Principal's News

Week 10, Term 2

As we approach the final stretch of Term 2, the energy and excitement around St Mary’s is building! 🎉📚

St Mary's Student Market!

This week, we are thrilled to welcome families to our school on Wednesday from 2:30 PM for the much-anticipated St Mary’s Student Market . Our students—alongside their teachers (and some very helpful parents!)—have been working hard throughout the term to prepare for this special event. 

The Market has provided a wonderful opportunity for rich, hands-on learning in areas such as creativity, problem-solving, mathematics, collaboration, and communication. ✏️💡🧮🤝

We can’t wait to share the students' amazing work with you and celebrate all they’ve achieved.  We look forward to seeing you there! 👏😊

Congratulations to Our First Eucharist Students! ✨🍞🍷

On Sunday, 22 June, a number of our St Mary’s students received the Sacrament of First Eucharist—a truly special step in their faith journey. It was a beautiful Mass and a joyful occasion, celebrated with reverence and love by our parish and school community.

A heartfelt thank you to Natalie Dullard and the Year 3/4 teaching team for their dedication in preparing the students so thoughtfully for this sacred moment.

We are so proud of each student and pray that they continue to grow in faith, love and the spirit of Jesus.

Welcoming Our Littlest Visitors 👋🎒

On Friday, we were delighted to welcome children from First Early Learning to St Mary’s for a special school visit. It was a lovely morning filled with curiosity and smiles as the kinder kids explored the Prep classroom, visited the school block, and—of course—enjoyed some fun on the playground! 

We love building strong connections with our local early years providers and creating a warm, welcoming environment for future students.

We’re excited to welcome Bittern Kinder this coming Friday for their visit—and we can’t wait to share the St Mary’s experience with them too! 💛

Staffing News – Farewell and New Beginnings

As we near the end of Term 2, we will be farewelling Mr David Worthington, who has made the decision to explore new opportunities beyond St Mary’s. David has contributed so much to our school community in both his roles as a classroom teacher and Sports teacher, and we are incredibly grateful for his care, commitment, and energy.

We wish David every happiness and success in the future, and we look forward to celebrating and thanking him at our Spirit of St Mary’s Assembly on Wednesday 2 July at 2:45 PM.

Looking ahead, we are pleased to share that Lisa Galvin will be stepping into the classroom teacher role four days per week, with Katie Neidhart teaching the class on Fridays. This ensures consistency and familiarity for our students as they continue their learning journey.

We’re also excited to announce that Andrea Kirkpatrick, our Drama teacher, will be expanding her role to include Physical Education. Andrea has been actively preparing for this new responsibility and is already planning a variety of engaging and energetic sports experiences for our students.

We thank all our staff for their adaptability, teamwork, and continued focus on student wellbeing and learning.

New Morning Routine at St Mary’s

Trial beginning Term 3

Following valuable discussions with the School Advisory Council, school leadership, and staff—and in line with the principles of the newly released MACS Vision for Engagement—we will be trialling a new morning routine at St Mary’s beginning in Term 3.

The aim of this change is to create a calm, connected and purposeful start to the day that allows students time to move, socialise and settle before entering the classroom.

⏰ Gates open: 8:30 AM (as usual)

🧒 8:30–8:45 AM: Students play in the supervised courtyard area

🎵 8:45 AM: Music will signal students to line up on the basketball courts in roll order (as they currently do after breaks)

📣 Optional announcements or messages may be shared before classes begin

This new routine allows students a chance to burn off some energy, connect with their peers, and prepare for a successful day of learning—while also supporting teachers to finalise preparations for the day ahead. On Fridays we will have a Friday morning warm up- it might be a little dance, a sports activity, some aerobics- something to burn some energy before we go into class! 

👋 Families are still most welcome to speak with their child’s teacher—please feel free to arrange a time before or after school. For urgent matters, you’re always welcome to email the teacher, and messages will be checked in the morning.

We look forward to seeing how this new routine supports a smooth and positive start to each day!