Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the 2021 school year! Monday morning was full of excitement and there was certainly a buzz in the air. After last year it was wonderful to welcome parents back into the school grounds and to have so many people at our first morning assembly.

Welcome to our 23 new Kindergarten students, although there are a number of siblings in the class who have been patiently waiting for their time to come to ‘big school’ and to St Benedict’s. Welcome to the 10 other children who have joined us across the classes. Welcome also to the many new families that have become a part of the St Benedict’s community and story. We look forward to getting to know you and working with you over the coming years.

We have two upcoming events that invite not only our new families and students to attend but all community members. They are our Opening School Mass this Friday 5^th February at 10am and our Meet and Greet evening on Monday 15th February.

Our Opening School Mass for 2021 will also be our first Friday Mass for February. It will be our first whole school mass in the church for quite some time. I think we only managed two whole school masses in the church last year and then mass was only via zoom when we were able to return.  All members of our school community are invited to join with us in celebrating this Eucharistic liturgy. Fr Rem, as the St Benedict’s Parish Priest, will be celebrating mass for us. Fr Rem has been with us in the Parish for the last two years and has taken over from Fr Dan who has transferred to an MGL parish in Darwin.

At the start of week 3 we will hold an Open House: Meet and Greet. This event will take place on Monday evening, 15^th February. Parents are invited to come into the classroom with their child between 5.00pm and 6.00pm to meet the teacher, see the learning environment and collect information about class operations for the year. Families are then invited to share a sausage sizzle with other members of the community from 6.00pm to 7.00pm. Feel free to bring a picnic rug and picnic, and enjoy spending some time getting to know other parents and children in a relaxed social setting.

We look forward to seeing you all there. If you are able to assist in cooking sausages or serving them please let Belinda know in the Front Office. Thank you to the Parents and Friends who provide the free sausages and drinks for the occasion.

Parents and Carers are most welcome to join us this Friday, 5^th February at 2.30pm for the first of our whole school assemblies. This year we are making changes to how assemblies are running. We will be having a whole school assembly every second Friday (odd weeks) at 2.30pm, beginning this week. On Fridays in even weeks merit certificates will be handed out at the morning assemblies. The weeks and dates of the whole school assemblies are featured on the school calendar that is coming home this afternoon with the eldest child.

We hope to see as many parents and families at these wonderful community events.

We have a great year planned and look forward to working with you all in growing our young students to be ‘the best they can be’.

God bless.

Rachel Smith
Principal