Dear St Mary's Families

Last week I had the pleasure of joining our Year 3 & 4 students on camp at Anglesea. Whilst the weather was a little fresh, we had loads of fun. The students are to be congratulated for the way they tried every activity, often going out of their comfort zone and learning new skills. The camp organisers told me that the camp staff were very impressed with our students. They commented on their manners and their determination and preparedness to try new actives and determination when skate boarding and BMX riding! We shared many laughs and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each student and staff member better outside of the school environment. Thank you to our staff led by our Camp organiser extraordinaire Clare Curtis and assisted by Angela Mason on First Aid, Kieran McGuiness, Melissa Eyers and Kate Rafferty. Kate and l loved leading Team Ferrari Vrrrrrm!

Thank you to all our 'Grandparents and Special Friends' who joined us last Friday. The students loved sharing their learning spaces with you and hearing about your school stories. Anthony and l really enjoyed chatting with many of you over morning tea.

You are such an important part of our lives and we thank you for this. We celebrated a beautiful Mass with Father Jerome prepared by Carmel Vozzo, which added to our morning.

Could we please remind parents and carers to support our Sustainability Leaders and try and have nude food on Fridays. The prize for the class with the highest tally on percentage receives extra play! Could we also limit our use of plastic forks and spoons with our lunches, cling wrap and packaged food. We encourage families to use reusable cutlery where needed and where possible. Previously the school has had single use cutlery available to students to use, and we recognise that this is not a sustainable practice.

Today was our first TRY ATHS Day in three years. It was fantastic to see everyone from Years 3 to 6 getting out there and having a go. We thank Angela Mason and Simon Addicoat for the organisation behind this successful day. A huge thank you to our parent and carer helpers. These days are not possible without your support.

I am sure we will all sleep very well tonight!

Tomorrow our Year 6s have their Confirmation Reflection Day and we look forward to working with Bishop Tony Ireland, Fr Jerome, Paula and Carmela as they prepare for this sacrament. Thanks to Father Jerome for providing our delicious lunch. Again many parents and carers are preparing the food and we thank them for this.

We continue to receive overwhelming positive feedback about our extra curricular activities on offer this Term. There has been a great uptake in the Chess Club, Taekwondo and Kelly Sports. Our staff are also generously running break time clubs on a Thursday and Friday, including clubs for drawing, writing, choir, lego and digital technologies. Thank you especially to Rian for supporting the yoga/pilates club and Hywell for the crochet club. If any other parents or carers would like to be involved, please email myself or Anthony. A huge shout out to our helpers with the St Mary's Running Club, we could not offer this without you. It is terrific to see the number of students who participate each Thursday morning, which is wonderful to see. We have many junior Cross Country runners in the making!

Stay Chat & Play has also been well received and a great opportunity for people both big and small to catch up. Please join us on a Wednesday or Thursday morning 8:55am-10:00am or both for a lovely morning. As the weather warms up we hope the children can play outside. Thanks to Louisa and Joyce for being such lovely hosts.

I cannot wait for Monday to join Miss Jacquie and our Preps as they celebrate 100 days at school. This special day will start with a parade at 9:00am, multi-age Math's 100 activities for all students after first break, then a special afternoon tea in the Prep classroom. I loved received my personally delivered invitation yesterday.

Next Friday 5th August we have a Student Free Day. The Theircare program will be running in the Parish Hall for families who require it. On this day the staff are undertaking professional development, which directly benefits each child's learning. The focus of is continued in the area of Wellbeing and our Positive Behaviour Learning Program to support each student's social and emotional learning. In the afternoon session the staff will prepare to work with our newly acquired digital resources and we look forward to sharing this with you in the weeks to come.

Of course I cannot finish the email today without mentioning our Prom gone Wrong. I am really excited about celebrating this long awaited event. The evening sounds amazing and many have worked incredibly hard for all of us to have a great night and raise funds to support the children's learning. The auction site is now live at the following link, and please see further information on the Parents & Friends page. I have dusted off one of my 80s dresses and found my old crimper, yes I am that old! After the previous few years, it will be fun to socialise and have fun together.

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

Cathy

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