Family and Community Engagement (FACE) – Saints Race Day

We held our final FACE executive meeting for the year on Tuesday evening, reflecting on the amazing day that was Saints Race Day 2025. 

Despite the rainy start to the day, over 300 people attended the event and enjoyed the fun and excitement of some local races, brilliant entertainment and magnificent company throughout the afternoon and evening.

There were a few key players that made this event happen, no more so than our FACE President, Alicia Karlish, and our Saints Co-ordinator, Nicole Horchner. With their merry helpers they organised, planned, liaised, booked, created, installed, laboured for months in advance to make the day so successful for our community. The focus of Saints is to create a chance for our OLSCC community, predominantly parents of our students, to come together and have a great day out and connect with one another. 

The Saints committee certainly delivered that. In addition, they also raised over $20 000 from the event, which will go towards the long-term goals of FACE to install a new digital sign at the front of the College.  

A huge thank you must go out to everyone who organised, sponsored, attended, donated towards, or just supported Saints Race Day 2025.

A special thanks to those who came back early the next morning to do the dirty work and ensure that everything was clean, tidy, and packed away.

Saints Race Day 2025 was certainly a great day out!

Check out the photos here – a big thanks to Jamielee Saunders Photography

End of Year Events and Date Claimers 2026

Its that time of year when things start to come and go very quickly. To keep up with the events, please keep an eye on the calendar, though especially note the following dates both upcoming and for next year:

In addition to this, teachers have been toiling away confirming class lists and book lists. Staffing is also almost finalised for 2026, as is the timetable and subject offerings. I expect booklists to be up on the website early next week, class lists in Week 6, and the 2026 timetable will be released (via student timetables in Sentral) prior to the completion of the academic year. 

An important consideration for myself during this time is class sizes. At OLSCC, we have worked consciously to keep class sizes reasonable and considerably smaller than many schools. While this is admirable, there is much we must sacrifice to make this affordable. Many of our year levels currently have enrolments in the mid-50’s and affordability of staffing is a concern at present. Due to this, I have made the decision that year levels with 56 or fewer students in Year 4-10 will operate as 2 classes, while those with 57 or more will operate as 3 classes. With current numbers, there will be no impact outside of Years 4-10. It is important to note that even at 2 classes, 28 students is the lowest number of students in the target class sizes according to the current enterprise bargaining agreement for the Diocese. While we will publish the class lists based on current expected numbers for 2026, should we end up with more or less than 56 students in a year level, then class lists will be redistributed supporting the new structure.

Supporting our Students

As mentioned previously, some students find it hard to continue being engaged at this end of the year. Please continue to support your child/ren and reach out to your child’s teacher or College support staff if you have any concerns regarding your child’s education, wellbeing, or relationships. We are here all the way up until the close of business on Friday 5 December, and can also be contacted during the holidays by calling the College Office, emailing dalby@twb.catholic.edu.au, or making contact via the website contact page. 

Mr Peter Cuskelly