Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have had a wonderful start to the beginning of Term 4. The students have returned settled and ready to learn. I hope that you found some time over the student vacation period to rest and relax as a family.

It was my pleasure to accompany Lesina-Rose and her parents to the Christmas Story Art competition Awards evening last week. Lesina's stunning artwork was one of about 40 artworks selected from around 150 submissions from our 29 diocesan schools which is a huge achievement. Her artwork is proudly displayed in the Wollongong Art gallery. Those 150 submissions were sent in from thousands of artworks of students across all Year 5 and 6 students in the diocese. What an achievement!

Last Monday afternoon, teachers engaged in a professional learning day focused on deep syllabus exploration in mathematics, embedding content on the working mathematically outcome and formative assessment which informs teaching and learning. This work is a continuation of the work we have been undertaking all year with the support of Mark Boss an Education Officer from CEDoW. We look forward to putting this work into practice in the classrooms.

Yesterday Miss Elchaar and Miss Dowsett accompanied me to 'Spotlight on Technology.' This event focussed on AI, what it is, how it is being used by students and teachers, the possibilities for using AI, risk and ethical use and many other topics. Adam Spencer was the keynote speaker and schools and teacher presented some ideas for how they are currently using AI. The event was hugely inspirational as we here at St Patrick's consider what technology looks like in our school for 2025 and beyond.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the teachers off St Patrick's for the care they show to our students each and everyday. Teaching is much more than planning and presenting lessons it is a vocation of service to the students and to the community. We are blessed to work with such beautiful families and look forward to sharing all the end of year celebrations with you in the coming weeks.

Kind regards
Mitchell Elks
Principal