Dear St Anne's Community,

Welcome to the 2023 school year!

It was great to see the smiling faces yesterday, as the students entered our school grounds. The Opening School Mass was an amazing start to the year with students, families and staff coming together to celebrate so many wonderful aspects in front of us. The first Year 11 cohort received their blazers, our new students/staff/parents received a blessing and the new leadership team of Captains, Prefects and SRC students received their badges. You can read more about our Opening School Mass further on in the RE News section. 

A warm welcome to our new families and students. It is so nice to have new people join our great community and I look forward to welcoming you further at our school events. This year we have started with 46 new students, taking our K-11 enrolments to 244 students. 

This year we welcome a number of new staff members to our team. Mr Simon Gaynor, Mrs Lauren Herbert, Mrs Anne Cooper, Mrs Jenna Bush and Mr Brett Inch (Week 5>). I am delighted to have them on board and they bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Our School Leadership structure has changed slightly. We welcome Miss Michelle Jamieson to the newly created position of Acting Assistant Principal Secondary. We also welcome Mrs Georgina Breust to the Acting Secondary Curriculum Coordinator position. Therefore our structure is:

  Principal- Grant Haigh

  Assistant Principal Primary- Geraldine Holland

              Primary Curriculum Coordinator- Kellye-Anne Coleman

  Assistant Principal Secondary- Michelle Jamieson

              Secondary Curriculum Coordinator- Georgina Breust

  Religious Education Coordinator- Jacqui Collins

Staff spent the lead up to the first day of school preparing and learning. Staff have been involved in numerous sessions of Professional Development, including a session on Allocating Grades Consistently, which was delivered by the NSW Education Standards Authority. They also travelled to Canberra to hear from international and national experts in the field of education. 

I wish you and your families a prosperous and healthy year ahead and please do not hesitate to make contact with the school office if you have any questions or concerns, we are here to help. 

Take care,

Grant Haigh

Principal

Each year the school concentrates on one of the four focus areas which are listed at the bottom of the School Identity Statement (pictured above).

In 2023 our school-wide focus is on supporting the students to develop their ability to grow and increase their capacity for ‘resilience’. Resilience is the ability to harness one’s inner strength to help them rebound from setbacks or challenges. It gives one the ability to see past these challenges, to find enjoyment in life and better handle stress. These skills can be developed and learned with practice and commitment. While we can still experience strong emotion during challenging times, with resilience we keep functioning — both physically and psychologically. It’s also important to acknowledge that being able to reach out to others for support is a key part of being resilient. 

Mary MacKillop is a wonderful role model of how reaching out to support others can help to achieve great things. She experienced great adversity and hardship but never stopped working for others and achieving her best with great determination, perseverance and resilience. Caring about others and behaving towards them with affection, generosity and concern can lead to one having genuine feelings for another person’s struggle and being compelled to take action with the desire to help. 

Genuine expressions of compassion are fundamental to authentically living out our own faith, nurturing the faith life of our Catholic school community to be inclusive of all. In order to promote lifelong learning, we value each of these essential skills at St Anne’s, and work in partnership with families and the community to help foster these in the students. As always the strong tradition of the Josephite sisters in the Temora community and in particular of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, influence our theme. We hope to instil these same skills of determination, perseverance and resilience in the students and whole community of St Anne’s. 

It is our aim to not only encourage a sense of commitment, but also to promote initiative to seek out a relationship with God, to use their voices to speak up when they are in need and to act with genuine concern for one another whilst growing in their own capacity for resilience. 

Our scriptural quote for 2023 is:

“Whatever troubles may be before you, accept them bravely, 

remembering whom you are trying to follow.”           

                                                                 (Mary MacKillop,1909)

OPENING SCHOOL MASS & SRC INDUCTION

On Wednesday morning the 2023 School Captains, Sports Captains, Year 10 Prefects and the SRC class representatives from Years 3-9 for Semester 1 were inducted, receiving their badges at the Opening School Mass. We sincerely thank all who were able to join with us for the Mass.

The new Vicar General Fr Richard Thompson celebrated the Mass for us.  We were extremely fortunate to have also been joined by other distinguished guests with Mr Ross Fox Director of the Catholic Education Office, Mr Brad Gaynor Performance Improvement Leader Catholic Education Office, Temora Shire Council Mayor Rick Firman OAM accompanied by Mrs Beth Firman, Mr Dennis Sleigh former Principal of St Anne’s Mrs Margaret Sleigh, Sister Mary O’Dea rsj, benefactors and long-time friends of the school Mr Rex Bryant and Ms Rosemary Carney, our Parish Priest Fr Sijo Jose, and of course parents, friends, staff and students.

Our new students and staff members and families were welcomed. Fr Richard blessed the new teachers and student leaders as they begin the journey of guiding and leading the students of St Anne’s in the footsteps of Christ and proclaiming His name by their example.

This year marks a significant milestone in the history of St Anne’s Central School as we embark on our first intake of Year 11 students with the start of Stage 6. The St Anne’s Community Council gifted each of the pioneering Year 11 students with a senior blazer to commemorate this momentous occasion and we thank our distinguished guests for presenting these to our Year 11 class.

Let us embark on this 2023 school year forever faithful.

CONGRATULATIONS ARE EXTENDED TO THE NEW STAFF AND STUDENT LEADERS OF 2023

New Staff 2023

Miss Lauren Herbert: Science, Maths, Religion & PDHPE teacher

Mr Simon Gaynor: Construction, Wood and Metal teacher & VET coordinator

Mrs Anne Cooper: Art, Tech & Food Tech teacher

Mr Brett Inch: Maths and Metal teacher & Careers coordinator

Mrs Jenna Bush: English, History & Religion teacher

School Captains 2023

Bea Balon (Yr 11)

Angus Cooper (Yr 11)

Meg Ruskin (Yr 6)

Judd Oliver (Yr 6)

School Prefects 2023

Ruby Matthews (Yr 10)

Josie Crawford (Yr 10)

Sport Captains 2023

Joes: Mia Block (Yr 11) and Livy Blackwell (Yr 6)

Johns: Zoe Bent (Yr 11) and Georgia Gibbs (Yr 6)

Pauls: Joshua Daly (Yr 11) and Imogen Baldock (Yr 6)

Pats: Callie Gregory (Yr 10) and Matthias Lancaster (Yr 6)

Student Representative Council 2023

Yr 3: Evie Keith & Mack Oliver 

Yr 4: Primrose Minchin & Joey Guymer

Yr 5: Addie Warren & Riley Gilchrist 

Yr 7: Lana King & Charlie Cooper

Yr 8:  Izzy Crawford & Bradley Daly

Yr 9: Maisy McCrone & Lillian Oliver

The students will resume attendance at the weekly parish Masses at 10am on a Wednesday morning on a class roster commencing in Week 3.

FIRST RECONCILIATION DATES FOR THE CALENDAR

A note will be sent home to the Year 3 parents next week regarding the Sacrament of First Reconciliation. Any families who have a child wishing to join the Sacramental program for their First Reconciliation from Year 4 -11 are invited to email or contact Mrs Collins at jacqueline.collins@cg.catholic.edu.au 

First Reconciliation Parent Meeting in St Joseph’s Hall 7pm Thursday 2nd March, (Week 5 of Term 1)

First Reconciliation Sacrament Sacred Heart Parish Church 7pm Thursday 4th May, (Week 2 of Term 2)

REFURBISHMENT OF THE SACRED HEART PARISH CHURCH

During the past few months there have been significant changes made to Sacred Heart Parish church with it’s refurbishment. The changes include fresh paint with a new colour scheme, the seats and floorboards sanded and polished as well as new carpet. Thank you to all of those involved in the process which our school community gets to benefit from. We ask that parents please speak to their children to reiterate what the teachers have said about respecting the church and looking after it (including avoiding sharp objects in their pockets at Mass to prevent scratches in the seats, for example).

ALTAR SERVING

Altar server training will recommence later in the term.To be eligible, the children must have received their First Eucharist in the Catholic Church. If your child would like to become involved in serving in this way, please contact Mrs Collins via email at jacqueline.collins@cg.catholic.edu.au to indicate your interest in adding them to the program. 

Book Club

Edition #1 of ‘Scholastic Book Club News’ has been sent home this week. All orders are to be made and paid for by visiting scholastic.com.au/LOOP or by downloading the LOOP app. Further information regarding this is on the last page of the Book Club newspaper. Edition #1 orders are due by 9am on Thursday 16^th February 2023.

If you are placing an order, please visit scholastic.com.au/LOOP to see if you are eligible for the FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY offer.

Breakfast gives your child energy for play, learning, remembering and solving problems. A healthy breakfast has a balance of carbohydrates, protein and fat. Find more information at Raising Children

We offer classes in kinder gym, gymnastics, acro, cheer, ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, contemporary and highland. Experienced and qualified teachers.

Ages from 3 and up.

Studio is at the Temora Uniting Church Hall, Polaris Street.

Classes resume Monday 6 February, enrolments are still being taken.

For enquiries please phone Christine on 0427 782 954.