St Patrick's Primary School Gundagai
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26 Homer St
Gundagai NSW 2722
Subscribe: https://www.spg.nsw.edu.au/subscribe

Email: jacqueline.fairall@cg.catholic.edu.au
Phone: 02 6944 1085
Fax: 02 6944 2161

Principal's Report

Dear Parents & Carers, 

Last week it was an absolute pleasure to take our four School Captains to the celebration of 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia. We are very grateful to Mr Ross Fox and Catholic Education for assisting with funds to hire a bus with our local Catholic Schools to Canberra, to attend the special celebration. The Mass was held at St Christopher’s Cathedral in Manuka and was led by His Grace, Archbishop Christopher Prowse. (Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn). Mrs Howe and I accompanied our four captains and immensely enjoyed the opportunity to connect with other Catholic schools on such a special occasion.

The Mass recognised the great contribution of religious and lay staff over the past 200 years as well as a continued focus on delivering excellence in education into the future. Every student received a special holy card commemorating this historical event and a fence banner which you may have noticed at the Homer St gateway.

We are very proud of our 145 year history of providing a Catholic education to the Gundagai community. I have been doing some light research on the history of St Patrick’s School and would like to share these interesting facts.

  • The first Catholic School opened in Gundagai in 1876 with the first classes taking place in the church, which was easily converted into a school room during the week.
  • Little is known about the school or teachers at the time, except for Miss Mary Jane Walsh who taught at the school from 1884.
  • The religious orders associated with the school were the Sisters of Mercy (until 1964), Sisters of Divine Saviour (1964-1967) and the Sisters of the Holy Faith (1968-1979). The Sisters of Mercy arrived in 1885 with Mother M Stanislaus as the head superior, taking charge of the school. The school was subsequently named St Stanislaus.
  • The school was entirely run from donations made by the people and it was a credit to St Patrick’s Parish that the school survived so well.
  • The school was built on the present day ‘Flash Jack’ accommodation site, while the infant’s school was located in the now Presbytery building.
  • The name was changed to St Patrick’s in the late 70’s when the school was relocated to its present location.

I am sure that there is so much more to share over throughout the year as we continue to celebrate the history of Catholic Education.

Charlie_and_Sophie.jpgCongratulations to Sophie and Charlie on an awesome performance at the Archdiocesan Carnival in Narooma yesterday. Both students are to be congratulated on their individual performance in the pool and as representatives of our school and the Western Region schools. We are very proud of both students.

Thank you to parents who were able to attend the Parent Information sessions last Wednesday evening. It was a great opportunity to visit your child/rens classrooms and hear about the wonderful learning opportunities offered this year. If you were unable to attend, please make sure you receive one of the class hand-outs.

Turf_with_lines_25_Feb_21.JPGOur turfed area is taking shape and we are excitedly waiting for the finish date which is drawing near. Arcscape are hoping to be putting the final touches down this Wednesday. Fingers crossed we will be having our golf sporting lesson on our beautiful new area.

This week I will be attending the annual Catholic Leaders Day and Retreat in Bowral. Please contact Mrs Wilson if needed in my absence.

We would also like to congratulate Kim Paton on accepting the chair position for Community Council at the AGM held last week and welcome Kate Graham, Sam Johnson and Lisa Ryan.  More details in our community council report below. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

Christine Baron

Principal

St Patrick pray for us.