Dear Parents and Carers,

As announced via COMPASS on Tuesday, we bid farewell to Mr Peter Dempsey as Principal of Nazareth. After 11 years of dedicated service and commitment to our school, Peter will be embarking on a new chapter in his journey as a Project Officer in the Professional Growth Team at the Catholic Education Office in Wollongong. Throughout his time at Nazareth, he has guided us with wisdom, compassion, and a passion for education. On behalf of the school community, I express gratitude for his contributions and commitment to Nazareth. I wish Peter the very best as he embraces new challenges and makes a positive impact in his new role. Peter will join us at the Gold Awards on 13th December and we will have the opportunity to extend our thanks and best wishes as a school community at that time.

The recruitment process for the position of Acting Principal for the 2024 school year will commence soon.

We are also farewelling four of our wonderful teachers at the end of 2023:

As announced earlier in the year, Renee Logan, who has been working at St Joseph’s Catholic High School Albion Park for 2023, has accepted a permanent position in their Learning Support Unit.

Bree Jedrzejczak, currently our Intervention Teacher delivering literacy and numeracy interventions to students in Stage One, has also accepted a permanent position in the Learning Support Unit at St Joseph’s Catholic High School Albion Park. I extend my thanks and my best wishes to these two dedicated teachers as they embark on their new career paths and follow their passion to work with students with disability.

Please join us at the Celebration of Learning assembly on Friday 8th December as we farewell Renee and Bree.

Kristy South, our Stage One Middle Leader and Instructional Coach, will be working at St Therese West Wollongong for the 2024 school year. Kristy has been a wealth of knowledge and support for our teachers in her role of Instructional Coach. She has been instrumental in assisting our students to achieve learning gains in reading comprehension through her provision of quality professional learning for all staff. We wish her the very best for her time at St Therese.

Brittany Wilson will commence her period of maternity leave at the end of this year as she and her husband await the birth of their first child in January – a very exciting time for Mr and Mrs Wilson!

Staffing for 2024 will be communicated to the community in week 10 and the students will spend the morning with their 2024 teachers on Thursday 14th December.

On Saturday 9th December, our school community will join the Stella Maris and Corpus Christi school communities, and the All Saints Parish, for 5pm Mass followed by Christmas Carols in the church. The carols will be led by students from the schools and the parish choir. Following the Mass and carols, please join us for a sausage sizzle.

Everyone is invited and encouraged to wear festive Christmas clothes for the evening. The P&F associations of Nazareth and Stella Maris have organised a fabulous raffle. Tickets will be sold prior to the event, as well as on the night before mass, and the prizes will be drawn after the carols. All proceeds will be donated to the local St Vincent DePaul chapter.

P&F dates to add to your calendars:

P&F Annual General Meeting – Friday 9th February, 8:30am in the school library

P&F Return to School BBQ – Wednesday 21st February