MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

A very warm welcome back to our students and families for Term 2. At the beginning of this term gathered as a community to pause, along with our nation, to acknowledge and thank our servicemen and women in our ANZAC Day Liturgy. We also proudly participated in the Anzac Day March to show our respect and appreciation. I also wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the current Defence Force families of in our community who continue to serve our country with great courage and with hope.

This week we found out the most exciting news that our College has once again been recognised on a national scale with the Australian Education Awards. We have been named as an Excellence Awardee in the following two categories:

• Regional School of the Year – St Patrick’s College Townsville
• Department Head of the Year – Kelli Chapman

I feel incredibly blessed and proud to serve this community and deeply understand that these awards are due to the hard work and passion of all of the staff, students and families that make up this beautiful community. I am also so pleased Kelli Chapman, a long serving staff member of the College has been recognised at this level for her passion and dedication to her profession. Kelli has a deep love for what she does and for our College and its students. She is a wonderful role model and I am so thankful to work alongside her every day.

In addition to having the opportunity to celebrate excellence in our College through this announcement we recently held our first Diligence Assembly for 2021 and it was wonderful to see an increased number of students being recognised for this esteemed award. This growth in intentional learning habits reiterates the culture of our College in empowering our students to be learning role models, persistent and driven to improve in their learning and study habits.

(A selection of our Diligence Assembly Winners)

Last week, we sadly farewelled our Director of Finance and Facilities, Moira Grant, and Groundsman, Joe Cobbin who joined our College in 2016. Our College staff gathered to thank and acknowledge them both for their dedicated service over the past 5 years to this community. Recruitment is well underway for the Director of Business Operations role. Considering the significant growth of our College in both enrolments and facilities, a greater focus has been placed in the facilities and maintenance area. In light of this, I am absolutely thrilled to introduce Julie Brereton to the new role of PA to the Director of Business Operations, along with Geoff Bird, our new Maintenance Officer to our College community. They both bring considerable experience and knowledge to their roles. They will soon be joined by Nigel Devlin, who will lead this portfolio area as our new College Facilities Manager. Nigel brings many years of experience in schools in regards to Facilities and Maintenance.

We also welcomed a new teacher aide who will be working on Fridays to support our students in class with learning. Sharon Moore is a proud Aboriginal woman who has carried out various roles in the education sector, demonstrating her unwavering passion for developing productive partnerships and finding ways to support and engage young people in their learning.

I look forward to sharing more wonderful news in the next newsletter.

Amber Hauff

COLLEGE PRINCIPAL