From The Principal
Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of Nativity School,
Congratulations to our girls statewide Netball Team who defeated St John the Apostle 36-26 and the boys Statewide Basketball Team who were undefeated in their recent round of competition. Also, to the girls who participated in the Statewide Basketball competition along with Marley and Anabelle who both came away with 3rd place in their divisions in the Cross Country Carnival. You all did a fantastic job of representing our school and showed excellent sportsmanship. Thank you to our parent helpers who coached and supported the teams, we appreciate your support.
Congratulations also goes to Aria, Jack, Brooke and Elka who have been selected by Sensei as participants for the Hiragana (Japanese writing) competition, (Hiragana is the first of three Japanese alphabets and has 46 letters) which will be held on August 28th at Reynella East College. This is the first time our students have been involved in this competition and this is an exciting opportunity for them to showcase their writing skills with other schools from our region. Good luck team!
Next week we celebrate Catholic Schools Open Week. Catholic Schools Open Week offers families a great opportunity to explore the benefits of a Catholic Education. I will be hosting a tour of Nativity on Wednesday 21st of August at 9.30 am. Please encourage anyone you know interested in coming to our school in 2025 or beyond to come along. The faces of the Catholic Education campaign this year are Poppy and Lenny. You will be able to see them on the bus shelters on South Rd near Mc Donald’s and Hungry Jacks and also in Drakes Foodland at the Aberfoyle Village Shopping Centre. Keep an eye out.
Last week we celebrated the feast of Mary Mackillop, the founder of our schools Josephite tradition. What an inspiration Mary was and continues to be. When Mary saw families living on the margins without access to education, she set up a school to teach children herself — regardless of their situation. She and the sisters of St Joseph went wherever the need was greatest. And despite facing enormous challenges, they continued to walk with people every step of the way. Mary had that wonderful capacity to find God in both the messiness of life as well as in moments of joy. This week we celebrate the Assumption of Mary with a whole school mass on Thursday at 9.15am. Mary has always been upheld by the Church as the first model of discipleship. She perfectly cooperated with God’s plan through her heartfelt ‘Yes” to being the Mother of Jesus. The feast days of Mary MacKillop and Mary the mother of Jesus are quite close together and I recall a conversation with a student who was trying to work out the difference between the two Mary’s who said “Mrs Dixon is that brown Mary or blue Mary?” highlighting for me the importance of the images our students see as well as the information they hear. So just for the record Mary MacKillop is brown Mary and Mary mother of Jesus is blue Mary! In case you get this question yourself.
Each year we ask students, staff and families to participate in the Live Learn Lead Surveys. The Living, Learning, Leading Surveys have been developed to support schools in rating their performance and progress towards meeting the intent of the Living Learning Leading Framework. The Living Learning Leading Framework underpins everything we do in Catholic schools, ensuring our students develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to thrive in a rapidly changing and complex world. The parent survey has been sent to you via email and we would appreciate you taking some time to give us your feedback. Staff and students have completed their surveys already.
Father’s Day is fast approaching, and we are looking forward to hosting our Father’s Day Breakfast and Father’s Day stall on Friday 30th August. Dad’s, Grandad’s and Father Figures are welcome to attend, so save this date in your diary.
Information and tickets about Grandparents Day – Nativity Countdown– will be available at the beginning of week 9. Please note each family receives 4 tickets for either the morning or afternoon performance.
A reminder that next Monday we have the Book Week Performance Maybe a Miracle and Wednesday at 6.30 is Campus has Talent. I look forward to joining our students and also those from Pilgrim and Thiele for a great night of entertainment. Hope to see many of you there.
God Bless,
Erika
