From the Principal 

Dear St Mary Families,

Firstly I would like to acknowledge and thank Mr Anthony Speranza for leading the school whilst I was at the conference last week and for this week, due to COVID. I can’t wait to return on Monday and have missed you all very much. Anthony has been ably supported by our leadership team, and all members of staff, for which I am truly grateful.

The conference last week was amazing, and the guest speakers have given me much to think about. Meeting and catching up with Catholic primary principles across Victoria was enlightening, collegial and lots of fun. If you think teachers collectively can talk, you should see principals! The din of chat on arrival was deafening.

As stated in our last newsletter the theme of the week was hope for now and whatever lies ahead. It was a privilege to listen to our guest speakers who provoked our curiosity, invited us to be big picture thinkers for our students and the future that we are preparing them for.  The master of ceremonies was Adam Spencer (an Australian media personality and public mathematician). The presenters were: Craig Ruecassel (ABC presenter of War on Waste and Fight for Planet and a member of the Chaser Team), Dr Jason Fox (specialist in Pioneering Leadership and Motivation Design), Kath Koschel (Kindness Factory a non for profit movement), Tim and his Mum Judy (Tim an internationally recognised artist of Laser Beak Man and his journey as the first person with autism to have his work developed into an animated series and theatre production), Simon Griffiths (Co - Founder and CEO of Who Gives A Crap, a profit for purpose toilet paper company that use 50% of its profits to build toilets in the developing world), Steve Sammartino (specialist speaker on the future and innovation in action), and my favourite and most challenging speaker; Dr Catriona Wallace ( leader in advanced technology and Artificial Intelligence {AI}). Catriona literally blew us all away with her presentation and the multi layers of AI that already exist within our society. I invite you to research these people to learn more. Importantly, each spoke of their growth through setbacks and failures that enabled their successful paths.

What does this mean for us back at St Mary’s Primary School? It highlights the importance of teaching our students how to problem solve, be critical thinkers, create, experiment, fail and try again as resilient thinkers, as well as embrace those who have different perspectives to ourselves or think differently. When I return to school I look forward to sharing my enthusiasm and new learning with the community.

As this is the last newsletter for Term One, I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break and a prayerful Easter. We have achieved so much this term and every member of our community should feel proud of all that we have done. Thank you for your understanding and patience in light of events being on with short notice, moved online and/or postponed to alternative dates. Finally a huge shout out to everyone for doing their surveillance RATs to keep the community covid safe.

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

Cathy  

Last day of Term 1, Friday 8th April

• Stations of The Cross Liturgy and short assembly 10:00am
• Students dismissed at 1pm

On the last day of term the whole school will be gathering for a Stations of The Cross Liturgy on our main campus grounds, and parents are welcome to attend. Following this we will be having a shortened assembly where we will be drawing the Easter Hamper raffle winners, as well as announcing the positions of the Year 6 leaders and Prep to Year 5 SRC leaders.

A reminder that the school day finishes early and students are dismissed at 1:00pm. TheirCare out of hours program is available if required.

2023 Enrolments 

Could we ask our current families who wish to enrol their child for Prep next year to contact school in the next few weeks. There is an application form on the school website which can be completed and emailed to Erica on admin@smstkildaeast.catholic.edu.au