Congratulations and well done to all of our staff and students who were recognised at the Sandhurst Awards last week. It was a great celebration for all the schools across the Sandhurst Diocese, and an acknowledgment of the high quality work that is being done.

You can see the list of all the award winners in this article below:

Catholic Education Office Sandhurst - Sandhurst Awards 2025 Winners .

Our Year 8 and 9 students will have their first experience of their 2026 classes today as they complete some transition activities in preparation for the Early Commencement Programme next week. Making the move from the Knight St campus to the Emmaus campus can be quite challenging, particularly navigating the bus schedule. Our aim today is to assist our students with this so that they are fully informed and ready for Monday.

We have a number of new students in years 8 to 12 joining us for 2026 who will be part of our Early Commencement Programme, starting on Monday. We warmly welcome them to the Notre Dame community and wish them all the best as they settle in.

Transition visits to our 27 feeder primary schools have continued this week for our Heads of House to meet our incoming Year 7 students and give them some information and the chance to ask questions. We know starting secondary school can be challenging, this is a perfectly normal response to change, and with the right mindset and opportunities to connect and make new friends, our new students will embrace the move to secondary school.

Our 2026 College Captains and Vice Captains are currently taking part in a three day Marist Leadership Programme in Melbourne. This is a great opportunity for them to connect with other Marist schools, understand the true meaning of servant leadership and develop their goals and plans for their time in leadership at Notre Dame College. I am very much looking forward to what they return with.

Advent season begins on Sunday. Advent, refers to the four week period of preparation leading up to Christmas and is symbolised by four candles in a wreath, with each candle representing a Sunday and a theme, with the first Sunday theme being 'Hope'. As our calendars for end of year catch ups fill up and we start to prepare for Christmas gatherings, let’s not forget what this time means for our Catholic community.

Emma Reynoldson, Acting Principal.