Over the past few weeks and continuing until 31st May is our enrolment period for the 2026 school year. If you have a child ready to start school in 2026, please ensure you process your enrolment application by the end of May. Last week and the week before we held our open days which were very well attended. The Year 6 leaders were wonderful hosts showing guests around the school. I thank the Year 6 volunteers for generously offering to run the school open day tours. I really appreciate their commitment, and they should be proud of positive feedback we received from all visitors about their enthusiasm and maturity. Thanks also to the parents for supporting them to be involved in this wonderful leadership opportunity.

I hope all mothers and special others had a wonderful day on Mother’s Day on the 11th and loved the gifts the children bought for you. The Mother’s Day stall always causes so much excitement for the students. They absolutely love going shopping independently and picking something special that they think you’ll love. Of course, an event like this doesn’t happen without a lot of hard work. I thank Di Smith and her helpers who put in hours of work to ensure there were enough beautifully presented gifts, so no one missed out. Your work was amazing! The stall raised an outstanding $6698 for the school. We are looking at what we will use the funds for and will be seeking ideas from the students, Community Council and any parents who would like to make a suggestion as to what we can do with the funds. One suggestion we are considering is upgrading some of the student bubblers. Once a decision is made, we will share what we purchased for the students with the money. Thanks to everyone for supporting this event by providing gift items and for giving the children money to spend. It is only a success because of the wonderful community support.

BOTTOM GATE – Kiss and Ride Zone

The Macquoid Street ‘Kiss and Ride Zone’ is designed for quick entry and exit to minimise congestion and risk. It must be a quick flow through and cars should be flowing smoothly to the far end (just past the school entry driveway) so that we can have 5 or 6 cars filled at once. Please wait rather than pass other cars to pop into empty spots as this causes gaps and slows the overall flow. It should flow in a smooth line. If you can arrive a little later this could help as well, as the bell doesn’t ring until 3pm so students are not out until closer to 3:05pm.

We really need to speed the flow up and are urging families using this pick-up area to use a laminated surname on their car sun visor so that we can get the students ready to enter the vehicle as quickly as possible. If you don’t have a laminated surname card, please advise the front office and we will print one for you. The visor should be flipped down as the car approaches and the teachers can call the students and direct them to wait where the car will stop once it flows through. Please be mindful of neighbours who may need to enter or exit their properties during this time. I thank you for your continued support in improving this afternoon flow.

Over the past two weeks we have had students represent the school at Rugby League, Netball, Rugby Union and Cross Country. Congratulations to all the students involved in these different sporting activities. The reports are that our students who participated have shown fair play which is more important than any other result, which is fantastic. I thank the teachers involved in organising and attending these different events for the children and to the parents who volunteered to support as coaches and managers. Without such support these opportunities would not be possible.

St Gregory’s held its first ‘Dance for Sick Kids’ fundraiser on Wednesday last week. The uniform free Dance for Sick Kids Day was a great success and lots of fun for the students. Thank you for your gold coin donations, these will go directly to Ronald MacDonald House so that they can continue to support families in need when their children are sick and they have to be away from home for treatment.

This past weekend saw the inaugural papal Mass, which signifies the beginning of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy. Yesterday’s Gospel reading John 13:34-35, ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you, you must love one another. By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.’ Talks to us about how we can live our Christian calling and links closely to how Pope Leo XIV will lead our church. In this special time in the life of our church we pray for Pope Leo.

Heavenly Father, You have entrusted Pope Leo XIV with Christ’s Church. Bless him, protect him, keep his heart soft amid the stresses and challenges he will undoubtedly face, so that he is open to the Spirit guiding him–and all of us–towards the future of the Church, a future that sees us loving more deeply and treating those around us with greater charity, in the spirit of Augustine.

In Jesus’s name we pray.

Amen.

https://hallow.com/blog/pope-leo-xiv-cardinal-robert-francis-prevost/

Have a blessed fortnight.

Please revisit the SCHOOL BUSCODE of CONDUCT with your child

NSW school bus travel is free for most of our students, however, the bus company has the right to withdraw a student’s bus pass if their behaviour does not follow the Code of Conduct. We would appreciate you speaking to your child/ren to reiterate the importance of following these rules, including staying seated with a seatbelt on, for their own safety and to ensure that they can continue to use this free service.

We hope that you all have an enjoyable break and did lots of reading! 

We have a few updates to the Library for this term: 

PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE 

Thank you to all of the parents that have been busy updating their child's reading records on the NSW PRC website. 

We now have  161 students registered for the challenge and 49 have already finished. 

Please remember that it is NOT a competition and there is still plenty of time to register and complete it. The end date has now been extended and now does not close until 26 September (Week 10, term 3). ALL students that complete the challenge will receive a certificate towards the end of term 4. 

We would like to acknowledge the students from each year who completed the challenge during the past 2 weeks: 

K - Joshua A

1 - Lara B, Naomi C, Katherine J, Zoe T

2 - Phoebe F

4 - Heidi B

5 - Digby B

If you have any questions, you can contact me at: natalina.ireland@cg.catholic.edu.au

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Lamont Book Fair 

Weeks 9 & 10 - final dates will be confirmed closer to the time 

In previous years our Book Fair has been organised through Scholastic, which also provides the Book Club. However, this year we are trialling a new company - Lamont. They already supply some of the books in our Library and we hope that this year's Book Fair will be equally as popular as previous years. 

National Simultaneous Storytime

Wed 21 May at 12:00pm

Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 25th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

This year's story is called, 'The Truck Cat' by Deborah Fenkel.