Principal's Welcome

It is with a very warm heart that I welcome you to our wonderful school community here at St Patrick’s Primary School, Cessnock. We are nestled in the hills of the beautiful Hunter Valley surrounded by the Watagan and Broke Mountains. We acknowledge the sacred land of the Wonnarua people, past and present in which our school is located. Our school answers the call every day to serve each other in a true Christ-like fashion, to deliver quality teaching and learning, in a setting that is pastoral and nurturing.

Our history is steeped in tradition with the Sisters of St Joseph being our founding fore-bearers. Their legacy has lived on in our St Patrick’s school and our local St Joseph’s Parish. As a school, we have a lot to thank the sisters for, as they worked in difficult conditions in the early days to help establish the amazing school that we have today.

I would like to acknowledge also the hard work and dedication of the staff here at St Patrick’s and their unwavering commitment to help each and every one of our students succeed. We seek to challenge and empower each student to strive to do their very best in an environment that is supportive and encouraging. We cannot do this without the love and support of our school community. We are truly blessed here at St Patrick’s to have the cooperation and on-going assistance from our parents, carers and friends of the school.

The school operates under the governance of the Catholic Schools Office in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. However, in saying that, we still have a great deal of autonomy here at the school level to make decisions regarding the school, which are generally made in conjunction with our school community. St Patrick’s also has an excellent P&F Association that works tirelessly to help actively and adequately resource the school.

Providing a meaningful, engaging and inclusive learning environment at St Patrick’s is important and essential in today’s ever-changing landscape. We endeavour to cater for the academic, spiritual, emotional, social and physical dimensions of all our students. A highly structured combination of professional development opportunities, access to quality teaching and learning resources and experiences as well as an increased emphasis on student wellbeing, pastoral initiatives and parent engagement has been developed to increase student readiness for and engagement in learning. Curriculum differentiation ensures that the learning is tailored to meet the needs of all students.

St Patrick’s has high expectations of its students, hence, application to academic outcomes, attention to wellbeing, care of our school environment, the wearing of school uniform with pride and the respect in which we show to others at school and in the wider community are pivotal to the formation of well-rounded and spiritually centred students.

St Patrick’s is open to all families who are willing to support the Catholic ethos and the educational, behavioural and social requirements of the school. Whilst a lot of our families live within the local suburban area of the school, our school does draw from a very vast region. Many students actually travel in from as far south as Quorrobolong, as far north as Rothbury, as far west as Wollombi and as far East as Abermain. We do feel blessed and give thanks to our many families who are willing to drive great distances to be a part of such a wonderful and vibrant school community here at St Patrick’s.

We look forward to walking this educational journey with you and enriching our faith together over the coming years.

Petrina Massey
Principal

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