A Message from Jon Franzin · Dear Parents, Students and Friends of St Gabriel’s, Advent is a...

A Message from Jon Franzin

Dear Parents, Students and Friends of St Gabriel’s,

Advent is a time of reflection, preparation and anticipation. Reflection on the year drawing to a close, preparation for all the events and activities Christmas and the holidays will bring, and a growing anticipation that comes with this time of year - building up to the great Christian feast of Christmas and all that it signifies - peace, happiness, family and new life. This anticipation is experienced in the excitement of a child looking forward to Christmas morning, through to the sense of tension being released in working adults as they start to wind down from the stresses and strains of the year - looking forward to rediscovering our true ‘relaxed’ selves.

Thank you to all the members of our School community - students, parents, families, staff and volunteers - for all your contributions to the School over the year, from simple and routine matters through to all the extras that people provide without which a school cannot survive and by receiving, schools can achieve great things.

Year 6 Graduation It was wonderful to present our Year 6 Graduates to the community and acknowledge this important milestone. I thank Father Shinto for leading our Graduation Mass last Thursday and for the staff who contributed to the readings, supper and supporting our students with the presentation. We congratulate our Year 6 Graduates and we wish them all the best as they embark on moving from Primary to Secondary education in 2020.

Student Leadership At our Awards Ceremony and Christmas concert we announced a number of Student Leadership Positions (Year 6) for 2020. Students nominated themselves, prepared a speech which they gave in front of the School community and this was followed by online voting from their peers and teachers. It gives me great pleasure to announce the Student Leaders for 2020 are:

School Captains: Kaitlyn Gava and Izzak Haleluka

School Vice-Captains: Melody Styles and Nikola Vrljic

House Leaders: Callan House Leader: Jonathan Tadros

Waterford House Leader: Jonathan Sunarho

NEWSLETTER Term 4 Week 8 - Thursday, 5th December 2019 1

Kilkenny House Leader: Melody Styles

Mt Sion House Leader: Christian Romanski

On behalf of the St Gabriel’s Community, I congratulate these students on their appointments and look forward to working with them in 2020.

Parent Satisfaction Survey The ERSES Board and Executive continues to focus on developing ways to improve the quality of the overall education experienced by students at St Gabriel’s. To assist in determining ongoing priorities for improvement, we would like to gain some feedback from parents and caregivers on a range of domains of School life. A parent satisfaction survey will be emailed to all families next week and I please ask that all parents/caregivers complete this so as to provide valuable feedback to the School. Thank you in advance for your support with this matter.

Farewells As this is the final edition of the 2019 Newsletter, I take this opportunity to thank our parents and the broader School community for their ongoing support of our students.

We farewell Mrs Helen Ward, Mrs Rachel West, Mrs Olivia Lobodin, Miss Tegan Palmer, Ms Georgia Buckley, Ms Suzanne Toomey and Ms Amanda Rennie at the end of the year and we thank them for the wonderful contribution they have made in support of the students and families of the school. I know they will be greatly missed by the staff, students and parents of St Gabriel’s and we wish them well for the future.

Have a blessed and happy Christmas; travel safely, enjoy good times with friends and family and we look forward to welcoming everyone back at the start of the 2020 school year when students commence on Thursday 30th January.

Best wishes for the week ahead.

Jon Franzin PRINCIPAL


A Message from Jacqui Cashmore

Dear Parents, Students and Friends of St Gabriel’s,

As the summer begins and our school year ends I would like to express how grateful I am to be part of such an amazing community of students, parents and staff. It has been a wonderful year and I thank you all for warmly welcoming me at the beginning of the year. I am so proud of all the achievements and accomplishments of our students here at St Gabriel’s. These would not be possible without your support and dedication.

Reflecting on the past school year, we have had so many great memories, exciting events, and teaching and learning activities to look back on. We continued with many successful traditions such as the Parent Information evening, Book Week, liturgies, assemblies and Mothers and Fathers day events. We also added many new experiences, which will continue into the new year such as House teams and meetings, Pastoral Care, the Walkathon, excursions, swim school, and many more.

Our year has ended with award ceremonies, our Christmas Concert, and Year 6 Graduation Mass which have been well received and on Friday we celebrate with our End of Year Mass. We have taken on the feedback from many parents about the amount of events and the difficulty in attending all of these and we will review and streamline these next year, providing opportunities for all parents to be able to participate in these events.

Looking ahead, we have many more exciting and new initiatives that we will be providing our students in 2020. We will be developing a strong Student Leadership team and Student Voice, Stage 3 camp, school sport opportunities for students in Year 3-6 and many other things.

We are always focussed on the improvement of our School in all aspects, to provide our young people with many opportunities to grow spiritually, emotionally, academically and physically. Our students have embraced the changes this year and have thrived with the additional teaching opportunities that we have provided this year.

Farewell to the following students and families that will be leaving our school - Arpita, Sidak, Hunter and Max, we wish you well in your new schools.

A special thanks to you, the parents who have contributed in ways small and large and unimaginable. Thank you for the partnership between home and school which is so important. We appreciate all that you do each and everyday for our School and children!


I would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff for their hard work this year. It has been a year of changes and they embraced this with positivity and continued to provide the best education for our students. Thank you for all the staff that work behind the scenes – in the grounds, marketing, administration, uniforms, fundraising, and accounts, functions that keep our school operating day to day. A special thank you to our wonderful ladies in the office, Jo and Sue, for all the support to our families, staff and students.

I would also like to thank our Principal, Mr Franzin for his outstanding leadership of our School and his care and dedication for the students, families and staff. Thanks to his efforts and determination we will see the start of building works in the new year.

I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and enjoy a safe and happy holiday. We look forward to seeing you all in 2020 for another exciting school year.

Kind Regards

Jacqui Cashmore Deputy Principal

IMPORTANT DATES Friday 6 December 9.30am End of year Community Mass at School 9.30am

Last day of term

2020

Thursday 30 January First day of Term 1 for all students

Wednesday 19 February Parent Information Night (K-8)

Wednesday 4 March First Parent Group Meeting for 2020


The following items are now half price - limited stock and sizes available.

Jacket $25.00 S/Sleeve Polo $15.00 L/Sleeve Polo $15.00 Sport Shorts (summer sport) $10.00 Navy Culottes $12.50 Bootleg Long Pants $15.00 NEW UNIFORM ITEMS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!


Around The School Middle Senior Green have been busy writing letters to Santa! They went to Winston Hills Shopping Centre to mail their letters in Santa's special mailbox and stopped for a chat and a photo with Santa!

The boys from Middle Senior Blue have had a busy week! They have been to Rouse Hill to visit Santa and see all the beautiful decorations at the town centre, they have been to Valentine Sports Park at Glenwood to attend a soccer clinic with Football NSW, participated in the end of year concert at school and have been bowling! (I think they are practising for all the activities they will be doing in the holidays!!) Merry Christmas!


From the Communications and Development Team

We have enjoyed another great year of raising awareness, fundraising and building community - all centred on providing the very best experiences for our students and their families. Through the efforts of so many, we have held numerous school and community events, received many generous donations, been the recipient of many community grants, all of which have afforded the upgrading of technology, the refurbishment of primary classrooms, a new sustainable edible garden, and the last of play equipment to complete the new playground. As a community we have made new connections and strengthened many relationships along the way.

On behalf of the Communication and Development team, thank you for all your support over 2019. We are blessed to have a strong and caring community here at St Gabriel’s.

Have a joyous Christmas and we look forward to catching up with you in 2020. Candice & Katrina


OUR FABULOUS CHRISTMAS CONCERT!


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