On Wednesday Week 2 we celebrated our Opening School Liturgy in the St Raphael Church with Fr Tony. It was a beautiful way to start our school year in such a prayerful way with the children all participating with such reverence and respect. We also learned the wonderful news of Fr Tony’s appointed to the position of Auxiliary Bishop Sydney by Pope Francis. We are fortunate to have had Fr Tony as our Parish Priest and he will be remaining in our community until later in March. Fr Tony will be here for our Year 3 student’s First Reconciliation before moving on to Sydney. I am sure you will join me in wishing Fr Tony all the best for this amazing appointment and will keep him and the St Gregory’s Parish in your prayers.

On Friday Week 2 our Year 6 students were blessed by a visit from the Honourable Linda Burney MP, who provided them with fabulous insights into the strugglesfor rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. The students asked very considered questions and were so engaged and listened with respect and interest to her presentation. This visit was a wonderful experience for the students and it was made possible by Mrs Kate Wigg who reached out to the MP office and invited Linda to St Gregory’s to address our students and add to their learning. I thank Mrs Wigg for her effort in enriching the learning for our students.

Thank you to all the parents who were able to come along for our Open Classrooms last week. It was a great opportunity to see where your child spends much of their school day and to be able to touch base with their teacher. If you were unable to attend, please feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher to touch base via email or make an appointment to come in if you would like to meet with them. Following the Open Classrooms we also held a very well attended ‘Think U Know’ parent session. Thanks to the parents who took up this opportunity to learn about way of supporting and keeping your child safe in the online environment in which they interact.

After our successful swimming carnival in Week 1, last week we hosted the Northern Region Swimming Carnival. Congratulations to all our swimmers who progressed to this carnival and to those who have successfully made it through to the upcoming Archdiocesan carnival. A special thanks to Mrs Spackman, Mrs McAuliffe and their support team for their work making the carnival such a wonderful success. This was only made possible by the amazing parent community and Swimming ACT volunteers, Di Silk and Lorraine Wuth, Kerry Johnston Stroke Judge and students from St Mary Mackillop College. We can’t thank them enough for giving so kindly of their precious time to help. The support was greatly appreciated and crucial to the smooth running of the day.

This week our parish family will celebrate the life of Fr Kevin Flynn aged 94 years, with a Mass of Christian burial to be held at St Raphael’s Church on Thursday at 1pm. Fr Kevin would have celebrating 70 years a priest this year and had a very special connection to many of our staff and families due to the years he spent at Sacred Heart, St Raphael’s and many parishes around the Archdiocese.  We pray for his eternal rest.

We anticipate there may be some impact to our usual pick-up arrangements as it is expected a number of people will be attending the mass. We thank you for your patience and understanding if this is the case.

Next week we will enter the liturgical season of Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday (March 5^th) and concludes on Holy Thursday (April 17^th). Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We are all challenged during this time of preparation for Easter to draw closer to God through our actions that will enrich our lives and the lives of others. Reach out to others through acts of kindness, goodwill and giving, spend time with God through prayer which could include going to mass, praying as a family, reading the Bible, attending Stations of the Cross, praying the Rosary just to name a few. It is through fasting we have more time or money to give to others thus fasting provides opportunities to enrich the lives of others and ourselves during the Lenten season and in turn draws us closer to God.

The Gospel reading from this past Sunday, Luke 6:27-38, challenges us to ‘Love your enemies and do good for others even if they haven’t done good for you’. This calls us all to have an attitude of positive regard towards all people and their well-being. It is a one-sided love in the sense that a return is not expected. God reaches out in infinite love to all without exception. To love as God loves, we must try is to focus on the needs of others. This upcoming Lent is the perfect time to try to focus on this call. Together we can pray.

Bless us with Love, O Merciful God;

That we may Love as you Love! 

That we may show

patience, kindness, tolerance, care and love to all!

Help us to be full of compassion, so that we can find it our hearts to be giving and non-judgemental.

Amen

Have a blessed fortnight.

School Student Broadband Initiative

The Federal Government's School Student Broadband Initiative provides a free NBN service to eligible families with school age children. If you think this is something you would like to access, please utilise the following link.

School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI)

The dates have changed for the Sacrament of Reconciliation 

Formation sessions: 

26^th February 6pm-6:45pm

5^th March 6pm-6:45pm

12^th  March 6pm-6:45pm

19^th  March 6pm-6:45pm (this will be a practise for the Sacrament)

NEW DATES: 

Students will now be making their Reconciliation on either of the following dates;

Thursday 20^th March 6-7pm

Friday 21st March 6-7pm

Saturday 22nd March 11am-12pm

Please let the Parish office know which session you would prefer. 

PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE 

Each year our school participates in the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC). 

This is a voluntary extra-curricular activity that needs to be supported by parents/carers. Once your child has been registered, this is an activity which requires you (the parent/carer) to record and update your child's record. We help and support this activity; however you must be involved to monitor, encourage, and record online. If you are not prepared to do this, please do not register your child. 

The PRC site will be open from today, 24 February 2025 for this year's challenge. 

Reading from 01 September 2024 to 22 August 2025 is eligible to be counted. 

The closing date for entering books on the website is 22 August 2025.

If you are interested in the challenge for your child, please download and read the attached the Parent Letter and return the registration form to the Library. If you are unable to print this form, I will have hard copies available at both libraries. 

Due to a change in online security requirements, the PRC team have re-issued passwords for ALL previous participants. Therefore, even if you did save the log-in details from previous years, it is very important for you to re-register your child/ren so that I can issue the new password details to you. Without your permission and current contact details, I will not be able to forward the new passwords. 

If you would like more information about the PRC, please follow the link to the PRC website: https://online.education.nsw.gov.au/prc/home.html

Or alternately, you can contact me at: natalina.ireland@cg.catholic.edu.au

MAC St LIBRARY - LUNCHTIMES 

The Library at Macquoid St is open each lunchtime for quiet activities such as reading & drawing (we currently also have some avid knitters/crocheters).  The library is staffed by a teacher each break and  they are ably assisted by our Year 6 Library Monitors. It has been fabulous to have so many year sixes volunteering to be rostered on in this leadership role! Thank you for your help Year Six.

LIBRARY TIMETABLE FOR TERM 1 

Macquoid St: 

Mon: 6G, 6R, 2R, 2B

Tues: 5G, 3G, 3B, 3W, 3R

Wed: 5R, 4R, 4W, 2G

Thu: 4B, 6B, 5B, 2W, 4G

Lowe St: 

Mon: 1S, KG, 1B

Tues: KS, KR, 1G

Wed: KB, KW, 1R, 1W 

Reminder: All students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 MUST have a library bag if they would like to borrow books. 

OVERDUE BOOKS FROM 2024

Please remember to return any overdue books from last year. If your child has lost the book or it has been damaged, please email the details to: natalina.ireland@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Books are borrowed for a period of 2 weeks. If your child/ren have not finished their book within that 2-week timeframe, please help them to remember to bring the book to the library and ask for it to be renewed. If your child does not return their books, this will impact how many books then can borrow each week during their class library time. 

Lowe St students can borrow UP TO 3 books. 

Macquoid St students can borrow UP TO 5 books - this includes any books that they want to read at their desk during class-time.  

Hi,

I am very proud and excited to be returning as the DSM for St Gregory’s. My role is to support Defence children during their time here. Being a Defence spouse and parent gives me personal experience in the challenges which are unique to Defence families. I look forward to getting to know our new Defence families and catching up with those returning. Please contact the office if you have not already identified as a Defence family and wish to participate in the Defence School Mentor Program.

Warm regards,
Mrs Michelle Smith