From the Principal 

Dear St Mary Families 

I feel as though it was only a few weeks ago we were starting Term 2 and tomorrow is our last day. So much has been achieved this term from our spectacular opening of the refurbished building to Interschool School Sports and of course the learning that has been undertaken in partnership with staff, students and families and much much more.  It is with relief and gratitude that our beautiful students have now had a full semester at school, with all the experiences that school life at St Mary's Primary School has to offer.

 Each week we have been able to offer learning experiences both within and outside of our learning spaces that have not been possible in the last two years. The joyful sounds of our Preps, Year 1 and Year 2 students setting off for their first excursion and for many their first bus ride brought joy to all of our community.  Please see some of our Year 2 students sharing their learning with me this week. They taught me about the importance of exciting words within a story as I listened to each story they had written. I was a little frightened with the dragon's lair, but the ending reassured me. 

One of the privileges of being a principal is working in partnership with staff, students and parents to educate each child and offer engaging and personalised learning experiences to grow each child. Reading each report gave me greater insight into each student and each one is to be congratulated for their learning this semester.  The Parent Teacher Interviews this afternoon and last Tuesday are an important part of this process to celebrate learning successes and set learning goals for next semester. Please take a few minutes to complete our short survey, hardcopy within each report and on Operoo, to ensure that we are doing this to the best of abilities for the betterment of each student.  I would like to thank the staff for their professionalism in preparing these reports and working in collaboration with parents and students in the interviews held this week. 

Our students have made the most of their experiences with St Mary's College Science Labs, for which we are most appreciative. The senior students having being investigating living biological science in the form of a turtle named Terry (I believe after Terry Blizzard School Principal) Marcia the Lab Technician is behind this connection and has many more opportunities planned for our students next semester.  Thank you Marcia for sharing your passion and expertise.  

Thank you to our Student Wellbeing Team consisting of: Anthony Speranza, Catherine Le Hunt, Aoife McGuinness, Ian Scott, Kat Reade and Daniela Borgese for their work this semester. This team works with myself and led by Anthony supports each student and  our St Mary's Primary School school based approaches to wellbeing. Our Positive Behaviour Learning this year continues to be developed and offering our lunch time clubs is an important part of this. Stay tuned for more information early next term. 

Year 6 Leadership is a great source of pride for our students and our community. As they grow in confidence and skill level so do our weekly assemblies. Please join us each Friday from 10:30am -11:00am in the Parish Hall to be a part of this and learn more about our weeks at SMPS. I am looking forward to our assembly tomorrow led by our hosts Zach and Milica and our Social Justice Leaders will lead us in our Feast of the Sacred Heart Liturgy.  Please see their message below. 

Feast of The Sacred Heart

Students may wear casual clothes on this day and are also asked to bring in gold coin donations. All money raised goes towards St Vincent de Paul.

Families are invited to our Feast of The Sacred Heart liturgy this Friday commencing at 10.15am, followed by our regular assembly.

From your Social Justice Leaders; Tammy, Daniel and Milica

This week and last week we had some of our St Mary's past pupils join us for work experience. We warmly welcomed Yasmin, Sherina, Isobel and Dagmawi and look forward to another past pupil joining us next term. It is always a delight to have students return and let them see what working in education involves. The girls were most surprised to see how much work teachers do our of hours! 

The Disco last week was another highlight and many people worked towards ensuring it was to quote some our younger students 'the best night ever'! I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rian for her work with Kasia, leading the Parents and Friends Association. I have spent many hours planning with Rian to organise community events and thank her for her time and energy. Rian will step aside from this role, but will continue to work within the Parents and Friends to create a community directory so that we can support each others' businesses.

The St Mary's Running Club on a Thursday morning has been another highlight and next term sees some additional extra curricular activities available to families.  At assembly we met Sofia and her team from FX Fitness and they wowed the audience with their taekwondo skills both physical and equally important mental strength. I have worked with FX Fitness at my previous schools and highly recommend them.  Taekwondo will be offered on Wednesdays after school starting Wednesday 13th July. The students will be collected from school and walked safely across the road to the rooms on the lower level of the Specialist Campus. They will be supervised to eat their afternoon tea (packed from home) and then participate in their class from 3:45-4:45pm.  All students will be collected from this campus at the end of the session. This will be the same entrance used for the disco last week.  Please see our Community page for the details to enrol. 

Kelly Sports will be available on a Thursday afternoons from 3:30-5:00pm on the main Basketball area, starting Thursday 14th July. Again please the Community page for more details. 

Traditionally we have worked with Chess Ideasand are thrilled to be reconnecting after COVID restrictions. Chess will be available at first break on Mondays from 11:00-11:40am. There is a free trial for those interested in being involved on Monday 11th July  in the staff work room. This is located on the first floor of the Berchmans Centre, more information is on the Community page. In addition to this music continues to be available on Mondays, with Ian from Musicorp.  Janelle Adams is excited to re start the Choir next Term. Choir will be available at first break on Thursdays for those students from Year 3 to Year 6 who wish to be involved. School staff will also be running a variety of break time clubs for students and a number of parents have already volunteered. If any parents would like to assist, please get in touch with myself or Anthony.

A comprehensive list of dates for next term is on the Calendar of Events page, a must read. 

For those in our community fortunate enough to be travelling around Australia or out of Australia we wish you a safe and amazing journey. We hope everyone can enjoy some relaxation and a change of pace over the next two weeks, to re-energise ourselves for next Term and a reminder that students will be dismissed at 1:00pm tomorrow, and that TheirCare supervision program is available for parents who require it.

Take care and peace and God’s blessing to each of you, 

Cathy