St Anthony's Primary School Girraween

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Venessa Ward as Acting Leader of Learning - Catholic Faith and Life for 2022 (Religious Education Coordinator or REC). With a broad knowledge of the St Anthony's history and culture, she bring a strong sense of community, Mercy Values and Faith in action to the role. Good luck in this new role!

As another year draws to a close, it brings with it the time to say goodbye to those members of staff who've chosen to take on different roles and journeys in 2022. It is with bittersweetness that we wish Mr Robert Barden (Religious Education Coordinator), Mr Ben South (IT Trainee), and Mrs Elizabeth Heness (Library Assistant) farewell as they depart St Anthony's at the end of 2021.

We thank them for their contributions throughout their time at St Anthony's and wish them all the very best for their future endeavours.

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we present to you the teaching teams of 2022. We especially welcome new teaching staff members to St Anthony's: Rose Keane (Instructional Leader), Amy Whitfield (Yr 2) and Susan O'Neill (Yr 6).  Today all students were informed of their class and teacher for 2022.

Principal - Trish Reilly

Assistant Principal & Stage 2 (Year 3-4) Coordinator - Patrick Cairns

Leader of Learning Catholic Faith and Life - Venessa Ward

Leader of Learning Diversity & Early Stage 1/Stage 1 (Year K-2) Coordinator - Venessa Ward

Leader of Learning Instructional Leader & Early Stage 1/Stage 1 (Year K-2) Coordinator - Rose Keane 

Leader of Learning & Stage 3 (Year 5-6) Coordinator - Caitlin Mackey (for term 1 only)

Learning Support and Specialist Intervention Teachers in Reading and Numeracy - Venessa Ward, Rose Keane, Louise Korny, Kate Robertson, Sheldon Law, Patrick Cairns, Rachel Grima

Specialist RFF Teachers - Luisa Onorato (PDHPE) and Belinda Martin (Creative Arts and Library)

Over the past two weeks, our Year 5 students have nominated for school leadership roles, and students in Years 3, 4 and 5 and staff have elected our student leadership team for 2022.  Congratulations to:

School Captains: Maisey Brown and Kishore Vasanthakumar

School Vice Captains: Zoe Heuston and Leo Cutajar

Enda House Leaders: Ryan Hamilton and Jessica Shirley

McAuley House Leaders: Charlize Berville and Sai Shailesh

MacKillop House Leaders: Ayan Prasad and Riya Parikh

Padua House Leaders: Isaiah Mikha and Fredric Mikhael

Today we presented our St Anthony of Padua Awards.  The St Anthony of Padua Award is presented to one student in each class, at the end of each academic year.  The award is awarded to a student who, through their words and deeds, models and gives witness to the example set through the lives of St Anthony of Padua and Jesus Christ, and whose growth and transformation during the year is worthy of recognition.  This is demonstrated through their outstanding and consistent display of the following qualities:

• Integrity - honesty and trustworthiness

• Self awareness - humility and gratitude

• Relational - love, empathy and inclusion

• Responsibility - loyalty and reliability

• Commitment - engagement and perseverance

• Leadership - motivation and initiative

Congratulations to all our worthy recipients.  Year 6 St Anthony of Padua Award recipients will be announced at our Graduation Ceremony on Monday night.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Christmas Event.  The event has already had hundreds of views, so it is pleasing to see so many people take part.  If you weren't able to join us on Wednesday evening, the video will remain online until the end of the term.

Our Christmas Event was based on a newly-released book, Star, written by Artelle Lenthall, who is an ex-student of St Anthony's.  If you'd like your own signed copy or give it as the perfect Christmas gift for another precious little star in your life, it's available to purchase right now at Five Senses Education, Seven Hills.

We need to be informed if your child/children will NOT be returning to school at St Anthony's in the 2022 school year (other than current Year 6 students).  Could you please provide WRITTEN NOTICE to the School Office immediately if your child will NOT be returning next year.  This information needs to be passed on to the Catholic Education Office, as it impacts our funding for 2022.  Ten weeks notice is required for change of enrolments to avoid incurring any additional fees.  We also have a waiting list in some grades for 2022 and could offer this place to another student.

Thank you for your support.