From the Principal – 10 March 2023

Dear parents and friends

Our College Opening Mass was a prayerful and dignified occasion and we are very blessed to have had Fr Simon Falk and Fr Mick McAndew lead our celebration for us. We were joined by local MLAs Jo Clay and Peter Cain, our Catholic Education Performance Improvement Leader Mr Dominic Braybon, Principals and student representatives from ACT Secondary and Primary schools, and importantly the parents of our 2023 student leaders who were commissioned at the Mass. I wish to thank and pay special tribute to Fr Simon’s generous investment in and contribution to our College which is deeply appreciated by me, my staff and our students. I also wish to acknowledge and thank Mrs Fiona Debenham for her contribution to the planning of this occasion 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 2023 College Leadership team who were commissioned at our Mass.

I am delighted with the leadership and generosity of these young people and have absolute confidence that they will be outstanding leaders of the College in 2023. They are a credit to their parents and teachers!

I am very keen for the College to invest in parent community engagement with our learning agenda 7–12, and to this end later in the year will be extending invitations for you to attend Elective and Mathematics Information Evenings in our junior school, a Year 11, 2024 Information Evening, a UAC Information evening, course counselling sessions for our Year 10 students and the like. Recently, we invited our Year 12 students and their parents to a Progress Interview to provide them with information about the Year 12 Senior Secondary Certificate and their children’s learning data. This was a new initiative and an opportunity for our Accredited and Tertiary students to hear feedback about their progress in Year 11, their trial AST data, their estimated ATARs and for their parents to ask questions of senior staff about senior studies. I was delighted with the feedback from parents about this initiative and wish to thank those who were able to attend. Please do not hesitate to contact our Senior Studies Coordinator, Ian Stace-Winkles or Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning, Jonathan Moyle if you have any questions about the progress of your son or daughter.

Last week our Year 7 students attended their first Camp at the College at the Collaroy Centre in Sydney. I also attended for part of the time and was very impressed with the manner with which Year 7 worked with their teachers and Collaroy Centre leaders, and the leadership they demonstrated by engaging with the activities and with each other. The Camp is a great personal and community growth opportunity as well as an opportunity for their formation as a year group. I am deeply appreciative of our Year 7s whole hearted engagement in the camp and Mr Chris Beerworth and the teachers who led such a successful 3 day program for our boys and girls. Thank you to our parents and carers for making sure they were so well prepared.        

I commend the March edition of the College Newsletter to you and congratulate each of our staff and students to have contributed to make it such a vibrant expression of life and learning at the College.

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

With best wishes

Sandra Darley

College Principal