Dear St Mary Families,

It was with much anticipation and hard work, that we celebrated the opening of our refurbished building last Thursday. I was immensely proud of our community and our dignitaries were blown away with our ceremony and our new learning spaces. The students that presented at the ceremony, were confident, clear and engaging. A benefit of being a smaller school is that each of our students has the opportunity to speak publicly with a microphone at assemblies and other events, with self-assurance and empowerment. These skills were certainly on display last Thursday, from Prep to Year 6. We have not been able to sing over the last two years, due to COVID restrictions and our Year 4 students melted many hearts as they led our community with This Little Light of Mine. The singing along the corridor and in the classrooms from those watching via live stream was also very moving. Our School Leaders; Emilie, Ivy, Jake and Leo, were magnificent masters of ceremony and we congratulate them for this. We also thank Daniel who accompanied Father Jerome, by carrying the cross as Father blessed the learning areas.

Each of the dignitaries and many families that attended commented on all of our Year 6 Leaders as they welcomed, directed and chatted with the guests. Again we are proud of being able to create an environment, where our students have the opportunity, skills and confidence to be articulate and well mannered young men and women. We had so many challenges to overcome last year, and it was important to celebrate it as a community, whilst acknowledging all who helped and supported us on our journey. The saying many hands make light work and believing that God will provide were evident.

We congratulate our Year 3 and 4 students for making their Sacrament of Reconciliation, last week. We thank their parents and carers as the children's first faith educators as well as Father Jerome, Msgr Stuart Hall, Carmel Vozzo (Faith Leader), classroom teachers and all our staff.

We also celebrated the amazing women in our lives with a breakfast on Friday morning. It was such a fun morning, with many working behind the scenes to enable this. To hear the music, chatting and laughter reminded us all of how vibrant schools are and should be post COVID. Our community at St Mary's Primary School is feeling more connected and we look forward to many more events this year, to deepen our connections. The raffle was enjoyed by all and many were delighted when their ticket was pulled out, including me!

The Mass that followed was also a celebration of the mothers and carers in our lives with the Eucharist at the centre. Living our faith is so important and sharing Eucharist as a community, is pivotal to this. Again we look forward to doing much more of this. We thank Carmel for organising the Mass with Fr Jerome and for the flowers that we all enjoyed receiving. My highlight was hearing the Hail Mary in Italian and how confidently the children recited it. I almost felt like l was in Italy....

This week our Year 3 and Year 5 students have under taken Naplan. This has been a seamless exercise and we thank Daniela Borgese (eLearning Leader), Anthony Speranza and our classroom staff for this. This year all tests except the Year 3 writing task were completed on devices. This allows for the online test to tailor for the individual needs of each student. All students start on the same level and depending on how the question is answered the next set of questions are adapted accordingly. We look forward to analysing the results and using the data to inform our whole school learning and teaching practices, as well as a snap shot of each student's performance.

Looking ahead to the next fortnight, we have much to look forward to. We wish all our Cross Country runners the best for tomorrow. Each student should feel proud to be competing at interschool level and the Bald Hill course is a challenging one. Thank you to Angela Mason, Simon Addicoat and the staff for supporting the team. The turn up to training has been terrific and hopefully as we open us more we can explore the possibility of a weekly running club.

Di Snape (Mum of Jerimiah in Yr 2) kindly took some photos last Thursday and is coming back on Monday to take some more shots of our new learning spaces, for our website. We are fortunate to have someone of Di's skill level and experience and thank her very much. Last Thursday we had a MACS photographer from the marketing and events department attend our opening. Please below the article about us in comms from the executive director this week.

In the fortnight ahead:

Anthony Speranza has organised a new initiative for next Friday 20th May, Walk to School Safely Day. It sounds very exciting.

Our Parish Hall is being used as a polling centre on Saturday 21st May. The P & F are in the process of organising a sausage sizzle and stall with proceeds going to our school. Please contact Rian or Kasia if you able to help. I would like to thank Anthony ahead of time, as we have an out of town wedding that weekend so he will be in charge.

Full winter uniform is required from Monday 23rd May onwards. Please make sure the children are ready for this and black school shoes are part of this. Runners are ONLY to be worn with the sports uniform.

Wednesday 25th May is the National Simultaneous Story time Day. Ms Paula our Literacy Leader with our Year 6 Curriculum Leaders are working hard in preparation for this.

A highlight of my Friday afternoons is visiting our Year 5 and 6 football and netball players. After not having winter sport for two years, it is being enjoyed by all.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, we will be moving assembly to the Parish Hall. Please continue to join us and share in our celebration of learning, at 10:30am each Friday.

Prep 2023 enrolments

If you have a child starting in Prep next year, please complete an enrolment form and email or hand it into the office. I hope to start interviewing in a few weeks.

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

Cathy

Community