Dear Parents and Carers,

This is our final newsletter for 2024. It is hard to believe that the year is almost over but we have much to celebrate! We have such a wonderful community at St Bede’s. We are so blessed to have such beautiful students who are a credit to their parents, a creative and innovative staff and supportive and positive parents.

Last night, we held an open Community Council meeting followed by our final Executive Council meeting for this year. Clare Young gave a very informative presentation on the sensory garden. We look forward to seeing the garden come to fruition next year. Thank you to all our Community Council members who work tirelessly to support the school in many ways. This year they successfully organised several working bees and fundraising events. So far, we have raised in excess of $70,000, which will go towards new Infants play equipment. This was boosted by a substantial donation from Bendigo Bank of $45,000 as well as a $7,000 donation from an anonymous family at St Bede’s. How amazing is that? How lucky are we to have such a wonderful bank to support our school and community. We look forward to the new playground equipment being installed during 2025. A special thank you to Richard Bunn (Community Council Chair), Kate Ellis (Secretary), Katie Lyons (Treasurer), Sarah Paciorek (Parish Representative), Kristi Morrison (Fundraising), Clare Young, Emily Krout-Ryan and Sarah Hickey (parent representatives) for all you do for our St Bede’s community!

In addition to the Community Council, we have Kahla Harton manage our clothing pool, Crystal Hart and Susie Pluess who organise Book Club and our canteen workers Brenda Vardanega, Trish Young, Joan Webb and Anthony Simpson. Trish also makes the amazing patty cakes for special events and the beautiful wreaths for ANZAC and Remembrance Day. Apart from our regular volunteers we are very fortunate to have many parents who drive our students to events and excursions and help in the classrooms. A very special thank you to all of you!

We are so blessed to have such an amazing staff who work tirelessly for all our students. Our teachers and support staff, who continuously go above and beyond for our students.

This year we say farewell and thank you to Jennie Marsh, Bob Fletcher and Krys Wise who have worked tirelessly teaching at our school.  

We are also saddened to say farewell to Father Josh will be leaving the St Bede's Parish early next year. We thank Father Josh for connecting so beautifully with the students and his guidance of our sacramenatal candidates throughout this year. 

We have several families who are finishing at St Bede’s this year. Farewell and thank you to the Cooper, Doherty, Horn, Hoy, Ross, Warner, Wyllie, Spencer, Vardanega (Troy and Amanda), Robottom, Di Maio, Rezaeian, Webb-Vasey, Symington and Sephton families. We wish them all the best in their new schools and thank them for the contribution they have made to St Bede’s School.

Next Friday, following assembly and until Tuesday December 17, there will be surplus furniture available in the school hall for any of our school families. If you would like tables and chairs for your children at home, please feel free to take them. These are free to a good home but a small donation would be appreciated.

We hope to see many of you attend our end of year mass next Tuesday at 10am at St Bede’s Church, followed by a morning tea to thank all our parent helpers and volunteers. We have several events that we are looking forward to including the Year 6 graduation next Wednesday evening, our presentation on Tuesday December 17 at the National Theatre at 10am and our end of year picnic in the park on the last day of term. The students may come dressed in Christmas clothing and accessories.

We hope you all experience the joy and peace of Christmas. Enjoy your holidays and time with family and friends and we look forward to seeing you all back at St Bede’s on Tuesday February 4, 2025!

God Bless