St Finbarr's Catholic Primary School catering for boys and girls from Prep to Year 7 is located in the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove and is an educational ministry of the Catholic Parish of St Finbarr's Ashgrove, forming part of the Brisbane Archdiocesan community of schools. The focus of our labours "In Faith and Love" is on the education of our children.

»Principal's Welcome Message

Thought of the Week;

» See also P&F Pieces for latest news from the P&F Association

Tennis West will be continuing coaching for all students at St Finbarr’s School from Prep to Year 7 in Term 3 2009. Tennis West provides exciting and fun coaching classes to all levels of tennis players in the greater Brisbane area. With experienced and qualified staff your tennis needs are sure to be fulfilled. Come and meet with us to see how we can improve your tennis and have fun at the same time.

For enquiries or to book and secure your place, please contact us on 3378 0361

» Click here for more information and sign up form
» Click here for Tennis West Holiday Tennis Clinic information

We had an amazing night last Thursday at the launch of the 2009 Eagers Windsor Fashions on Parade. Tables at this year’s event were sold out within minutes, Catherine Yarrow and Ms Hall won the lucky door prizes, Richard Champion was truly charming and Damian Purcell the perfect host. Our sincere thanks to Damian and the staff of Eagers Windsor (see picture right) for their Platinum sponsorship of Fashions on Parade and for hosting our most successful launch ever!

» Click here for photos in the latest P&F Pieces.

An invitation is extended to parents, carers and teachers to attend a ThinkUKnow presentation being hosted by Mater Dei on Tuesday 23 June commencing at 7.30pm. The presentation will discuss the popular applications used by young people, the risks they may be exposed to and how to minimise these risks, and finally where to report problems.

Thanks to Mr Peter Delaney, Principal of Mater Dei for extending this invitation to neighbouring school communities.

» Click here for more information

What a great day we had on Friday to celebrate being under eight!!! All the children from Prep to Year two spent a glorious morning outside doing various fun and creative activities for the morning. We had face painting, Parachute play, bubbles, Goop, Collage, Construction, Mask making, Play Dough to keep us all busy. The children and the staff had a fabulous morning and we didn’t want it to end. At Afternoon Tea time, we shared a yummy cake together and we even had some left over for the rest of the school! How great it is to be under eight!!! (Even though some of us are slightly over). Many thanks to Ms Hall for giving the go ahead, Ms Brant for taking the photos, and the early years staff who pitched in, got dirty and made the morning extra special for all.
Donna Fietchner

With the usual winter flu season approaching BCEC have advised all schools that it is timely to remind parents and staff of the overarching guideline that "Children who are physically unwell should stay home from school, pre-school and child care centres".

» Review letter regarding Influenza H1N1 (Human Swine Flu)

On Tuesday 2 June, Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn, will be visiting our school to share his songs with our children. The children are currently singing his song Gifts at Masses. Andrew will work with each class during the day concluding with a concert which will commence at 1.50pm.

Parents and friends are warmly invited to be part of this celebration of faith and fun. There is no charge for adults. The concert will take place in the Parish Hall, at 1.50pm.

» Click here to visit the Butterfly Music website

Recently I advised that under the National School Pride (NSP) program we had been successful in our application to receive funds for the refurbishment of the tuckshop. Given the size of our school we will receive $75 000 for this project.

The other program that is part of this BER Federal government initiative is the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) program. Under this program we are eligible to receive $850 000 to undertake a large scale infrastructure building project. The project as previously advised that was submitted was for the refurbishment and upgrade of the hall and the construction of a fixed outdoor shade structure to replace the existing blue shade cloth.

I am extremely pleased to announce that St Finbarr’s is one of 19 Brisbane Archdiocesan schools successful in receiving Round One funding approval of $850 000.

Therefore in the not too distant future close to $ 1 000 000 will be spent on refurbishing and upgrading the school’s facilities. These improvements will above all else enhance the teaching and learning environment for the children. The architect’s initial plans which were submitted are available for your perusal in the office. As you can appreciate these plans will undoubtedly change and evolve in the coming weeks and months as we attempt to stretch the dollar and get best value for money!

It has been decided to have a Family Mass and Open Day to showcase all that takes place both in and out of the classrooms.

This Family Mass and Open Day will take place on Sunday 21 June with the school preparing and leading the Parish Mass which will commence at 8.30am. Following Mass there will be a morning tea and classrooms will be open with the children being invited to show their families and other visitors around their school. Families are asked to bring a plate for morning tea. More details will be announced in the coming weeks.

Specialising in new and used Mitsubishis and Holdens, the sponsorship has been arranged by Eagers Windsor Dealership General Manager Damian Purcell (Will yr 2,Gabrielle prep/1).

» See the latest P&F Pieces for more information.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s trivia night on June 13. Gather your table of ten and purchase your tickets - $20 each or $200 for a table of ten.

» See the latest P&F Pieces for more information.

April 22^nd, 2009: Prep Enrolments 2010

Enrolment interviews will commence week beginning May 11. A letter inviting prospective families to arrange this interview time will be sent home later this week.

Outside School Hours Care provides a vital service for the school community. Currently feedback is being sought on the OSHC service and looking at future needs whilst evaluating the service delivery at the same time. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated in completing the survey. Click here to download.

Thank you and congratulations to Joseph Byrne, Sheridan Dowling, Callum Zipf, Alice Cummings, Hannah McDonnell, Caitlin Downs and Molly Cranitch who were the recipients of last week’s Making Jesus Real awards.

These awards, the initiative of our Year 7 student leaders recognised those students who have given that ‘extra’ one percent to various aspects of school life. Further it is the little extra that these students have given through word and actions that Makes Jesus Real to others in our school community.

The story of Jesus’ last days and his Resurrection will be told through dance, movement and song on Thursday 8 April commencing at 1pm. The children and teachers have been working with Jane Massingham to prepare for this presentation. A letter outing the various classes costumes is being forwarded home. The basis for most costumes includes wearing the school’s navy sports’ shorts and a particular coloured T shirt.

We would like to invite all current and new music parents to our Teacher ‘meet and greet’ Morning Tea on Tuesday 7th April at 8.00am. Come along and meet: Miss Melissa Smith and Mr Zac Moynihan. Please spare 10 minutes of your time to attend the teacher meet-and-greet session. Now you have the opportunity to meet and converse with the music teacher your child has been mentioning! In this casual setting, put a face to the name you always hear about, and engage in an opportunity to discuss any topics regarding your child and their musical progression. Come along on: Tuesday 7th April at 8.00am in the Tuckshop Area at the school. Any enquiries: Phone: 1300 780 164.

A very BIG thankyou to all who participated in last Saturday’s election BBQ. The P&F took around $2750 on the day with a profit expected around the $1700. This is our best financial result ever despite healthy competition from the Scout and TAB sausage sizzles up the road!

It’s that time of year again when the school seeks sponsors for its annual major fund raiser, the Fashion Parade. This year’s parade will be held on Sunday 30 August, so make sure you email your girlfriends and ask them to keep the afternoon free.

Our ever-hardworking P&F Secretary Jodie O’Sullivan heads the sponsorship team for St Finbarr’s and boy, are we lucky to have her! Jodie is a marvel at moving sponsorship but it is hard work and quite time consuming - which is why she needs your help!

If you have a business or know of a business that would like to sponsor our parade, please contact Jodie on 3366 5779 for a copy of a sponsorship proposal. The levels of sponsorship include Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. The event has grown to have enormous commercial appeal to any business interested in directly targeting 400 women/families from Ashgrove, The Gap, Bardon, Red Hill and Paddington. For some sponsors of our parade, this event represents their major marketing push for the year.

If you are also able to join Jodie O’Sullivan and Cath Purcell on the sponsorship team, please contact Ann Hall on 3366 1397. We’d love to hear from you. Dad’s too - this is not an exclusive girl’s club and a few more blokes would be so very welcome.

March 2009 : Farm Pride and Golden Egg Farms Collect-a-thon

Our school has registered for a collect-athon! Every token collected from selected Farm Pride Collect-a-thon egg cartons can earn our school valuable funds to buy great stuff like extra computers, sporting equipment, and much more! There is no limit to how much our school can raise. Specially marked egg cartons are available at Woolworths so let’s start collecting!

» Click here to go to the Golden Eggs Collect-a-thon website