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Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to Semester 2 and Term 3! We trust St Anne’s families have enjoyed the school holidays and hope that there was the opportunity for you and your children to spend some quality time together.
On behalf of the community, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new families joining St Anne’s this term. We are delighted to welcome new students to Yr 7, 8, 9, and 10. We hope you will soon feel very much a part of the family.
Term 3 Commencement
The staff participated in Spirituality Day on Monday, and the theme of the day was “Pilgrims of Hope”. We explored how we can incorporate hope into our daily lives and be agents of hope to our students and our community. We also identified and celebrated all the many examples of hope within our St Anne’s environment. We are privileged and grateful for our students who are beacons of hope for each other and for the staff, and no doubt for you as parents and carers too.
The first day back for the students commenced with a NAIDOC Liturgy and Welcome Back Assembly in the Church. Our thanks to Mrs Gaynor for preparing the Liturgy and giving us the opportunity to come together in unity and prayer at the commencement of the term.
Effective, Engaged and Enthusiastic Learners – Parents and Carere help required!
It is our goal to ensure all students at St Anne’s have the skills and the conditions to become effective, engaged and enthusiastic life-long learners. As mentioned in the last newsletter of Term 2, to achieve this goal, during Semester 2 a more robust Home Reading Program will be a feature in the Primary school and a more structured approach to homework will be implemented in the Secondary school.
In Secondary, we will be building on the Homework Policy outlined in our Secondary Handbook(P9) by introducing a more formalised approach to homework starting Week 2. This will mean that all students from Year 7 to 10 will have homework to be completed every week; this will be in addition to any revision they need to complete for tests and any assessment task work being completed.
Each class will have weekly homework in both English and Maths, with other subjects being allocated a week during each term where formal homework will be given. We will notify in the newsletter what KLA areas will be the focus for the upcoming weeks. Ms Jamieson AP Secondary will be providing further information with regards to homework expectations next week.
For the Primary students, home reading will be supported through the Reading Stars initiative, which will enable students to go to the library between 8:30am and 9:50am on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and read with students or primary staff members. In the classroom, staff will be asking students to return their reading folders on a daily basis. There will also be a more rigorous checking of home reading logs, with the expectation that all reading logs are signed and returned each Friday.
We look forward to your help and assistance in supporting and encouraging the students.
St Anne and St Joachim and Grand Parents Day – next Friday1st August
We look forward to welcoming the students’ Grandparents to school next week for our most important celebration of the year. Please see the program below. Please note, the Canteen is happy to accept orders for Grandparents as well as the children on this special day. This can be done by adding to your childs order using your childs profile in QKR.
NAPLAN Student Reports
We are pleased and proud of how the St Anne’s students performed in the NAPLAN assessments earlier this year.
Please note that the Student Reports from NAPLAN 2025 will be distributed to parents and carers via the students on Monday 28th July. Please make sure you check with your child to ensure the report is safely received.
More on NAPLAN and the achievements of the St Anne’s students in an upcoming newsletter.
In Conclusion…
As always, we have a busy and exciting term ahead, and I’m especially looking forward to experiencing my very first St Anne’s Showcase at the end of the term. We are off to a flying start and readers can expect reports from the Year 7 and 8 snow excursion, which departed early this morning, and the celebration for the 100 Days in Kindergarten milestone happening next Monday in the next newsletter.
Please stay tuned for all the wonderful stories and updates throughout the term!
With best wishes,
Louise Grant
Principal
It is with great sadness that we advise of the passing of Dennis Sleigh overnight in Wagga Wagga. Dennis was a respected educator and former principal of St Anne’s Central School (Temora), St Peter & Paul’s (Garran), and St John the Apostle (Florey).
We hold Dennis’ wife Margaret, children Paul, Tim, and Anne-Maree, and granddaughters Beth, Dan, and Rose in our prayers at this time.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Further details regarding funeral arrangements will be shared when available.
About Dennis Sleigh
Dennis contributed to Catholic education for more than 40 years, beginning his teaching career in Albury in 1965 and serving in seven schools, including five as principal. His career also included roles at the Catholic Education Office (Wagga, 1980), Catholic Education Office (Canberra, 2004–2006), and Australian Catholic University (1991–1992).
He held an impressive academic portfolio, including a BA, three Graduate Diplomas, two Master’s Degrees, and significant doctoral studies. Dennis published extensively, authoring and co-authoring several books, including Summer Before Teacher and Teaching Tricks, and contributing over 220 articles to professional journals.
Dennis was a sought-after speaker, keynote presenter, and educator, known for his expertise in legal and administrative matters. He served at senior levels in several professional associations and was honoured with the ACPPA Service Award (2002) and Fellowships with both the Australian College of Educators and the Australian Council for Educational Leadership.
His commitment extended beyond education into community service, notably as President of the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation (ACT) and a Director of Ryder Cheshire Australia, and Temora Shire Councillor.
Dennis’ pedagogical passions included teaching Italian, storytelling, and mentoring colleagues to grow in their careers.
May we remember and give thanks for his lifelong dedication to education and service to others.
The week gone by….
Whilst NAIDOC week was celebrated during the school holidays, we celebrated this event on Tuesday, with a short liturgy in the Sacred Heart Church. All students attended the liturgy, where we spoke briefly about NAIDOC week and said some prayers together to thank Jesus for the rich culture and traditions that the First Nations peoples bring to our country. We also asked Jesus to continue to love and guide us as we try to bring peace, unity and reconciliation to our communities.
On Wednesday, some of our First Nations students, Miss Winkley, Mrs Holland and Mrs Gaynor, travelled to Cootamundra to join in the Western Region NAIDOC mass, hosted by Sacred Heart School in Cootamundra. Students came from many regions of the diocese to celebrate NAIDOC week. We were welcomed with a smoking ceremony, a dreamtime story, a procession of symbols, lovely singing, a spiritual mass, and a sausage sizzle to boot!
At the end of mass, NAIDOC week awards were given out. It was very wonderful and special to see Miss Winkley receive an award! Miss Winkley’s award was for her contributions to inspiring the Students and staff at St Anne’s to achieve a better understanding and appreciation of First Nations culture and traditions. We are very grateful for the generous way Miss Winkley shared her passion, knowledge and enthusiasm.
The weeks ahead…..
Upcoming masses
Please make a note of the upcoming masses. It is always lovely to see parents and friends attend any/all of the masses. It is great for both our students and teachers to see family and friends' faces at these masses, adding to and creating a real and continued sense of community within our college.
Week 2 - Mass 10.15am Friday 1st August in the Town Hall - Feast of St Anne and St Joachim (Jesus’ grandparents). Grandparents Day.
Week 3 - Mass 10.15am Wednesday 6th August in Church - Feast of St Mary of the Cross McKillop
Week 4 - Mass 10.15am Friday 15th August in Church - The Assumption of Mary
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Students in Year 3 have the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation in Term 4. The parent information evening for this, is in Week 4 on Tuesday 12th August at 6pm in St Joseph’s Hall. In the weeks following this, students will be required to attend a mass to enrol for this Sacrament. Students will also attend a Retreat day prior to receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Book Fair 2025 - Tuesday 29th of July - Thursday 7th of July
What is it?
Scholastics Book Fair is a temporary pop-up book shop in the St Anne’s Library.
It is designed to give students access to more books they want to read, from relevant new-release to classic award winners.
These are affordable books to cater for every reading level and interest.
Every book purchased gives St Anne's library some points that will go towards buying new books for the students.
How does it work?
Your child will look through the Book Fair and make a wishlist that will be sent home with them.
Parents can ring or email their book order to scholastics. (Instructions are on the back of the wishlist).
Scholastics will give you a receipt number once you have made your purchase. Send your Wishlist back to St Annes Office with the receipt number on it and your child will be given the book.
If you want to come in and have a look at the books and pay by card (Tap and Go) in the library, it will be open to parents on the following days:
Wednesday morning the 5th August from 8:30- 9 am
Wednesday afternoon the 6th August from 3:30-4pm.
Grandparents Day the 1st of August.
If you would like anymore information on the scholastics Book Fair you can go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfHJ98jVAgM
Author Visit
In other Exciting news we have children's Author, Georgie Donaghey coming to St. Anne's.
Georgie has numerous books published and we are looking forward to her workshops with the students on Monday the 4th of August.
CBCA
The Children's Book Council of Australia chooses the best children's books each year. St Anne's library has purchased many of the 2025 shortlisted books. The students will be doing some activities related to these books in library classes this term. The CBCA also decides on a book week theme each year. This year is "Choose Your Own Adventure". The students will be doing activities related to this theme as well.
Book Parade
Don't forget to get your dress ups ready for our Book Parade on Wednesday the 20th of August.
Dressing up as a book character is a great way to get children to use their imaginations and bring the stories and characters they love to life.
The costume does not need to be elaborate, time consuming or expensive- it is just to bring the fun into reading and celebrate our favourite characters.
Well done to our students who represented at the Public Speaking Challenge in Cootamundra last term.
Annabelle G, Peyton C, Audrey W, Ari B, Peyton D, Skyla M, Isabella I & Kash T.
Congratulations to Kash who has made it to the next level of competition at Gundagai this term.
We had two students Stella K and Quinn C represent Mackillop at the NSW PSSA Cross Country Recently. Both girls had some great results with Stella placing 9th (out of 12) and Quinn 49th (out of 79).
Well done girls.
Week 9 of last term our school community held a very successful fete to raise funds for Fight MND. We were joined by special guests Jacinta Ives, Sharon Gordon and Jan Sutton.
We are very pleased to report that the total raised came to $5098.00. Well done students, staff and parents on your incredible work in making this event such a success.
