Assistant Principal - Mission and Wellbeing
Welcome back to 2024
Welcome to returning students and their families and a warm welcome to our new students (over 160 students) and families for 2024. St Paul’s continues to grow as a College interested in providing more opportunities for their students and families and we look forward to working together with you.
Opening Mass
The College celebrated the beginning of 2024 with a wonderful Opening Mass at All Saints Catholic Church Kempsey this week on Wednesday. The opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate Mass with Father James in our Kempsey Church was very special. There were no spare seats as the student body, all staff and parents of many students being commissioned into leadership positions joined together in celebration. As always, so many thanks for Fr James’s guidance and generosity and the work of Mr Matthew Mitchell, Leader of Evangelisation, whose organisation presented a wonderful example of the beautiful St Paul’s community.
Uniform Policy Matters
There has been a number of amendments to the uniform policy that has been communicated to parents prior to the recommencement of school. These amendments have been resolved as the College continues to build further communication channels with families via Compass. We have enjoyed a very positive start to the school year regarding uniform. The wearing of jewellery has improved as has the requirement to wear academic uniform each Wednesday - please ensure all students continue to wear academic uniform each Wednesday. There has been an increase in students with false eyelashes after the holidays, and these are clear breaches that will lead to detentions - please ensure no false eyelashes are worn!
A Day in the Life and Open Afternoon - Tuesday 5 March 2024
The College has received enormous responses from the opening of registrations for the 2024 Day in the Life experience for Year 7 2025 students. Within a few hours of the registrations opening, over 60 families had booked, on Friday morning this number had increased to 117 students registered. This is a wonderful response from prospective families. Please be aware that there is a clear cutoff of 150 students maximum! For more information about the Day in the Life event and to register, please follow the link HERE.
There will be tours of the College at our Open Afternoon on Tuesday 5 March, finishing with a meeting with Mr David Johns, Principal. The Open Afternoon is open to all current and prospective families and no registration is required.
Stephen Hall - School Wellbeing Officer
The College is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Stephen Hall as our new Student Wellbeing Officer for 2024. Hr Hall comes with significant experience in Pastoral Care and has hit the ground running! Steve will be visiting a number of classes and a specific program with wellbeing check-ins for Year 8 will commence soon.
College Canteen
The College has increased in enrolment again in 2024, mirroring similar increases from the past few years. One matter that has come forward over time is the increased student use of our College canteen. Our canteen manager, Ricki Saunders, provides a fantastic service with a variety of delicious food offerings. If students have not ordered via the Flexischools app, this results in longer waiting times to be served, despite increased staffing in the canteen. I advise families to register with Flexischools HERE to pre-order food from the canteen to lessen wait times and long lines at lunch time. For more information regarding the Canteen please follow the link HERE
I look forward to catching up with families throughout 2024 and please contact me at the College if you have any enquiries.
Mr Geoffrey Melville - Assistant Principal - Mission and Wellbeing