What a fantastic community!

Thank you to our St Aloysius families who made all our Get to Know You activities so successful over the past week. Our Kindergarten children and their families set a wonderful example by turning up to Whitewater Park in Chisholm in great numbers last week. I hope you saw the photos in The Maitland Mercury last Tuesday.

Thank you very much to our St Aloysius Kinder teachers for 2014 Gabi Lawler and Jane Pearce for the exciting day they planned for our 2015 Year 1 students at Our Lady of Lourdes Tarro on Tuesday. Thank you also to Anthony Weir, the Principal of St Joseph's who drove the bus for the students from his school.

Most of our Year 2015 2 - 6  students attended the Get to Know You Day at St John's Maitland on Tuesday and spent the day with the newly appointed 2015 St Aloysius teachers. Everyone had a wonderful day making new friends and talking about our new school.

We capped off a wonderful week by sharing a BBQ together at St Mary's Maitland on Thursday evening. Thank you very much to one of our Dad's Andrew Cornwall who organised most of the night as well as the Food Tech Assistant Tania Cullity who had our food cooked and prepared beautifully.

This week our Bishop approved our school motto and uniform. We have a sample of the girl's summer uniform and the boy's shirt will be complete when it has the crest embroidery. Unfortunately, I am unable to upload the coloured version of the crest but will do as soon as possible.

St Aloysius are very excited to have been appointed to our school and I will introduce them in my next blog.

Wishing all families a safe and enjoyable holiday.

A Memorable Week!

This week commenced with the much anticipated arrival of our fourth grandson Oliver Jack Fern in Brisbane. It was hard waiting for the weekend to travel up north to visit him.

 

Amazing Teachers!

 

A panel of four spent three full days interviewing more than 20 amazing teachers wanting to teach at St Aloysius in 2015. After much deliberation we made our recommendations and are looking forward to introducing our new staff to the school community after all the processes and clearances are complete.

 

Kindergarten 2015!

 

We finished the week with a wonderful gathering of over 150 people for Afternoon Tea in Whitewater Park Chisholm. Most of our Kindergarten students for 2015 and their families were able to attend. The children even lined up for their first school photo which we will publish when we have Photo Permission forms signed by all families. This was a wonderful opportunity for parents and children alike to make some new friends as members of our school community.

 

Next week.

 

Tuesday September 16 - our Year 1 students for 2015 will be spending the day together at Our Lady of Lourdes Tarro. Thank you to the current St Aloysius Kinder teachers at OLOL and St Joseph's - Gabrielle Lawler and Jane Pearce for their wonderful work with many of these students in 2014 and for their organisation for next week's 'Getting to Know You' day.

 

Thursday September 18 - our Year 2 - 6 students for 2015 will be gathering at St John the Baptist School Maitland to get to know more about their new school and new classmates. We hope some of our 2015 teachers will be able to take part in running some of the activities on this day.

 

Thursday September 18 - our first family BBQ will be held in the grounds of St Mary's Campus, All Saints College. We are looking forward to the opportunity for our families to meet and make some new friends and connections. We also hope to be able to present our new school uniform to the school community on this evening. Families are reminded to please RSVP for this event if they haven't already done so.

New Zealand School Visits

This week I travelled to Auckland to visit some schools known for their success in meeting the needs of 21st century learners.

Thank you to Sarah Martin and her team at Stonefields School for sharing their time and expertise. Stonefields opened in 2011 and is a wonderful learning environment.
Have a look at their school at http://www.stonefields.school.nz/

I also visited Hingaia Peninsular School and enjoyed learning from the Principal Jane Danielson about the exciting journey their school has been on since opening in 2012. Learn more about this school at https://sites.google.com/a/hp.school.nz/hps/home

These photos are from these two amazing schools.

Building Progress despite the rain!

Despite having record rainfalls in August our buildings are still progressing well. The foundations were being poured today for the fourth and final building in Stage One - the second set of four classrooms. The Multipurpose building is getting close to completion and internal painting has been completed.

 

 

 

Work on the Chapel and Hall is now not affected by the weather as the roof has been completed.

 

The first building housing our Kinder and Year One classrooms is also taking shape.