Principal News
This morning, the whole school attended Father Anthony's final parish mass at Sacred Heart Church. It was a beautiful Mass and farewell. During his short six month stay, Father Anthony has supported the faith formation of our staff, students and families and he will be greatly missed by everyone at St Mary’s.
Yesterday, we held our final school assembly and handed out class awards to many deserving students from Kindergarten to Year 6. The staff are very impressed with the quality of learning across all Key Learning Areas this term. Our Spelling Mastery program has been very successful and all students are becoming more confident and competent spellers and writers.
Thank you to all of our parents for coming along to our recent Parent Teacher Nights. These meetings provided parents with a more detailed explanation of their child's effort and achievement in learning. If you missed out, please contact your child teacher to organise a meeting or phone call early next term.
Key to success in learning is regular and sustained attendance at school.
We understand that there has been a lot of illness in the community of late and hope that this improves next term.
Sacrament of Confirmation
Last Sunday, our Year 6 students celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation in the presence of their sponsors, parents, teachers and parishioners.The Sacrament of Confirmation imparts the gift of God’s Holy Spirit upon us. It was a beautiful ceremony and I thank Father Richard and Father Anthony for making it so meaningful and special for the students and their families. A special thank you to Mrs Genevieve Schofield, Mr Matthew Harpley and Mr James Campbell for their work in preparing the students for this important stage of their faith journey.
Special School Lunch Reward
Last week, 13 very happy St Mary’s students joined me for a Special Lunch at Tukka Cafe. The students were chosen by the Leadership Team because they have shown us that they are particularly Respectful towards others.
As the weather was windy and cold, we were seated inside and I was thrilled to see the children live up to their name. They were well behaved, polite and respectful to the staff and other customers. We definitely have some talented joke tellers at St Mary’s! Congratulations to Natasha S, Hattie W, Milton W, Noah BT, Liam Mc, Bella S, Sam W, Poppi E, Ryder A, Copper H, Ryley B, Indi T and Jakayda T.
Early next term, a group of I am Doing my Best students will be rewarded with a Special Lunch.
NAPLAN Results
Next term, the NAPLAN results for Year 3 and Year 5 will be available to parents. In the last newsletter there was an information sheet outlining changes to how results will be reported. Below you will find two additional documents that also provide useful information for parents about the NAPLAN report you will receive for your child.
Term 3
Term 3 commences on Tuesday July 18 and it promises to be as busy as this one. In the first four weeks of term, we will celebrate with NAIDOC activities, Yuin Banaan, Community Council Movie Night, Indonesian Teachers visit, Culture Day Assembly/family picnic and Southern Region Athletics. Later in the term we will have a visit from the Director of Catholic Education, Book Week and Fathers Day.
We are also hopeful that one section of our new playground will be open for our youngest children to begin playing in. Messy play is just around the corner!
Wishing you and your families a happy and restful winter school holiday break. Stay warm and keep safe.
‘In every relationship, be generous with these words: please, thank you and I’m sorry’.
Noeleen O'Neill
Principal