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Delagram 19th December 2024

From the Principal

"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."

John 12:46

Christmas is upon us once again. As our staff and students finished school for the year, it is timely that we reflect on the purpose and presence of Jesus in our lives. Bishop Michael McKenna recently released his message for Advent where he states:

"What are we waiting for? Let’s look for him today: pray; read the Bible; come to Confession and Mass; and go out to do good for others.

The better we celebrate Advent, the more deeply we’ll celebrate Christmas."

We invite our community to attend our Christmas celebrations in the Portland, Wallerawang and Lithgow churches, but if you can not attend, remember that much of this Christmas message can be celebrated within oneself. The concepts of praying, reading the Bible and going to confession are invitations to pause and reflect, to enrich our souls and to value what is important to us. At our recent end of year awards ceremony, I discussed the concept of giving and receiving with our community.

“Giving does not only precede receiving; it is the reason for it. It is in giving that we receive."

Israelmore Ayivor

I believe that the more we give ourselves to Jesus, to our families, to our children, to our neighbours and to our community; the more we receive. Note that I mentioned the more we give of ourselves; that is love, care, compassion, justice and forgiveness, and not just material possessions. If we give this of ourselves, ‘the more deeply we’ll celebrate Christmas’, the more chance we live in the world of light, where this will shine on those who might be struggling. There is much to celebrate this Christmas, but just remember it is more than just the material presents that we gift on Christmas Day.

Thank you!

As we reflect on the 2024, it is important to recognise the journey that La Salle Academy is on. At the start of this year, Mrs Jenny Holgate started her appointment as Assistant Principal, and Mrs Anne-Maree Wilsmore-Smith started a secondment as the Religious Education Coordinator for the school. Both Jenny and Anne-Maree have stepped up into their roles seamlessly and provided the continuity that allows the continued growth at La Salle Academy. Whilst there are a number of other major appointments throughout the year, both Jenny and Anne-Maree have been vital in providing me the executive support as Principal of the school, and I thank them both.

To all of our staff for their continued efforts in teaching our students, pastorally supporting those who needed it, supporting those students who might have difficulties both with academic work and wellbeing, organising events, coordinating logistics, keeping our facilities and grounds immaculate and to those that are in constant communication with our community, thank you! We have a wonderful camaraderie within and amongst our staff, they work well together and have a genuine interest in our student population. I mentioned to our staff this week about the need to rest, re-group and re-energise for 2025, as it will be bigger and better yet again. In the address to staff, I mentioned that there is no easy day, or easy term. Each day we should be striving to get the best from our students, and this means that we ourselves need to evolve, challenge our own practices, continue to learn and be creative and innovative in the way we approach each school day.

At the awards assembly last week, I also addressed our students about what our school does for them. Whilst they might not like the rules and expectations that we place on them at times, I believe deep down they do value them. It provides La Salle Academy students with the knowledge that our school is a safe and structured learning environment, where they have fantastic pastoral and wellbeing support. Thank you to all of our students to demonstrating the respect, responsibility and tolerance that our school expects. To those that are moving on to Apprenticeships/Traineeships and work, we wish you well in your new pathway and hope that some of the life skills and expectations that was demonstrated at the school will hold you in good stead in the future. In 2025, we look forward to getting the most out of our students and providing them with more expansive and varied opportunities both in and out of the classroom.

2025!

In 2024, I challenged our students to ‘take responsibility’. In 2025, the challenge for staff and students is ‘Succeeding in our Work’! Our application to our studies; Aspiring to be better; Setting achievable goals; Challenging ourselves to do more; Time Management. Coupled with a number of different initiatives, I believe that we, together, can achieve remarkable success.

In 2025, we will see:

Our first cohort with non-ATAR subjects graduating from Stage 6;
Introduction of the Resilience Project across the school;
Introduction of Successful Habits classes across the school;
Re-alignment of Learning Support across the school;
Introduction of Work Education for all Year 10 students;
Significant Facility, Maintenance and Resource upgrades.

Christmas Message

Whilst I am looking forward to our new school year, it is time to take a break. To take the time to pause, reflect, give and receive. I wish all of our students, families, staff and community a wonderful Christmas period, where I hope our collective light will shine with positivity, optimism and celebration. Be safe and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2025.

God Bless
Mr Glenn Carpenter

Assistant Principal

Awards Ceremony
It has been a pleasure to be involved in supporting the students at La Salle Academy and seeing their dedication and commitment to improvement and growth in their learning this year. Our teacher's hard work and our student's perseverance have resulted in some wonderful achievements for students as evident in our 2024 Semester Two Awards Ceremony last week.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work and late afternoons and evenings spent by our office staff in collating and printing the certificates for our students and organising sponsorship for our awards. This task is enormous and I’m sure our students, parents and teachers appreciate the work that you have done.
Reports for Semester Two, 2024
We are pleased to announce that the reports for the academic year are now available on Compass. Parents and guardians can access these reports to review their child's progress
throughout the year. The detailed Compass reports provide a comprehensive overview of
each student's performance, in classroom behaviour, approach to learning and areas of
assessment and achievement. We encourage you to log in and explore these reports to gain
insights into your child's progress this semester.
In closing, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved in making my first year
as Assistant Principal a success and I look forward to working with everyone in 2025.
Travel safely over this holiday period and have a very Merry Christmas.

Mrs Jenny Holgate
Assistant Principal

From the Religious Education Coordinator

As we approach the last few days of Week 10, we are reminded of the words of Pope Francis, who reflects on the meaning of this time: “Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of God-made man.” This season invites us to slow down, reflect, and prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ, who is the light of the world.

I would like to extend my gratitude to all our parents, students, and staff who have demonstrated the true spirit of giving this Advent season. Through your generous contributions of non-perishable food and toys in our Religious Education classes, we have been able to collate 5 Christmas Hampers and a box full of toys for children in need within our local parish community. These have been gifted to St Patrick’s and St Xaviers Parish (Lithgow), where they will bring hope and joy to families this Christmas. Your acts of kindness and generosity reflect the love and compassion that is at the very heart of the Christmas message. Thank you for being a light to others and for helping us live out our call to serve.

I also want to acknowledge our incredible staff for their generosity in supporting the Thrive Drive of toys and non-perishable foods for our local community. Together, we collected an impressive 4 big boxes of donations. Thrive supports children, families and others living in the Lithgow & Blue Mountains areas in times of change and transitions, helping when a new baby arrives, providing parenting and family support and practical assistance with bills and food.

It was wonderful to see the staff’s enthusiasm and creativity during the annual Deck the Decks event. Congratulations to Mrs Bressington and Mrs Dixon for taking out the 2024 prize!

A special thank you and congratulations to everyone who attended our Closing Mass last Friday as we farewelled Dr Vince Connor, our Year 10 school leavers, and all other staff and students moving on at the end of this year. We are truly grateful to Father Reynold for celebrating this beautiful mass with us, and we wish all those leaving La Salle Academy the very best in their future endeavours.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Imogen Della Bosca for her massive efforts this year as our La Salle Academy 2024 Youth Minister. We wish her all the very best as she begins her university studies next year. With this in mind, I would like to formally congratulate Harry Pottinger and Imogen Della Bosca, who will be sharing the Youth Minister role in 2025 – we look forward to seeing their leadership and contributions to our community.

May you and your families have a blessed and joyful Christmas and a safe start to the New Year. Let us continue to journey together in faith and love as a community in Christ.

Mrs Wilsmore-Smith
Religious Education Coordinator

Mowers Needed

La Salle Academy as part of our “Boys Education” program would like any working lawn mowers, or lawn mowers needing a little love and attention to bring them back to life.
These mowers will be cleaned up, repaired and painted if necessary and re-homed into our community.
Where possible it would help us greatly if they could be dropped off at the Academy.
These boys will increase their communication, numeracy and literacy skills by ordering, costing of the necessary parts and working in a team environment.

Thank you for supporting this program for our students.