Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,

Honouring Mt Carmel Alumna Pearl Gibbs 
On Sunday, the Google Doodle featured Pearl Gibbs, who was a prominent indigenous activist from the 1920s until her death in 1983, and a former student of Mt Carmel School.

Pearl was born in Sydney in 1901 but grew up in and around Yass. In the late 1800s, Aboriginal students were banned from attending the Public School in Yass, but Reverend Dean O’Keefe and the Sisters of Mercy accepted these children into St Augustine’s Boys School and the Mt Carmel Convent School. Pearl moved away from Yass with her family around 1910 and by 1917 was working as a “Domestic” in Sydney, where her activism began with helping other Aboriginal women and girls apprenticed as domestics to make claims to the Aborigines Protection Board to improve their working conditions. She is noted as being the first Aboriginal woman to be broadcast on Australian radio, making a speech on Aboriginal civil rights in Wollongong in 1941. Pearl spent her adult life working for the recognition of Aboriginal rights. She passed away in Dubbo on 28 April 1983.

Yass Valley SPIN Foundation Pyjama Day
Next Friday 30 July is the Yass Valley SPIN Foundation Pyjama Day. Mt Carmel School is is a proud supporter of the Spin Foundation, who do wonderful work supporting people in need in our local community.

So, next Friday, all students are invited to bring a gold coin donation and come to school in their comfiest pyjamas.

100 Days of Kindergarten
Next Friday 30 July is also a milestone for our youngest students… one hundred days of big school!

KJG and KNB will mark the day with a fun exploration of the number 100.


May God’s peace be in your families, 


Michael Green
Principal