Dear Parents & Friends,

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter because it has been an action packed fortnight with plenty of significant events occurring. Last week we celebrated Catholic Schools Week. Staff attended the annual Diocesan Education Mass with Bishop Brian Mascord and our new Director of Schools, Mr Peter Hill. Teachers, support staff, clergy, administrators and Catholic Education Office staff from across the Diocese, gathered in Wollongong on Thursday evening.

Last Saturday was our highly successful Open Day. Enrolments for 2021 opened and we are in particular looking to enrol students in Kindergarten, Year 7 and Year 11. There are a small number of enrolment places available in some of our other year groups. We are also taking enrolment applications from current Year 5 students who would like to join us in Year 7, 2022.

Open Day was well attended by existing and prospective families who came to the College to tour the new facilities, watch student workshops and demonstrations and to hear about proposed developments for the future growth of the College. I thank our dedicated teaching and support staff who gave up their Saturday to give guests an insight into life and learning at St Francis. Thank you to over 100 students who volunteered to give up part of their Saturday to help promote the College. Students did a fantastic job of making families feel welcome and were proud to show their school to visitors.

I also wish to thank the parents who generously gave up their time to support us. Thanks to Ms Muscara, Mrs MacGregor, Mrs Deep, Mr & Mrs Marks, Mr Tabet, Mrs Simione, Mrs Parata, Mrs Shrestha, Mrs Mills, Mrs Warren, Mrs Hooper, Mrs Fonti, Mrs Sammut, Mr Lenh, Mrs Nasser and Mrs De Santis. Parishioners from Mary, Mother of the Church Macquarie Fields also gave up their time to promote the many ministries that are run through our local Parish.

Last week also saw Year 9 attend their camp at Tea Gardens and five of our students going through to the final of CDSA Public Speaking competition. Further details about these events later in our newsletter.

In relation to the College's current position to the COVID 19 Coronavirus, we are continuing to monitor developments, considering carefully the outbreak in China, Iran, Italy and now in other parts of the world.  We will continue to take precautionary measures, and be guided by advice from NSW Health and the CEDoW.

Current advice from the CEDoW is as follows:-

As the impact of the Coronavirus on children and healthy adults can be quite mild, there may be a tendancy to continue working and attending school and hence increase the risk of infecting others.  The advice from NSW Health is that schools should be very strong on sending home students who have the slightest sign of illness. This is not a time for soldiering on with coughs and colds.

Therefore, we advise that you maintain good hygiene standards as an important way to reduce the risk of acquiring and spreading respiratory infections.  We ask that our staff, parents/carers, and our students promote good hygiene including handwashing with soap as handwashing is the single most effective way to reduce the spread of germs that cause respiratory disease.

Hand hygiene includes:-

Applying an alcohol based hand sanitizer to the surface of hands.
Washing hands with the use of soap and water, or soap solution.

To keep yourself, the students and staff of the College healthy and safe, please promote healthy hand hygiene with your children, and do not send them to school if they are sick.

May God continue to bless you.

Mr Simon Abernethy
College Principal