Dear Parents, Carers and Friends,

What a joyful and busy couple of weeks we have had at St Gregory’s!

We were thrilled to welcome so many families at our Open Classroom Afternoon last week. It was a wonderful opportunity for students to proudly share their learning, and we thank you for your presence and support in making it such a success.

This year’s Book Week theme, “Book an Adventure", encouraged our students to explore new places and possibilities through stories and celebrated the adventurous spirit of young readers. Last week’s Book Week Parade was nothing short of spectacular! The creativity and effort that went into every single costume was incredible, and it was heartwarming, as a teacher, to see our students select a book character that they may relate to in some way. In it’s 80^th year, the Children’s Book Week has definitely impacted children’s love for reading and celebrated thousands of Australian authors along the way.

We also congratulate our students who represented St Gregory’s at the Northern Regions Public Speaking Competition in Crookwell and the Archdiocese Athletics Carnival at the AIS. We are proud of their efforts and achievements!

This week, our Yr 4 students will be attending their first school camp! We wish them all the best as they embark on this exciting experience, one that will no-doubt create lasting memories. A heartfelt thank to the dedicated teachers who generously give up their own family time to make this opportunity possible for our students.

Coming up next week (Wednesday 3^rd September) is our Father’s Day Breakfast and St Gregory’s Feast Day Lap-a-thon. This is sure to be a wonderful community day! We look forward to starting the day celebrating our dads and father figures at our annual breakfast at Macquoid St. Please remember all orders need to be placed through Qkr! by midday this Friday (29/8/25). Following the breakfast, students will begin the day on their own campus for class roll, before walking to St Raphael’s Church for mass with Fr George at 9:30am. After mass, everyone will head to Queanbeyan Town Park for us to begin the St Greg’s Lap-a-thon, our major yearly fundraiser. On arrival at the park, the students will receive a piece of fruit and then begin walking their laps. Each child is encouraged to bring a small labelled bag with a water bottle, snacks and an extra sandwich. Students are to wear their sport uniform and bring sunscreen to apply through the day. They will receive a sausage sandwich for lunch and a celebratory Zooper Dooper on their return to school at approx. 2pm. We thank our sponsors: Four Bee Meats, Ward Real Estate and PRD Real Estate for their sponsorship too.

The money raised will go towards a major upgrade to the Macquoid Street hard top area out front of the canteen. We will share drawings in the coming weeks. Thanks for supporting this important school fundraiser. Please ensure sponsored donations are made via Qkr! or sent to the office in cash/cheque by 17/9/25, so the winner of the uniform-free day at both Lowe St and Macquoid St can be announced at the Wk 9 GIFT Assembly.

We look forward to celebrating our patron saint and enjoy a day of fun, fitness and community spirit!

Next week, we also have many of our Yr 6 students receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. As they prepare, may we hold them in our prayers during this special time in their faith journey.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is the second of the three sacraments of Christian initiation. Confirmation completes Baptism, by which in the laying on of hands and the anointing with Chrism Oil, which first happened at Baptism, we are confirmed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded of our participation in the ministry and mission of Jesus and strengthened to follow Jesus more closely. We thank our families, many in our Parish community, our Yr 6 teachers, Mrs Busby and Ms Nolan for preparing our students for this special gift and Sacrament.

Let us pray together…

May God bless our candidates for Confirmation.

May the Holy Spirit help them grow in faith, hope, and love, so they may know You as the one true God and live as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Please continue to pray for those in our community who are sick and their families who care for them.

Have a blessed fortnight.

Kate McManus-Green

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  170 students registered for the challenge and 111 have now finished. 

The competition date for this year's PRC is 19 September ... only a few weeks left to log your child's reading! 

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 previous 2 weeks: 

K - Francesca L, Matthew M 

1 - Logan A, Daniel B

2 - Harriet B 

3 - Zara H, Isla M, Layken S 

5 - George T

6 - Ryley L 

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

BOOK WEEK

Thank you to all of the parents & carers that helped their children with their book week costumes. 

The variety of book characters was truly amazing, and it was wonderful to see so many parents being able to come to both Book Week Parades. 

Lots of photos have been posted on Facebook. 

We had lots of entries for all of the competitions run across both campuses. 

Well done to everyone that took the time to enter a competition - it was a difficult decision when it came to selecting the winners for each. 

Competition winners will be announced throughout the week and the entire list will be published in the next newsletter. 

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB 

The latest Book Club catalogue will be sent home this week (both Lowe St & at Macquoid St) .... Orders are due by Tues 09Sep . 

The ordering is only available through LOOP - Linked Online Ordering and Payment. This means that we will not accept orders or payment at the school - this must all be done online. Please do NOT send cash to school. 

 All orders are then sent directly to the school for submission to Scholastic. 

Books will be delivered to your child's classroom if you order by the close date. 

If you miss this close off date, you can choose to have home delivery at additional cost. 

There is no need to return any order forms or payment details back to the school. 

Our school has been invited to participate in a study on best practice screen use. Parents/carers can complete a 10-15 min anonymous questionnaire and/or, if they wish, give permission for their child to do a student survey: Take the Parent/carer and student survey. 

Congratulations to our 27 athletes who represented Northern Regions at the Archdiocese Athletics competition last week.  A HUGE congratulations to Ivie who broke the existing 100m dash record.  Running 14.62 and breaking the record that has been standing for 6 years. 

Thanks parents for your constant support in sport.  

Well done to our students who have progressed to the MacKillop Athletics Competition. 

All the best to Braxton today participating in the MacKillop Golf Competition.