to be. They help each child flourish, nurturing knowledge, wellbeing, faith and the inherent dignity of every student. In doing so, they share in God’s plan for fullness of life, both here and in eternity. 

We are very grateful for the patience, wisdom and compassion our teachers offer each day. Their influence reaches far beyond the school gate, it shapes lives, strengthens families and enriches the common good. 

To all our teachers and school staff, thank you. Your vocation makes a lasting difference today and every day. We hope you enjoy your special day! 

 Jacinta Collins
Executive Director
National Catholic Education Commission

Chief Minister’s Annual Reading Challenge Awards

Rosary students again picked up Awards in the Chief Minister's Reading Challenge held this year. Last week two of our Year 5 students, Sangay and Eve, attended the awards ceremony with Mrs Green and Mrs Watson.  The ceremony was at the National Library of Australia. Students also had a special tour of the Library to places not often open to the public.  They also took part in some writing and reading activities.      

 The Awards we received were in the categories for Kindergarten to Year 2 and also the Year 3 and Year 4 division.  Well done to all of the students for reading so many books as part of the challenge!  Well done. 

Coming Up - ‘Principal for a Day’ Reward

Shortly we will have the Principal for a Day Fun Day Reward as well as a special treat for the highest earning class for donations. We are looking forward to having the final celebrations of our major fundraising event - the colour run!  

Advance Notice - Lockdown Drill Coming Up next Wednesday

I would just like to give parents and carers a heads up that as a school we will be having a Lockdown Drill next Wednesday 5 November. We are required to have these drills to ensure students, staff and visitors are prepared in the event of a ‘need’ to stay really safe and quiet inside the school or the classroom.  For example there may be an incident within the school, an outside threat or something happening in the community where people can’t be outside the school buildings. These events are rare but do happen in some of our schools at times.

If you feel your child may be anxious about our practice drill, please feel free to talk to them in advance of next Wednesday and reassure them that their teacher and the school staff do this together and we will all be safe. The drill does involve turning lights off, closing all classroom blinds and curtains, locking their classroom door and sitting still and quiet so they do not draw attention to their presence in their room. We will only do this for 5-6 minutes but in a real scenario it can be longer.   

We also did regular evacuation drills earlier in the year and last term even had a couple of ‘false alarms’ where the fire brigade attended and we evacuated to the oval.   

If parents and carers find themselves at school at one of these times during an emergency, please follow the staff and the school routines.  Thank you.   

 Wishing everyone a great week ahead.  God bless.

Greg Walker 

Principal