Dear Parents,

Last week our Parish Administrator Fr. Confidence informed me that he has been appointed to become the Parish Priest of Yarram and Foster. Fr. Brendan Hogan will replace Fr. Confidence as Parish Priest of Warragul and Drouin.  

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fr. Confidence for all of his work within the parish and St Angela school community and we look forward to farewelling him appropriately towards the end of the school year. 

We would also like to warmly welcome Fr. Brendan Hogan and look forward to working with him in the new year.

2024 Preparation:

Shortly we will also begin the process of planning our class lists for the 2024 school year. Whilst this is a difficult and time-consuming task, we are blessed to have such a knowledgeable staff who are aware of student needs and work collaboratively to make professional judgements in relation to class planning and student placement.

If your child has a particular need or there is important information that we should be aware of when considering class placements for the 2024 school year, we ask that parents put this information in writing and submit it via email to principal@stangelawarragul.catholic.edu.au by Monday 27th November.

Please note we do not accommodate requests for particular teachers and all requests will be considered on merit but there are no guarantees. Any requests received after the above date will not be taken into consideration and once grades have been set there will be no changes.

We are still finalising our staffing for the 2024 school year and teachers for each grade will be announced in due course. Students will find out who their 2024 teacher is on Monday 11th December, at our ‘Meet the Teacher’ session. Foundation students for 2024 will be notified by a letter home. 

At the end of the year we will farewell Mrs Kellie Jones who has resigned from her position at St Angela of the Cross. We wish Kellie well for her future endeavours.

Foundation Orientation:

It was great to see the smiling faces of our 2024 Foundation students as they began their orientation sessions today. Being inclusive is one of our school wide expectations, we ask that all in our school community welcome and be inclusive of our new families as they begin their schooling life at St Angela of the Cross.

Student Leadership:

Hearing the voice of our students and giving them opportunities to develop as leaders and individuals is importance to us. For 2024 we have 16 grade 6 students and the school leadership team has decided that we would like four student leaders to be elected to represent our school. 

These students will work closely with myself and Mrs Williams throughout the year and represent our school at events, lead assemblies and help promote social justice initiatives etc. Students interested in these positions have been asked to write a letter addressed to myself by Friday 1st December. Successful applicants will be selected by the whole school staff of St Angela’s. 

All families have been sent home School Fee Information for 2024. Could all families please return these forms to the school by 1st December, 2023.

If you have any questions regarding fees please conact l.soumilas@stangelawarragul.catholic.edu.au 

On Saturday our Student Leaders represented our school community with pride as they laid a wreath at the Warragul Remembrance Day service, remembering those that fought in the war. 

As you may have heard, St Angela of the Cross will be proudly displaying student artworks in our bi-annual art show on Wednesday 29th November. It's a wonderful opportunity to bring our school community together and to encourage creativity.

Multi Talented

No-one knows our make-up better than our maker. We ourselves hardly know our own unique combination of talents and abilities, strengths or weaknesses. 

Until we try, we don’t know what we are capable of, but our Creator knows precisely the skill set we have been given, and it is always greater than we think. The Creator loves us absolutely, intimately and infinitely, never expecting the impossible of us, just what is possible. 

This famous gospel about the talents (Mt 25:14-30) is not so much about who has the most gifts but about getting the best out of whatever we do have. The Master in the parable is angry at the servant who wastes the talents he has been given and so God expects us to use our gifts, bravely, adventurously and confident in the glow of His approval and support. 

God wants the best for us but he has given us free will. If, out of fear of failure, or a desire to be cool, or plain laziness, we refuse to even try using our gifts – what can he do with us? He encourages us to develop our talents and abilities and often this requires patience, self-discipline, and courage. And these too are talents. We have to stretch out of our comfort zone and into our limitless possibility zone. As we progress, we realize more fully our potential and become better at loving God and our neighbour. 

Followers of Jesus should be brave and outgoing, using our talents for the Kingdom. Pope Francis in Laudate Si quotes the South African Bishop’s Conference urging us that, “Everyone’s talents and involvement are needed to redress the damage caused by human abuse of God’s creation.”(LS 202) Many are more concerned with selfish desires than the common good. In his newer encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, the Pope counsels us that “the heroes of the future will be those who can break with this unhealthy mind-set and determine respectfully to promote truthfulness, aside from personal interest.” (FT 202) 

Deacon Mark Kelly