From the Deputy 

Dear parents and families,

It’s been quite the year at St Mary’s Primary School, and a very successful one at that. This semester has rolled on into a very fast paced Term 4 and December!

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the students for a wonderful year of learning and for the many areas in which growth and development has been achieved.

Thank you to all of our staff at St Mary’s who make our community a very special place. Their work ethic, passion and care for our students has been remarkable this year, especially off the back of two very challenging years. I really do admire their continued resolve and vocation to our profession.

I would particularly like to thank Mrs Ferrari our principal and our school leadership team for supporting me in my first year at St Mary’s.

Thank you also to all of our parents and families, who have not only made me feel very welcome but have also supported the children and the school with much enthusiasm.

I am very much looking forward to 2023, which promises to be an exciting year for our school with many initiatives on the horizon:

• 1 to 1 laptop program in Years 3 to 6
• The continuation of our Positive Behaviour for Learning program and school wide interventions and systems.
• The commencement of a literacy excellence program
• The development of outdoor gardens and spaces

I wish all of our students and families a wonderful Christmas, and a happy and safe new year. See you in 2023!

End of Year Mass and final assembly, students dismissed at 1:00pm

Everyone is welcome to join us as we celebrate our end of year Mass at 9:15am this Friday. Our Year 5 students will participate in our tradition of the handing on of the lanterns from our current Year 6 leaders. Directly after Mass we will be thanking the community and saying farewell to some members of our School Advisory Council and our Parents and Friends Committee.

At the end of Mass the students will then return to their classrooms. At 12:40pm we will all gather for an outdoor assembly on the Basketball Court. At this assembly we will farewell students and staff who are leaving St Mary’s Primary School. At the conclusion of this assembly the students from Prep to Year 5 will form a guard of honour to farewell our leaving 2022 Year 6 students. This is a tradition at St Mary’s that has not happened for a few years due to COVID. This will then conclude our school year at 1pm. Their Care is available to support families with child minding.

2023 School Term Dates

Term 1: Monday 30th January to Thursday 6th April

Term 2: Monday 24th April to Friday 23rd June

Term 3: Monday 3rd July to Friday 15th September

Term 4: Monday 2nd October to Friday 15th December

Chess Program

The Chess program has been very successful this year.  In Term 3 and Term 4, around ten percent of the students at St Mary's were involved in learning chess each Monday at recess.  The sessions involve learning techniques and tactics, followed by a match play between the students. Students also receive chess puzzle sheets to take home, with each one focussing on developing a specific skill or tactic. In Term 4, they started using Alterman Chess, an educational chess app to practice different tactics. The students involved this year were Eleanor, Jarvis, Mia, Nirvaan, Matilda, Brie, Amelia, Harriet, Bella, Leo, Alec, Wilson, Hayden, Nicky, Christos, Spencer, Emilie, Leonardo and Wally Merrigan. For total competitive match wins, Amelia finished in first place, followed by Matilda, then Wilson.

Chess club returns on Thursday in 2023. For families interested please see the form below: