From the Principal – 26 February 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have a had a great start to the 2025 academic year and I am delighted to see how engaged and positive our students are about the year ahead.

At our Opening Assembly earlier in the term I welcomed all of our students and spoke to them about my aspirations for them and for the College in 2025. I asked them to think about their talents and gifts, what they are they are passionate about and to pursue these with fearlessness. I also asked them to consider that the pursuit of excellence must also include the success of all and that they were members of a school where their talents and gifts are nurtured by exceptional teachers who are scholarly and unfailingly generous in supporting their learning. As always, I told them how proud I am of them and how impressed I am by them. They are certainly a credit to themselves and to you!

This year’s College Opening Mass was an exceptional occasion and we were very blessed to welcome our new Chaplain Monsignor John Woods lead our celebration for us. We were joined by the MLAs Peter Cain and Chiaka Barry, Senior representatives of Catholic Education, Principals and student representatives from ACT Secondary and Primary schools, and importantly the parents of our 2025 student leaders who were commissioned. I wish to thank and pay special tribute to Monsignor John for his generous and prayerful homily which was deeply appreciated by all. I also wish to acknowledge and thank Mr Ryan Lenarcic for his contribution to the planning of our Mass and to our staff and students who made it such a powerful expression of all that is precious to us as a community.

Congratulations to our 2025 College Leadership team who were commissioned at our Mass. I am very impressed with the maturity and leadership of these young people and have absolute confidence that they will be outstanding leaders of the College in 2025. They are a credit to their parents and teachers!

I am very keen for the College to continue to invest in our Year 7 -12 learning agenda. Recently Jonathan Moyle Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning wrote to you to advise that we have adopted the Elevate programme at the College. This is a considerable but worthwhile investment by the College which is designed to target the development of study skills and time management to improve student outcomes. The initial feedback from our students about the programme has been very positive. We have also continued with our Term 1 events which focus on student learning. This has included an information evening for current Year 7 parents, our Year 12 Progress Interview evening the purpose of which was to provide feed forward information to our ATAR and non ATAR seekers about their progress in their studies, and a very successful Year 11 introduction to Senior Studies day. A number of parents have spoken to me about these initiatives and expressed their gratitude for the models, and for our support for their girls and boys. Your feedback about these events and interest and investment in your daughters and sons is very much appreciated by my staff and I.

In my welcome letter at the beginning of the 2025 academic year I advised that we have finalised a number of internal building projects in support of student learning and wellbeing. These projects include a new Science lab, Stage 3 of the refurbishment of our Resource centre, the removal of C Block and replacement of this area with grass and seating, new lockers, office spaces and the refurbishment of our Theatre. This work has been designed as concurrent project work to complement our Master Plan and is a considerable and welcome investment in our students which I felt was both timely and prudent. I am delighted to advise that our concurrent projects are complete and that our Theatre project wis due for completion and handover on 31 March. I have added photographs of these for your edification. I hope later in the year to ask our Community Council Chair to invite parents to a conversation to view our refurbished facilities and College Masterplan.

We are currently preparing for our Year 7 2026 Enrolment Information Evening on Tuesday 25 March which will be from 5 pm onwards. This is a key event in the College calendar to which we invite families not yet enrolled to view our facilities and hear from staff and students about what St Francis Xavier College has to offer. You are also most welcome to join us! We will be advertising the event but please let your friends and families know about the College and our Information Evening.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can assist you at any time at principal@sfx.act.edu.au.

With best wishes

Sandra Darley

College Principal