10 FEBRUARY 2024 - OPTUS STADIUM - CENTENARY GALA
The Centenary Gala for our community was held at Optus Stadium on the evening of 10 February 2024. The successful event was honored by the presence of
- His Excellency the Honourable Chris Dawson, Governor of Western Australia, and Mrs Dawson.
- Lieutenant Peter Velterop, Honorary Aide-de-Camp to the Governor
- His Grace, Bishop Elpidios of Kyanea
- Mrs Georgia Karasiotou, Consul of Greece in Western Australia and Mr Fotios Korkokios.
- Honourable John Carey, MLA, Minister for Lands, Planning, Housing, and Homelessness, representing the Premier of Western Australia the Honourable Roger Cook, MLA .and Ms Claire Comrie, Chief of Staff.
- Honourable the Lord Mayor of Perth, Mr Basil Zempilas and Amy Zempilas.
- Honourable Mayor of the City of Stirling, Mr Mark Irwin and Elise Irwin.
- President of the Hellenic Community of Western Australia, Mr Paul Afkos OAM.
- 300 distinguished guests being members of the Greek diaspora and philhellenes.
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Guests were welcomed on entry by St Andrew’s Grammar students dressed in traditional Greek costumes followed by cocktails and finger food.
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George Kapiniaris, Anastasis Karamintzas, Nikos Karagiannis, DJ Miconic & St Andrew’s Dance Groups entertained the guests throughout the night.
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Our guests enjoyed a night of tasty food, good wine and plenty of dance.
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On behalf of the Management Committee we would like to extend our sincere thank you to all our sponsors and guests who made the night such a vibrant success.
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Valentines Day Celebration
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On the 14th of February, Hellenic Community Aged Care celebrated the day of love, Valentine's Day. Staff were encouraged to wear pink or red for the joyous occasion to bring love to the residents. |
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Our Chef came to work early in the morning to provide a decadent afternoon tea comprising of cream-filled croissants, chocolate muffins, sausage rolls, spring rolls and cannoli's, for our residents enjoyment and celebration. |
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In keeping with the celebration our Occupational Therapy department organised musicians to perform for our residents; everyone swayed and danced to the beautiful lyrics of 'Edelweiss, edelweiss, every morning you greet me.' As the concert continued, more people danced, resulting in a successful afternoon full of love, joy, and laughter. |
Yours sincerely
Yemesrach Asfaw
Site Manager
To members of HCWA and friends of the school.
It gives me great pleasure to write to you at the end of week 3, term 1.
2023 was an outstanding year for the school academically. Achieving the school’s best-ever results in both NAPLAN and ATAR (the two measurement sticks that schools are compared on). In NAPLAN, across every measure in Y 3, 5, 7 and 9, we were above both national and state averages, a first for the school and an outstanding result! 2023 was also capped off with the school’s best ATAR results by some distance. With nearly a third of our cohort receiving an ATAR of 90+ and a median of 86.7 we were extremely happy to say the least. The job is not over and our staff continue to work hard to create even better results, but I know you, our community, will be proud of these results, if not a little surprised!
2024 has started so very well and I have said to several people after nearly 20 years of leading schools, including some of the world’s best international schools, that 2024 has been the best start I have witnessed across this time. Much credit for this smooth start goes to our wonderful teachers and Senior Leadership Team and I thank them very much for their efforts in this regard.
It has been an action-packed start to term 1 with the following events being highlights: School Blessing, P&F Welcome Cocktail Party and the Gala Dinner celebrating HCWA 100 years, where our students took centre stage.
It is my pleasure to share with you some photographs of these events.
2024 is shaping up to be an important year for the school with over 750 students starting. We are one of Australia fastest growing established schools and are now increasingly seen as the school of choice in our wider area. We are close to the 850-900 expected maximum and will start to see extensive waiting lists form in the next year or so.
We had the privilege and honor of welcoming nearly 20 new staff members to the school this year. This cohort, more than most, has brought with them experience, energy, drive, and passion and are adding to what is already a well-established and positive culture within the staff room.
2024 has the planning well underway for the new Primary Office and 2 new Pre-Kindy classrooms (completion expected July/August 2024) and the Science and Technology Building (completion expected October 2025), with work starting on both projects this Semester.
With plans to complete a full array of state-of-the-art new sporting facilities at the back of the school (back oval) and a new performance arts area as well as a state-of-the-art canteen and extended gymnasium we are going to be a school which is known for an outstanding campus as well as outstanding delivery of academics.
It is certainly a very bright time for the school and, we will continue to strive forward and improve as any good school does.
In complement to our staff commitment to continually enhance and move our school ever forward, we are also privileged to have established an equally as driven and committed group of parents working hard for school through the 2024 Parents and Friends Association.
There has already been a wonderful event in the 2024 Parent Welcome Cocktail Party earlier this month, with many more events to come. This week saw the launch of a new initiative to help raise funds for our school and students which is an Online Raffle Fundraiser with some fabulous prizes up for grabs, sponsored by the P&F Association and members of our Hellenic Community.
We hope you will get behind us and support the hard work of our P&F Association. We are big believers that “Teamwork makes the Dreamwork” and having the support of school community as well as our wider community only enhances that belief.
I trust you have enjoyed this update from St. Andrew’s Grammar, your school.
Regards,
Craig Monoghan
Principal