Dear Parents and Carers,

What a wonderful start to an exciting Term 3! Welcome back. I trust you all enjoyed the holidays and are grateful to have your children settled happily back into the school routine.

It has been a delight to see the way the students have returned to school, full of enthusiasm for their learning.

Public Speaking

We have kicked off Term 3 with our public speaking finals and were once more thrilled by the standard of the speeches. Our students spoke with conviction and entertained the audience with topics which were well researched and beautifully presented. The parents who attended were very impressed with the standard of the speeches and I look forward to watching the winners represent our school at the Network competition. Congratulations to all the finalists.

Visit from the Executive Director

Last week we were visited by Mr Peter Turner, the Acting Executive Director of Sydney Catholic Schools. Mr Turner was very appreciative of the work being done at the school and expressed his gratitude for the work of all the staff. He was particularly impressed with the engagement of the students and the obvious positive relationships within the school. In every classroom students were engaged in meaningful tasks and demonstrated a strong commitment to their learning. Our thanks to Mr Turner for his time and support.

Archbishop's Charter

The Archbishop's Charter for Catholic Schools sets out guidelines for how Catholic schools in the Sydney Archdiocese operate. Following our successful School Inquiry and Review process in 2023, the school is given a certificate to recognise the work we do to support students in their faith development. It describes the things that we do to ensure that all our students are able to learn about Jesus and his teachings and put them into practice. It covers things like having a Mission statement, fostering a love of learning, working with parents to help children learn about their faith, encouraging prayer, celebration of the sacraments, pastoral care, wellbeing and outreach. The archbishop’s Charter helps us to remember what makes our school different, special and uniquely Catholic. At our Feast Day Mass on Tuesday Mr Alex Limneos presented our school with our certificate. It was a beautiful Mass and we were thrilled to have so many parents join us for the Mass.

NAPLAN

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students took home their NAPLAN results last week. The school is very proud of the achievement of our students and hope that all parents were pleased with their child's results. If you have any questions about the results or would like to discuss your child's progress, please make an appointment with the class teacher.

St Martha's Feast Day

We were blessed to have performances and prayerful song with John Burland on Tuesday as a celebration of our Feast Day. The students sang with great enthusiasm and quickly picked up new material as well as singing the songs they had already learned. John was very impressed with the quality of the singing and the enthusiasm and participation of students, parents and staff. It was a beautiful way to celebrate our special day. St Martha is a model of faith, hospitality and service. We look to her as an example and seek to always show our faith, hospitality and service to others.

Family Educator

While Mrs Elena Razzoli is on leave for the birth of her baby, Anne Wu will be our Family Educator. We will soon be able to welcome Anne to St Martha's Community and she will aim to continue the initiatives started by Mrs Razzoli. We look forward to making Anne very welcome at St Martha's.

Birthdays

We need to remind all parents that at St Martha's we celebrate birthdays with a pencil and best wishes at our assembly. To ensure safety and healthy eating we cannot give children food other than what is provided by their parents. Please do not send cupcakes, doughnuts or other cakes to school for the whole class for birthdays. The cakes will be sent home again and we don't want you to waste money, time and energy. We also remind parents that we do not distribute lolly bags or goody bags for student birthdays. Cakes, lollies and goodies are for home birthday celebrations. Thank-you for helping us to keep St Martha's community healthy and safe.

Peace and best wishes,

Carolyn Parsell

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