Welcome to the 2023 school year. I trust you all had a restful Christmas break and can look forward to a happy new year. It has been great to welcome our students back and to have so many new families join us. I trust the first few days have gone well and that new students are making friends and settling into new routines.

We ended the year on a high note as our HSC students did so well despite three years of pandemic disruption. We had 37 Distinguished Achievers (this is students who attained a Band 6 in a subject) out of 81 candidates which is more than double what we have had in the past few years. Our top ATAR was 99.05 from Fiona who had worked really hard to get this amazing result. Again, we saw most of our students attaining Bands 4 and 5 so weighted toward the top end of the six bands. We were ranked 202 out of just over 800 secondary schools in the state (an improvement of 115 places over last year).

The work we have been doing with teachers and students over the past three years is now bearing fruit and we see no reason not to see similar results going forward. We have set the tone at opening assemblies with students and will not be tolerating anyone who seeks to disrupt others from working hard to learn.

We welcomed 22 new staff to the school, both teachers and support staff including Mr Steve Lobsey as our Head of Secondary. He will introduce himself in this newsletter but he is an excellent academic and teacher who is involved in setting trial HSC exams for the Catholic sector (many of which we use for our students) and has achieved the highest level of teacher accreditation possible in NSW. Please take time to welcome him to our school and work with him to see your son/daughter succeed.

Over the holiday break I led a team of 18 staff and their families and other volunteers out to Brewarrina where we spent three days in 38 degree plus heat helping clean and prepare our new school for its opening on Tuesday 7 February. Brewarrina Christian School opens with 11 children from Kindy to Year 8 and three teachers. Please pray for them as they get going – starting a new school is hard work. The school is part of the Melos Foundation network of which GPCC is a part but is independent from GPCC itself.

Over the coming weeks I will again go over the important statements of our school from the Purpose statement to our graduate profile as an introduction for new families, but also as a reminder to us all of what we are here to do. In any aspect of life, it is important to keep before us the reason we are doing things. At GPCC we want to be purposeful about what we do and that helps to give meaning to all the little tasks that make up any role in which we are involved.

Remember to come to us early if you have an issue or a problem. We may not always provide you with the solution you hope for, but we will do our best to serve you and your child with their interest and that of our whole community at heart.

Phillip Nash

Principal