From the APA's desk...

Holidays are upon us, and it is a great time to reflect upon the year so far and think about all that has been achieved.  With our mission of striving in faith, learning and life it is clear to see how we enacted that this semester. 

 Striving in Faith

With our Mercy Values of Compassion, Excellence and Service to guide us this semester, striving in faith has been a part of the fabric of our day-to-day school life.  Some of the ways we have lived our faith include visits to Brodribb Nursing Home, organising the Biggest Morning Tea for Cancer, donating to our St Vincent DePaul Winter Appeal, students being initiated into the Catholic faith through Baptism and confirming that faith with Confirmation and First Communion and experiencing moments of prayer and ritual as a whole school.

Striving in Learning

Visible evidence of how we strive to be a community with learning at its heart was evident with the academic acknowledgements given this week. We congratulated students for not just their achievement, but also their commitment to progress. Pheonix awards were awarded to students who made significant progress in one or more learning areas across the semester. Academic Achievement Awards were awarded for application and achieving high academic results across all learning areas throughout the semester.   Academic Medals were awarded to two students this semester who achieved academic excellence with an A result in all subject areas.  Congratulations to Randuli Wijayaratne in 3K and Aya Doherty in 6L.

 Striving in Life

Finally, we have been very busy being a community who look for opportunities to flourish in life.  Students have been involved and ably led by staff in Stem club, Fitness club and Choir this semester.  Students have had the opportunity to participate in the Darling Downs Science and Engineering Discovery Day at UniSQ, Interschool Chess tournaments, Maths team challenge, Drama Festival and Sing Out. Students have shown great sportsmanship, determination and participation in all three school sport carnivals, swimming, cross-country and athletics. We have come together as a community multiple times to celebrate our children and events in school life such as the welcome BBQ and disco, Mother’s Day and ANZAC day.

What a great first term of 2024! Best wishes to all students and their families for a safe and relaxing break from school.  Hopefully the break will provide us all with a chance to recharge and refresh ready for Semester Two!

 Katie Hauser