Principal's Message

Wayne Wood

Principal

To our St Mary’s Community

I take this opportunity to wish all the mothers a Happy Mother’s Day. The incredible love, care, patience, and self-sacrifice of a mother is to be treasured. I hope you enjoyed your Mother’s Day celebrations with your family.

In keeping with Mother’s Day, I wanted to share two images of Mother Mary. 

I love these images as they give us a different insight into our mother of God. Distinct from the conventional images of Mary, these images give us a glimpse of “earthly Mary”. They depict the realities of a mother; exhaustion, wariness, resilient, joyful, strong, and always putting other first. Yes, Mary would have lost her temper with her son at some stage. She and Joseph would have disagreed a time or two. Mary would have also spent many sleepless nights worrying about common family challenges. I’m sure that every mother can relate. It is important that our young people draw these connections too. 

Mary faced many challenges that we, too, face, including the need to take on family responsibilities, practice patience with our family members, care, clean, teach, comfort, listen and more. 

These characteristics and duties of Mary are the very ones that our mothers so often practice. We especially give thanks for our mothers and pray for their good health. May we also ask Mary, our Good Mother, to pray for us, that we may follow her example of faith, hope and love. 

Parent-Student-Teacher Conversations

It was great to see so many parents and students taking the opportunity to meet with staff during the first week of Term. Thank you to all parents and staff for the positive spirit of the evening. These conversations certainly open crucial lines of communication between parents and teachers. 

Our next opportunity to do the same is in July, following the Semester 1 Reports. Historically, we see a drop in attendance at these interviews. I encourage you not to miss this opportunity. Please ensure you book your meeting and come along. 

NAPLAN Testing

This week our Year 7 and Year 9 students will sit their respective NAPLAN test over three days. I certainly encourage students to take part in this test and do their best. At the same time, I hope parents do not worry too much about the test. The information the NAPLAN provides is useful feedback for parents and teachers. It is a good tool. However, it does not test everything! 

NAPLAN does not test some of the most important skills of a young person – compassion, respect, resilience, a willingness to help and the ability to work well with others. I would encourage parents to speak to their child about trying hard and giving their best to the test, but also making them aware of what the test does not test for – and the importance of these skills. 

Open Night

This Thursday St Mary’s will host our annual Open Night. It is a fantastic way for families to see who we are. They will be treated to student performances, subject displays, mouth-watering food, and even a tour of our new Hugh O’Brien Centre. Most of all, they will be guided by our wonderful students who are so proud of their college. 

As you know, interest in our college has increased and our enrolment applications continue to grow each year. If you know a family who is interested in St Mary’s, please encourage them to come along on Thursday and to register. I hope to see you there too!   Open Night registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/st-marys-catholic-college-open-night-tickets-317411786197 

God Bless